The Trudeau government has been accused of “bulldozing” language reform officials

Liberal MP Francis Drouin filed a motion with the Standing Committee on Official Languages ​​on Monday to force the start of clause-by-clause study of the bill no later than June 20, and it will end the next day.

In case this work is not done – which is almost certain – the representative of the party in power proposed that all remaining amendments be voted on. immediately and successively, without further debate.

The motion notably provided for the addition of meetings in the coming days to complete 15 hours of meetings before the clause-to-clause study began.

The government has dragged its feet for seven years. Then now he wants to bulldozer the bill, which pursues it, which prevents real debateexclaimed in the scrum the second vice-president of the committee, the bloquiste Mario Beaulieu.

The Official Language Act has not really been amended in 53 years, he insisted, adding that we should take the time to debate, talk to witnesses and study clause by clause.

For the committee’s first vice-chairman, curator Joël Godin, it was mathematically impossible for us to pass this bill before the end of the session.

” It doesn’t make sense. It’s an elephant, the Official Languages ​​Act, and you have to take the time to do things right. “

Mr. Godin said he believes this could happen by the end of the year.

Is the time out?

But a minority government has limited life expectancy, MP Drouin defended, when asked by the media.

” It is a minority government. We do not know. Yes, there is a four -year agreement, but the story is 18 months, in principle. “

The danger then is very real, according to him, that C-13 will die in the soap opera. For me, it’s important to do everything we can to bring it at least to the third reading and then we’ll see. The Senate will do what it does.

Mr. Drouin said there have been discussions with another party and he thought he had an agreement to pass his motion. And what is this other party? The NDP.

I don’t know what Mr. is saying. Drouinlaunched MP Niki Ashton, the spokesperson for the New Democratic Party (NDP), shortly after.

He also slammed the government for not respecting the work of the committees and the work of MPs to improve the bill.

” Instead of seeing goodwill on the part of the Liberals, we see that they are playing political games, and that is a huge shame because we all know this is a historic moment. “

Members debated the motion for over an hour. The debate ended with a vote leading to the adjournment of the debate.

The Federation of Francophone and Acadian Communities (FCFA) of Canada, for its part, said it was disappointed that the motion had not been adopted. The Francophone advocacy group fears the committee’s study will take several months.