French in Quebec: ‘It’s nothing against the English Quebecers,’ Legault says of new bill

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QUEBEC — Invoking the memory of René Lévesque and Camille Laurin and his own bumpy upbringing as a francophone on the West Island, Premier François Legault Thursday called on a new generation of Quebecers to take up the torch of protecting French.

Grabbing a share of the limelight from his minister responsible for the French language, Simon Jolin-Barrette, after the latter tabled a long-delayed bill overhauling the Charter of the French Language, Legault made sure the linguistic debate ahead will have his personal stamp.

Protecting French is Job One for the premier of Quebec, Legault added, even more so given the linguistic quagmire in which Quebec finds itself mired.

“It’s clear we must do more and action is urgently required,” Legault told reporters with Jolin-Barrette on his flank. “This is a solid bill, a necessary bill and a reasonable bill.

“Adopting this bill will be the strongest act since the creation of Bill 101 in 1977. Forty-four years later, a nationalist government steps in to take up the mantle of the Lévesque government to present a new Bill 101.”

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Both Legault and Jolin-Barrette insisted the rights of Quebec’s minorities are respected on every page of Bill 96, “an act respecting French, the official and common language of Quebec.”

“It’s nothing against the English Quebecers,” Legault told reporters. “It’s about protecting French. And all the rights of English Quebecers will be protected.”

The sweeping 100-page, 201-article bill delves into every facet of French — from customer service in shops to the kind of commercial signs Canadian Tire can use — and is designed to halt the slow, steady decline of French, particularly in Montreal.

While there are new requirements for French services in stores, the familiar Bonjour-Hi greeting has survived the cuts, even if it irritates the political class to no end.

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“Bonjour-Hi is not covered by the bill,” Jolin-Barrette said, recognizing a reporter’s loaded question a mile off.

Landing 16 months before the next Quebec election, the bill — one year in the making — took the opposition parties at the National Assembly off guard with its sheer scope. Some expressed irritation with Legault’s spin that Bill 96 is more balanced and effective than anything they could have coughed up.

Legault went so far as to describe his old Parti Québécois party’s vision — which would block francophones and allophones from attending English CEGEPs — “as extremist in my view.”

Reaction was swift, with neither minority groups nor language hardliners saying they are satisfied.

“This is a closed-in, narrow vision of Quebec that is increasingly distancing itself from the rest of Canada,” said Marlene Jennings, president of the Quebec Community Groups Network, an English community umbrella group.

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“Bonjour-Hi is the direct result of the government’s inaction (on language),” snapped PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who has been criticized for failing to come up with his own plan for language. Now he says it will be made public Monday.

Observers rapidly noted the bill is riddled with potentially litigious clauses. As it did with its state secularism law, Bill 21, the government is weaving the use of the Constitution’s notwithstanding clause into the fabric of the bill from the get-go.

Asked about the specific clauses Quebec is seeking to shield, Jolin-Barrette answered: “There are a lot of things. It’s the collective work.”

Bill 96 also opens a new political front with the federal government. Jolin-Barrette said he wants to unilaterally insert two new articles into the Constitution Act of 1867, “formally and expressively recognizing Quebecers form a nation and that French is the only official and common language of Quebec.”

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But most citizens will note the nitty-gritty clauses of the bill as they will affect their lives.

For example, following adoption of the bill, citizens who can’t get served in French in Montreal shops will be entitled to file complaints against store owners. A simple phone call to the Office québécois de la langue française will suffice.

“What we are tabling today is about the fundamental right to be served and informed in French,” Jolin-Barrette said. “It was already in the bill (101), but it was not enforceable.

“This bill means a person will be allowed to call the OQLF and say, ‘I did not have my right to be served in French (recognized).’ The OQLF will call the store and tell the store to make changes inside the organization.”

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The bill includes a crackdown on the lack of French on commercial signs, saying the current rules requiring “sufficient French” are being dropped. A return is planned to the old formula, which was “marked or net predominance” of French.

A freeze would be slapped on the number of Quebec students allowed to attend English CEGEPs, in a bid to ensure English-speaking Quebecers have access to English institutions. The ceiling would be 17.5 per cent of Quebec’s total CEGEP population.

As anglophone CEGEP students account for 8.7 per cent of the current total in Quebec, the remaining spots would go to francophones and allophones. This allows the government to say it is maintaining freedom of choice, a subject that has been hotly debated in Quebec for months.

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Quebec also proposes to strip the bilingual status of Quebec municipalities that no longer have a population of at least 50 per cent English speakers. But in a compromise, it says cities and boroughs that want to preserve their status can, by adopting a resolution to that effect.

Quebec is giving them 120 days after the adoption of the bill to do so. Officials said later they fully expect many to do just that.

Among other provisions:

• The bill would create a ministry for language and the position of commissioner of the French language, who would hear complaints and report directly to the National Assembly. About $104 million would be added to pay for the extra layer of language bureaucracy.

• It would extend application of the French certification process to smaller businesses with 25 to 49 employees.

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• It would create a one-stop service centre, Francisation Québec, devoted to helping immigrants learn French by centralizing services currently scattered in three ministries. In 2017, Quebec’s auditor general revealed only one-third of new arrivals were signing up for French-language courses and 90 per cent of graduates were unable to operate in French.

• It includes a new “right” to learn French, which will translate into courses for anglophones who want to improve their skills. It was the main point expressed by the community to Legault’s parliamentary assistant for relations with English-speaking Quebecers, Christopher Skeete, during a consultation process. Liberal MNA Greg Kelley also tabled a bill in 2019 to enact this.

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Quebec has already announced it is enacting a dormant clause of Bill 104 that states the government and government organizations, municipalities, education service centres and health and social service agencies must use French to interact with companies. That takes effect in 2022.

The bill proposes to extend the French charter rules to cover federally chartered corporations such as banks and telecommunication companies.

True to the Coalition Avenir Québec government’s penchant for borrowing other parties’ lore when convenient, the bill even includes a clause for renaming the Montreal riding of Bourget Camille Laurin, riding in memory of the father of Bill 101.

pauthier@postmedia.com

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