The Legault government is giving up on appointing Benoît Dubreuil to the post of commissioner for the French language for the moment. Québec solidaire (QS) opposed this appointment.
On the other hand, the parties unanimously supported, on Friday, the appointment of Jean-François Blanchet as Director General of Elections of Quebec (DGEQ). Mr. Blanchet succeeds Pierre Reid.
The caquistes wanted Mr. Dubreuil, philosopher and co-author of the essay The Imaginary Remedy — Why Immigration Won’t Save Quebecbecomes the very first commissioner of the French language.
This independent watchdog position, created with the adoption last June of “Bill 96”, consists in particular of monitoring the evolution of the linguistic situation in Quebec.
But QS quickly let it be known, as early as last spring, that it did not approve of Benoît Dubreuil’s candidacy, because it was not “consensual” and “unifying” enough.
In his book, Mr. Dubreuil maintained in particular that “any increase in immigration has the direct effect of reducing the share of the population using French at home”.
“On the links between language and immigration, this candidacy has, in the past, expressed positions that do not join us,” said Friday the parliamentary leader of QS, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.
Two-thirds vote and CAQ majority
He took the opportunity to invite the Legault government to always seek the support of at least one opposition party for this kind of appointment.
The appointment of the French Language Commissioner must be approved by a two-thirds vote of the National Assembly. However, the government alone holds more than two-thirds of the seats.
“A parliamentary supermajority is not a social supermajority,” insisted Mr. Nadeau-Dubois, who recalled that 60% of Quebecers did not vote for the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) in the last election.
That the government can impose controversial appointments also worries the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ), which on Friday avoided saying clearly whether it supported Mr. Dubreuil’s candidacy.
“Whether we vote yes or no, it will not change the government’s decision. They are 90. The law is two-thirds; two-thirds is canceled,” lamented the parliamentary leader of the PLQ, Monsef Derraji.
For its part, the Parti Québécois (PQ) has indicated that it supports Mr. Dubreuil. However, as the PQ MPs are absent from the Blue Room for the moment and until January 31, they cannot vote.
New DGEQ
In addition, the new Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec, Jean-François Blanchet, was appointed Friday by the National Assembly with a term of seven years.
Since 2015, he was the Deputy Chief Electoral Officer and was mainly responsible for electoral operations. He has worked in the DGEQ office since 1989.
Mr. Blanchet succeeds Pierre Reid, who had been in office since 2015 and who had affirmed, in an interview with The Canadian Press, in August, that he had expressed to the Legault government his intention to be entrusted with a second mandate. His first term had expired since June.
The wish of Mr. Reid, 69 years old and who said he was always passionate about his work, will therefore not have been granted.
The appointment of the DGEQ is one of the five positions of heads of government agencies that must be the subject of a consensus between the government and the opposition.