First hearing for lawsuit against Quebec’s Language Law
Posted August 29, 2023 4:53 pm.
Last Updated August 29, 2023 6:54 pm.
The first hearing of the lawsuit filed earlier this year by The Task Force on Linguistic Policy against Bill 96 took place Tuesday at the Montreal courthouse.
“We’re fighting this fight, even though we shouldn’t have to,” says Andrew Caddell, President of the Task Force and one of the six plaintiffs in the case.
Caddell says Tuesday’s hearing sets a precedent “when we look back in years to come, we’ll see this as being a very, very significant day in the history of our community, it’s the day that we came forward and said we will not accept the arbitrariness of either Bill 96 or the constitutional changes that the Quebec government is proposing,” says Caddell.
Michael Bergman, the lawyer who is representing the task force, says “We achieved something important, that is the ability to submit to the court historical and demographic and statistical evidence about the English community and the French community in Quebec.
Michael Bergman and team of lawyers heading case against Quebec’s Language Law (Felisha Adam, CityNews Image)
Today’s hearing set out the next steps in the lawsuit going forward, including selecting key dates in the upcoming months.
“The fact that there was an agreement and the court ordered these expert reports is more than a formality, it’s quite substantive,” says Bergman.
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By October 15th the team leading the lawsuit must advise the attorney general of the names of their experts, historians, and demographers and by November 24th reports by the experts must be submitted. Following that, depositions for both sides will be held.
Bergman, says he is hopeful that by June 2024 a date will be set to begin the trail.
RELATED: Group opposing Quebec’s Bill 96 launches lawsuit against province’s new language law
“We are saying that you cannot change the Constitution unilaterally. You can’t make changes to laws that affect people’s day-to-day lives, and therefore we have to go as far as possible,” says Caddelle who adds the case will likely end up in the Supreme Court of Canada.
He acknowledges that it will be a long up hill battle, one that will not be concluded in the next year.
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“I think we’ve been patient enough to wait to get all of our ducks aligned… I think that we will show the stamina and the determination to carry this through,” he added.
Plaintiffs of the case include, a teacher concerned about his status due to education provisions in Bill 96, a businessperson whose commercial affairs are affected by Bill 96, a permanent resident with an autoimmune disease who cannot receive communications in English and a mother whose autistic child has not been able to receive proper specialized care because his first language is English.
It will also include general plaintiffs, acting as public interest litigants, as a constitutional question.
