Rewarding a leader of anti-francophone language rights is a dangerous development

Kris Austin is a recognized leader of the group of New Brunswick anglophones most opposed to language rights for francophones. More than a symbol, in the 2018 provincial election, Austin grew his People’s Alliance party by aiming an anti-francophone rights message to those who traditionally voted for other parties, primarily the Progressive Conservatives.

His party’s 2018 election platform promised to eliminate duality in government services including health care, to eliminate the language commissioner’s office, and to base bilingual hiring “where numbers warrant.”

Before the 2018 election, a CBC Vote Compass survey of 10,700 New Brunswickers found that 78 per cent of those intending to vote for the People’s Alliance strongly agreed the office of the Official Languages Commissioner should be abolished. The percentage of PANB voters was much higher than the other parties, notably a high 42 per cent of PC voters and a smaller proportion of voters for the other parties: 18 per cent of NDP, 16 per cent of Green and 14 per cent of Liberal.

Austin’s strategy worked. In 2018, PANB carved away the necessary number of voters from the other parties – mostly the PC – and won three seats. After the election, Austin chose as his chief of staff the former director of the Anglophone Rights Association of New Brunswick, a group that lobbies to end bilingualism in the province.

Soon, Austin and the two other PANB MLAs were sitting on the government side of the house, voting to shore up the minority PC government. The PANB leader and Premier Blaine Higgs share a common history of building their political careers espousing a message of anti-francophone language rights.

Higgs first ran for a political seat as a member of the notorious anti-bilingualism Confederation of Regions (COR) party and then ran for the COR leadership. He was unsuccessful in both his COR election attempts but similar to Austin, Higgs ran on a “common sense” platform. Premier Higgs has publicly renounced his COR party perspectives, but suspicions remain about his intentions by the province’s Acadian community.

During his time supporting the Higgs minority government, Austin continued his anti-francophone language rights rhetoric, for example advocating for the removal of the French language requirement for ambulance drivers.

Attacking francophone language rights was not the only anti-democratic move in Austin’s repertoire, however. In December 2019, Austin and his PANB colleagues voted with the government to pass Bill 17, which effectively removed the right of nursing home workers to strike and limited any arbitrator’s independence in deciding on wage increases.

After losing one MLA and many voters in the 2020 election, Austin knew the game was up for PANB, and he and the second PANB MLA Michelle Conroy crossed the floor in March this year to join the governing PC party. After defecting, both Austin and Conroy said in a CBC interview that they continue to favour merging the health authorities and eliminating the official language commissioner’s position. Within months, Austin was pitching to his new colleagues the idea that the two health authorities should be merged but the government immediately shot down Austin’s suggestion.

In 2012, under PC Premier David Alward, backbencher MLA Jim Parrott was ejected from the PC caucus after publishing a newspaper commentary espousing views opposed to bilingualism and duality. It seems that as long as Austin keeps his own views out of the public eye he will be rewarded.

In October, Premier Higgs gave Austin a cabinet position, a move denounced, and rightly so, by the francophone rights group, the Société de l’Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick (SANB).

Last week it was revealed that Austin is on the committee drafting the government’s belated response to the Official Languages Act review. Facing harsh criticism by the opposition parties over this news, Premier Higgs said it is important to have a “balance” of views on the committee. Further, the committee meets in confidence, so the specifics of the “balanced” views that Austin brings to the deliberations will not be open to public critique.

Claiming that adding the recognized leader of anti-francophone language rights brings “balance” to a committee reviewing the Official Languages Act is not only ludicrous but also dangerous.

Statistics Canada analysis of 2021 census data found that the use of French as a first official language is gradually declining in New Brunswick. Responding to the census findings, the Official Languages Commissioner Shirley MacLean noted the “worrying trend that has steadily seen an erosion of French as a first language in the province,” and called on the government to take “decisive action to protect the vitality of the French language and reverse this decline.”

Bringing Austin into the cabinet and giving him a voice on the Official Languages Act review is taking the opposite kind of decisive action. The government has rewarded and mainstreamed anti-francophone views. The 2018 election demonstrated that a significant minority of New Brunswickers hold these views. Many of these voters have returned to the PC fold and clearly, the premier wants to keep them onside.

SANB and francophone rights activists are correct in denouncing the elevation of Kris Austin. He represents a clear anti-democratic position and a threat to francophone language rights that must be condemned.