The Office québécois de la langue française is a Quebec public provincial organization established on 24 March 1961, by the Liberal government of Jean Lesage. Attached to the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications(Ministry of Culture and Communications), its initial mission, defined in its report of 1 April 1964, was "to align on international French, promote good Canadianisms and fight Anglicisms ... work on the normalization of the language in Quebec and support State intervention to carry out a global language policy that would consider notably the importance of socio-economic motivations in making French the priority language in Quebec".
Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is part of the Constitution of Canada. It is commonly known as the notwithstanding clause, sometimes referred to as the override power, and it allows Parliament or provincial legislatures to temporarily override sections 2 and 7–15 of the Charter.
Robert Bourassa was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd premier of Quebec from 1970 to 1976 and from 1985 to 1994. A member of the Liberal Party of Quebec, he served a total of just under 15 years as premier. Bourassa's tenure was marked by major events affecting Quebec, including the October Crisis and the Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords.
Ford v Quebec (AG), [1988] 2 SCR 712 is a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision in which the Court struck down part of the Charter of the French Language, commonly known as "Bill 101". This law had prohibited the use of commercial signs written in languages other than French and required businesses to use only the French versions of their names. The court ruled that Bill 101 violated the freedom of expression as guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The Charter of the French Language, also known in English as Bill 101, Law 101, or Quebec French Preference Law, is a law in the province of Quebec in Canada defining French, the language of the majority of the population, as the official language of the provincial government. It is the central legislative piece in Quebec's language policy, and one of the three statutory documents Quebec society bases its cohesion upon, along with the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms and the Civil Code of Quebec. The Charter also protects the Indigenous languages of Quebec.
The politics of Quebec are centred on a provincial government resembling that of the other Canadian provinces, namely a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. The capital of Quebec is Quebec City, where the Lieutenant Governor, Premier, the legislature, and cabinet reside.
The Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, also known as the "Quebec Charter", is a statutory bill of rights and human rights code passed by the National Assembly of Quebec on June 27, 1975. It received Royal Assent from Lieutenant Governor Hugues Lapointe, coming into effect on June 28, 1976. Introduced by the Liberal government of Robert Bourassa, the Charter followed extensive preparatory work that began under the Union Nationale government of Daniel Johnson.
This section of the Timeline of Quebec history concerns the events between the Quiet Revolution and the patriation of the British North America Act.
The 1976 Quebec general election was held on November 15, 1976 to elect members to National Assembly of the Province of Quebec, Canada. It was one of the most significant elections in Quebec history, rivalled only by the 1960 general election, and caused major repercussions in the rest of Canada. The Parti Québécois, led by René Lévesque, defeated the incumbent Quebec Liberal Party, led by Premier Robert Bourassa.
This article presents the current language demographics of the Canadian province of Quebec.
The legal dispute over Quebec's language policy began soon after the enactment of Bill 101, establishing the Charter of the French Language, by the Parliament of Quebec in 1977.
Bill 63, formally the Loi pour promouvoir la langue française au Québec, was a language law passed in 1969 in Quebec, Canada.
Because the country contains two major language groups and numerous other linguistic minorities, in Canada official languages policy has always been an important and high-profile area of public policy.
The language policies of Canada's province and territories vary between the provinces and territories of Canada. Although the federal government operates as an officially bilingual institution, providing services in English and French, several provincial governments have also instituted or legislated their own language policies.
The constitution of Quebec comprises a set of legal rules that arise from the following categories:
Guy Rivard is a former Canadian politician in the province of Quebec. Rivard served in the National Assembly of Quebec from 1985 to 1994 as a member of the Liberal Party and was a junior minister in the government of Robert Bourassa. His handling of Quebec's language laws in 1989 attracted national attention.
John Ciaccia was an Italian-born Canadian politician who was provincial cabinet minister from Montreal, Quebec. Ciaccia served as a member of the National Assembly of Quebec from 1973 to 1998, representing the Mount Royal riding for the Quebec Liberal Party. He occupied various posts in the cabinets of Liberal premiers Robert Bourassa, and Daniel Johnson Jr., such as minister of Energy and Natural Resources, International Affairs, Native Affairs, and Immigration and Cultural Communities. At his resignation, Ciaccia was the longest-serving member of the Assembly. Ciaccia gained international attention for his efforts in negotiating the end of the Oka Crisis alongside his federal counterpart, Tom Siddon, in 1990. Former Quebec Premier Jean Charest described Ciaccia's political career as having "revolutionized relations with the native people and cultural communities of Quebec by always favouring an approach marked by respect."
The Act respecting the laicity of the State, introduced and commonly referred to as Bill 21 or Law 21, is a statute passed by the National Assembly of Quebec in 2019 which asserts that Quebec is a lay state. It prohibits the wearing of religious symbols by certain public employees in positions of authority and grandfathers in those who were already in office when the bill was introduced. The statute operates despite the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, and also notwithstanding certain sections of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
English-speaking Quebecers, also known as Anglo-Quebecers, English Quebecers, or Anglophone Quebecers or simply Anglos in a Quebec context, are a linguistic minority in the francophone province of Quebec. According to the 2011 Canadian census, 599,225 people in Quebec declare English as a mother tongue. When asked, 834,950 people reported using English the most at home.
The Act to amend the Charter of the French Language is a Quebec amending act introduced by the Landry government in 2002, which made adjustments to several provisions of Quebec's language policy. Its main objective was to rectify the Charter of the French Language in response to the recommendations of the Estates-General on the Situation and Future of the French Language in Quebec.
