Last witness called as part of the Commission on the State of Emergency on Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered ten minutes of answers in French for a total of approximately five hours of testimony.
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With the exception of Steve Charland, leader of the farfadaas anti-sanitary measures group, Mr. Trudeau therefore becomes the witness who has used French the most since the start of the hearings in October, during which the language of Molière was very marginal. .
“In Canada, when it’s important, it happens in English,” said Geneviève Tellier, professor of political science at the University of Ottawa. “We are trying to take our place, it does not work.”
Photo: AFP
Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau during his testimony to the Rouleau Commission.
Before beginning his testimony under close surveillance, Mr. Trudeau chose to take the oath in French while firmly holding a Bible in his hands. A few exchanges in French followed with Commission counsel, but English quickly returned to a gallop.
Ms. Tellier sees a “lack of leadership on the part of the commission and of the commissioner” Paul S. Rouleau, a Franco-Ontarian, who could have, by his choice of lawyers, for example, given more weight to French. in this historic exercise.
“Yes, I want to believe that his primary mission is to get to the bottom of things for the Emergency Measures Act, but he still represents a federal national commission,” said the professor in an interview.
Senior Quebec and French-Canadian officials spoke exclusively in English, despite the instantaneous interpretation offered to everyone.
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“It was eye-opening. When French-speaking civil servants speak exclusively in English, it is because that is the way of doing things within the public service,” continues Geneviève Tellier.
“What was unfortunate in my opinion was that in such a public exercise, it became a reflex. We did everything in English, with a few exceptions. We seem quite comfortable not seeing the problem, when it is a fundamental problem.
Of nearly 70 witnesses, ministers Dominic LeBlanc and Anita Anand were the only ones before Friday to slip in a few sentences in French, after the publication of articles in the media highlighting the issue.
Mona Fortier, President of the Treasury Board and therefore head of the federal public service, did not want to say earlier this week if the marginalization of French at the Commission was a reflection of the reality of the federal public service.
The Minister of Official Languages, Ginette Petitpas Taylor, said on Tuesday that there is “still work to do on the issue of francization of the public service”, while Quebec Lieutenant Pablo Rodriguez estimated that there “could be have more French”.