MP Francis Drouin made his mea culpa at the opening of the Official Languages Committee on Thursday morning, after insulting witnesses making a link between the anglicization of Quebec society and post-secondary studies in English.
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“I just want to apologize to Mr. [Frédéric] Lacroix and gentleman [Nicolas] Bourdon, and any witness who comes before this committee should feel free to have a conversation in a respectful environment. I didn’t do this on Monday, so I apologize again […]“, he said straight away.
Remember that the Franco-Ontarian MP has been in the spotlight in recent days, because he had described the researcher and activist for French Frédéric Lacroix as “full of shit” and an “extremist” in Parliament.
Not at the end of his troubles
But Francis Drouin is perhaps not at the end of his troubles: the elected official had not finished his speech when his opponents in the Conservative Party and the Bloc Québécois already went on the attack.
A motion tabled demands that Mr. Drouin be expelled from the Official Languages Committee and that he lose all responsibility at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Francophonie (APF), the international body where he serves as president.
The debate surrounding conservative Joël Godin’s motion was scuttled by Francis Drouin’s passionate Acadian colleague, Darrell Samson.
“Should he go and apologize to confession at mass?” launched the elected official from Nova Scotia in his long intervention, exasperated to hear new calls for apologies targeting his Franco-Ontarian colleague.
The vote on the motion was deferred until a future meeting of the committee.
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