Quebec community groups sound the alarm over Bill 96
“Bill 96 is a wide-ranging and complex piece of legislation It represents a significant overhaul of Quebec’s legal order,” Jennings said.
Marlene Jennings, President of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), says that the provincial government’s proposed language law reform, Bill 96, has put Quebec at a crossroads.
“The path Quebec takes with Bill 96 will determine how history unfolds in this province, and in Canada at large,” she said, speaking during a presentation of QCGN’S preliminary analysis of the sweeping changes proposed by the bill.
While establishing that study of the bill, which was introduced in midmay, is still underway, Jennings said that the organization feels concerned that the bill, passed as-is, stands to have serious impact on Quebec’s English-speaking communities.
“Bill 96 is a wide-ranging and complex piece of legislation It represents a significant overhaul of Quebec’s legal order,” she said, arguing that the bill is calling for the most sweeping use of human rights overrides, by means of the notwithstanding clause, in the history of Quebec and Canada. “Bill 96 effectively creates a Charter-free zone with respect to a wide range of interactions between individuals and the state in Quebec. The Charter of the French Language touches on commerce, employment, education, access to public services, expression in a range of contexts, and the operation of the legal system. Where rights that would otherwise be protected are infringed, the courts will not be able to review and remedy the conduct under either the Canadian or Quebec Charters.”
By pre-emptively stating that they will use the notwithstanding clause to avoid court challenges, Jennings said that the bill Is trying to shelter its newly revised charter of the French Language, new Minister of the French language, commissioner, powers of the Office Quebecoise de la Langue Française, and the province’s executive from the scrutiny of the courts.
“Here is the question we need to ask over and over: Why does protecting the French language require the blanket suspension of human rights?” she asked. “The way we see it, it really doesn’t.”
Following the introduction of the bill in May, QCGN commissioned a series of polls to gauge the reaction of various groups within the province and country with regard to the proposed legislation. The results showed, among other things, that the opinions of Quebec’s English and French speaking populations on the bill are widely divergent.
Asked about how the group plans to voice its concerns in a context where 61.1 per cent of French-speaking respondents felt it was necessary for the government to invoke the notwithstanding clause, Jennings said that the focus going forward will be encouraging dialogue across linguistic groups.
“We’re used to mountain climbing in terms of defending and advocating for minority rights,” the QCGN President said.
The other aspect to the group’s uphill battle is a matter of breaking down the messaging that the bill is a compromise and ‘no big deal.’
“Any time someone raises a concern they’re slammed down as being alarmist,” Jennings said.
“If I’m alarmist because I’m worried that Bill 96 creates a charterfree zone where my individual rights and freedoms are suspended with no justification, no explanation, then call me alarmist.”