Premier Legault should be more ‘humane’ if he wants to avoid being a laughingstock

QUÉBEC CITY—Spare a moment of sympathy, if you can, for Quebec Premier François Legault. As I drove by his office here this week, I could not help but feel sorry for him. By his own admission, he had a “bad day” last week. In his attempts to make Quebec more in his own nationalist image, he and his Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) party have stumbled badly over three delicate dossiers: immigration, education, and anglophones. The CAQ, in a follow-up to Bill 21, the law that insists “persons in authority” should not wear religious clothing, is seeking to cut immigration to Quebec. This in spite of a booming economy desperately in need of workers. As he strives to only get the best immigrants, minister Simon Jolin-Barrette came up with a test of “Quebec values.” Last year, the CAQ promised immigrants who failed such a test would be deported, even if they had been in Canada for several years. Oops. It seems the CAQ brainiacs did not know only the federal government can deport people. So, the new test is to be taken before immigrating, only by those applying under the “economic” category. It is also “fail proof”—it can be taken with an open book, can be failed a couple of times, and the pass mark is 75 per cent. Then the minister and the premier had to walk back proposed changes to a popular immigration program, the Quebec Experience Program, known as PEQ, which fast-tracks foreign students into permanent residency. Jolin-Barrette decided to take a hatchet to the program, and make it retroactive for students in disciplines that are not “economic,” like social sciences, thus sending them home. Before you could say “xenophobia,” a phalanx of affected students showed up at the National Assembly to plead their case to stay, many sobbing. Legault appreciated what Jolin-Barrette was trying to do, but suggested his protégé should be more “humane” in his application of policy. As if no one could ever imagine policy affecting actual people. Then the government decided to place the troubled English Montreal School Board under trusteeship. While there are serious issues of administrative competence at the EMSB, it is the same board that is taking the government to court over Bill 21, in support of teachers who wear hijabs. So much for revenge being “a dish best served cold.” When the government said it would somehow strengthen the French language by refusing to provide Hydro bills and services to all but “historic anglophones,” English speakers in Quebec were confused: they wanted to know, what was a “historic Anglophone?” Would they need an ID card to prove their right to services? And how could they prove they merited services over the phone? Was there a code word? The premier was only too happy to explain it was based on the criteria of Bill 101, the French Language Charter. “If your parents went to English school, you have rights in Quebec. If you're a new immigrant, we have to talk with them in French." This of course, excludes people who use English as a common language, people from English-speaking countries who came to Quebec since Bill 101 was passed in 1978, and others of the 1.2-million “Anglos” who don’t fit that description. For example, my son just moved to Quebec from Ottawa and is working in French for a multinational company. Although English is his mother tongue, he took all his primary and secondary education in French in Geneva and Ottawa, so he is not eligible to send children to English school. According to Premier Legault, he also can’t get services in English should he ask. Meanwhile, a friend of mine here in Québec City has two sons who went to English school, although their mother tongue is French. So they have a right to English education and services. On my mother’s side, thanks to her francophone great-grandmother, I can say my family first settled in Québec City in 1640. But my father’s father came to Montreal from Dublin in 1900. I am always happy to speak French with Quebec bureaucrats to make them feel at ease. So, am I a “historic anglophone?” I guess so. Are my children? Who knows? I am not sure if Premier Legault knows how bad a week he had, but if he and his ministers keep this up, eventually they will be a laughingstock in the international media. It couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch. Andrew Caddell is retired from Global Affairs Canada, where he was a senior policy adviser. He previously worked as an adviser to Liberal governments. He is a fellow with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and a principal of QIT Canada. He can be reached at pipson52@hotmail.com. The Hill Times

Premier Legault should be more ‘humane’ if he wants to avoid being a laughingstock

I am not sure if Premier Legault knows how bad a week he had, but if he and his ministers keep this up, eventually they will be a laughingstock in the international media.

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Premier Legault should be more ‘humane’ if he wants to avoid being a laughingstock

I am not sure if Premier Legault knows how bad a week he had, but if he and his ministers keep this up, eventually they will be a laughingstock in the international media.

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