SHERBROOKE — English-speaking members of the Quebec Liberal caucus have endorsed their leader’s plan to launch a new offensive shoring up the position of the French language.
And the party plans to go into the next election selling the return of freedom of choice when it comes to access to the English CEGEP system.
The move would open the door to more francophones and allophones who today have limited access to English CEGEPs under the rules of Bill 96. adopted in 2022.
The exact percentages or formula the party will propose remains unknown.
One day after Charles Milliard raised expectations by saying the new Liberal language policy in the works will do a “better” job of protecting French than eight years of Coalition Avenir Québec policy-making, MNAs closed ranks on Saturday.
English-speaking MNAs got aboard, too, arguing they can sell more French language policies to their community despite years of animosity toward the CAQ’s policies.
“We can find a balance,” said Elisabeth Prass, the Liberal MNA for the riding of D’Arcy McGee at a party general council meeting in Sherbrooke on Saturday. “It’s a question of respect. It’s a question of respecting the French language and respecting the anglophone community and English-speaking rights.
“It isn’t easy. I’m not going to pretend there is a magic solution, but that’s what our responsibility is.
“We don’t want coercive measures, so we don’t want to force things on anglophones and allophones. We want to make it encouraging, we want them to want to participate.”
“‘The anglophone community has a role to play for the protection and promotion of the French language, and I believe we will be contributing to that,” said Westmount—Saint-Louis MNA Jennifer Maccarone.
“It’s not putting the anglophones aside. It’s including them in the process.”
Maccarone said she fully agrees with Milliard’s position that Quebec needs to jump-start its language policies because the CAQ’s approach has flopped.
“Yes, French is in decline,” Maccarone said. “The anglophone community also has a role to play. We (Quebec) will need broader measures to ensure we protect it.”
Maccarone noted that the English-speaking community is more and more bilingual and “wants to be part of the discussion.”
“They don’t want to be left out or kept at bay,” she said.
“We are part of the solution,” said Notre-Dame-de-Grâce MNA Desirée McGraw. “The promotion and protection of the French language is a common objective, of all Quebecers.”
She quoted an Angus Reid poll saying 95 per cent of anglophones want French to be protected.
McGraw said “certain indicators” reveal a decline in the status of French.
“I think N.D.G. and the English-speaking community more broadly will support more positive measures to protect French — positive, inclusive and effective measures rather than punitive and restrictive ones.
“We are 100 per cent behind him (Milliard), so reports of angryphones and anglophone caucus members not supporting him are simply not true.”
“There’s no infighting,” Prass added. “There’s no English caucus. There’s one caucus and one united caucus.”
But party insiders say they know the plan will require a big sell after previous efforts to rally nationalists and the anglophone minority, particularly under the leadership of Dominque Anglade, hit turbulence
André Pratte, the chair of the party’s national policy committee charged with preparing the platform it will use in the fall election, said he believes it is possible to square the circle.
“I think what the English-speaking committee wants is that their rights are respected, that their institutions are respected,” Pratte told reporters covering the council.
“That’s a commitment that has always been part of the approach of the Quebec Liberal Party and still is.”
Pratte steered away from past incidents when the English-speaking community felt wronged by the party — particularly in the Bill 96 adoption process when the Liberals made many concessions.
“The reality is English-speaking Quebecers understand the importance of protecting French in Quebec because it is a language in a unique position,” Pratte said.
“But what they require is respect, as a community which built Quebec with francophones.”
Pratte urged reporters to wait to see the new Liberal plan, but hinted it will take a much less coercive approach and favour more freedom of choice, particularly for adults when it comes to the language of higher education.
On Thursday, the party announced it would not support the CAQ’s new language legislation, Bill 8, which would push adults into French adult education and vocational training classes.
“In Bill 96, we used a bypass or detour to limit the choices of people to choose the language they wanted for a higher education,” Pratte told reporters. “The right to education, to choose one’s school, is a fundamental right.
“No government has ever gone down this path.”
Milliard, for his part, continued to insist the Liberal’s new language policy will be better than the CAQ’s work.
“Quebec needs to be ambitious,” he told reporters.
The council, which has drawn 500 Liberals to Sherbrooke, wraps up Saturday with a speech from Milliard. His theme will be the economy.
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