At the end of the week, in Saint-Hyacinthe, the conference on immigration organized by the Coalition Avenir Québec turned into a wailing wall. How can Ottawa and the other provinces remain so insensitive to the misfortunes of Quebec?
“They haven’t understood anything for a while. I repeat, there are 60 schools of 24 classes that we opened[es] to do francization. I lack schools and I lack teachers,” the Minister of Education was indignant.
It is not only in Quebec that we no longer know which way to turn. So, Duty reported Monday that due to budget cuts imposed by the Legault government, the Eastern Townships School Board will have to put an end to its francization program on November 25, leaving stranded and in shock 500 students and around twenty teachers who do not understand not either. “I cried so much. I was happy to be able to work in something motivating,” said a teacher.
Mr. Drainville continually criticizes the media for helping to devalue the teaching profession by presenting a dark portrait of the education network, but the government does it very well itself.
For his part, the Prime Minister reiterated that he did not understand that the Bloc Québécois – and, by extension, its “little brother”, the Parti Québécois – maintains its confidence in the Trudeau government without asking anything in return on the immigration.
Finally, Justin Trudeau does not understand why François Legault wants to “politicize at all costs” the issue of immigration, without taking into account the measures that Ottawa has taken in the last year to curb the influx of temporary immigrants, while Quebec has done the bare minimum to reduce their numbers in the categories over which it has power.
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In Saint-Hyacinthe, everyone had a reason to complain about the federal government. The Minister of Immigration, as always, but also the Minister responsible for Seniors, as well as her colleagues from Environment and Culture. All apparently victims of the same misunderstanding.
There was a time when MM. Drainville and Legault would have had no difficulty understanding. They would have made it their duty to explain that English Canada does not care at all about the possible “Louisianization” of Quebec or even that it believes that it would be an excellent thing. If Quebec wants to persist in speaking a language that no one on the continent understands, let it pay the price.
In 2012, while he was still in the Parti Québécois, Mr. Drainville showed no sympathy for the Charest government, which only had itself to blame if Stephen Harper did not understand it. This was the fate to which his unconditional federalism condemned him.
“When all you have as a means of response, when your only response strategy, is to write letters, which, more often than not, are not even followed by an acknowledgment of receipt, when everything what you have as a means of retaliating is to appear before the courts because you are incapable of making yourself heard on the political level, I apologize, but it is an admission of weakness, it is an proof and a demonstration that you no longer have a balance of power,” he said during a spectacular face-to-face meeting with the Minister responsible for Canadian Intergovernmental Affairs and the Canadian Francophonie Alain Paquet.
Of course, the solution recommended by Mr. Drainville, which had previously been that of Mr. Legault, was to achieve independence. Both are giving another speech today, but their lamentations about Ottawa’s incomprehension can only once again add grist to the sovereignist mill. To hear them these days, one would almost say that one must be a masochist to remain in Canada.
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Justin Trudeau undoubtedly lacked elegance by addressing the Quebec Prime Minister in the presence of President Macron during the press conference they held jointly last Thursday, but it must be said that he was looking for it.
However great Mr. Legault’s frustration may be, the boycott of the dinner given in honor of Mr. Macron was childish. Even assuming that the invitations arrived late, it is inconceivable that none of the ministers whose names had previously been submitted to Ottawa would have been able to change their schedule.
It was explained that the Prime Minister himself was too busy preparing the Saint-Hyacinthe conference as well as the Francophonie Summit which will be held next Friday and Saturday in Villers-Cotterêts. It would be an insult to Mr. Legault to think that he was incapable of combining these activities.
The French president, who has seen many others, was undoubtedly more amused than he was offended by this little family squabble. And he must have congratulated himself for not having entered into the “neither-nor” game. He still has to hope that if they don’t understand each other, the cousins will be in a better mood next week.