Following Marc Garneau (Notre-Dame-de-Grâce-Westmount), Anthony Housefather (Mont-Royal) and Emmanuella Lambropoulos (Saint-Laurent), Minister for Crown-Indigenous Relations Marc Miller is now considering the future of C-13.
The MP for Ville-Marie–Le Sud-Ouest–Île-des-Sœurs declined to say at his party’s caucus on Wednesday morning whether he would vote for the bill, which was the result of his own government. You will see in due time and place, he replied to the parliamentary press, who questioned him on the subject.
Yes, it’s an election promise, but obviously in a minority we don’t necessarily have control over the deal, the minister argued.
According to him, the Conservatives and the Bloc Québécois are trying to distort the law by subordinating it to the French-language Quebec Charter. For example, their amendments would result in federal chartered businesses being subject to Bill 101 rather than the Official Languages Act.
“There are block changes [québécois] and conservatives who completely undermine the spirit of the law, which means that the federal government assumes its jurisdiction to protect the French – and to [protéger] English if applicable – within their competence range. »
— A quote from Marc Miller, Minister for Crown Indigenous Relations and MP for Ville-Marie-Le Sud-Ouest-Île-des-Sœurs
Secretary Miller now expects people to get their work done in committee so that all Liberal Party members can raise their heads and move forward.
Because it is very difficult to have a reasonable debate (intellectually, in English) about the language in Canada, he still complained.
Honestly, if you look at the state of the French language in Canada, my main concern is to ensure that my children, who I am trying to raise in three languages, can read and write here in 11th or secondary V, a The Minister regretted the issue that neither Bill C-13 nor Bill 96 addresses.
The declarations of Louin Blouin.
The minister’s criticism reflects concerns shared by some members of the Montreal LPC caucus over Quebec’s law on French as a common language, passed last year, and the references to it in the current version of the Standing Committee’s legislative scrutiny of official languages House of Commons.
Majorities, Conservatives, Bloc and New Democrats are united on this issue, while Liberals are divided.
Marc Garneau, for example, published a text on Wednesday (New Window) in which he reiterated that the reference to the Québec Charter of the French language in the bill under study worried him greatly because it could lead to constitutional disputes over the interpretation of C-13.
Conversely, Franco-Ontarian MP Francis Drouin last Tuesday described the “smoke show” of his colleagues from west Montreal as “shameful”.
For his part, Marc Miller said the next day that he was “concerned” about the internal rifts created by the current debates surrounding Bill C-13.
Since the MP has ministerial functions, he should theoretically vote in the same way as the government on this issue when the bill goes to Parliament for the third reading.
Long-awaited by the country’s Francophone and Acadian communities, the reform of the official language law was one of the LPC’s electoral commitments during the last election campaign.
A bill on the subject had actually been introduced in the House of Commons during the previous Parliament, but it died on the order paper.
It is not yet known when the final version of the law will be presented to Parliament. If necessary, it cannot be ruled out that the SPS will allow its deputy to vote freely on this topic.
Asked about the issue on Wednesday, Prime Minister Steven MacKinnon (Gatineau) said the legislative process was in progress and no decision had been made.
For his part, Justin Trudeau’s Quebec lieutenant, Pablo Rodriguez, said he hoped the faction of the PLC in Quebec voted unanimously for C-13. It is normal that there are discussions, but the project [de loi] will pass, he promised.