Protesters demonstrate in Montreal to show their support for Bill 101

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Organized to mark National Patriot Day, the event included many lily flags and French-language placards urging Quebec residents to stop apologizing for being “chez nous.”

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May 21, 2022 • 17 hours ago • 2 minutes reading • 39 comments A protest in support of Bill 101 began in Dorchester Square in Montreal on Saturday, May 21, 2022, a group called Quebec 101, which condemned the “Anglicization of Montreal” . Photo by Dave Sidway / Montreal Gazette

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For the second Saturday in a row, protesters gathered in downtown Montreal to hear their voices on the subject of language rights.

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More than 100 people gathered in Dorchester Square on a sunny and stormy afternoon to express their support for the Charter in French, to hear fiery speeches and to march on St. Catherine’s. W.

Saturday’s rally paled in comparison to last week’s march, which drew several thousand people – many of them Anglophones – to protest Bill 96. A proposed law aimed at strengthening the status of French people in the province is expected to be voted on in the National Assembly. meeting at the end of the month.

However, limited turnout failed to dampen the mood. Organized to mark Quebec National Patriots Day, the event included many French lily flags and placards urging Quebec residents to stop apologizing for being “chez nous”. Speakers such as Jean-Paul Perrot, president of the Francophone rights group Impératif Français, stood in front of an old election sign for Camille Lorin, the former Minister of Education of Parti Québécois, known as the “Father of Bill 101”, to address the crowd and insist that the law be extended to CEGEP in Quebec.

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“We nationalists are not happy because Bill 96 doesn’t go far enough,” Terrebonne resident Daniel Roy, dressed in a Le Québec, un pays T-shirt, said in an interview before the march. “I am here because I believe that Bill 101 should apply to CEGEP. I think the number of English-speaking students should be reduced to reflect the share of historic Englishmen in Quebec.

Bill 96 “needs to be stronger,” agreed fellow demonstrator Danny Wellett of Mirabel. “This protest is a message to the CAQ that they need to extend Bill 101 to CEGEP. If we Francophones do nothing about it, we will soon be heading for the wall.

Historian Dawson College professor and former Parti Québécois leadership candidate Frederic Bastien has reiterated Ouellet’s concerns. He warned protesters, French-speaking Quebecers who are reluctant to defend the French, are now at risk of slowly disappearing – in the same way that Franco-Ontarians have seen their relative weight decline in the last century, he said.

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“Aren’t you tired of being called racist because you want to live in French in Quebec?” Enough of the Quebec strife, “Bastien said, eliciting applause from the crowd. “We are the ones who represent diversity in Canada. We are victims of injustice. “

Some at Saturday’s event said they supported Bill 96. This was the case with 20-year-old Remy LeBeauf, who arrived from Joliet with his girlfriend Stephanie Christina Lamar to take part in the march.

“There was a demonstration in Montreal last weekend against Bill 96, and it was important to show the government that there was still support for Bill 101,” LeBeauf said. “Bill 96 is a necessary law. Often the silent majority outside of Montreal does not actually show support. This is not a demonstration against the Anglophones today. We just want to reaffirm the importance of the common language of Quebec, which is French. I can understand the concerns of the English-speaking community, but there may be an overreaction on their part.

ftomesco@postmedia.com

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