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Mayor Valérie Plante has raised eyebrows by appearing to criticize the mayor of Montreal’s only bilingual borough for asking a question in English at this week’s city council meeting.
The exchange occurred Monday, as Pierrefonds-Roxboro Mayor Jim Beis asked about the Plante administration’s response to recent flooding, describing it as an “absolute fiasco.”
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Beis, who is fluent in French and English and often switches between the two, asked his question in English.
In her response, Plante began: “First of all, I find it unusual that the mayor of Pierrefonds-Roxboro addresses the (council) only in English.”
She added: “I’d like to mention that, here we can speak in both languages, which is often what happens on the other side of the room. I want to mention it because it often happens on the other side of the room, where they choose one language rather than another.”
Beis is a member of the opposition Ensemble Montréal party.
Asked whether the Plante administration wants to limit the use of English at council meetings, Catherine Cadotte, a spokesperson for Plante, did not answer on Thursday.
She told The Gazette via email: “The mayor’s intervention was intended to remind the mayor of Pierrefonds-Roxborro that he sits on the municipal council of the French-speaking metropolis of the Americas, and that as such, the population expects elected officials to speak not only in English.”
After Plante’s comments on Monday, Beis responded to her in French. He told the mayor his party can criticize her administration “in French, English, Greek, Italian — in any language.”
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Ensemble Montréal councillor Chantal Rossi also stood up to defend Beis’s right to speak English in the council chambers.
“Yes, we’re a francophone metropolis,” Rossi said. “But to criticize the fact that the mayor of a bilingual borough asks a question only in English, I think that’s touching the Pierrefonds-Roxboro mayor’s privilege.”
In an interview Thursday, Beis said he was surprised by Plante’s comments and tone.
He described as “nonsense” the mayor’s contention that many Ensemble Montréal questions are in English. Beis said almost all are in French.
“I was almost scolded, told I had to justify my use of English,” said Beis, who also speaks Greek.
“I’ve always switched back and forth between English and French. Sometimes at borough meetings, I struggle to find words in English because my brain thinks in Greek.”
He said he has moved on and does not want to dwell on the issue.
“As elected officials, we have so much work to do. Our primary role is to help people. All this (focus on language) does is divide people (and) create a cloud of confusion.”
Beis’s questions on Monday were about the city’s response to the flooding of hundreds of homes in his borough on Aug. 9, when post-tropical storm Debby hit southern Quebec with record-breaking rainfall.
Beis said the city’s 311 telephone service and its fire department didn’t have enough resources. He said the city was unable to deal with the crisis.
“People were left out to fend for themselves. 311 told residents: ‘Well, you have to call your borough.’ The borough would call the Red Cross. The Red Cross would call 311. It was an absolute fiasco. Where was the (Plante) administration? Nowhere.”
He said the central city should have declared an emergency, which would have allowed boroughs to, for example, bring extra trucks in to help clear out debris.
Plante accused Beis of playing politics and defended the response of the city’s emergency services.
“We are not a small municipality that has no experience” on how to handle an emergency, she told him on Monday. She said a state of emergency is only declared when public safety officials decide it’s needed.
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