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OTTAWA — Apparently exasperated by comments from two witnesses advocating for the protection of French in Quebec, Liberal MP and franco-Ontarian Francis Drouin made it clear — in French — what he thought of their arguments, describing both men as being “plein de marde” (“full of s–t”).
“You have words that are pretty extremist,” the MP said on Monday afternoon as the standing committee on official languages met to study the financing of post-secondary anglophone institutions in Quebec and of francophone institutions elsewhere in the country.
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Drouin’s comment was made after Frédéric Lacroix and Nicolas Bourdon, respectively an independent researcher and a professor with the Regroupement pour le cégep français, told the committee that attending an anglophone university or CEGEP in Quebec significantly increased the probability of living one’s life in English.
Drouin’s tone grew more severe after Lacroix asked whether “extremist” constituted “parliamentary language.” The MP replied: “Mr. Lacroix, if you’re here to waste my time, I have no patience with your comments (“M. Lacroix, si vous voulez me niaiser ici, je n’ai pas de patience avec votre discours”).
That led Bloc Québécois language critic Mario Beaulieu to say: “This is unacceptable, to call (the witnesses) extremists. You could be called an extremist. This is not language that leads to logical and rational discussion.”
Drouin, who has described himself as an “ardent Ontario defender” of Quebec’s Charter of the French Language, then explained that as president of the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie, he has seen that even France is anglicizing: “Do you really think the big problem with Quebec anglicizing is McGill and Dawson College?”
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“What we’re seeing is that Statistics Canada, perhaps an extremist organization in your view, has proved that bilingual institutions have a very, very large influence on the anglicization of francophones and allophones in Quebec,” Lacroix said. “All the statistics point in this direction.”
Visibly trying to maintain his composure, Drouin retorted that Lacroix’s assessment was off the mark, “insulting” and “lacked intellectual respect for the reality of what is happening at the international level.”
“Excuse me, but you’re full of s–t. I will withdraw my comment. But you are way off base (‘Scuse-moi, mais vous êtes plein de marde. Je vais retirer mes propos, mais vous êtes dans le champ),” Drouin said before being called to order by the committee chair.
Beaulieu accused Drouin of intimidating the witnesses. “Raising his voice, telling invited (witnesses) they are full of s–t, what he’s doing is ‘Quebec bashing.’
“It’s what we see so often from the Liberals. If we want equitable funding, we’re attacked or we’re extremist.”
Lacroix told the committee that his research found that Ottawa’s funding to McGill, Concordia and Bishop’s universities is about four times greater than their demographic weight and that francophone institutions were receiving “significantly” less.
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Bourdon said that English is taught as a second language in French-language schools “from Grade 1 to CEGEP.”
“To say that we are engaging in an extremist discourse is false,” he said.
Conservative MP and committee member Joël Godin and his NDP counterpart Niki Ashton deplored the manner in which Drouin had posed his questions and stressed that it was important for MPs to listen to all points of view, even those with which they do not agree.
Committee chair and Liberal MP René Arseneault said he had never seen such conduct on the committee since he joined it in 2016 and urged members to adopt “a more civilized approach.”
Drouin left the meeting soon after making his comments. His Liberal colleague Annie Koutrakis, while noting Drouin’s tone was not the way to express one’s self, added that “sometimes tempers flare.” She also noted that Drouin had withdrawn his remarks but not apologized for them.
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