Federal MP Francis Drouin has nothing to do with Quebec asking him to apologize for calling guests to a parliamentary committee “extremists” and “full of shit”. He added by describing as “simplistic” the link they made between post-secondary education in English and the decline of French in Quebec.
“I went to school in English. Am I an English speaker? », Launched the Franco-Ontarian Liberal elected official to journalists on Wednesday.
He admits to having “let himself get carried away” during a meeting of the parliamentary committee on official languages on Monday, in which he described as “extremists” speakers whose comments he contested on the defense of French in Quebec. “Excuse me, but you are full of shit,” he also sent to one of them, the independent researcher Frédéric Lacroix, before withdrawing his comments.
“If both witnesses feel offended, of course, I apologize. I don’t want them to feel hurt by this. [Mais] we extrapolate that by saying that I insult people who defend the French language… listen, I’ve done that all my life [défendre le français] », Francis Drouin justified himself on Wednesday.
Apologies requested from Quebec
The insult formulated by Mr. Drouin caused a reaction even in the National Assembly of Quebec. Commenting on the subject on Wednesday, the Minister of the French Language, Jean-François Roberge, demanded an apology, but also action from the federal government.
“Withdrawing his words with a small smile was not enough. And I am waiting for a concrete gesture, also a legal gesture,” he asked for the attention of the Trudeau government.
He particularly deplores the fact that Ottawa has still not issued certain decrees expected since the adoption of the new Official Languages Act last year. The Commissioner of Official Languages is waiting, for example, for the federal government to give him the right to issue fines, in a context where he deplores the fact that federal institutions do not take their obligations towards French seriously.
Francis Drouin did not want to comment on the request for an apology from Quebec. In Ottawa, the Bloc Québécois is now demanding that he leave his seat as president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Francophonie.
Simplistic message
On the merits of the case, Mr. Drouin considers above all that the conclusions of Mr. Lacroix, as well as those of Professor Nicolas Bourdon, representing the Regroupement pour le cégep français, “are not unanimous within the community of researchers “. In his opinion, these speakers peddled a “simplistic message” by saying that the attraction for higher studies in English contributes to the decline of French in Quebec.
The federal Minister of Official Languages, Randy Boissonnault, defended this criticism from his colleague on Wednesday. He also offered his life journey as an example.
“I don’t think so because when we have French speakers studying in Alberta like me, at the Saint-Jean campus [en français]it can Frenchify the province of Alberta,” he answered questions from journalists, shortly before a meeting of the national caucus of the Liberal Party.
The minister wanted to add that “if we look at the number of students we have in Quebec, it is not becoming anglicized. Neither does the province.”
With Alexandre Robillard