Charter Of The French Language Objective Titles Dispositions

Proposed by the Minister of Cultural Development, Camille Laurin , it was enacted by the National Assembly on August 26, 1977 under the first Parti Québécois government of René Lévesque. Many of the Charter's provisions greatly expanded on the 1974 Official Language Act , (Bill 22), which was enacted under a Liberals government to make French the sole official language of Quebec. Prior to 1974, Quebec was the only province of Canada to be thoroughly bilingual (English and French). (Today, the only officially bilingual province is New Brunswick.)

1 Objective

The preamble of the Charter states that French is the official language of Quebec, of Government and Law, as well as "the normal and everyday language of work, instruction, communication, commerce and business". It also states that the National Assembly is to pursue this objective "in a spirit of fairness and open-mindedness, respectful of the institutions of the English-speaking community of Québec, and respectful of the ethnic minorities, whose valuable contribution to the development of Québec it readily acknowledges". In addition, it is stated that the National Assembly of Québec recognizes the right of the Amerinds and the Inuit of Québec, "to preserve and develop their original language and culture".

2 Titles

Title I defines the status of the French language in the legislature, the courts, the civil administration, the semipublic agencies, labour relations, commerce and business, language of instruction. It also defines French as a fundamental language right of every person in Quebec.

Title II pertains to the linguistic officialization, toponymy and the francization of the civil administration and enterprises.

Title II establishes the Office québécois de la langue française, defines its mission, powers, and organization.

Title V and VI define penal provisions and sanctions and transitional and miscellaneous provisions.

3 Dispositions

In order to achieve the goal of making French the normal and everyday language of Quebec, the Charter contains a number of key dispositions and various regulations. The Office québécois de la langue française (Quebec Office of the French language) is the government branch responsible to oversee the application of the Charter.

The Charter makes French the sole official language of communication of the State. This means that the government of Quebec and all its branches communicate primarily in French with its citizens. To this day, French is the de facto language of government and civil administration, however, the same cannot be said of the private sector. The francization programs for businesses were largely successful in the 1980s, however the 1990s saw the return of bilingualism and the exclusive usage of English in a number of new economic sectors that did not exist in Quebec before, for example the hi-tech industry.

One of the Charter's objectives is to increase the knowledge of French among the immigrant population so that it integrates the mainstream society of Quebec. To do so, a disposition stipulates that all children who attend the public school network must do so in French until the post-secondary level. It is however possible to attend non-subsidised private school in any language if the parents choose to. An exception allows for children to attend the English language public schools of Quebec if either one of the parents received his/her education in English in Canada. With this exception to the rule, the constitutional rights of English-speaking minority of Quebec are respected in full. The original 1977 Charter made it legal only for children whose parent had received his/her education in English in Quebec. This had to be amended following the adoption of the 1982 Constitution of Canada, which defined the educational right of French and English minorities in all provinces.

Another disposition provides for State-funded French courses for immigrants who choose to reside in Quebec. This measure is quite popular with newcomers, however it has been thus far inadequately funded by all Quebec governments.

The Charter makes French the official language in the workplace. Thus, current and prospective employees cannot be subject to discrimination if they are unable to or do not wish to use a language other than French. A regulation states that internal written communications for all corporations in Quebec must be in French, but a translation in any other language can be included if the employer deems it necessary.

After more than 25 years of application of the Charter, English is still often made a requirement by employers in Quebec.

4 Anglophone and Aboriginal minorities

When the Charter was drafted, the National Assembly had to consider the historical and constitutional rights of the English-speaking minority and that of the aboriginal peoples. The Charter includes several guarantees for the uses of languages other than French in Quebec. It provides, for example, that:

Quebec laws shall be published in English as well as in French;
Persons may address courts of law in either French or English;
Judgments by courts will be made available in either the official language or in English upon request by one of the parties;
The Charter shall not apply on Indian reserves (At the current, instruction in Cree and Inuit school boards are respectively in the CreeCree is the name for a group of closely-related Algonquian languages spoken by approximately 50,000 speakers across Canada, from Alberta to Labrador. We can divide the Cree dialect continuum by several criteria. Dialects spoken from north-eastern Ontario and Inuktitut languages);

Some of these guarantees are constitutionally mandatory under section 133 of the [Constitution Act, 1867], which requires federal and Quebec laws to be enacted in both English and French. The first version of the Charter of the French language stated that the laws of Québec would only be published in French, so the provision was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada in Blaikie v. Quebec (Attorney General) [1979] 2 S.C.R. 1016.

A number of exceptions are also made to the general rules for commercial production, signing and advertising:

Products destined exclusively for export;
Educational products for the teaching of a language other than French;
Cultural and ideological companies, groups, signs, and literature (including non-French broadcasters, newspapers, etc.);
Companies (usually multinational corporations) that sign an agreement with the OQLF permitting an exemption from the francization requirement. (However, the rules regarding the right of a worker to work in French still applies.)

5 Legal discussion

Although language is an undefined jurisdiction under the Canadian Constitution, the federal government of Canada and the Supreme Court of CanadaOttawa The Supreme Court of Canada is Canada's highest court and is located in the capital city of Ottawa. It is now the final court of appeal, the last judicial resort for all litigants, whether individual or governmental. Its jurisdiction embraces both have made interventions in regards to the Charter. Because of this, some of the Charter's articles have been changed since its introduction in 1977. The most well-known and controversial change affected the regulation of exterior commercial signs. In its first enactment the Charter made it illegal for businesses to hold commercial exterior signs in a language other than French. For the time the regulation lasted, it had a huge impact on Quebec's "linguistic visage". English only and bilingual English and French exterior signs were taken down and replaced by French only signs. (Note that the regulation did not affect trademarks.)

Following a challenge, this section of the law was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of CanadaOttawa The Supreme Court of Canada is Canada's highest court and is located in the capital city of Ottawa. It is now the final court of appeal, the last judicial resort for all litigants, whether individual or governmental. Its jurisdiction embraces both under the Canadian Charter of Rights and FreedomsThe Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the bill of rights which forms part of the Constitution of Canada adopted in 1982. Its precursor, The Canadian Bill of Rights, 1960 introduced by the Diefenbaker government, applied only to Federal institutio and the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms in 1988, (see: Ford v. Quebec (A.G.)Quebec (Attorney General is a Supreme Court of Canada decision made in 1988 which invalidated sections of the Charter of the French Language, commonly known as Bill 101. The main reason why it invalidated the sections regarding commercial signs was that i). The Supreme Court judged that the Quebec government could legitimately require that French have "greater visibility" or "marked predominance" on exterior commercial signs, however it could not enforce the exclusive use of French. The Liberal government of Robert Bourassa invoked the notwithstanding clause of the Constitution to overrule the Supreme court ruling, however the Charter was nevertheless subsequently amended by the Liberals in 1993 with Bill 86 .

As suggested by the Supreme Court ruling, the current law specifies that commercial outdoor signs can be multilingual so long as French is markedly predominant. The current provisions regarding exterior commercial signs were confirmed as constitutional by the Québec Court of Appeal in R. c. Entreprises W.F.H. [2001] R.J.Q. 2557 (also known as "The Lyon & the Walrus Case"). Today, many businesses voluntarily choose to put up French only signs, and at times, even change their registered trademarks to adapt to the Quebec market. Nevertheless, English-French bilingualism quickly returned on exterior signs after 1993, especially in Montreal.

6 See also

7 External links

Canadian history Canadian law French language

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