Plante attacks Beis for speaking English in flood debate
By Joel Ceausu
The Suburban
A heated exchange about flooding and lack of emergency preparedness at city council last week was infused with language politics when Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante attacked Pierrefonds-Roxboro Mayor Jim Beis for making a comment and asking a question in English.
After hundreds of homes were severely flooded, said Beis, “we know that 311 was overwhelmed with over 3,000 calls, not having the resources to answer. Accordingly, not giving the right information,” with people sometimes waiting three hours, he said. “911 was overwhelmed, the fire department was doing what they could with the resources that they had, however that still wasn’t enough.” Speaking in English, Beis described what he called “an absolute fiasco.”
“311 told residents, well you have to call your borough. The borough would call the Red Cross. The Red Cross would call 311. It was a circus, people who were devastated had to deal with this, and where was the administration through this whole thing? They didn’t have to be emptying out basements in some boroughs like ours were doing, but they had to be present with a message to reassure the public, something they did not do for six days.”
After councillor responsible for public security Alain Vaillancourt congratulated city workers for their response, to the applause of his colleagues, Beis continued: “You know what I see here?…Words, philosophies, nice policies, feel good moments, clapping, smiles, and you know what happens? There’s no execution, ever, when there’s a crisis.”
Plante responded: “First of all, I find it peculiar that the mayor of Pierrefonds-Roxboro addresses this assembly only in English,” as several of her colleagues nodded and murmured in agreement. “Here we can speak in both languages, but I want to say it anyway and I want to mention it, because it happens often on the other side of the chamber, where one is chosen over another.”
Plante accused Beis of “playing politics” about public security teams. “The state of emergency is not decreed by a mayor,” she said, adding that Montreal crews were present for the boroughs. “You criticized 311 to have improvements, so be it, but stop playing petty politics about the services of the city.” As she continued to accuse Beis of petty politics, speaker Martine Musau Muele told Plante her time was over and the mayor’s microphone was muted.
“We are capable in French, English, Greek, Italian, we are capable of asking anything in any language,” Beis replied in French. “I asked the question not to criticize employees, but I criticize the administration who are not able to make the decision when it is necessary.”
Montreal North councillor Chantal Rossi also chimed in: “My colleague was criticized because he asked a question in English, even though he comes from a bilingual borough. Yes, he can do it… we are a francophone metropolis, but to criticize the fact that the mayor of a bilingual borough asks a question only in English really affects the privilege of the mayor of Pierrefonds-Roxboro.”
Muele did not see the comment as an insult to Beis, and repeated the administration’s assertion it was a statement of fact. n
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