Official Languages committee  Thank you. I am not trying to justify the situation. I simply wanted to explain a bit of the context. The master of ceremonies—this will allow me to complete my answer—was bilingual. There was also a village dance directed by musician Claude Champagne. Luke Doucet was also there, and there was a choreography by Jean Grand-Maître.

Official Languages committee  Thank you. I am sorry if my brief opening remarks alarmed you, because really, the objective of the opening ceremonies is to reflect Canada's linguistic duality and diversity. If I may give you some assurances—although the content of the opening and closing ceremonies is, of course, confidential—the people in charge of official languages on the organizing committee, who are well aware of the committee's responsibilities with respect to linguistic duality, met with their counterparts for the opening and closing ceremonies at an awareness and information session.

Official Languages committee  We are taking care of that in a number of ways. A unit of the federal secretariat is especially dedicated to official languages. Its work is to ensure that the organizing committee respects those agreements. The organizing committee also has an official languages unit. Both groups are in constant contact to monitor the progress made.

Official Languages committee  It is the organizing committee that has a partnership with the Fédération des francophones de la Colombie-Britannique and the Canadian Foundation for Cross-Cultural Dialogue.

Official Languages committee  Thank you for your question. I would like to point out that the countdown ceremony that was held on February 12 was 1 of 122 events organized as part of the Cultural Olympiad 2009. In the concert you refer to, there was a bilingual master of ceremonies.

Official Languages committee  No. We thought that we would leave more time for questions.

Official Languages committee  Thank you very much for your questions. First, let me refer you to appendix A of the multi-party agreement which sums up and defines all the obligations that the signatories have with regard to official languages, and more specifically the organizing committee for the games. It sets out all the contributions from the federal government for the games.

Official Languages committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the Standing Committee on Official Languages. First of all, I wish to thank you for inviting me to appear today. Over the course of my career, I have had the privilege of working in various sectors in Canada and abroad.