Quebec adopts Bill 96 to overhaul Charter of French Language
Quebec’s majority government has adopted its contentious language bill overhauling the Charter of the French language, in a vote that lasted only minutes at the National Assembly this afternoon.
Dissent over Bill 96 had escalated in recent weeks with thousands holding protests, denouncing the bill for impeding on the rights of anglophones, allophones and Indigenous communities.
The bill is large in scope, limiting the use of English in the courts and public services and imposing tougher language requirements on small businesses and municipalities.
It also caps the number of students who can attend English-language colleges, known as CEGEPs, and increases the amount of French courses students at the colleges must take.
Two opposition parties voted against the law. The Parti Québécois said the legislation did not go far enough in protecting the French language in Quebec, while Quebec Liberal Party Leader Dominique Anglade denounced the bill’s use of the notwithstanding clause, saying it goes too far.
The notwithstanding clause allows a province to override basic freedoms guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Instead of just applying the clause to specific parts of Bill 96, the government applied the clause to the entire bill, making every aspect of the far-reaching law immune to legal challenges based on the charter.
Tagging: @politicsofcanada
Guess I’m never going back to my home province.
Fuck la CAQ. Fuck Legault. Fuck le PQ qui voulait une loi encore plus draconienne. Fuck les unilingues francophones qui veulent que le reste de la province soit aussi insulaire et isolée du reste du monde qu’eux-autres. Fuck you all, gang de crisses!
This bill is dangerous. It goes far beyond language and is going to put peoples health in danger, people will lose access to justice and it abandons vulnerable refugees.
Tagging: @politicsofcanada @hrefnatheravenqueen
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6355756
Refugees in Quebec will have to learn French within 6 months | CBC News
Bill 96 language-law changes could put people’s lives in danger, doctors warn
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6421515
Quebec doctors say plan to bolster French language will harm patients | CBC News
https://www.google.com/amp/s/beta.ctvnews.ca/local/montreal/2022/5/19/1_5911362.amp.html
Legal community concerned about access to justice rights under Quebec’s Bill 96
I know. Framing this as “just 3 courses in Cegep” has compmetely blinded most people in Québec and outside of it to the actual impacts this will have, to just how far-reaching and incredibly reckless, racist, and xenophobic this truly is. The CAQ has lied to Québecois, and misrepresented facts at every turn. Anybody who read the bill and its various amendments as it trotted its merry way through the latest session at l’Assemblée Nationale could see it plainly for what it was: using the supposed decline of French in the province (it isn’t actually declining - only unilingual use of french is declining, more people in Québec speak french than ever, but more Québecois speak other languages as well, which is the part the CAQ does NOT mention when they talk about “le déclin”) as an excuse to erode the rights of non-unilingual-french Quebecers, establish a system of second-class citizens by law, and discourage most of the world’s population from settling down in Québec.
Just imagine, for instance, telling a refugee that they have to get accustomed to a new place, get their paperwork in order, find a place to live, find work, find a family doctor, contact all of the support groups they may need, AND learn a complex language they may have NEVER heard before. In six months.
I took French for 9 years. 9 YEARS.
I couldn’t pass the language requirement to even apply for residency.
I’ve been saying, the ‘80s are back