Hon. René Cormier: My question is for the Government Representative in the Senate.

Senator Gold, according to a recent report by MediaSmarts, almost half of Canadian youth see racist or sexist content online at least once a week, and 2SLGBTQI+ youth are more likely to encounter harmful content online.

Given that, in its 2SLGBTQI+ action plan, the Government of Canada committed to introducing legislation to combat serious forms of harmful online content, I’d like to know how youth members of 2SLGBTQI+ communities are being consulted as this bill is being drafted. Also, when will the bill be introduced?

Hon. René Cormier: Senator Gold, thank you for that answer. Parliamentarians from both chambers joined forces last week to form the first ever non-partisan 2SLGBTQI+ caucus in Canada, the Canadian Pride Caucus. The main goals of the caucus include engaging in a dialogue with civil society organizations, working in a non-partisan manner to raise awareness of 2SLGBTQI+ issues among Canadian parliamentarians, and acting as an interlocutor in parliamentary diplomacy on 2SLGBTQI+ rights.

As co-chair of the Canadian Pride Caucus, I would like to know the following. How does the Canadian government welcome the creation of this caucus, and how does it plan to work with us?

Hon. René Cormier: Honourable senators, the presence of my niece, Diane Pinet, and her spouse, Sudhir Nagpal, in this place today, thanks to Senator Cotter — thank you, Senator Cotter — has great symbolic meaning for me, my family and my fellow Acadians.

Diane’s grandfather, Médard Léger, and my father, Livin Cormier, were staunch Acadians who seized every opportunity to remind us of the tragedy of the Deportation and its continuing impact on our lives.

The Great Upheaval took place in the 18th century and is an extremely tragic episode in our collective history that remains embedded in our hearts and souls. More than 10,000 Acadians were deported during the Great Upheaval between 1755 and 1763.

Today, on this Acadian Remembrance Day, we commemorate the countless victims of the Great Upheaval, especially those who perished on the Violet, Ruby and Duke William in December 1758. Torn from their land against their will and packed onto British vessels, more than 750 men, women and children drowned or succumbed to illness in the icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

These sombre events still live in our collective memory, but also give us the opportunity to move forward with determination into the future, because the Acadian people do not live in the past. They live in the modern world. The Acadian people live through their culture, their French language, their strong institutions and their engaged citizens.

Honourable colleagues, what about the political recognition of the Acadian people at the federal level? This people that landed on the shores of the Atlantic more than four centuries ago has no clear anchor in our constitutional and legislative texts outside a recognition of August 15 as the Acadian national holiday, July 28 as A Day of Commemoration of the Great Upheaval and this tragic day of December 13. Shockingly, the Acadian people have fewer levers of power than municipalities like my home town of Caraquet.

Honourable colleagues, given that the Acadian population of New Brunswick is currently experiencing major challenges with respect to the modernization of the provincial Official Languages Act because of political decisions, while here in Ottawa the modernization of the Official Languages Act has been long awaited, is it not time for this francophone Canadian people to finally be fully recognized in our democratic institutions and be equipped with legislative and policy instruments that would allow it to thrive?

The question remains and deserves our attention. That is what I pledge to do in this place with your support, senators, on this, the 13th day of December, 2022.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a joyful and restful holiday season. I encourage us to continue our work to improve the lot of our nation’s most disadvantaged, and I invite us to be increasingly unified in order to ensure a healthy and safe future for the next generations on a healthy and still habitable planet.

Thank you.