While Bill 96 “on the official and common language of Quebec, French” is heading towards its adoption in the National Assembly, its opposition by English speakers – but not only – does not weaken. After demonstrations in English CEGEPs like Dawson and John Abbott as well as in Kahnawake, opponents of the bill will march through Montreal on Saturday to go to the office of Prime Minister François Legault.
One of the elements of the dispute concerns the obligation imposed on rights holders, that is to say students who come from English-language high school, to take three French second language courses at CEGEP. In principle, these students must already have reached a certain level of knowledge of French in secondary school. But without even knowing the content of these courses, students denounce them. However, students in English CEGEPs are already required to pass two French as a second language courses in order to obtain their diploma. And an equivalent exists in French CEGEPs, whose students must pass two English courses. No one from that side has taken to the streets yet.
During a demonstration at John Abbott College, students and at least one professor, according to Radio-Canada, held up signs claiming that Bill 96 was racist. If it is not racist, it is discriminatory, it is argued, since perfecting your French can lower the R rating, on which a student’s evaluation is based. For the college management, teaching more French is an obstacle to success.
It is possible that in other English CEGEPs, notably in Dawson, the perception is not exactly the same: according to one of John Abbott’s professors, this college is “a bastion of the Anglophone privilege of not speaking French”, the language “racist, xenophobic, inward-looking Quebecers,” reports Radio-Canada. Sounds like vulgar Quebec bashing from the Queen City.
For several weeks, some opponents have fueled the fear that an Anglophone or an allophone will be prevented from obtaining health care in his or her mother tongue. Bill 96 does not change that. The Act respecting health services and social services continues to apply, and its article 15 stipulates that “every English-speaking person has the right to receive health and social services in the English language”. This right is subject to the human resources organization, but is guaranteed by access programs that hold the network to account. In short, access to health care in English for the English-speaking minority, which has solid institutions — such as the McGill University Health Centre, to name but one — will continue to be disproportionate to the treatment matter to French-speaking minorities in Canada.
Other claims border on misinformation. In schools, the services of speech therapists and remedial teachers will always be accessible in the same way. As for special cases, particularly with regard to new arrivals who do not understand French, the bill takes this into account since the administration may speak in a language other than French to anyone “when the health, safety or the principles of natural justice require it”. In addition, the Minister may adapt the service offer by way of regulation.
Basically, what the representatives of the Anglophone minority criticize of Bill 96 is its very principle: to ensure that the Quebec public administration is no longer fully bilingual. They are calling for the status quo, that is to say the possibility for anyone to receive government services in English as they wish. It is to maintain the institutional bilingualism of the Quebec state.
The requirement of proficiency in English imposed on a growing number of Quebec public servants, in the greater Montreal area in particular, was already a concern of their unions, some of which have called for the establishment of a bilingualism bonus.
What these debates show is that some people reject this notion of “French, common language”, a language that one would seek to impose on a Canadian majority which sees itself, for the purposes of the case, as a minority oppressed. However, Quebec is not a big New Brunswick; it intends to remain – at least, it is the wish of a majority of its inhabitants, it must be believed – globally French.
The development of the Quebec nation in this land of America depends on it.