Alain Therrien

[Official Languages, February 16th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, the “West Island story” actors keep spouting nonsense.

Canada is an anglophone country, says the member for Westmount. French is not in decline in Quebec, says the member for Saint-Laurent, in between two trips to Greece. I cannot support Bill C-13 because it contains certain Conservative and Bloc amendments, says the member for Mount Royal.

These are Liberal government members. Will they vote in favour of the Liberal government's Bill C-13?

[Official Languages, February 16th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, in today's episode of West Island story, the Liberal house is burning.

It just keeps going. Every day, we learn that another Liberal member from Quebec is opposed to modernizing the Official Languages Act. It is even spreading to cabinet. At first, it was just a smoke show, but now it is a fire. The suspense is killing me.

Will there be a free vote on this bill or will all Liberals have to vote as one? If they vote as one, will they vote for or against? We are confused.

[Health, February 14th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, Quebec and the provinces were demanding that the federal government pay its fair share, meaning 35% of total health costs. The Prime Minister's offer ups its share from 22% to a paltry 24%.

Let us not forget that when the Liberal Party came to power in 2015, the share was 24%. The government is merely righting its terrible wrong. We need 35%. It started at 24%, got cut to 22%, and now it is going back up to 24%. Nothing is changing; we are going in circles.

Does the government realize that, in the meantime, our health care systems are following a nice straight line, straight into the wall?

[Health, February 14th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, there is no health agreement. An agreement requires that people agree to it.

The Prime Minister imposed his offer on his counterparts. He exploited the fact that Quebec and the provinces are stretched to the limit by a health crisis, which was caused by federal underfunding that he himself is responsible for. They are so hard-pressed that they must accept the unacceptable.

The Prime Minister could have resolved the problem of chronic underfunding of health care. All he did was buy some peace, and for not a lot of money at that.

Why did he not choose to truly help care for those in need?

[Official Languages, February 13th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, she needs to convince her crew of that. In the same column, it was suggested that anglophone MPs from Quebec who are opposed to the Charter of the French Language might go so far as to quit the Liberal Party rather than vote for Bill C‑13. To hear them talk, life as an anglophone Quebecker in Montreal is really tough. They make Westmount and Mount Royal sound like the gulag.

There are francophone and Acadian minority communities that are desperately waiting for Bill C‑13, but the Liberals might let it die in order to appease the West Island. Who is going to put these members in their place?

[Official Languages, February 13th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, according to what Chantal Hébert stated this morning, the anglophone Quebec wing of the Liberal government would rather see Parliament prorogued than pass Bill C‑13 as amended by the opposition, because, horror of horrors, it would recognize the Charter of the French Language. All House business would have to stop because a few West Island MPs do not want to protect the French language. Those members do not want to protect French on the West Island, in Quebec, in Acadia, or in the rest of Canada.

Can the Prime Minister assure us that Bill C‑13 will not end up in the circular file?

[Official Languages, February 9th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is divisive. He is dividing Canadians and Quebeckers with Amira Elghawaby's appointment. He is dividing Quebeckers amongst themselves by sending his West Island gang to spread misinformation about the Charter of the French Language.

Yesterday, he tried to divide Quebeckers and francophones outside Quebec by casting aspersions about the Bloc Québécois's intentions. He even found a way to divide his own caucus on the protection of French. I am not making this up: The arsonist of strife even set fire to his own house.

Just where will it end?

[Official Languages, February 9th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Prime Minister refused to challenge the misinformation on the Charter of the French Language at the Standing Committee on Official Languages. He even refused to correct this misinformation to reassure anglophone Quebeckers about the real effects of Bill C-13 and Bill 96. He is not challenging the misinformation and he is not correcting it. If he is not denouncing and correcting it, then he must be condoning it.

At the end of the day, is the position held by the members for Saint-Laurent, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount and Mount Royal on French in Quebec also shared by the Prime Minister? Is that it?

[Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, February 8th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, in response to a question from the Bloc member from La Pointe-de-l'Île, the Prime Minister said about Bloc members that “they do not give a damn about francophone minorities across the country.”

I have to say that was unparliamentary language and, as everyone would agree, absolutely false. I therefore demand an apology from the Prime Minister.

[Official Languages, February 7th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, the dispute is not within the Bloc Québécois, it is within his caucus. He needs to wake up.

This morning, the Liberal member for Glengarry—Prescott—Russell said, “The smoke show led by some of my colleagues is shameful. The Island of Montreal does not have a monopoly on linguistic policy in Canada. Disinformation has no place in this debate.” It was someone from his caucus who said that. He is right.

Why does it take someone from Ontario to say that? Why have none of the Liberals from Quebec spoken out against this? Where are the Prime Minister and his Quebec lieutenant when their colleagues are literally wiping their feet on the Charter of the French Language?