44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 27, 2022 02:00PM
- Apr/27/22 2:31:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister used the word “flabbergasted”. He was upset and I am glad to hear it.
Canadian National has its headquarters in Montreal and so does Air Canada, and he is upset that no one at CN speaks French. He should be upset that none of the board members can speak French because they are in Quebec.
On June 16, 2021, 281 elected members here in the House voted to recognize that French is the only common and official language of the Quebec nation.
Will the Prime Minister require members of boards of directors whose headquarters are in Montreal or Quebec to have a basic knowledge of French?
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- Apr/27/22 2:33:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's indignation is a little selective.
Air Canada's CEO does not care about French, and a vice-president from CN spoke to the Standing Committee on Official Languages in English only, even though both of these companies have French roots. That is a little worrisome.
How can the Prime Minister say he is flabbergasted? Does he not realize that by appointing a governor general and a lieutenant-governor who do not speak French, he is signalling to everyone that his government thinks French is just a quaint curiosity?
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- Apr/27/22 2:33:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Governor General is the first indigenous person to serve in that role. She was born in northern Quebec in the 1950s, a time when French was not taught there, unfortunately.
It is important for our leaders to set the example, and our Governor General has been taking intensive French courses since she was appointed.
Ms. Simon is determined to learn French and recognizes the fundamental importance of knowing both our official languages in order to represent all Canadians to the best of her abilities. By making it a priority to learn French, she has demonstrated the importance of protecting French across the country.
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- Apr/27/22 2:44:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we will get there yet.
On the Prime Minister's little cheat sheet, it says that it is not a question of speaking French, but rather of possibly learning to speak French in the future, or “at some point”.
At some point, though, could the Prime Minister not simply say that he will allow Quebec to apply the Charter of the French Language to businesses under federal jurisdiction, end of story?
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- Apr/27/22 2:45:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the leader of the Bloc Québécois is obviously concerned about Quebec and about protecting official languages and French within Quebec. That is entirely understandable, since that is the responsibility he has taken upon himself.
As Prime Minister, my responsibility, and that of the Canadian government, is to protect our official languages across the country, not just in Quebec. Only a federal government can do that, and that is exactly what we are doing across the country.
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- Apr/27/22 2:46:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as my hon. colleague knows very well, Ms. Simon was raised in northern Quebec at a time when indigenous people were not taught French. That is a shameful failure in our history, and we are working very hard across the country to change that reality now and in the future.
As a country, we are at a point in our journey where I think everyone agrees that it is very important to have a Governor General who can talk seriously about reconciliation. That is what she is doing, while learning French.
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