The Quebec government has successfully approved French language protections that critics warn will change all aspects of public life.
Bill 96, which was passed Tuesday afternoon in the province’s national assembly, will require new immigrants and refugees to communicate with provincial officials exclusively in French six months after arriving or facing off. a loss of services. The bill also limits the use of English in the legal system and limits enrollment in English-language schools in the province.
The Avenir Québec governing coalition received support from the left-wing Quebec Solidaire to pass Bill 78-29. Provincial Liberals voted against, saying it was going too far. The separatist Parti Québécois said the legislation did not go far enough.
Celebrating the passage of the bill, Prime Minister François Legault framed it as an attempt to strengthen protections for Quebec’s official language. The Prime Minister also ruled out fears that the law would undermine the rights of linguistic minorities.
“I don’t know of any language minority that is better served in their own language than Quebec’s English-speaking community,” he said Tuesday. “We are proud of that, and we are also proud to be a French-speaking nation in North America, and it is our duty to protect our common language.”
Quebec’s previous attempts to protect the French language have been headlines in the past. In 2019, the province denied residence to a woman from France, arguing that she could not prove she could speak French. That year, the government proposed banning the popular “Bonjour-hi” greeting, only to back off quickly amid the outrage and ridicule of the neighbors. In November, the head of the country’s largest airline was punished for admitting he had never learned French, despite living in Montreal for 14 years.
Legault said critics of the bill were adding “fuel to the fire” of the “misinformation” that was spreading across the province before the vote.
“We are committed to protecting your access to healthcare in English. It is a historic promise that we will keep, and will continue to have English-speaking hospitals, schools … and universities,” he said, dismissing fears that those seeking care in English face new barriers.
Thousands of people protested against the bill in recent weeks amid fears that many utilities would be cut.
“Act 96 is the most significant repeal of human rights in the history of Quebec and Canada,” said Marlene Jennings, head of the Network of Community Groups in Quebec, which promotes the rights of English speakers in the province, in a statement. .
“This legislation revokes the right to access English-language services for some 300,000 to 500,000 English-speaking Quebeckers,” he said.
Julius Gray, a lawyer leading the fight against the bill, described his approval as one of the “most gratuitous uses of power I have ever seen” in an interview with CTV News. Gray said he and other lawyers planned to present a number of legal challenges, adding that they would fight as far as the United Nations.
The bill has also received criticism from indigenous groups, who say it erodes indigenous language rights.
Earlier this month, Haudenosaunee Longhouse, the traditional Mohawk government in the Kahnawake community, pledged to defy the law, saying in a statement that the bill “will never apply” to its people. ancestral lands.
On Tuesday, the First Nations Assembly called Bill 96 a “big step backwards” that hampered reconciliation efforts.
By invoking a legislative mechanism known as the “harmless clause” to make the law immune from constitutional challenges, the Quebec government has significantly reduced the chances of the federal government intervening.
Justin Trudeau, the prime minister whose constituency is in Quebec, has been cautious in explicitly criticizing the legislation, only telling reporters he had “concerns” over the content of the bill.