Speech on the French language rights, Parliament of United Canada

"...has the Honourable Member for Toronto, so often labelled a friend of the French people, forgotten already that I belong to this people, so horribly mistreated by the Act of Union? If that were the case, I would deeply regret it. He is asking me to use a language other than my mother tongue to deliver my very first address in this chamber! I don’t trust my ability to speak the English language. But I must inform the Honourable Member, the other Honourable Members and the public – and for me, this is a simple matter of justice – that even if I were as fluent in English as I am in French, I would still deliver my first address in the language of my French-Canadian compatriots, if only to solemnly protest the cruel injustice of this part of the Act of Union, which would outlaw the mother tongue of half the population of Canada. I owe it to my compatriots, and I owe it to myself."

Quoted in : Brunet, Michel, and al., Histoire du Canada par les textes, Montréal, Fides, 1956, page 170