English-speaking Quebecer - Politics

Politics

See also: Politics of Quebec and Legal dispute over Quebec's language policy

The politics of language has always played against issues of Quebec nationalism and Quebec separatism.English-speaking Quebecers maintain a strong Canadian identity, with about 99% opposing Quebec sovereignty in 1980 and 1995 referendums. Having no distinct political representation in Quebec, they tend to vote for the federalist Liberal Party of Canada federally and for the Quebec Liberal Party at the provincial level. In 2001, English-speaking Quebecers viewed provincial language legislation as the principal challenge facing their community and more generally look to the federal government to protect their individual and collective rights from provincial government limits on access to English education, health care, government services, and visibility on public signs.

The Canadian constitution protects the language rights of English-speaking communities and individuals in Quebec. Since 1867, Quebec had full jurisdiction over schools, with only Section 93 of the Constitution Act, 1867 guaranteeing Protestant confessional boards the right to administer most English schools. Section 133 still allows French and English to be used in the Parliament of Canada and the Legislature of Quebec and makes both languages mandatory for the laws, records, and journals of those houses. It also gives any person the right to plead in either English or French in any of the Courts of Quebec. In 1982, Section 23 of the Constitution Act, 1982 guaranteed the right of Canadian citizens educated in English in Canada to attend English schools. This paved the way for the Constitutional Amendment, 1999 (Québec) passed unanimously by Parliament and the National Assembly of Quebec that transformed Protestant confessional into English linguistic school boards. The federal government also maintains the Official Languages Act of 1988 that ensures equality between English and French in the federal civil service, that official minority language groups in Canada receive service in their language where numbers warrant, and that supports the development of communities of speakers of official languages when they constitute a minority in a province or territory.

Provincial legislation has also delimited the language rights of English-speaking Quebecers and the role of their institutions since the Quiet Revolution as French-speaking Québécois sought to improve their economic prospects, assimilate immigrants into their community to maintain their population, and establish French as a language of business. Bill 63, introduced by the Union nationale government in 1969, required that English schools provide all students with a working knowledge of French. In 1974 the Liberal government of Robert Bourassa passed Bill 22 and restricted access to English schools to children who could pass a language test. In 1977, the separatist Parti Québécois passed the more comprehensive Charter of the French Language (Bill 101). The law made French the language of the civil service and of business in private workplaces with over 50 employees, establishing the rights of all Quebecers to work in the official language of the province; it also favored a demographic shift towards more francophones in Quebec. The Charter was and still is seen as emancipatory and a protector of culture, and is immensely popular among francophone Quebecers.

Other Charter provisions, though, deeply alienated English-speaking Quebecers. The Charter cut off access to English schools to all but children who had a parent who had received their education in English in Quebec. The Charter also eliminated the Constitutional guarantee to English legal proceedings, eliminated English translations of Quebec laws, and banned the use of languages other than French from commercial signs. The law has therefore polarized Quebec along linguistic lines to this day. Legal challenges by English-speaking Quebecers using provisions of the Canadian constitution and international law overturned these provisions, forcing the Quebec government to blunt these Charter provisions many times.

The Charter coupled with the looming 1980 Referendum on Sovereignty triggered an unexpected exodus of English-speaking Quebecers between 1976 and 1980, exacerbating the already existing demographic decline. Head offices that employed anglophones moved mostly to Toronto, taking their employees with them. Structural unemployment in the private sector with the mass hiring of francophones in an expanding civil service limited the economic opportunities of especially young non-bilingual anglophones in Quebec leading them to search for work elsewhere. Young highly educated anglophones, despite high rates of bilingualism and increased contact and openness to francophones, cite limited economic prospects caused by perceived linguistic discrimination and an unsatisfactory political climate as the major factors in their departure. By 2001, 50% of mother-tongue anglophones had left the province.

Faced with increasing marginalization from the political process in Quebec, English-speaking community groups across the province banded together to form Alliance Quebec, a provincial lobby group that would advocate for English-language education, health, and social services. It was supported by the federal Commissioner of Official Languages and members worked with provincial administrations to maintain and increase access to English government services across the province.

Sign laws governing language are a particular irritant to English-speaking Quebecers. When the original Charter provision requiring French only on commercial signs and from trade names was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1988, the Liberal government of Robert Bourrassa passed Bill 178 that made French the only language that could be used on outdoor commercial signs. This required invoking the notwithstanding clause in the Canadian Constitution, which overrode the Supreme Court decision. Discontent with the Liberals led anglophones in Western Montreal to form the Equality Party in protest, which surprised many by electing 4 candidates in the 1989 provincial election. Anglophone Quebecers would take the case to the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations, which in 1993 found that the laws banning the commercial display of languages other than French constituted a violation of the right to freedom of expression. As the sign law would have to be renewed in 1993, the Liberal government passed a law that mandated French on signs. As recommended by the Supreme Court, this law allowed other languages on the sign, as long as French was predominant. Although this law stands up to Supreme Court challenges, many anglophones refer to the inspectorate that enforces the law as "tongue troopers" and "language cops".

Regardless of legally recognized rights, the practice in long-established institutions has often been to provide more service than what rights alone would dictate. On the other hand, a long-term trend toward providing even less service than what rights call for has been observed, especially in cases when the service-providing entity is newly created; the only recourse being to sue for redress.

In addition to the rights guaranteed by the constitution of Canada, the various regulations outside the Charter recognize other linguistic rights of Quebec anglophones. Quebecers have the right to receive services in English from all public health care and social service institutions in Quebec, although there is considerable controversy as to whether this is in fact the case. The charter also permits bilingual status to cities, but only those with a majority of English mother-tongue residents; other cities are not required to provide services in English but usually do if a significant minority of the population is English-speaking. Ninety-three municipalities offer bilingual services in Quebec.

In 2002, Quebec's French Language Charter was amended with Bill 104, which aims to prevent education received in fully private English schools or through temporary certificates from producing constitutional education rights. Several court cases are still pending.