Leslie Roberts: Quebec needs a government that can be trusted to respect Anglo rights

Anglo-Quebecers protest in support of English schools, in Montreal in 2019. Photo by John Kenney/MONTREAL GAZETTE

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Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, the leader of the separatist Parti Québécois, has asked National Post to publish exclusively his open letter to Quebec’s anglophone community, ahead of a fall election that polls suggest his party will win. The Post is publishing that alongside this response from a leader of the anglophone community he is addressing.

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Dear Monsieur St-Pierre Plamondon,

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Thank you for writing directly to Quebec’s English-speaking community. I am the Montreal city council executive committee member responsible for the anglophone community, and I believe that any political leader who reaches across linguistic lines deserves to be heard.

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Your letter recognizes something that anglophones have been saying for years: English-speaking and French-speaking Quebecers share the same concerns. We worry about the cost of living, housing affordability, health care, education, homelessness, public safety and whether our children will enjoy a better future.

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Quebecers of every language deserve competent, transparent government that delivers results, which is not the case with the current Quebec government. Where our paths diverge is not over whether Quebec can be governed better. It is over trust.

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For decades, English-speaking Quebecers have repeatedly been asked to trust that the Parti Québécois (PQ) would protect their rights in a sovereign Quebec. Yet our lived experience has often been one of watching rights debated, reduced or reinterpreted depending on the political moment — most recently through more restrictive language laws from the governing Coalition Avenir Québec.

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Rights should never depend on who happens to be in power.

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Former Quebec Liberal cabinet minister Clifford Lincoln said it best: “Rights are rights are rights.” They do not become less important because they belong to a minority. They are not something governments generously grant; they are something governments have an obligation to protect.

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René Lévesque, the PQ’s founder and first premier, understood English-Quebecers better than many separatists. He famously described us as an integral part of Quebec. He also spoke of English-speaking Quebecers as partners in building Quebec, not guests living in it.

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Those words recognized something fundamental: We do not need permission to belong here. We helped build Quebec.

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Our families helped establish its hospitals, universities, charities, businesses, cultural institutions and communities. We have invested in its economy, volunteered in our neighbourhoods and paid our taxes alongside our francophone neighbours.

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Quebec is our home.

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That is why many English-speaking Quebecers become uneasy whenever separatist leaders reach out. History has taught us that such conversations often become about our place in Quebec. But English-Quebecers are not asking for special treatment.