What were the major political developments in Quebec during this period governed by
René Lévesque (PQ) 1980-1985; Robert Bourassa (Lib.) 1985-1994; Jacques Parizeau (PQ) 1994-1995 andLucien Bouchard (PQ) 1995-present?
 
v The Constitutional Question
  • The repatriation of Canada's constitution and the signing of the Constitution Act in 1982 without the ratification of the government of Quebec
The Language Debate 

Bill 178
In 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada declared that unilingual French signs, as stipulated in Bill 101, were unconstitutional. To counter this, Premier Bourassa 
uses the notwithstanding clause, found in the 1982 Constitution, allowing him to
ignore the ruling and introduce Bill 178. The law maintained

  • French-only exterior signs and 
  • provided for bilingual indoor signs so long as French predominated. 
Five years later, in 1993, the provincial government replaces Bill 178 with Bill 86.
 

Bill 86
The Bill amended Section 58 of Bill 101 to allow for 

  • bilingual exterior signs so long as French predominated. 
In October 1999, a Quebec court ruling struck down Section 58 of the French Language Charter, Bill 101, that says French must be predominant on commercial signs. The Court stated that the Quebec government must now re-prove in a court of law the continuing fragility of French in order to justify continuing restrictions on the use of languages other than French on signs.The provincial government has said it will appeal the ruling.

RETURN TO MODULE 7 UNIT 5 AND DO TOPIC 2 (ECONOMIC DOMAIN)