SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 176 - Mar/30/23

Mr. René Villemure (Trois-Rivières, BQ)

Mar/30/23 5:36:18 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, [Member spoke in English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Arabic and Turkish] [Translation] There are roughly 7,000 languages in the world. There is Aba, French, Bikol, Chabacano, Mandarin, Spanish, Artsi which is spoken by just a few thousand people, Kamchadal and Puelche. These are all languages that are for someone, somewhere, a mother language. A language is a system of expression common to a group. Obviously, when we add mother to it we are talking about the idea of transmission, the idea of community, the idea of being together and living together. The study of language falls under linguistics, but is also a philosophy that I quite like and that I had the good fortune of studying for many years: the philosophy of language. We study language to extract ideas. My colleagues surely know, as I do, Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein, an Austrian author I am fond of. Like all my colleagues, we ask questions when we study philosophy. For example, we might ask about the origin of language. That is not an absurd question. It requires a lot of thought on our part. What is the relationship between language and reality? That is another question. I am sure that is all my colleagues talk about at parties. What is the relationship between language and thought? What is the relationship between language and knowledge? What is the relationship between language and other forms of expression? What is communication? Does the multiplicity of languages lead to the multiplicity of ways of thinking? Why is there not just one language? We have all heard about Babel. The Bible provides an explanation. It seems that in certain climates, under certain circumstances, people were made to speak in different languages and then, suddenly, to understand one another. The mother language is the first language learned, the one that guides us, allows us to learn, to understand and, sometimes, to lose ourselves in the moment. We have to be careful, because these days there is often a very strong temptation to speak English. I am not talking about Shakespeare's English, but rather what I call airport English. This form of the English language tends to reduce us to a certain kind of single-mindedness. As Orwell said, the fewer the words, the smaller the temptation to take thought. People who speak only one language must be able to transcend perfect conformity. However, globalization has resulted in a kind of single-mindedness, of conformity, which, in a way, prevents a mother language from fully flourishing. Single-mindedness means the death of literature, the death of poetry and, I am sure my colleagues will agree, the death of artistic sensibility. Please hold the applause. I want to come back to Wittgenstein, who said that what we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence. It would be so interesting to apply that maxim here, but I will not draw any conclusions. Aristotle, meanwhile, said that the human being is the only animal with the gift of speech, and to speak is to communicate. I want to come back to the topic of mother languages and say that a person's mother tongue allows them to evolve from silence to existence. The mother tongue allows us to understand, to learn, to surprise and even to be surprised. It is the first language a child learns, and I believe that everyone has a right to that. That is why, of course, the Bloc Québécois will support the idea of creating an international mother language day. In conclusion, I believe my colleagues have all understood the essence of my remarks. As my friend reminded me, Aristotle said that the human being is the only animal endowed with language. Language is what allows humans, but not animals, to convey judgments and values. In fact, it is paramount for the organization of a community. Because we are animals with language, humans are political animals, which allows us to assert, propose and promote our ideas.

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Context: House Hansard - 176 - Mar/30/23

Mr. René Villemure (Trois-Rivières, BQ)

Mar/30/23 6:12:56 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I really like debating in the House, and I am pleased to know that the Leader of the Opposition and I share a love of Orwell. Orwell said, and I quote, “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” We know how Orwell defined freedom of expression, but how does my colleague from Carleton define it?

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Context: House Hansard - 176 - Mar/30/23

Mr. René Villemure (Trois-Rivières, BQ)

Mar/30/23 6:48:03 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, there is a guarantee that private companies cannot be held responsible for the comments that third parties post on their platforms. At the same time, the act already strengthens the protection of personal information. I would like to know why the Conservatives are saying that freedom of expression is threatened when the companies have the duty to leave the comments online.

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Context: House Hansard - 176 - Mar/30/23

Mr. René Villemure (Trois-Rivières, BQ)

Mar/30/23 7:04:16 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. I really appreciate his speeches. However, I would like him to set aside the briefing notes provided by Michael Geist and tell us how he himself defines censorship.

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Context: House Hansard - 176 - Mar/30/23

Mr. René Villemure (Trois-Rivières, BQ)

Mar/30/23 7:22:46 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for North Okanagan—Shuswap for his speech, which contained many elements. I would like to ask him to summarize in a few sentences the speech in question as I could not follow it because of the many interruptions.

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