…it goes to show you how necessary it is to conduct a more thorough debate.
Everything I've told you concerns grants from the federal government, not Quebec. This constitutes federal interference in what's supposed to be a Quebec jurisdiction.
I found these amounts in the Public Accounts of Canada, not those of Quebec. This $65 million comes from the direct and indirect taxes of Quebeckers, and that money is returned to them for the sole purpose of strengthening English in Quebec, whereas it's French that's threatened and always has been.
As we've repeatedly said for years now, this makes no sense.
There's a wall. It used to be even harder. No one wanted to hear from French-language defence groups because, under the Official Languages Act, anglophones were considered to be in the minority. They said that francophones were in the majority.
We aren't a majority. We would be a majority if we were independent. That's why many people would like Quebec to be independent: we'd be a majority. I also think we'd respect our minorities far more than the federal government respects its francophone minorities, including French-speaking Quebec, which is a minority in Canada.
Recent federal government actions are the best example of this. McGill University received $57 million to promote English in the health system, which is a provincial jurisdiction. The federal government didn't request the Quebec government's permission. The Canada-Quebec Accord is designed to subsidize the English-language education system in Quebec. I won't debate that issue because I don't engage on Quebec issues here.
If the federal government gives Quebec no choice by saying it will grant the province $68 million provided it contributes the same amount or else it'll get nothing, and if we're stifled by a system that cuts our health transfers, for example, considerable pressure will be brought to bear on us to say yes. Some provinces in English Canada balk at this, but I think they're people who are actually opposed to French.
Not only does the government not want to provide services in French or fund French-language schools, but francophone and Acadian communities are also constantly forced to sue under the court challenges program, which was established to oppose Bill 101. That attempt fortunately backfired, and the francophone and Acadian communities were able to use it as well. At any event, this is truly indecent, and it further facilitates federal government interference in health and all sectors of Quebec's public service.
It's plain as day in the positive measures provided for under the Official Languages Act that every federal department must support anglophone minorities in the provision of provincial and municipal services and in civil society. It's incredible. If you look at the situation on the other side, you can see that French-language defence groups in Quebec don't have the same resources or access to lawyers.
I know people who have applied under the court challenges program to dispute the Official Languages Act, and all the measures that undermine French and Quebec, but who were denied because they had to do so under the Official Languages Act, which provided that Quebec isn't a minority.
This is the principle that the Quebec government mainly attacks. When Sonia Lebel said that her first condition was that only one of the two official languages in Canada was in the minority, that only one was threatened, the federal government pretended to cooperate.
The government acknowledged in one throne speech that there had been a decline in the use of French. After 50 years of decline, that's quite incredible. Then it released a white paper in which the matter was virtually dismissed. It couldn't really see what might change. It didn't say that there was only one minority language but constantly referred to French outside Quebec and English in Quebec as minority languages.
I want to address the fact that the federal government exercises considerable pressure.
I know an activist who was the director of a CLSC. When I discussed this with him, he told me he was very familiar with Alliance Québec and the Quebec Community Groups Network, or QCGN, because those organizations called him every year to ask him if his institution offered services in English.
What I was going to say earlier is that Alliance Québec was established in part by the federal government. I'm going to show you how. It's in their documentation. After the Parti Québécois was reelected, the federal government helped the organization bring together all the English-language organizations and pressure groups in Quebec. Remember that Alliance Québec, with Brent Tyler and Bill Johnson, spent their time calling Quebeckers racists because they wanted to defend the French language. That has an impact.
The comments of those organizations were broadcast by the anglophone, American and other media, and that brought some significant political pressure to bear. Even the Quebec government is currently feeling it. We've seen how Mr. Legault has been forced to shed some light on the disinformation that's being spread. One of the main arguments that these groups advance against Bill 96 is that it will block anglophones' access to health services in English.
What's even more serious is that the federal government is on the side of those organizations, including McGill University. I think the chancellor of that institution took part in a protest against Bill 96, saying that it would undermine the doctor-patient relationship. I don't know how many times more services there are for anglophones in Quebec than elsewhere in Canada. We've reached a point where it's now difficult to access French-language services in the health system in Quebec.