Last Tuesday, Quebec’s legislature passed Bill 96, a new bill that forces small businesses to operate exclusively in French; caps enrollment at English-language CEGEPs; and allows language inspectors to raid businesses, without a warrant, to make sure employees are following the rules. It also compels new immigrants to learn French within six months and introduces other language-enforcement rules.
Two days after the bill passed, about 500 people in Montreal protested against the bill at Place du Canada. Montreal’s English-language school board has vowed to challenge Bill 96 in court—as have a group of lawyers, including Julius Grey, who belives this case could make it all the way to the United Nations.
To explain why the million English-speaking Quebeckers are so anxious, and how this bill will affect minority and Jewish residents, The CJN Daily spoke with several Jewish community leaders in Quebec, including Marvin Rotrand, a former city councillor who now heads the League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith, and Liberal MP Anthony Housefather.
What we talked about:
- Read “Quebec’s Bill 96 with its stricter French-language rules is deeply worrying to the Jewish community” at thecjn.ca
- Listen to the Bonjour Chai episode, “Quebec’s Bill 96 exposes a critical problem with homegrown Canadian rabbis: we barely have any” at thecjn.ca
- Listen to The CJN Daily episode about Quebec’s Bill 101
Credits
The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Victoria Redden is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.
