If Quebec were independent there would be no discussion about a bilingual Supreme Court, that’s one of the new arguments from the Bloc Quebecois. The fight for a bilingual high court went to a new level Tuesday as Heritage Minister James Moore was grilled before the Commons Official Languages Committee on why the government opposes the private members bill that would make bilingualism a prerequisite for an appointment.
Moore was before the committee to talk about the government’s road map for bilingualism in the public service but most MPs, especially from the opposition side wanted to focus on the court. Jean Dorion, a Bloc MP from Longueuil, asked Moore, “In an independent Quebec, can you imagine the judges not speaking French?”
The bill may be about requiring judges to speak and understand both official languages but opposition to the bill is being portrayed as tantamount to opposing French. Question after question was put to Moore on why the government would not support French. Liberal MP Denis Codderre was one of several MPs to declare that by not making bilingualism a prerequisite for the court that the government was in effect treating Francophones as second class citizens.
To listen to the committee, which despite its name conducts almost all its business in French, the only thing this bill will do is make Anglophone lawyers speak un peu du Français if they want to become judges. When Moore pointed out that it could have an impact on unilingual Francophone judges, NDP MP Yvon Godin, the man behind the bill was adamant that no such thing has happened in the Supreme Court’s 143 year history.
Of course either Godin is fooling himself or former Supreme Court Justice John Major was lying to me when he said that current Justice Marie Deschamps sometimes needs help with English cases. According to Major there have been other Francophone justices over the years that have also relied on translation when dealing with English cases.
I’ll take a wild bet and say that Godin is fooling himself, this is after all a man who may claim to be bilingual but would not meet the requirement of his own bill were it applied to the court or to MPs. Admittedly Godin’s English is better than my French but his grasp of complex matters is fleeting given that I’ve seen him lost in responding to English questions. The same can be said of another of the bills big boosters, Bloc MP Serge Menard whose questions in the Commons makes it sound like this bill would only require judges to order off the menu at a local bistro rather than be able to understand complex cases in two languages.
When I wrote about this issue a few weeks ago an Ontario Liberal MP admitted to me that many in his party did not like the bill but were afraid of being painted as anti-French if they voted against it, as the Tories can now clearly see, that is what is happening to anyone opposed to this bill. What the bill is also allowing the Bloc to do is show that once again they are needed to protect Quebec and the French language.
For the past few months any insult real or perceived, in the Bloc’s eyes, is further proof that the motion declaring the Quebecois a nation within a united Canada was a farce and the remedy is, you guessed it, an independent Quebec. The claim that Canada is not respecting the Quebec nation has been used so many times by the Bloc in recent months that I asked Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe whether this was a new tactic. His answer, yes.
Duceppe was seen as being on the losing end of the battle when the tactician Stephen Harper was able to convince Parliament to adopt the Quebec is a nation motion. Duceppe may have lost the battle but he’s planning on using that motion to help him win the longer war which includes the Supreme Court bilingualism skirmish being fought not only by Bloc troops by also his allies in the Liberals and NDP. Anyone doubting that Duceppe’s strategy is helping his party need only look at poll after poll showing the Bloc with a commanding lead in Quebec polls.
Opposition MPs scoffed when Minister Moore claimed that the bill would be divisive for the country. He’s right. As someone that speaks with talk radio shows across the country, mostly well outside of the bubble that is official Ottawa, people, regular people across Canada, don’t like this bill. The further away from Ottawa and Montreal you wander, the stronger the opposition. In essence, this bill will divide voters in most of the country from the politicians they elect to serve them.
The divisive nature of the bill helps the Bloc, it gives Duceppe another opportunity to point and say to Quebecers, “Look they don’t like you! They really don’t like you!” That may not be what is behind opposition to this idea but that is certainly how it will be played. The benefit for Duceppe is obvious, the question is, what is in it for the Liberals and NDP?
Brian Lilley is the Ottawa Bureau Chief for radio stations Newstalk 1010 in Toronto and CJAD 800 in Montreal. Follow Brian on Twitter to get the latest as it happens.
Get more from Examiner.com's Canadian Politics Examiner
Rise of the religious right in Canada, a paranoid tale
Canada's anti-free speech law will remain on books
Comments
Yet one more issue the Liberals have inflamed to advance their cultural war. The BLOC supports it because they are all about French, French and nothing but French and are quite honest about it. It is the Liberals who know this is a highly divisive issue and are intentionally blind to the damage it will do to the country in their scramble for Quebec votes. The left wing of this country (and the media) love to blame Harper for wedge politics but what is this if not the absolute worst kind of wedge politics that will further divide the country. Of course, because it is the liberals, they will get a free ride from the press.
If you do not want to divide Canada, take a stance in favor of this private bill! The state of Canada is bilingual. From regular civil servants to military officers via the Honorable Prime Minister Harper himself, all of them are bilingual. Why do judges of the Supreme Court aren’t? They have to make judgments on cases that are sometimes in English and other times in French. Why spending words to analyze Bloc’s political strategy while it is an issue that call for the application of one of Canada’s pristine principles: bilingualism. Opponent to this bill are not anti-French speaking—they are anti-Canada. And the Honorable Minister Moore, by being one of them, protects more the interests of the lawyers than those of the country he represents and of the people judged by the Supreme Court.
Canada is not a bilingual nation, that's leftwing propaganda to appease it's core support in Quebec. In fact the only bilingual province is New Brunswick, the taxpayer is forced to fork out millions to fund "Offical Bilingualism" to appease Quebec and it's a waste of our taxdollars. The bill is divisive but many Canadians are fed up with the political left pandering to Quebec and excluding the rest of this nation.
John your post is an insult to many Canadians, as for the military being bilingual no it's not however; it gives supremacists' status to French speakers.
Can the rest of Canada have a referendum about whether we should allow Quebec to stay?
Canada as a Western society,first nations notwithstanding, was co-founded and settled by French explorers from France first, other explorers English,Scottish, Irish and other Europeans came later looking for wealth in trade.
To state Quebec has no part in Canada would rewrite history. English and French are our two founding languages, get used to it.
Quebec may be protectionist for good reason, when it sees the rest of Canada culture and the English language being eroded.
For example, go to Richmond, BC, try get a municipal job, unless you can also speak Mandarin and Cantonese, you are SOL.
Maintaining our two languages is our birthright, if we do not maintain it, in time both French and English will be a dilution of Chinglese or other language based on immigrant populations soon replacing both French and English.
In 30 years it is said Canada will no longer be predominately French and English.
This is what Quebec wishes to avoid with its own language and cult
If I remember correctly it wasn't the French who won on the plains of Abraham.
We have created in this country a Francophone elite who believe they are entiteled to all senior positions in the Federal Government.This Supreme Court business will put the final lock on the door, barring any unilingual English speaking Canadian from ever aspiring to senior position in their own Government.
If the highly regarded [by Liberals] UN can operate using translators in 70 different languages why can t our much smaller and more narrowly focused Supreme Court?
French is dead, we spend billions on a useless language that nobody west of Quebec uses. Like the Liebral gun control act it was meant to appease only the "special" Quebecois.Lets have a referendum included in the next federal election as to weather we should scrap the bilingual act of the finger sniffin Trudeau Liebrals.
To be honest, I don't care if the cases are done in Swahili so long as they come to reasonable decisions.
Monica: Constitutional Law of Canada (1982) on article 16(1) reads: “English and French are the official languages of Canada and have equality of status and equal rights and privileges as to their use in all institutions of the Parliament and government of Canada.” You are entitled to have the opinion that Canada is unilingual English; but, for the state, the Constitutional Law prevails over it.
Stephen: Natumaini kwamba wewe kuelewa Swahili siku utakuwa mashitaka katika Mahakama Kuu ya Canada! This being said, I agree with your emphasis upon reasonable decisions by the Court. That is an elementary principle of justice that we shall not forget when they will judge you in Swahili.
Frankemm: Why the Prime Minister comes from Alberta? Why a judge of Supreme Court comes from Alberta? Why the recorder of the Private Council comes from Saskatchewan? And why one of the head of the Canadian army comes from Manitoba? They did access high positions.
Monica: Constitutional Law of Canada (1982) on article 16(1) reads: “English and French are the official languages of Canada and have equality of status and equal rights and privileges as to their use in all institutions of the Parliament and government of Canada.” You are entitled to have the opinion that Canada is unilingual English; but, for the state, the Constitutional Law prevails over it.
Stephen: Natumaini kwamba wewe kuelewa Swahili siku utakuwa mashitaka katika Mahakama Kuu ya Canada! This being said, I agree with your emphasis upon reasonable decisions by the Court. That is an elementary principle of justice that we shall not forget when they will judge you in Swahili.
Frankemm: Why the Prime Minister comes from Alberta? Why a judge of Supreme Court comes from Alberta? Why the recorder of the Private Council comes from Saskatchewan? And why one of the head of the Canadian army comes from Manitoba? They did access high positions.
Monica: The Canadian Armed Forces have implemented, since 1988, measures for the application of the Official Language Act. It makes the supervisory functions (such as general officer, colonel and lieutenant-colonel) bilingual. This agrees with the fact that “command is exercised by custom and law in both the French and English languages.” Meetings of the two executive committees, the AFC and the DMC, are conducted in official languages. Still, approximately 70 percent of the army is unilingual English. Military can work in English-language units, where they will receive commanding orders in English. For the supremacist rights of French speakers we will wait a little bit!
I am an anglophone and pro Quebec separatism. KICK THEM OUT OF CANADA!
There is nothing wrong with having interpreters for anglophone judges since its obvious francophone judges need help as well. There is no need for this bill, but the NDP and Liberals aren't smart enough to realize that.
Better still, if Quebec was independent we wouldn't have to put up with bilingualism in the rest of Canada. (Quebec could take NB with them, we would save on welfare payments as a bonus).
The trouble with the Bloc's independent Quebec wish is they haven't allowed the rest of Canada in any vote. Contrary to media opinion the rest of Canada would vote for Quebec leaving.
For those arguing the Constitution requires bilingual judges let me remind them that Quebec has never signed the Constitution.
Since Supreme Court Justices could spend decades on the Court before their retirement or death, we should be careful with radical changes. We do not know exactly what the consequences will be upon the quality of the judges selected or their decisions. I think we should do a trial run for the next decade, by applying this rule to all our Members of Parliament. This means at the next election, all unilingual MPs or candidates will not be able to run for Parliament. Then we try another experiment for the next decade by applying these rules to the provincial Supreme Courts and legislative assemblies. If after 20 years this works out ok, then let's adopt it for the Canadian Supreme Court.
Eastern Canada can commit suicide if it wants. By this appeasement bill that makes any Canadian not Francophone, a second class Canadian in a majority English speaking Nation. Meanwhile Quebecers are going extinct by not having kids. The West is already naturally separating in typical Canadian fashion. Slow by incrementation & statute. Just last month another pan-Western concordant was signed for all workers west of Manitoba . All work or educational certificates are now acceptable without re-training. The Cabinets now meet regularly of all 4 provinces. We deal now threw Alberta's ambassador to America.
While Quebec talks we are silently sailing away.
JMO
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!