Longueuil mayor subject to death threats after seeking to limit English at council meetings

Longueuil Mayor Caroline St-Hilaire is not backing down in the face of threats.

She's once again taken to Facebook to defend the French language, and to denounce those who have threatened her safety

"I reiterate that the city of Longueuil is, and always has been, a French city. I note also that all the citizens of Longueuil are served fairly and that the question of language was never in play," wrote St-Hilaire. 

"I say No to intimidation," she added. "Nobody will ever shake my convictions, certainly not my desire to serve my fellow citizens and to protect the French language."

 The mayor courted controversy earlier this week when she took to Facebook to criticize a councillor from Greenfield Park.

St-Hilaire wrote she was irritated by Robert Myles speaking English during council meetings and by what she called "his insistence upon bringing a bilingual character to Longueuil city council."

St-Hilaire also wrote that speaking solely in French "was a question of courtesy and common sense."

While Myles may not see eye to eye with the mayor, he said the threats against her are unacceptable.

"I don't agree with all of the attacks on her right now. I mean if some people have some concrete criticism to send to her that's fine and dandy but threats on people's lives I don't tolerate that. I wouldn't want it to happen to me," he said.

This week the mayor said she would lobby to have Quebec's Charter of the French Language changed to ban the use of English at council meetings.

That Facebook post has received hundreds of comments, many supportive of her statement, but a sizable number that are harshly critical of St-Hilaire's advocating restrictions to speech.

Longueuil police say some of the comments are threatening, and they are investigating the comments.

Myles, who has been a councillor for a decade, has always spoken in English at council meetings. He represents the borough of Greenfield Park, which was a town with official bilingual status before the provincially-ordered mergers of 2002. He said he will continue speaking both languages at council meetings.

"Anglophones want to maintain their rights and I'm there to maintain their rights, they elected me for that, I'm there and I'm going to do what I have to do," he said.