moved:
Motion No. 7
That Bill C-26, in Clause 18, be amended by adding after line 37 on page 22 the following:
“(2.1)(a) A body corporate referred to in subsection (3) shall comply within four years with Part V of the Official Languages Act and within seven years with Part VI of that Act.
(b) Air Canada and any other body corporate referred to in subsection (3) shall submit to the Treasury Board Secretariat an annual report containing the following data available to any Canadian citizen:
(i) the total number of English-speaking and French-speaking employees of the body corporate;
(ii) the number of English-speaking and French-speaking employees among management, pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and other employees of the body corporate;
(iii) the number, which cannot exceed 5% of the total number of employees of the body corporate, of employees who belong to the category “language unknown”.
(c) The Commissioner of Official Languages may investigate any complaint relating to the delay to comply with Part VI of the Official Languages Act referred to in paragraph (a) and the result of the investigation, if it relates to the information referred to in paragraph (b), shall take precedence over the provisions of paragraph (b).
(d) In case of failure to comply with the provisions of paragraph (a) dealing with the delay to comply with Part VI of the Official Languages Act, the Governor in Council shall, before making a decision regarding measures to be taken to remedy the situation, consult with persons in the official language group adversely affected by that failure to comply.
(e) Within one year following the coming into force of this Act, the following documents shall be made available by Air Canada in the English and French languages and have equal force of law:
(i) the Flight Operations Manual;
(ii) the standard operating procedures;
(iii) Flight Attendant Manual:
(iv) memoranda;
(v) administrative policies;
(vi) contracts of employments.”
Mr. Speaker, first I would like to offer my sincere congratulations to a group of workers from the airline industry who have been fighting since 1976 to make sure francophones in Canada have equal opportunities in this area.
I am referring of course to a group called the Association des gens de l'air du Québec, which was created in 1976, following a battle that begun in 1975, to allow a francophone pilot, in his cockpit, to speak French with an air traffic controller in an airport control tower or in an air traffic control centre.
Members will recall that the association won its fight, because it was proven that having two francophones speaking French to each other does not jeopardize air safety.
Members will also recall that two anglophone unions, CALPA and CATCA, fought tooth and nail against that measure. I remember they both fought hard. But the government of the day agreed to amend the act to allow two francophones to have the right to speak to each other in their language.
We Bloc Quebecois members often hear it said in the House that this country, Canada, is ours, that as francophones, we can express our views, that we have the same rights as anglophones. This is constantly being pounded into us.
I remember how, three days before the last referendum, in 1995, many western Canadians made the trip to Montreal's Place du Canada, having paid $99 return for a Canadian Airlines charter from Vancouver, to tell Quebecers that they loved them and urge them not to leave.