(Quebec) For the second straight day, François Legault defended his prediction that Quebec would become a Louisiana if its government did not receive all immigration powers from Ottawa. He also reiterated that immigrant MPs speaking French in Parliament are “examples” that do not reflect the wider picture of society.
Posted at 11:57 am
Hugo Pilon-Larose The press
“Everyone will understand in a reasonable way that in general there is a decrease in the most spoken language at home and a decrease in the most spoken language at work,” pounded the prime minister on Wednesday, who now heads the Office québécois de la langue française ( OQLF) asks to measure the language spoken in public spaces.
“We want French to be the common language. The common language, you have to look at what the language is at home, what the language is at work, what the language is in the public sector. It’s a sentence. If there is no longer anyone in Quebec who speaks French at home, it means that French will eventually disappear,” he added.
A problem in family reunification
Even though the federal government has already said no, François Legault still intends to go to the polls by claiming a “strong mandate” to repatriate all immigration powers from Ottawa. Currently, Quebec chooses its economic immigrants under the 1991 Quebec-Canada Agreement. This category accounted for 53% of immigration to the province in 2021, and 84% of these new arrivals spoke French upon arrival.
Quebec would like to select immigrants from family reunions in the future. In 2021, according to the Prime Minister, this category represented 28% of immigrants received in Quebec, and 51% of them spoke French upon arrival. François Legault wants to increase the proportion of these newcomers who learn French before going to live with their families in the provinces.
“There is a judgment question. If he is a small child we cannot require him to speak French. When it’s a 95-year-old, you have to be reasonable. Is it too much to ask if you bring your spouse, father, mother, adult children to ask them to learn French before you arrive in Quebec? I think that’s reasonable,” he said.
The Effects of Law 96
Photo Jacques Boissinot, The Canadian Press
Simon Jolin Barrette
Following the passage of Law 96, Simon Jolin-Barrette was sworn in as Minister for the French Language, a brand new ministry in Quebec, on Wednesday. He also retains his functions as Justice Minister and Prime Minister.
According to him, “the situation could move towards the situation in Louisiana” if nothing is done. He then hailed the new powers granted to him by his Bill 101 reform as the government buys advertising pages on the subject in major newspapers in Quebec and Canada this week. Mr Jolin-Barrette has set a target for the substitution rate of allophones with a language other than their mother tongue to reach 90% in favor of French, compared to the current 55%.
According to Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, the government is not doing enough to reverse the decline of French.
“I think that given the data we have, we need to consider taking a step backwards to lower the immigration thresholds in line with Quebec’s French reception capacity. […] We are currently exceeding our capacity in French,” he said.
For his part, Quebec Solidaire parliamentary leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois believes Quebec is trying to create a distraction to avoid talking about its balance sheet. “He doesn’t have a social project, so he tells scare stories. It leads Quebecers to believe that the 14,000 people who come to Quebec each year through the family reunification program will threaten the very survival of the Quebec nation. He does this to hide his mistakes,” he said.
The question of the “anecdote”
Liberal MP Saul Polo, a Quebecois of Colombian origin, said he was hurt by the prime minister’s comments on Tuesday, when he described his integration into French-speaking Quebec as an “anecode”.
“To be called an anecdote by the prime minister deeply hurts me and many other Quebecers who are struggling to integrate well and be full citizens,” he said.
“I understand Mr Saul Paul, Polo, bypassing certain groups of journalists to say he is injured. listen to them What I wanted to say yesterday was that we can use examples like him to say [qu’]he learned French, but these are examples. You have to look at the big picture. And the overall picture is that French is on the decline in Quebec,” replied Mr. Legault.