The municipal library in the Village was asked for space for the monthly meeting of a book club that focuses on queer literature, but they refused because discussions are held in English and this would contravene the language law commonly called Bill 96. (CTV says the group would contravene “the spirit of” the language law.)
The CBC piece claims that only 1% of Ville‑Marie’s residents identified English as their mother tongue in the census. Census results aren’t defined by municipal borough, for starters, but when the city census metropolitan area comes up at 13.2% English mother tongue, what are the odds that Ville‑Marie is as low as 1%?
The CTV piece breezes past “the space was already booked” because, if true, there’s no story.
The Gazette covered the story later. Julius Grey: “It’s not even in the law. But people are so afraid (of breaking the law) that they are giving a ridiculous interpretation.”
Wednesday, CTV says it asked Quebec whether this was a correct application of the law, and were told it wasn’t applicable in this case, since the group was not acting on behalf of the city.
Nicholas 00:53 on 2025-01-29 Permalink
The borough did get access to this data, and in 2016 it was 15% English mother tongue only, and 18% if you include people who list multiple mother tongues, one of which is English.
Tim S. 09:22 on 2025-01-29 Permalink
My read of the situation is that the real issue is not English/French, but the distinction between formal and informal translation.
jeather 16:34 on 2025-01-29 Permalink
Whether or not they were busy on that day, the letter appeared to actually say that they wouldn’t allow it at any time. The CBC article contains a brief line saying the provincial government does not read the law this way.
Kate 17:44 on 2025-01-29 Permalink
Anticipatory obedience is one way of putting it.