An Act to promote the French language in Québec

Bill 63, formally the Loi pour promouvoir la langue française au Québec ("Law to promote the French language in Quebec"), was a language law passed in 1969 in Quebec, Canada.^[1]

Background

In the 1960s, the government of Quebec commissioned a report about the state of the French language in the province. The report showed that in some areas of the province, residents who spoke only French had difficulty finding employment and doing everyday business.^[2] As a result, plans were begun to form a committee, called the Gendron Commission, to make recommendations for promoting the use of French in Quebec.

When the Catholic school board of Saint Leonard, Quebec, insisted for children of immigrants, mostly Italians, to be required to go to French schools, controversy and violence erupted. In response, the Union Nationale government of Jean-Jacques Bertrand passed Bill 63^[3] without waiting for the Gendron Commission's report.

Details

Section 2 of the bill allowed all residents of Quebec an English-language education for anyone desiring it for their children. That right was known as "freedom of choice."^[4][5]

The law also promoted the French language:

• The Ministry of Education was to ensure that students graduating from English schools in Quebec had a working knowledge of French.
• French courses were to be available to all students enrolled in Quebec schools.^[6]
• The Ministry of Education was to make French courses available to all immigrants entering Quebec.
• The mandate of the Office québécois de la langue française was extended.^[7]

Aftermath

Bill 63 fell short of the expectations of many francophones, such as many Quebec nationalists, who expected that French would become the common public language of all Quebec residents. Their main criticism of the law was that it allowed all Quebec residents to send their children to either English or French schools.^[8] Opposition to the law led to the coalition Mouvement Québec français.^[2]

In 1974, the Liberal government of Robert Bourassa superseded the act by the Official Language Act.

See also

• Official Languages Act of Canada
• Legal dispute over Quebec's language policy
• Office québécois de la langue française
• Quiet Revolution
• Language policy

References

1. Marc Levine. The Reconquest Of Montreal: Language Policy and Social Change in a Bilingual City. Temple University Press; 7 August 1991. ISBN 978-0-87722-899-8. p. 79–.
2. Montreal: The History of a North American City. MQUP; 6 April 2018. ISBN 978-0-7735-5269-2. p. 1–.
3. Hudon, R. (2007). "Bill 63". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2007-03-03.
4. Charles Boberg. The English Language in Canada: Status, History and Comparative Analysis. Cambridge University Press; 26 August 2010. ISBN 978-1-139-49144-0. p. 8–.
5. John Mallea. Cultural Diversity and Canadian Education: Issues and Innovations. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP; 15 April 1984. ISBN 978-0-88629-007-8. p. 170–.
6. Joshua A. Fishman. Reversing Language Shift: Theoretical and Empirical Foundations of Assistance to Threatened Languages. Multilingual Matters; 1 January 1991. ISBN 978-1-85359-121-1. p. 303–.
7. Government of Quebec (1969). "An Act to promote the French language in Quebec" (PDF). Office québécois de la langue française. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2005-10-25. Retrieved 2007-03-03.
8. Sean Mills. The Empire Within: Postcolonial Thought and Political Activism in Sixties Montreal. MQUP; 26 March 2010. ISBN 978-0-7735-8349-8. p. 172–.