Featuring prominently in last weekend’s policy convention, the idea creates an unnecessary target on the party’s back during a period when it needs to rebuild.
The Flying Wallendas are a family of daredevil performers who for generations have done high-wire balancing acts without a safety net. They come to mind following the Quebec Liberal Party’s policy convention in Lévis last weekend.
How generous! The existing Canadian Constitution already has iron-clad guarantees protecting English education and access to services in the language. The provincial health services act ensures English-speaking Quebecers continue to have guarantees. And we have charters of rights.
What should be of concern is that a constitution that enshrines Bill 101 — a law to protect the language of the majority — in essence enshrines perpetual conflict between reinforced collective rights and individual or minority rights. In the hands of a hardline nationalist government that tries to go too far — in diminishing education rights, for example, or access to health care by invoking the collective rights of the majority — judges would be bound to interpret minority rights differently by giving disproportionate weight to constitutional rights of the majority.
Reconciliation between a Quebec government’s objectives to promote and protect French and respect for linguistic minority rights is a complicated and volatile debate. It’s a balancing act that has tripped up the Liberals many times, often upsetting those on both sides.
The Liberals have traditionally been the party of the economy and stable governance. With Quebec’s $11-billion deficit, prices soaring, a housing crisis, health-care woes, lack of teachers, there are so many fronts for the Liberals to attack that all Quebecers — regardless of language — agree need urgent attention.
The Liberals should be wary that many of the Wallendas unfortunately died over the years, or sustained very serious injuries.
Robert Libman is an architect and planning consultant who has served as Equality Party leader and MNA, mayor of Côte-St-Luc and a member of the Montreal executive committee.