Procedure and House Affairs committee  Actually, at the time there were other aboriginal senators who spoke languages other than Inuktitut. We had one senator who spoke Salish and another senator who spoke Montagnais. This was an experiment. There was a pilot project. There was an agreement to just see how we could ha

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's right. It was from Inuktitut into English. I don't believe we ever experimented the other way around because, in fact, the senators were comfortable in English and so it was not really necessary.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes. In fact, I was responsible for the experiment. I was the principal clerk of chamber operations at the time. The Senate had made an agreement that it would experiment with the use of Inuktitut. We had senators who spoke that language, and there was a recognition that we shoul

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, but that presents a challenge of its own, which I think the interpreters could explain. There is always a loss when you go from one language to another. It's like, I guess, Plato's cave: it becomes more and more of a shadow. If you go from Inuktitut to English, and then Fren

Procedure and House Affairs committee  At the time, we originally asked for five days. Again, it was because we needed that lead time to secure the availability of an interpreter.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  My suspicion would be that it would be a lot easier for commonly spoken foreign languages. I'm not sure how difficult it might be—or how easy it would be, to give it a more positive spin—for the aboriginal languages. I think for the ones that are popularly spoken it's likely that

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's certainly a consideration.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  André may know more about this than I do, but I do think that the new chamber in the West Block will be more accommodating than the current one. As I see it, the interpreters' booths look like telephone booths at the corner of the chamber. These don't look very commodious, and I

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am delighted to be here with you, and I would like to thank the committee for inviting me to appear today to speak on the use of indigenous languages in the House of Commons. The right of members to speak in the House in either French or English has been

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That was part of the original proposal that was worked out with Privy Council, but Privy Council declined to take the offer.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I would certainly be open to considering the possibility of assigning such proceduralists if the House leaders across the board decided it would serve their purposes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Okay.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Again, as I explained to the executive assistants of all the House leaders, the purpose was initially to help me understand the Standing Orders, because I don't find that they're particularly user-friendly.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The idea would be to provide them in simpler language, rearrange them so the order is a bit more logical, under the absolute guarantee that no changes would be made and no product would be finalized without the approval of the procedure and House affairs committee. I quite agre

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We're going to be going into a new parliament, presumably in two or three years, or whenever the next election. There is an opportunity for the members to discuss the Standing Orders. If in the meantime, through negotiations and shared information, the House leaders recognize the