We must fight against the decline of French by repatriating federal powers in immigration to Quebec in a “non-sovereignty” way, said the leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ), Éric Duhaime, on Tuesday.
“To promote French, for us, it is not coercive measures that are desired and preferred,” said Mr. Duhaime, passing through Montreal, in the riding of Sainte-Marie–Saint-Jacques.
During a bilingual speech, the leader of the PCQ underlined the importance of recognizing and respecting the historical rights of English-speakers in Quebec. He wants to start on new bases and “repudiate” the Act respecting the official and common language of Quebec, French, commonly known as “Bill 96”. The latter is a “symbol of disunity”, according to him.
The leader of the PCQ advocated a “positive” and “inclusive” nationalism. “We don’t see the English as a threat, but rather as allies. »
However, we must better protect French, he recalled. Its decline is due to “the French-speaking majority [qui] fails to integrate a greater majority of newcomers to Quebec into its linguistic community,” said Mr. Duhaime.
The latter believes that the repatriation of federal powers in immigration to Quebec would send a “clear signal” to immigrants: “learning French is a prerequisite” for living in Quebec.
At the end of May, François Legault, head of the Quebec government, had made the same request to Ottawa. He had been refused by the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau. Jurisdiction is shared between the two levels of government because “the protection of French and Francophone immigration is very important to us,” said Mr. Trudeau.
Éric Duhaime believes that he is in a better position to demand the transfer of all of these powers. “As leader of the Conservative Party, there are other Conservative leaders in other provinces in Canada and the Conservatives, at the national level, have always been more decentralizing,” he argued.
To fight against the decline of French, the leader of the PCQ also put forward the idea of selecting immigrants according to their mastery of “our common language”. Language programs also need to be more accessible to newcomers, he added.
English-speaking Conservative MPs in the Blue Room
Éric Duhaime once again courted the Anglophone vote. “Times have changed,” said the Conservative leader. The time of the division between the “yes camp” for sovereignty represented by the Parti Québécois (PQ) and the no camp, held by the Liberals, is over, he said.
After the October 3 election results, the PLQ and the PQ risk being reduced “to third parties,” Mr. Duhaime continued. In this context, Anglophones have an interest in rallying to Francophones who share “their fundamental values”, according to him.
To “assert its balance of power”, the English-speaking community “must send Conservative deputies to the National Assembly”, argued the leader of the PCQ.
With The Canadian Press