Real progress or a simple electoral maneuver?
The Canadian government of Justin Trudeau is expected to soon amend the Official Languages Act, which has proclaimed English and French as the official languages of the Canadian federal state since 1969, an anonymous government source revealed to La Presse.
With this reform, Canada would officially recognize French as the one and only language of the province of Quebec.
An unprecedented gesture on the part of the Trudeau government, since all of its Liberal predecessors, including his father Pierre Elliott Trudeau, fiercely defended official bilingualism across the country, including Quebec.
Read also: The inexorable decline of the French language in Canada
This revision of the Official Languages Act was based on a simple observation made last fall by the government during the Speech from the Throne (speech which opens each new parliamentary session, and which allows the government to set out its direction and its objectives, Editor's note): the French language is regressing in Quebec.
On this occasion, Justin Trudeau recognized his "
responsibility to protect and promote French not only outside Quebec but also in Quebec
".
The opposition denounces electoral opportunism
The project, led by the Federal Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages, Mélanie Joly, has been on the table for six years, indicates the daily
Le Devoir
. She had already presented a working document last February, which recognizes French as the official language of Quebec, but which also imposes bilingualism on Supreme Court judges and lays the foundations for a francophone immigration policy for the country. This announcement, however, was greeted with great caution by the political opposition. Many voices are raised to denounce the electoral opportunism of the Canadian state, a few months before the federal elections. "
To avoid having to face the Quebec premier François Legault during this election, the feds are seeking to occupy the linguistic field
", summarizes for
Le Figaro
our columnist Mathieu Bock-Côté, who evokes"
a more symbolic gesture than anything else.
".
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More broadly, all the opposition parties expressed doubts about the federal government's approach, seeing instead in the bill a future electoral promise.
Indeed, the current parliamentary session will end at the beginning of next week, marking a summer break.
"
In this context, it is clear that a bill, even tabled this week, would not have time to be adopted and the Liberals know it very well
", judges the conservative Alain Rayes to Le
Devoir
.
In addition, if early elections are called before the next parliamentary session, all bills that are not adopted will be thrown into the dustbin, underlines the daily.
Reform of Bill 101 in Quebec
With the magazine
L'actualité
, the sovereignist formation of the Bloc Québécois prefers to joke: “
Fifty years later, the federal government will recognize that French is the official language of Quebec.
Mocks MP Claude DeBellefeuille. In fact, at the same time, the Quebec premier, François Legault, is promoting the largest undertaking to modernize and update Bill 101, also called the Charter of the French language. This text, adopted in 1977, defines the linguistic rights of all citizens of Quebec and already confirms French as the only official language of the province. The reform, known as Law 96, aims to further protect the French language in the “Belle Province”, by strengthening its presence and ensuring its survival. By extension, it also provides for an amendment to the constitutional law of 1867, which founded Canada, to affirm “
recognition of the nation as well as of French as the only official and common language of Quebec
”.