In Quebec, Bill 101 succeeded in its intended goal of preserving the French language in a province dominated by English workplaces. The bill gave underprivileged French-Quebeckers the opportunity to regain their socio-economic foothold by making theirs the official language of business and protecting an essential part of their identity: French. PQ leader Pauline Marois has claimed her proposed Charter of Quebec Values aims at a similar goal. By banning public sector workers from donning conspicuous religious symbols, Quebec’s secular society would be prevented from relapsing into a religiously-dominated state, ensuring equality for all citizens.

Instead, it is widely held that this proposed charter is simply a distraction from the party’s continued failure to drive down dismal unemployment rates or make a dent in the massive debt and political corruption crippling the province. As a move that would reportedly be popular with over two-thirds of the population (as ideological legislation claiming to protect Quebec’s identity usually is), most see it as nothing more than a play for Francophone votes.

Yet Marois continues to suggest that the Charter is just as essential to the Franco-Quebecker cause as Bill 101, and should be accepted as such. Looking at the impact Bill 101 had on Quebec, it is possible to predict what might become of La Belle Province should this Charter become legislation.

If Bill 101 caused the flight of wealthy, educated non-Francophone professionals from the province at the prospect of being forced to conduct business in French, we should expect a similar brain drain of public sector workers seeking asylum in provinces more accepting of their religious practices. New immigrants would likely bypass the province altogether for the same reason, a bleak reality for a province already saddled with a stagnating, aging population.

The children of non-Francophones who remained in Quebec following Bill 101 were funneled through bilingual school systems, adding another language to their mother tongues to emerge multilingual upon graduation. Conversely, Francophone children were able to complete their elementary and secondary school educations without having to know any language but French. Come the inevitable job search, many Francophones suffered the same fate as their underprivileged parents, unable to compete in a labour market flooded with individuals whose multilingualism was prized over their own unilingualism. Bill 101 essentially bred into a generation a lack of language capacity, hindering their success both within, and certainly outside of, the province.

The generations to follow the passing of any Quebec Charter of Values would face the same challenges as unilingual Francophones. Children raised under its legislation would be unprepared to function within any society outside of Quebec’s religiously-repressed anomaly. Quebec’s children would be raised to view religion as a societal threat to equality, rather than an enriching component of a culture’s identity. Just as the Francophone majority imposed its language laws over the Anglophone minority with Bill 101, this charter is now seeking similar oppression of religious minorities.

The PQ should look to its own history as it prepares to fight for this illegal legislation that infringes upon the rights of expression of thousands of its citizens. Should it pass, this regressive charter would not prepare Quebec’s current and future citizens for participation in the globalized and multicultural world we live in today.

This article appeared in an edited version in The Varsity here.