Immediately after being named Minister of Official Languages on Friday, Montrealer Rachel Bendayan refused to specify whether she believes French is threatened in Quebec, and instead signaled an abandonment of the liberal shift aimed at promoting French also in the French-speaking province.
“My role […] is from [m]ensure that we maintain bilingualism, [m]“ensure that the English-speaking minority in Quebec is protected and that the French-speaking minority outside Quebec is protected,” said Rachel Bendayan a few minutes after being sworn in.
In front of journalists gathered in the freezing cold in front of Rideau Hall, she twice refused to answer the question asking her whether, yes or not, she believes the French are threatened in Quebec. Instead, she praised the country's “linguistic duality” and highlighted her identity, as she was born to a French-speaking father and an English-speaking mother. Questioned later, she replied that “it is true that French is in decline in Quebec”, while repeating that her commitment is to the English speakers of Quebec.
Before the last general election, the Liberal Party of Canada announced a significant change of course in its approach to official languages. Instead of putting French-speaking minorities outside Quebec and English-speaking minorities in Quebec on an equal footing, the Liberal platform promised to aim for “real equality of French and English” in order to promote the use of French in Quebec.
So in Official Languages, Minister Mélanie Joly even presented a reform document in 2021 which recognized that French is threatened, even in Quebec. Mme Joly retained his position as Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs on Friday, like 25 other ministers making up most of Justin Trudeau's inner circle. In 2023, the one who had recovered the Official Languages portfolio, Ginette Petitpas Taylor, concluded an agreement with Quebec to force the use of French in private companies under federal jurisdiction.
The bottom of the barrel, says the NDP
“When you came to appoint Rachel Bendayan to Official Languages, you reached the bottom of the barrel. When did she show any interest in the French fact or in French speakers outside Quebec? This is nonsense,” declared the deputy leader of the New Democratic Party (NPD), Alexandre Boulerice, on Friday.
“I think it’s a very bad sign, it’s unacceptable. It contradicts everything said by its predecessors, who recognized the decline of French and that the federal government had a responsibility to slow it down. She seems to be smoothing it out with her hand. […] It’s shocking for Quebec,” also indicated Bloc Québécois MP Mario Beaulieu, requested by Duty.
Contrary to his usual, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not wish to explain the choices he made to form his new team. In the middle of a political crisis which has shaken his leadership since the resignation of his Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on Monday, he nevertheless mentioned the question of French during a rare speech.
“We stand up for the rights of linguistic minorities, and that means French speakers outside Quebec and English speakers in Quebec,” he declared, switching from one language to another, in a speech delivered with a smile in front of his caucus and Liberal employees gathered Tuesday for their Christmas party.
Not the first
Rachel Bendayan, 44, spent the fall responding to the Conservatives in the House since she was the parliamentary secretary to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. The Montrealer was elected for the first time in 2019, during a partial election in the Outremont riding, then vacant due to the resignation of former NDP leader Thomas Mulcair.
“Let us remember that this federation is precisely founded on the partnership between two peoples, between Upper Canada and Lower Canada of the time, between English-speaking Canada and French-speaking Canada. Our history means that it is our responsibility to safeguard and protect this fragile balance,” she said during a speech to Parliament in 2022.
Before politics, Mme Bendayan was a litigation and international arbitration lawyer with the firm Norton Rose Fulbright. She was the victim of an accident at the beginning of the year, a fall down the exterior stairs of her house, which caused her a severe concussion, she told the Montreal Journal when he returned to Parliament in June.
Her liberal colleague Anna Gainey also refused to specify to the Ottawa parliamentary press whether she believed French was threatened in Quebec. It was in 2023, shortly after his election in a by-election in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Westmount, in Montreal.
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