Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, on Friday, the head of FrancoFolies de Montréal tried to justify the anglicization of his organization's workplace by saying that this promotes diversity and inclusion. That is absurd, but it is a shift we see all the time at the federal level. The official languages commissioner described this as backsliding. He explains that, on the contrary, the official languages and diversity are…
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Mr. Speaker, we need only look to the people at the top to see how French is presented as a barrier to diversity. The Prime Minister himself appointed a Governor General who does not speak French, and his government has gone to court to try to force New Brunswick to accept a Lieutenant Governor who does not speak French. He is the first to drop the French language in the name of diversity, as thou…
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Mr. Speaker, as my hon. colleague likely knows, we agree on the principle of the bill. I completely agree that it is crucial that people be able to trust their justice system. We have heard all kinds of allegations, especially regarding the judicial appointment process. We have heard about the Liberalist database and the possibility of political interference in appointing judges. Does my colleague…
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Mr. Speaker, the Institute for Research on Public Policy is an independent, bilingual, pan-Canadian organization that nobody could suspect of harbouring separatist sympathies. However, in a recently released study, the organization says that the new Official Languages Act will not slow the decline of French. To slow the decline of French, Bill C‑13 must be compatible with Quebec's Charter of the F…
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Mr. Speaker, regurgitated talking points are not an answer. The author of the study, economist Mario Polèse, said that equality between the two languages is no longer sufficient because the two languages are not equal in their ability to attract newcomers or in their importance, period. This means that French needs to be prioritized. The problem with Bill C-13 is that the minister continues to put…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I would like to draw the attention of the House to the fact that Ferhat Mehenni, a pioneer in the decolonization of the Kabyle people, is visiting Ottawa. He used song as a peaceful means to gain recognition for the Kabyle language, identity and culture. He is a founding member of Algeria's human rights advocacy group and president of the provisional Kabyle government, which has made …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois welcomes Senator Mobina Jaffer's Bill S-214, entitled an act to establish international mother language day. In November 1999, the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization proclaimed International Mother Language Day. The United Nations General Assembly called on its member states to encourage the preservation and pr…
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Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Official Languages told La Presse that the provisions in Bill C‑13 regarding federally regulated businesses are exactly the same as those found in Quebec's Bill 96. It would be a serious mistake to believe that. Bill 96 would require that all businesses in Quebec comply with the Charter of the French Language. Bill C‑13, however, allows businesses to choose whether to …
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Mr. Speaker, the minister is trying to pull a fast one. She was right yesterday when she said that the only minority language in Canada is French. Those are her words. She said it was French, end of story. Why then does her Bill C‑13 protect the majority language, English? Why is she giving the Air Canadas of this world the choice to operate in English in Quebec? Why is she giving these companies …
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Mr. Speaker, a record number of complaints were filed with the Commissioner of Official Languages this year. He received 5,409 complaints, which is triple the number filed last year. The main reason for this barrage of complaints is the Prime Minister's decision to appoint people who do not speak French, particularly the Governor General. The Prime Minister is personally responsible for one-quarte…
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Mr. Speaker, the commissioner also courageously denounced the slippery slope that the federal government is on. He feels that French is seen as “an impediment to embracing diversity and advancing true reconciliation with Indigenous peoples”. He also said: “I believe that official languages and diversity are complementary, because they are both ways to be more inclusive.” When will the federal gove…
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Mr. Speaker, English is not threatened in Quebec or anywhere in North America, and yet that is what the English Montreal School Board believes. It has announced plans to challenge Bill 96, and it is calling on all like-minded groups to provide financial support for its challenge. I have a simple question for the minister: Does she agree with us that the English Montreal School Board should not get…
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Mr. Speaker, Quebec's Bill 96 makes federally regulated businesses subject to the Charter of the French Language, but the Liberals' Bill C‑13 contradicts Bill 96 and gives businesses the choice to make French optional. For the Quebec Community Groups Network, offering this choice already goes too far. Yesterday they demanded that only the federal legislation apply, so that its businesses can conti…
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Madam Speaker, on the one hand, we see that the Conservatives tend to question all health measures and cozy up to anti-vaxxers. On the other hand, we see that the Liberals do the opposite and tend to provoke anti-vaxxers. I would like to know whether my colleague would be open to an amendment to the proposal: Rather than having the measures be lifted “immediately”, they could be lifted “gradually”…
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Mr. Speaker, we recently saw a number of Liberal MPs protesting against Quebec's language laws and calling them discriminatory. However, the real discrimination is at the federal level, and francophones are the victims. Francophones are systematically under-represented in the federal public service, where anglophones hold 81% of the positions. At the very highest levels, everything is done in Engl…
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Mr. Speaker, this government appointed a unilingual anglophone as Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick, the only bilingual province in Canada. A New Brunswick court has ruled that this appointment is unconstitutional, but—surprise, surprise—the federal government has announced that it will be appealing the decision. The Liberals want to spend public money to preserve their right to make unilingual…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to know whether my colleague agrees with me on the following. Quebec's political weight will drop if we keep the same number of members in Quebec and increase the number of members everywhere else. Can we count on his support to change that?
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Let us talk about it, Mr. Speaker. The Liberals claim to be staunch supporters of minorities. However, they appointed a unilingual English lieutenant governor in New Brunswick. The courts found that choice to be unconstitutional. Imagine. The Liberals announced that they are going to appeal. They want to maintain the right to make unilingual English appointments in New Brunswick, Canada's only off…
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Madam Speaker, the Bloc Québécois is not happy because Bill C-14 does not maintain Quebec's political weight. We would like Quebec to have a proportion of the seats, for example 25%. Instead, Quebec will keep the same number of MPs, whereas other areas will get more, which is equivalent to reducing Quebec's political weight. Does my colleague acknowledge that Quebec forms a nation? Does he believe…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to know if my colleague agrees that by keeping the number of Quebec MPs the same and increasing the number of MPs elsewhere, Quebec's political weight will not be maintained. Does he agree that Quebec should maintain its political weight?
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Madam Speaker, my colleague said that the bill does not go far enough. I agree. I think that it needs to undergo a major reform, particularly based on the requests of the Government of Quebec, which asked that Quebec be given sole authority over linguistic development and management within its borders. I know that my colleague agrees that Bill 101 should apply to federally regulated businesses. Th…
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Madam Speaker, I want to come back to francophone immigration and temporary permits for African students, who face an incredibly high rejection rate when we have missed our francophone immigration targets for the last 20 years or so. Does the member not think that it would be a good idea to amend Bill C-13 to include binding targets and an obligation to produce results?
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Madam Speaker, the Official Languages Act is founded on the principle that Quebec anglophones are a minority. However, they are part of the anglophone majority in Canada. Based on their supposed minority status, 100% of federal funding provided under the Official Languages Act serves to strengthen the anglophone community in Quebec, which had already received more than its share of funding from th…
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Madam Speaker, Bill C‑13 seems to recognize that French is in a minority and that French Quebec is part of the francophone minority. At the same time, it continues to use the concept of anglophones as a minority community. With respect to positive measures, will all the money keep going to the anglophone side? How are things going to be balanced out? What does this mean to the minister? Does she t…
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Madam Speaker, ultimately, there are two main approaches to language planning around the world. One is based on territoriality, and it is seen as the only effective approach for protecting minority languages. The other is based on the personality principle, which is Canada's model to some extent. Bill 101 is based more on the territoriality approach. I believe that the only way to ensure the subst…
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Mr. Speaker, I am rather pleasantly surprised by my colleague's speech. I am addressing my comments to him as a Quebecker because the Official Languages Act is likely the biggest impediment to the application of Bill 101 and to French as a common language in Quebec. I will give an example. The Official Languages Act is based on the concept of an anglophone minority, when anglophones in Quebec are …
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Madam Speaker, I always appreciate my colleague's passionate speeches. I know that in Acadia, people were forced to defend French, sometimes even with fists. It is one of the biggest pockets of resistance outside Quebec. I do not think that the bill is going to reverse the decline among francophones outside Quebec or in Quebec. This trend is accelerating. We in Quebec support francophone and Acadi…
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Madam Speaker, I congratulate my friend for his excellent French. In Yukon, if I am not mistaken, francophones represent about 2% of the population. There is something mind-boggling in the Official Languages Act, namely the “where the numbers warrant” principle, which is even found in section 23 of the Constitution. It was improved somewhat with the concept of “linguistic vitality”. Under this pri…
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Madam Speaker, I find it rather unfortunate to see the minister being partisan by criticizing the Conservatives for not having done better. I believe that we must move forward and propose amendments. I would like to ask my colleague a question about francophone immigration. Francophone immigration is a good thing for francophone and Acadian communities. It is essential for Quebec as well. The fede…
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Madam Speaker, anywhere in the world, it is normal for newcomers to want to join the majority. If we simply allow free choice, there is no question that newcomers, even in Quebec, will tend to go towards English. Why does Bill C‑13 stubbornly continue to impose free choice of languages in Quebec?
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Madam Speaker, for 52 years, all federal subsidies under the Official Languages Act have gone almost exclusively toward strengthening the anglophone community in Quebec. The reason given was that this community is a minority, even though it is part of the English Canadian majority. In the throne speech and in the preamble of Bill C‑13, the government appears to recognize that francophones in Quebe…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government says it is shocked that CN appointed a unilingual English-speaking board of directors, but it is avoiding the most obvious solution. If the Charter of the French Language applied to CN, this never would have happened. CN, a Montreal-based company, never would have developed a corporate culture that is so out of touch that it would appoint a 100% unilingual anglo…
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Mr. Speaker, the unilingual English appointments at CN are the result of the federal Official Languages Act. The federal government created this situation by allowing CN to circumvent Bill 101 for three decades in favour of the Official Languages Act. The application of the federal Official Languages Act in Quebec creates corporate cultures like the one at CN, where French is not important. Why is…
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Mr. Speaker, if they want to work with us, then they need to listen to us a little. With their new Bill C-13, the Liberals are denying French's uniqueness in a sea of hundreds of millions of anglophones. They are preventing Quebec from applying the Charter of the French Language to all federally regulated businesses. They are not protecting French. They are protecting bilingualism, which is not at…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, Bill C-238, which was introduced by a member of the Bloc Québécois, includes two proposals on which there is broad consensus in Quebec. The first part of the bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act to ensure that permanent residents who reside in Quebec have an adequate knowledge of French in order to obtain citizenship. Under the current legislation, Canada requires knowledge of En…
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Mr. Speaker, the situation of French is unique, but not according to federal language law. Here again I would like to quote what Robert Laplante told the committee. He said, “It is...indefensible to suggest that the situation of French in Quebec is perfectly symmetrical with that of English in Canada and, likewise, with the situation of anglophone and francophone minorities”. Even the Prime Minist…
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Mr. Speaker, Robert Laplante testified before the Standing Committee on Official Languages and said, “There are not two majorities in Canada; there is only one, and it is an anglophone majority, a representative group of which lives in Quebec.” The government said the same thing in its 2020 throne speech. It said, and I quote, “the situation of French is unique. There are almost 8 million Francoph…
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Madam Speaker, there is something illogical about my colleague's argument. He is being asked why the Liberals included in this motion the possibility for the minister to adjourn for the summer without agreement from the other parties. He is telling us that this is done routinely at the end of every season and that is why they included this measure in the motion. If this measure is preventing peopl…
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Mr. Speaker, the appointment of a unilingual anglophone board of directors at CN has drawn a lot of criticism, but it is hard to believe that there will be a real culture change at CN. Why is that? It is because the Prime Minister, who is responsible for holding CN to account, is spending his own time offering positions to people who do not speak a word of French. He did it with the Lieutenant Gov…
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Mr. Speaker, as members know, the whole issue of health transfers was discussed earlier in the debate on a motion. As we know, in the 1960s and 1970s, the federal government funded 50% of health care spending. That funding was cut repeatedly, and now the feds fund only about 22% through health transfers. The Quebec government and all Canadian provinces are calling for an increase in these health t…
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Mr. Speaker, last week, CN appointed a unilingual English-speaking board of directors. This reminds us of Air Canada, whose CEO boasted that he was a unilingual anglophone and had managed to live in Quebec his whole life without speaking French. It also reminds us that CN and Air Canada have something else in common besides having garnered the contempt of francophones: Both of these companies are …
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Mr. Speaker, in 1962, CN claimed that there were no francophones qualified to serve as vice-president. Sixty years later, CN still cannot find francophones qualified to sit on its board of directors. That is how federally regulated companies operate, which is why Quebec wants to make these companies subject to the Charter of the French Language. The Liberal government's bill prevents Quebec from d…
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Madam Speaker, the Liberal government avoided making any decisions on the F-35s for seven years. In the meantime, it spent hundreds of millions of dollars to maintain the old CF-18s and purchased old FA-18s from Australia. It spent money bringing these jets up to standards and maintaining them. After this seven-year boondoggle, it has finally decided to buy the F‑35, the jet that the government sw…
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Madam Speaker, Bill C-8 marks the first time we see the federal government interfering in the area of property taxes. We moved just one amendment and tried to find a compromise to ensure that property taxes do not apply in a province without its consent. The Liberal chair of the committee ruled that the amendment was out of order. I would like to know what my colleague thinks of that.
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Mr. Speaker, Bill C-13 seeks to amend the Official Languages Act, which was enacted by Pierre Elliott Trudeau's Liberal government in 1969 and then amended once by Brian Mulroney's Conservatives in 1998 based on the same principles. Before that, for almost a century, the so-called equality of languages established by the Constitution of 1867 never really existed, except in theory. It was nothing n…
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Mr. Speaker, Bill C‑32 would have made the application of Bill 101 to federal institutions optional, but Bill C‑13 is even worse because it creates a whole new act to that effect. I see the government's attempt to prevent Bill 101 from being enforced as a middle finger to Quebec. In response, the Quebec minister responsible for Canadian relations told the federal government to stay out of it and l…
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois supports the demands of francophone and Acadian communities, in particular those calling for the Treasury Board to be made the true central agency for overseeing the enforcement of the Official Languages Act. The Bloc Québécois supports all demands, as long as they do not interfere in Quebec's jurisdictions.
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Mr. Speaker, I would say no because, number one, that responsibility will still be shared between Canadian Heritage and the Treasury Board, and number two, as Charles Castonguay said, it is clear that the Official Languages Act is a real fiasco. It has been reported that 40% of francophones at federal institutions say they are not comfortable working in French. The Standing Committee on Official L…
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Yes, of course, Mr. Speaker, as long as it does not involve any interference in Quebec's jurisdictions. However, I do not think that is the case. We have had many interesting discussion with representatives from the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne, who also seem to agree that we need a differentiated approach. In fact, the Bloc Québécois believes that the Official Languages Ac…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for her question. In fact, the opposite is true. Until recently, the Quebec government had not applied Bill 101 to federally regulated businesses because the case law went against it. There have been new rulings recently, so the situation has been reversed. One of the things the Quebec government wanted to see in the amendments to the Official Languages Act w…
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