Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu, for voicing a position that certainly doesn't reflect the common view in the House of Commons. It is, nevertheless, a position that needs to be heard. The silence of your fellow members sometimes makes me think that ours is not a welcome voice here, in Parliament.
As I said, according to international law and the UN, the anglophone population in Quebec does not constitute a minority. The issue was decided in Ballantyne, Davidson, McIntyre v. Canada in 1989, and the decision was released in 1993.
Here is a quote:
Further, article 50 of the [International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights] provides that its provisions extend to all parts of Federal States without any limitations or exceptions. Accordingly, the minorities referred to in article 27 are minorities within such a State, and not minorities within any province. A group may constitute a majority in a province but still be a minority in a State and thus be entitled to the benefits of article 27. English speaking citizens of Canada cannot be considered a linguistic minority [regardless of where they live in the country].
The Official Languages Act and the funding that flows from it overwhelmingly support the English-speaking minority even though it is very well looked after. It has health care facilities and schools; students can begin their English-language education in preschool and continue right through university.
Francophones outside Quebec do not have access to similar institutions, of course. What's more, numerous laws were introduced over time preventing francophones from obtaining an education in their mother tongue. Fortunately, those laws were abolished in the 1960s.
I can't help but question the federal government's objectives, since the English language is obviously thriving all over the country, including in Quebec. The latest census figures from Statistics Canada illustrate that, despite the fact that the agency changed how it calculates the size of linguistic communities in Canada a few years ago. No longer can the decline of the francophone community across Canada—including in Quebec—be hidden.