Protesters demonstrate against bill 96 in NDG

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A few dozen people gathered in Montreal’s Notre-Dame-de-Grâce park on Sunday to protest Bill 96, the reform proposed by the government of the Avenir Québec Coalition of the French-language charter adopted in 1977. .

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They say the proposed legislation violates the rights and freedoms of Quebecers and attacks the English and cultural communities and their institutions.

Bill 96 would change the Constitution Act of 1867 to affirm Quebec as a nation, with French as the only official and common language. Its 202 amendments are intended to strengthen the status of French. As with Bill 21, the law that prohibits the use of religious symbols for state workers in a position of authority, uses the notwithstanding clause of the Constitution to override other statutory protections.

Among other things, the bill would extend the application of the French certification process to companies with 25 to 49 employees (now there are 50 or more) and would enforce the right to be attended in French in stores; it would limit the number of years that children of foreign workers can attend school in English and restrict access to CEGEPs in English.

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“It’s nothing against English Quebecers,” Quebec Prime Minister François Legault said when the bill was introduced in May. “It’s about protecting the French, and all the rights of English Quebecers will be protected.”

Giovanni Bisciglia, who spoke at Sunday’s event, said he is concerned that Bill 96, under the guise of protecting language rights, is in fact eliminating civil rights. “Make no mistake about it: this bill is an open attack on the fundamentals of civil liberties, an assault on the most basic rights of our citizens,” he said.

The protest was organized by a group known as the Committee to Dismiss Bill 96 . It asks the federal government to intervene by rejecting the legislation once it becomes law, said Irwin Rapoport, one of the organizers of the event. This was last done in 1947.

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Bill 96 proposes to use current eligibility to attend school in English as a benchmark to determine who is a member of the “historic English-speaking community” and therefore eligible to access government services in English.

A group of prominent English-speaking Quebecers wrote an open letter to the prime minister in October, rejecting his use of the term historical Anglophones as “very non-inclusive.” The letter reads, in part: “Our community is an integral part of Quebec with full rights to participate in Quebec society and receive government services.”

Protester Andrea MacKenzie said that by separating Anglophone Quebecers into categories, Bill 96 “has gone too far.”

“We have a prime minister who does not want to build a society but to destroy it,” Rapoport said.

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Protester Song Yang said he is concerned about the expanded powers in the digital world that the law would grant the Québécois de la langue française Office: OQLF inspectors would have the power to access electronic devices and “any related documents” in a investigation.

Bill 96 is in the committee stage, being examined clause by clause. So far, only a handful of its 202 clauses have been examined; The house will go into recess on Friday for holidays, so the bill will not be approved before Christmas.

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