Official Languages Committee on May 20th, 2024

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I'm going to pass because I don't know what we're going to discuss, now that your ruling has been overturned.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

We're back to Mr. Beaulieu's motion, which I read verbatim earlier.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

So we're discussing the motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Yes, we're discussing the motion.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I'll wait to express my opinion. One of my colleagues is going to propose an amendment. I'll give up my time.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Okay.

Mr. Godin, you now have the floor.

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Mr. Chair, I wanted to comment on your ruling. Since we won the vote, I will give up my time.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Mr. Godin.

Mr. Serré, you have the floor.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Parliamentary committees are masters of their own destiny. The government members are a minority, so we often lose votes, even if it's against the rules. Our chair clearly stated that a committee cannot censure a member, referring to chapter 20 of the House of Commons Procedure and Practice.

Now we're back to the motion, and I would like to move an amendment. I do so in the spirit of what we talked about earlier. Mr. Samson spoke at length, as did Mr. Beaulieu, about reaching out to see how we could try to resolve the situation.

The chair has made it clear that no committee can censure a member of Parliament or dictate the conduct of an association. The members of the association decide. They're the ones voting, not MPs who aren't members, some of whom may be here tonight.

But I think it would be important here that we still send a message. As we said, an apology needs to be made, and Mr. Drouin has agreed to that—maybe seven times including tonight.

I'm therefore making a proposal in the spirit of what Ms. Ashton said earlier, that the committee must officially pronounce on the situation, which the committee has the right to do as provided in chapter 20. I think that's an important message. As Mr. Samson and Mr. Beaulieu mentioned, I think it would be important to reach out to see how we could resolve the situation.

I'll read the amendment I'm proposing. I would ask the clerk to circulate the text. That way, we can discuss it. If necessary, we could suspend for a few minutes to make sure that everyone has read the amendment.

The amendment retains the first sentence of the motion, since we all agree on that, which reads as follows:

That given the obscene and offensive comments made by the Liberal MP for Glengarry—Prescott—Russell to a witness defending the cause of the French language in Quebec,

We're amending the rest of it as follows:

the committee ask the Chair, on behalf of the committee, to apologize in writing to the witnesses Frédéric Lacroix and Nicolas Bourdon, regarding the events that took place on May 6.

The committee can vote on that. It has the authority to do so. Clearly, it can be done.

As for the other elements concerning the chief government whip and the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie, if the committee wants to continue not to follow the Standing Orders and the chair's decision, we'll lose every vote since the Liberals are here in a minority situation. It's just a reminder that this is actually a requirement of the Standing Orders.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that what I'm proposing is something that the committee has the right to do. Why not do that? As members of a parliamentary committee, we all agree on the principle. In fact, the apology has already been made, and it has been repeated quite often.

Has everyone received the amendment, Mr. Clerk?

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Mr. Serré, I'm going to suspend the meeting for a few minutes to make sure everyone has received it. I'll look at it myself.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

I call the meeting back to order.

Mr. Serré, I'm going to move that your amendment be reworded as follows. If you don't agree, we'll go back to your wording.

Your amendment would therefore propose that the motion be amended by deleting all the words after “committee” and replacing them with the following:

ask the chair, on behalf of the committee, to apologize in writing to the witnesses Frédéric Lacroix and Nicolas Bourdon for the events of May 6.

Mr. Serré, does that capture what you were saying?

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

The next speakers on my list to discuss Mr. Serré's amendment are Mr. Godin and Ms. Fortier.

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Mr. Chair, since my comments won't achieve much, I'm going to give up my right to speak.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you.

Ms. Fortier, you have the floor.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

It's a pleasure for me to once again participate in the Standing Committee on Official Languages. Last week aside, it's been a while since I've been at a meeting. It's obviously a real pleasure to be here with you as a proud Franco‑Ontarian, despite the circumstances.

I would like to thank my colleague for proposing an amendment, which I think is really reasonable. I say it's reasonable, because even though Mr. Drouin gave in to some rancour in addressing the witnesses in that way, he has apologized. What's more, he has also done so in writing, which may put an end to the debate and allow us to move on.

I don't know if you know this, but as a Franco‑Ontarian, I've lived in a minority community for 51 years, and I've been working in that environment since I was in high school. I've seen a lot. Tonight I remember all the struggles I've taken part in. I even remember the ones my parents and grandparents took part in. I don't know why all these memories and emotions are coming back to me, and I certainly won't go through the chronology of events that I've experienced. However, I can tell you that my colleague Francis Drouin, who is fighting and working hard to promote and defend the francophonie, deserves to continue his work. Now that he's apologized, he deserves to continue it at this table, as well as elsewhere.

I truly believe that this amendment will allow us to move on to other topics. There are so many! If I understand correctly, you're conducting a study on federal funding for post‑secondary institutions. I could go on at length about this, since I had the privilege of working at La Cité College for almost seven years. So I can tell you that funding is something I'm very familiar with. At La Cité, I was responsible for recruiting students at both the national and international levels. As you know, because of the funding formulas, there are negotiations with the provincial government, with the federal government's contribution. This enables our institutions to offer quality programs in French, both at La Cité and elsewhere. So I think this is an important study.

I listened to what my opposition colleagues had to say. It had to do with the good work that's being done here. I'm disappointed, however, that Minister Boissonnault wasn't able to speak at a meeting, but I suspect that we will eventually be able to focus on this study.

My argument today could take a long time, but I want to come back to the fact that my colleague Marc Serré has found a solution, I believe. If I understand correctly, Mr. Chair, you would send a formal letter of apology to the two witnesses. My colleague Francis Drouin has apologized for a sixth time this evening. I sincerely believe that the time has come to continue our efforts to counter the decline of French.

I agree that this concerns both Quebec and the country as a whole. That's why you've been working hard on this committee. I have also worked hard to advance the modernization of the Official Languages Act. I'm very proud to say that Treasury Board will have a role to play. I think that's precisely a role you have assigned to it in your study on the modernization of the Official Languages Act.

There's really a lot of work to be done. I sincerely believe that this amendment will help strike a balance. I hope that, in the wake of this letter, it will be possible to move on and continue the work.

So I support your amendment, colleague.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Ms. Fortier.

Mr. Samson, you have the floor.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Today, we talked about the importance of working together. We talked about the individuals around this table who have defended and continue to defend the cause we're talking about. We said that it was time to take it into account.

I think the proposal that the chair of the Standing Committee on Official Languages send a letter on behalf of the committee to offer a formal apology brings an end to the debate. This is an opportunity to move on to the very important work that is under way.

If we don't support this amendment and this motion, it means that we're chasing down individuals and that we don't want to work together or move on to other priorities. Instead, they want to toe the party line and continue the political game. That's my opinion.

I know it's not easy, but I think you can convince your respective parties that a formal letter from the chair of the committee apologizing on behalf of the committee is a door to other important steps. That's why I'll be supporting this amendment.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

The next speakers are Mr. Serré, Mr. Drouin and Mr. Godin.

Mr. Serré, you have the floor.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Mr. Chair, we've been here for two hours.

As Mr. Samson and Ms. Fortier mentioned, this amendment could be resolved quickly. Committee members, through the chair, could condemn the comments made by our colleague. The amendment to the motion before us is clear. If my colleagues have suggestions for improving it, that's fine, but, as we said, we can't ask the whip or the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie for anything. This amendment is reasonable. We could adopt it and continue our work on funding post‑secondary institutions.

I worked for Collège Boréal for years, and then I was a school board trustee for school boards. The education continuum is an important issue to me. All members of the committee agree that this is important. Why can't we vote on the amendment quickly? However, I don't think we're going to have time to do that.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Mr. Serré.

I see that there are still people who want to speak, but we're two minutes over the two hours.

I'm going to end the meeting.

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

The meeting is adjourned.