Don Macpherson: Diane De Courcy’s Bonjour-Hi remark isn’t so funny

Don Macpherson: Diane De Courcy’s Bonjour-Hi remark isn’t so funny

We laugh at the apparent pettiness of Diane De Courcy’s attempt to
discourage Montreal businesses from greeting customers with a “Hi” as
well as a “Bonjour.”

Nevertheless, the Parti Québécois language minister’s remarks this week
about “Bonjour-Hi,” an offer to serve the customer in either French or
English, have serious implications for English-speaking Quebecers.

For
it’s an attempt by the PQ government, by pressure if not legislation,
to discourage not only private businesses from offering service in
English, but even individuals from speaking English in public.

Op-Ed: The other notwithstanding clause (Section 28)

Op-Ed: The other notwithstanding clause

It seems obvious that there will be constitutional challenges to
Quebec’s proposed Charter of Values, which prohibits “conspicuous”
religious symbols for provincial civil servants and contains other
requirements purportedly relating to the removal of religion from the
provision of government services (and even some non-governmental
services, like daycares.)

Usually, the arguments revolve around
what seems to be a clear violation of freedom of religion under the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, provoking in turn further
constitutional sabre rattling in other quarters that raises the spectre
of Quebec simply invoking Section 33, the “notwithstanding clause.”
Quebec has done so before. Supporters of the Charter of Values maintain
that the government could use Section 33 to validate the legislation to
preserve Quebec’s “secular” society.

What has not been
acknowledged, by the Quebec government, its supporters, nor any of the
other commentators on the issue is that there is a very obvious block on
using this “notwithstanding clause” when it comes to legislation
affecting the rights of women. There is, in fact, another
“notwithstanding clause.” Section 28 of the Canadian Charter of Rights
and Freedoms guarantees all rights and freedoms equally to male and
female persons, “notwithstanding anything in this Charter.” In 1981,
when the Charter was being negotiated, the feminist drafters of Section
28 successfully beat back an attempt to make it subject to the Section
33 override clause, in a very public battle. There is no question about
whether a province could use the Section 33 “notwithstanding clause” to
override a court decision invalidating a law on the basis of sex
discrimination.

Editorial: Good riddance, Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act

Editorial: Good riddance, Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act

A new ruling from the Federal Court of Appeal is a new twist in the
headache-inducing story of the hate-speech provisions of the Canadian
Human Rights Act. Politically, it makes the issue muddier, as it will
allow supporters of those provisions to argue that they have the courts
in their corner. But the courts tell governments what they can and can’t
do, not what they should and shouldn’t.

The court found that Section 13, even with its penalty provision,
does not violate the Constitution. It is a limit on free speech, but in
the court’s view, an allowable limit.

The ruling is interesting, from a political standpoint, because
Parliament passed a private member’s bill last year repealing Section
13. The ruling suggests that if any government wanted to reinstate
Section 13 or something like it, it might be able to do so without
violating the Constitution.

Charte de la laïcité: le Barreau propose le statu quo, regrette Drainville | Paul Journet

Charte: le Barreau propose le statu quo, regrette Drainville | Paul Journet | Charte de la laïcité

M. Drainville soutient que le Barreau a négligé les modifications proposées à la charte québécoise des droits, un texte quasi constitutionnel. On y ajouterait la laïcité et la neutralité de l'État, ce dont les juges devraient désormais compte.
Mais pour le Barreau, la neutralité religieuse ne doit pas être confondue avec l'invisibilité de la religion. Elle «favorise au contraire la manifestation harmonieuse des consciences et des croyances individuelles», lit-on dans son mémoire. L'État devrait donc «ni favoriser, ni défavoriser» les croyances religieuses. Cette position rejoint celle du chef libéral Philippe Couillard.
Le Barreau rappelle que selon la jurisprudence, si on limite la liberté de religion, il faut prouver qu'on règle un problème documenté, et non des perceptions. Et il faut ensuite prouver que les moyens pris sont proportionnels à l'objectif, avec une atteinte minimale aux droits. Aucune étude n'a été fournie par le gouvernement, souligne le Barreau. Le ministre Drainville répond qu'on peut aussi légiférer pour défendre des principes.

The Suburban News | The brutish temper of Quebec’s times

The Suburban News | The brutish temper of Quebec’s times



In December of 2010, this paper first raised the alarm on an OQLF (Office québécois de la langue française) directive to Quebec government agencies. That directive mandated those agencies not to communicate with any business or employer in any language but French. And that included businesses of under 50 employees to whom the Francization provisions of Bill 101 did not even apply ...



We have seen it through the values debate. Not that it should be our greatest concern right now in Quebec, but the government could have put forward reasonable lay regulations that affected only the legislature, courts and security authorities. There is precedent in western law and history for that. But it went as far as it did — into health care, social services and every aspect of our public square – precisely to once again stir up that voting mass of narrow-mindedness from which it seems to draw more and more of its support. It is practicing what the courageous writer Jean-Charles Harvey called — in the time of Duplessis — “La politique de la peur.” ...



 By its actions, the Marois administration is not only violating Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but Quebec’s own protections against linguistic discrimination as well as the UN Covenant on Religious, Ethnic and Linguistic Rights of 1992, which Quebec acquiesced to by reference. Further, whatever one’s position on the language laws, law must never be retroactive. The acquired rights of all must be respected. Respect for acquired rights is a central organizing principle of all civilized systems of law ...

The Suburban News | Anglophones demanding more respect for English

The Suburban News | Anglophones demanding more respect for English

In the last year, from the perspective of the anglophone community, the main Quebec political battles have been focused on what appears to be the successful fight against the proposed tougher language law Bill 14, and the ongoing fight against the proposed Charter of Quebec Values, which will heat up during upcoming hearings.
But a lesser known battle has been brewing in the last few weeks of 2013 — the battle for more respect for the English language, in areas where such respect might be assumed.
The battles against the provisions of Bill 101 softened in recent years, since the disappearance of the original Equality Party and Alliance Quebec. There have been notable exceptions in the form of “language eruptions,” mainly coming from misjudgments by the Office Québécois de la Langue Française that resulted in the international embarrassments of Pastagate and the frozen yogurt spoon saga

Graham Fraser: For a ‘foreign body,’ Canada does a lot to include Quebec

Opinion: For a ‘foreign body,’ Canada does a lot to include Quebec

The Quebec government’s minister of international relations, Jean-François Lisée, said recently that Quebecers no longer have a connection to Canada, and that Canada has become a “foreign body.” He is not alone. Former Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said something similar a year and a half ago in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation.
I don’t think this is the case.
To begin with, when exactly was this golden age characterized by a Quebec commitment to the rest of Canada? During the First World War?

PQ releases self-help holiday guide to defending Quebec values charter

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/pq-releases-self-help-holiday-guide-to-defending-quebec-values-charter/article16099773/

Just call it the Parti Québécois self-help holiday guide to defending the Quebec Charter of Values.
As Quebec families prepare to gather over tourtière and a bûche de Noël, the PQ has released a six-page document intended to address all the pesky questions that have arisen over Bill 60, the controversial legislation that forbid public employees from wearing conspicuous religious symbols on the job.

Matt Gurney: Protecting the French language, one lunch break at a time | National Post

Matt Gurney: Protecting the French language, one lunch break at a time | National Post

The case for fixed book pricing in Canada | National Post

The case for fixed book pricing in Canada | National Post