CTV Montreal lists the five measures of Bill 96 which go into effect today, among which includes the requirements for companies with between five and 49 employees to disclose the number of workers that have an adequate knowledge of French. This measure provokes numerous questions, including “What does adequate mean?” and “Who evaluates it?” says QCGN President Eva Ludvig.
QCGN President Eva Ludvig speaks with CityNews Montreal about the new provisions of Bill 96 that went into effect yesterday, and some of the concerns shared among members of the English-speaking community.
“We are now seeing the impact of a bad bill, a draconian bill,” says QCGN President Eva Ludvig about Bill 96: “We see what this really means and the impact it will have on the day-to-day lives of business people, of everyday workers, of students.”
“We expect the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages to understand and support official language minority communities, including the English-speaking minority in Quebec,” says Eva Ludvig, president of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN). She was responding after the federal Commissioner of Official Languages, Raymond Théberge, sidesteps the question of whether, in his role as federal two-languages watchdog, he shares what he refers to in his annual report as “concerns in English-speaking communities” over the impact including constitutional effects of Bill C-13.
Eva Ludvig, QCGN’s president, explains some of the potential effects on small businesses anticipated under provisions of Bill 96 that take effect tomorrow. Businesses with as few as five employees are among those targeted. The likely impact of the many new regulations and rules is “draconian,” she says. This approach is likely to hobble Quebec as a whole, she suggests.
Mount Royal MP Anthony Housefather could face long-term backlash for voting against Bill C-13, as he was the only Liberal and only Member of Parliament to do so, says Professor Daniel Béland. The language legislation was approved by a vote of 300-1, and is now before the Senate, where the Quebec Community Groups Network says several portions of the bill will hopefully be reconsidered.
Mount Royal MP Anthony Housefather stood against the tide by voting “No” to Bill C-13 yesterday – the only MP in the House of Commons to do so. “It’s difficult to go against your own party, but he stuck with his principles and that’s admirable,” says QCGN President Eva Ludvig.
Quebec French Language Minister Jean-François Roberge says that government workers will rely on the honesty of citizens who say that they are entitled to receive services in English. According to the Quebec Community Groups Network, there were some 600,000 mother-tongue English speakers identified in the 2016 census in the province, but 1.1 million Quebecers whose first official spoken language is English.
Sherbrooke MP Élisabeth Brière and Compton-Stanstead MP Marie-Claude Bibeau both intend to vote in favour of Bill C-13, the drastically overhauled Official Languages Act. The reference to Quebec’s Bill 96 embedded in the pending federal legislation “has been our major issue with C-13,” says Eva Ludvig, president of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN).
Columnist Allison Hanes minces no words, in an analysis and recap of positions taken by the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), several outspoken federal Liberal MPS, and others on the new Official Languages Act: “English-speaking Quebecers shouldn’t be fooled” by Ottawa’s public packaging of Bill C-13, she writes.
The QCGN is funded by the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage.
