Hanes: Alarm bells over consequences of Bill 96 falling on deaf ears – Montreal Gazette

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Virtual forum is launched by the Quebec Community Groups Network. Is anyone outside the English-speaking community listening?

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Bill 96 is nothing short of a new social contract between Quebecers, warned lawyer Michael Bergman, where the sole right is to be spoken to in French and the sole obligation is to speak it.

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In the face of the right to French, no other rights can stand, he said.

Bill 96 would sound a death knell for Canadian unity, lamented lawyer Anne-France Goldwater, acting as a de facto unilateral declaration of secession by Quebec and grounds for other provinces to assert greater autonomy, all at the expense of the federation.

Is this how Canada will end, my friends, not with a bang but with a whimper? she asked. Our federal leaders are just going to let the country go? For shame!

Bill 96 would represent a descent into autocracy and authoritarianism, said former MP and MNA Clifford Lincoln, whereby the Office Qubcois de la langue franaise would have extrajudicial authority and the National Assembly would have new unchecked powers untouchable by the courts.

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You cant say a word against Bill 96 without being told youre against French or against Quebec, decried Lincoln.

These are among the alarming comments about Quebecs new language law made by legal and constitutional experts Thursday during a first day of consultations on Bill 96. But these views are not being shared directly with the government. These are not the official hearings getting under way at the National Assembly. This was the start of a virtual forum organized by the Quebec Community Groups Network, an umbrella organization for anglophone groups in the province, to give voice to opinions that might otherwise not be heard.

The input gathered from more than 30 submissions over four days will inform the QCGNs brief when it presents at the government hearings later in September. But as president Marlene Jennings pointed out in her opening remarks, it is also intended to supplement the limited list of participants and narrow range of opinion among those invited to the weigh in before legislators on the sweeping, weighty and draconian changes proposed under Bill 96.

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The QCGN will be one of only a handful of representatives of the anglophone community among over 50 participants at the National Assembly hearings. But they are sure to be seen as the Chicken Little during an otherwise self-laudatory exercise. The other speakers include: Guy Rocher, 97, the architect of Bill 101, the original language law, back in the government of Premier Ren Lvesque; past Parti Qubcois language ministers like Louise Beaudoin and Pierre Curzi; and hardline groups like Mouvement Qubec franais, Mouvement national des Qubcoises et Qubcois and Partenaires pour un Qubec franais. These intervenors are more likely to say Bill 96 doesnt go far enough.

Neither the QCGN nor the presenters at its own consultation are arguing that French doesnt deserve protection. But they question why this effort requires rewriting the Constitution, making anglophones and other minorities second-class citizens, suspending individual rights and shielding the whole law in the notwithstanding clause.

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No level of oppression of the minority in Quebec has ever slaked the thirst of the nationalists, said Goldwater. Bill 101 was not enough, was it? Nor was recognizing a distinct society. Nor was Quebec is a nation within a nation.

According to Lincoln, the recent court ruling on Bill 21 which found Quebecs secularism law was discriminatory against minorities, but the judge was powerless to overturn because of the pre-emptive use of the constitutional override explains why the government resorted to the same mechanism with Bill 96.

The Quebec government realizes, of course, that no section of (Bill 96) would withstand a legal challenge because theyre against our fundamental rights, he said. So they use the notwithstanding clause so it can be used as a preventative tool.

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The QCGN has been valiantly sounding the alarm about the dangers of Bill 96. It has been trying to emphasize that the law is about much more than language. Its about democracy, basic rights and the kind of society we all want to live in. But it has been a lone voice amid a deafening silence.

The QCGN has met with business groups like the Chambre de commerce de Montral mtropolitain and the Conseil du patronat to raise awareness. It has reached out to francophone and allophone organizations to find common cause. It has sought to have opinion pieces published in the French media. It has been left to its own devices by campaigning federal party leaders who fear stoking the ire of Quebec Premier Franois Legault.

But so far their exhortations have been ignored, dismissed, downplayed or discredited. After decades of relative language peace and progress, it appears the Two Solitudes are more divided than ever.

Its laudable that the QCGN is seeking to sound out the community and civil society about the grave threats posed by Bill 96. But the fact of the matter is that its mostly the English-speaking community talking among ourselves. No one else is listening.

ahanes@postmedia.com

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Hanes: Alarm bells over consequences of Bill 96 falling on deaf ears - Montreal Gazette