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The federal government says it has no authority over Bill 96 and should not be a respondent in a crowd-funded lawsuit against the Quebec government’s language overhaul.
The Attorney General of Canada has filed a motion with the Quebec Superior Court asking that it be dismissed from the constitutional challenge of Bill 96, filed in May 2023 by the Task Force on Linguistic Policy. The next court date is Aug. 29.
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Bill 96, which became law in June 2022, toughened Bill 101, officially known as the Charter of the French Language.
Among other things, Bill 96 affected CEGEP enrolment, how businesses operate, the workings of the court system and who can receive government services in English.
The task force has said it named the federal government in the lawsuit because of a provision in Bill 96 referring to changes to the Canadian Constitution.
In a five-page document submitted to the court, the attorney general noted that Bill 96 is a provincial statute.
“The impugned provisions (of Bill 96) were not enacted by the Parliament and the federal government does not have any authority to apply them,” the attorney general said.
The lawsuit involves six plaintiffs who say their human rights have been detrimentally affected by Bill 96. Task force president Andrew Caddell is one of the plaintiffs.
The plaintiffs do “not seek any remedy enforceable against the federal government, nor (do they) allege any infringement of the (their) rights by the federal government or by any federally enacted law.”
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It added: “The court can decide the constitutional questions without the involvement of the (attorney general). This is especially true in (this case) since the questions raised are in respect of provincial legislation alone.”
In a statement Thursday, Caddel criticized Ottawa’s decision to try to extract itself from the lawsuit.
He said the plaintiffs included the attorney general because of the Trudeau government’s “failure to defend the Constitution of Canada against the unilateral declaration of Quebec as an exclusive French-speaking ‘nation’ in the Constitution.”
Caddell also pointed to the federal government’s decision to refer to the Charter of the French Language in Bill C-13, a revamp of Canada’s Official Languages Act that was enacted last year.
The federal government’s motion is “shameful and irresponsible,” Caddell said.
“We will fight it tooth and nail, as we are determined to defend the Constitution, even as the Trudeau government refuses to do so. We will continue with our pursuit of both governments in court.”
Premier François Legault’s government pre-emptively invoked the Constitution’s notwithstanding clause to shield Bill 96. The clause allows governments to override some fundamental rights in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The task force’s lawsuit is one of several constitutional challenges of Bill 96 that are winding their way through the courts.
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