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Document No. 94
6-2-69

CONSTITUTIONAL CONFERENCE
SUB-COMMITTEE ON
OFFICIAL LANGUAGES

Note from Secretariat

Attached is Bill 85 of the
Legislative Assembly of
Quebec which may be of
special interest to the
members of the Sub-Committee.

Third Session, Twenty-Eighth Legislature

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF QUEBEC

BILL 85

An Act to amend the Education Department Act, the Superior Council of Education
Act and the Education Act

First reading

EXPLANATORY NOTES

The object of this bill is to specify the
role of the French language in the field of
education in the Province of Quebec. It
entrusts the Minister of Education with
new responsibilities respecting the steps to
be taken to ensure that persons who settle in
Quebec and their children, and also persons
who attend English-language public educa-
tional institutions there, may have a working
knowledge of the French language. It also
provides for the establishment, by a com-
mittee of the Superior Council of Education
constituted by the bill under the name of
the “Linguistic Committee”, of regulations
whereby the Minister will recognize public
educational institutions as being English-
language or French-language institutions.

Section 1 makes the Minister of Educa-
tion responsible for taking, in co-operation
with the Minister of Immigration, the
measures necessary to ensure that persons
settling in the Province of Quebec may
acquire, upon arrival, a working knowledge
of the French language and cause their
children to be taught in schools recognized
by the Minister as being French-language
institutions.

Sections 2 to 7 establish the Linguistic
Committee of the Superior Council of
Education. This committee, like the other
committees of the Council, will be composed
of 15 membres, ten of them French-speaking
and five English-speaking. The members
will be appointed by the Government on the
recommendation of the Council, which will
first have consulted the associations or
organizations most representative of the
educators and of the parents of the French
and English linguistic groups of the Province
of Quebec.

Section 8 defines the powers of the
Linguistic Committee its functions will be:

(a) to make regulations under which the
Minister of Education will recognize the
public educational institutions as being
French-language or English-language insti-
tutions;

(b) to make regulations governing the
curricula and examinations for all subjects
in the institutions recognized as being
English-language institutions, in such a
manner as to ensure a working knowledge
of the French-language to persons who
attend such institutions;

(c) to make to the Council or the Minister
recommendations, particularly as to the
qualifications, from a linguistic point of
view, of the administrative staff and the
teaching staff of all public educational
institutions.

The regulations of the Committee must
be approved by the Government, laid before
the Legislature forthwith and published in
the Quebec Official Gazette.

Section 9 is a concordance provision.

Section 10 adds to the duties of school
commissioners and trustees under the Edu-
cation Act those of taking the measures
necessary to ensure that the courses of
study that they are required to give from
the first to the eleventh year are no longer
merely those adopted or recognized for
Catholic or Protestant public schools, but
also those adopted or recognized for English-
language or French-language schools. Such
courses will be given to all children domi-
ciled in the territory under their jurisdiction
if they are deemed capable of following
such courses and if their parents or the
persons acting in their stead are desirous
of enrolling them therein.

The commissioners must also ensure
that the courses given in their schools
comply with the regulations made or ap-
proved not only for Catholic or Protestant,
but also for French-language or English-
language schools.

Any resolution which derogates from
the duties so imposed on the commissioners
or trustees may be annulled by the Minister
at the request of any interested party,
after consulting the Linguistic Committee
of the Superior Council of Education
which will have 90 days to give its advice.