Mr. Speaker, I mentioned the damning report on the government’s failure to implement the recommendations of the Commissioner of Official Languages.
I would like to point out that, in addition to this very disappointing record, the Conservative government has repeatedly shown its contempt for our official languages. Let me list some examples.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs had unilingual business cards. My colleague from Acadie—Bathurst complained to the Commissioner of Official Languages. In his report, the commissioner asked the minister to destroy his unilingual cards. There has still been no public follow-up on the matter.
Another example is the closure of French-language and bilingual scientific libraries. In 2012, the Conservative government announced the closure of the Maurice Lamontagne Institute in Mont-Joli, Quebec, and the Gulf Fisheries Centre in Moncton, New Brunswick. Those two Fisheries and Oceans Canada libraries were serving French-speaking scientists. No compensating measure has been announced to offset the obvious negative consequences of those closures for francophones. We are still waiting for a definitive answer on the Maurice Lamontagne Institute. Those are just a few examples in a very long list.
This step backwards in terms of official languages is unacceptable. The minister must show leadership and must do everything in her power to promote linguistic duality in Canada.