Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, how many times do we need to say it? English is not a minority language. We are surrounded by 360 million anglophones in North America. Even Quebeckers speak English because bilingualism in Canada is a francophone thing. In Quebec, we are fighting tooth and nail to protect the French language and indigenous languages. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister is undoing everything we have done by…
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Mr. Speaker, Ottawa is spending $2 billion to anglicize Quebec, and it does not stop there. In its action plan for official languages, Ottawa has earmarked $800 million for English in Quebec over the next five years, and let the chips fall where they may. This is typical of our Liberals. They say there is a difference between the situations facing francophones and anglophones. They claim to care a…
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Mr. Speaker, $2 billion is the total amount that the federal government has invested in strengthening English in Quebec since 1995. It spent $2 billion to support the language of the 360 million anglophones that surround us, and enrich groups that are advocating for Quebec's anglicization. We will say it over and over again until the federal government finally gets the message: French is in declin…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, to put the court challenges program into context, I will start by providing a bit of history of the linguistic dynamic in Canada and Quebec because a people unaware of its history is like an individual having amnesia. We become easily manipulated. If we do not know our history, if we have amnesia and we are cheated, we can be cheated again. We never remember what happened. There are…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, these are troubled times for Quebec culture, but yesterday's ADISQ gala showed just how vibrant and diverse French-language music is in Quebec. Among the winners were greats like Ginette Reno and Michel Rivard, who won an award for his show Le tour du bloc. What a great name. Félix awards were also handed out to well-versed artists such as Daniel Bélanger, Les Cowboys Fringants and Al…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague mentioned organizations that advocate for French outside Quebec. In Quebec, however, there are no organizations or groups dedicated to protecting or promoting French that receive funding under the action plan for official languages. Could he tell me what he thinks about that?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like to know what my colleague thinks. First, does he consider it legitimate that Quebec, the only francophone state in North America, wants to ensure the future of French? The federal government seems unwilling to take account of our capacity to integrate and provide French instruction to newcomers. To sustain the demographic weight of French in Quebec, we have to provide F…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his presentation. The purpose of all federal language policy includes providing support for English in Quebec and ensuring that at least a third of newcomers have access to services in English. Quebec is expected to integrate and provide French language training to 90% of newcomers to maintain its demographic weight. I would like to know whether the governme…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his excellent speech. There seems to be a rather cavalier attitude here when we talk about being responsible. The government does not talk about the decline of French in Quebec. A number of Liberals gave speeches, but we did not hear a word from them about that, even though it is a reality. The federal government's official languages program is essentially fun…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her presentation. I wanted to raise one point. From 1960 to 1994, the federal government supported social and community housing in Quebec. Then it withdrew, leaving it up to the Government of Quebec to manage this file. This is typical of many files. The federal government imposes its conditions without necessarily respecting what is being done in Quebec. Then…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on two points. First, as with other free trade agreements, it is the executive branch that acts alone. Elected representatives and opposition members do not have direct access to the chapters or any direct influence on the content of the agreement. What does my colleague think? Would she agree with the idea of coming up with another mechani…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, on Thursday, once again, the Liberals refused to acknowledge the decline of French in Quebec and Canada. However, Canada's census provides the relevant figures. From 2016 to 2021, the percentage of francophones in Canada, based on the first official language spoken, dropped from 22.2% to 21.4%. The percentage of Quebeckers who speak mainly French at home dropped from 79% to 77.5%. In …
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Mr. Speaker, we know that Parliament and elected representatives have a very limited ability to modify the agreement. All we can do is vote for the bill or propose amendments, but we cannot change the agreement itself. In most industrialized countries, however, elected representatives can participate in and directly influence free trade agreements and treaties. I would like to hear my colleague's …
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Mr. Speaker, there have been consultations among the parties and I believe that if you seek it you will find unanimous consent for the following motion: That the House recognize that, according to the 2021 census data, the proportion of Quebec residents whose mother tongue is French dropped from 77.1% in 2016 to 74.8% in 2021; the proportion of Quebec residents who primarily speak French at home d…
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Mr. Speaker, that is not very convincing. This situation with the RCMP is a perfect example of the federal government's culture of contempt for French. The RCMP hiring unilingual anglophones is one thing. That these people are not taking French classes is another thing. The worst part is that no one even thought about requiring them to take classes. No one even thought about the optics and making …
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Mr. Speaker, the RCMP is hiring unilingual anglophone executives to fill high-ranking bilingual positions. Not only do these people not speak French, but they are also not taking French lessons. The RCMP is blatantly violating the Official Languages Act. When even the police break the law, there is a problem high up in the ranks. Despite the reform of the Official Languages Act, there is still a c…
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Mr. Speaker, a report by Radio-Canada reveals that the RCMP hires unilingual anglophone executives for high-ranking bilingual positions. They do not speak a word of French. They are not taking French lessons. In no way, shape or form are these people qualified for their positions, not today and not any other day. It is a blatant violation of the Official Languages Act, a violation that is so commo…
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Mr. Speaker, this new law was supposed to put an end to these cases of contempt for French at the federal level. Every single francophone will be paying close attention to what the new minister does. This is the first blatant case of a federal agency thinking it is still okay to undermine French since the new Official Languages Act came into effect. Will the minister demonstrate to the entire publ…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like to know what my colleague thinks about the fact that the bill contains no specifics on the type of buildings, the type of housing or any affordability requirements to qualify for the rebate.
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, September 25 is Franco-Ontarian Day, which commemorates the first time the Franco-Ontarian flag was raised in Sudbury in 1975. Creating a flag means defining an identity. On their flag, Franco-Ontarians put the white trillium, the floral symbol of Ontario, and the fleur-de-lys, the symbol of the francophone community of America, similar to our own fleur-de-lys flag. When a kinship is …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-354, An Act to amend the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Act (Quebec’s cultural distinctiveness and French-speaking communities). Mr. Speaker, we in the Bloc Québécois like to stress that a nation must not leave its own culture in the hands of its neighbour. That is exactly why I am tabling this bill today. This bill provides that the…
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Madam Speaker, of course we will be monitoring the impact of Bill C‑13 on companies like Air Canada. However, in the case of the federal public service, the employer responsible is every single minister here in the House. They do not need Bill C‑13 to ensure that French is respected. All they have to do is stop treating their francophone employees like second-class citizens. Will the Liberals send…
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Madam Speaker, the Commissioner of Official Languages has once again been flooded with complaints. Air Canada is on the podium once again, with 276 complaints about its inability to serve customers in French. Let us talk about this year's gold medalist, the federal government. Some 714 complaints were filed against Ottawa for ignoring French in its bilingual public service job postings. That is mo…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour for me to recognize the 25th anniversary of the Maison des familles de Mercier-Est. The family unit is the foundation of society and the future of Quebec. The Maison des familles de Mercier-Est has been anchored in La Pointe-de-l'Île since 1998. It is a vital organization. I would like to thank its director, Véronique Coulombe, as well as the entire team and the partic…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour for me to recognize the 25th anniversary of the Maison des familles de Mercier‑Est. The family unit is the foundation of society and the future of Quebec. The Maison des familles de Mercier‑Est is a vital organization that was established in La Pointe-de-l'Île in 1998. I would like to thank its director, Véronique Coulombe, as well as the entire team and the participat…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, let me set the record straight: The Bloc Québécois is not saying that this is a good bill. The Bloc is going to support it because we feel that it will move things somewhat forward for now, but there are still a lot of unsatisfactory aspects. The Government of Quebec asked to be in control of language planning within its territory. It also asked for recognition that French is the only…
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Mr. Speaker, I hope that Bill C-13 marks the beginning of a change in the Official Languages Act and in federal language policy, arguably the main driver of anglicization in Quebec, which is home to 90% of Canada's francophones. Quebec is also called the heart of the francophonie in North America. I hope that this is a sign that awareness is growing in English Canada and that it reinvigorates a mo…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her co-operation and work on the Standing Committee on Official Languages. I would like to know if she considers Quebec to be a nation with French as its official and common language, and if she recognizes Quebec's right to self-determination. If so, does she think it is okay for the federal government to swoop in and spend hundreds of millions of dollars in a…
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Mr. Speaker, I could not have put it better myself. The Bloc Québécois certainly supports francophone and Acadian communities. We think what has been happening for the past few years is totally unacceptable. There was a strategy that led to the presentation of action plans on official languages that promoted that. Again, it is the same thing. A journalist asked a question and a senior official ans…
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Mr. Speaker, I am definitely ready to go. However, I would like to point out that post-secondary education in French is broadly lacking in western Canada. Some huge challenges remain, which is preventing western Canada from having decent French-language educational institutions. I want to point something out regarding the right to self-determination. If Quebec is considered a nation, it should hav…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague. We did indeed work well with him. I think we have done everything possible in the circumstances. We could have gone farther, by naming the Treasury Board as the central agency in charge of implementation, for instance. Many of the amendments sought by the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne, the FCFA, fell by the wayside. The Liberal-NDP coalitio…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank our good friend, the Minister for Official Languages. I hope she will be as co-operative, so that the action plan for official languages supports this asymmetry that is recognized in the law on the use of French in federally regulated private businesses. Even Quebec's minister of the French language was surprised that there were no measures for French in this bill. We were t…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his work on the Standing Committee on Official Languages and his support for a number of proposals. I would like to hear his opinion. We know that the House of Commons recognized Quebec as a nation with one official and common language, French. We know that, in the beginning, language was supposed to fall under Quebec's jurisdiction. What does my colle…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by thanking my colleague for supporting several of the Bloc Québécois's proposed amendments to Bill C-13. We know that the Government of Quebec made some demands, and we tried to get as many of them adopted as possible. Things were going well at the start, but later there was some manoeuvring on the part of some Liberals, who even voted against the bill yesterday. We c…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, we have often raised that point, which our colleague does a great job of defending. The government often responds that pensions are like that all over the world. However, I have some information here about the net pension replacement rate. According to estimates of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, the average net pension replacement rate was 50.7% o…
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Madam Speaker, just to expand on what my colleague was saying earlier, we hear a lot of members talking nonsense. We heard the member for Winnipeg North say that there are more francophones than ever in Manitoba. I have the numbers right here. In 1971, there were 60,500 Manitobans or 6.1%, whose mother tongue was French. In 2021, there were 39,600, which represented 4% of the population. These are…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I would like to know what my colleague thinks. The court challenges program was established in 1978 to counter the Charter of the French Language, which was democratically passed in Quebec. Then, the 1982 Constitution further reinforced that. It was also established to counter the Charter of the French Language, which should have fallen under Quebec's jurisdiction. The most frustrat…
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Mr. Speaker, that is some logic. The Quebec government official said, “I have not yet seen in the plan any measures that are consistent with the declaration of [the] Prime Minister...namely that French in Quebec is threatened”. In other words, there is nothing in there for French in Quebec, but there is $700 million for English. If French is threatened in Quebec and not English, then why not use t…
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Mr. Speaker, Bill C‑13 acknowledges that French is under threat in Quebec. However, the Liberals introduced an action plan yesterday that gives Quebec $140 million per year to promote English. That is $700 million over five years for English in Quebec and nothing, or a few crumbs, for French. Today, Quebeckers are wondering if the federal government has some statistics to prove that English is und…
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois moved Motion No. 13. I would like to ask for the unanimous consent of the House to debate it. I am told that I could have moved it during the committee study, but I believe that—
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Mr. Speaker, I was rather surprised because, throughout the clause-by-clause study, my colleague voted against the proposal to consult Quebec on the matter of positive measures. She voted against the proposal to let Quebec be in charge of its language planning. She voted against allowing the Charter of the French Language to take precedence in cases where there is a conflict between it and the Off…
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Mr. Speaker, I think there are some good things in there for francophones outside Quebec. Will this reverse the decline of French? Unfortunately, I doubt it. It was announced that most of the investments and improvements would be for immersion schools, while schools by and for francophones outside of Quebec lack funding. Even at the outset, a study by the federation of francophone parents outside …
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Mr. Speaker, as I just said, we will vote in favour of Bill C-13 because it does make some progress, particularly with regard to federally regulated businesses. It does not meet the demands or Quebec or our demands because, like the Government of Quebec, we are calling for Bill 101 to apply to federally regulated businesses. Such will not be the case. The businesses will get to choose. However, si…
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Mr. Speaker, the atmosphere in Quebec is electric these days. There is a movement, a collective awareness as the decline of French is picking up pace. There is every indication that is the case. Whether it is a question of which language is spoken at home, a person's mother tongue, the first official language spoken or the language of work, there is a rapid decline of French, especially in Montrea…
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Mr. Speaker, I have a question for my colleague. The action plan for official languages was announced today. At the beginning of the announcement, it talks about promoting French in Quebec and ensuring its protection. However, there are no measures for Quebec. There are basically only measures to strengthen English in Quebec. We saw that 20% of the new funding will go toward supporting English in …
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Mr. Speaker, we certainly support having an increase in francophone immigration. We have seen, for example, that more than 80% of student visa applications from francophone Africa are being rejected. I believe that is a real problem. We have spoken out about this many times, and our efforts seem to have paid off. We are told that the acceptance rate for francophone African students has increased. …
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Mr. Speaker, I will refrain from commenting on the need for an independent public inquiry. In a context where the federal government is experiencing significant budget surpluses and in a time of high inflation, why does the Liberal government want to increase the tax by 6.3%?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, it is in solidarity with the Kabyle and Algerian people that I table petitions 12158298 and 12245272. Since December 2019, there has been a crackdown on Algerian citizens, specifically Kabyles, who have been arbitrarily arrested for publicly expressing their political opinions. Human rights organizations have identified more than 500 people unjustly imprisoned in Algeria on the basi…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I would ask for the unanimous consent of the House to present a petition.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, my colleague talked about objectivity and subjectivity. People sometimes say that objectivity is just mass subjectivity. I would like my colleague to expand on that.
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