Quebecers’ support for Bill 96 is not unconditional, poll suggests

article content

Bill 96, the Legault government’s controversial reform of Quebec’s language laws, continues to divide Quebecers along linguistic lines, a new poll suggests.

article content

However, Angus-Reid’s online poll of 1,211 Quebec adults conducted June 7-13 found that while 56 percent of all respondents support Bill 96, that support is not unqualified, with narrow majorities who oppose some of the most controversial aspects of the law.

The survey found that the majority of respondents support the law that requires Quebec employers to demonstrate why a job requires knowledge of a language other than French (69 percent), that companies with more than 25 employees ensure that French is the common language in the workplace (67 per cent). percent) and that the Office québécois de la langue française has the power to monitor and audit compliance with the requirements of the law (59 percent).

But that support dipped when it came to the most controversial elements of Bill 96, with 62 percent opposing the reform that no longer requires Quebec Court judges to be proficient in English, a 52 percent against limiting the number of students who can attend English courses. CEGEP, and 51 percent opposed switching all government communication with immigrants to French within six months of arrival.

article content

Bill 96 continues to deeply divide Quebecers linguistically, with 71 percent of Francophone respondents in favor of the law, while 94 percent of Anglophone respondents oppose it.

That divide is equally stark when viewed through the lens of political affiliation. Respondents who describe themselves as supporters of François Legault’s Avenir Québec Coalition support Bill 96 by a margin of 88 percent, and that level of support rose to 95 percent among Parti Québécois supporters.

A full 62 percent of respondents who identified themselves as supporters of Québec Solidaire said they were in favor of the law. But opposition to Bill 96 was clear among Quebec Liberals (90 percent) and supporters of the Quebec Conservative Party (72 percent).

While no margin of error can be assigned to this online poll, a random poll of a sample of this size would have a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points 19 times out of 20.