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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 195

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 11, 2023 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 195 - May/11/23
Mr. Peter Julian (New Westminster—Burnaby, NDP)
  • May/11/23 10:34:59 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there is one thing we both agree on, and that is that Quebeckers are generous and welcoming. I know that first-hand, having lived there for two years. We do agree on that. The NDP is not taking any lessons from the Bloc Québécois when it comes to strikebreakers. Pierre Karl Péladeau is the biggest strikebreaker in Quebec and in Canada, as we well know. As the Bloc Québécois knows very well, the NDP has forced the government to table anti-scab legislation, which it will do in the coming months. We will see if the Bloc Québécois is willing to accept this legislation. My colleague talked about risks and ghettos. Sadly, this is an echo of the discourse used by the French far right. However, he did not mention the increase in the global francophone population. A generation from now, the global francophone population will reach 500 million, or half a billion. We need these people here, too. They are nurses and doctors. They are people from the Senegalese, Cameroonian, Congolese, Algerian and Moroccan communities. These are people we want to welcome here. The problem is not what the leader of the Bloc Québécois says it is. The problem is that we have a federal government that has failed at meeting the francophone immigration targets. An NDP government will do that. It is important. Can we at least agree on the fact that the francophone immigration targets should be met?
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Context: House Hansard - 195 - May/11/23
Mr. Peter Julian (New Westminster—Burnaby, NDP)
  • May/11/23 1:42:54 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have two questions for my colleague. This morning, I was saddened to hear the leader of the Bloc Québécois using the same kind of language that the French far right uses when discussing this topic. I thought that was extremely inappropriate. I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on that. The other aspect is the government's failure to meet its francophone immigration targets. We know that the world's francophone population is surging. There will be half a billion francophones on the planet by 2050. That population represents our opportunity to get professionals here, the people we need to come fuel our economy and allow Quebec to remain a strong francophone society, and for francophone communities across the country to grow as well, like in my home province of British Columbia. Francophone immigrant communities enrich British Columbian society in an extraordinary way, with schools that are—
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