Mr. Speaker, it is somewhat mystifying to hear the minister make these kinds of remarks. First of all, let us set the facts straight. We are no longer talking about the chair of the Standing Committee on Official Languages—which is unfortunate—we are talking about the former chair of official languages because of his actions and the lack of respect he has shown towards language communities in Canada.
However, the minister says she is proud that her government has decided to meet with these communities. There is however a reality, which is that the then chair of the Standing Committee on Official Languages did not take the time to travel to the different regions of the country to meet with these communities and get a sense of the problem. This might have been an important and necessary thing to do in order to better identify the issues down the road.
The big issue under debate just happened to be the court challenges program. Several months later, the government, by way of the chair, cancelled the court challenges program, cancelled the Standing Committee on Official Languages and now they try to tell us they care about official languages. In my opinion, the minister should take back which she said and say the exact opposite.