The Hon. the Speaker: Thank you very much, Senator Carignan.

Senator Carignan: You seem to be looking for mandates to give to the Standing Senate Committee on Official Languages. Would you be amenable to letting the Official Languages Committee investigate why the Privy Council Office is incapable of finding bilingual people for senior management positions or for lieutenant-governor positions?

Senator Carignan: Aren’t you worried the exception might become the rule?

Senator Carignan: Would you take a question, senator?

Hon. Claude Carignan: My question is for the Government Representative in the Senate. I want to revisit your answer to my question yesterday about the place of francophones in the senior ranks of the public service.

In 1962, the president of CN, Donald Gordon, justified the absence of francophones among the 17 vice-presidents of the company he led by stating that they did not necessarily have the skills required to fill these positions. That statement came to epitomize the contempt some anglophones have for francophones, who supposedly are simply not sufficiently qualified.

Senator Gold, your answer yesterday was strangely reminiscent of Mr. Gordon’s in 1962. Do you maintain that your government appoints unilingual anglophones to positions that require bilingualism because there are no francophones competent enough to fill those positions? Are you the Donald Gordon of 2022?

Hon. Claude Carignan: Yesterday, in an exchange with the Government Representative in the Senate, I made it sound as though he had contempt for the Senate. What I meant to say was that he misunderstood the role of the Senate. I would ask that this be corrected in the Hansard, please.

Senator Carignan: In your previous life, did you ever experience translation problems that meant that you could only meet once a week instead of twice and could therefore only do half of your job?

Senator Carignan: What are they?

Senator Carignan: Am I to understand that, without even receiving an order of reference or permission to conduct a pre‑study of Bill C-13, the committee is already studying immigration policy? Does that mean it’s already studying Bill C-13?

Hon. Claude Carignan: Would Senator Saint-Germain take a question?

Hon. Claude Carignan: My question is about the committee’s current mandate.

Can you tell us what the Standing Senate Committee on Official Languages is currently studying, and how important it is to francophones?

Senator Saint-Germain: Thank you for the question, Senator Carignan.

I think our pre-studies are done with just as much care. Let me point out that we have been in a pandemic for over two years now. That has to have influenced government legislation, the work of the House of Commons and our own chamber’s work. I feel that these pandemic times are exceptional and make it hard to compare anything to how both houses of Parliament have operated in normal times over the past few decades.

Hon. Claude Carignan: Would Senator Saint-Germain take a question?

Hon. Claude Carignan: My question is about the committee’s current mandate.

Can you tell us what the Standing Senate Committee on Official Languages is currently studying, and how important it is to francophones?