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The final vote was 78 in favor and 29 against.
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May 24, 2022 • 53 minutes ago • 4 minutes reading • 18 comments Quebec Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette, in charge of the French language, introduces legislation to amend the language law, Thursday, May 13, 2021 in the Quebec City legislature. Photo by Jacques Boissinot / The Canadian Press
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QUEBEC – Criticized from both sides of the language division, Bill 96, revising the French Language Charter, was formally approved by the National Assembly on Tuesday.
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A year after the Avenir Québec Coalition government introduced comprehensive and controversial legislation, MPs voted in favor of the bill on Tuesday. It delves into almost every aspect of Quebecers’ daily lives: from whom they have access to English CEGEPs, the language of the workplace, and even the name of a constituency.
And Bill 96 includes the integrated use of the clause despite the Constitution annulling individual rights to protect it from endless judicial challenges, which opponents promise anyway.
The final vote was 78 in favor and 29 against.
The Yes votes come from the CAQ government plus the Quebec solidarity deputies. QS supported the bill despite its own reservations about many elements of the 201-article bill.
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As announced two months ago, Liberal MPs voted against the bill, as did those in the Parti Québécois. The PQ was reluctant to announce which way they will vote until the last minute.
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The Liberals and the PQ, however, opposed the bill for completely different reasons. While the Liberals say Bill 96 goes too far and tramples on the rights of minorities, the PQ says it does not go far enough to protect the French.
The vote is not quite what the French minister responsible for Simon Jolin-Barrette expected. Earlier in the one-year adoption process, Jolin-Barrette tabled a proposal for a unanimous vote on the bill to show that all politicians care about the future of French.
But Jolin-Barrette, who has described the bill as a matter of “Quebec pride,” managed to avoid using the closure to pass it.
As a way to limit the legislative debate, the CAQ used the closure of two of its other controversial laws, Bill 21 on state secularism, and Bill 9 revising the immigration system.
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The minister quickly tried to get political points out of the PQ’s decision.
“The PQ is allying with the Quebec Liberal Party,” Jolin-Barrette said after learning that the PQ would oppose the bill. “I do not recognize the PQ. They are abandoning the French language by purely partisan calculations.
“Quebecers know that the only political party they can count on to defend the French language is the CAQ. We have proved it. “
The PQ, however, was not ready to play ball.
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“We can’t tolerate something that is misleading, to say the least,” PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon told reporters at a news conference. “This bill will not reverse the fall of French in Quebec and we are proposing much stronger measures than they would.
“For PQ MPs, this is a matter of moral duty.”
“Bill 96 is not a worthy follow-up to PQ Bill 101, passed in 1977,” added PQ language critic Pascal Bérubé. “In 1974, PQ deputies voted against Bill 22 (introduced by the Liberals) because it represented a hesitant compromise rather than the measures needed for our language to meet the challenges facing it. faced.
“In 2022, the CAQ (Coalition Avenir Québec) will make the same mistake. He lacks the courage to take on the challenge. We can only conclude that the federalist wing of the CAQ won the language debate (within the party). The Frenchman loses. “
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The announcement is not so surprising. Bérubé has expressed his dissatisfaction with the bill from the beginning. The main key to the PQ with the bill is that the government has not chosen to extend the rules of the French Language Charter to the CEGEP system.
If this happened, allophones and francophones would not be eligible to attend.
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Quebec solidaire voted with the government, although it had some reservations about the bill and tried several times in recent weeks to extend the government’s six-month period in which newcomers can receive services in a language other than French. .
Law 96 imposes a six-month limit on the period.
“There are some advances (for the French), but there are other things that could have been done,” said QS co-spokesman Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, adding that if QS takes power after the of October, will render the clause. inoperative.
“We’re going to fix it, but the good stuff is still there,” Nadeau-Dubois said.
Jolin-Barrette and Prime Minister François Legault will hold a press conference on Tuesday to answer questions about the new bill, which the deputy governor is expected to give royal assent soon.
The government has been given a year after the bill was passed to introduce new language policy guidelines for all government ministries and agencies. These directives will determine the specifics of how to apply the law.
pauthier@postmedia.com
twitter.com/philipauthier
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Hanes: After the divisive debate on Act 96, what happens next for Quebec English speakers?
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