The Quebec Community Groups Network says Bill 96 is wide-ranging, complex and represents a significant overhaul of Quebec’s legal order. QCGN head Marlene Jennings told reporters today the bill seeks to modify 24 provincial statutes as well as the Constitution Act of 1867. Jennings says the government’s pre-emptive use of the notwithstanding clause to shield … Read more
Wording by the Quebec government in its proposed amendment of the Canadian Constitution could exclude many from being defined as a Quebecer, according to an analysis of Bill 96 by the Quebec Community Groups Network. The QCGN is an umbrella group made up of English-speaking community organizations. It says the proposed new language law would effectively make the province a … Read more
Bill 96 is a wide-ranging and complex piece of legislation. It represents a significant overhaul of Quebec’s legal system. It amends the Charter of the French Language (“CFL”), 24 other provincial statutes, one regulation, and the Constitution Act, 1867. Go to the QCGN’s analysis of Bill 96
QCGN President Marlene Jennings discusses the implications of Bill 96 for Quebec’s English-speaking and minority communities with CJAD’s Elias Makos. Listen here
The Quebec Community Groups Network says Bill 96 is wide-ranging, complex and represents a significant overhaul of Quebec’s legal order. QCGN head Marlene Jennings told reporters today the bill seeks to modify 24 provincial statutes as well as the Constitution Act of 1867. Jennings says the government’s pre-emptive use of the notwithstanding clause to shield … Read more
The adoption of Bill 96 on official languages can have an “unpredictable and far-reaching” judicial impact, says the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), an organization made up of several English-speaking groups. “There seems to be a consensus among the population, particularity with French-speaking Quebecers, who say there is no need to worry about Bill 96. … Read more
Quebec anglophones were bracing for the worst when Quebec Premier François Legault tabled his long-awaited bill to beef up protection for the French language last month. But don’t be lulled into a false sense of security. As Quebec anglophones know after 45 years of language wars: the devil is often in the details. And after an exhaustive … Read more
The Quebec Community Groups Network is sickened by the heinous murder of five Muslims Sunday in London, Ontario. The fear and hatred that fueled this senseless act of Islamophobia has no place in Canadian society. Every Canadian has a sacred and inherent freedom of conscience and religion. No person, no group, and no government can … Read more
Bill 96 is Quebec’s legislation which aims to make French the primary language of the province. Bill 96 would also declare Quebec ‘A Nation’—a move that would require opening up the Constitution. What could possibly go wrong? Premier François Legault says the main reason for the need is the declining use of French in Quebec. … Read more
The Townshippers’ Association hosted its 41st Annual General Meeting this Friday June 4th, 2021, with 34 members, guests, and stakeholders in attendance. For a second year in a row, the Association provided a summary of the last year’s activities via videoconference and the business meeting was followed by the unveiling of the winners of this year’s Young … Read more
Non-francophones hold widely diverging views from French-speaking Quebecers on Bill 96, which aims to reinforce the Charter of the French Language (Bill 101). A majority of anglophones and allophones also believe the debate over the proposed legislation will strain relations between the majority and minority communities. “There is a reason for optimism here in that … Read more
“It is no longer a question of modernizing the Official Languages Act. We have returned to the negotiation of the partnership between French and English in Canada,” QCGN President Marlene Jennings says of Bill 96 before the Senate Committee of Official Languages. Jennings comments that the Trudeau government is proposing to “territorialize language rights by crushing … Read more