As I said a little earlier, applying for a grant in French puts an applicant at a disadvantage from the start, since the application is not as well regarded.
Also, since the evaluator at the granting council sometimes overestimates their own level of bilingualism, they can have trouble grasping the subtleties of French and understanding the description of the research project properly.
The problem is therefore not the intelligence of the francophone researchers, but the person evaluating the application, unfortunately.