Mulcair: The people around Christine Fréchette are still calling all of the shots

追加: 2026-06-07

[00:00:00]Tom, I want to start with this story today. If it's okay with you on Christine Fréchette today saying she was unaware of the issues undermining the deployment of the digital health record, which got rolled out, I guess, a couple of weeks ago. We had heard before that we had people on the show talking about just how bad it was. Now, of course, here we are a couple of weeks later.

[00:00:20]What kind of a misstep was this or is it?

[00:00:23]>> Well, I don't know if it's a misstep by her, but it's certainly a misstep by the people in the government who hit the green button start on this thing when they'd been warned by everybody that it wasn't ready. And since our health system is already in a very precarious state, I'm not sure that they did anybody a favor by putting in place a system that means that people's cancer treatments are being put off because nothing is working. Some of the people who have worked with this, to be fair, have said that it's amazing. It completely changes life for them on the wards where they get all the information, they can prescribe medication faster, everything is being brought together. So, yeah, some part of it is simply putting in place and starting a system that wasn't quite ready yet. Another is not properly preparing people. And the point that you're making is as to whether or not the premier of the province should be aware of every individual issue in [clears throat] every individual ministry. No, that wouldn't be fair to call her out on that, but certainly Sonia Labelle, her her health minister, should have known about it.

[00:01:22]As a whole, they should have been better prepared to answer on it.

[00:01:24]>> Christine Fréchette though was asked as well, Tom, and she said as she insisted everything is fine in health. It's Santé Québec. I mean, seriously.

[00:01:32]>> Everything is fine and with what I don't understand >> With Santé Québec. What she said basically everything is fine, everything is working fine. When in fact, we know it's not. And yes, you're right, maybe in a couple of instances things have worked out well, but we've heard from too many people suggesting this should not have been rolled out. So, and again, I'm I'm not putting words in Christine Fréchette's mouth, but it's quote she's quoted as saying that she believes everything is fine.

[00:01:52]>> Well, I don't know if there's not a fair difference to make between the organization that's been put in place to take over the management of the health system, which is Santé Québec, >> Yeah.

[00:02:02]>> and a specific case like rolling out something that the government had been working on for years. So, I do think that Santé Québec was a good idea. I do think that it's been Again, it's very similar. It was rolled out so precipitously and so badly. It's not that it's not a good idea to have an overarching management structure, but what they've done is, for example, they've killed everything. They've brought in human resources is going to be done centrally. It's essen- a massive centralization that does not, because it's made out of Quebec City, it doesn't take into account anything to do with the minority communities in Montreal, and that's one of its basic flaws. The CAQ loves to boast about the fact that when they're when they're trying to attract foreign investment, they want to boast about the fact that we've got a an an Anglophone side to our health system and an English school system. But, hey, Aaron, I mean, you you can't have an English institution or an institution that provides services in English, unless you're allowed to hire people and require knowledge of English, but that's been banned under Bill 96. So, at at the same they're always talking out of both sides of the mouth. Now, they want to go after vocational education, as you just said in the setup to this thing, mostly adults. But, what are they doing? Well, they're saying that they're going to shift it all over to the French side.

[00:03:11]There's no capacity to absorb it, and it would cost tens of millions around The real number that I've been given is around 90 million, and it's a plausible figure, because most of those teachers would be put on surplus. They would be paid to do nothing, and the students would go nowhere, because there's no place to to receive them. But, this is the demagoguery of a party that looks at the world in in binary fashion. You're looking at the people who are on the Francophone side, and you're saying, "We're in danger, so we can do anything we want with the Anglophone side." I loved the fact that at the beginning of this very week, Christine Fréchette showed openness to the English-speaking community of Quebec, held her hand out, said she's going to change tone, but if you've got guys like Jean-François, you know, her her extraordinarily difficult to understand minister in charge of the language file, Jean-François Roberge, if you've got a guy like that constantly needling and poking the English community, using this issue as a way to try to score political points with the Liberals instead of trying to take care of people in Quebec, then the whole thing breaks down. So, that's why Christine Fréchette has got to start to show some spine when she's dealing with the the the more bizarre ethno-nationalist wing wing of her party. She's afraid to take them on.

[00:04:31]They're running the shop on this stuff.

[00:04:33]They're calling the shots. This law has no chance of being adopted before the end of the session. And yet they're going to use it as a political tool, and the people getting squished in all of this are the teachers who are in that vocational, you know, sector here in on the English side. It's a mess that they created, and it's unforgivable.

[00:04:51]>> Tom, with respect to these 19 bills that still need to get through in the course of the next 5 days, I mean, >> No chance.

[00:04:57]>> Yeah, so how many will get through? I mean, you know, we heard a lot yesterday about Simon Jolin-Barrette saying obstruction is what the opposition parties are doing cuz of course he wants to get his, you know, constitution.

[00:05:08]>> So-called Quebec and >> Exactly.

[00:05:09]>> But think about that for a second. Think about that 1 second. He consulted no one before before bringing this thing out. Then he held hearings where he he berated anybody who dared say that he was off base with this thing. The Quebec Bar Association, whose only mandate is to protect the public, came in front of the committee hearings, and he basically tore a strip off the Bar Association cuz they kept pointing out that his thing was full of flaws. This is the CAQ of François Legault. It's the death rattle of the Legault era that's coming through in guys like that. That so-called constitution is never going to get adopted before the end of the term, nor is the so-called update of Bill 101.

[00:05:48]What they're trying to do is to have these things as a trap for the Liberals to the extent possible, and then to push them forward as a vote-getting opportunity. Instead of coming in with a clean slate and saying, "We're changing from that era. We want to do it differently." I liked what Christine Fréchette had to say this week. But, I'm still very concerned that it's, you know, it's her who sincerely believes the things that she says, but I think that the people around her are still calling the shots.

[00:06:15]>> You know, it's funny when when you mention that thing about, you know, her tone going to change, the speech she gave at the Chamber of Commerce, I thought here would have been a perfect opportunity. You want to change tone?

[00:06:23]Say this dumb thing about adult and vocational courses does not make sense.

[00:06:27]That's a way to change tone, but that's far too optimistic, I guess. Not realistic.

[00:06:31]>> No, and and the fact of the matter is they all know it's not going to be adopted. I was on a French TV show with Roberge last night. Emmanuelle La Traverse looks at him and says, "Look, is this just a trap, you know, for that you're setting for the Liberals?" He says, "Well, it's a trap if they consider it a trap." And then he went on, in my view, to make it abundantly clear that the whole exercise was all about a political stunt to try to have a aha moment with the Liberals. And I'm so tired >> Okay.

[00:07:01]>> of people playing politics with fundamental rights, especially when they have absolutely no case to be made for what they're doing here. Sonia LeBel, by the way, should not have been a party to this in any way, shape, or form. I hope she realizes it now. I suspect she does.

[00:07:14]And I don't know what the rest of her career holds for her. She's extraordinarily talented, but for her to have gone along with stuff like this, I think, is shameful. [clears throat] >> Tom, earlier in the day, and actually all this week, we've been talking about this technical recession, on off. Some have come forward to say, "You know what? Look at getting And by the way, by the way, look at the job numbers today, higher than expected, good news, good full-time jobs."

[00:07:35]So, technical recession or not, a lot of people, a lot of analysts, a lot of economists suggest, "Okay, calm down.

[00:07:40]Yes, technically it is, but it's really not." And then have you seen the ad put up by the Conservatives today?

[00:07:46]>> Yes, I have.

[00:07:47]>> Okay. I I want to play some of this for our audience. Now, I'm guessing this is a lot of AI. I just took a look at it.

[00:07:52]This is the Conservative ad today on the technical recession, Brian.

[00:07:57]>> Some breaking economic news this morning. Real GDP [music] has declined for a second consecutive quarter, meaning the definition of a technical recession.

[00:08:06]>> Well, look, the technical definition of a technical recession is just that. It's two quarters of flat or negative growth.

[00:08:14]>> We haven't eaten today.

[00:08:16]>> Yeah, we're only technically hungry though.

[00:08:21]>> I got laid off today.

[00:08:23]>> Don't worry, Daddy. You're only technically unemployed.

[00:08:26]>> We have to repossess your home because you can't pay your mortgage.

[00:08:31]>> Honey, we're homeless.

[00:08:33]>> Only technically homeless.

[00:08:34]>> Wow, okay. I'm not [laughter] going to play the rest. I I'm embarrassed actually just playing that. Tom, give me your reaction to what you heard.

[00:08:42]>> Well, if that quote from Carney is AI-generated, then there's a huge ethical problem.

[00:08:48]>> the clip from Carney is from 2016. They actually put a date on it.

[00:08:52]>> Okay, well, then that's fair ball. Uh because I've found since the beginning of this whole discussion in Ottawa that they've been trying to crab walk the word technical on and glom it on to recession.

[00:09:07]The definition that Carney gave of a recession is the definition of a recession. And we have just had two quarters of negative growth. Doesn't matter that the job numbers are showing something positive. The real question is, are we in a recession? And the answer is yes. Until new figures come out proving otherwise, we're in a recession. It's a question of definition. You don't get to slip away from it or try to rationalize it as the Libs have been doing all week. We even had the CD Howe Institute today being quoted as sort of the arbiter on these things saying it might not be a recession at all. I mean, at some point the public can't follow it if they're making it up. But with regard to the ad itself, this is Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives always doing themselves harm. Instead of showing themselves to be reasonable, intelligent people who are adults who can have these discussions and make people realize that there are problems in the Canadian economy, the difficulty for Poilievre is he knows that everybody sees in Mark Carney the only person smart enough to deal with Trump on an even footing and to try to get us out of the mess that we're in with an American government that against all expectations has set it up as set as its goal to destroy the American sorry, destroy the Canadian economy, which is something that Howard Ekins said he wanted to do. They want to do to do harm to the Canadian economy. That's what they're doing. That's why Trump touted 51st state the minute he heard about the recession. We're not helping ourselves on the Liberal side when we deny that there's a recession and the Conservatives aren't helping themselves with this sort of stunt because everybody looks at Poilievre and says, "You know why you're not Prime Minister?

[00:10:34]Cuz nobody sees you, the guy who puts stuff like this out. We They They don't They don't see in you somebody who can represent the country, who can run things. You're just a smarty pants who's been using the same sort of stunt for 20 years and people are so tired of it."

[00:10:50]>> Good explanation. Tom, that's it. We're out of time. I want to thank you. I appreciate it and have a great weekend.

[00:10:55]>> Talk to you soon, Aaron. All the best.

[00:10:56]>> Pride is like love. You feel it in your heart. iHeartRadio, Canada's number [music] one streaming app for radio and podcasts, including iHeart Pride Canada, your favorite hits [music] and must-have party bangers, plus personalized and curated playlists like back in the day pride. Come together, [music] celebrate love. Take pride with you anytime, anywhere.

[00:11:18]>> [music] >> Just ask your smart speaker to play iHeart Pride Canada. Stream us on your phone or listen now at iheartradio.ca.