Bill 96: The Devil is in the Details

For most Anglophones or Allophones born & raised in Quebec, the moment when the local government would go full language Nazis on society was an agonizing, relentless, unwanted certainty.

It wasn’t a matter of will it happen. It was simply a question of when.

Well, that day has finally arrived.

You can mark down June 1, 2022 as the day when Quebec decided to forego all politeness, human rights concerns & basic civility and ram the French language down everyone’s medical throats, hearts and minds.

Bill 96, for all intended purposes is an add-on to Bill 101, which was an add-on to Bill 22 which was an add-on to Bill 63.

All these Bills / Laws had one common goal: to protect the French language.

But what does the data show? … is the French language in Quebec in 2022 actually in decline?

Absolutely not.

45 years after Bill 101 was passed, Quebec society has most definitely been transformed.

Besides French being made the official language of Quebec, it ensured that for just about every facet of life in the province: government, judicial system, education, advertising, business, contracts, etc., French had to be predominant.

In that time, Quebec and its residents have found a beautiful balance between maintaining French as the predominant language while affording younger generations to reach beyond their borders and be exposed and have the ability to benefit from speaking English as well.

The number of French-speaking kids choosing an English University is increasing – for obvious future employment reasons – and

IMO, that’s what Legault and his merry band of language purists are really worried about and what Bill 96 is really all about: for French to be the ONLY language spoken in Quebec.

The best way to ‘protect’ a language is by eliminating all others, I guess.

Legault claims that it’s his ‘duty to protect & promote the French language’ so, let’s dig a little deeper into Bill 96 and see if it helps to reach that goal or as it’s critiques claim is simply a punitive attack against ‘the English’.

*Video Below* shows Francois Legault reassuring people that he doesn’t want to come into their homes to see what language they’re speaking while REALLY wanting to know what language they’re speaking at home .. it’s a tight-rope act of nonsense speak.

In the late 1960s, the Government of Quebec established the Gendron Commission to investigate language problems in Québec.

Before the commission could render its report and in order to tone-down some of the fervor that was growing, Bill 63 was introduced.

Bill 63 – November 1969

Narrow in its scope, Bill 63, introduced by the Union Nationale government of Jean-Jacques Bertrand, required children receiving their education in English to acquire a working knowledge of French and required everything to be done so that immigrants acquired the knowledge of French upon arrival in Québec.

The Notwithstanding Clause – often used by Quebec governments whenever a new language Bill is passed – is Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that allows Parliaments or Provincial legislatures to temporarily override Sections 2 and 7-15 of the Charter.

Section 2 deals with the fundamental freedoms of Canadians:

• Freedom of expression,
• freedom of conscience & religion,
• freedom of the press and
• the freedom to assemble and to associate peacefully

Sections 7-14 deal with the Legal Rights of Canadians:

• The right to Life, Liberty & the Security of Person
• The right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure
• The right not to be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned
• The right to a speedy trial

Section 15 deals with Equality Rights:

Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.