Bilingual Quebec municipalities have lost their bid to have several parts of the government’s French-language reform suspended while their case makes its way through the courts.
The communities asked the Quebec Superior Court last month to suspend the application of parts of Bill 96—as the language reform is known—arguing it would cause them serious and irreparable harm.
A lawyer for the cities argued the law could block federal subsidies to cities that don’t comply with it, and would give the language watchdog vast powers of search and seizure that exceed those of police.
The Quebec government argued there was no evidence the law has caused any harm and that concern alone should not be enough to warrant a stay.
Justice Silvana Conte refused the request for a stay, noting that one should be granted only in exceptional cases and that the municipalities had not proven serious or irreparable damage.
Quebec adopted the law in 2022 and proactively invoked the notwithstanding clause to shield it from some court challenges. Bill 96 reinforces the province’s French-language charter first adopted in 1977 by the Parti Québécois government of René Lévesque.
The 23 municipalities involved in the challenge include several Montreal suburbs such as Westmount and Côte-St-Luc, as well as smaller communities located mostly near the borders with the United States or the boundaries with other provinces.
Communities that have bilingual status have the right to serve their citizens in both English and French, which is not the case for those that don’t have that status.
