Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First I want to say that I am in favour of Mr. Choquette's motion. What we are going through is extremely deplorable. It is all based on extreme partisanship.
To summarize what is going on, let us say that our committee is supposed to defend and represent official languages in the context of minority communities. All of this controversy affecting the committee currently will inevitably leave marks. I believe this situation is totally unprecedented.
The House of Commons and the Senate must approve Ms. Meilleur's nomination, but if that is not unanimous as it always was in the past, the situation will be difficult for all of the committees that will follow in the course of the next seven years.
I want to denounce this situation in the strongest possible terms, because our role is to defend and work to improve the quality of French language services in official language minority communities, and English services in Quebec. For a month and a half, we have been reading all kinds of things about this situation. In addition, some groups—and I am referring here to groups we represent, incidentally—have told us that this situation makes no sense and that the process has to be started over, and an appropriate person found.
I am almost tempted to suggest to Ms. Meilleur that she apply again and go through a second selection process, one that would be totally devoid of partisanship. But clearly, Ms. Meilleur would still be associated with the Liberal Party. Unfortunately, she made donations in the past, particularly to the Prime Minister's campaign. As I said last week, if the roles were reversed, you would no longer have any shirts or ties on.
That said, we have to do our work, and I thank Mr. Choquette for having raised matters related to the Standing Orders. We have work to do and we must do it. Unfortunately, the Liberal members of the committee have just voted against the motion. Simply refusing to ask Ms. Meilleur to provide her linguistic qualifications shows an attitude I would describe as cavalier.
You don't realize what is going to happen. Inevitably, this is going to blow up in your faces. This is what happens when you spit into the wind. Sincerely, I think that is what you are doing. To avoid using overly familiar language, I would say that you are literally derailing the Standing Committee on Official Languages, and that is extremely unfortunate. Moreover, I think it will be derailed not only for one or two weeks, but for several years.
If I am not mistaken, the new provisions were introduced by the NDP in 2013, and were ratified by the Liberals. I was not a member of Parliament at that time, but I know that the House of Commons unanimously approved these new measures. It is incumbent upon the committee to ensure that the skills of the person who will assume the position of Commissioner of Official Languages are satisfactory. The committee has however defeated the motion that we ask that person to provide her language skills qualifications.
One or the other is true: either partisanship is gaining ground here, or Ms. Meilleur simply did not undergo those tests. It would have been interesting to hear the comments of other candidates who took the tests in question.
In conclusion, I will say that I am extremely disappointed with what is happening. I sincerely think that this situation is not to your credit at all, dear members of the committee. Several of you are new today, but be that as it may, I don't think this will be an asset to your resumes.