Joel Goldenberg – The Suburban LJI Reporter
Montrealers gathered last week in front of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, the site of a federal Liberal cabinet retreat, to express their disappointment with the Trudeau government’s reaction to Quebec’s language law Bill 96.The event was the latest in a series of monthly protests against Quebec legislation.
Federal Liberals, with the exception of Mount Royal’s Anthony Housefather, and MPs from all other parties, voted in favour of Bill C-13, the federal modernization of the Official Languages that by reference recognizes Quebec’s language law and gives it application over federal areas of jurisdiction. Last week’s protest was organized by the Task Force on Linguistic Policy and activist Marc Perez — the latter was not able to be on hand.
Just before the protest, Task Force president Andrew Caddell posted on social media, “our community of 1.25 million English-speakers has been completely abandoned. With the passing of Bill C-13, the newly amended Official Languages Act now incorporates the Charter of the French Language, and thus Bill 96. This is an attack on our linguistic rights and our community. We have always looked to the federal government to uphold our constitutional rights to services, education and the courts and they haven’t done a thing to stop Bill 96, leaving it up to taxpayers to take Bill 96 to court! The Trudeau government continues to ignore our concerns; clearly valuing the votes of Quebec nationalists over English-speaking Quebecers.”
On site, Caddell added that the federal Liberals are “consumed with the political consideration of losing seats to the BQ.” Asked where anglophones concerned with linguistic rights can turn federally, Caddell told The Suburban all the federal parties are seeking the Quebec nationalist vote in elections.
“But there are at least 25 ridings in Parliament where anglophones have a significant enough number that they can make the difference. We have to lobby to say these people deserve to have their votes recognized. We [anglophones] are bigger [population-wise] than five other provinces — think about that. If we were a separate group of people, we would have some real political clout. But because we’re in Quebec, and we’re dispersed all over the place, we’re recognized as being apart from the rest of the country.”
In terms of some feeling there’s no one they want to vote for, Caddell said not everything is done through the political process.”We’re using the courts and the public forums, and once we get some attention from the francophone media — I would love to go on Tout le monde en parle, and we could plead our cause.” Sharon Brien pointed out that Liberal MPs from English-population ridings were taking part in the retreat at the Queen E.”Maybe they can answer to their constituents,” she said. n