Impératif français prepares for public hearings in parliamentary committee of the Standing Committee on Official Languages

Impératif français prepares for public hearings in parliamentary committee of the Standing Committee on Official Languages

Impératif français wishes to participate in the public hearings in parliamentary committee of the Standing Committee on Official Languages at the House of Commons in Ottawa to study the measures that the federal government could take for the protection and enhancement of the French language in Quebec and elsewhere in the country.

In a document entitled “EXCEEDING THE EQUALITY OF THE FACADE OF SYMMETRIC BILINGUALISM”, the organization located in the Outaouais presents three main proposals for the specific protection of French in Quebec.

The president of Impératif français, Jean-Paul Perreault, as well as Me François Côté, lawyer expert in linguistic law and constitutional law hope to present their arguments.

“A major part of this situation is attributable to federal language policies treating French and English without distinction as equals, optional and alternative, on a symmetrical footing of equality in their fields of competence. However, in the North American geopolitical context, such symmetrical equality between French and English is nothing more than equality between the clay pot and the iron pot, “said Jean-Paul Perreault.

The three main propositions of French Imperative
1 – Extend the Charter of the French language to businesses under federal jurisdiction;

2 – Amend the Official Languages Act to grant special protection to the French language within the federal public service; and

3 – Open a bilateral constitutional amendment procedure to restore the status of French as the official language of legislation in Quebec

The document proposed by French Imperative is available here.