AUTOMATIC MACHINE TRANSLATION
by https://turboscribe.ai/
Speaker 1
(0:00) Good afternoon. (0:02) My name is Martise Fossey, and I’m co-leader of the Canadian Party of Québec.
(0:06) Hello.
(0:06) My name is Martise Fossey, and I’m the co-leader of the Canadian Party of Québec.
(0:10) In June, my co-leader, Colin Standish, and I, sent a letter to all the political leaders in Canada demanding that the country prepare for the third referendum on Quebec’s independence.
(0:22) Indeed, the Parti Québécois promised that during its first anticipated mandate, there would be a third referendum on Quebec’s independence.
(0:30) Given the fact that the Parti Québécois is currently leading the electoral polls, it is already too late to prevent a referendum.
(0:37) So, Canada must prepare.
(0:40) All citizens across Canada deserve that the preparations for Canada’s reaction and those of other countries take no longer.
(0:48) Everyone must better understand what to expect following a vote for separation.
(0:53) The consequences of the last referendum of 1995.
(0:57) The last referendum highlighted, among other things, the lack of preparation in the event of a vote for separation.
(1:03) In a letter written in 1997, following the failure of the 1995 referendum, the former Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Stéphane Dion, to his counterpart, Péquist Jacques Brassard, wrote, “Our governments could also be forced to find arrangements that would not impose secession on populations who do not want it.
(1:22) If you had won the last referendum, we would have been forced to address this issue while no one was prepared.
(1:29) The Parti Canadien du Québec wants to underline three key points around the question of the last referendum.
(1:35) 1.
(1:36) Indigenous peoples held a series of their own referendums organized before the Quebec referendum in 1995, the results of which demonstrate their undeniable desire to stay in Canada.
(1:48) So it was possible at the time to prevent the separation of the regions recognized by Canadian law.
(1:54) 2.
(1:55) After the 1995 referendum, 43 municipalities in Quebec adopted resolutions aimed at remaining Canadian.
(2:02) So it was possible at the time to divide Quebec territory according to the rights of refusal.
(2:06) 3.
(2:07) In the 1970s, Switzerland adopted a series of referendums to address the complex issue of determining the borders of the new Jura canton, created from the current canton of Bern.
(2:18) So at the time, it was possible to protect the rights of everyone in a peaceful and democratic way.
(2:24) The Parti Canadien du Québec is committed to protecting the rights and responsibilities of a democratic people.
(2:30) First, let’s talk about enlightened consent.
(2:33) Before voting whether or not they want Quebecers to separate from Canada, Quebeckers must know what to expect, what they are committed to, what they will lose, what they will retain.
(2:44) It is imperative to ensure enlightened consent before voting. (2:49) It would be irresponsible and anti-democratic to vote with our eyes closed without knowing what we are committed to.
(2:54) Just as a doctor does not make a gesture to the patient before making sure he has obtained enlightened consent, enlightened consent can only be obtained once all the risks and benefits of any gesture or treatment have been communicated and well received with the patient.
(3:10) The patient has the right to refuse to give his consent for any intervention without prejudice. (3:15) This brings us to the right of refusal. (3:17) The right of refusal without prejudice.
(3:20) And what about the right of refusal of people who identify as part of the Canadian nation that currently resides in Quebec? (3:26) Individuals who want to retain their Canadian citizenship, but who do not want to change their geographical home in the event of a separation. (3:32) What do we do with them?
(3:33) Do they have the right to refuse to leave Canada in the event of a vote for the separation of Quebec? (3:38) And what about municipalities that adopted resolutions for Canadian domains at the end of the 1990s? (3:45) Municipalities that today are not even recognized by the provincial government.
(3:49) Who will recognize their right of refusal? (3:53) The rights and responsibilities of international relations with individuals and companies that refuse to leave Canada. (3:59) What will be the effect of a separation on international relations?
(4:03) A company that wants to continue production or sales in Quebec, but does not want to leave Canadian law for the regulation of companies. (4:10) What does it do? (4:11) If it has to leave, will it have the right to pursue Quebec’s judiciary for damages?
(4:17) The rest of Canada must be concerned. (4:20) Canadians outside of Quebec also deserve to know what will happen to their country in the event of a separation. (4:26) Interprovincial relations will change.
(4:27) Education will change. (4:29) Health services will change. (4:31) Citizens deserve to know how their government will react now to prevent the chaos, the upheaval at the economic level across the country.
(4:39) How will the Canadian government prevent future referendums to establish, once and for all, the Canadian unity? (4:48) It is in this perspective that the Canadian Party of Quebec addresses the following points to all political leaders in Canada. (4:54) In the approach of the third referendum, which has nothing hypothetical given the current threats and the realities of two previous traumatic events, Canada and Canadians must be fully prepared.
(5:05) The Canadian Party of Quebec requires that, before any future provincial referendum on Quebec’s independence, the Government of Canada organize a federal referendum in Quebec based on the following question. (5:18) As a member of the Canadian people in Quebec, do you agree that the Government of Quebec and the Government of Canada separate Canadians and your local territory from Canada in the event of a yes to any Quebec referendum on independence or provincial cessation? (5:36) The Canadian Party of Quebec also requires a survey by scrutiny to ensure that the results of such a federal referendum constitute the basis of arrangements that would not impose cessation on populations who do not want it.
(5:49) The Canadian Party of Quebec therefore asks itself, if such a peaceful and democratic mechanism was good enough for Switzerland less than 50 years ago, why wouldn’t it be good enough for Canada today? (6:00) If such a mechanism has already allowed Indigenous nations to assert their rights of refusal and recognition, why wouldn’t it be good enough for the Canadian-Quebec nation? (6:10) We therefore ask that the federal government representatives provide their support for the implementation of a survey by scrutiny of federal electoral circumstances in Quebec in order to better protect the rights of accelerated consent, the rights of refusal and the rights of recognition.
(6:27) Thank you. (6:28) And now I will hand over the podium to my colleague Will Toulon. (6:32) He is from Pontiac.
Speaker 2
(6:36) Hello and thank you. (6:37) My name is Will Toulon, the Canadian Party and youth critic. (6:40) I hail from Pontiac, Quebec, a beautiful region and our nation’s national capital region.
(6:44) The same Pontiac where the state Canadian movement was born back in 1996 and where the state Canadian motion was passed throughout the majority of our municipalities. (6:56) The Pontiac and Quebec in general are no stranger to having the Quebec government play anglophone and francophone against each other. (7:06) This has continued with recent legislation and the passage of Bills 96, 21 and 40.
(7:12) These unconstitutional and un-Canadian Bills have been met with no pushback from the federal government or the Prime Minister, the same Prime Minister and Cabinet with the mandate to defend the Canadian Charter. (7:26) Alarmingly, these unconstitutional Bills have been passed in the province where both the PM and Speaker of the House gain their seats. (7:33) Now, if the Prime Minister and government wish to sit idly by with the passages of these legislation, then I ask them to allow for a federal referendum in Quebec to allow the people to decide their path forward.
(7:47) A federal referendum allowing the same notion of staying Canadian before the separatists jeopardize our country’s unity. (7:55) My message is to the Prime Minister, do your job. (8:00) Uphold the Charter or allow there to be a federal referendum in Quebec for declared regions to stay Canadian.
(8:05) It has become painfully clear that the only time Quebec enjoys the word equality is when it’s used as it collects equalization payments that it receives from the rest of Canada. (8:17) We need to ensure the Charter of Canadian Rights and Freedoms is protected in Quebec and upheld. (8:23) This referendum is vital for youth to stay in Canada and remain in the country they love.
(8:29) For too long, the youth have left their home province because of this. (8:33) Thank you. (8:34) I now pass it over to the leader of the Canadian Party of Quebec, Colin Standish.
Speaker 1
(8:51) We are the Canadian Party of Quebec. (8:54) I am co-leader Colin Standish and I’m standing with Myrtus Fossey to my left, party co-leader, and Will Toulon, youth critic, to my right. (9:01) And as well joined by Keith Henderson, a member of our board of directors, former leader of the Equality Party of Quebec.
(9:07) Myrtus is a psychologist from Bill St-Laurent. (9:08) Will hails from the Pontiac region as a student at the University of Ottawa. (9:12) Keith is a former professor at Vanier College.
(9:17) The Canadian Party, an official provincial political party in Quebec, offers a bold, forward-looking, federalist vision of Quebec to encourage a renaissance that makes our province a major economic, cultural and linguistic rights hub for Canada and all of North America. (9:32) We are serious, established, responsible citizens who have been abandoned by the mainstream political parties, federalist and provincial. (9:40) And we believe Quebecers deserve a better option.
(9:44) We have created a political party since 2022 to speak on behalf of people orphaned by the political process. (9:51) English speakers, allophones, French speakers, Indigenous peoples and visible minorities. (9:59) We are looking to our communities and all of Quebec society for support and input to our next steps.
(10:05) We are a party that stands for decency, fairness and respect for rights. (10:08) In particular, we stand for minority rights, Indigenous rights, linguistic rights, religious freedoms, bilingualism and national unity. (10:17) We are here today to implore the Government of Canada, Members of Parliament, Senators, Ministers of the Crown, Members of the Privy Council and all Canadians to take definitive action to protect the interests of Canada and Canadians in the province of Quebec.
(10:30) A profound constitutional revolution has transpired since 2019. (10:35) Where the Government of Quebec has seized jurisdictions, notably labour and intellectual property, has a new constitutional status that no other province has, formally assists in appointing Supreme Court Justices from Quebec, and with not just federal acquiescence, but with the complicity in undermining the legal, constitutional and moral fundamentals that bind Canada together as a country. (10:59) These changes place the arbitrary dictates of a party in power in Quebec’s legislature at the pinnacle of the determination of human and civil rights, unbounded from the protective framework that governs all other Canadian provinces.
(11:10) This revolution is insidious and appears to be aimed at undermining the ability for Canada to survive and function as a coherent nation-state. (11:19) Some of the most significant aspects that have transpired in the past five years are Bill 96 and other associated legislation spoken about by my colleagues, Bill 21, Bill 40 and also the Oath Act, our fundamental and illegitimate restructuring of our society, province and country. (11:35) As well, Bill 96 in particular surgically excises the English language, speakers, their institutions and associated civil and human rights from the province of Quebec.
(11:45) Bill 96 additionally diminishes the civil and human rights and fundamental freedoms of all Quebeckers, regardless of mother tongue or language of choice and ethnic background. (11:54) In particular, the rights of Quebec’s First Nations and Inuit communities are also diminished. (11:58) The proposed unilateral constitutional amendment in itself is of course unconstitutional and ill-advised public policy.
(12:05) Changes to Bill 101’s interpretive framework alongside Bill 96, the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms and other provincial laws will distort fundamental freedoms and human rights for decades and centuries to come if they are not changed. (12:18) Freedom of expression, commercial expression and practice, work and employment, contractual liberty and educational freedom are further constrained for all Quebeckers, regardless of linguistic group. (12:28) Bill 96 and the Oath Act, including the implied restructuring of our constitution and Quebec’s legal status.
(12:35) Taken as a whole, the terms Quebec nation, only French-speaking state, state, parliamentary sovereignty, parliament of Quebec and Quebec spelled erroneously with an accent aigu, all seem to be factually, legally, constitutionally, politically and morally confer and imply an illegitimate legal status that Quebec does not have. (12:52) Additionally, the aspects of Bill 96 which report to confer some unique and singular officialdom on the French language are either declaratory and symbolic or of no legal force and effect. (13:00) These matters are simply outside the legislative competence of the Quebec legislature.
(13:07) The two proclamations of nationhood are seemingly defined solely by the French language and they are twofold. (13:13) Quebec nation, Quebec is recognized as a province with a defined territory, defined jurisdictions and legal status in the 1867 constitution that territorializes the concept of nationhood. (13:22) Nation is once again inserted in the constitution within a binary power structure.
(13:26) Federal government and provincial governments, a nation, is not contemplated in our constitutional framework. (13:32) As well, these legislations declare that French is the only official language of Quebec in the sense that it is clearly in reference to a legally defined province of Quebec. (13:41) These two proclamations of nationhood are seemingly defined solely by the French language.
(13:46) These amendments clearly amend and contradict section 133 of the 1867 constitution which accords equality of status in English and French in Quebec’s legislature, courts, legislation and regulations. (13:56) When will the government of Quebec act? (13:59) When will Prime Minister Justin Trudeau take a look in the mirror and realize that he is not standing up for fundamental freedoms in the province he represents?
(14:06) The time is now to allow Canadians in Quebec to choose to remain Canadian in territory, rights and freedoms. (14:12) Thank you.