Elected under the PQ banner in four separate elections, Camille Laurin is widely recognized as the father of the Charter of the French language. For the PQ, it is synonymous with strong convictions in terms of language and uninhibited sovereignism. For the CAQ, he is the one who paved the way adopted 45 years later by Simon Jolin-Barrette with his “law 96”. But who does Camille Laurin’s legacy belong to?
For the staff of the Parti Québécois (PQ), which called itself a “Cinderella team” at the start of the campaign, the conclusion of the 2022 election night had the feel of a fairy tale. Despite the loss of several strongholds in different regions of Quebec, the words displayed on television left no room for doubt: “Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, elected in Camille-Laurin”.
For the first time since its creation, 62 years earlier, the East Montreal riding — formerly Bourget — bore a new name, that of the former PQ minister, former MP for the riding and father of Bill 101, Camille Lauren. And against all expectations, it went to a Parti Québécois candidate, four years after the party lost it to the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ).
By showing journalists around his campaign premises at the opening of the electoral period, Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon had given an almost prophetic speech a month earlier. “It cannot be a coincidence that the county changes its name at the time of the outbreak and that it is the name of an important person in the history of the Parti Québécois, a person who is fundamental in the history of the evolution of French in Quebec. It can’t be a coincidence,” he repeated.
In fact, it was thanks to a very small article slipped a year and a half earlier into Bill 96 “on the official and common language of Quebec, French” that the constituency inherited the name of Camille Laurin, four once deputy for Bourget. The author of this bill: CAQ Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette.
The member for Borduas has never hidden his admiration for Camille Laurin. While he was still responsible for the French language at the Council of Ministers, in May 2022, he made, in an open letter, “the solemn commitment to maintain constant action to promote and promote our national language” .
“Thanks to the deep conviction and persuasive force of Mr. Laurin, Quebec acted to protect the French language, the heritage of our ancestors, allowing us today to assert ourselves, exist and grow as a nation. French-speaking within a predominantly English-speaking North America”, underlined Mr. Jolin-Barrette in the pages of Dutyas part of the 100e birth anniversary of the instigator of the Charter of the French language.
Shortly after the tabling of Bill 96, Prime Minister François Legault spoke of it as “the most important gesture since Camille Laurin’s Bill 101”. Sociologist Guy Rocher, who worked alongside Mr. Laurin on linguistic law, said that if he had the “courage” of his predecessor, Simon Jolin-Barrette could become “the Camille Laurin of the CAQ”.
“He followed in his footsteps”
Two years after its adoption, “Law 96” has become “a stone in the building of the Charter of the French language which will go down in history”, maintains the current Minister of the French Language, Jean-François Roberge . In interview with The dutythe CAQ elected official is full of praise for Mr. Jolin-Barrette, whom he replaced in this position after the general elections: “He followed in the footsteps of Camille Laurin,” he says.
Law 96 had the effect of capping annual admissions to English-speaking CEGEPs, in addition to requiring students who attend them to take three additional courses “in” French — or “of” French for English-speaking rights holders who do so. desire. It ensures that immigrants who have settled in Quebec for more than six months receive communications from the State exclusively in French, and it will require companies with at least 25 employees to demonstrate that they use the language of Molière in a ” widespread”. Changes to commercial signage regulations are also underway.
“In some respects, we have gone further than ever,” underlines Mr. Roberge. “We will not place ourselves above Camille Laurin; That’s not what I’m trying to do. But I think it’s part of his legacy. »
PQ MP Pascal Bérubé, who failed during the detailed study of Bill 96 to extend the application of the Charter of the French Language to CEGEPs, does not share the opinion of the current Minister of the French Language . He also “did not appreciate” that the CAQ government repeatedly cited the name of Camille Laurin to sell its bill. “I felt recovery,” he said. It’s no. I hate that. »
“Camille Laurin, if we really want to pay tribute to her, well, we have to say everything. He was a total independentist. He was not a nationalist within Canada,” he adds.
Great independentist
On the other end of the phone, Pierre Laurin, Camille’s younger brother, confirms it: independence occupied a central place in the life of the father of law 101, he says. “For him, it was very, very, very important. It was even essential because […] more and more important decisions were slipping away from us. So quietly, without independence, we were destined to become more and more dependent on decisions that affected us a lot and that we did not control. »
“Independence, for Camille, was the only way to safeguard our identity,” adds Pierre Laurin. It was to protect Quebec identity that his brother tabled the Charter of the French language almost half a century ago, he believes. “If it had continued as it was, we can say that Quebec as a crucible of identity linked to the French language would be on the way to disappearing. »
If Law 96 is a “step in the right direction”, the government’s actions in terms of protecting the French language remain “clearly insufficient”, especially in a context of a massive increase in immigration, affirms Pierre Laurin. This is also the reason given by the Parti Québécois to justify its refusal to support the CAQ approach. “The law is pretty much harmless. There is no longer anyone who talks about it, neither its effects nor its measures,” maintains Pascal Bérubé today.
A trained psychiatrist, Camille Laurin had “really been able to understand what was in our collective unconscious that prevented us from having the courage to assert ourselves,” says her brother. “ His big message was not to be hostile towards anglophones, but to be proud to be Quebecois. »
A few weeks before the second anniversary of the adoption of Law 96, Jean-François Roberge assures that the work is not finished. His government is also preparing an action plan for the future of the French language, on which it strives to work with “listening and [une] determination” characteristics of Camille Laurin.