{"id":730999,"date":"2026-06-12T01:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T01:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/730999\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T01:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T01:58:09","slug":"a-chorus-of-cheers-as-caq-abandons-bill-to-create-quebec-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/730999\/","title":{"rendered":"A chorus of cheers as CAQ abandons bill to create Quebec constitution"},"content":{"rendered":"

QUEBEC \u2014\u00a0Human rights organizations, unions, minority groups and opposition politicians cheered the news on Thursday that the Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec government is abandoning its attempt to create\u00a0a\u00a0Quebec constitution<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cVictory,\u201d Qu\u00e9bec solidaire MNA Haroun Bouazzi told reporters. \u201cWe are celebrating an important moment for the Quebec nation. The constitutional project of (Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette) has finally fallen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are obviously very pleased that the substantial and broadly based opposition to this bill has brought about its demise,\u201d added Eva Ludvig, president of the anglophone community lobby group TALQ.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was never a legitimate constitution, from a flawed process at the outset to restrictions of rights it sought to impose, to its initial refusal to acknowledge the 1.3-million-member English-speaking community as an integral part of Quebec.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bill was part of a divisive government agenda that includes Bill 96, 21 and 84, among others,\u201d Ludvig added, citing the CAQ government\u2019s legislation on language, secularism and integration of immigrants, respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe abandoning of Bill 1 is a major victory for the rule of law and human rights,\u201d the Ligue des droits et libert\u00e9s said of the legislation that would have created the Quebec constitution, repeating its view that the plan was \u201cvoid of legitimacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Presented last October by Jolin-Barrette as part of a plan to breathe life into a sagging CAQ government, Bill 1 was mired in controversy\u00a0from the get-go.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of groups called for the bill to be dropped, accusing the\u00a0minister of failing to consult<\/a>. The three main opposition parties \u2014 the Liberals, Qu\u00e9bec solidaire and the Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois \u2014 were opposed to the bill and the way it was cobbled together near the end of the CAQ\u2019s mandate.<\/p>\n

In an unusual move, the opposition parties voted against it at first reading.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, with the bill mired\u00a0in the committee stage and with only one day of parliament left before the summer recess,\u00a0Jolin-Barrette called in the media to say\u00a0it would not go forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have unfortunately arrived at a rupture point when it comes to Bill 1,\u201d he said. \u201cBill 1, the Quebec Constitution Act, 2025, will not be adopted. With the time remaining in the session, we would have needed the consent of the opposition to proceed with the adoption of the bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked for this several times, but the opposition parties have always refused.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill will die on the order paper when the legislature recesses\u00a0Friday. Quebec will then be plunged into the fall election campaign.<\/p>\n

Jolin-Barrette\u00a0blasted the opposition parties for their systematic obstruction of the constitution project.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it wasn\u2019t for the lack of time and partisanship politics linked to the end of the session, this bill would have been adopted because there was nothing in the text \u2014 absolutely nothing in the text \u2014 that posed\u00a0a problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Asked why the government didn\u2019t force the bill into law using the rules of closure to suspend the normal adoption process, Jolin-Barrette said: \u201cWe are in an end-of-session situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Premier Christine Fr\u00e9chette also ruled out using closure on Bill 1 when she was campaigning for the CAQ leadership.<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n

Jolin-Barrette had said a Quebec constitution would become the \u201claw of laws,\u201d\u00a0and argued Thursday that the many hours consumed by the bill (the committee studying the legislation heard from more than 300 groups) were not a waste.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I was handling constitutional issues, we were not even talking about them (in Quebec),\u201d he said. \u201cIt was the status quo. For many years, we experienced a constitutional winter in Quebec.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jolin-Barrette\u00a0tried\u00a0several times to breathe\u00a0life into the bill, including presenting a series of amendments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In February, he dropped a controversial article obliging the state to defend the rights of women to abortion, after pro-choice groups warned the clause could be challenged in court and thus reopen the abortion debate.<\/p>\n

In April, bowing\u00a0to pressure from anglophone critics, Jolin-Barrette announced more amendments, including one recognizing the English-speaking community\u2019s rights.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He dropped another that would have barred public bodies like the English Montreal School Board from using public funds to fight Quebec laws.<\/p>\n

It was not enough to rally groups or the opposition parties that, fully aware time was running out in the session, stalled and obstructed the bill.<\/p>\n

As of Wednesday, the committee examining the bill clause by clause had approved only 15 of the 51 clauses.<\/p>\n

Andr\u00e9 Morin, the Liberal member of the committee examining Bill 1, noted the legislation was in trouble from the start.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe minister is responsible for his failure,\u201d Morin told reporters, noting a committee of experts had recommended a vast consultation process before the government presented its bill.<\/p>\n

That never happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was thus a deficit of legitimacy from the start,\u201d Morin said. \u201cNeed I remind you that a founding document like a constitution requires the participation of citizens? Don\u2019t forget a constitution belongs to the people, including the First Nations and Innu.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that the Liberals are in favour of a Quebec constitution, \u201cbut not created in the way the minister proceeded.\u201d<\/p>\n

pauthier@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n

The Gazette\u2019s On Quebec Politics newsletter by Andy Riga breaks down key election issues, from polling shifts to legislative manoeuvring to ideas circulating in francophone commentary that don\u2019t make it into English-language coverage.<\/p>\n

To sign up,\u00a0visit this page<\/a>\u00a0and check the box labelled \u201cOn Quebec Politics\u201d before providing your email address.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"QUEBEC \u2014\u00a0Human rights organizations, unions, minority groups and opposition politicians cheered the news on Thursday that the Coalition…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,218342,295,16622,66],"class_list":["post-730999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-coalition-avenir-quebec-caq","tag-environment","tag-quebec-politics","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730999","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=730999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}