A Parti Quebecois motion Wednesday denouncing "all attempts to make Gilles Vigneault responsible for the absence of French" at the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver winter Olympics was vetoed by the Liberal government.
But Premier Jean Charest came to the defence of Vigneault, an unabashed sovereignist, for refusing have his song, Mon Pays, sung at the opening ceremonies.
Official Languages Commissioner Graham Fraser and others have deplored the lack of French at the Games opening.
In Patriot Hearts, his book on the Olympics, organizing committee CEO John Furlong suggested that using the song would have corrected the balance, but Vigneault refused, noting that the song was about Quebec, not about Canada.
Furlong asked Charest to approach Vigneault, to get him to change his mind.
"I did not intervene directly, because I don’t know the man," Charest said yesterday. "But I asked someone to talk to him to see if he would authorize the use of his song. He answered no.
"We have to respect that choice," Charest said.
The premier said he was supportive of the Vancouver Games.
"Quebec athletes shone at the Vancouver Games. We won a lot of medals. Quebec always wanted to be a very active participant."
Charest said he had nothing to say about the PQ motion, but did say the song Mon Pays, which some consider Quebec’s national-anthem-in-waiting, is "magnificent."
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