Latest news with #Bill84
Montreal Gazette
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Montreal Gazette
Letters: CAQ doesn't grasp the immigrant experience
Re: ' CAQ's vision of integration looks disconnected from reality ' (Toula Drimonis, June 6) There seems to be a complete lack of understanding in the Coalition Avenir Québec government about immigrants to Quebec and the need to maintain their mother tongues and cultures at home. This makes the transition much easier, just as it did for previous newcomers. It is a natural and normal dynamic among immigrants. It's so sad the government appears to have no sense of the immigrant experience. Gerry Raven, Hampstead Integration bill is beyond the pale Is it possible that Bill 84, the 'act respecting national integration,' was named in honour of George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984, or is it too much of a stretch to imagine that Immigration, Francization and Integration Minister Jean-François Roberge deigns to read anything conceived in English? Perhaps he is a devotee of the Borg in Star Trek, trying to assimilate the entire population of Quebec. Whatever the reason, this bill is an abomination. Rhonda Shechtman, Côte-St-Luc Let Supreme Court decide on school boards Re: ' Legault government pushes school board dispute to Supreme Court ' (The Gazette, June 1); ' Legault government has learned nothing by taking school board bill to Supreme Court ' (Allison Hanes, June 3) The Quebec English School Boards Association said it is deeply disappointed by the Legault government's decision to appeal the Bill 40 ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada, a move that columnist Allison Hanes noted 'has demonstrated the depth of its contempt for the rights of English-speaking Quebecers.' The QESBA and Hanes should welcome the decision. Should the Supreme Court agree to hear the case, it presents an impactful opportunity to uphold the principles of justice and equality and strengthen everyone's rights within Quebec's public school system. It would examine all perspectives and promote a fair resolution. The Supreme Court holds the ultimate authority to clarify essential constitutional questions that could establish legal precedents to benefit other minority-language groups in Canada. Chris Eustace, Pierrefonds Nunavik students learn priceless lessons Re: ' Trip of a lifetime for Nunavik students who 'deserve the world' ' (Extra, May 31) It's not every day you read a delightful story that leaves you smiling and inspired. Young students from Nunavik earned their way to visit Montreal through commitment, effort and the pride that comes from working toward something meaningful. Their reward wasn't just a fun trip. They also gained an expanded world view, increased confidence and the knowledge that dreams grow stronger with every step toward them. It shows education is about more than tests and textbooks. It's about building character, creating opportunity and helping young people discover they have a place in our world. What their teachers did is a powerful reminder we should teach values with transformative experiences that will echo throughout their lives. It's a model for motivating and empowering our youth. We need more of these inspirational opportunities for students that put a spotlight on growth, hope and achievement. This is what community-building and support look like and what education should always strive for. To the organizers: Bravo. To the students: Keep shining.
Montreal Gazette
06-06-2025
- Politics
- Montreal Gazette
Quebec adopts immigrant integration bill with model ‘distinct from Canadian multiculturalism'
Quebec Politics QUEBEC — Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge conceded Wednesday that Quebec's new immigration integration law may discourage some people from wanting to move to the province. Immigrants scouting countries should be aware that if they choose to come to Quebec, they cannot expect to find the same multiculturalism model that exists in other provinces, Roberge said. That system, he said, has been relegated to the 'limbo of history where it belongs' with the adoption Wednesday of Bill 84, an act respecting national integration. The legislation was voted into law by a vote of 86 to 27, with the Liberals and Québec solidaire opposition parties voting against it. Presented in January, the law obliges the state, its ministries, cities, schools and even community organizations staging festivals that receive public financial assistance to participate fully in the integration of new arrivals. For their part, immigrants are expected to respect a social contract between them and Quebec — to adhere to and respect Quebec's democratic values, to have a knowledge of Quebec and learn the French language if they have not mastered it on arrival. The law states French is the official and common language of integration, Quebec culture is the common culture, women and men are equal, and Quebec is a secular state. 'I can't say how (immigrants) will react,' Roberge said at a news conference after the vote. 'We are changing the contract; we are changing the way we explain our way of life here. 'Maybe some people who never thought about living in Quebec will say, 'Wow, I want to go there, I want to go to Quebec because it reflects my values.' 'Some people may say the exact opposite, that this doesn't fit with me. 'Do I really want to come to Quebec? I have no intention of learning French, I have no interest in learning about a distinct culture.' We'll see.' Roberge refuted accusations levelled by some groups that appeared during hearings into the bill that the exercise is designed to assimilate the cultural identity of new arrivals. Quebec welcomes about 50,000 immigrants every year. 'This is not an assimilationist bill because we say Quebec's culture is our common culture, we are proud of that and we want people to adhere,' Roberge said. 'But we want them to contribute. This word is very important. We want newcomers, everyone in Quebec, to contribute. 'We don't want to just assimilate them and forget who they are. We want them to bring something new. This is a huge part of what it is to be a Quebecer. Quebecers are open-minded.' Immediately after the adoption of the law, Roberge presented a separate motion in the legislature stating Quebec possesses its own model of national integration that favours cohesion and 'opposes isolationism and communitarianism.' It adds that Quebec 'affirms its national model of integration is distinct from Canadian multiculturalism.' The motion was adopted unanimously. The bill was amended along the way during the clause-by-clause examination process by legislators. It still says Quebec culture is the common culture, but that culture is no longer the 'crucible' that enables all Quebecers to form a united nation. It now says Quebec culture is the 'base on which all Quebecers build a united nation.' Another amendment expands the list of organizations the policy applies to. Initially it was government ministries, municipalities, state agencies and professional orders. Added now are colleges, private schools receiving public funds, universities and public daycares. Under the terms of the law, all now become 'engines' in the welcoming and integration process, Roberge said. 'We're changing the narrative. We're changing the social contract,' he said. 'We are returning Canadian multiculturalism where it should have stayed — that is to say, in the limbo of history. It is a model that has always been harmful to Quebec.' Roberge said the details of how the rules will be applied in those institutions will be spelled out in a new integration policy book the government will present within 18 months after consultations. Another clause that would allow the government to withdraw funding to groups organizing festivals that don't respect the integration rules remains, but it's worded differently. It now says an organization that wants to obtain financing for a festival must ensure its request is 'compatible with national integration and its foundation.' 'No organization will see its current funding cut in the middle of the year, but once we will have clarified things, then the articles will be enacted,' Roberge said. There remains only one reference to respecting the institutions of the English-speaking community, and it is in the preamble of the bill. In February, Roberge tangled with Quebec English School Boards Association president Joe Ortona over that decision. Ortona called on the CAQ to give formal recognition to the distinct culture of Quebec's English-speaking community, but Roberge made no changes to the final legislation in that regard. Roberge said he was puzzled by the Liberal and QS opposition to the bill, noting the two parties co-operated in the legislative process. Quebec's Liberals adopted their own policy last October favouring interculturalism, which is the basis of Bill 84. 'I don't understand,' Roberge said. 'They are against the law but were in favour of the motion. It's worse than the mystery of the Caramilk bar.' This story was originally published May 28, 2025 at 4:40 PM.
Montreal Gazette
06-06-2025
- Politics
- Montreal Gazette
Drimonis: CAQ's vision of integration looks disconnected from reality
As part of the Coalition Avenir Québec's ever-growing list of policies aimed at dictating how new Quebecers should act, live and look, a new bill has been added to the mix. Bill 84 — ' an act respecting national integration ' — aims to define a Quebec integration model the government says will be 'distinct from Canadian multiculturalism.' While announcing the bill, Immigration, Francization and Integration Minister Jean-François Roberge gleefully stated multiculturalism has been relegated to the 'limbo of history.' All I can say is: Good luck with that. While it's true that multiculturalism — a policy enshrined in federal legislation in 1988 — is seen by some Quebecers as malicious and aiming to undermine the majority culture and the French language, it's ultimately also a sociological reality. Multiculturalism is the organic byproduct of a pluralistic society that contains multiple languages, ethnicities, faiths and cultures. You cannot have a country or province actively benefiting from immigration for centuries without naturally evolving into a place where a multitude of differences coexist. Neither can you have language policy actively forcing newcomers to send their kids to French school and then be blindsided when these now-French-speaking 'neo-Quebecers' also start influencing the province's majority culture with elements of theirs. One quick look at Montreal and so much of what makes it shine is precisely its diversity and plurality. We didn't become one of the most exciting cities in North America by dimming our light, by making ourselves identical, by intentionally stifling our creative, culinary and cultural differences and artificially removing what makes us different to appease an enforced vision of homogeneity. While the CAQ says Bill 84 was 'inspired by interculturalism,' that concept — like multiculturalism — allows room for a society where different cultures feel welcome to coexist and thrive. Does Roberge expect us to believe that is the intent of this bill or any other it has advanced relating to language, education and secularism? Or do the actions of this government point to a majority culture to which all others must conform? To be fair, the goal of a 'common society' isn't unique to Quebec. Setting aside questions of language, what the CAQ touts as 'Quebec values' are pretty much the same across Canada: respect for human rights, gender equality and adherence to the law. So while immigrants might be expected to retain markers of their culture, there's an equal expectation that they try to integrate and participate fully in Canadian society. In the end, immigrants' behaviour won't be dictated by some federal model of multiculturalism — and neither will it be defined by the CAQ's attempts to assimilate or remove elements of other cultures and languages. Maybe this government lacks a basic understanding of human psychology and behaviour. The overwhelming majority of immigrants — regardless of where they come from — work hard to integrate. But it's only natural that they also might continue to value and safeguard their mother tongue, culture and traditions. Just like a francophone Quebecer would if they were to emigrate elsewhere. You wouldn't amputate fundamental parts of who you are the minute you cross a border; to expect others to do so is not only absurd, it's also unworkable. Sure, the CAQ can make good on vaguely worded threats to withhold funding from cultural events that fall short of what the Quebec government deems such events should look like. But that won't stop newcomers with a plurality of identities from including other languages, cultures and traditions in their evolving version of what it means to be a Quebecer. A recent headline on the satire site The Beaverton says it all: 'Quebec passes bill requiring immigrants to not be different.' You know it's bad when satire starts to look like reality.
Epoch Times
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
You Don't Belong: Quebec's Exclusionary ‘Citizenship' Agenda
Commentary The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) first won a majority government based partly on its promise not to hold another referendum on Quebec independence. But it has been engaging in nation-building all the same, using law-craft to steadily implement a monolithic concept of what it means to be a Quebecer—one that insists on the absolute primacy of the French language and is both anti-religious and exclusionary at its core. It promises to do enormous damage to anyone who doesn't meet the CAQ's strict definition. Avenir means 'future' and the future of Quebec, as envisioned by Premier François Legault and his government, rests upon three pillars: language, laïcité—that is, secularism—and a common national identity that rests upon those first two. Quebec's latest effort to defend its distinct identity is Bill 84, An Act Respecting National Integration, tabled by the province's Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge in January. The proposed law Bill 84 has come after two controversial CAQ-sponsored laws that address the pillars of language and laïcité: Bill 21, An Act Respecting the Laicity of the State, the so-called 'secularism' law, was passed in 2019 and, three years later, a massive amendment to the Charter of the French Language, Bill 96, was adopted. Both laws invoke the 'notwithstanding' clause in section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to protect the legislation—and the Quebec nation as conceived by the current provincial government—from judicial review. Related Stories 4/24/2025 4/23/2025 Bill 21 bars public-sector workers, including teachers, from wearing any religious symbols at work. It has been challenged on multiple grounds in the provincial courts and in January, the Supreme Court of Canada agreed to hear an appeal despite the invocation of the notwithstanding clause. Arguments are likely to be scheduled sometime within the year. The watchword of all secularism projects is 'neutrality,' but Quebec secularism in its current form is not neutral. Rather, it is biased against religious institutions and people of faith. This essentially atheistic, socially progressive (i.e., left-wing) laïcité is not only the province's new modus operandi but is being placed at the centre of the proposed 'common culture' that all Quebecers must adopt to merit social inclusion. As Bill 84 puts it: 'The common culture to which all are called upon to adhere and to contribute, is characterized in particular by the French language, the civil law tradition, specific institutions, distinct social values, a specific history, and the importance given to equality between women and men, to the laicity of the State and to the protection of Québec's only official and common language.' The 'distinct social values' to which the bill refers are not elaborated but were perhaps best articulated by former Parti Québécois leader Jean-François Lisée. In a 2021 article in Le Devoir, Lisée went further, connecting secularism to a broader progressive agenda, one that would allow Quebecers to achieve 'independence from religion' and implement left-wing policies on 'abortion, gay marriage, end-of-life issues' and others. The CAQ government has taken the tack that Lisée suggests, implementing a form of secularism that is not a simple separation of church and state but entails the removal of people of faith from civic participation and the conflation of a purported secularism with the leftist social values favoured by the Quebec state. In 2023, to take just one example, an evangelical Christian organization planning a 'Faith Fire Freedom Rally' learned its contract with the intended venue, Centre des Congrés du Québec, a facility owned by the Quebec government, had been The government's stated rationale was the church group's opposition to abortion (even though rally organizers such as Pastor Art Lucier had said the event would not be about abortion at all, but 'about reconciliation, worship and fellowship'). No matter. As Legault stated bluntly: 'We're not going to allow anti-abortion groups to put on big shows in public places.' And Legault meant it, as subsequent government actions demonstrated. Then in October 2024, Legault told reporters he had instructed his team to look for ways to ban praying in public—and had not ruled out use of the notwithstanding clause to achieve that goal, too. In March, Roberge announced a new government committee to investigate how to further strengthen secularism in the province, repeating the idea of banning public prayer and adding that the new committee would also 'document the phenomenon of infiltration of religious influences.' The federal election has provided a glimpse into yet another possible expansion of Quebec's brand of secularism. Whereas in the 2019 election, Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet said that Bill 21 was a provincial matter that should not be part of the national conversation, now Blanchet says its ban on religious symbols should be extended to federal workers in the province. 'We've reached the point where we must defend, promote and put forward the value of the separation of church and state as two things that are not only different but fundamentally incompatible,' said Blanchet. The new Quebec values of an atheistic, hardline secularism and a national project and definition of Quebec citizenship founded on a difficult-to-access, narrowly-defined common culture will have the inevitable effect of placing further distance between the 'two solitudes' of Canada. Anna Farrow is a Montreal-based journalist for The Catholic Register. The original, Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Alabama bills aim to allow ALFA to offer health plans to farmers
ALABAMA (WHNT) — Two Alabama bills aim to allow farmers the ability to get their health insurance directly through nonprofit agricultural organizations like ALFA. Alabama lawmakers are considering Senate Bill 84 and House Bill 477. If passed, they would expand health insurance options for farmers across the state. Sink or save? Group starts petition to fight against SS United States from becoming artificial reef State Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur) said he introduced SB84 in February. Many farmers like Marshall County's Hunter Tolleson have voiced their support for the bill on social media. Tolleson runs Grown by Grace Farms and said since he and his wife both work on the farm, her having to get another job for insurance puts a strain on labor. 'My wife does a lot more on the farm than you would imagine, being that it's just me and her, I do a lot of the manual labor but hey she can keep right up with me but like I said she works off the farm, saves our tail though,' Tolleson said. If the couple were able to get insurance through the farm, Tolleson said it would change their dynamics. 'At first she would still need to work a little bit, just for you know saving up money for farm improvements,' Tolleson said. 'But, in the future, she could possibly come home but without that kind of health insurance you know it wouldn't be an option at all.' Both bills have a ways to go on their respective sides of the Alabama legislature before they could head to Governor Ivey's desk to be signed into law. Tolleson said if this bill were to pass, it could change the future of farms in Alabama. 'You're going to have a lot more farms, a lot more local farms especially expanding, have the ability to expand honestly,' Tolleson said. 'Right now, it's just not possible and if you want to eat you know farmers are your ticket to eat.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
