Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I'm here with assistant commissioners Gérard Finn and Renald Dussault, who will be able to answer some of the more detailed questions that I'm sure you will have. I am grateful to the committee for allowing me this opportunity to appear before

Canadian Heritage committee  Let me respond, first of all, to your comments about the francophone minority in British Columbia. One of the first trips I did after becoming commissioner was to Vancouver, and I was extremely struck and impressed by the vitality, the innovation, and the energy of the francophon

Canadian Heritage committee  The one thing I would like to amplify from the remarks I made during my presentation was that when I was in Saskatchewan 10 days ago, I met someone from a rural community who said he had signed on to a satellite service expressly so he could get more French language programming,

Canadian Heritage committee  As commissioner, I travelled throughout the country and met with radio and television hosts in stations from Vancouver to Regina, for instance. These people do excellent work covering local events which serve as points of reference for the minority communities in the region. As i

Canadian Heritage committee  Oftentimes, small teams do extraordinary work under difficult conditions. Perhaps my saying "a strong presence" reflects the fact that I was overly impressed by the quality of their work. I must add that I did not poll the news rooms to see how the work was being done. It is quit

Canadian Heritage committee  When you say outside of Radio-Canada I don't quite understand what you mean. I mainly referred to the possibility of Radio-Canada and the CBC working together. I gave examples of programming that was produced in the past. Unfortunately, instead of this being part of the trend, it

Canadian Heritage committee  I think radio plays a particularly important role, and in the five months since I have been commissioner, I have been very struck by the degree to which local Radio-Canada programming across the country is very vigilant in following the news that affects their listeners. I foun

Canadian Heritage committee  I don't think that it is Radio-Canada's responsibility to see to it that their programs be broadcast in hotels. I myself have been in this situation, desperately trying to access programs in hotel rooms outside Quebec. We have not looked into the issue yet, and we are indeed thin

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm very concerned about this. I've written to Rogers about Rogers' decision to move French language channels in a cluster above the 100 point, I think is where it is on the dial. I've always thought that one of the important ways in which people would get access to French lang

Canadian Heritage committee  I certainly don't have direct responsibility, and CBC/Radio-Canada are quite jealous about their responsibility for programming. I think I can bear witness. As you have, I have heard a lot of people in different parts of the country express a certain amount of frustration about l

Canadian Heritage committee  I think there are two things. First, I have no intention of having staff march into the newsroom and go through reporters' files, and neither do you. I would point to the role this committee played in putting substantial pressure on the CBC to restore local programming. I thin

Canadian Heritage committee  I understand your concern and I think it's an important one.

Canadian Heritage committee  That's a really interesting question. One of the paradoxes of technological change--and, for that matter, of economic change--is that the huge opportunity that new media represent in terms of connectivity for communities brings along with it fragmentation, so it becomes a parti

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you very much.

Justice committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Ladies and gentlemen of the committee, mesdames et messieurs, thank you for giving me the opportunity to appear today to comment on Bill C-23, and more specifically on the proposed amendments to sections 530 and 530.1, which guarantee the language