New group formed to oppose language legislation
“I think if we message it correctly, people are going to wake up,” the founder said, referring to the provincial bill in particular as a “leviathan” that needs to be carefully deconstructed to be understood properly.
On Monday a collection of concerned members of Quebec’s English communities announced the formation of what they are referring to as a “task force to stop Quebec’s Bill 96 and Canada’s Bill C-32.”
Colin Standish, the group’s founder, said that the idea came together due to a feeling that the two proposed laws represent an abandonment of the English community by the Federal and Provincial governments through a “fundamental restructuring of the Canadian constitution, language policy and our basic human rights and freedoms.”
Asked for more detail on the objectives of the task force, Standish said that there will be a focus on informing the public of what Bill 96 and Bill C-32 involve, but added that the group has yet to completely outline its action plan. He underlined, however, that the task force represents a “serious group of serious people,” who will be making themselves heard shortly.
Standish recognized that preliminary studies by the Quebec Community Groups Network, among others, have indicated a general lack of opposition to the provisions of Bill 96 among Quebec’s French-speaking population, but argued that his new team will be able to draw on “a lot of wide-spread concern,” in the province to help get their message across.
“I think if we message it correctly, people are going to wake up,” the founder said, referring to the provincial bill in particular as a “leviathan” that needs to be carefully deconstructed to be understood properly.
“All Quebecers and Canadians should be deeply concerned by the fundamental changes being put forward in legislation by the Federal and Provincial governments that can and will have a profoundly negative impact on the core values and identity we all share,” said Gerald Cutting, President of Townshippers’association and one of the members of the new group. “This is not a time for complacency, we must stand together.”