The municipality of St-Armand recently passed a resolution to assure its English-speaking residents that it will provide municipal communications in both French and English to the best of its ability as it attempts to work around language law Bill 96.
In passing this resolution, council's goal is to ensure that services are available to English and French speaking people equally. Mayor Caroline Rosetti, a Francophone who is equally proficient in English, explains that this is a challenge in a community where 27 per cent of the population is Anglophone.
“English has been a part of our municipality for as long as I can remember. We’ve always spoken both languages frequently and amongst ourselves also. (…) Statistics tell us that we are 27% Anglophone, but physically we thought we were more than that."
She sees potential problems for Anglophones under Bill 96. “When Bill 96 came out and we were told that it was officially illegal to use English in our communications, we thought that it was pretty rough as a by-law to stop people from being informed or actually deprive them from any information that could be useful.”
Bill 96 was adopted last year under the Coalition Avenir Québec political party and certain elements of the bill officially took effect on June 1st, 2023. Under Bill 96, which makes a number of changes to the Charter of the French Language, municipalities are now limited from communicating or diffusing information in English if it does not hold a bilingual status, meaning fifty percent or more of its population designate English as their mother tongue. Municipalities that had a bilingual status under the Charter of the French Language before Bill 96 was implemented were required to pass a by-law to keep this status.
According to Bill 96, the only time a municipality can provide information to its citizens in English is when it is related to “health, public safety, or where the principles of natural justice (the legal right to be treated fairly in decision making) so require.” People who are eligible to receive education in English in Quebec and immigrants that have been in Quebec for less than six months are also exempt from the law, but they have to send a request to the municipality specifying that they are seeking information in English.
As a municipality that prides itself on bilingualism, Rosetti emphasized that it is priority for town officials to ensure that St-Armand residents have access to all of the information they need and that this information does not depend on certain exceptions, especially during a time where it has an aging English-speaking population. As a result, the municipality has also decided to find ways to continue communicating with citizens in English on any matters concerning community life with hopes of alleviating some of the concerns amongst its population.
Rosetti noted that the municipality was “happy” to find out that anything to do with security or individual rights (natural justice) could be provided in both languages, “but that still meant that all of community life was challenged to only use French when publishing or inviting citizens to their own town’s activity.”
“That we didn’t care for very much, that’s why we made a resolution. (…) We can’t send any English information to any French citizen and to me that is just ridiculous, as if their eyes would burn if they see English writing. We are all for promoting French. We were happy to put it first in our communications, in bigger writing, or just a bit more emphasis on French, but we still think that everybody should be able to understand what we are saying,” she said. “Considering we have an elderly population, which is the population that is most concerned with the English versions or the English information that is needed, we thought that it was very disrespectful to stop it from being published or stop them from being informed.”
In order to receive information in English, St-Armand residents now need to send a request to the municipality or go to the town hall, described by Rosetti as one of the major difficulties around the situation. She emphasized that English-speakers shouldn’t have to go through the trouble of a request process to receive the same information that French-speakers are automatically and “easily” being provided with, encouraging the municipality to find other ways to ensure that its population was staying informed.
“The fact that we are a small town and a lot of people know each other, we kind of already targeted people. We had a list and we targeted the English people that we knew and mostly all of the seniors. Some of the younger ones, or those more at ease with social media and technology, it would be easier for them to reach out but still, we are not fond of the reaching out part. We still think it’s a lack of respect. (…) We targeted the seniors that we thought might need an extra push,” highlighted Rosetti.
Rosetti explained that mayors and councillors cannot contact their residents and provide official information in English while working within their municipal roles, but they can contact them voluntarily as individual citizens. She noted that she doesn’t think that things “should come down to that but we do it, that’s how we can work around what’s written.”
“For example, we have a journal that comes out every two months to inform people of things going on in the town. As an individual, I can inform people that there is an English version at town hall or that we can send it by mail. I would take my personal Facebook account and then I would write ‘La Voix Municipale is out, if you need an English copy please call town hall or you can get one at town hall.’ So I can tell them as me being an individual, but the town cannot write ‘La Voix Municipale sortie, English version available at town hall.’ So there’s a lot of little things like that we need to work around and that we voluntarily do,” she explained.
Recognizing that “community life” does not “technically” fall under the exemptions of Bill 96, Rosetti noted that the municipality is not trying to hide anything from the Office Québecois de la langue française (OQLF) and that it has sent in a copy of its resolution to the provincial body.
“We wanted to inform them that as of July, we would continue to provide information in both languages for any community activity. We kind of went towards the ‘inclusion’ side of that. We want to include everybody, we want everyone to feel included and welcomed, so we want to integrate everyone. We are bending, in so many ways, to try and find ways that we can go around it," she explained. "We also mentioned that our fire security has partnerships with Swanton in Vermont because we are close to the border. We will continue all communications in both languages because of the partnership we can’t jeopardize that. We also informed them that have a lot of tourists in our town and we want to make sure that they get around properly and have proper information. We tried to cover all of our bases using individual rights, using what the law used to tell us that we couldn’t.”
It may not be accepted, said Rosetti, but if the municipality doesn’t hear back from the OQLF, it will take its lack of response as “tolerating” its decision.
“We’re trying to be as much by the book, while finding loopholes in whatever way we can. We don’t want to trigger or anything. (…) We’re still trying to make sure that we are by the book but respecting our citizens. That’s the tricky part, making everybody happy,” she highlighted.
As concerns continue to grow around the constitutionality of Bill 96, Rosetti emphasized that Quebecers “need to continue fighting” for bilingualism.
“I think we need to step up. I mean, New Brunswick does it, why can’t we promote bilingualism? That would be my ideal. I know that people are scared that French will disappear, I don’t think so. We are depriving Quebecers from having a more complete vial to their personalities. I think the more we know, the more we speak both languages, the more that we are at ease with all of it, more doors open. So I really recommend that we keep fighting for this,” she said.
Listen to the full interview below: