Dictionary of prohibited remarks: 408 words on the index in Parliament

Five new expressions entered the dictionary of words banned during the political contest in the National Assembly in 2024, bringing the number of words in the index to 408.

If the question period sometimes takes on the air of a schoolyard when tempers heat up in the Red Room, you should know that the language of MPs is nevertheless fairly monitored and regulated.

President Nathalie Roy has further extended this year the list of unparliamentary remarks, which evolve according to current events.

Thus, elected officials can no longer accuse their political rivals of engaging in “petty partisanship,” or even of defending “Hamas.” It was François Legault who contributed to the addition of this last term when he criticized Québec solidaire for supporting the group considered by Canada to be a terrorist organization.

“Boss of the Kisses”

These new words are added to the collection of prohibited terms, which contains little gems of the French language, as well as expressions that we only hear in Quebec.

Members of Parliament are prohibited from calling their opponents “babes,” “babes,” “bosses of becosses” or “butchers of Charlesbourg.”

A sign that the language of politicians has changed over the years, in the 1990s, it was more words like “aigrefin”, which means crook, or “bigotry”, that is to say a strict practice of religion which manifests itself in excessive devotion, which were blacklisted.

Please note that it is also not permitted to compare politicians to the comic duo “Ding and Dong”, to the comic strip characters “Dupont and Dupond” or even to a group of “eunuchs” in the House.

All words which in any way suggest that a deputy or minister is lying are banned. Several elected officials have used their imagination to do so, but each time, the dictionary gets thicker.

It is therefore impossible to speak of someone who “misleads the population”, who “says the opposite of the truth”, who “twists the truth”, who “hides” information, who “bullshit” or who “stalks the citizens”.

It is also sacrilege to describe the Prime Minister as a “Seven-Hour Man” or a “Good Man Captain”. MPs who dare to do so must withdraw their remarks immediately, at the risk of being expelled by the President of the National Assembly.

Jolin-Barrette immortalized

Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette is even immortalized in the temple of expressions boycotted in parliament.

A word was invented in his honor by former interim Liberal leader Pierre Arcand in 2020, in the wake of the failures of his immigration reform, which forced the government to return to the drawing board for a new version of the project. It has since been forbidden to speak of “jolin-barrettée” reforms!

To those who find that the debates are sometimes noisy and cacophonous in the National Assembly, let us remember that “barnyard” is also removed from the parliamentary vocabulary!