Hon. Maria Chaput:

Honourable senators, my question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate and is in reference to the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver Olympic Games.

We are all aware that there was very little French during this world-class event that took place in a country with two official languages. The equality of our two official languages was not respected and the image of our linguistic diversity was tarnished. I am extremely saddened by this. It should never have happened. Twenty million dollars was spent on the opening ceremonies, and an important element of the Canadian identity, our linguistic duality, was excluded. Who is to blame?

I will come back to a question I asked the minister last fall. At that time, I urged the minister to ask the Prime Minister of Canada to appoint an individual in charge of the linguistic duality of the games, a person with the authority to enforce respect for both official languages.

It was very obvious back then that there were problems. I had brought to the attention of the honourable senators the fact that there was no official decision maker, that people were talking about it, that they were aware of the problem, that they had the best intentions in the world, but that no one individual had the authority to enforce respect for bilingualism. Heritage Canada did not have this authority, and your government just let things happen rather than becoming directly involved.

Now, in hindsight, does the minister not believe that there should have been more forceful intervention by the Prime Minister and that he could have appointed someone with the requisite authority to ensure respect for the equality of both of Canada's official languages?

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