Carney says Liberal government would intervene if Quebec language law challenged at Supreme Court

Federal Liberal leader Mark Carney said his government would intervene should Quebec's language law reach the Supreme Court of Canada.

Liberal leader Mark Carney said on Friday that his government would intervene in any Canadian Supreme Court challenge to Quebec’s language law, commonly known as Bill 96.

• Read the latest: Carney, Poilievre, and Singh weigh in on challenging Quebec language law at Supreme Court

“The Liberal party is the party of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and we will always defend the Charter,” he said at a campaign stop at the Port of Montreal on Friday.

“I’ve made clear that we will support the intervention at the Supreme Court and fully respect the language rights.”

• READ MORE: Will Carney’s French flubs matter to Quebec voters?

On Sunday, a spokesperson for the Liberal campaign provided additional context to Carney’s comments, telling CTV News that his government would intervene because it does not agree with the Quebec government’s preemptive use of the notwithstanding clause in Bill 96.

Bill 96, which was adopted in 2022, introduced sweeping reforms to Quebec’s language law, touching everything from health and education to business signage and services for newcomers. It also limits the use of English in courts and some public services, and caps enrollment at English-language CEGEPs.

The law has sparked concern and confusion among minority language groups in the province and is being challenged in the lower courts in Quebec.

A group of private citizens challenging Quebec’s Bill 96 has called on the federal government to intervene.

Former prime minister Justin Trudeau did not say that he would intervene on Bill 96, though the federal government is intervening on the legal challenge of Quebec’s secularism law, Bill 21, at Canada’s top court.

There were criticisms, even within the Liberal ranks, that the federal Bill C-13, which amended the Official Languages Act, eroded some English-speaking Quebecers’ rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

While Carney said he believes Ottawa should intervene in a new challenge to Bill 96, he was keen to point out that he “recognizes the need to promote, strengthen and support the French language in Quebec.”

Carney also reacted to Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s promise to defund the CBC on Friday, suggesting that doing so would hurt the French-language side of the public broadcaster, Radio-Canada.

“Let me say as well that I understand the importance of reenforcing, promoting, supporting the French language in Quebec and there are many ways we are doing that and it includes being fully committed to not just a viable but a vibrant Radio-Canada which is only possible with reforms,” said Carney.

Carney said that Poilievre’s plan would destroy Radio-Canada in addition to the English CBC.

“The fantasy of Pierre Poilievre that he can divide the baby,” he said. “He is not Solomon. Radio-Canada will not survive under his plan.”

Political reaction to Bill 96 comments

Some Quebec politicians were not happy with Carney’s comments about a possible legal challenge of Bill 96 at the Supreme Court.

Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet weighed in, writing in a post on X: “Is Mr. Trump’s threat becoming a pretext to weaken Quebec’s identity in the name of a Toronto leader’s Canadian multiculturalism?”

“We need to look at Mark Carney with a more wary eye.”

Meanwhile, Jean-Denis Garon, the Bloc MP for Mirabel, said his party would “stand in his way.”

“Because we choose Quebec.”

At the provincial level, Quebec Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette, who sponsored Bill 96 at the National Assembly, said on X that “once again” the Liberal government is “attacking our language, our values and our identity” by threatening to intervene in a possible legal challenge of the law.

He said he will stand up for Quebecers “until the bitter end.”

With files from The Canadian Press