Legault calls Miller a ‘disgrace to all Quebecers’ for his comments on French language

A day after being named federal culture minister, Marc Miller is drawing ire from several Quebec officials, including the premier of his home province. 

Miller, who replaced Steven Guilbeault in cabinet on Monday, said Tuesday that the French language is precarious throughout North America, rather than saying it is declining in Quebec specifically, as the provincial government would characterize it.  

“As a Quebecer, I’m pretty fed up with this debate that is generally identity-based,” Miller said in French during a scrum.

Describing the language issue in Quebec as “very complex,” Miller noted that saying French is declining sometimes diminishes the achievements of legislation, such as Bill 101 — the province’s landmark Charter of the French language — and the Canada-Quebec Accord.

In 2023, the Montreal MP, who was immigration minister at the time, repeatedly refused to acknowledge the decline of French in Quebec, preferring to refer to it as a language “under threat.” 

On the way to question period at the National Assembly, Quebec Premier François Legault fired back, calling the Montreal MP a “disgrace to all Quebecers.” 

“I don’t know how he’ll be able to show up at a cultural activity in Quebec after saying nonsense like that,” Legault told reporters on Tuesday. 

Earlier that day, Legault refused to comment on Miller’s appointment, saying only that naming Miller to cabinet was Prime Minister Mark Carney’s decision. 

The use of different indicators to measure the health of French in Quebec has contributed to the ongoing language debate. 

In 2021, 85.5 per cent of Quebecers reported speaking French at home at least regularly, according to census data published by Statistics Canada.

That compared to 87.1 per cent in 2016 — though the agency had also revised the format of its questions regarding languages most commonly spoken at home since then.

Although the number of people speaking French at home increased — rising from 6.4 million in 2016 to 6.5 million in 2021 — they made up 77.5 per cent of Quebecers, falling 1.5 percentage points in five years.

The share of Quebecers who most often spoke French at home equally with another language increased slightly, from 3.3 per cent in 2016 to 3.5 per cent in 2021.

Carney on the defensive

At the House of Commons in Ottawa, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre questioned Carney’s decision to appoint Miller. 

“Of all the Liberal MPs, why did [Carney] choose to appoint an MP that is so fed up with French?” Poilievre said.

“We, Conservatives, we aren’t fed up,” he said, promising to “defend the French language and Quebec culture.”

In response to Poilievre, Carney said he supports Miller but did not address the Montreal MP’s comments on French. 

“I support my new minister. I am against the leader of the Opposition who opposes the $4-billion action plan for the French language,” Carney said. “He opposes investments in Quebec’s cultural sector,” the prime minister said, alluding to elements of the 2025 budget.

A few minutes earlier, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet argued that there was no better evidence than Miller’s appointment to demonstrate how Carney’s government has “absolutely no grasp of Quebec’s reality.”