Rally against Bill 103 draws 3,000

MONTREAL – A rally to denounce proposed changes to Quebec’s language law drew 3,000 people at the Pierre Charbonneau arena, according to organizers.

Mario Beaulieu, head of the Société St. Jean Baptiste, opened the rally by warning Jean Charest’s Liberal government that "our language has no price. Bill 101 is not for sale."

The protesters are opposed to Bill 103, now being studied in committee, which would allow immigrant parents who enrol their children in private, non-subsidized English schools for three years to transfer them to English public or government-subsidized private schools.

A committee of civil servants would have to approve each request.

The previous law, struck down by the Supreme Court of Canada, eliminated a long-standing loophole that allowed parents to enrol their children in English public schools after spending only one year at an unsubsidized English private school.

Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe said he would support full application of language law restrictions to all Quebec schools, with no exceptions for private schools that receive no state support. This would mean that only those with at least one parent or sibling who received their education in English in Canada would have the right to attend elementary and high schools in English.

"We never expected that people would use the exceptions in the way that they have to get aroudn the law, which is what happened," he told reporters. We have to straighten things out … we have to protect our language," Duceppe said.

The rally was sponsored by a 35-group coalition, including major unions, the Commission scolaire de Montréal – Quebec’s largest school board – political parties, and separatist and cultural groups that want the legislation scrapped.

It was billed as the start of "a vast mobilization for French" across Quebec.

Organizers said it would be the most important rally since the June 1993 protest against Bill 86, which allowed the use of English on some commercial signs. At that time the same nationalist coalition only managed to half-fill the 6,000-capacity Maurice Richard Arena.

When a sports event is on, the much smaller Centre Pierre Charbonneau, part of the same arena complex, can hold 2,700 spectators.