So, did we all savour that sweet, if likely fleeting moment of unanimity brought on by yesterday's NDP-penned opposition day motion on French language education for immigrants to Quebec, which sailed through the Commons without even having to go through the bother of a recorded vote?
Here's the motion she's talking about:
Mr. Mulcair (Outremont), seconded by Mr. Godin (Acadie—Bathurst), moved, — That, in the opinion of the House, recognition that the Québécois form a nation within a united Canada means, in particular, that Quebec has the right to ensure that immigrants to Quebec must learn French first and foremost.
And here is the a brief account of the Supreme Court Decision that prompted it:
A group of Quebec immigrants has succeeded in striking down a controversial law that barred their children from entering English-language elementary schools.
This is the worst sort of pandering to Que. tribalism, and in essence serves to trap the children of immigrants(*) to Quebec in a French-speaking homeland surrounded by the great wild world. There was a time when none of the three major parties would have acceded to this rubbish. Now they're all doing it. For shame.
(*)Interesting: this piece claims a number of the students in question are are "native born French speakers who simply wanted to become bilingual."
