With Côte Saint-Luc certainly taking the lead, municipalities with bilingual status are adopting resolutions affirming their desire to retain their bilingual status and opposing Bill 14, which would give the Quebec government the power to unilaterally remove this status against the will of the municipality or borough concerned.
“If the bill becomes law, more than half of the 84 municipalities and boroughs that have bilingual status might lose it,” said Mayor Anthony Housefather of Côte Saint-Luc. “It is unconscionable that the Parti Québécois government amended the legislation in 2000 to define who is an English-speaker in the narrowest possible way and now wants to use those misleading numbers to unilaterally remove bilingual status.”
Since 1977, it have been illegal for municipalities to, among other things, send a bilingual tax bill, erect bilingual signage, or send a bilingual memo to city workers. However, an exception was made under Section 29.1 of the Charter of the French Language, commonly referred to as bilingual status, for municipalities where a majority of residents spoke a language other than French. In 2000, another Parti Québécois government adopted Bill 171, which drastically changed the criteria to obtain bilingual status from a majority of residents of a municipality or borough who spoke a language other than French to a majority of residents whose mother tongue was English.
This revised criteria was imposed without consulting municipalities and boroughs, and adopted the narrowest and most inaccurate definition of the English-speaking communities.
Bill 14, tabled by the new Parti Québécois minority government, would allow for the potential removal of bilingual status from municipalities or boroughs by decree–and against the will of the municipality or borough concerned, its duly elected council and its residents—if less than 50 percent of residents are mother tongue English-speaking.
Of the 1,476 cities and towns and boroughs in Quebec, only 84—or 6 percent—have bilingual status.
I am urging readers to please go to www.bilingualstatus.com and from there write a letter to your Member of the National Assembly, requesting that they vote against this law.
An interview with Mayor Housefather on Bill 14 on CBC Radio One is available on Mike Cohen’s blog.
Global News: Côte St-Luc Mayor launches website to rally Quebecers against Bill 14
Related articles
- Council speaks out against Bill 14, supports bilingual status quo (gjnashen.wordpress.com)
- Letter to the Gazette Editor: Lisée’s comments on Bill 14 fail to comfort (gjnashen.wordpress.com)
- Bill 14 could affect city’s bilingual status, mayor says (cbc.ca)
lsatenstein
Jan 21, 2013 @ 10:15:39
Glen and Mayor Anthony
If a municipality loses its bilingual status, does that mean the even a currenly bilingual CLSC or other bilinugal institution must follow the governments rules and switch entirely to French?
Can you make use of the billboard at Kildare and Cavendish, and the underpass to hang a poster.
Ditto for Westminister at CSL road.
Regards Leslie
G.J. Nashen
Jan 21, 2013 @ 10:53:47
If an institution loses its bilingual status it may no longer mass communicate in a language other than French.
Signs would be French only. Newsletters French only. Letters French only unless a specific request is made to be communicated with in English. As a process expert you’ll know very well that this causes huge logistical problems and raises costs.
Ultimately stripping any institution of its bilingual status, which the government has done repeatedly since 1977, does not benefit the preservation and promotion of the French language one iota. All it does is diminish the English language community, scare away investment, discourage our youth from staying in Quebec, turn away economic development, shine a light on intolerance in Quebec, divide our linguistic communities, bring us shame on the international stage and demoralize hundreds of thousands of Quebecers and make as all poorer for it. Need I go on?
Brian J. Gerstein
Jan 21, 2013 @ 11:46:42
It is hard to believe how instead of concerning themselves with the economy, which most Quebecers are most concerned with, the PQ, as a minority government yet, are putting forward Bill 14 at this time, that serves only their own twisted personal agenda of making life more difficult for Anglophone Quebecers, and thus driving away another wave of Anglophones, be it to Toronto or elsewhere in Canada or the U.S.A.
To me, an outsider who moved to Toronto in 1989, but comes back several times a year, this seems to be the P.Q.’s real goal. The more Anglophones who leave, the better chance they have of winning more ridings and get a majority. I can only imagine what legislation we would see under that scenario with nobody to contest it.
If you look up English Speaking Quebecker, you get this: The English-speaking community in Quebec constitutes an official linguistic minority population under Canadian law. While Cote Saint-Luc is taking a leadership role in fighting this bill, the rest of us in Canada should also get involved, and support you, and I plan on doing just that from here in Toronto, contacting my local MP, the Honourable Peter Kent.
Brian J. Gerstein
Jan 21, 2013 @ 13:52:26
I just spoke to Peter Kent’s office, and gave them some tools to look into it and see if there is anything on the Federal level that can be done to fight it.
G.J. Nashen
Jan 21, 2013 @ 16:45:16
Hi Brian,
I appreciate your efforts and comments but our federal government has had a hands off attitude pretty much since the day the PQ came to power in 76. So much so that we almost lost the country as they sleepwalked to the referendum. Harper’s Tory’s are working hard to gain support in Quebec and the last thing they’ll do is step in where few Quebecers believe they have any mandate.
So unfortunately us Anglos are left to deal with the opposition parties in Quebec, namely the CAQ (who don’t want to talk about independence issues one way or another) and the Liberals (who have taken the Anglos for granted for decades).