Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, of the posh Montreal riding of Westmount, stood alone — literally — with no one else in his corner.
The vote was 300 to 1.
Housefather was the one.
Not only was he voting against his own party, but he was also voting against the majority of the House of Commons and its Bill C-13 to revamp the Official Languages Act and to protect what little remained of anglophone rights in la belle province.
Housefather’s defiance came after groups representing anglophone Quebecers vehemently objected to Bill C-13, saying it’s a blow to Quebec’s linguistic minority.
“Someone needed to remind the House and Canadians that the fears of Quebec’s English-speaking community were not resolved and a unanimous vote in favour of the bill would have brushed aside those concerns,” Housefather said after the vote.
He was one of several Liberal MPs to resist parts of the bill in recent months but the only one to vote against it.
“I promise that even when it is personally difficult for me, I will always stand up for what I believe in and for those who elected me,” he said, noting thousands of constituents reached out to him.
The Liberal government says Bill C-13 — officially known as An Act for the Substantive Equality of Canada’s Official Languages — is a much-needed modernization of federal linguistic legislation.
Among other things, it gives employees a right to work and to be served in French in federally regulated businesses in Quebec, such as banks and transport companies. This responds to a demand from all parties represented in Quebec’s National Assembly.
Quebec Language Minister Jean-François Roberge said the bill’s adoption was good news.
“Bill C-13 must now pass the Senate, quickly, and in its current form,” he said on Twitter.
Housefather said he agrees French should be promoted and protected.
He added, however, that the federal bill took a wrong turn by referring to Quebec’s Bill 96, the biggest overhaul of language legislation since Bill 101, the Charter of the French Language, in 1977.
Adopted last year, Bill 96 further restricts the use of English in Quebec in a bid to boost the French language.
In that bill, Premier François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec pre-emptively invoked the notwithstanding clause in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which allows governments to override constitutionally guaranteed rights without fear of court challenges.
Housefather said including Bill 96 in federal law could harm a federal court challenge of the pre-emptive use of the notwithstanding clause. In such a case, Quebec could defend itself by “noting the federal Parliament passed a bill that positively referenced (Bill 96) on three occasions,” Housefather said.
He said he’s also concerned about Bill 96’s implications for federal services in English in Quebec.
There’s a fear, for example, that a future federal government could “acquiesce to a demand from Quebec to, for instance, limit federal services in English to those people who are eligible for provincial services in English under the Charter of the French Language.”
Bill 96 “will erode, erase and extinguish the fundamental freedoms of all Quebecers, be they French speakers or English speakers, newcomers or First Nations (and) Inuit Peoples,” said Colin Standish in a statement as leader of the Canadian Party of Quebec.
“The bill deliberately deinstitutionalizes and delegitimizes the English language and English speakers in Quebec, to the detriment of all its residents.”
Standish’s party, known as CaPQ for short, was launched a year ago ahead of the fall provincial election. The party didn’t win any seats.
Housefather’s No Vote was described as “courageous” by Eva Ludvig, president of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), which represents 40 anglophone groups.
She said it was also encouraging to see the abstention by Liberal MP Sherry Romanado of Longueil—Charles-Lemoyne. Romanado is the deputy government house leader.
Enacting C-13 “would mark a clear retreat from 50 years of official-language policy that has recognized the equality Canada’s two official-language communities have before the law,” Ludvig added.
If that’s the case, then the retreat is on.
