Protesters march in Montreal to show support for Bill 101

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For the second Saturday in a row, protesters converged on downtown Montreal to make their voices heard on the topic of language rights.

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More than 100 people gathered at Dorchester Square on a sunny and blustery afternoon to express support for the Charter of the French Language, hear fiery speeches and march down Ste-Catherine St. W.

Saturday’s gathering paled in comparison with last week’s march, which drew several thousand people — many of them anglophones — to protest against Bill 96. The proposed law, which aims to bolster the status of French in the province, is expected to come to a vote in the National Assembly at the end of the month.

Still, the limited turnout failed to dampen spirits. Organized to mark Quebec’s National Patriots Day, the event featured plenty of fleur-de-lis flags and French language signs urging Quebecers to stop apologizing for being “chez nous.” Speakers such as Jean-Paul Perreault, president of the Imperative Français francophone-rights group, stood in front of an old electoral sign for Camille Laurin — the former Parti Québécois education minister known as the “Father of Bill 101” — to address the crowd and demand the law be extended to Quebec’s CEGEPs.

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“We nationalists aren’t happy because Bill 96 doesn’t go far enough,” Terrebonne resident Daniel Roy, wearing a T-shirt that read “Le Québec, un pays,” said in an interview before the march began. “I’m here because I think Bill 101 must apply to CEGEPs. I think the number of Anglophone students should be reduced to reflect the proportion of historical Anglos in Quebec.”

Bill 96 “should be stronger,” concurred fellow demonstrator Danny Ouellet of Mirabel. “This protest is a message to the CAQ that they should extend Bill 101 to the CEGEPs. If we francophones don’t do anything about it, we’ll be heading into a wall before too long.”

Historian, Dawson College professor and former Parti Québécois leadership candidate Frédéric Bastien echoed Ouellet’s concerns. He warned demonstrators francophone Quebecers who don’t stand up to defend French now run the risk of slowly disappearing — the same way Franco-Ontarians have seen their relative weight shrink over the past century, he said.

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“Aren’t you tired of being called racists because you want to live in French in Quebec? Enough with the Quebec-bashing,” Bastien said, eliciting cheers from the crowd. “We are the ones who represent diversity in Canada. We are the ones who are victims of injustice.”

Some at Saturday’s event said they back Bill 96. That’s the case of 20-something Rémi Leboeuf, who drove in from Joliette with his friend Stéphanie Christina Lamarre to take part in the march.

“There was a demonstration in Montreal last weekend against Bill 96, and it was important to show the government that there is still support for Bill 101,” Leboeuf said. “Bill 96 is a necessary law. Often, the silent majority outside of Montreal doesn’t really show its support. This today isn’t a demonstration against anglophones. We just want to reaffirm the importance of the common language of Quebec, which is French. I can understand the concerns of the Anglophone community, but perhaps there is an overreaction on their part.”

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