Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette on Tuesday said the Coalition Avenir Québec government recognizes the anglophone community’s “invaluable contribution” to the province, amid tensions over language and constitutional issues. “I am saddened to learn that you question whether the Quebec state recognizes the legitimacy of the English-speaking community,” the minister told an anglophone community leader during a Tuesday evening National Assembly committee hearing
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The minister was responding to Sylvia Martin-Laforge, the director-general of TALQ, who was presenting the anglophone rights group’s brief at a hearing into the constitutional proposal. “As a minority community in Quebec, we need the support of a government that recognizes our legitimacy as a linguistic minority,” she told Jolin-Barrette.
“And quite frankly, minister, in recent years we have not felt that the government has recognized our legitimacy. So if a government can’t recognize our legitimacy as a minority, they will not invest in the priorities of the English-speaking community.”