Court rejects Ottawa's attempt to quash lawsuit challenging Governor General's appointment
French-language advocacy groups argue appointment of Mary Simon violated the Charter of Rights
The Quebec Superior Court has ruled that a lawsuit seeking to overturn Governor General Mary Simon's appointment can move forward and be heard on its merits.
Justice Marie-Hélène Dubé dismissed an application by the attorney general of Canada to have the case thrown out, giving the plaintiffs — two Quebec language rights groups — their second win in the case.
The court challenge, filed in Quebec Superior Court in 2022, argues that Simon, who took over as the King's representative in Canada in 2021, cannot hold the position because she does not speak French.
The plaintiffs say they would like to see Simon's appointment invalidated.
Simon, who was educated in a federal day school in Quebec's Nunavik region, has said she was not given the opportunity to learn French as a child. She has promised to try to learn it and started taking lessons last December.
Governor
General Mary Simon hugs residential school survivor Navalik Tologanak
as they take part in the site selection ceremony for the Residential
Schools National Monument on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, June
20, 2023. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
Simon is Canada's first Indigenous Governor General and is fluent in English and Inuktitut.
The two groups that brought the court challenge — Droits collectifs Québec and Justice Pour le Québec — argue that the federal government violated two sections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by appointing Simon to the prestigious position even though she is not fluent in French.
The lawsuit argues her appointment violates sections 16 and 20 of the charter, which guarantee the equal status of French and English and the right to be served by federal institutions in either official language.
This is the second time the federal government has sought to have the lawsuit thrown out.
In 2023, the government sought to have the case dismissed by arguing that it should be heard in a federal court, not the Quebec Superior Court. That argument was rejected by Justice Catherine Piché.
'A victory for the defence of French'
More recently, the Office of the Attorney General of Canada argued that there is no legal requirement for a Governor General to speak both English and French, and that the lawsuit did not merit being heard by the court.
Dubé rejected that request, saying that the case should be heard in full before a judgment is made.
The attorney general also sought to challenge the legal standing of the plaintiffs — specifically the executive director of Droits Collectifs Québec, its executive director Étienne-Alexis Boucher, Justice pour le Québec and its former president, Frédéric Bastien, who died in May 2023.
Dubé did state in her ruling that the two groups will need to file amended submissions to prove their relevance to the case.
"This is a victory for the defence of French in constitutional law and opens the door to moving the case forward," Boucher said in a media statement.
A similar case was heard in New Brunswick earlier this year. The province's top court ruled that New Brunswick's lieutenant-governor is not required by the Constitution to be bilingual.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from Jérôme Labbé
PQ leader promises another independence referendum
St-Pierre Plamondon calls Ottawa 'existential threat'
Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon reiterated on Sunday his pledge for a third referendum on independence should his party take power in the next election.
At the PQ's national council in Drummondville, Que., St-Pierre Plamondon told some 500 party members that Quebecers have one "ultimate" chance to secure their language and culture amid what he called an "existential threat" from Ottawa and the province's declining weight within the federation.
"One thing is certain," he said. "Our moment will arrive sooner than we think, meaning not at some long-term idealized date, but in a few years — before the end of the decade.
"We will indeed experience a third referendum," he said.
The 47-year-old leader has driven renewed focus on sovereignty since he took the helm in 2020 after the party's worst electoral showing in nearly 50 years. But his spot atop the polls in recent months lent a new edge to this weekend's pledge of a referendum before 2030.
Surging popularity
Barely a year and a half after the PQ was seen as moribund, St-Pierre Plamondon's surging popularity also comes despite flat support for independence, which recent polls show was backed by only about a third of respondents.
Some observers have attributed the PQ rebound largely to growing dissatisfaction with Premier François Legault and his Coalition Avenir Québec government.
St-Pierre Plamondon's speech provoked strong reactions from adversaries.
In a social media post, the premier's head of strategy Stéphane Gobeil described the vow of a vote — which presumes a PQ victory at the ballot box in 2026 — as "either arrogance or poorly controlled euphoria."
Interim Liberal Leader Marc Tanguay deemed his rival the PQ's "most radical leader" and accused him of stoking fear to push independence.
St-Pierre Plamondon claimed the federal government has moved to encroach on Quebec's jurisdiction, including on housing and health care, where dire shortages plague the province.
"You're going to tell me: what does it change if housing improves," he told news reporters, adding that federally induced upgrades would mean succumbing to an "increasingly unitary state."
At times, the address struck an almost apocalyptic tone.
"Canada has a dark future in store for us," said St-Pierre Plamondon. "It's a regime that only wants to crush those who refuse to assimilate."
At other points, the speech hearkened back to refrains familiar to earlier generations, citing a duty to "emerge from our defeatism."
"Think like Alphonse and Dorimène Desjardins, think like Bombardier, think like Maurice Richard," he shouted. "We have it in us, it's in our DNA."
The previous two referendums on sovereignty took place in 1980 and 1995. In the latter, Quebec voters came within a hair's breadth of opting for independence, as 49.42 per cent checked a box next to "Yes," while 50.58 per cent ticked the one next to "No."
Quebec Superior Court can hear case calling on removal of Gov. Gen. due to lack of French
A judge rejected Ottawa's arguments that such a case must be heard in federal court
Quebec Superior Court has the jurisdiction to hear a case calling on Gov. Gen. Mary Simon to be removed from her post because she cannot speak French, according to a Quebec Superior Court judge.
The Attorney General of Canada had tried to argue that only the federal court could look into such a case, but Judge Catherine Piché rejected the claim in June.
The court challenge, filed in Quebec Superior Court last summer, argues that Simon, who took over as the Crown's representative in Canada in 2021, cannot hold the position because she does not speak French — one of the country's official languages.
The plaintiffs, a group of Quebecers, would like to see Simon's appointment invalidated.
Simon, who was educated in a federal day school in Quebec's Nunavik region, says she was not given the opportunity to learn French as a child. She has promised to try to learn it in her position as governor general.
The federal government had filed a declinatory exception, a procedure aimed at having the case heard by another body.
To justify its request, lawyers for the Attorney General of Canada cited section 18 of the Federal Courts Act, which says that "the federal court has exclusive jurisdiction [...] to render a declaratory judgment against any federal agency."
However, the Governor General cannot be considered a federal officer, as she was appointed by Queen Elizabeth II — the predecessor of Charles III — and the Crown is not part of the government, said Piché in a 15-page ruling handed down on June 13.
In this context, "the court is of the opinion that the present case falls within the jurisdiction of the Quebec Superior Court and that the declinatory exception must be rejected," she wrote.
The federal government had 30 days to appeal the judgment. They did not do so, François Boulianne, the plaintiffs' lawyer, said on Tuesday.
The case will be heard by the Quebec Superior Court, with proceedings expected to resume in the fall.
The group that filed the lawsuit was originally led by former Parti Québécois (PQ) leadership candidate Frédéric Bastien, who died a few weeks before the ruling was published. The case is expected to proceed despite Bastien's death.
based on a report by Radio-Canada's Jérôme Labbé
Historian, teacher and PQ leadership candidate Frédéric Bastien dead at 53
Bastien finished fourth in a PQ leadership race that included Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who eventually won the post.
Author of the article:
Frédéric Bastien, a historian and teacher at Dawson College who once sought the leadership of the Parti Québécois, has died. He was 53 years old.
His death was announced by friends and colleagues on his Facebook page Tuesday night.
Le Journal de Montréal, where Bastien wrote a column, reported that his death was confirmed by his spouse, Marie-Ève Lépine, who the report says found him unresponsive at home after working out on their stationary bike. The couple have three children, 11, 13 and 15 years old.
Holder of a doctorate in history and international politics from the Institut universitaire de hautes études internationales, Bastien was the author of numerous articles including La Bataille de Londres, which received the Prix Richard-Arès in 2013.
Bastien finished fourth in a PQ leadership race that included Sylvain Gaudreault, Guy Nantel and Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who eventually won the post.
“Frédéric was a lifelong activist who gave much of his life to the cause of Quebec. He leaves in mourning his spouse and their three children. My thoughts are with them and the Parti Québécois offers them our full support,” St-Pierre Plamondon wrote on Twitter.
Comedian Guy Nantel said he was in shock over the news. “We spoke many times during the PQ leadership race. The discussions were sometimes rough but always very rewarding. A full man whose lively spirit was fully devoted to Quebec,” he tweeted.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet also took to Twitter to express his condolences.
“I don’t know what to say. I’m thinking of those close to him. Sadness … I’m thinking of Don Quixote who was going to tear down the windmills of hypocrisy for Quebec, his nation. Without fear.”
Bastien was also named Patriote de l’année 2013 by the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste and awarded the Prix Condorcet-Dessaulles du Mouvement laïque québécois in 2021.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-court-action-mary-simon-1.6507246
Quebec group goes to court over Gov. Gen. Mary Simon's lack of French
Group argues appointment violates charter provisions about bilingualism in Canada
A group of Quebecers is going to court to argue that Mary Simon's appointment as governor general should be invalidated because she isn't fluent in French.
The group, led by historian Frédéric Bastien, is asking the Quebec Superior Court for a declaratory judgment stating that Simon's appointment violates charter provisions declaring Canada to be bilingual.
The former Parti Québécois leadership candidate says choosing a governor general who doesn't speak one of the country's official languages is an insult to francophones and a signal that bilingualism doesn't matter.
"It sends a bad message to French Canadians and Acadians that they are second-class citizens, that official bilingualism is something that is just not important, (that) we can get rid of it as need be,'' he said in an interview Thursday.
His group is relying on judicial precedent in New Brunswick, where French-speaking Acadians recently challenged the appointment of a unilingual anglophone lieutenant-governor on similar grounds.
A judge ruled in April that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau violated constitutional language protections when he appointed Brenda Murphy, but the judge added that striking down the nomination would cause a constitutional crisis.
Simon speaks English and Inuktitut and has promised to learn French, but Bastien says the government should have chosen one of several qualified Indigenous candidates who speak both official languages.
"Our view is that the Constitution says the person appointed should be bilingual,'' Bastien said. "It doesn't say she should learn French on the job.''
The court challenge cites articles from the charter and the Constitution that state that French and English have equal status and that citizens have the right to communicate with the federal government and receive services in either language. It also argues that the Governor General's unique role in the constitutional system means that she, personally — and not just her office — must be bilingual.
"Unlike the members of the Senate and the House of Commons, the natural person of the Governor General is the only person who exercises the office of this 'institution,' which makes it possible to conclude that the legal person and the natural person of the Governor General is one and the same,'' the document states.
Representatives for Trudeau and Simon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bastien said the documents were filed in Superior Court on Wednesday and are a "Canada Day gift to Mr. Trudeau.'' No hearing date has yet been set.
Can I obtain an English-language eligibility certificate? It's complicated
If you're an adult who didn't already have one, you can't get one, even if you would be eligible.
New Quebec government directives suggesting “historic anglophones” will need their English-language eligibility certificates to communicate exclusively in English in the province’s health-care network has prompted both anxiety and increased interest in how to obtain those certificates.
As reported in The Gazette on Wednesday, under the heading “oral and written communication,” the Health Ministry spells out the conditions for the exclusive use of English in the health sector included in the new directives submitted July 18.
“An (institution within the health network) can communicate in English exclusively with a person” provided that they meet two criteria:
- They have been “issued the document Déclaration d’admissibilité à recevoir l’enseignement en anglais du ministère de l’Éducation du Québec,” otherwise known as the English-language eligibility certificate.
- They must also “expressly request” English services.
Until the directive was issued by the Health Ministry, no non-francophone Quebecer was required to produce an eligibility certificate to seek and receive medical services in English.
French Language Minister Jean-François Roberge responded to The Gazette’s series of articles on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying the directive allows anyone who wishes to receive health-care services in a language other than French to do so.
But his assistant chief of staff told The Gazette the government has no intention of dropping the new requirement the province’s “historic anglophones” produce an eligibility certificate from the Education Ministry to be allowed to communicate exclusively in English in the health sector.
Roberge also said on X “with the exception of members of the historic English-speaking community, the directive provides communications of an administrative nature or which do not compromise the health of the user must be in French.”
Which further confused matters, and convinced many they had better get their certificate. Roberge has promised to speak with English community leaders to listen to their concerns and clarify issues. On Thursday, the Quebec Community Groups Network said Roberge had not yet responded to their requests for clarifications.
So how do you get a certificate?
Under the Charter of the French Language, a child living in Quebec is eligible to attend English primary or secondary school if they themselves, one of their siblings or one of their parents did the majority of their elementary schooling in English in Canada. An eligibility certificate must be obtained from Quebec’s Education Ministry to register at an English primary or secondary school.
However, to obtain a certificate, the child must still be in either elementary or high school, a representative from the Ministry of Education told The Gazette.
“It is not possible to obtain a certificate once elementary and high school studies are completed,” said the representative of the department overseeing English language certificate eligibility.
What if you went to school in Quebec in English, but are not certain if you have a certificate, or have lost track of it?
If you went to elementary or high school in Quebec in English, chances are you’ve already been issued a certificate. You can check by calling the Eduction Ministry at 514-873-3399, extension 5300, or emailing them at AEA-Mtl@education.gouv.qc.ca.
If you do have one, the ministry can send you a copy if you send them a copy of your birth certificate. You can also obtain it by going through the school board that was responsible for your school.
However, school board officials said they’re getting numerous calls about the certificates because many people need them for CEGEP applications because of new directives on French courses, but it’s unclear if those who have already left high school will be allowed to obtain them. The Ministry of Education voice message warns applicants to expect delays in obtaining a certificate because they’re dealing with many requests.
If you did not go to school in English in Quebec and never applied to receive a certificate, chances are you don’t have one.
What if you didn’t go to an English school in Quebec, even if you were eligible, and don’t have a certificate?
Reader Derek Heatherington told The Gazette he looked into getting his certificate this week after reading about the new directives, and was told he had a certificate because he did his schooling in English, and a copy could be sent to him. (Although he was told at first he could not have a copy because he was an adult.)
But his wife, who would have qualified for an English-language certificate because both her father and grandfather went to school in English, never applied for one because she did her schooling in French.
Now that she would like to get one in order to ensure she can receive information in English for health-care services, she has been told she cannot, because as an adult out of high school, she can no longer apply.
Heatherington’s wife is not alone.
According to the 2021 census, there were 304,000 children age five to 17 in Quebec who were eligible for instruction in English. Almost one-quarter of those — 23.8 per cent, or more than 72,000 — had never attended an English-language school. The census didn’t ask how many of those students had obtained an English eligibility certificate.
Meanwhile, Heatherington is going through the process of obtaining a copy of his certificate, but says while he waits, “I have to worry about if I have a heart attack and I’m in hospital, I can’t be treated in English because I don’t have my English-eligibility certificate with me.”
Does this mean thousands of Quebecers who would prefer to have their health information transmitted in English will not be allowed to because they are unable to get their eligibility certificates, even if they were legally allowed to have them?
It’s unclear. The Gazette sent this question to Roberge’s office on Friday. His press attaché sent an automated email saying he was on vacation and advising journalists to contact another press attaché. That press aide also responded with an automatic response, advising journalists to contact the first press aide The Gazette contacted.
![Bill 96 requires that all government workers, including those in hospitals and nursing homes, use French “systematically” in written and oral communications with their clients, with certain exceptions, like emergencies.]()
Roberge to meet anglo leaders amid concerns over health-care language directive![A new directive on the use of English in Quebec medical facilities would apply to institutions that have been granted bilingual status, such as Montreal's Jewish General Hospital, says one expert.]()
New language directive for Quebec hospitals denounced as 'dangerous'
Frédéric Bérard has been Counsel to the firm Gattuso Bouchard Mazzone since 2017.
Mtre Bérard holds a doctorate in law (LL.D., UdeM, Unanimous Mention of Excellence and Dean’s Honour List), a master’s degree in political science (M.A., McGill), a bachelor’s degree in law (L.L.B., UdeM, Dean’s Honour List), and did post-doctoral studies in philosophy at Université Laval.
He is the author of the essays La fin de l’État de droit ? (Coup de cœur Renaud-Bray, quadruple bestseller, Palmarès Gaspard), Droit à l’indépendance (Prix des libraires, double bestseller, translated into English and published internationally, Palmarès Gaspard), Canadian Charter and Language Rights : Pour en finir avec les mythes (Best-seller and finalist for the Donner Prize for best public policy book in Canada), Dérèglements politiques (Best-seller, Palmarès Gaspard), La terre est une poubelle en feu (Best-seller), La bêtise insiste toujours (Best-seller) and L’homme de paille. In February 2023, his monograph on the story of Omar Khadr was published by Éditions Saint-Jean.
He is a regular political and judicial columnist for the daily Métro, Cogeco, Radio-Canada, 104.7FM, Le Point Magazine, in, as well as being a guest commentator with other Quebec and Western media.
Mtre Bérard is the recipient of fourteen (14) awards for excellence in university teaching, including the André-Morel Faculty Excellence Award, the Excellence in Teaching Award (UdeM), and the Excellence in Teaching Award (McGill). He has also received a number of scholarships and fellowships over the course of his career, including those offered by SSHRC, McGill University Graduate Students, the Donner Foundation and the Université de Montréal (Jacques Brossard Grant and Lavery de Billy Grant). An award created by the Fonds étudiant pour la défense juridique des animaux (FEDJA) bears his name.
Founder and director of the National Observatory on Language Rights, Mtre Bérard is also a researcher at the Centre de recherche en droit public of the Université de Montréal, and served as Honorary President of the last edition of the Festival international de théâtre de Mont-Laurier, the largest of its kind in North America.
Author of some twenty articles in various scientific journals and co-author of the essay Précis d’interprétation législative, he has also given more than sixty lectures, including a TED Talk, in Canada and around the world, notably in Italy, France, the United Kingdom (Cambridge), Poland and Morocco. His work has been cited by the Quebec Superior Court, the Quebec Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada. In 2016, Les Libraires magazine considered him one of the “ten essayists under 40 who are transforming Quebec”. From 2016 to 2019, he served on the Board of Directors of the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF). In March 2019, he was appointed by the federal government to chair the national consultations on the reform Loi sur les langues officielles. In 2021, he served on the Expert Committee formed for the purpose of reforming the Act.
A member of the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec (FPJQ), he is the creator and host of Discussions de salon, a political talk show broadcast by Métro which has hosted the likes of Trudeau, Singh, Blanchet, Couillard, Lisée, Bérubé, Duceppe, Anglade and Nadeau-Dubois. Sometimes an international reporter, he has completed various reports in some twenty countries, covering Israel, Haiti, Colombia, the Netherlands, Costa Rica, Greece and Honduras, as well as the fate of the Brazilian favélas since Bolsonaro, Auschwitz, Guantanamo, the demonstrations of the Yellow Vests and those related to the recent Chilean popular revolt. This last video was selected for presentation at the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois.
Frédéric Bérard heads the firm’s team representing the Fédération Autonome de l’Enseignement (FAE) in its challenge of the constitutionality of the provisions of the Act respecting the secular nature of the State (Bill 21) as well as in its challenge of the decisions and measures taken by the government after it demanded that teachers return to class, despite the state of health emergency affecting Quebec.
Quebec health-care language directive open to constitutional challenge: Frédéric Bérard
"You are dividing people who do not need to be divided. It makes me sad," Montreal law professor says.
One of Quebec’s leading constitutional scholars has come out against a controversial linguistic directive regulating the province’s health care in English and other languages apart from French, warning the new rules are divisive and open to legal challenges before the courts.
Frédéric Bérard, co-founder of the Observatoire national en matière de droits linguistiques and a professor of law at the Université de Montréal, said the July 18 directive issued by Quebec’s Health Ministry likely violates both the Canadian and Quebec charters of rights and freedoms.
“There’s no doubt that French is the official language in Quebec, but we tend to forget that the anglophones have had constitutional rights, too, since 1867,” Bérard said, alluding to the Constitution Act of that year. “It’s not just that French is the official language, it’s minority rights as well.”
In that context, Bérard suggested, the language directive could be struck down in court, even though the Coalition Avenir Québec government invoked the notwithstanding clause preemptively in the Canadian Constitution to shield Bill 96 from anticipated judicial challenges. Although Bill 96 overhauled the Charter of the French Language, Bérard maintained what is at stake is not Bill 96 itself, but a linguistic directive.
And he argued the directive’s requirement that “historic anglophones” must have received an English eligibility certificate from school in order to communicate exclusively in English is an onerous burden that violates “security of the person” in the Constitution.
“If you take a look at Bill 96— and I’ve said the same thing since the beginning — it’s a bill that was botched,” Bérard said in an interview Friday.
“It was written very quickly, with a lot of mistakes. It’s unclear, it brings confusion, and when a law brings confusion, it creates arbitrariness. There was sort of a hole in Bill 96 about health services for anglophones.
“Remember when Premier (François) Legault was saying: ‘No, no, no, don’t worry, there will be no change for anglophones in terms of health services,’ and he said that many times. Why did he say that? He said that because some people like me and others said: ‘Your bill is unclear. It’s bringing confusion. And people in the hospitals won’t know how to react to your bill.’ This is why Premier Legault said: ‘No worries.’ ”
“Look what happened,” Bérard added. “It was unclear, they decided to fill the hole and how did they decide to do it? They decided to do it with some kind of directive, which is frankly dangerous in a way. In the sense that if you go to an emergency because you have this or that serious problem and you don’t have your (English eligibility) certificate, it’s no time to look for your papers.
“You have the right to security (of person) that is protected both by the Canadian and Quebec charter of rights,” Bérard continued. “Is that an encroachment to the right to security, asking to prove that they are real anglophones with that kind of paper before being served in English? I would say so, yes. So I think there is some kind of (legal) action that can be taken here under the charter.”
Bérard, a partner with the firm Gattuso Bouchard Mazzone, acknowledged Quebec would likely cite the notwithstanding clause in its defence of the new language rules regarding health.
“Even though the notwithstanding clause was invoked for the whole of Bill 96, here it’s not about Bill 96 itself,” he explained. “It’s about a directive. I’m not sure 100 per cent that the notwithstanding clause could apply to something else than Bill 96, let’s say, for instance, a directive in very specific matters. The attorney general of Quebec would probably invoke that, but I’m not 100 per cent sure that there is not a kind of hole here in the sense that it’s not Bill 96 that matters, it’s the directive. And the directive cannot invoke the notwithstanding clause because it’s not a law, it’s just a directive.
“Does (Bill 96) cover each and every case like the one I just gave you? (Of) this I’m not sure. Don’t forget that the directive is not a norm by itself. It’s just a way for the government to tell public servants how to react. You as a citizen, me as a citizen, we are not obliged to comply to a directive, right.”
Other legal experts like Eric Maldoff, however, contend that even if a judge were to overturn the directive — which is no easy feat — that would still not address the underlying problems with Bill 96.
The Health Ministry produced the directive in response to the adoption two years ago of Bill 96, which mandates that all government workers — including those in hospitals and nursing homes — use French “systematically” in written and oral communications with their clients, with certain exceptions, like emergencies. The directive’s objective was to clarify the exceptional situations in which English can be used in the health sector, but critics counter it does the opposite.
Facing a backlash from the anglophone community, French Language Minister Jean-François Roberge pledged on Wednesday to meet with representatives of the English-speaking community to listen to their concerns about the directive. But some anglo leaders are worried the meeting would be nothing more than a PR stunt by the Legault government, fearing the same result that occurred following sessions with McGill and Concordia universities last fall over tuition-fee increases for out-of-province students.
More than the legal questions, the CAQ government’s latest language policy shift fills Bérard’s heart with sadness.
“Where is the big gain here for the Quebec government? Why would you do that? Why would you ask people for their (English eligibility) certificate, especially when you know that this certificate is quite difficult to get by now. We all know that. When you’re trying to get your papers it’s like hell, even though as an anglophone you were born and raised in Quebec. It’s tough to get that paper.
Screenshot of directive stipulating anglophones must receive an eligibility certificate from the Education Ministry to be allowed English-only communications in health care.
“So you are adding some kind of pressure on public servants (and health professionals) who are trying to save people’s lives in some cases.,” he noted. “Why would you do that? The only answer is they’re trying to divide as much as they can the francophones and the anglophones. And you know what? I think this is very, very sad. Why is it sad? Because we’re not like that in Quebec.
“Even the Parti Québécois, which is a nationalist party which wants sovereignty, take a look at what its leaders said in the past. … Lucien Bouchard said (of anglophones) they are us. Lucien Bouchard also said, don’t forget that, it’s very important, when you go to the hospital and you need a blood test, you don’t need a language test. You cannot ask people for a language test when they’re in the hospital, especially when they are in the emergency. Why would you do that? It’s just a way for the (Legault government) to say,: ‘Listen, we’re tough cookies on language. We’re protecting French.’ Look what they did with the tuition fees (for out-of-province students). It’s ridiculous.
“You are dividing people who do not need to be divided,” Bérard concluded. “It makes me sad.”
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