Bill 21 Discriminates Against Quebecers: Statement from ELAN

As an organization serving the minority-language community of English-speaking Quebecers, ELAN strongly condemns the implementation of Bill 21 and Justice Michel Yergeau’s decision last week to reject an appeal from civil rights organizations to suspend this law. We support the newest actions of the National Council of Canadian Muslims and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association who now seek to appeal the Quebec Superior Court’s decision.

We therefore join our voices in solidarity with the Canadian and Quebec organizations that have condemned Bill 21, including the Canadian Council of Muslim Women; Fédération des femmes du Québec; Justice Femme; the Public Service Alliance (MUNACA); the Quebec Writers’ Federation; the Council of Canadian Muslims; the Canadian Civil Liberties Association; the Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA); and the municipal governments across Quebec that have declared that they will not enforce Bill 21.

Read the full statement below:

[gview file=”https://www.quebec-elan.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Bill-21-Discriminates-Against-Quebecers-Statement-from-ELAN-4.pdf”]

Land Acknowledgement

ELAN is an official minority language organization within a country that recognizes two languages as official. ELAN is located in Tiohtià:ke, the original name for Montreal in Kanien’kéha, the language of the Mohawk—also known as Mooniyang, which is the Anishinaabeg name given to the city by the Algonquin. While we are based in this city, our projects have also taken place in many regions across Quebec.

We acknowledge the colonial origin of English and French in Canada, and recognize that both languages benefit from official status throughout the land. The province that we know as Quebec is an amalgamation of the traditional territories of the Innu and Inuit nations, Algonquian nations, as well as the Mohawk nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Kanien’kéha and Anishinaabemowin are but two of the original languages of this province; Atikamekw, Cree, Inuktitut, and Innu-aimun are also among the many Indigenous languages spoken across Quebec as majority languages, all well before French and English.

ELAN acknowledges the important work being done by First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples to revive the traditional languages of these territories, and their advocacy for the official status of Indigenous languages.

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Land Acknowledgement