Official Languages Committee on Jan. 31st, 2023

[Marilyn Gladu, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

I'm just trying to be clear.

What's there today is that “Quebec's Charter of the French language provides that French is the official language of Quebec”. That's what the minister tabled. You're proposing to change what the minister tabled to something else.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

One hundred per cent.

[Marilyn Gladu, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

I understand. Thank you.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

I would note that when this law was originally tabled as Bill C-32, I think it was—for people who have better memories than me—Bill 96 didn't even exist and it wasn't law.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you.

Mr. Généreux, you have the floor.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Actually, Mr. Housefather has made his point, and it's very clear. We've talked about this before. So we're ready to vote on it. There's no problem.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Go ahead, Mr. Serré.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

This is quite an important amendment. In the few minutes remaining in the meeting, I would like Ms. Boyer to add some comments about this amendment. She answered a few questions earlier on, but I want to make sure that we fully understand the importance of the amendment introduced earlier by Mr. Housefather and that we are now considering. In previous meetings, we received some comments from some witnesses. They were mainly anglophone witnesses, mainly from Montreal. I want to make sure I understand the implications of the amendment.

I don't know how much time we have left, Mr. Chair, but could Ms. Boyer take at least two or three minutes to give us some answers?

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Yes.

I'll give you two minutes, Ms. Boyer.

[Julie Boyer]

Thank you very much. My comments will take less than two minutes.

The effect of this amendment is to delete from Bill C-13 the reference to the Charter of the French Language. Instead, it makes the connection with the language regime established by the Quebec National Assembly. It also makes explicit the fact that French is the official language of Quebec, but only in the Quebec National Assembly's own areas of jurisdiction.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Go ahead, Mr. Garneau.

[Marc Garneau, Liberal, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I just want to add that there may be a tendency to think of these two lines as innocent and obvious, but they have repercussions. That is the point that Mr. Housefather took the trouble to raise today. I firmly believe that this could have a significant impact in the future, if it were ever included in the preamble of this legislation that we are currently considering.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Ms. Lattanzio, you have the floor.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

In response to a question that was asked by my colleague Ms. Gladu, I think it's a very important one, because throughout the study of this law, we were examining and making references at some point with regard to the Quebec French language charter, but at the time, Bill 96, which is now law, had not been adopted.

Throughout we've been living in Quebec. I can tell you as an anglophone that I've lived most of my life with Bill 101, which was the Quebec French language charter. It did not have the clauses that will be very hurtful for the English-language community minority in Quebec for all the reasons that were mentioned by my colleague Mr. Housefather.

Not only that, but we are at a point in time when this law has been enacted, but we don't know its rules and regulations, how it will be adopted or how it will be put into place. The last I heard is that the Quebec government will be consulting the population, so it's not finite. I have a hard time reconciling the fact that we would incorporate a provincial law in a federal law.

We heard from Justice Bastarache, who is also of the opinion that we should not have a provincial law referenced in a federal law. A Senate report also came out that was quite clear on that, basically saying that the references to the French language charter should be removed from this bill as they fear that it legitimizes a restrictive approach by the federal government towards their linguistic minority communities.

Not to repeat what my colleagues have said, but I think it's important that we look at this and place ourselves in context. When we were examining this law, the draft that had been proposed from the onset referred to the Charter of the French language that we have lived with for many years—not to Bill 96, which has completely different consequences.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

I know there are others who want to speak, but before we go any further, I want to tell you that it's 5:30 p.m., and we have very little time and resources left.

If we want to continue the meeting for a few minutes, I have to get unanimous consent.

Do we have unanimous consent to continue for five more minutes?

[Some hon. members]

No.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

We don't have unanimous consent.

As a result, we'll continue the discussion on LIB‑4 at our next meeting, on Friday morning.

The meeting is adjourned.