QUESTION PERIOD — Public Safety
Royal Canadian Mounted Police--Official Languages
October 4, 2023
My question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. I would like to come back to the question that my colleague, Senator Carignan, asked yesterday in the Senate. The question had to do with the fact that senior officers at RCMP headquarters hold bilingual positions even if they don’t speak French or even have access to language training. In the media, a lawyer who specializes in language rights, Mark Power, thinks the Treasury Board needs to intervene to resolve this situation at RCMP headquarters.
My question is the following: What clear deadlines has the government set for drafting the necessary regulations and orders to fully implement the modernized version of the Official Languages Act?
Thank you. I want to reassure this chamber regarding the matter raised yesterday concerning the RCMP. The Minister of Public Safety will be discussing it directly with the Commissioner of the RCMP. Although I don’t have the timelines you’re asking for regarding the regulations, I have been assured that the government is approaching this exercise with the seriousness it deserves and has been doing so since the bill received Royal Assent.
I want to specifically point out that the government is working with the Commissioner’s office to ensure that it has the resources needed to do its work. The government is also committed to adopting the regulations on Part VII of the Official Languages Act and to consulting Canadians to define what constitutes a strong francophone presence, in order to give concrete expression to the right to work and to be served in French. The government expects the RCMP to live up to this principle and to fill bilingual positions with bilingual staff.
Thank you for that answer, Senator Gold. Still on the subject of official languages, and considering the commitment to ensure that our country has a fully bilingual Constitution, how does the government intend to respond formally to the motion moved in this chamber by Senator Dalphond and adopted by the Senate on March 29, 2022, now that Bill C-13 has passed without including the substance of that motion in the modernized act?
Thank you. The government is committed to guaranteeing Canadians access to justice in the official language of their choice. When the Final Report of the French Constitutional Drafting Committee was published in 2022, it set out a draft official French version of certain constitution enactments. We are not talking about a final French version, but about a one-stop resource where lawyers and legal experts can find and refer to constitutional documents in French. I have been assured that the Minister of Justice is fully committed to our official languages —
Your time is up, Senator Gold.
