Language law debate takes centre stage
QUEBEC Some of the players, such as former language minister Louise Beaudoin, are familiar faces to some members of the English-speaking community.
So is the Mouvement Québec français and the Société Saintjean-baptiste. On the minority side are the Quebec Community Groups Network and the Townshippers' Association.
And Quebecers got to know the minister responsible for the French Language, Simon Jolin-barrette. He is the same Coalition Avenir Québec government cabinet minister who was responsible for pushing through Quebec's state secularism law, Bill 21.
Starting Tuesday, the day after Canadians go to the polls, a new theme takes centre stage in Quebec when hearings into the government's proposed legislation overhauling the 40-year-old Charter of the French Language, Bill 96, open at the National Assembly.
“I know that a linguistic bill like 96 can be stressful for some people,” Jolin-barrette said Wednesday when asked about the road ahead. “I want to reassure them (minorities) that there's nothing changed in the rights of the English-speaking community. “We guarantee their rights with the bill.”
Jolin-barrette said he took note of some of the things that were said at the parallel hearings into the bill organized by the Quebec Community Groups Network over the last several weeks.
At one point, prominent lawyer Anne-france Goldwater told the hearings Quebec does not need a language Gestapo, comments that were condemned by Premier François Legault and other political leaders.
Jolin-barrette said he found the comments “deplorable and radical” and hopes such a tone can be avoided in the debate.
He responded to Nakuset, the executive director of the Native Women's Shelter, who told the QCGN hearings that Bill 96 will lead to needless deaths among Indigenous people because it will put limits on the use of English on the 911 telephone emergency system.
“Nothing changes,” Jolin-barrette said. “Somebody who is in distress will be able to call 911 in English.”
He insisted he is approaching the hearings — which will run for nine days and hear from about 50 groups and individuals — with an open mind.
“I will listen to everyone,” he said. “If there are improvements to be made to the bill, I will do it. One thing is certain: The French language is in decline. Bill 96 is there to be adopted.”
In fact, some analysts including Le Soleil columnist Jean-marc Salvet have suggested the more outrageous the remarks being made about the bill, the easier it is for the Legault government to argue to francophones that it is doing the right thing on the language front.
Legault made a similar pitch Sunday in addressing his party's youth wing at a Quebec City convention. He said some people including the Parti Québécois would prefer a much harder line on language.
“The CAQ is a little bit of a rampart against the radicals,” Legault told the youth. “It's true in everything. We have to maintain the national cohesion we have. I think Bill 96 is balanced, reasonable.”
Last week, the QCGN made a pitch for a “civil and respectful” debate on Bill 96 as the rhetoric over the wording of questions asked in the English leaders' debate heated up.
“To simply raise serious questions and objections (to the bill) is not Quebec bashing — regardless of the responses from some who prefer to resort to rhetoric rather than to reasons,” the QCGN said in a statement.
“As it is currently constituted, Bill 96 would seriously damage the English-speaking community and other minorities.”
But hearings at the legislature — with its strict rules of parliamentary decorum — leave little room for inflammatory language and grandstanding. Words and substance matter more than bluster.
Witnesses also face tough questions about their views from MNAS eager to score points against each other. Jolin-barrette has his fans on the list. So do the opposition parties, which all have seats at the table.
Struggling in the polls and trying to rebrand themselves nationalistic, the official Liberal opposition finds itself in a squeeze, desperate to appeal to francophones but trying to be sensitive to minority members of its electoral base who oppose Bill 96.
The party has already signalled its own shift to a harder line on French, releasing a 27-point plan in April to protect French.
In a letter to Jolin-barrette released last week and jointly signed by the Liberal language critic, Hélène David, and the Liberal point person for the English community, David Birnbaum, the party calls on the government to show openness.
They also ask the CAQ to promise to not use closure — which cuts short debate — to adopt the bill, as it did with Bill 21.
“Are you willing to work constructively with us to advance the French language in the interests of all Quebecers so that when it comes to the advancement of our shared language, everyone is an ally and not an opponent?”
A quick glance at the list of witnesses points to a lively few weeks of hearings. Tuesday kicks off with a presentation from the Office québécois de la langue française, followed by the return of Beaudoin, who was the minister responsible for French in Jacques Parizeau's old Parti Québécois government.
The QCGN is up Sept. 28, the same day as the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-labrador, which will be raising questions about the effect of Bill 96 on Indigenous languages.