. With regard to this particular case, concerning the schools in
the city of Windsor, his answer was, I respectfully submit, unworthy of
himself, unworthy of the province, and especially unworthy of the great
subject of education. His answer was that the children of the
French-Canadian parents at Windsor had not been refused anything to
which they were entitled under regulation 17. That was his answer,
begging the whole question.

May I now give you a very independent and impartial opinion as to the
effect and nature of this regulation? Within a year after it was
promulgated and sought to be enforced, the six inspectors appointed by
the Government, for the very purpose of enforcing the regulation, were
called to Toronto by the Head of the Department of Education, to make a
report of their findings after the regulation had been in force about a
year. The six inspectors were three English-speaking and three
French-speaking inspectors. They met in Toronto, and, after comparing
notes, made a unanimous report to the Minister of Education, and please
remember that this report and the investigation from which it arose were
both made at the request of the Minister of Education. The report was
unanimous. I shall not quote it all, but only a few lines:

"The inspectors agree that the above regulation (17) has not
been effective, for the following reasons:

"IT WAS TAKEN TO MEAN THAT FRENCH COULD NOT BE USED AS A
LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION AND COMMUNICATION;

"IT WAS REGARDED AS AN ATTEMPT TO GRADUALLY ELIMINATE THE
FRENCH LANGUAGE FROM THE ENGLISH-FRENCH SCHOOLS."

That is not my statement, remember, gentlemen, but the unanimous
statement of three English inspectors and three French inspectors
charged with the duty of enforcing this regulation.

Naturally the French-Canadians of Ontario, of whom there are 250,000,
who have in the past enjoyed the right of teaching their language to
their own children, promptly and strongly resented all this. But they
have not been the aggressive and turbulent agitators which they have
been represented to be. On the contrary, they took the constitutional
means of going to the Department about the matter. Memorials,
representations and calm and dignified protests were made. Delegations
were sent to Toronto. On one occasion the chairman of the Ottawa
separate school board went to Toronto as the representative of most of
the different separate school boards throughout the p