In its Bill 96, the Legault government includes two unilateral amendments to Part V of the Constitution Act of 1867, namely that French is the only official language of Quebec and that Quebeckers form a nation. This spectacle measure consists of a settlement that undermines the interests of Quebec and a sign of capitulation vis-à-vis the historical and political wrong that the federal government has caused Quebec by imposing on it the constitutional reform of 1982, which, in more than being illegitimate and having been made in an undemocratic manner, denies the national existence of the Quebec people.
Posted at 12:00 p.m.
First, the inclusion of French as the only official language of Quebec in the 1867 text will not change the fact that it still does not have an official French version, despite what is stipulated in section 55 of the Constitution Act 1982, that is to say that the federal Minister of Justice must write the French version of the articles that remain unilingual, which has never been done so far. Indeed, the law that created the Province of Quebec – and which was promulgated by the British Parliament – is still not official in French, not to mention that this constitution imposes on Quebec an institutional bilingualism from which it cannot derogate and which prevents it from making French the true national language. of Quebec.
Next, with regard to the affirmation of Quebec’s specificity, the amendment that the government wishes to make to the Constitution Act of 1867 will have no impact either on the supra-legislative level, except in the internal order of Quebec, or on the increase in the legislative powers of Quebec, or on the recognition of the latter as a nation within of the federation.
By this addition, Quebecers will have the impression that their national existence is formally recognized by the federal part of the Constitution of Canada, which is not the case, since the amendment proposed by Quebec only concerns its internal constitution and not of the federal constitution applicable to the whole country.
It is no coincidence that this measure is proposed at the same time as the formulation of unsuccessful requests in the area of French language and immigration. The government transformed the failure of its federalist doctrine of “gains within Canada” into a gesture of camouflage for the benefit of Ottawa, which saw in it a golden opportunity to settle the Quebec question at a derisory cost.
A defensive federalism
The demands made by the Bourassa government within the framework of the Meech Lake accord today seem strong, so thin are the political aspirations of the Legault government. Remember that the five conditions of the agreement were then seen as a minimum threshold: 1) the explicit recognition of Quebec as a distinct society; 2) securing increased immigration powers; 3) limitation of the federal spending power; 4) the recognition in Quebec of a right of veto on constitutional amendments affecting it; 5) Québec’s participation in the appointment of judges from Québec sitting on the Supreme Court.
From the top of history, it must be noted that the current government is practicing defensive federalism by sacrificing Quebec’s five traditional demands on the altar of political communication, since it seeks to erect a reassuring backdrop around a reality worrying: that of the decline of the demographic, political and economic weight of Quebec in Canada.
Refuse 1982
Finally, is it enough that Justin Trudeau acquiesces to a measure without any real legal content to make people forget the unilateral repatriation of 1982? We must never lose sight of the fact that Canada was refounded without the consent of Quebec and that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, enshrined in the Constitution, was designed in part to render certain articles of the Charter of the French language unconstitutional. and to reduce the national claims of the Quebec people.
Since the Legault government intends to use the unilateral amendment formula, it could at the very least include in the same part of the Constitution Act of 1867 that Quebec does not recognize the constitutional reform of 1982, which, without having any legal effect, would have political significance.
Until Quebec had its own constitution in an independent state, this provision would morally bind all Quebec governments so that they would not unconditionally recognize the patriation of the Constitution, as the Couillard government had been tempted to do. . It would also send a clear signal to the rest of Canada that the Quebec question will never be solved on the cheap.