Tom Mulcair
Montreal Gazette, May 24, 2022
“… the holy chaos he’s about to unleash will be completely beyond his control.”
The first big chapter of the Bill 96 saga has come to an end with the bill’s adoption by the National Assembly. By a linguistic quirk, on the Anglo side, it will always be called Bill 96 (like “Bill 101,” which actually became law in 1977). On the Franco side, it will get a promotion to being called Loi 96 (Law 96). One way or the other, it’s on its way to court, where it is likely to get eviscerated, much to the quiet delight of separatists, who will see that as further proof Quebec independence is the only way forward.
Bill 96 is overtly unconstitutional. It creates outrageous powers of search and seizure for language police who could inspect a company’s computers looking for inappropriate use of English. This is Keystone Kops material, but the Coalition Avenir Québec government has its spokespersons out there denying that Bill 96 actually says what it says in black and white.
This is similar to the defensive attitude that reigned with regard to Quebec’s language laws until the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled that Quebec’s Bill 178 on signs contravened article 19 of the International Agreement on Human and Political Rights. The embarrassing ruling stated that the Quebec government should not ban the use of languages other than English, for any form of communication, and Quebec changed the law.
Tom Mulcair, a former leader of the federal NDP, served as minister of the environment in the Quebec Liberal government of Jean Charest.
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