Human Rights  Madam Speaker, our government acknowledges and commemorates a number of tragedies that occurred during the chaos of the Second World War. Such terrible moments remind us that we must remain engaged in promoting peace, multiculturalism, inclusion and respect for diversity. What

Human Rights  Madam Speaker, the Government of Canada recognizes and respects the unique history of all Canadians, as it reflects the rich social fabric of our country and makes us stronger. Because diversity is at the heart of who we are as Canadians, we will continue to work to ensure that

Indigenous Languages Act  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today in support of Bill C-91, an act respecting indigenous languages. I would like to acknowledge that we are gathered on the unceded ancestral lands of the Algonquin people. Before getting into the details of the bill, I would like thank our

Indigenous Languages Act  Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my friend for her hard work in support of the bill. This legislation was, indeed, co-developed with three national indigenous organizations. The member is right. At this point we still do not have full consensus from all three organizations.

Indigenous Languages Act  Madam Speaker, across the country there are some very important programs like the one my friend mentioned. There are some very unique experiences, and work is being done by communities to preserve language. With respect to the budget question, $335 million has been allocated in

Indigenous Languages Act  Madam Speaker, obviously the context in which heritage, multicultural language and education are taken in Canada is quite different from that of the need to protect indigenous languages. It is fair to say that many of the multicultural languages that are here have enormous intern

Indigenous Languages Act  Madam Speaker, we can never imagine what we lost with respect to languages over several generations and spanning over 152 years as a country. The loss of language is also attached to the loss of many people. I think the best way to describe it is with what the former chief justic

Indigenous Languages Act  Madam Speaker, that is not correct. In fact, many amendments that were put forward were adopted and are reflected in the report that came from the committee. The legislation before us, as amended, has come a long way from the initial legislation we put forward.

Canadian Heritage  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Madawaska—Restigouche for his question. I want to salute the courage of journalists who take risks to keep us informed. Too many of them continue to be threatened, jailed, harassed and murdered around the world. In Canada, freedom of the pr

Canadian Heritage  Mr. Speaker, our government has shown that it supports our artists and creators. If my colleagues really cared about investments in culture, they would stop asking me the same questions over and over only to get the same answers. We have made historic investments of $3.2 billio

Indigenous Languages Act  Mr. Speaker, I would like to set the record straight. During the deliberations at committee, a number of amendments were accepted from different parties. At every stage, the member for Nunavut was invited to take part. As a government, we made every accommodation for that parti

Indigenous Languages Act  Mr. Speaker, I know the member for Edmonton Strathcona is a lawyer. Therefore, I would like to ask her about the legality, with respect to the charter as well as our Human Rights Act, of putting a provision in a bill where we prescribe particular background of an individual. We a

Indigenous Languages Act  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my friend from Yukon for his in-depth knowledge on this issue. There are 90 indigenous languages. According to UNESCO, 75% of them are on the verge of becoming extinct. I would like to get a sense from him whether the framework in Bill C-91 hop

Canadian Heritage  Mr. Speaker, we have been working on this issue for the past month. Directors, producers and creators can count on us. As the minister said last week, we will have concrete solutions to announce this week. It is not about scoring political points; it is about ensuring that movies

Indigenous Languages Act  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his incredibly hard work on this legislation. In the “Purposes of Act” part of the bill, clause 5 states, “The purposes of this Act are to”, and under paragraph (g) on page 5, it states, “contribute to the implementation of the