MONTREAL | Éric Duhaime invites Anglophones “to assert their balance of power” and to have their historical rights respected by voting Conservative. In power, he would get rid of Bill 96, on the pretext that it divides Quebecers.
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In a bilingual speech before the Institut du courtage in Montreal, the Conservative leader said he disagreed with the derogation of Law 96 to 38 articles of the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Wanting to both protect French and respect the historical rights of the English-speaking community, he proposes to “repudiate Bill 96” and to repatriate full powers in immigration from the federal government “in a non-partisan way”.
Photo Gabriel Cote
Éric Duhaime reiterated his opposition to Bill 96 at the Institut de Brokerage in Montreal, Tuesday September 6, 2022.
Since he judges that the decline of French is attributable to the failure of the French-speaking majority to properly integrate newcomers, Éric Duhaime wants to select immigrants who have a better disposition or “a greater desire” to learn French. It also wishes to improve the measures in place for learning French.
According to the Conservative leader, this is a form of “nationalism that wants to be positive and inclusive”, which could shock “as much on the Anglophone side as on the Francophone side”. But it is a position that it would be necessary to adopt, depending on the “paradigm shift” that would be taking place on the Quebec political scene, when the question of independence is less and less the one that structures the debates between the different parties, believes Éric Duhaime.
He therefore calls on Anglophones to join the ranks of the Conservative Party of Quebec, on the pretext that it would be the best option to defend their historical rights in this new context.
You have been hostages for too long to the Quebec Liberal Party, a party that took you for granted (…), and on the other side a CAQ that does not listen to you and does not hear you”, a- he declared.