MONTREAL – There are warnings from Quebec’s legal community that the government’s strict legislation aimed at ending the student crisis goes too far.
One law professor even compared the controversial Bill 78 to the now-defunct War Measures Act.
The emergency legislation lays out stern regulations governing demonstrations and contains provisions for heavy fines for students and their federations.
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Professor Lucie Lemonde of Universite du Quebec a Montreal says it’s the strictest law of its kind she’s seen since the notorious War Measures Act, imposed in Quebec during the 1970 FLQ crisis.
Lemonde says it attacks an individual’s rights to freedom of expression, association and conscience.
The head of the provincial bar association also says the bill violates constitutional rights. However, there are some grumblings from within the group that some Quebec lawyers are not quite that opposed to the law.
The head of Montreal’s board of trade says he welcomes the bill as a way to calm daily student demonstrations that have hurt businesses in the city.
Members of Quebec’s national assembly began debating the bill last night, and will continue until tonight’s expected vote.
Bill 78 is expected to pass because the governing Liberals hold a slim majority in the provincial legislature.
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