Unintended Consequences : Bill 101 and the English-Speaking Black Community

The author explores issues of language and race in Quebec, beginning with the early 1970s, a time when the province was in the maelstrom of linguistic and social redefinition. Then the French language laws (Bill 22 and then Bill 101) caused a sense of unease, particularly within the English-speaking Black communities. The author notes that families faced changes in school choice for their young, while adjusting to their own diminished economic opportunities as unilingual Blacks. Indifference moved to anxiety, fear, and then anger, as English-speaking Blacks migrated west, while others determined that their fate would best lie with their bilingual youth. She notes that Bill 101 has led to a significantly bilingual Black population. Yet challenges remain, since Bill 101 so far has not yielded better outcomes for Blacks in Quebec still struggling for the promise of racial acceptance and socio-economic equity. The author captures the internecine debate that arose within the Black leadership as the province readied itself for the 1980 referendum. She addresses some of the unintended consequences of creating a law to establish a new linguistic primacy and social harmony in Quebec’s social, cultural, and economic relations.

La Charte : La loi 101 et les Québécois d’expression anglaise / The Charter : Bill 101 and English-Speaking Quebec

Québec

Presses de l’Université Laval

2021

387-395

en

978-2-7637-5436-9