Impératif français launches campaign promoting Bill 96

Impératif français launches campaign promoting Bill 96

While anglophone groups across the province have been highly critical of Quebec’s Bill 96, francophone advocacy group Impératif français has encouraged the government to not back down on its promise to limit access to English CEGEPs. The group has launched a publicity campaign on the subject and is asking the population to give their opinion to their elected officials.

“Our taxes are used to finance the Anglicization of studies in Quebec, to finance CEGEPs and English-language universities as a priority at the very moment when it is the French education network that deserves historic reparations and the absolute priority. Say it loud and clear to the elected members of the National Assembly. They have the power to reverse the decline and inferiorization of the national language. College and undergraduate studies for all in French, the common and working language in Quebec, otherwise the full application of Bill 101 is required,” their campaign states (tr.).

Pontiac MNA André Fortin has defended the rights of students to have access to post-secondary education in the language of their choice.

“Bill 96 goes too far. François Legault is now finding a round-about way of basically forbidding access to English Cegeps (like Heritage College) to francophones. At the Quebec Liberal Party, we believe that all young Quebecers should have the right to study in the Cegep of their choice,” he wrote in a Facebook post last week.

The discussion around language laws has been fiery at times in the past few weeks, with the head of an English advocacy organization comparing Legault’s support of Ukraine to Bill 96 in a since-deleted tweet. The statement was denounced by both Legault and opposition leader Dominique Anglade.

The full (French-language) interview with Impératif français President Jean-Paul Perrault is available here.