#bill 96

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Want English services in Quebec? Prepare to attest in ‘good faith’ that you qualify | Globalnews.ca

New provisions under Quebec's language law reform are now in effect. But one of the new changes -- and how it's being enforced -- has left m

Seeking English-language services from various kinds of government services in Quebec just became trickier — and the latest change isn’t going over well.

The François Legault government’s linguistic overhaul, known as Bill 96, is designed to protect and bolster the French language in the province. The goal is to guard against its decline, the government says, especially in Montreal.

After delays, more provisions of the law came into effect Thursday — one of which heavily relies on a self-imposed honour system in some cases.

Under the law, civil servants must now use French in an “exemplary” manner, which means they must speak and write exclusively in the language, except in certain cases. The new rule does not apply to the health and social services settings, according to Quebec’s language watchdog.

The latest restriction means only designated groups — such as Quebecers who have the right to English-language schooling, Indigenous people and immigrants who have been here for less than six months — can receive government services in English. [...]

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Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[porterdavis]

Buried within Quebec’s odious Bill 96, just signed into law.

[kuriquinn]

Fuck Quebec. Fuck Legault. And fuck every piece of trash pequiste that's so fucking stupid and naive that they think Bill 96 is going to save the French language. Y'all not only just ensured businesses and companies will be getting the fuck out of the province in droves (bye bye already trash economy), you just cut the knees out from future generations all while violating actual human rights. Can't wait to fucking leave this dumpster fire

[allthecanadianpolitics]

I'm going to clarify some stuff here, on my position concerning commentary like this and what it insinuates. Please do not attack or target this person, I'm using this commentary as an example, they are by no means the only person who has made commentary like this, and I'm just trying to educate.

There are a lot of issues with comments like this. Québec is an French-speaking province that is implementing more and more discriminatory rules against anglo and allophones in the province, making it harder for these individuals to seek basic services and making it legal to discriminate based on language, all this under the guise of 'la protection de la francophonie'. This is obviously heinous and a form of collective punishment if justified with the former persecution of French-speakers in Québec and class gap that overlapped with the gap between francophones and anglophones. HOWEVER, French-Canadians =/= French-speaking Québécois. There are large underserved francophone communities in other provinces such as Manitoba, Saskatchewan, etc... that also experience linguistic discrimination. Persecution of anglophones in Québec doesn't justify further snide commentary and discrimination against French-speaking Canadians as a whole. I would like to urge people not to express this kind of attitude on the posts of this blog. Direct your anger at Québec and its colonial institutions, which hypocritically seeks to continue the destruction of minority languages and do nothing to protect, preserve, or reinvigorate Indigenous languages; all the while claiming minority status for their own and using it as a cudgel to justify discrimination.

If you have any further concerns, address me at my main blog @el-shab-hussein, my inbox is open. I am not the main admin of this blog I am just one of the assistants helping run it.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Montreal woman says RAMQ hung up on her because she spoke English

A Montreal woman is speaking out about her recent experience with Quebec's health insurance board after she said a public servant hung up on

A Montreal woman is speaking out about her recent experience with Quebec's health insurance board after she said a public servant hung up on her because she spoke to him in English.

"I was so angry. So humiliated, frustrated and angry that it took me a couple of days to digest it," said 75-year-old Susan Starkey, who believes Quebec's new language law, Bill 96, is the reason why he ended the call.

Starkey spoke to CTV News on the condition of using her maiden name to protect her husband's privacy.

Her 82-year-old husband has had several health complications in recent years and now must use a feeding tube connected to his stomach.

When she called the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ) in early July she was inquiring about the ISO-Pro formula, her spouse's only source of nourishment. [...]

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[allthecanadianpolitics]

Quebec adopts Bill 96 to overhaul Charter of French Language

Parti Québécois, Liberals voted against Bill 96 — for opposing reasons

Quebec's majority government has adopted its contentious language bill overhauling the Charter of the French language, in a vote that lasted only minutes at the National Assembly this afternoon.

Dissent over Bill 96 had escalated in recent weeks with thousands holding protests, denouncing the bill for impeding on the rights of anglophones, allophones and Indigenous communities.

The bill is large in scope, limiting the use of English in the courts and public services and imposing tougher language requirements on small businesses and municipalities.

It also caps the number of students who can attend English-language colleges, known as CEGEPs, and increases the amount of French courses students at the colleges must take.

Two opposition parties voted against the law. The Parti Québécois said the legislation did not go far enough in protecting the French language in Quebec, while Quebec Liberal Party Leader Dominique Anglade denounced the bill's use of the notwithstanding clause, saying it goes too far.

The notwithstanding clause allows a province to override basic freedoms guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Instead of just applying the clause to specific parts of Bill 96, the government applied the clause to the entire bill, making every aspect of the far-reaching law immune to legal challenges based on the charter.

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Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[allthecanadianpolitics]

'It's detrimental to the people:' Bill 96 convoy rolls through southwest Montreal

Another convoy rally against Bill 96 rolled through southwest Montreal Saturday afternoon, with demonstrators calling on Quebec to hit the b

Another convoy rally against Quebec's controversial language law rolled through southwest Montreal Saturday afternoon, with demonstrators calling on the province to hit the brakes on Bill 96.

A group of about 50 drove through boroughs like LaSalle, Verdun, and Lachine to express their frustration with Bill 96, which seeks to promote the use of the French language in Quebec and affirm that French is the common language of the province. 

"It's detrimental to the people, and that's not what a government is supposed to do. It's supposed to protect everybody in Quebec," said Marc Perez with the Task Force on Linguistic Policy.

The Task Force, along with the group Bridging Ethnic Communities, organized the demonstrations.

Some at the protest said they've had difficulty receiving services in English, arguing the law has created a hostile attitude towards anglophones. [...]

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[allthecanadianpolitics]

Kahnawake youth stop traffic on Honoré Mercier Bridge to protest Bill 96

The language law will be a setback for the community struggling to keep Mohawk alive, activists say

Dozens of young people from Kahnawake, Que., stopped traffic on the Honoré Mercier Bridge on Saturday, saying they're worried Bill 96 will be a setback for the community struggling to keep the Mohawk language alive.

Quebec's newly proposed and controversial language law is expected to pass in the National Assembly this coming week.

The bill would reform several pieces of Quebec legislation, including the Charter of the French Language, touching everything from education and health to the rights of immigrants to be served in other languages.

"We do not have a lot left. We have a little land left, our language. We only have about 300 speakers compared to 85 per cent of French speakers in Quebec," said 19-year-old Teiotsatonteh Diabo, who helped organize the protest.

Diabo said Indigenous people should be exempt from sections of the law that would force them to speak French or take French courses, which are proposed at the CEGEP level.

"Not everyone can focus on French," said Diabo, who is heading to Dawson College next year.

"You need to understand that we are still in the middle of trying to save our culture and language from all the assimilation and residential schools that you [the Quebec government] put my people through," she said, adding she intends to learn the language one day.

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Tagging: @politicsofcanada