Madam Speaker, this evening I would like to raise a very important matter with respect to official languages. I raised it on October 29, when the Commissioner of Official Languages sounded the alarm about Canadians having difficulty obtaining services in their language in a crisis situation, that is to say during the pandemic.
It was not the first time that the Commissioner of Official Languages spoke about this situation. Unfortunately, we heard a lot of talk about finding solutions, but saw little action from the Liberal government.
That day, the minister told me that the purpose of the report was to provide more information and that the Commissioner of Official Languages noted that the government reacted quickly at that time. However, we see that little was done, and shortly thereafter, we regrettably learned what Liberals in government think of the French language in particular. I will say it in French because it is important.
A Liberal member said in committee, before the Commissioner of Official Languages, that she had heard on several occasions that the French language was declining in Quebec. She said she did not want to call it a myth, but she had to see proof to believe that.
That might have been said by a member from another province, but no, it was a member from Quebec who made that statement in committee. She even asked the Commissioner of Official Languages what he thought was contributing to the decline of French in Quebec. However, when she used the word “decline”, she used air quotes, suggesting that there was no decline of the French language in Quebec. This raises many questions about the importance this government places on the protection of minority languages in this country.
If we take a closer look at the shortcomings Mr. Théberge pointed out in his report of October 29, we can see that he was quite critical. There were shortcomings attributed to the federal government and others to certain provinces such as Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The Liberal government was lambasted by the 100 complaints related to COVID-19 that the commissioner received.
At the beginning of the pandemic, francophones noticed that, during the press conferences given by the Prime Minister of Canada and the Minister of Health, information was mainly shared in English. Although the commissioner believes that the government finally struck a better balance between the two official languages in its press conferences, he still felt there was reason to sound the alarm. He said that he was sounding the alarm with regard to the failure of federal institutions to respect their official language obligations in emergency situations. He said that these institutions operate mainly in one official language, with the other relegated to secondary status.
That is very worrisome, particularly since we are in the midst of a pandemic and the situation is urgent. It is important that all parliamentarians be aware of this issue and that we contact every department to ensure that everyone can obtain—