Official Languages committee  That's what happened in New Brunswick. Is that how the Government of New Brunswick also justifies the cancellation of immersion?

Official Languages committee  Radio-Canada said the same thing about an Acadian.

Official Languages committee  I do not have a text; I have written notes.

Official Languages committee  I could use them to prepare a written document that I could send to you.

Official Languages committee  Mr. Jedwab mentioned earlier an 80% exogamy rate, because in some regions, it was 50%, 55% or 70% and it was 15% just for New Brunswick. I don't think we can ask francophones outside Quebec to be any more open. Any more open than that and you're a goner. When over 80% of people in one community marry people from another community, you don't ask them to be more open to that other community, but you do ask whether they truly constitute a community.

Official Languages committee  There are other policies. Belgium is never a good example, but in that country, 70,000 German-speakers have their own little government. They do not assimilate, those German-speakers.

Official Languages committee  I understand that the example you just gave is problematic. We cannot avoid francophone communities being represented by their institutions. The opposite problem was raised. Organizations funded by Canadian Heritage have a budget and have become representative organizations. However, that causes a major problem.

Official Languages committee  This speaks to a purely practical problem. The anglophones who want to send their kids to an immersion program want their kids to have an additional tool, meaning for them to learn another language. But the goal is not to assimilate their children into French culture. We're not talking about francophone schools where French is the mother tongue, but rather schools where the majority of students don't speak French and so the curriculum is designed to help students learn the language.

Official Languages committee  In two generations.

Official Languages committee  It has not solely protected francophones. The institutions on which francophones in Canada relied up until the 1960s were essentially church-based, be it the parish, convents, hospitals and so forth. We should remember that the Montfort Hospital was created by nuns 50 years ago.

Official Languages committee  I think that the institutional impact is significant. I will put on my professor hat for a few seconds by referring to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who said that the general will, which is the legal dimension, is what remains once all the differences in a society have been eliminated.

Official Languages committee  I am not a psycholinguistics expert, but...

Official Languages committee  Indeed the studies I have seen show that it is preferable to start learning a second language at an early age—bilingualism being cumulative if one can call it that—and to follow those kinds of immersion programs. There may be no psychological barriers to learning a minority language at 8 years old, but there may be at 16 years old.

Official Languages committee  With respect to the legal issue, I agree that legal recognition of both languages in Canada allows for a language policy. Both languages have been recognized but there has been no move to the next step which is developing a true language policy. As you know, the issue of schools cannot be solved by the courts.

Official Languages committee  I did not say that bilingualism was the cause of the assimilation of francophones; I said that bilingualism did not slow down the assimilation of francophones. That's something else. It shows that in fact something is not working. My position is that it is not working, but one shouldn't be in denial.