Marc Miller is a man of principle.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has been under fire for leaving British Columbia out of his discussions about an oil pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific, about his lack of consultation with BC. coastal First Nations prior to announcing his MOU with Alberta about the pipeline, and about paying insufficient attention to climate change, and yet, Carney has made a very good choice in bringing Marc Miller back into the federal Cabinet.

Miller, the new minister of Canadian Identity and Culture, is in the mold of a great Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau. He is also a long-time friend of Trudeau’s oldest son Justin, also a long-time Prime Minister. Miller is perfectly fluent in French and English, also speaks Swedish at home, and learned an Indigenous language while serving previously as Minister responsible for Indigenous Affairs.
 
Miller, a lawyer, was educated in the McGill University Faculty of Law as well as the College Jean de Brebuef, University of Montreal. Who could be better qualified to be the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture?

Marc Miller

Miller’s appointment spilled over quickly into controversy in Quebec, where language is always an inflammatory subject. Minister Miller quickly expressed support Tuesday for removing a religious exemption on hate speech from the Criminal Code.

He told the media he doesn’t “think people should be using the Bible, the Qur’an or the Torah to escape from committing a hate crime or claim…what would otherwise be a hate crime is done in the name of a religious text.”

Since being left out of Mark Carney’s first Cabinet, Miller has bided his time and chaired the justice committee of Parliament until joining Carney’s cabinet. He said in French in a follow-up comment he was offering his own perspective and it remains to be seen what the government and the justice committee will do.

The Bloc Québécois stated in a press release the party had the government’s support for an amendment to get rid of the exemption.

The comments follow a report by the National Post saying the Liberals had reached a deal with the Bloc to remove the exemption in exchange for supporting the Liberals’ hate crime bill, C-9.

Nonetheless, Quebec Premier Francois Legault, whose Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) party is now very low in opinion polls, called Miller’s approach a “disgrace to all Quebeckers.” Miller stood his ground.

He did the same when he was Indigenous affairs minister. He learned to speak Mohawk (Kanien’keha). He had begun learning the language in 2017 and has delivered speeches in Mohawk in the House of Commons, making him the first person to do so.

The pot has also been boiling on the environmental front, as Steven Guibeault, long-time advocate within the Justin Trudeau government resigned, saying “I’m sorry (Prime Minister Carney) I am no longer your man.” Last month, Guilbeault had learned that the federal government intended to relax some of its environmental regulations as part of a deal with Alberta for a potential future pipeline to the B.C. coast.

Before entering politics, Guilbeault was a staunch environmentalist. He helped found the advocacy organization Équiterre and was an active member of Greenpeace Canada. In the Justin Trudeau government, he had pushed hard for such policies as the Consumer Carbon Tax. Prior to politics, he is well known for scaling Toronto’s CN Tower as part of his environmental activism.

Before entering politics, Guilbeault was known as a staunch environmentalist. He helped found the advocacy organization Équiterre and joined Greenpeace Canada.

Both Guilbeault and Miller have shown a distinguishing feature of Canadian politics: It is still possible to participate in public life and be a politician with principle.