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House Hansard - 276

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 6, 2024 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 276 - Feb/6/24
Mr. Rhéal Éloi Fortin (Rivière-du-Nord, BQ)
  • Feb/6/24 2:39:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, all three federalist parties voted against a bilingualism requirement for miscarriage of justice review commissioners. The Liberal parliamentary secretary and the NDP justified dropping the bilingualism requirement by saying it would stand in the way of hiring unilingual French-speaking commissioners. Frankly, unilingual francophones have never benefited from bilingualism taking a backseat, believe me. Are these parties really saying that it is impossible to find nine competent bilingual jurists out of 40 million Canadians?
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Context: House Hansard - 276 - Feb/6/24
Hon. Arif Virani (Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Lib.)
  • Feb/6/24 2:40:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, judges in Canada are extremely important. Their role is extraordinarily important. The need to be bilingual is a very important priority and not just for judges in Quebec, but for judges across Canada. When we took office in 2015, we revised the process for appointing judges. This includes the fact that bilingualism is a priority for us when it comes to assessing applications.
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Context: House Hansard - 276 - Feb/6/24
Mr. Rhéal Éloi Fortin (Rivière-du-Nord, BQ)
  • Feb/6/24 2:40:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary is not following his minister's instructions. Another excuse for giving up on bilingualism is that apparently it is too expensive. Yesterday, Radio‑Canada reported that it obtained a copy of a letter from the Privy Council announcing that it would take years and it would be very expensive to translate the documents produced for the Rouleau commission. It seems that the production of a simple index would cost too much too. This raises three questions for us. How much is bilingualism worth? How much is Canada prepared to pay for bilingualism? Most of all, have we ever heard anyone here complain about the cost of translation from French to English?
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Context: House Hansard - 276 - Feb/6/24
Hon. Randy Boissonnault (Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages, Lib.)
  • Feb/6/24 2:43:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is obvious that, on this Tuesday in the House of Commons, the Bloc Québécois is trying to pick a fight over language. I want everyone to know that I am a redeemed francophone. When I first landed at Campus Saint-Jean in Alberta in 1998, I could not speak French, but I learned French and now I am the Minister of Official Languages. I am proof that bilingualism is working in Canada.
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