U.S. President Donald Trump is denying reports that his administration pushed Canada to weaken French-language protections during trade talks, dismissing the claim as a fabrication and declaring his affection for French-speaking Canadians.
In a social media post Tuesday, Trump rejected suggestions that Washington had sought changes to laws protecting the French language in Quebec and across Canada.
“I would never interfere with Canadians speaking French,” Trump wrote. “In fact, I have never even thought of doing such a stupid thing.”
The president accused Prime Minister Mark Carney of inventing the claim to gain political support in Quebec and added: “I love French Canadians.”
The comments came after Carney and Quebec Premier Christine Fréchette suggested that language protections were among the issues that contributed to the collapse of recent Canada-U.S. trade negotiations.
Innovation Minister Mélanie Joly said Trump’s remarks miss the broader issue at stake.
“We all love French-Canadian people. I’m in love with one too,” Joly told reporters. “The question is not about love. The question is about sovereignty and what we stand for in this country.”
At the centre of the dispute are Quebec and federal measures aimed at promoting French-language and Canadian content.
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Last year, Quebec adopted rules requiring foreign streaming services such as Netflix to make French-language content more accessible to users. The federal government has enacted similar requirements aimed at increasing the visibility of Canadian content on digital platforms.
Political analyst Supriya Dwivedi rejected arguments that streaming companies would struggle to comply with such rules.
“This notion that somehow these streamers are incapable of setting their algorithms to promote the discoverability” of French-language content “is quite frankly BS,” she said.
Fréchette has also said U.S. negotiators wanted Quebec to soften language requirements governing consumer products, including appliance labelling and instruction manuals.
But U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer dismissed those claims.
“That was a funny fake story,” Greer said when asked about the allegation.
The conflicting accounts have fuelled debate over whether language protections were ever seriously raised during the negotiations.
Dwivedi said many Canadians are likely to believe their own government over U.S. officials.
“I think most Canadians tend to side with who they think on a balance of probabilities is telling the truth, and that’s going to be the Canadian side of things,” she said.
While Quebec’s language laws have long been criticized by some anglophones, Dwivedi said outside attacks on those measures can generate a different reaction.
“The second somebody else starts ragging on your brother or sister or whatever the case may be, you take it a little bit personally,” she said.
Adding another voice to the debate, Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said he is unconvinced language rules for packaging and labelling were ever discussed at the negotiating table.
“There’s an obligation to say the truth when you speak about important things like that,” he said.
honest question. Why do we need French labels on products outside of Quebec. Its a joke!