Official Languages committee  Thank you. The charter of the French language actually does that. It imposes a burden of proof on the employer to prove that there is a necessity to speak in English, to alleviate the burden on any plaintiff to have to prove that his language rights were infringed. By transposin

Official Languages committee  I completely agree with you. That's the essence of it. It's central to the proposals we submit to the House of Commons. A territorial model is required to genuinely confer a specific and distinct status on the French language. We are proposing it in Quebec, but nothing prevents i

Official Languages committee  Whether or not Justin Trudeau and Mélanie Joly are happy about it, the act doesn't believe in Santa Claus and we need concrete measures, before the next election, at least.

Official Languages committee  Thank you for your question. In fact, I share your broader approach. In response also to Mr. Boulerice's earlier question, I would say that if we focused our study and our proposals on the Quebec situation, it was simply because it fit into the framework of our intellectual res

Official Languages committee  I can't comment on measures that the minister will ultimately propose. We can get a vague idea from reading public news releases, but we're waiting to see the content of those measures, as it were. As for specific measures that should be adopted, I want to go back once again to

Official Languages committee  Yes, that's absolutely correct. We think it's a purely dilatory tactic designed to buy time so it can push back the introduction of a bill or the release of a white paper. By the way, a professor at the Université de Moncton whose name escapes me has tracked the number of times

Official Languages committee  That's exactly the problem. You're entirely right. We regret that kind of situation. That's why we should…

Official Languages committee  It's North American geopolitics.

Official Languages committee  No, Mr. Arseneault. The protection isn't great enough to allow for the Canadian and North American context. We need more.

Official Languages committee  May I answer, or is my time over, Mr. Chair?

Official Languages committee  Bill 101 is an attempt to achieve that objective, but it's unfortunately weighed down by a certain amount of case law, against which measures will have to be adopted at the provincial level. However, its spirit is there. Bill 101 has definitely made major progress possible. The p

Official Languages committee  I would say yes, absolutely. International studies have even been done on the use of official languages. Here's an interesting example. In the international organizations, when several official languages are declared equal and are left to each person's individual choice, the re

Official Languages committee  Thank you for that question. We certainly wish that was just an anecdote. Unfortunately, we hear a lot of stories of that kind. In reality, the symmetrical equality of official language rights and status in the public service is only a superficial equality. French is presented a

Official Languages committee  That's fine.

Official Languages committee  In fact, you just said it: that's just another example. There's a culture of transitioning to English under mere passive pressure, an actual institutional culture in which English is the language of business, the language of success and the dominant language that naturally asser