Mr. Speaker, on February 8, 2007, I asked the Minister responsible for Official Languages a question about the Department of National Defence.
As we all know, for many years now, the Commissioner of Official Languages has been criticizing the Department of National Defence for being the department that least respected official language legislation. Personally, as a member of the Standing Committee on Official Languages, I noted that this was often brought up at committee. The department violated the Official Languages Act. The act was not respected approximately 60% of the time.
We now learn, through the CBC, that the Department of National Defence will do only the bare minimum to implement bilingualism. It is giving itself until 2012 to adjust its new bare minimum plan.
How can this be? DND goes into other countries to fight for the right to enjoy liberty and justice. It claims that the laws of those countries must be respected. How can the Department of National Defence justify its failure to respect Canada's laws on official languages?
The federal government wants to implement this new measure or new bare minimum plan by 2012. This therefore means that Canada's Official Languages Act no longer exists.
I wonder how many senior military officers at the Department of National Defence are francophones who speak absolutely no English? I do not believe you would find one.
How many deputy ministers speak just English as opposed to just French? There are several in the former category but none in the latter.
How can this Conservative government say that it is ready to defend our country's minorities when it changes its policy for a department that defends human rights and justice? We go to other countries to fight and to defend justice. In our own country, we have a law that was adopted quite some time ago but that has never been respected and that has the worst track record.
What do we say to our soldiers, our francophone men and women? That they cannot rise in the ranks and be promoted unless they speak both official languages? Yet an anglophone will not be required to learn French until 2012. How can we accept that? The parliamentary secretary will rise soon to defend her Conservative government. How can she, as a francophone Quebecker, publicly defend it?
I cannot wait to hear her what she is going to say when she just defends the Conservative government's position. That government took away from Canadian minorities the court challenges program that gave them the opportunity to be able to defend themselves before the courts. This same government is changing Department of National Defence policy. As a francophone, how can she defend her government?
I would like to hear the parliamentary secretary tell us how her government will respect official languages.