Evidence of meeting #118 for Official Languages in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
It is very clear that the member opposite is twisting the facts and interpreting things that are not real. I was there. The minister was asked a question. He answered that the answer had already been given several times in English and that he would answer in French. He never said a word about how the member should ask a question or speak in the House.
My colleague across the way is twisting the facts. If he wants to continue to read and twist the facts, I'm going to ask that we watch the video. It is becoming a matter of interpretation, and that's not fair.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
Thank you, Mr. Iacono.
Indeed, I would remind you that everything members say here must accurately reflect what they know.
Mr. Godin was quoting, if I'm not mistaken, from the House of Commons Debates.
There is no problem as far as the quote is concerned. Perhaps Mr. Iacono was referring to the comments you were making at the same time as the interpretation.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
Mr. Chair, I have a point of order.
If my colleague opposite is reading a copy of the House of Commons Debates, I would like to have the document in hand so that, while he is speaking, while he is explaining and interpreting the text, I can read it as well. Right now, it's hearsay.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
I'll ask all of you to pause for a second.
The records of the House of Commons are public. They are available online and anyone can read them.
Mr. Godin is quoting from a document he has in his hands. If he were misrepresenting those quotes publicly, there would certainly be questions or consequences.
Public records are accessible. I don't have them in front of me, but anyone can go and check them on their computer after the meeting.
I'm not saying that your comments about the context and its accuracy were wrong, but since these are quotes, I'll let Mr. Godin continue talking about them.
Mr. Godin, to help committee members who would like to go online, can you tell us your source?
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Mr. Chair, since my colleague is probably new here as a member of Parliament, I will help him.
On the House of Commons website, use the Publications Search tool. Here is the address: https://www.ourcommons.ca/PublicationSearch/en/?PubType=37.
Should I continue or can he find it himself?
I don't have to provide that kind of information. I'm describing facts from an official document of the House of Commons.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
I wanted you to provide that information to the members of the public who are following our proceedings, in case they want to consult the documents.
Conservative
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Mr. Chair, rest assured that I would not come to the committee and perjure myself.
My integrity has just been called into question, and I would like an apology from Mr. Iacono.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
No, Mr. Godin. Mr. Iacono asked a question, and you addressed his concern.
You're quoting House of Commons documents, and everyone can hear you do so. You're reminding us for the third time that these documents come from reliable sources.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
If you recall Mr. Iacono's comments, he told me that I was distorting and interpreting the statements made. There's a margin. I'm reading a complete text.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
People will judge for themselves.
I'll now quote the comments made by the Honourable Jean‑Yves Duclos on October 24, 2024, at 3:03 p.m., and published in Hansard on page 26912.
Perhaps this will help him even more in his search. We can see on the screen that he's quite busy on his computer.
Mr. Speaker, you also could have said it in French, because I am going to say something in French that my colleague has already heard several times in English. He knows perfectly well that the Auditor General is independent, that the RCMP is also independent, that both of those organizations are doing their job, and that we will always be there to help them do it.
I have some keywords to help him with his search. These words are: “Canada Border Services Agency”, “borders”, “GC Strategies”, “application software” and “government procurement”.
Mr. Brock rose and said: “Mr. Speaker—”
Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
One moment, Mr. Godin.
Did you just read us a quote from Mr. Duclos?
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
I'm reading you the full proceedings in the House of Commons.
Mr. Iacono asked to see the videos. Unfortunately, we don't have the technical capabilities for this. I simply want to help him understand the real situation.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
Mr. Godin, to help everyone understand and keep up with the discussion, you must tell us when you start reading a quote.
Before you quote a person's comments, you need to identify the person. For example, you can say “the Speaker states that”, then specify when you finish the quote. You can then start again, specifying what a given minister or member of Parliament responded and saying that you're starting a new quote.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
You're right, Mr. Chair. I'll do so out of respect for the people listening to us. I should point out that the key words weren't part of Minister Duclos's response in the House of Commons.
Mr. Brock rose and said the following:
Mr. Speaker, my question is in English, but I digress.
Liberal corruption is on rinse and repeat. The Auditor General is investigating $100 million in contracts awarded to GC Strategies, a two‑person IT company that did no IT work—
Then it's written:
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
I won't repeat the key words. Then, the Speaker, Greg Fergus, rose and said this:
Order. It is a very important and basic fact here that questions can be asked in English or in French and that questions can be answered in English or in French. I am going to ask the hon. member to start from the top.
Then Mr. Brock stood up. This is what he said:
Mr. Speaker, Liberal corruption is on rinse and repeat. The Auditor General is investigating $100 million in contracts awarded to GC Strategies, a two‑person IT company that did no IT work on the failed arrive scam app. The RCMP has already raided the home of GC Strategies founder Kristian Firth as part of an ongoing criminal investigation. Will the Liberals cut the corruption and, again, get taxpayers their money back?
Mr. Duclos then rose and started speaking.
Mr. Speaker, what we just heard is an insult to all francophone members of the House, including the Conservative members opposite. If he wants to tell me that I do not have the right to answer a question in French in the House, he should rise and say it again.
Later, at 3:15 p.m., the Honourable Minister of Official Languages, Randy Boissonnault, said:
Mr. Speaker, I think that it is very important to note that we have seen a blatant lack of respect in the House for our—
Then it's written:
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
Then the Honourable Greg Fergus stepped in and said:
Order. The Chair has already made a statement on this matter during question period.
Then Mr. Brock rose and said:
Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, in relation to the introduction of my second question, the question was originally in English. [That's what he said.] I was unable to hear the minister's response because of commotion in the House. [I notice that he didn't specify whether he was wearing his headset.] My volume was not working correctly on my earpiece. [That's probably why he wasn't wearing his headset.] That is why I made the reference.
He added this key point:
Clearly, I recognize that every member in this House is entitled to ask questions and respond to questions in both official languages.
Mr. Fergus, the Speaker, then responded:
The hon. member for Brantford—Brant raises a very interesting point, which is that when people take the floor, referring to the conversation that is happening right now between the member for Pickering—Uxbridge and the member for Lakeland, we cannot hear what is going on if there is too much ambient noise caused by people speaking out of turn. This is a very important point.
Moments later, Mr. Lightbound chimed in and said:
Mr. Speaker, on a point of order. The member for Brantford—Brant is clearly trying to deny what he did, but everyone in the House knew what he was trying to do. He intimated that the member for Québec should not answer in French. He should apologize. That is the kind of condescension that—
The Speaker of the House of Commons, Mr. Fergus, then rose and said:
The Chair has heard enough on this matter.
I repeat, the Liberals are making francophones and the organizations that get up every morning to defend the French fact in Canada pay dearly. They want us to take the blame for this filibuster. We've come to expect this government to remain inconsistent when it comes to the French fact.
The Prime Minister set up a centre of expertise on francophone immigration, but we don't know what it does.
A podcast was translated in Paris using the French accent, not the Quebec or Canadian accent. We know what happened with bilingual RCMP positions filled by unilingual English speakers. We should also talk about the ArriveCAN application, which doesn't comply with the Official Languages Act. Mr. Brock also spoke about this in one of his questions.
This government appointed a Governor General who doesn't speak any French. Worse still, in New Brunswick, Canada's only officially bilingual province, this government appointed a unilingual English‑speaking Lieutenant Governor. The member for Notre‑Dame‑de‑Grâce‑Westmount, Ms. Gainey, and the member for Saint‑Laurent, Ms. Lambropoulos, don't even acknowledge that French is in decline in Quebec. When Ms. Gainey was introduced in the House, the Prime Minister had difficulty speaking in French. We're talking about a member of Parliament from Quebec here.
An improvised francophone immigration policy gave way to a unilaterally applied cap on the number of foreign students. A complaint regarding this issue was submitted to the Commissioner of Official Languages.
Liberal
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
Mr. Chair, remember that a motion has been moved and that we're debating this motion. I would like the debate on this topic wrapped up so that we can finally proceed to the vote.
As my colleague across the way says, we don't want to waste the time of Canadians who get up early in the morning. I'm one of the people who want to get back to the topic at hand and stick to it. We want to avoid a whole slew of irrelevant considerations.
In short, if possible, I would like us to get back to today's topic and then move on to the next steps.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
Thank you, Mr. Iacono.
The motion talks about an apology in the House of Commons. Mr. Godin reminded us of the apology requested from Mr. Brock, compared to others. That's my interpretation. As you know, for debates on motions, we traditionally want to remain as permissive as possible. I acknowledge that the argument presented ties in with the motion up for debate. However, I think that we're getting a bit off topic.
The connection between the motion and the arguments will soon begin to weaken, but I'll let you continue.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'll continue to list the measures taken by the current Liberal government—which has been in power for nine years—that show its inconsistency, lack of interest and lack of will with regard to official languages.
First, remember that the Rouleau commission and the Hogue commission, which report administratively to the Privy Council Office, violated the Official Languages Act.
We talked about the Franco‑Ontarian member of Parliament earlier.
We're still waiting for the orders in council needed to implement the bill to modernize the Official Languages Act. This bill was passed in June 2023. It will be November 2024 tomorrow, and the orders in council haven't even been tabled yet.
Regarding the action plan for official languages 2023‑28, which lacks transparency and inflates the public service, organizations on the ground aren't seeing the results.
Today, we Conservatives are accused of lacking sensitivity. Our colleague is being asked to apologize, which he did on the X platform. As far as I know, Minister Duclos accepted his apology. Don't say that X fails to provide a good picture. Even the member of Parliament for Louis‑Hébert, 15 minutes after leaving the House, posted a tweet. It's funny. Our member of Parliament apologized in both official languages, and it took an hour and 40 minutes at most. By the way, if the Liberals need a reminder, the official languages are English and French.
We're accused of lacking sensitivity to the French fact. I would like to list a few even more compelling facts to show that what's being said isn't necessarily true.
Let's talk about our leader's sensitivity to the French fact. He was adopted by Fransaskois parents. When he was young, they used to tell him that, if he wanted more presents, he had to send his wish list to Santa in French. He grew up in Calgary, where he unfortunately lost his French. As the saying goes, when you're in a relationship, it helps to learn a second language. When he met his wife, a Montrealer with an immigrant background, he fell back in love with the French language. His children are being raised in French. It's their first language spoken at home.
Moreover, our leader speaks fluent French in all his remarks in the House of Commons and in interviews. This factor helped me rally behind him. He's an inspiring leader. Remember that a leadership race was held. I'm now proud to work with him. He has fully entrusted me to advocate for both official languages. I want to thank him for that. Obviously, French is the most fragile language and it's in decline. Our leader also regularly takes part in festivities for Quebec's national holiday, Saint‑Jean‑Baptiste Day; Acadia's national holiday; and so on. He's very sensitive to issues affecting Canada's francophonie.
Canada's Conservatives have been clear. We'll take concrete action to stop the decline of French in Canada. A future Conservative government will make the necessary investments to support the vitality of Canada's francophone communities. Every dollar will be spent on concrete action, not on more bureaucracy in Ottawa and across Canada.
My colleague, Mr. Iacono, reached out to me so that we could do our job. On Tuesday, he decided to table this motion, which cost us this meeting. On Wednesday, you decided, Mr. Chair, to cancel the visit of the witnesses from British Columbia who were scheduled to speak today. I think that you made the right decision.
It's now time to stop. I'm reaching out to Mr. Iacono and all the committee members. I'm reaching out with both hands, because there are two options.
The first option is that he simply withdraws his motion, we move on to committee business and we deal with the education continuum study. The second option is that I move an amendment to the motion. To this end, I would like the meeting suspended.