Quebec's government passed its contentious English language legislation, Bill-96..It is the first major overhaul of language legislation in 20 years..The bill revises the province's Bill 101 — the Charter of the French Language (CFL), which was adopted by the Quebec government in 1977. The vote to pass the bill took only a few minutes at the National Assembly, Tuesday afternoon. .The revisions bring in measures that touch on everything in Quebec life from immigration, education, and healthcare and affects business, commerce, local and regional government, and the judicial system..Vigorous opposition over the bill manifested as thousands of Quebecers protesting the drastic modifications to the Charter. Protesters claim the bill violates the rights of English-speaking Quebec residents, non-French/English speakers in the province, and indigenous communities..MNAs voted 78-29 in favour of the new law with Liberal Party and Parti Québécois opposition members voting against..Details of the bill were covered in a Western Standard article on May 11. The main points of of the revised Charter, however, look like this:.Public signage must now have the French language “markedly predominant."Customers' rights to be served in French are now backed with harsh consequences. The CFL now states that businesses must inform and serve their non-consumer clients in French.Financial penalties for non-compliance of the rules has now doubled.Companies are now subject to French language obligations where there are 25 employees or more (down from 50) and sometimes where there are as few as five employees.Businesses are required to provide a greater amount of employment-related paperwork in French.Quebecers are now compelled to provide French-speaking staff, or representation, when dealing with or acting as service provider for government.Your business' dealings in Québec Courts must now be in French, or translated into French.The bill gives the Office québécois de la langue française warrantless search and seizure powers to enforce compliance..As a result of the bill's passing, a Montreal constitutional and human rights lawyer has said he and a committee of other lawyers, plan to challenge the bill in court..Bill-96 is "the most gratuitous use of power I've ever seen," Julius Grey said on Tuesday, hours before the legislation was passed..“There are a lot of lawyers who are thinking about it,” Grey said. “We’ll work it out and we’ll decide who plays what part. It’s not going to be one or two or three people — it will be more than that to try to do the best possible job.”.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters at a news conference in Vancouver that he has "concerns" about Bill-96, but did not give a clear response when he was asked if the federal government would intervene in a legal challenge.."We continue to look very carefully at what the final form of this will take and we will base our decision on what we see as the need to keep minorities protected across the country," he said.."I know how important it is to support francophone communities outside of Quebec, but it's also extremely important to make sure we protect francophone communities within Quebec," he added. He made a point of noting that he once taught the French language in BC..In a statement, Marlene Jennings, president of the Quebec Community Groups Network — an organization promoting the rights of English-speakers in the province — said that Bill-96 is "the most significant derogation of human rights in the history of Quebec and Canada."."This legislation revokes the right to access services in English for some 300,000 to 500,000 English-speaking Quebecers," the statement read..A guide to the law has been published on Quebec law firm Fasken's website.
