Fréchette Renews the Notwithstanding Clause on Bill 96 as Legislature Returns

Quebec Premier Christine Fréchette opened the National Assembly's spring session this week with a bill that renews the use of Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the notwithstanding clause, on Bill 96, the province's language law. The renewal extends, for another five-year cycle, the legal shield that prevents Charter-based challenges to most of the law's contentious provisions and sets the political tone for the months between now and the October election.

What the renewal does

The notwithstanding clause allows a federal or provincial legislature to declare that a law operates notwithstanding certain Charter rights, in particular the fundamental freedoms in section 2 and the legal rights in sections 7 to 15. The declaration must be renewed every five years. The original notwithstanding declaration on Bill 96 was passed when the law was adopted in 2022 and is approaching the renewal point.

The Fréchette government's bill renews the declaration without modification. That means the contested elements of Bill 96 remain shielded from Charter challenge for another five-year window. The substantive provisions of the law, including limits on the use of English in courts and in government services, language requirements in workplaces, and provisions that affect non-Francophone Quebecers, continue to operate.

Why the new premier moved early

Fréchette took the leadership of the CAQ last month after defeating Bernard Drainville. She has spent her first weeks meeting Prime Minister Mark Carney in Ottawa and United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in Washington, pursuing the kind of profile-building that a new premier needs before voters return to the polls. The renewal of the notwithstanding clause is the first significant legislative move of her tenure, and the political message is intentional.

By re-shielding Bill 96 immediately, the new premier ties herself to the CAQ's identity-protection brand. The party has, since its founding, used cultural and linguistic continuity as a unifying frame across its ideologically eclectic coalition. The renewal is a way of signalling that the CAQ under Fréchette will continue that brand without modification.

The opposition response

The Parti Québécois, currently leading in some public opinion measurements, has welcomed the renewal in principle while criticising the Fréchette government's broader handling of language and identity files. PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon has argued that the CAQ's commitment to Quebec's distinctness has been rhetorical rather than substantive. The PQ's preferred ground for the next election is on broader questions of national project, of which language law is one piece.

The Quebec Liberal Party has, predictably, opposed the renewal. The Liberals' position is that the use of the notwithstanding clause as a routine instrument of provincial governance erodes the constitutional architecture and that Bill 96's most contested provisions, particularly those that affect access to government services in English, deserve to be tested against the Charter on their merits.

Québec solidaire has been more nuanced, calling for changes to specific Bill 96 provisions while acknowledging the political legitimacy of the broader law. The party's approach reflects its base in younger urban voters who may be uneasy with some elements of Bill 96 but who do not generally support repealing it.

The federal angle

The federal government has avoided detailed comment on the renewal. Prime Minister Carney's office has noted that the use of the notwithstanding clause is a constitutional power available to provinces and to the federal government, that the federal government has its own positions on language policy, and that the relationship between Ottawa and Quebec on language files will be managed through the regular intergovernmental channels.

That careful posture reflects the new political reality. With Carney leading a federal Liberal majority, the CAQ provincial government is one of the more independent voices on the constitutional file. Open conflict between Ottawa and Quebec City on Bill 96 would not serve either capital's interests in the broader USMCA review and trade response, which both governments are privately treating as the more urgent file.

Affected communities

The renewal affects, most directly, the English-speaking minority in Quebec and the broader population of allophone Quebecers whose first language is neither French nor English. English-language community organisations have called the renewal a continuation of policy that has, in their view, produced measurable harms in access to courts, to professional regulation, and to government services.

The Office québécois de la langue française continues to administer the law's enforcement mechanisms. Reports from various sectors over the past several years have produced a complicated picture, with measurable use of French in workplaces increasing in some areas and tensions in cross-cultural workplaces persisting in others. The renewal does not change the law itself, only the legal architecture under which it operates.

Indigenous concerns

Indigenous nations in Quebec have, for years, raised the point that French is not the first language for most Indigenous communities and that the law's universal application within Quebec creates friction in services where Indigenous languages and English have historically been the working tongue. The renewal does not address those concerns. Indigenous leaders have signalled that they will continue to engage the provincial government on the specific accommodations they consider necessary.

What the courts have said

The notwithstanding clause limits, but does not eliminate, the court's role. Some Bill 96 provisions, particularly those that touch on minority language education rights or on certain federal jurisdictional questions, can still be tested through specific legal mechanisms outside the notwithstanding shield. Litigation on those margins continues. The renewal does not change the analysis applicable to those particular cases.

The Supreme Court of Canada has, in past rulings, upheld the constitutionality of the notwithstanding clause itself. Whether the routine use of the clause to insulate broad legislative packages from Charter review will, at some point, draw a different judicial response is one of the interesting open questions of Canadian constitutional law. The Fréchette government's renewal of the clause continues a pattern that, in legal terms, has not yet been disturbed.

The October election

The renewal sets up an October election in which language and identity files are likely to feature prominently. The CAQ wants the campaign on this terrain. The PQ wants it on broader national questions. The Liberals want it on economic stewardship and on individual rights. Québec solidaire wants it on housing and inequality. Whose framing dominates the campaign is, in many ways, determined by events rather than by strategy.

For now, the renewal of the notwithstanding clause is the new premier's first political marker. It tells voters who she is, what she will defend, and how she intends to govern. The substance of her remaining months in office will fill in the picture.

What it means for Quebecers

For most Quebecers, the renewal does not change the practical operation of Bill 96. The law continues to operate as it has for the past several years. For the legal community, the renewal extends the period in which Charter-based challenges to most provisions are unavailable. For the political community, it draws the lines on which the next election will be fought.

What's next

The bill renewing the notwithstanding declaration is expected to pass before the summer recess, with the CAQ majority comfortable enough to carry it through the National Assembly without significant procedural complications. Other items on the spring legislative agenda, including the homelessness funding announced earlier in the week and a forthcoming bill on protections for women fearing for their safety, will be debated alongside it.