PQ, opposition dig in their heels
After five weeks of emotional hearings into a proposed tightening of Quebec’s language laws, Parti Québécois minister Diane De Courcy says she is open to “compromises.” But Philip Authier writes that the flexibility seems designed to woo the CAQ into help
QUEBEC — The future of the province’s language law is up in the air as the opposition digs in its heels and the government shows only conditional interest in changes to the embattled proposal.
After letting the opposition parties make their respective political nests — the Liberals remain staunchly opposed and the Coalition Avenir Québec has a new laundry list of concerns — Diane De Courcy called in the media Thursday to discuss the five weeks of hearings into Bill 14 that just ended.
Her line for the opposition was simple: be responsible and vote in the National Assembly to send the bill for second reading, where it will be studied on a clauseby-clause basis and where, maybe, the parties can identify a “compromise zone.”
“One thing is clear: a law has to be comfortable,” De Courcy said. “We are going to try to get ourselves to a collective comfort zone big enough around this law.
“However, that requires a mutual understanding on the part of each of us, and not generalized panic every time we touch the language issue.”
But despite widespread criticism of the bill from all sides, De Courcy only opened the door a crack to amendments — in a clear attempt to woo the CAQ.
Most of her potential “adjustments” mirror the concerns expressed only a few hours earlier by CAQ language critic Nathalie Roy.
On the issue of revoking bilingual status for municipalities, De Courcy recognized the government struck an emotional chord and can’t just bulldoze mayors and municipal councils.
She did not back down from the clause, but said she’s open to looking at “necessary adjustments” — if the parties agree to go to the next step. She did not elaborate.
She did concede at her news conference that not a single municipal government or mayor endorsed the clause during five weeks of hearings.
In one of the last presentations to the committee studying the bill Thursday, Lachute Mayor Daniel Mayer, a former Parti Québécois candidate who ran against Claude Ryan, begged De Courcy to drop the idea in the name of linguistic harmony.
De Courcy did not budge on stripping military families of the right to send their children to English schools, but insisted it would not lead to the closing of any English schools.
She said military families who are “really on temporary stays” in Quebec can continue to attend English school. But she had already stated she does not believe all of the requests are legitimate and that they are in fact a deliberate detour around the French-language charter.
She repeated that the government’s lawyers do not feel replacing the term “ethnic minorities” with “cultural communities” in the Charter of the French Language in any way weakens minority protection, as claimed by the Quebec Bar Association.
There was no indication she is willing to back down from the sweeping new powers the bill gives the Office québécois de la langue française, such as the power to search and seize, but insisted she has already taken steps to modernize the office after the “bad press” it got in the Past- agate incident.
There was no wavering on inserting lines such as the “right to live and work in French” in the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms, even if Quebec’s Human Rights Commission says it is not necessary.
But a day after the CEGEP federation said it fears the clause giving anglophones priority access to the English CEGEP system could potentially discriminate against francophones, De Courcy softened her language.
Arguing the clause has been misunderstood, she said applying such a rule would be optional and English CEGEPs “would decide themselves based on their situation.”
And she said the idea is not new. Her staff distributed a 2010 clipping from The Gazette in which former Liberal education minister Michelle Courchesne said something had to be done for anglophone students left in the lurch because Montreal’s English CEGEPs were too crowded.
But the Liberals were not playing ball. Language critic Marc Tanguay repeated the party will oppose the bill tooth and nail.
And with all eyes on the CAQ’s next move, the party hedged its bets.
“We are wondering whether Bill 14 really hits the target of protecting the French language, which we want to do, or, in light of all the briefs we have heard, whether it doesn’t cause more problems than it solves,” Roy said in her closing remarks to the committee.
Roy said the hearings opened the CAQ’s eyes to a whole new range of concerns, but denied speculation the CAQ is holding out for a deal.
“Nothing’s being negotiated,” Roy said, explaining her next step is to brief the CAQ caucus of MNAs.
That caucus is next week, but CAQ Leader François Legault had the same concerns.
“I don’t think (the bill is) progressing in the right direction,” Legault said. “The Parti Québécois and Mme. De Courcy need to start giving answers and make adjustments to the bill, because if not, if we keep going in this direction, we won’t be able to support the project.”
The next step in the bill’s life involves the committee looking into Bill 14 presenting a report of its findings to the legislature. The government then has to decide if and when it intends to proceed with second reading.
No date has been set. It could come next week or later, depending on the government’s priorities and the mood of the opposition.