Making Quebec bilingual: 'What a lack of respect,' says Jolin-Barrette of the idea

Quebec Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette added his voice to the Bloc Québécois and Conservatives in Ottawa who are outraged by comments made by Liberal MP Angelo Iacono, who said Quebec would benefit from becoming an officially bilingual province rather than having only French as its official language.

Quebec Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette added his voice to the Bloc Québécois and Conservatives in Ottawa who are outraged by comments made by Liberal MP Angelo Iacono, who said Quebec would benefit from becoming an officially bilingual province rather than having only French as its official language.

"What a lack of respect," said Barrette, who steered the reform of the Charter of the French Language, also known as Bill 96, on X on Friday.

"No. Quebec is and will remain a French-speaking state. That's what sets it apart. The federal government is always there to defend diversity, but when it comes to defending Quebec's uniqueness, it's nowhere to be found."

Iacono made the controversial remarks Thursday evening at a meeting of the Standing Committee on Official Languages in Ottawa.

"I believe that Quebec, and I believe that Canada, should be a bilingual country, to be stronger and not just a unilingual French-speaking province, because then you're going to shut out the others who want to learn French," he said.

The MP, who represents the riding of Alfred-Pellan, was one of several Liberals who took turns in an apparent attempt at parliamentary filibustering to prevent a vote to have the committee call for the expulsion of their colleague Francis Drouin for calling language protection witnesses "full of crap" earlier this month.

The subject soon came up in the House of Commons.