Madam Speaker, in my opinion, the bill is short-sighted. Any language, culture or heritage can prosper, grow and progress only through promotion, not through imposition.
In my riding of Nepean, 120 languages are spoken. There is a very small number of francophones in my riding, from Cameroon, Burundi and Haiti. Though 120 languages are being spoken in my riding, the number of French schools is increasing. The demand for French schools is so big that it is exceeding capacity. This is not because French is being imposed. It is because the federal government promotes both official languages.
Most parents of children who go to French-speaking schools do not speak French. Like many newcomers to Canada, many new Canadians are multilingual. They are not very well versed in both official languages, but they have the desire for their children to learn both English and French. That is a fact of life here.
In Ottawa, the capital, there are no regulations or legislation that mandate bilingualism. However, because Canada has both English and French as official languages, we promote both languages in Ottawa.