Liberal MP attacks his party over language bill

A Liberal MP from Ontario slammed members of his caucus Tuesday as a debate over proposed changes to Canada’s official languages regime uncovered a rift in the ranks of the governing party.

Francis Drouin, the MP for the eastern Ontario riding of Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, took to Twitter to lambaste colleagues from Montreal for a “shameful” show of concern that their government’s proposed bill to update the Official Languages Act could hamper English-speakers’ rights in Quebec.

“The island of Montreal doesn’t have a monopoly on language policy in Canada,” Drouin wrote in French. “Misinformation doesn’t have a place in this debate.”

Drouin did not respond to an interview request from the Star on Tuesday. But he appeared to be referring to Liberal MPs — including Montreal MP and former cabinet minister Marc Garneau — who have raised concerns that anglophone language rights are being trampled by the legislation as currently written. Drouin was quoted in Le Droit Tuesday saying their fears are unfounded, and that actually French is under threat.

The Bloc Québécois seized upon the comments during question period, when Bloc MP Alain Therrien demanded to know why a Liberal from Ontario was standing up for francophones instead of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or his Quebec lieutenant, Pablo Rodriguez.

That prompted howls from opposition benches when the Official Languages Minister Ginette Petitpas-Taylor rose to speak instead of Rodriguez.

Much like the controversial changes to Quebec’s French language charter last year, the federal effort, Bill C-13, has sparked concerns from anglophone groups in Quebec. Eva Ludvig, interim president of the Quebec Community Groups Network, said the bill risks breaking with Canada’s long-standing policy of language equality by prioritizing French over English, thereby eroding the language rights of Quebec’s English-speaking minority.

As currently written, Bill C-13 would amend the federal Official Languages Act to ensure federally regulated businesses like banks and insurance companies in predominantly French regions like Quebec offer services and workplaces in French. The bill’s preamble also states that Quebec’s French language charter “provides that French is the official language of Quebec.”

Last week, Liberal MPs on a parliamentary committee studying Bill C-13 voiced outrage when opposition parties blocked their effort to remove references to Quebec’s French charter from the proposed law. In a post on social media after last week’s committee meeting, Garneau accused the opposition of abandoning his province’s anglophones by voting to keep Quebec’s controversial language charter “enshrined” in the federal bill.

Garneau did not respond to an interview request Tuesday.

Fellow Montreal Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, who declined an interview request from the Star on Tuesday because he is travelling, told the Montreal Gazette last week that the law as it now stands would create an “asymmetrical approach” where French and English Quebecers are “no longer equal.”

Petitpas-Taylor said that “it’s important to debate our legislation and it’s important that our MPs have to share their points of view.”