Denis Trudel

[Official Languages, June 10th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, that really is not a clear answer.

The Prime Minister had a moment of clarity in 2016. He said, “Quebec has to be French in order for Canada to be bilingual”. This is in line with the amendments to Bill C‑13 that Quebec wants.

Quebec is asking the federal government to commit to respecting Quebec's language planning model set out in the Charter of the French Language.

Will the government incorporate Quebec's demands into Bill C‑13 to affirm Quebec's distinctiveness and ensure respect for the Charter of the French Language?

[Official Languages, June 10th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, the Government of Quebec has taken the rare step of sending all parties a list of amendments that it is calling for respecting Bill C‑13 on official languages. All it is asking for is for them to be rational.

It is asking the parties to note that the French language is in the minority in Canada because of the predominance of English and that francophones and anglophones therefore have different needs. That seems obvious to me.

Will the government amend Bill C‑13 so it corresponds to reality?

[Government Business No. 16—Proceedings on Bill C-11, June 10th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank and congratulate my colleague. He is a member of Parliament representing a riding in Quebec, which has a single official language, French. The riding he represents is also in Canada, which has two official languages, French and English. He gave about 10% of his speech in French, so I want to congratulate him, truly.

I am wondering whether my colleague is not a little embarrassed. We have been talking about Bill C-11 for two years now, if we include its predecessor, Bill C-10. We in the Bloc Québécois were ready and worked very hard to move this bill forward. The hon. member for Drummond worked very hard and was even congratulated by the Minister of Canadian Heritage for his work in committee on this bill.

Before the election, the Bloc Québécois was even ready and willing to vote in favour of time allocation on Bill C-10, which it never does. We normally oppose time allocation, because we want democracy to work and we do not want to shut down debate. We were ready, but then an election came along, and Bill C-10 was postponed indefinitely. Now we have Bill C-11 before us.

The government has hurriedly cobbled together a motion that sort of paves the way for us to maybe pass this bill.

Is my colleague not a little embarrassed that after all those debates the Liberals prorogued Parliament a year and a half ago and called an election? Now they are throwing this motion on the table two weeks before the end of the session and telling us that we must adopt this motion or Bill C-11 will not be passed. For artists, that is shameful.

[Official Languages, May 30th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are not just issuing threats against Bill 96, they are already dismantling it.

Bill 96 imposes the Charter of the French Language on federally regulated businesses, but the Liberals are giving them a way out in their own Bill C‑13, which will allow these businesses to continue to work in English with complete disregard for Quebec laws.

On language matters, the Liberals' actions speak for themselves. Why are they encouraging the anglicization of Quebec instead of protecting French?

[Official Languages, May 30th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, the Quebec National Assembly had not even voted on its Bill 96 before the Prime Minister suggested that he could challenge it in court.

Let us make one thing clear. Regardless of our differences of opinion, Bill 96 was democratically passed by a majority of elected officials. That is a democratic choice that responds to the clearly expressed will of Quebeckers to better protect French. More importantly, this democratic choice was made by all Quebeckers, not by a handful of federal politicians.

Democracy in Quebec has spoken. Will the government respect that?

[Online News Act, May 30th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, I organized a major public consultation during last week's constituency week. There is an airport in my riding, and I held public consultations on developing that airport. It is an important piece of infrastructure that affects the lives of 400,000 people in the region.

My riding has just one local weekly newspaper, Le Courrier du Sud. We wanted the media to come and cover this event, which would affect everyone in my riding, not to mention people in neighbouring ridings, so we sent a press release to the newspaper. We were told that no journalists were available to cover this event, despite how important it was to our local community.

The legislation presented for our consideration does not ensure that small local weekly newspapers will have enough bargaining power to fully participate in negotiations with web giants.

Can my colleague comment on that? Can he assure us that local media will be able to get sufficient funding through the negotiations that will take place with the web giants?

[Official Languages, May 17th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals who were protesting Bill 96 on Saturday are not upset today to learn that 81% of jobs in the senior federal public service go to anglophones.

They never criticized the appointment of a unilingual anglophone lieutenant governor in New Brunswick. They said nothing when their government threatened to take to court francophones from British Columbia who were calling for services in French. They never spoke out about their government's 80% refusal rate for French-speaking students from Africa.

Where were these superstars when it came time to stand up for francophones?

[Business of Supply, May 17th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I am so fed up with the Liberals' hypocrisy on fighting climate change. I have been listening to them for two to three years in this place. They keep using the words “green transition” and “sustainable development”.

At least my Conservative friends do not lie. They are not interested in fighting climate change. They just ignore it. At least they do not pretend.

The Liberals could not care less either, but they pretend to be interested. Let us look at their spending. That would be $4.5 billion to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline, $12.6 billion to expand Trans Mountain, $2.7 billion for an accelerated investment incentive, and $750 million for the new fund. Those are the subsidies the Liberals have been handing out to the fossil fuel industry for a few years now. We have never managed to reach the target.

Canada is one of the worst performers in the world when it comes to climate targets. That is scandalous. I condemn my Liberal friends' hypocrisy.

[Points of Order, May 16th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, I am rising on a point of order.

There have been discussions among the parties and if you seek it, I believe you will find unanimous consent to adopt the following motion: That this House reiterate that Quebec is the sole master of its language policy and that it call on the federal government to not impede or restrict—

[Official Languages, May 16th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, one would have thought that Ottawa had finally understood that the only official language in jeopardy in Canada is French. I thought that was clear to everyone.

However, it was not clear to the Liberal members who went to protest against a Quebec law that aims to protect French. By opposing the defence of French in Quebec, these members become little more than defenders of the anglicization of Quebeckers.

That is unacceptable. Will the government commit to not obstruct the application of the Charter of the French Language in Quebec?