IT WAS BAD FOR THEM, BAD FOR US . ... IT WAS TIME TO ACT.

and educating young kids of immigrants,” she said in an interview.

“It partly reached its goals of preserving the French nature of society and French as the common language because there is a decline in the use of French.”

Marois’ comments represent the ongoing legislative and cultural battle between the province’s linguistic groups over Quebec’s identity.

The fight started with a series of court challenges almost as soon as the law was adopted.

In 1984 the Supreme Court ruled it was a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to force children instructed in English elsewhere in Canada to be forced into French schools in Quebec. The court also ruled that same year Bill 101’s rejection of English storefront signage was a violation of freedom of speech. which allows provinces or the federal government to override the charter — to maintain French-only outdoor signs.

“Bourassa and his wife were profoundly francophone and Québécois and they saw the catastrophe that was coming,” Landry said.

The premier’s actions reinforced the notion that regardless of the political party — sovereigntist or federalist — the language laws were there to stay.

Bourassa’s government relented somewhat in 1993 and passed a law allowing English to be included on outdoor signs — but only if the French lettering was at least twice as large.

Libman said anglo-Quebecers had two choices faced with the consensus imposed by the majority: fight back or leave.

“Very few fought back,” he said. “And as it wore on, those who stayed just decided to roll over and play dead.”

Many anglophones end up leaving.

A 2016 study by the Fraser Institute revealed that between 1971 and 2015, roughly 600,000 more people left Quebec for other parts of Canada than moved in.

Libman says today’s anglophones are more bilingual, but the community “has been decimated.”

He said Mosher’s cartoon was interpreted correctly by those who feared the worst.

In 1971 there were 250,000 children in English schools across the province, while today there are fewer than half that number.

“Friends, relatives, our best and brightest left,” Libman said. “And the opportunities here are limited for anglophones.”

But Marois says she isn’t worried about Quebec anglophones, for whom she has “profound respect.”

“They are part of a large majority on the continent, which is not the case for francophones,” she said.

If Jean-François Lisée, the current PQ leader, had his way, Bill 101 would soon be a thing of the past because it would be replaced by tougher legislation.

Lisée said recently that if his party wins the 2018 election, it will introduce a new, stricter language law — within 101 days — to stem what he called a worrying trend in the use of French in Quebec.

The legislation would be called Bill 202 and would force all companies in Quebec with 25 employees or more to conduct all business in French, which is currently the case for firms with 50 people or more.

Concerns about the perceived decline of French in the province are also shared by Partenaires pour un Québec français, a group that defends the French language and is urging the Quebec government to do more to enforce Bill 101.

It argues the government is failing in its mission to adequately defend the language.

“Unfortunately, the government is doing nothing to make sure that French is the language of the state,” said Christian Daigle, head of the union that represents civil servants in various departments and government agencies.

“On paper, everything is fine and dandy, but in reality it’s not.” did