DCHP-3

Bill 101

DCHP-2 (Oct 2016)
n. — French relations, Politics

popular reference to the Charter of the French Language in Quebec, which made French the sole official language of the province.

Type: 1. Origin — Bill 101 was passed into law in 1977 by the Parti Québécois government of the province of Quebec. It made French the only official language of the province, to be used in “Government and the Law, as well as the normal and everyday language of work, instruction, communication, commerce and business” (see Charter of the French Language reference, preamble). Bill 101 expanded on Bill 22, the (Quebec) Official Language Act of 1974. Since its initiation in 1977, it has been amended six times, mostly concerning the province’s stance on Anglophone education and commercial signage, which were also the two biggest areas of contention amongst residents of Quebec (see the first 1977 quotation and the 1993 quotations).
In Quebec, as in the rest of Canada, residents are legally entitled to federal services in either English or French. However, provincial institutions and most workplaces are required to function in and deliver services in French only and the law has placed restrictions on education in English and the language on public signage. The Charter reflects a widespread fear among francophones that French, a minority language in Canada and North America, would suffer attrition if bilingualism were the norm in the province, where around 78% of the population lists its sole language as French (2011 census).
See also the Canadian Encyclopedia, s.v. "Bill 101", "Bill 101 Case", "Bill 178", and "Québec Language Policy".

Quotations

1977
The new Bill 101, in fact a modified version of Bill 1 introduced in April, maintains the exclusion of future Canadian migrants from the English schools. It was the single most contentious aspect of the earlier version of the bill.
1977
Leaders of ethnic and English-speaking communities reacted with anger and disappointment yesterday to Bill 101, the Quebec Government's revised language legislation.
1977
Bill 1—Quebec's controversial French-language charter—is to get a new name. But the renamed Bill 101 will not contain any dramatic change of heart by the Parti Quebecious government, one government source indicated yesterday.
1980
To this hypocrisy I prefer the real liberties guaranteed by our Quebec Charter of Human Rights. I prefer the respectful and generous treatment the Charter of the French Language (Bill 101) gave the Anglo-Quebec community.
1988
Gilles Rheaume, leader of the Parti independantiste, which organized the rally, said Alliance Quebec must apologize for opposing Bill 101, the province's language law, which bans languages other than French on public signs.
1993
Bilingual signs were prohibited by the Parti Quebecois government in 1977. Gradually, as the rest of Canada came to understand Bill 101's exclusive nature in a country which is supposed to have two official languages, it contributed to an ugly fracture between francophones and anglophones.
1993
The Charter of the French Language, better known as Law 101, won effusive praise from some quarters and outraged derision from others. It reaffirmed and strengthened the educational provisions of Bill 22, but where it raised the most controversy was in banning the use of languages other than French on almost all commercial signs.
1999
Camille Laurin, 76, who drafted Quebec's French Language Charter and ignited anglophone resentment in the province. Bill 101 changed the linguistic landscape of Quebec, forcing businesses to operate and offer services in French. Children of immigrants had to be educated in French schools, and English disappeared from commercial signs.
2005
They are the "children of Bill 101" -- either first- or second-generation immigrants who grew up in Quebec attending French-language public schools, as mandated by provincial law since 1977. Their education and, more important, their socialization among francophone Quebeckers, has led them to define themselves as Québécois as much as, if not more than, Canadian. Many see sovereignty as merely the formalization of what is already a reality for them: Quebec, they will tell you, is their country.
2012
"Bill 101 is a flop," Castonguay added. "It should have brought the anglos around to the idea of working in French with francos. The whole objective of Bill 101 is to make French the common language." Instead, he said, French speakers tend to use English in the workplace even when they don't have to.
2013
Under the Charter of the French Language (Bill 101), the English language was not (and is still not) seen by policy-makers as a factor leading to discrimination in employment in the same way that race, sex or mother tongue other than English or French have historically been perceived and acknowledged.

References