Opinion: Bill 96 is more than the sum of its parts

 

On the cusp of the adoption of Bill 96 by the National Assembly, many English community commentators have warned of the bill’s harmful consequences on education , health, social services and access to justice in English. The bill will diminish or deny Quebec anglophones the ability to receive these and other services in English. These criticisms are all meritorious. But even if somehow these provisions were watered down, the deleterious effects of Bill 96 would remain. This is because Bill 96 is greater than the sum of its parts. These parts are but tools by which Bill 96 will achieve its goal of public francization.

The objective of Bill 96 is to make the French language the public language of Quebec, the language of work, leisure, culture, integration and public discourse. The bill achieves these objectives by legislating an overarching framework, within which are several discrete elements. Let’s call them tools.

Under Bill 96, French is declared to be the “common language” of Quebec. In order to render it the common language, French is declared to be the pinnacle human right, subordinating all other individual liberties to the right to use the French language. For the first time, there will be a hierarchy of rights instead of the traditional level playing field and balancing between diverse human freedoms. The right to French will be the collective right of the francophone population, while any collective rights of the minority anglophone community are non-existent. The community will be left to rely on its individual liberties of freedom of speech, religion, the media and peaceful assembly, attenuated by the use of the notwithstanding clause from the Canadian Constitution. 

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/opinion-bill-96-is-more-than-the-sum-of-its-parts/ar-AAXDXq4?ocid=EMMX&cvid=1362ccc9104c4e3ebb3d6acf9cb1b964&fbclid=IwAR2Qu4HiPisOrGpK4mxHGp01tLXfwqnld93UArREpth1PmeJcIKO7pIqEtk