Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague from Sudbury for his speech and his work on the Standing Committee on Official Languages. Ordinarily, we are quite effective at protecting the Official Languages Act and ensuring the vitality of official language communities everywhere in Canada.
The recent partisan appointment of Ms. Meilleur caused major problems for us. Sadly, the crisis continues on again this week. I asked the Minister of Heritage what she intended to do, given that the term of the acting commissioner of official languages was ending on Saturday, as she was very well aware. She told me that we would know when the time came.
The problem is that it is now Monday and we have had no commissioner since Saturday. Commissioners are not accountable to the government; they are accountable to all parliamentarians in Parliament.
My rights and my colleagues’ rights have therefore been violated, because we do not know whom to approach if we need to seek assistance from an official languages commissioner. The report said there was a lack of leadership and people did not know whom to approach. Unfortunately, the first recommendation has not been implemented. It was that the Translation Bureau be given responsibility so there would be a leader in the area of official languages. In fact, there is no chief quality officer, since the position has yet to be filled.