From the invasion of New France in the 1760s and the formation of Canada in 1867 until the
Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, the
economy of Quebec and its high-ranking positions were controlled by the
English speaking minority in Quebec, who were always a small minority comprising less than 10% throughout Quebec's post–Royal French Canadian history and who used to be mostly
unilingual English speakers, despite the Francophone
Québécois' comprising more than 80% of the province's population. The politics of language has always played against issues of
Quebec nationalism and
Quebec separatism. English-speaking Quebeckers maintain a strong
Canadian identity, with about 99% opposing
Quebec sovereignty in
1980 and
1995 referendums. Having no distinct political representation in Quebec, they tend to vote for the federalist
Liberal Party of Canada federally and for the
Quebec Liberal Party at the provincial level. In 2001, English-speaking Quebeckers viewed provincial
language legislation as the principal challenge facing their community and more generally look to the federal government to protect their individual and collective rights from provincial government limits on access to English education, health care, government services, and visibility on public signs. The
Canadian constitution protects the language rights of English-speaking communities and individuals in Quebec; however, since 1867, the Quebec provincial government has had full jurisdiction over schools, with only section 93 of the British North America Act 1867 (the
Constitution Act, 1867) guaranteeing Protestant confessional boards the right to administer most English schools. Section 133 still allows French and English to be used in the
Parliament of Canada and the
Legislature of Quebec and makes both languages mandatory for the laws, records, and journals of those houses. It also gives any person the right to plead in either English or French in any of the Courts of Quebec. In 1982, Section 23 of the
Constitution Act, 1982 guaranteed the right of Canadian citizens educated in English in Canada to attend English schools. This paved the way for the Constitutional Amendment, 1999 (Québec) which was passed unanimously by the federal Parliament and the
National Assembly of Quebec that transformed Protestant confessional school boards into English linguistic school boards. The federal government also maintains the
Official Languages Act of 1988 that ensures equality between English and French in the federal civil service and ensures that official minority language groups in Canada receive service in their language where numbers warrant and that supports the development of communities of speakers of official languages when they constitute a minority in a province or territory.
Provincial legislation has also delimited the language rights of English-speaking Quebeckers and the role of their institutions since the
Quiet Revolution as French-speaking
Québécois sought to improve their economic prospects, assimilate immigrants into their community to maintain their population, and establish French as a language of business.
Bill 63, introduced by the
Union nationale government in 1969, required that English schools provide all students with a working knowledge of French. In 1974, the Liberal government of
Robert Bourassa passed
Bill 22 and restricted access to English schools to children who could pass a language test. In 1977, the separatist
Parti Québécois passed the more intensive
Charter of the French Language (Bill 101). This law made French the sole language of the civil service and of business in private workplaces with over 50 employees and established the right of all Quebeckers to work solely in French, now the sole official language of the province; it also favoured a demographic shift towards more francophones in Quebec by restricting access to English-language schools to children whose parents had attended Quebec English grade schools or high schools. The Charter is generally seen as emancipatory and a protector of culture and is immensely popular among Quebeckers. Other Charter provisions, though, deeply alienated English-speaking Quebeckers. The Charter cut off access to English schools to all but children who had parents who had received their education in English in Quebec. The Charter also eliminated the Constitutional guarantee to English legal proceedings and eliminated English translations of Quebec laws. It banned all languages other than French on all public signs, both inside and outside. (The regulations for signs would be modified in 1988 and 1993.) The law has therefore polarized Quebec along linguistic lines to this day.
Legal challenges by English-speaking Quebeckers using provisions of the Canadian constitution and
international law overturned some of these provisions, forcing subsequent Quebec governments to blunt these Charter provisions many times. The Charter coupled with the looming
1980 Referendum on Sovereignty triggered an exodus of English-speaking Quebeckers between 1976 and 1980, exacerbating the already existing demographic decline. Head offices that employed anglophones moved mostly to Toronto, taking their employees with them. Structural unemployment in the private sector with the mass hiring of francophones in an expanding civil service limited the economic opportunities of especially young non-bilingual anglophones in Quebec leading them to search for work elsewhere. Young highly educated anglophones, despite high rates of bilingualism and increased contact and openness to francophones, cite limited economic prospects caused by linguistic discrimination and an unsatisfactory political climate as the major factors in their departure. By 2001, 50% of mother-tongue anglophones had left the province. Faced with increasing marginalization from the political process in Quebec, English-speaking community groups across the province banded together to form
Alliance Quebec, a provincial lobby group that would advocate for English-language education, health, and social services. It was supported by the federal
Commissioner of Official Languages and members worked with provincial administrations to maintain and increase access to English government services across the province. Sign laws governing language are a particular irritant to English-speaking Quebeckers. When the original Charter provision requiring French only on commercial signs and in trade names was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1988, the Liberal government of Robert Bourassa passed Bill 178 that made French the only language that could be used on outdoor commercial signs. This required invoking the
notwithstanding clause in the
Canadian Constitution, which overrode the Supreme Court decision. Discontent with the Liberals led anglophones in Western Montreal to form the
Equality Party in protest, which surprised many by electing 4 candidates in the 1989 provincial election. As the sign law would have to be renewed in 1993, the Liberal government passed a law that mandated French on signs. As recommended by the Supreme Court, this law allowed other languages on the sign, as long as French was predominant. Although this law stands up to Supreme Court challenges, many anglophones refer to the
inspectorate that enforces the law as "tongue troopers" and "language cops". In addition to the rights guaranteed by the constitution of Canada, the various regulations outside the Charter recognise other linguistic rights of Quebec anglophones. Quebeckers have the right to receive services in English from all public health care and social service institutions in Quebec. The charter also permits bilingual status to cities, but only those with a majority of English mother-tongue residents; other cities are not required to provide services in English but usually do if a significant minority of the population is English-speaking. Ninety-three municipalities offer bilingual services in Quebec. In 2002, Quebec's French Language Charter was amended with
Bill 104, which aims to prevent education received in fully private English schools or through temporary certificates from producing constitutional education rights. Several court cases are still pending. After the
2022 Quebec general election, political leaders and commentators of the province issued growing concerns about the political weight of the English speaking Quebeckers in Quebec's democracy. The
Quebec Liberal Party did indeed win the second place in parliament having 21 seats while having 14.37% of the popular vote, behind
Québec Solidaire and the
Parti Québécois, respectively in third and fourth place with 11 and 3 seats. It is generally understood that this happened because of the concentration of the Liberal vote in the Centre and Western part of Montreal, where English speakers are often a majority. ==Education==