Official Languages committee  I find that my opinion on this provision remains constant: I am ambivalent about who should ultimately be responsible. As well, I think there has been a long-standing lack of imagination. I don't think it's necessarily the way the law is written that prevents people from doing th

Official Languages committee  Thank you. I would just say that the problem lies with the Department of Citizenship and Immigration. I don't agree that it's the fault of Canada's Parliament or governments of any stripe. It's the department's problem. It sets peculiar objectives. Unfortunately, apart from my

Official Languages committee  In terms of incongruity, there are different levels of scope. It might seem odd that a Canadian province, in this case New Brunswick, has official language provisions that far exceed the federal government's obligations in the same territory. That's what is meant by incongruity.

Official Languages committee  I want to say two things. First, I graduated from an immersion school too. The government didn't grant a right to French-language education in my time. Then, in the last 30 years, which I have spent in the Canadian francophonie, I have filed I don't know how many complaints. I'

Official Languages committee  We've been talking about reparations in French Canada for many years—some of you have been fighting that fight for longer than I have. Once again, the issue is the basic values of this country. Are we going to invest money to right the wrong that has been done in the 50 years the

Official Languages committee  Here's the problem: New Brunswick isn't a bilingual province. New Brunswick has institutional bilingualism, like the federal government. You can't say Canada is bilingual; it's not true. There are 63,000 unilingual francophones and approximately 150,000 who are bilingual.

Official Languages committee  The bilingualism rate among anglophones is substantially lower than that. For 50 years, bilingualism in New Brunswick has ensured that francophones are assimilated into English. After 50 years, it isn't right that anglophones in New Brunswick don't speak French and have no desire

Official Languages committee  I think less attention should be paid to the idea of bilingualism and more to the idea of duality. New Brunswick is the only province that has a dual education system. The Department of Education is divided into two parts. There are two deputy ministers, an anglophone and a fran

Official Languages committee  Education is the only area where duality is absolute: it's laid down in the act and entrenched in the Constitution.

Official Languages committee  Exactly. You can see it in the results, especially in rural areas where the numbers aren't big enough. New Brunswick's municipalities are another problem. You have the issue of the non-inclusion of the municipalities, which are seeking full local governance. Naturally, a communit

Official Languages committee  I like the expression "partisan craziness". On this matter, the Higgs government will do what it has to do in order to govern. The issue is absolutely and intrinsically clear to us at the SANB: we won't accept any setback for language rights. As for the People's Alliance—I don'

Official Languages committee  We won't have the time today, this week, this month or this year for a discussion that would reflect all your comments, but thank you sincerely for your generosity towards us. That being said, after 50 years of institutional bilingualism in Canada, we have a moral responsibility

Official Languages committee  No, I'm talking about the federal level. I wonder whether the time has come to consider a degree of harmonization of language regimes in Canada. For example, couldn't New Brunswick be exempted from the application of part IV? As a result, the federal government wouldn't rely on

Official Languages committee  Yes, absolutely. That's why the federal government and the province should agree on this fundamental issue and agree to administer their respective acts in the same way. Why, for example, can a francophone school board in Newfoundland and Labrador name a school, whereas we in N

Official Languages committee  From an operational standpoint, I don't really see how the Privy Council could take on that responsibility. It's hard to imagine. You can assign that responsibility to whatever organization you want, but if you attach no genuine importance to the act and there's no conviction or