Hon. Jean-Guy Dagenais: Honourable senators, I too would like to take a moment to pay tribute to our colleague, Josée Forest-Niesing, who passed away from complications of COVID-19.

First of all, there are no words to express how shocked we all were by the news of her passing. Since she was only 56 years old, we had every reason to believe that she would be with us for many years to come, pursuing her commitments. One of her favourite causes was defending the French language.

The Honourable Josée Forest-Niesing was a proud francophone from Ontario who never stopped calling for the respect that is due to the French language in this country. I commend the fact that in her community of Sudbury, her actions contributed to mobilizing the general public, the legal community and the university community to ensure that French remains as their language of use and continues to be taught. The francophone cultural community of Sudbury has just lost a fierce representative of its collective heritage. In the last few days, everyone has recognized the strength of her personal, professional and political commitments.

She was an accomplished jurist, and her actions reached far beyond her region. Senator Forest-Niesing headed the Association of French-Speaking Jurists of Ontario. She founded the Centre canadien de français juridique and she also played a pivotal role in chairing the Ontario Bar Association Official Languages Committee. I hope that all Ontarians, regardless of the language they speak, will do something to pay tribute to her and commemorate her achievements.

I will cherish the memory of our discussions about how I supported her efforts in this chamber last June to have her motion adopted in support of the francophone teaching programs at Laurentian University in Sudbury, which terminated 58% of its French programs for lack of funding, resulting in the departure of 110 teachers.

I also recall the speech she gave in November 2020, in which she pointed out that, in emergency situations such as the one we have been in since March 2019, the government all too often forgoes communications in French for the sake of getting out the message quickly. Senator Forest-Niesing rightly reminded us at the time that everyone has the same fundamental need to receive information, instructions and clear messages. Her message could not be any clearer, and I quote:

Canada’s two official languages have equal constitutional status. One is not the main language which then gets translated into the other.

If, in my own small way, I can continue Senator Forest-Niesing’s fight for respect for official languages in this chamber, I will be proud to do so in her memory. I extend my sincere condolences to her entire family.