Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled unanimously on yet another case involving official languages. In the ruling, the court indicated that “the Official Languages Act states that not only must federal services be provided in English and French, but that these services must be of equal quality”.
This ruling will have an enormous impact across the country. The Supreme Court has made it clear that, from now on, when the federal government provides a service—any program, any department—it will have to take the particular needs of the linguistic minority into account.
The important thing here is that the justice quoted part VII of the Official Languages Act, which is now binding. The ruling would not have been possible before Bill S-3 was passed. That happened under a Liberal government. I would therefore like to salute the courage, vision and dedication of former senator Jean-Robert Gauthier, and the force and determination of the minister responsible for official languages at the time, the current member for Ottawa—Vanier, who worked so hard to make the bill a reality.