The Charter of the French Language in the Media : Constitutional Politics, Judicialization, and Sentiment Analysis

The author notes that the English-speaking communities of Quebec have long expressed grievances regarding their condition as a linguistic minority in the province. One of the policies often targeted for complaint is the Charter of the French Language (Bill 101). Using new data obtained through newspaper databases, the author shows that the fluctuations and ultimately the decline in media attention to Bill 101 were tied to two political processes that marked recent decades in Canadian and Quebec politics. First are constitutional politics, which have influenced the development of language policies at both the federal and the provincial levels. Second is the judicialization of language politics which, with the creation and implementation of the Court Challenges Program, has given significant politico-juridical leverage to minority advocacy groups and has compelled Quebec governments to adapt Bill 101 with each new ruling from the Supreme Court of Canada. Using computer-assisted textual analysis, the author also finds evidence of a slight improvement in the average tone of articles mentioning the Charter of the French Language in the Montreal Gazette, which he interprets with cautious optimism in light of recent language politics developments.

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

281-299

en

978-2-7637-5436-9