(Ottawa) La Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada (CN) doit donner l’exemple en s’assurant que les francophones soient représentés dans son conseil d’administration, a répété à plusieurs reprises le ministre des Transports, Omar Alghabra, lundi. Bien qu’il n’ait pas fermé la porte à ce qu’un quota soit imposé par l’entremise de la loi, le gouvernement semble peu enclin à aller dans cette direction.
Mis à jour hier à 20h10
« Est-ce que vous seriez à l’aise de proposer, vous, comme ministre des Transports […], Is there an obligation in law to compel boards of directors to set the percentage of Francophone representation? Conservative MP Joel Godin asked him on a parliamentary committee.
“CN and Air Canada are private companies,” the minister said. That being said, I am very interested in protecting the rights of customers and employees to choose the language of their choice. ⁇
I do not wish to speculate on the amendments suggested to be modernized during the committee study of Bill C-13. Official Languages Act.
CN, which is subject to this law, made headlines later in April Press Although the country’s largest railway company is headquartered in Montreal, the board of directors has closed its doors to Francophones.
“We have spoken with CN and we hope they will correct this error as soon as possible,” Algabra said.
Employees have condemned several linguistic incidents at the Taschereau Marshall Yard with the arrival of monolingual Anglophone employees.
“We need to take action now because we know this will also affect the question of security,” Ashton told NDP MP. What are you waiting for to act? Should we wait for the risk associated with misinterpretation of instructions between team members? ⁇
The official language of their choice
“Quebecs in Quebec must be able to work in French,” the minister said in French at the beginning of his testimony. Many delegates also praised him for improving his grip on the language.
After a while, he said he accepted the fact that employees could work in the official language of their choice. “It is not acceptable that CN has not fulfilled this obligation even before Bill C – 13 is approved,” he replied.
The bill gives the Official Languages Commissioner five new powers to implement Official Languages Act : Informal arbitration, publication of its decisions, imposition of penalties, termination of consent agreement and authority of order.
The minister said there were five complaints against CNN in 2019 and 2020 regarding working language. Since the railway company does not transport passengers, the number of complaints against Air Canada is less than 80, which is a good year and a bad year.
“We see it not working,” said Mario Beaulieu, a Member of the Knesset for Kadima. He believes CNE employees in Quebec should use the same common language: French. “Why shouldn’t Quebec Bill 101 be applied to companies under federal jurisdiction? ⁇
“We must also respect the rights of French-speaking people so that they can do their work safely,” Mr Algabra said. Want to protect bilingual rights. ⁇
In early 2020 CN’s railway management control was transferred to Alberta. The move quickly led to a number of “irregularities” in the east of the country, according to the Teamsters Union, which represents locomotive engineers, train chiefs and yardmasters.
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