Mr. Speaker, in a ruling handed down this morning, the Supreme Court of Canada declared Bill 104 unconstitutional. This law is designed to close a loophole in Quebec's charter of the French language that allows parents to enrol their children in public English language schools even though they are not entitled to.
This shocking decision is contrary to the primacy of the French language in Quebec and ignores the language laws passed by the National Assembly of Quebec, the supreme body of the Quebec nation.
Historically, the Supreme Court of Canada has always ruled against the legitimate choices of the Quebec people, who are seeking with Bill 101 to ensure the survival of French in Quebec.
In 1979, 1984, 1988, 1992 and again today, the Supreme Court denied the Quebec nation the right to adopt the means of protecting the French language appropriately.
It is even clearer today that the Supreme Court of Canada is the court of another nation, the Canadian nation. The real way to ensure that French survives in Quebec is for Quebec to become a sovereign nation.