About twenty Quebec municipalities, including Côte-Saint-Luc, intend to go to court to challenge certain provisions of Bill 96, which reforms Bill 101.
The City of Côte-Saint-Luc has called the media to a press conference to be held on Wednesday “concerning the legal challenge of certain articles of Law 96 by municipalities in Quebec” in the presence of several elected officials.
On Tuesday, the City declined to give details of the proposed challenge.
Adopted in May 2022, Bill 96 now requires towns that no longer meet the statistical definition of a bilingual municipality — i.e. a majority of residents having English as their mother tongue — to pass a resolution to maintain their bilingual status, for lack of which will be withdrawn from them by the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF).
Last month, the OQLF confirmed that 48 cities, municipalities or boroughs had taken the necessary measures to maintain their bilingual status.
And since last Thursday, other provisions of the reform have entered into force. Thus, municipalities in Quebec can now only offer services in English to certain targeted groups, such as persons declared eligible for instruction in English or Aboriginal people.
The City of Côte-Saint-Luc made fun of this provision by modifying its message on its telephone information line a few days ago.
“For service in English, press 2,” the message read, before making the following clarification: “By the way, you don’t need to show us your grade three report card or your family tree going back ten generations. And you don’t have to promise anything. We are the City of Côte-Saint-Luc, and that’s how we operate here. »
To see in video