Mr. Speaker, you see, they are laughing again.
We will place this editorial on file, because it really is worth reading. I hope that, instead of laughing, they will think carefully about this debate for once.
The editorial is called “À la recherche de la crise perdue”, which means “in search of the lost crisis”.
Deprived of the arguments that have aided his cause in recent years—sponsorships, fiscal imbalance—[the leader of the Bloc Québécois] has set about stirring up a new crisis to help his party get back on its feet again. In two speeches this week, the leader of the Bloc Québécois has called for the elimination of federal spending power (i.e. the emasculation of the federal government) and the application of Bill 101 to the federal government (i.e. abandoning bilingualism in federal offices in Quebec). These tactics are so crude, they are laughable. [The leader of the Bloc Québécois] knows that even the federal government the most open to the reality in Quebec would refuse such demands. When the Conservatives say no, he will start rending his garments again, something at which the Bloc are second to none.
The sovereigntist leaders were told by the party faithful that they had been wrong to abandon identity issues, so they are bringing them back with a vengeance. What could be better than rousing Quebeckers' linguistic insecurity? That is what [the leader of the Bloc Québécois] did when he painted a black picture of a language situation that greatly benefits French. For example, the Bloc leader claimed that “language transfers always benefit English for the most part”, neglecting to mention that the situation is improving every year (the Office québécois de la langue française talks about “considerable progress”). “For too many francophones in Quebec, the language of work remains English”, [the leader of the Bloc Québécois] also complained. What does he mean by “too many”, when we know that 93% of francophone Quebeckers work mainly in French?
With such a damning description of the situation of French, all it takes to get people upset is to blame the federal government, which the member for Laurier—Sainte-Marie obviously hastened to do: “One of the main reasons for this is the Canadian government's stubborn refusal to recognize Bill 101 in Quebec”.
[The leader of the Bloc Québécois] will demand that the government [of the Prime Minister] amend the Official Languages Act to make federal organizations in Quebec subject to Bill 101. Federal offices in Quebec would therefore have signage in French only (or French would have to be dominant) and would no longer be required to provide services in English. In other words, [the leader of the Bloc Québécois] wants to force the Government of Canada to become unilingual!
Clearly, this is a demand Ottawa will never give in to. Not because Ottawa does not recognize the primacy of the French language in Quebec, but because in the rest of the country there would be a backlash that would ultimately spell the end of official bilingualism. For francophones outside Quebec, it would be the beginning of the end.
[The leader of the Bloc Québécois] thinks he has the confrontation he is looking for. But Quebeckers will not be fooled. They know a real crisis from a melodrama, a reasonable demand from a con job.
This editorial reflects what many Quebeckers are thinking, even though the Bloc Québécois does not want to admit it. This has to be taken into account in a debate that the Bloc members want to hold seriously and respectfully. The least they could do would be to consider these arguments, which are powerful, to say the least.