Legislations

Québec

Québec laws are adopted in the National Assembly of Québec.

• Search all Quebec statutes, regulations, court cases
• Civil Code of Québec
• Department of Justice

Human rights instruments

Did you know Québec adopted a Charter of Human Rights in 1975?

• 1990: Québec Human Rights Tribunal
• 1975: Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission
• 1975: The Québec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms

Linguistic rights and language policy

Did you read the Charter of the French language (Bill 101)?

• 1977: The Charter of the French Language
• Regulations adopted under the Charter of the French language
• Infoguides on French language requirements (business, commerce, workplace)
• Brochure entitled Questions and answers about Québec's language policy
• Brochure entitled Living in French in Québec
• Documents on the Controversy Surrounding the Language of Commercial Signs in Québec, Quebec History, Marianopolis College
• The principles and means of Québec's language policy
• Read various educated opinions on the Charter of the French Language
• Compare Quebec's language policy to that of 347 other States and autonomous regions in L'aménagement linguistique dans le monde (French)

Rights of the Amerindians and the Inuit

• 1985: A resolution of the National Assembly recognizes the existence of distinct aboriginal nations on the territory of Quebec and defines 5 collective rights of those nations: right to autonomy inside Quebec, right to their own culture, language and traditions, right to own and control lands, right to hunt, fish and harvest natural ressources and participate to the management of wildlife, right to participate to the economic development of Quebec and to benefit from it.
• Secrétariat aux affaires autochtones Secrétariat aux affaires autochtones

Political status

• 1999: Rights and Prerogatives of the people of Québec (Bill 99)
• 1995: An Act Respecting the Future of Québec

Historical laws

• 1832: An Act to declare persons of the Jewish Religion entitled to all of the rights and privileges of the other subjects of His Majesty in this Province, adopted on June 5, by the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada. The house of assembly was then under a majority of members of the Parti patriote lead by Louis-Joseph Papineau.

Ottawa

Human rights instruments

• 1982: Canadian charter of rights and freedoms

Current constitution and language policy

• 1982: Constitutional Act, 1982
• 1968: Official Languages Act

Law to prevent a winning referendum

• 1998: Clarity Act (Bill C-20)
• 1998: Opinion of the Supreme Court of Canada on the Reference re to the Secession of Québec

Past legislation against ethnic minorities in Canada

Note: Most of these laws were inspired by similar American or British laws. They are no longer in force.

• 1952: Law specifying "White if possible"
• 1942: Law confiscating goods of Japanese Immigrants
• 1927: National Security Law
• 1923: Empire Settlement Act/Chinese Immigration Act
• 1911: Law blocking the entry of Blacks and Asians
• 1885: Law restricting Chinese Immigration

Past legislation against French in Canada

Note: These discriminatory laws against French speakers and Catholics are no longer in force today. However, the result of their application is sound: Québec is an anglicized French-speaking territory and Canada outside Québec is predominantly and irreversibly English-speaking. The adoption, in 1977, of the Charter of the French Language marked the beginning of efforts to redress the position of the French language inside Québec.

• 1916: The Thornton Bill in Manitoba completely abolishes the teaching of French in the province
• 1912: Province of Ontario: Circular of Instructions No. 17 and No. 18. Forbids the teaching of French above the first two grades of elementary school with the infamous Regulation 17.
• 1890: Province of Manitoba: Official Language Act banning French. Premier Greenway diminishes the rights to French in school, abolishes its use in the Parliament and in the Courts of the province. The act was declared anti-constitutional 90 years later!
• 1877: The Public School Act puts an end to the teaching of French in Prince-Edward-Island schools.
• 1871: The Common School Act imposes double taxation measures against French Catholic schools.
• 1864: Nova Scotia adopts an act on public schools which suppresses all subsidies to Catholic and French language schools.
• 1848: An act of parliament re-establishes the legal use of the French language in the Parliament and in the Courts of Canada.
• 1841: The Parliament of Great Britain adopts An Act to reunite the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, and for the Government of Canada which bans French in the Parliament, Courts and all other governmental bodies of the new united province of Canada. The French language is explicitly banned in a constitutional text of law for the first time in history.
• 1763: The Treaty of Paris confirms France's cession of Canada to Great Britain.
• 1760: The government of New France capitulates in Montreal.

See also

• Constitution
• Jacques Leclerc, Législations linguistiques adoptées au Canada, in L'aménagement linguistique dans le monde, 22 septembre, 2006 (French)