Hanes: So much for a fresh start under Fréchette for CAQ and anglos

There has been a running joke in the last few weeks that Premier Christine Fréchette is the new leader of the Collaboration Avenir Québec.

She has been pledging greater co-operation with everyone from the federal government to Indigenous Peoples to municipalities since replacing François Legault as premier and leader of the Coalition Avenir Québec last month, prompting this play on the party name.

But if English-speaking Quebecers thought they were included in this new spirit of partnership after enduring nearly eight years of often rocky relations with the CAQ government, they will surely be disappointed, though unsurprised, to see nothing much has changed.

The first piece of legislation the Fréchette administration tabled was a bill on Wednesday to renew the notwithstanding clause early on the CAQ’s language legislation adopted in 2022, a major bone of contention for anglophones. The constitutional override, which was deployed pre-emptively on Bill 96 to shelter it from court challenges, needs to be reactivated every five years. But it doesn’t expire until 2027.

Kicking off a five-week legislative session with this unnecessary manoeuvre should be a warning sign to English-speaking Quebecers that Fréchette’s government has the same disregard for rights and the same exclusionary brand of nationalism as her predecessor.

Christine Fréchette felt the love when she was elected leader of the Coalition Avenir Québec in April. Given her early actions as premier, anglos and other minority communities may be wondering how much the party has changed under her command. John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette

Next, the new premier wants to extend the Charter of the French Language to adult and vocational training schools, potentially opening a new front in the ongoing battle over who is eligible for English education.

Worse for anglophones — and indeed all Quebecers — is that she appears to be keeping the door open on adopting the CAQ’s controversial constitution before the National Assembly breaks for the summer ahead of a fall election.

Fréchette is clearly looking to burnish her nationalist cred within her own party and among the electorate who might be considering the sovereignist Parti Québécois come October.

She is also trying to back the Quebec Liberals into a corner, while attempting to make new leader Charles Milliard look weak on protecting French after he said he would renew the constitutional shield on Bill 96, then nuanced his stance amid concern from his caucus and the English-speaking community.

In her inaugural speech Tuesday and in her first face-to-face meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney last month, Fréchette gave an impassioned defence of the notwithstanding clause as being essential to Quebec’s autonomy and parliamentary sovereignty.

She said when she hears political parties and civil society groups denounce its use, “it worries me because it’s the most important democratic tool for our nation to express the will of the Quebec people. Thanks to this tool, we can affirm loud and clear who we are.”

The sparing use of the constitutional override is indeed a security blanket for the provinces, a historic compromise and a measure of last resort. The problem is the CAQ government has been leading the charge in triggering it pre-emptively and with increasing frequency to simply nullify fundamental rights.

Its proactive use on Bill 21, Quebec’s initial secularism law, was just the subject of a landmark case before the Supreme Court of Canada, which held four days of hearings in March. Clearly, Fréchette isn’t waiting to see the implications of the eventual ruling before locking down Bill 96 for another five years.

Her haste shows that Fréchette, too, cares less about the rights of Quebecers, be they anglophones or religious minorities, than she does about a tool to allow governments to ignore them so legislation can be enacted that wouldn’t otherwise pass the smell test.

She is embracing the unfortunate ethos of the Legault era: that there’s no way to protect French, secularism, shared values and autonomy without trampling the rights of those not included in the narrow view of the Quebec nation — so tant pis.

So much for her pragmatic and constructive approach.

It might be tempting to write this off as political posturing — except that Fréchette breathed new life into the CAQ’s moribund plan to adopt a constitution for Quebec before the National Assembly rises for the summer. Beyond a revival of tiresome identity politics, such a move would be troubling for the rights of all Quebecers.

The constitution was Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette’s baby, whipped up without any input or consultation beforehand. When parliamentary hearings were held on Bill 1, groups from the Barreau du Québec to anglophone umbrella organization TALQ warned it was a power grab that would shore up the authority of government at the expense of the rights of the people — the opposite of what a constitution should do.

Almost 800 groups from a cross-section of civil society called the constitution “an attack on democracy and human rights” and demanded its withdrawal.

Fréchette was ambivalent about passing the “law of laws” during her leadership bid and it seemed destined to die a slow death once she became premier — until Tuesday, when she seemed to throw Jolin-Barrette a lifeline.

“We need this constitution for Quebec,” Fréchette said. “If we work all together, seriously and with rigour, we will be able to give Quebecers a constitution they can be proud of.”

Even though Jolin-Barrette announced concessions to recognize the rights of anglophones in Bill 1, the whole constitution is flawed and dangerous. Fréchette should think long and hard if she is seriously entertaining ramming it through.

It might have been naive for anglos tired of being scapegoated to expect a fresh start under Fréchette. Despite her reassuring words about more collaboration, her actions signal more of the same.

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Allison Hanes

I started at The Montreal Gazette in 2000 as an intern. Since then I have covered the National Assembly and courts, worked on the assignment desk and written editorials, before debuting as city columnist in 2017.

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