Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his speech and his personal story. I think it is not dissimilar to that of a lot of immigrants who come to Canada and English is not their first language.
I can tell members a story of my mom. When we first came here, she did not speak a word of English. She went out first and worked as a farm worker. She made $10 a day for two years. My dad went to Vancouver community college in our neighbourhood and learned English. He is a tailor by trade, although he is retired now. He became a cutter of fabric at a factory after he had enough English.
My mom then graduated from being a farm worker to a dishwasher until the day that she retired. Her English is not perfect, let me be clear, and she speaks, I would say, minimal English, but she got by and she worked her entire life to support us, a family of eight.
If that test was imposed today, I would suspect that she would fail it, but she passed the test back in the day and there was interpretation that allowed for her to deal with some of these issues. She voted in every election proudly. She contributed to our society, paid her taxes, bought a house, and raised a family of six children.
I would say that I think the member should understand and agree that the language requirement that is being imposed by ensuring that the language test would apply to people who are 60, who would have difficulties in learning the language because they are older, is something we should not do.