Mr. Chair, that is an interesting question for us as a bilingual country in a bilingual chamber.
I was corrected on this issue earlier today by the ambassador of Ukraine. I had thought that Ukraine had become an officially bilingual country. That is actually not the case. It continues to have, as it did under the Yanukovych regime and before the Yanukovych regime, only one official language. That is Ukrainian.
Under Yanukovych, in certain regions, more service was delivered in Russian. There were minority language rights to a certain extent at the regional level. Apparently the new post-Yanukovych parliament has disavowed that law. That is not going to stop. As the member well knows, a large number of Ukrainians speak Russian as their principal language. It is very important, as we know, that accommodation take place. There are other linguistic minorities in Ukraine, many of whom have not enjoyed the kinds of services they would like to see. This is something that the international community will be watching, but for now, Ukrainian remains the one official language of the country. Of course, it will be a Ukrainian decision to maintain that or alter it down the road. It is something that every democratic people must decide for themselves.