Jolin-Barrette births Bill 96
Thursday’s big news is Simon Jolin-Barrette’s new French language law, Bill 96, An Act respecting French, the official and common language of Québec, which Les Perreaux tweets is 100 pages long. It seems likely the next few news cycles will be given over to analyses of the thing.
Update, again quoting Perreaux: “The bill limits enrollment in the English part of the college system (CEGEPs) to 17.5% of the student population. English colleges will also give priority to students qualified to study in English under the rules for grade school.”
Another update: On CBC radio, Jonathan Montpetit notes one of the big claims made in the bill: a demand to change the Canadian constitution.
In tangential news, Rima Elkouri reports in La Presse that the test given to postulant immigrants here comes from France and uses a lot of terms and references specific to Hexagonal French and life in that country.
Blork 11:31 on 2021-05-13 Permalink
If it were written in English it would only be 60 pages.
Joey 12:13 on 2021-05-13 Permalink
My impression is that the 17.5% figure is a maximum and that the annual percentage cannot exceed the previous year’s, so if in any given year it dips, it can never go back up. I assume in the short term the 17.5% proportion is “safe” but as demographics shift if it every drops down it can never go back (barring court challenges, future reforms, etc.). A bit of a poison pill, though post-secondary administrators are very good at managing these kinds of numbers
Kate 12:41 on 2021-05-13 Permalink
so if in any given year it dips, it can never go back up
Doesn’t this more or less imply that they intend to reduce the English-speaking community over time?
Kevin 12:44 on 2021-05-13 Permalink
Here’s the English-language link https://t.co/E1jMlZekmA
Article 159 unilaterally changes the federal Constitution to state that French is the only official language of Quebec.
I can’t even.
Joey 13:39 on 2021-05-13 Permalink
@Kate that’s certainty the idea
@Kevin this seems like ‘mountain out of a molehill’ category; Wikipedia explains that “Section 45 of the Constitution Act, 1982 allows each province to amend its own constitution. However, if the desired change would require an amendment to any documents that form part of the Constitution of Canada, it would require the consent of the federal government under section 43. This was done, for example, by the Constitution Amendment, 1998, when Newfoundland asked the federal government to amend the Terms of Union of Newfoundland to allow it to end denominational quotas for religion classes.” (Constitution of Canada article)
Kevin 15:21 on 2021-05-13 Permalink
@Joey
The constitution can be altered with the consent of all involved.
But the section that SJB wants to change doesn’t even concern the portion that requires mandatory bilingualism in many aspects of Quebec’s existence.
Not to mention that it was just a few weeks ago that the CAQ was denouncing the constitution as yet another thing imposed on Quebec against its will and yearghh I’m out. Just picture all future comments as being from Effin Birds.