Liberals, PCs show fissures over bilingualism controversy

New Brunswick's two main political parties are showing signs of divisions over the latest bilingualism controversy in the province.

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A Progressive Conservative MLA is calling the handling of a unilingual commissionaire's case "despicable" despite the party saying it recognizes Official Languages Commissioner Katherine d'Entremont acted within the law..

At the same time, Liberals are sending mixed signals about whether d'Entremont's job is on the chopping block and whether that would raise constitutional and legal issues.

The double dose of dissent come after d'Entremont's appearance on Thursday before a committee of MLAs, where she answered questions for more than an hour on her handling of the case of Wayne Grant.

Grant is a unilingual commissionaire whose hours were reduced after he was unable to speak to d'Entremont in French last May.

At the end of the hearing, PC opposition MLAs appeared satisfied with d'Entremont's explanation that she never asked for sanctions against Grant when she launched an investigation into commissionaire services.

"She was acting within her role, within her mandate. She had that authority," said PC MLA Madeleine Dubé.

She said the PCs still have questions about Grant's treatment, but they're with the government, "not with the commissioner."

But Dubé's fellow PC MLA, Jake Stewart, responded on Twitter on Friday morning to coverage of d'Entremont's appearance, saying "This PC doesn't support what she did."

"It's just too bad all of us can't be at committee," Stewart wrote. "It's despicable."

Stewart turned down a request for an interview, but said on Twitter he was not speaking on behalf of the PC caucus.

The PCs issued a press release on Friday, after Stewart's tweets, saying they don't "condone" how d'Entremont conducted her investigation but recognize she was acting within the law.

At the same time, two Liberal cabinet ministers seem to be making different statements about whether d'Entremont's job could be cut as part of a review of the nine legislative officer positions.

The all-party Legislative Administration Committee commissioned the review this week with the hope of cutting costs. It could lead to some of the independent watchdog positions being cut or merged.

The move was prompted by the broader Strategic Program Review, a government-wide initiative to find $600 million in cost savings and revenue increases.

Victor Boudreau, the minister responsible for the review, says constitutionally entrenched language rights, including official bilingualism, are not part of the review.

But Michel Doucet, a language-rights expert at the University of Moncton, told CBC News this week that there's a legal argument that d'Entremont's position, though not mentioned in the Constitution, could be implicitly covered by its provisions.

Boudreau appeared to dispute that Thursday. He said the position of languages commissioner "is completely separate" from language rights.

"All the officers of the Legislature are certainly part of the [review] discussion," he said.

No request for legal opinion

Later in the day, Attorney General Serge Rousselle said no one has asked his office for legal advice on whether the commissioner position is subject to Charter protection.

"So far, there's been no request as far as I know for a legal opinion from the attorney general's office on that, because there's no such proposal," he said.

Asked if that meant the language commissioner's job is safe, he said, "If you consider the points I've made you can draw your own conclusions."

Rousselle also finessed some comments made last week by Premier Brian Gallant.

Rousselle said Gallant and the rest of the Liberal government "fully respect the commissioner's obligations to do her work, to investigate, and to promote the law."

Last week Gallant questioned d'Entremont's handling of the case, saying she had "enough issues, enough things to work on" without initiating her own investigations.

Gallant told reporters on Nov. 4 that d'Entremont should "promote the positive. … That doesn't seem to be too much of a priority for her at the moment."

Late Friday, Gallant told Radio-Canada the commissioner's position was there to stay.

Even though the government may sometimes disagree with the commissioner's work, "in my view, we'll always have to have a commissioner who protects official languages," Gallant said.