(Québec) Simon Jolin-Barrette lance mardi les consultations publiques sur sa réforme de la Charte de la langue française avec un « appel au calme » à ceux qui s’opposent à la volonté du gouvernement de donner plus de mordant à la loi 101.
« L’heure est venue de poser des gestes forts et concrets », a plaidé le ministre responsable de la Langue française, alors que le Parti québécois — qui a fait adopter la Charte en 1977 — l’accuse de ne pas proposer des mesures qui inverseront le déclin du français dans la province.
« On va le briser, le tabou. Ça ne sera pas populaire si on veut prendre des mesures pour stopper le déclin et renverser la tendance. L’idée, ce n’est pas d’être populaire, c’est d’être efficace. C’est de s’assurer [que la réforme] works and it will displease the world, ”thundered the PQ member Pascal Bérubé.
His Liberal counterpart, Hélène David, for her part described the Legault government’s Bill 96 as “ambitious”, which deserves the time necessary to study it. She asked Quebec to ensure that it will not use the gag order to adopt it quickly, as has been done in the past for law 21 on the secularism of the state.
The Liberals will have as a line of thought to be “inclusive”, in order to come out of the study of the bill “together”, and not divided. The deputy of Quebec solidaire, Ruba Ghazal, also affirmed Tuesday that the reform of the law 101 “is an opportunity to unite us” as a society.
For meme Ghazal, the French language is “the language of the heart, but it must also be the language of bread, and for it to live, all Quebecers must work in French”.
Bill 96, tabled last spring, will benefit from the most important public consultations of this legislature. More than 50 groups and witnesses will be heard in parliamentary committee over the coming weeks.
In his opening presentation, Simon Jolin-Barrette recalled that his bill provides, among other things, for the principle of exemplarity of the State in terms of the protection of French and new guidelines to protect the right to work in French in Quebec. . Among other things, employers will have to justify positions that require bilingualism.
Quebec also provides for the creation of Francization Quebec, to offer French courses to all citizens domiciled in Quebec, as well as new measures to stop the growth of the French-speaking or allophone student body in English-speaking CEGEPs. The government is also making a lasting impression by including in the Canadian Constitution that French is the only official language of Quebec.