Sweeping new bill to bolster French in Quebec will be tabled Thursday

Here we go. The bill will deal with all aspects of Quebec’s language laws, from commercial signs to the right to work in French.

After immigration and secularism, the Coalition Avenir Québec government intends to open up a new political front by launching sweeping reforms to the 44-year-old Charter of the French Language (Bill 101).

“An act respecting French, the official and common language of Quebec,” is to be tabled in the National Assembly around 10 a.m. Thursday by the minister responsible for the French language, Simon Jolin-Barrette.

Rumoured to contain about 200 articles, the bill — a kind of Bill 101 2.0 — will set in motion a fresh language debate that is expected to dominate Quebec’s political landscape into the fall, with adoption of the bill likely before Christmas.

The bill was in the works for months, but the pandemic forced the government to hit the brakes. With the pandemic waning, Quebec feels now is the time. The CAQ also wants to take advantage of support for new measures in the polls and an uneasy consensus in the legislature that French needs to be beefed up.

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