{"id":543921,"date":"2026-03-18T05:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T05:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/543921\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T05:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T05:56:10","slug":"hundreds-of-groups-urge-quebec-government-to-scrap-controversial-constitution-montreal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/543921\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of groups urge Quebec government to scrap controversial constitution &#8211; Montreal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a show of solidarity, a handful of Quebec community groups, unions and organizations gathered in Quebec City Tuesday, united in their opposition to Quebec\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11559094\/consultations-controversial-quebec-constitution-bill\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">proposed constitution<\/a>, known as Bill 1.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are up to 800 different organizations that are asking the CAQ government to just pull out of this constitution,\u201d said Caroline Senneville, CSN president. \u201cIt\u2019s been flawed from the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The CAQ\u2019s constitution is intended to protect Quebec\u2019s distinct identity and culture while boosting the province\u2019s autonomy within Canada.<\/p>\n<p>It outlines a set of \u201cfounding principles,\u201d including secularism, equality between men and women and the status of French as the only common language of Quebec.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767930311_275_national.jpg\" alt=\"Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won't miss a trending story.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n<p>Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won&#8217;t miss a trending story.<\/p>\n<p>But some organizations say such a bill needs consultations \u2014 and they came too late to make a real difference.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA constitution is supposed to rally up the population behind a really important project, and this is obviously not what it\u2019s doing. It\u2019s putting division in the society,\u201d Senneville\u00a0said.<\/p>\n<p>Political opposition is also weighing in.<\/p>\n<p>Quebec Liberal Leader Charles Milliard says it\u2019s time the government abandons the bill.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt needs to be bipartisan, it needs to be with the aim of pleasing to all Quebecers,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is not the case right now. And with the timing of the upcoming election, timing is not good for such a constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore on Canada<br \/>\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, minority groups say they\u2019re especially concerned about how the bill could limit their ability to defend their rights.<\/p>\n<p>TALQ warns the proposed constitution could restrict publicly funded institutions, including school boards, from using government funding to challenge Quebec laws in court.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is really a combination \u2014 it rolls in all the bills \u2014 whether it be Bill 21, Bill 40, Bill 96, Bill 84, a whole list of bills, which has marginalized the English-speaking community in particular, but other minorities as well,\u201d said Eva Ludvig, TALQ president.<\/p>\n<p>The organizations say they\u2019re not asking the government to change the bill but demanding a complete withdrawal.<\/p>\n<p>Global News asked Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barette for his response on his way into question period on Tuesday but he declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a show of solidarity, a handful of Quebec community groups, unions and organizations gathered in Quebec City&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[212170,49,48,295,99750,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-543921","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-bill-1","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-quebec-constitution","13":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}