Official Languages committee  I've been working in this area for a long time. In the 1980s, people were already saying that the interdepartmental approach was the solution for meeting the needs of minority communities. The fact remains that each department… [technical difficulties]

Official Languages committee  First and foremost, I would travel to meet the communities. It's one thing to read about the communities, but it's another thing to talk to them and live their experiences. When policies or programs are put in place, it's extremely important to consult with the people who will b

Official Languages committee  What do I think about literacy?

Official Languages committee  Illiteracy is a problem in Canada, regardless of the language. We did a lot of work on that when I was on the Council of Ministers of Education of Canada. We were part of an international research group that checked the illiteracy rate in various countries every five years. The

Official Languages committee  No.

Official Languages committee  No.

Official Languages committee  I gave my name to Boyden.

Official Languages committee  Let me first talk about the francophone communities outside Quebec, followed by the anglophone community in Quebec, whose realities are slightly different. Outside Quebec, we must constantly promote and support the minority language. We must always provide the resources needed t

Official Languages committee  May I respond in French?

Official Languages committee  As I mentioned earlier, there is the National Research Institute on Linguistic Minorities at the Université de Moncton and on our board of directors, there are representatives from the anglophone community in Quebec, especially from universities like Concordia University and McGi

Official Languages committee  In recent years, the number of services to the English-speaking community in Quebec has been declining, be it health services or social services. There has also been a decline in the socio-economic status among English-speaking Quebeckers. This contradicts the perception that exi

Official Languages committee  Once again, there are two answers. In principle, I think so. In practice, to what extent are we going to represent Canadian diversity in the Supreme Court? In my view, the Supreme Court belongs to all Canadians. We have to start thinking about what this means in practical terms

Official Languages committee  In the debate about the last nomination, the regions were discussed. There was also a speech about an indigenous judge. Canada is multicultural, and its face—

Official Languages committee  It is officially bilingual, absolutely. This does not mean that they are mutually exclusive.

Official Languages committee  I think the ideal is clearly the equality of status of English and French in Canada. The reality is that we are far from it. In my opinion, an officer of Parliament position is created because significant value is seen in it. In this case, it is linguistic duality. That's import