(Ottawa) Franco-Ontarian Liberal MP Francis Drouin, who on Monday described two witnesses who campaign for the protection of French in Quebec as “full of crap” and “extremists”, refuses to apologize and does not accept to be taken “for an idiot” by being served “an argument that doesn’t hold water”.
“No, I’m not apologizing,” he said in an interview with La Presse Canadienne on Tuesday, the day after his comments to the standing committee on official languages which earned him reproaches from all political parties, including the his.
Mr. Drouin, who withdrew his comments immediately after making them and who admits to having “got a little too involved yesterday, I’m not perfect”, would nevertheless agree to apologize “if the person feels hurt” .
“But at the same time, I must not be taken for an idiot when we come to the committee,” he said. Anglicization, we have to be honest, it’s not McGill then Dawson, the fault of the big bad English-speaking people of Montreal that this is happening. It’s an international phenomenon, it’s happening in France too. »
In turn, Frédéric Lacroix and Nicolas Bourdon, respectively independent researcher and professor member of the Regroupement pour le cégep français, explained to the committee that attending an English-speaking university or CEGEP significantly increases the probability of leading one’s life in English.
MM. Lacroix and Bourdon, two witnesses suggested by the Bloc Québécois, were invited to discuss with elected officials during a study on the financing of English-speaking post-secondary institutions in Quebec and French-speaking ones elsewhere in the country.
“You have comments that are quite extremist,” MP Drouin had first sent them. The kickoff was then given for what the president of the session, the liberal René Arsenault, would later describe as “unheard of” since he sat on the usually much more collegial committee in 2016.
Researcher Lacroix replied that Statistics Canada, “a probably extremist organization in your eyes”, demonstrated that “bilingual institutions had a very, very strong impact on the anglicization of French-speakers and allophones in Quebec”.
Mr. Drouin, who described himself as an “ardent Ontario defender” of the Charter of the French Language of Quebec, replied that such a speech is not only “in the field of potatoes not nearly”, but it is also “insulting” and it “lacks intellectual respect for reality, what is happening at the international level”.
“Forgive me, but you are full of shit. I am going to withdraw my remarks, but you are in the field,” he said before being interrupted by the chairman of the committee who was trying to call him to order.
Tuesday, MP Drouin affirmed that the comments of the two witnesses are not “unanimously” within the research community and that the latter present statistics which have no causal link.
“You have your family, you have your wife, you fall in love with someone. There are several factors in life that mean that you may lead a life in English or a life in French. It’s a statistic. That doesn’t mean there’s a correlation between that,” he argued.
Mr. Drouin’s comments caused several elected officials who took part in the discussion to react.
The Bloc spokesperson for official languages, Mario Beaulieu, considered it “unacceptable” to treat witnesses in this way. His conservative counterpart Joël Godin affirmed that it “exceeded the limits”. And Niki Ashton, of the New Democratic Party, like others, insisted on the importance of parliamentarians listening to all points of view, including when they disagree.
While judging that this is not the way to express oneself, his liberal colleague Annie Koutrakis explained that sometimes “the temperature rises”.
According to Mr. Beaulieu, this “intimidation of witnesses” is part of “Quebec bashing” that “we often see among liberals” who treat those who demand fairness as extremists. He explained that his political party is not calling for withdrawing funding from English-speaking universities, but rather wants equitable funding.
Researcher Frédéric Lacroix reported that a study he conducted concluded that the share of federal funding for Quebec’s English-speaking universities – McGill, Concordia and Bishop – is approximately four times greater than their demographic weight and that conversely , French-speaking institutions receive “significantly” less.
Stung by Mr. Drouin’s remarks, the other witness, Professor Nicolas Bourdon, noted that English is taught “from the first year of primary school to CEGEP” as a second language in all French-speaking institutions in the Quebec. “To say that we are making an extremist speech: no, that’s false,” he declared.
reference: www.lapresse.ca