Official Languages committee  I think certain things in the act need to be changed. We could also include some elements resulting from court decisions, such as the need for an active offer. Further, we could probably come up with a better definition of Treasury Board's internal monitoring duties. It is up to

Official Languages committee  Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

Official Languages committee  I'm really sorry about being late. My schedule said 10:45 a.m., and I believed it. Wanting to hurry up, I went to the House of Commons instead of here.

Official Languages committee  Yes.

Official Languages committee  I can take over the reading if you tell me where you stopped.

Official Languages committee  Thank you. I will continue the presentation. Obviously, we were talking about the Supreme Court of British Columbia decision. The justice in that case started the presentation of her ruling by saying that section 23 should not apply because assimilation in British Columbia is i

Justice committee  Basically, we are not just facing one government in those cases. There is a case now in B.C., as you know. You are fighting the federal government, Saskatchewan, Manitoba. Everybody else is on side, too.

Justice committee  Absolutely, and I think this is where we've had a problem. I've tried to understand why we've had such a problem in dealing with the government. You know, my own interpretation now is that the government doesn't see language rights as community rights. It sees them as individual

Justice committee  What I meant was that the justice department was against us even if it wasn't their business. For instance, in the Northwest Territories and the Yukon, the Government of Canada intervened to support the local governments against opening French schools and giving management to the

Justice committee  I would agree with that, with this one point. I don't think it should be the same administration because I think the distinctions are very important. When you're talking about equality rights, you have to look at the context. The context is that we have human rights commissions

Justice committee  I'd like to comment on that because I have some figures here. Maybe one of the reasons.... The first program, the Court Challenges Program, not the PADL, had a budget in 2006 of $2,720,000, and they spent $750,000 on administration.

Justice committee  It sounds like a lot to me. Maybe the reason for this is that they weren't just dealing with court cases. They were doing promotion, they were doing seminars, and they were doing all sorts of things. This is where I say it's not because they mismanaged; it's because the mandate w

Justice committee  Well, the only point.... I certainly wouldn't put it in the Department of Justice. They oppose us on almost everything.

Justice committee  I think all important cases have been funded by the program. The reason it's so needed is that in almost all cases it's community groups or individuals trying to develop or start these cases. None of them has any funds. Right now what is happening is that when the funds that are

Justice committee  The most important example is the one I have just mentioned, which is access to French-language schools. The extent of the management rights of francophone school boards that were created in certain provinces still needs to be defined. The reason is that establishing these boards