LANG Committee Report

Dissenting Opinion from the Conservative Party of Canada

The following report is the Conservative Members of the Official Languages Committee’s dissenting opinion on the committee’s study of the Court Challenges Program.

First of all, it is important to note that the report commences with a negative message that precipitately concludes that the abolition of the Court Challenges Program is an error. When reading the report, it is apparent that the solution to the analysis can be found in the first paragraph where it is clearly stated that the analysis of the presented options should have been ”preceded by the Government’s decision to rectify the error it committed in cancelling the CCP without consulting the official language minority communities and without explaining to Canadians the reasons for its decision”¹. Stating this in a peremptory matter at the beginning of the report influences the rest of the study and does not allow the reader to have a general view of the government’s realizations in promoting linguistic duality.   

There is a fundamental contradiction in this report: it recognizes, on one hand, the necessity of leaving the Court to rule on these issues, and, on the other hand, holds arguments, opinions and conclusions that exceed this necessity. The government’s obligations concerning the official language minority communities are presently before the Court.

Unlike stated in the report, the government publicly explained many times the expenditures review process that led to the elimination of the Court Challenges Program. It is possible that certain groups that had found an eliminated program to be useful will be against the government’s decision as well as its explanation. It is up to Canadians to judge if the explanation was clear and satisfactory.

As mentioned in the report, the opposition members refused to consider other options concerning the protection of linguistic rights. The refusal for constructive discussion resulted in the tabling of a biased report that does not present many new elements on this question.

On the other hand, our Government firmly believes that there are many ways to promote the two official languages and to help official language minority communities. An impartial evaluation should have considered many positive initiatives taken by the government in order to ensure its commitment to linguistic duality.

The present government has more then once stated that it would directly help communities in order to obtain concrete results. This was the main message in the announcement of $30 million in additional funding over two years for official language minority communities.

The government also committed, during the last Speech from the Throne, to renew its support to linguistic duality by proposing the next phase of the Action Plan on Official Languages.

On December 3, the Prime Minister and the Minister for Official Languages announced the appointment of a special advisor on linguistic duality and official languages, Bernard Lord. M. Lord will report the results of the consultations as well as the discussions with Canadians from coast to coast via the Web.

Following this announcement, the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadiennes welcomed the appointment of Bernard Lord, and federal official languages commissioner, Graham Fraser, said that he was pleased with Lord’s appointment and described the former Premier as being an excellent choice. Following his first consultation on December 4, 2007, the Fédération des francophones de la Colombie-Britannique sent Mr. Lord a letter stating that “the Fédération des francophones de la Colombie-Britannique would like to thank you for listening and for your consideration during the consultations on linguistic duality and official languages on December 4, 2007 in Vancouver (translation)”².

Thus, through additional funding invested in order to directly support communities and the consultation process presently being held, the government has demonstrated that it has not forgotten the Official Languages Act and still truly believes in respecting it.

In conclusion, not only is the issue of the government’s obligations towards the official language minority communities presently before the Court - which should encourage us to refrain from announcing conclusions on this report - it clearly forgets to state the many positive initiatives taken by the government by firmly announcing that the elimination of the Court Challenges Program is an error. Despite the report, the government will continue acting in the best interests of the minority language communities and will keep on taking concrete action to ensure the vitality of French and English in Canada.