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Harper’s office downplayed a report in Montreal’s La Presse that said the prime minister recognized making a mistake.

“What happens in caucus remains in caucus,” said Harper’s spokesman Carl Vallee. “We are still studying the NDP bill.”

Our government remains committed to Canada’s official languages

Treasury Board President Tony Clement, the lead minister on the issue, declined to say what sort of amendments the government might propose to Latendresse’s private member’s bill.

“Our government remains committed to Canada’s official languages,” said Clement’s spokeswoman Beverly Young, in an email. “We seek applications from bilingual Canadians, but in the end, we select the most deserving applicants — appointments are approved by Parliament.”

The federal government has an obligation, under its official languages legislation adopted in 1969, to protect the vitality of minority English and French communities across the country, in part by protecting access to services in the official language of their choice.

But the controversy over unilingual appointments is heating up just as the newly elected Parti Quebecois government in Quebec muses about strengthening the province’s French language laws. It also coincides with new census figures that suggest bilingualism has stalled outside of Quebec.

Michael Ferguson, the auditor general, struggled to answer questions in French this week during a news conference and later at a parliamentary committee.

“Thanks um and, ah of course, um ah umm the government ahh—” Ferguson said to a House of Commons committee in French on Thursday, in response to a question from Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, an NDP MP from Montreal. She was asking about potential threats to old age security within the government’s finances.

Blanchette-Lamothe promptly cut him off.

“Mr. Ferguson, I appreciate very much your effort to speak in French, but unfortunately, I think the committee is not the place to practise,” she said, switching to English. “So is it possible to ask you to answer in English during my five minutes, and maybe, practise another time?”

Harper’s office, meantime, suggested that the NDP shouldn’t be lecturing anyone about bilingualism.

“This same [New Democratic] Party presented unilingual anglophone candidates in Quebec during the last election,” Vallee said.