It's created a lot of ill feeling in Canada between the French and English.
In fact, as we know, it is not a difference between French and English, as is often claimed in Quebec, but between French speakers and English speakers.
Those in Quebec who were raised speaking only French don't feel any less of a Quebecois when they learn English. It does offer them greater opportunity though. to communicate with a broader variety of people, and those who have taken the time to learn English understand that.
Politicians, and those with disruptive political ambitions of any sort, will often use language as a metaphor for other grievances, real or imagined. Politicians will also often speak one point of view in one language and quite a different view in another language, as we have seen in Quebec and we see, even today, in the Middle East. I'm confident it also happens elsewhere.
People, no matter their backgrounds, need a common language with which to communicate. Their second language or culture is less important.
This fellow was probably trying to make the point, as they have similarly done in Canada, that it is Spanish speaking people against the English speaking people, which is false.
Language is a means of communicating, which this fellow on the stand should have been doing, and it should not be used as a political tool.