{"id":861021,"date":"2026-09-26T05:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T05:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/861021\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T05:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T05:42:10","slug":"elections-quebec-has-told-employees-not-to-speak-english-does-that-violate-anglos-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/861021\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00c9lections Qu\u00e9bec has told employees not to speak English. Does that violate Anglos’ rights?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u00c9lections Qu\u00e9bec employees have been directed to ask whether a voter has the right to English communication before speaking to them in English during next month’s provincial election.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The agency says the directive is to comply with Quebec\u2019s newest language law, Bill 96, which restricts who can receive communications from the government in English.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their policy \u2014 and government resistance to sending out some bilingual election documents \u2014 has drawn criticism and consternation from Quebec\u2019s anglophone community.<\/p>\n

“The direction to refuse to serve ‘non-historic anglophones,’ and to harass them at polling stations, is disgraceful,” said Andrew Caddell, the president of the Task Force on Linguistic Policy, an anglophone rights group opposed to Bill 96.<\/p>\n

An \u00c9lections Qu\u00e9bec spokesperson told CBC in an email that the policy to question English-speaking voters to determine if they can be addressed in English was not their decision.<\/p>\n

“We are applying what elected officials have decided and written into the charter [of the French language],” the spokesperson said in an email.\u00a0<\/p>\n

WATCH | What to expect at the polling station:\"\"<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what to expect as an anglophone when casting your ballot in Quebec\u2019s election<\/p>\n

\u00c9lections Qu\u00e9bec workers have been directed to ask whether a voter has the right to English communication at the polls before providing them service. The directive is to comply with Quebec\u2019s newest language policy, Bill 96, which restricts who can access government communications in English.<\/p>\n

The \u00c9lections Qu\u00e9bec policy, which was communicated to its employees, directs them to speak to voters in French. If a voter addresses them \u2014 or asks to be addressed \u2014 in English, the policy says the employee must ask them either “Have you been declared eligible to get an education in English?” or “Are you a member of a Native community?”<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said the employees will ask for no further proof if a voter responds in the affirmative. But if they say “no” to both questions, the employee must continue to speak to them in French only \u2014 and can only repeat things in French, slowly, if the person doesn\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n

Caddell said the policy violates Anglo Quebecers\u2019 fundamental rights.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A judge has already determined that \u00c9lections Qu\u00e9bec\u2019s earlier decision to apply Bill 96 by sending out election information documents solely in French constituted a violation of those rights. \u00c9lections Qu\u00e9bec was ordered to send out reminder documents in both official languages.<\/p>\n

But, in another move criticized by Anglo leaders, the government confirmed on Friday that it would contest that decision. The court date for the appeal will be Oct. 5, election day, which means the bilingual documents will still be sent out \u2014 for this election cycle, at least.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said if his party takes power, they would not use their resources to contest the bilingual elections documents decision in court.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To him, it was an example of how the incumbent Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec\u00a0 party, led by Christine Fr\u00e9chette, has failed to meaningfully help French in Quebec, choosing to pass Bill 96 and focus on “red tape and measures that really don\u2019t have an impact.”<\/p>\n

“I don’t think we’ll use resources and time on this one. If the pamphlet is in English, it’s a fundamental right to go and vote, so I don’t see the point,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The civil code is in both languages because it’s a fundamental right. I think it\u2019s the same for voting.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":861022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-861021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=861021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}