Quebec’s government has successfully passed sweeping French language protections that critics warn will reshape all aspects of public life. “Bill 96 is the most significant derogation of human rights in the history of Quebec and Canada,” Marlene Jennings, head of the Quebec Community Groups Network, which promotes the rights of English-speakers in the province, said in … Read more
The tug-of-war over Bill 96, which was approved Tuesday, pitted the majority government and politicians who declared the French language’s viability was at stake against advocates who warned the law could weaken civil liberties in Canada’s second most populous province. “Bill 96 will make it virtually impossible for someone to receive quality health and social … Read more
There will be legal challenges and a public pressure campaign against Bill 96, which was voted into law Tuesday afternoon. The Quebec Community Groups Network has vowed to support any fight against the law, and plans to mount a public awareness campaign, starting with a protest in Montreal set for Thursday evening. Read more
Bill 96, the provincial government’s controversial legislation aimed at protecting the French language in Quebec, has been adopted in the National Assembly. “It’s a sad day. I think it’s a sad day for all of Quebec,” said QCGN director Sylvia Martin-Laforge. Read more
The Quebec government has secured the largest expansion of its language laws in more than 40 years, imposing new rules to reinforce the use of French in the public service, education and business despite bitter opposition from the province’s English-speaking minority. “The mood now in the English-speaking community is quite bleak,” said Joan Fraser, a … Read more
The Quebec Community Groups Network has criticized Bill 96 for many reasons, in part for infringing on citizens’ privacy rights, greatly reducing the ability to receive public services in English and for issuing fines for speaking languages other than French at work. Read more
The minister responsible for the French language says the Legault government has no “hidden agenda” with Bill 96, and insists the status quo will continue for the English-speaking and Indigenous communities when accessing health and social services. Critics including the Quebec Community Groups Network have said that under Bill 96, out of 1.1 million residents … Read more
Members of the National Assembly yesterday delivered their final speeches and remarks on Bill 96, An Act respecting French, the Official and Common Language of Québec and commentary from the Committee on Culture and Education, which had reviewed the bill on a clause-by-clause basis. Read more
For more than a year, the QCGN has been doing its best to convince the Quebec government of the shortcomings of Bill 96, An Act respecting French, the official and common language of Québec. Unfortunately, our concerns as well as those of countless Quebecers including organizations representing our business, education, health and social services, human … Read more
English-speaking residents outside the greater Montreal area say they feel cut off, even abandoned. For months, they haven’t been able to get their hands on publications of most English-language newspapers. “It really affects the vitality of our community in terms of access to what’s going on,” says Eva Ludvig, a board member of the Quebec … Read more
A protest against Quebec’s proposed overhaul of its language law drew a large crowd in Montreal on Saturday. Marlene Jennings, president of the Quebec Community Groups Network, an anglophone advocacy group, says the law could prevent hundreds of thousands of English speakers from accessing health care in their language. Read more
Bill C-13 is not the bill that the official language minorities asked for. In Bill C-13, the federal government is poised to abandon half a century of official language policy and turn the OLA into legislation aimed at the protection and promotion of one official language. Read more