Bill 96, a controversial piece of provincial government legislation aimed at protecting the French language in Quebec, was passed by the National Assembly.
The MNA voted 78 to 29 in favor of passing the law on Tuesday afternoon, while members of the Liberal Party and Parti Québécois voted against.
The bill comes after a Montreal-based constitutional lawyer says he, along with a panel of other lawyers, plans to challenge it in court.
Bill 96 “is … the most gratuitous use of power I have ever seen,” Julius Gray said Tuesday, hours before the law was passed.
Quebec Prime Minister Francois Lego, meanwhile, told English speakers Tuesday afternoon that the province had made a “historic promise” to “keep” its services, and said he believed they were now served in their own language rather than anyone else. is another linguistic minority.
Reacting to the passage of the bill during a press conference in Vancouver, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters that he had “concerns” about Bill 96, but did not give a clear answer to the question of whether the federal government will intervene in a lawsuit.
“We continue to look very carefully at the final form of this and will base our decision on what we see as the need to keep minorities protected throughout the country,” he said in English.
“I know how important it is to support Francophone communities outside Quebec, but it is also extremely important to make sure we protect Francophone communities in Quebec,” he added, noting that he had once taught French in British Columbia.
CHANGES IN ALMOST EVERY SECTOR
The bill was developed as an update to Quebec’s original language law, Bill 101, but contains huge, far-reaching changes that will leave deep traces in the justice and college education systems, among many other sectors of Quebec society.
Among other things, this will make it mandatory for new immigrants in Quebec to communicate with any government body entirely in French, starting just six months after their arrival.
The bill will also change the system for deciding how many judges in Quebec should be bilingual, transferring that power to the Minister of Justice – who is currently the same person as the French minister.
This will limit the levels of enrollment in CEGEP in English, making colleges increasingly difficult to enter, as their growth will be halted at 2019 levels.
Within these colleges, students will also face new requirements – some will have to pass a French exam to complete and take some of their core French classes, while monolingual English students will also have to take more hours to learn French.
This, in turn, will drastically change college staff, they say, by boosting the high employment of French teachers and likely jeopardizing the work of some English-speaking teachers.
There has been much confusion about what effect the law will have on health care, with lawyers warning that his language leaves the door open for a major change in how easy it is to get health care in English, and the government has verbally insisted that nothing will change. this front.
However, verbal assurances are cheap, legal critics say, while the draft law is extensive and very complex, leaving many uncertain.
“I DON’T KNOW ABOUT ANY LANGUAGE MINORITY THAT IS BETTER SERVED”: LEGAULT
Lego called the criticism “misinformation” last week. He reiterated on Tuesday, after the bill was passed, that the government had promised that English-language services would be maintained.
“I know there are some who are adding fuel to the fire, claiming that Bill 96 will prevent English-speaking Quebecers from receiving health services in English,” Lego said.
“We know some people are worried. We are committed to protecting your access to healthcare in English. This is a historic promise that we will keep and will continue to have English-language hospitals, schools, CEGEP and universities, “he continued.
“I don’t know of a linguistic minority that is better served in their own language than the English-speaking community in Quebec.”
The Prime Minister added that “we are proud of this” and that “we are also proud to be a Francophone nation in North America and it is our duty to defend our common language, and I urge all Quebecers to speak it, to love it.” and to protect him. “
THE LANGUAGE REFORM BILL IS TOO DIFFICULT: ENGLAND
Liberal leader Dominique Anglad has said her party opposes several parts of the bill, including requiring all new immigrants to receive government services in French only after living in Quebec for six months.
“This is not realistic, it is not acceptable. There are many families who will be affected by this. It will have a negative impact,” Anglad said after the bill was passed.
Speaking to the press, she said people living in Quebec could be in favor of encouraging and protecting the French, but also against Bill 96 because it “divides Quebecers”.
Her message to the English-speaking community on Tuesday was to vote in the upcoming provincial elections in October.
“This is one way to express what type of Quebec you want. Do we want Quebec, where, yes, we can defend and promote French, [but] where do we do this in an inclusive way that everyone feels respected, regardless of the language you speak in your house? “
WHO QUALIFIES AS ENGLISH SPEAKER?
The head of the Quebec Community Groups Network or QCGN, an umbrella group representing Quebec’s English-speaking people, said that after a year of trying to educate people about the bill and urge lawmakers to change it, the final bill “is not yet which we are looking for. “
“It’s a sad day. I think it’s a sad day for all of Quebec,” said QCGN Director Sylvia Martin-Laforge.
Like lawyers who plan to challenge the bill, she said the way it was passed – protecting it from most legal appeals – was embarrassing.
“The preventive use of the independence clause is incredibly worrying,” she said. “We cannot appeal either the Quebec Charter of Rights or the Canadian Charter.
Lawyers so far, represented by constitutional lawyer Julius Gray, plan to take their case to the UN if necessary, Gray said on Tuesday.
In a statement, QCGN said they had “a vision of an inclusive Quebec where French is a common language” and that most English speakers “prefer to promote and protect French in Quebec – and across Canada”.
But the group is “convinced that there are more effective and inclusive ways to achieve this goal … and that it can be achieved without compromising the human, equality and legal rights of Quebec citizens,” she wrote.
Martin-Laforge said the concerns most ordinary Montreal residents are about aren’t necessarily related to any of the sectors the bill will affect, such as health care or the judiciary, but to the whole idea of separating “historic” English speakers from other types of English speakers.
In Quebec, “historical Anglophones” is the term used to describe people whose parents can prove that they went to an English school in Canada and therefore meet the requirements for speaking English and whose children do the same.
Others, especially immigrants, have to go to a French school – even if their parents were educated in English but outside of Canada.
Bill 96 is the first time the government appears willing to extend this divide beyond the education system, also cutting off access to other public services in English to those who are not “historically” English-speaking, especially new immigrants.
“I think people are very worried about using the identity problem around historical Anglophones, and what does that mean?” what does that mean in practice? “said Martin-Laforge.
“The English-speaking community is those who want, need services in English.”
Even for those who qualify for English language training, the idea of proving it in many everyday situations is frightening, she said.
“Me and others, what are we going to do to get a map that says we’re historically English?” She said.
“How do you prove it if you’ve lived in Quebec all your life, but more importantly, how do you prove it if you come from elsewhere in Canada?” The whole notion of “historical Anglo” is bad.
People have repeatedly made it clear to QCGN that “they do not want to be categorized, they do not want to be identified by the state,” she said.
What people outside of Quebec don’t always understand is that many official English speakers are actually very competent in French or even fluent in bilinguals like her, she said.
But there are situations in which people should have the right to speak their mother tongue, she argued.
“My example is that when I was raised, my mother comforted me in English with, I don’t know, Mother Goose or whatever,” she said.
“When I grow old and need more compassionate care, the language of comfort that is likely to reach me is English, although I speak perfect French.”
“It’s complicated,” she said. “Healthcare is about health outcomes – you want people to be better… Most healthcare professionals feel the same way. The government should not legislate what [language] doctors talk to their patients. “
With files from The Canadian Press
– This is breaking news. There is more.
Add Comment