A highly sensitive subject in Quebec, the debate on language is also inflammable throughout Canada, an officially bilingual country. Living like a Gallic village besieged by more than 350 million English speakers reigning over the North American continent, La Belle Province considers the French language as a constituent of its identity.
On May 24, the Quebec government Coalition Avenir Quebec (center right, nationalist) thus adopted a law intended to reaffirm its primacy. This text called “96” reinforces the charter of the French language which, in 1977, made French ” the official language “ of Quebec ; it extends its use to small businesses, makes learning it a fundamental right and duty for all immigrants and Anglophones, and requires businesses to favor French on their storefronts.
“This is the beginning of a great linguistic revival”, got excited the minister carrying the law, Simon Jolin-Barrette, who described the legislation as ” first stage “ towards a more French-speaking Quebec. It’s a question of “survival”, added the Quebec Premier, François Legault. He even considered in an alarmist tone that, without this linguistic framework and without having control over its immigration policy, an area that is now the responsibility of the federal government, Quebec would inexorably suffer a “louisianization”in reference to this American state where French, once the majority, has become a folk language.
“Concern” by Justin Trudeau
This new act of faith in Quebec identity caused an outcry across the country. After the law on secularism adopted in 2019 by the Quebec Parliament, “English” Canada rebelled against this new act of “retreat” of the province. The powerful English-language daily The Globe and Mail has multiplied forums and editorials to castigate this attempt to “to tiptoe out of the Canadian constitutional order”accusing the province of playing the separatist card without saying so.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau immediately said his ” concern “, not ruling out the idea of the federal government challenging the law in the Supreme Court of Canada. “Our government’s job will always be to protect minorities across the country, especially official language minorities,” he said, adding his voice to those of Quebecers of English mother tongue, about 9% of the population, the wind is up against the new legislation.
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