Bill 101: A Positive Anglophone Point of View

Type of resource
Author/collaborator
Title
Bill 101: A Positive Anglophone Point of View
Abstract
Bill 101, the Charter of the French Language, was passed by the Parti Québécois government in 1977. The purpose of the legislation is to make the language of eighty per cent of the Quebec population the language of education, business, work, publicity, and of all public activities. The author maintains that for a community to have to use a law to preserve its own language and culture shows its fragility and is indicative of its weakness as a political and economic entity. He argues that one cannot correct the language situation without taking steps to repatriate to Quebec the political and economic centres of decision, not only to insure its cultural survival but also to build a better society. According to the author, the Quebec situation not only divides Francophones and Anglophones in linguistic matters but also divides partisans of different ideologies. He believes that Quebec must francize as part of the process of decolonization, but francization is a necessary but not sufficient step in this direction. His view is that the provincial government must create the proper conditions for the survival and development of the language and culture of the majority French-speaking Quebecers while preserving the rights of the English-speaking minority; furthermore, it must envisage the francization of Quebec as a necessary condition for building a just and fraternal society. The author gives excerpts from, and comments on, a brief presented to the parliamentary commission on Bill 101 in June 1977 by the Comité Anglophone pour un Québec Unifié. This small Anglophone group supported the francization policies of the Parti Québécois government.
Publication
Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie
Volume
Vol. 15
Issue
no. 2
Pages
142-144
Date
May 1978
Language
en
Citation
Rioux, Marcel. “Bill 101: A Positive Anglophone Point of View.” Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie Vol. 15, no. 2 (May 1978): 142–144.
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