PQ denounces Liberals’ Milliard for wavering on notwithstanding clause

Quebec Liberal Leader Charles Milliard’s shifting statements on Bill 96 have landed him in the crosshairs of the Parti Québécois, which said Sunday that he had demonstrated an inability to protect the French language.

On Friday, Milliard partially walked back a commitment he made Thursday, when he had told reporters he would renew the notwithstanding clause to shield Bill 96 — the Coalition Avenir Québec’s sweeping language law — from constitutional scrutiny.

His initial comments sparked swift backlash from Quebec’s English-speaking community, as well as MNAs within Milliard’s caucus, leading the Liberal leader to say Friday he would only maintain the notwithstanding clause if necessary.

“The protection of French only lasted 24 hours in Charles Milliard’s Quebec Liberal Party,” the PQ said in a statement on Sunday.

The episode showed “there will be no change” in the Liberal party’s approach to the protection of French under Milliard, PQ French language critic Pascal Bérubé said in the statement.

On language, Milliard “will be reduced to a mere spokesperson for anglophone MNAs,” Bérubé said.

Attempting to contrast its language policies with the Liberals’, the PQ reiterated its pledge to expand the Charter of the French Language’s application to CEGEPs and to promote Quebec content on major digital platforms.

Milliard, for his part, has said that a Liberal government would protect both the French language and minority rights in Quebec.

“The protection of French is important to the Liberal party,” he told reporters Friday. “Contrary to the CAQ, I will do it protecting the traditional rights of the communities.”

Milliard has said he would modify but maintain Bill 96.

If elected in October, he says a Liberal government would reduce the language law’s burden on small and medium-size businesses and drop a clause requiring immigrants who have been in Quebec for six months to receive services in French.

On Friday, Milliard said he would only keep the notwithstanding clause on Bill 96 if necessary to preserve the modified legislation.

The notwithstanding clause, which allows legislation to circumvent certain protections under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, requires renewal every five years. For Bill 96, the five-year period expires in 2027, meaning a future government will determine whether to renew the clause.

Quebec voters are scheduled to go to the polls on Oct. 5 to elect the next government.

With files from The Gazette’s Philip Authier.

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Jack Wilson

I've reported for The Gazette since 2024. I love covering a good politics story, but any day I tell Montrealers something new about the world around them feels like a good one. Got a tip for me? Email me at [email protected]

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