Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rejects the offensive led by Quebec Liberal MPs — Marc Garneau (Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Westmount), Anthony Housefather (Mont-Royal) and Emmanuella Lambropoulos (Saint-Laurent) — against the Bill C-13.
Unlike them, he is convinced that the bill amending the Official Languages Act will strengthen the presence of the French language in the country without infringing on the rights of English-speaking Quebecers. “We put forward a proposal with C-13 that protects linguistic minorities across the country with particular emphasis on the protection of French. We know it’s the right balance. We will continue to move forward with this, ”he promised during a press scrum on Parliament Hill on Wednesday morning.
That said, the Prime Minister has refrained from publicly lecturing Mr. Garneau, Mr. Housefather and Mr.me Lambropoulos for having proposed to the other members of the Standing Committee on Official Languages to water down Bill C-13, tabled by their colleague Ginette Petitpas Taylor in the House of Commons almost a year ago. “Canadians, like our MPs, are rooted in the principles of defending freedom, defending language rights and they are representing their community,” he explained.
In short, the three elected Liberals failed to convince the Conservatives, the Bloc, the New Democrats or the other Liberals to do less to protect the French language.
Such “discussions” are held in all good families, said Franco-Ontarian MP Francis Drouin (Glengarry-Prescott-Russell). “I don’t always get along with my wife,” he remarked with a smirk.
On Tuesday, Mr. Drouin had accused Tuesday the three elected officials of “Montreal island “to have mounted a ” show smoke […] shameful” by alleging, for example, that a doctor refused to treat an English-speaking woman in English for fear of legal reprisals (Mme Lambropoulos). “The Montreal island does not have a monopoly on Canada’s language policy. Misinformation has no place in this debate,” he tweeted.
Liberal elected officials remain “united,” said Minister Pablo Rodriguez after calling on all elected Quebec Liberals to close ranks around Bill C-13, which, according to Ms.me Petitpas Taylor, to give “more teeth” to the Official Languages Act.
Minister Marc Miller (Ville-Marie — Le Sud-Ouest — Île-des-Soeurs) mentioned that Bill C-13 has sparked discussions on “very emotional things”.[ves], languages, identities, basic elements” within the liberal parliamentary group, which he compares to “a beautiful family”. The internal dissensions which broke out in broad daylight in the middle of the parliamentary committee “worry” him. “That should worry everyone. […] People, when they go out in public, it’s because they haven’t had the opportunity to express themselves in a privileged forum”, he argued, before reiterating “the importance[ce pour les libéraux] to keep this family spirit.
The Chief Government Whip, Steven MacKinnon, for his part recalled that ” [son] job is to pass bills that are commitments of [sa] party”, including Bill C-13 — which is not always easy since the Trudeau government does not have a parliamentary majority.
The Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Mark Holland, for his part mentioned that the protection of “Canada’s two official languages”, English and French, is in the DNA of the Liberal Party of Canada. “We will continue to do this. [soit protéger la langue française] “, he assured the press.
By means of Bill C-13, the Trudeau government intends in particular to offer the free choice to private companies under federal jurisdiction present in Quebec to conduct “their communications with consumers” in compliance with federal law – which reiterates that “the consumers in Quebec have the right to communicate in French with a private enterprise under federal jurisdiction that carries on its activities there and to receive services in that language from it” — or even the Charter of the French language of Quebec.