It’s important to follow up on what happened, because it is serious. It is totally unacceptable to call a witness extremist and tell him that he is “full of shit,” and to do so with a very aggressive tone. Before even getting to that point, when Mr. Lacroix asked if the word “extremist” was part of parliamentary language, Mr. Drouin answered that he wouldn’t let him fool around here, at committee, because his patience had reached its limit. What the member said was tantamount to bullying, in my opinion.

What I find to be a shame is that at the start, he refused to apologize. Then, he apologized without really meaning it by saying that if the witnesses wanted an apology, all they had to do was call him to ask for it. Finally, we heard him give a quick apology here to the witnesses.

It remains that what he said was an insult to all those who defend these positions and demand fair funding for Quebec’s CEGEPs and francophone universities, as we do for colleges and francophone universities outside Quebec. Mr. Drouin had no reason to be so aggressive. The witnesses were very nuanced. They did not say that McGill University and Dawson College were causing anglicization in Quebec, as Mr. Drouin implied when he objected to what they said. The witnesses said it was one of the factors of anglicization.

Furthermore, I found the way that several Liberal MPs defended him afterwards to be just as appalling. Even after the last meeting, Mr. Serré said that it wasn’t a big deal and that only separatists felt insulted. Really, that’s insult to injury. It was said that the witness statements were simplistic. However, these researchers presented statistical data. As for the Minister of Official Languages, he said that he went to university in Alberta and that did not francize the province. First of all, Alberta’s francophone postsecondary institutions are underfunded, like everywhere else in Canada so, of course, that won’t francize Alberta. However, if funding were fair, it would significantly improve the situation, just like in Ontario.

As for the fact that the statement insulted only separatists, I must point out that in Quebec, the reaction was relatively unanimous, even among those who aren’t sovereignist. Quebec’s premier, François Legault, said that it reflected “a total lack of judgment.” Quebec’s Minister of the French language, Jean‑François Roberge, said that all of the members of Mr. Justin Trudeau’s liberal government had to “do some soul-searching,” given that the prime minister himself refused to condemn these “utterly unworthy” statements. I remind you that Mr. Legault and Mr. Roberge are members of a federalist party. Mr. Roberge added the following about Mr. Drouin: “He was presented with a statistical, scientific and mathematical fact, and he responded with insults. Then, the Prime Minister and ministers basically defended or excused him.”

There’s one thing I find even more appalling, and this is not the first time it’s happened. In fact, everyone here who claims to defend French or the francophonie should pay attention to this. Often, when we present a point of view and facts about the situation of French in Quebec, they use it to tell us that we don’t care about francophones outside Quebec. That is serious. In this case, Mr. Trudeau said that we were attacking Mr. Drouin because he is a Franco-Ontarian and we don’t like Franco-Ontarians. They’re always trying to divide and conquer. That’s the trap of official languages. It’s a kind of fool’s bargain: They sprinkle in a few little subsidies for francophones outside Quebec, who represent 10% of francophones in Canada, and then go support English where 90% of francophones in Canada reside. It’s a fool’s bargain and does not work.

Everyone loses when French loses ground, no matter where it happens. Be it in Quebec, in Manitoba, in Ontario or in Alberta, everyone loses when we play this game.

In Quebec, the National Assembly passed a motion stating “that the National Assembly reiterate[s] that the decline of French in Quebec is a reality reflected in many language indicators”. In fact, this reality is supported by all language indicators, be it mother tongue, language used at home, language of work or first official language spoken. All the indicators show French declining within Quebec and outside Quebec. The National Assembly’s motion also “condemn[s] all insults and accusations against defenders of Quebec’s only official language, French”. It also “ask[s] the federal government to increase its representatives’ awareness of the precariousness of the French language in Quebec, in particular within the international Francophonie-related institutions in which they have a presence”.

From this perspective, I think it unworthy of a president of the Canadian branch of the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie to attack witnesses during a committee meeting, as well as insult them because they presented statistics showing that underfunding Quebec’s postsecondary institutions contributes to anglicization.

I don’t understand why the government is stubbornly defending this MP. The more they defend him, the deeper they sink.

Even members of the Quebec Liberal Party voted in favour of the Quebec National Assembly’s motion. I don’t know if Mr. Drouin and the Liberals think that they are bad separatists ensnared in a Parti Quebecois plot, but that is not at all the case.

I really think we have to raise the bar and, above all, make sure we respect each other. As you know, this is not the first witness to make this kind of statement. In fact, this was the third time Mr. Lacroix testified before the Standing Committee on Official Languages. So, why was there such a reaction, all of a sudden? I remember noticing several times when other witnesses came to defend the French language in Quebec that my colleagues on the other side were talking amongst themselves, looking elsewhere and not listening. At some point, they woke up. The truth is shocking, I suppose. I think this makes no sense. We can’t tolerate it. It sends the message that it is okay to bully people from Quebec who defend French.

The worst part of it, in this type of fool’s bargain that is the Official Languages Act, is that the subsidies sprinkled around for francophones outside Quebec aren’t enough to counterbalance the underfunding by the provincial governments of just about every province outside Quebec. Within Quebec, the provincial government overfunds anglophone institutions.

We have to stop trying to divide people by putting Quebeckers on one side and francophones outside Quebec on the other. We really have to make a point here. That is why this has to be clear. Ms. Lambropoulos had to step down simply because she questioned the “decline of French” by putting the term in air quotes. There really is a double standard. The leader of a party had to leave the House of Commons because he used to the word “extremist” or “wacko”. I think it’s comparable, but I won’t venture into scatology. If I wanted to go there, I would have read Boucar Diouf’s article, which explains some of the word’s etymology. I will spare Mr. Drouin all the qualifiers used in it.

Worst of all, we're told over and over that the government wants to protect French in Quebec. However, the Liberals have yet to prove it. I have raised this issue countless times, but no one has responded.

The action plan for official languages is no different. From 1995 to 2022, 94% of official languages funding in Quebec was used to support English; English‑language primary, secondary and post‑secondary institutions; and English‑language advocacy groups. An analysis of the data in the action plan for official languages shows that 93.9% of the funding is used to support English in Quebec. We'll see what happens in the next public accounts of Canada.

For Quebec, this is unacceptable. This can't continue. The decline of French in Quebec is a serious matter.

The government of English Canada ultimately comes along and says that it supports English in Quebec because English is the minority language. However, even the UN has stated that English speakers in Quebec can make claims, but not as a minority group, because they're part of the majority in Canada.

For all these reasons, I think that we should pass this motion. I have nothing against him personally, but I think that Mr. Drouin should resign.

Mario Beaulieu

$464,604.00