Bill 96 French-language reform officially adopted in Quebec

Bill 96 was officially adopted at the National Assembly on Tuesday.

It’s Quebec’s overhaul of its French language law.

The controversial bill passed by a vote of 78-29, with the opposition Liberals and Parti Quebecois opposing it.

The PQ said the legislation didn’t go far enough in protecting the French language, while the Liberal Party denounced the bill’s use of the notwithstanding clause.

The majority ruling CAQ and Quebec Solidaire voted in favour.

The François Legault government says Bill 96 will improve protection for French while preserving English services.

“If we don’t take action to protect French, it’s a matter of time Quebec becomes a bilingual state,” said Legault. “It’s a matter of time before we lose the presence of French in Quebec.

“I think that the vast majority of Quebecers agree with our measures.”

But critics say the bill will limit access to health care and justice, cost college teachers their jobs and increase red tape for small businesses.

The reform was initially deposed in April 2021.

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Advocates have said the law could prevent hundreds of thousands of English speakers from accessing health care in their language as the bill requires government agencies, including health services, to communicate with the public in French except “where health, public safety or the principles of natural justice so require.”

The bill would require all students at English CEGEPs to take three additional courses in French.
Students with English education rights, those who have a parent or sibling who was educated in English in Canada, will be allowed to take courses on the French language, but other students will have to take other subjects, such as history or biology, in French.

The bill would expand provisions of the province’s language laws, which previously only applied to businesses with 50 or more employees, to those with 25 or more.

There is also a provision granting language inspectors the power to engage in search and seizure operations without a warrant.

It would also require all court filings by businesses to be in French or translated into French and empower the minister of justice and the minister responsible for the French language to decide which provincial court judges need to be bilingual.

It calls for amending pieces of legislation, including Quebec’s charter of the French language, the code of civil procedure, the consumer protection act and Montreal’s city charter.

The bill would proactively invoke the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian constitution to protect it from charter challenges.