Charter of the French Language

The Charter of the French Language (French: La charte de la langue française), also known in English as Bill 101 or Law 101 (French: Loi 101), is a law in the province of Quebec in Canada defining French, the language of the majority of the population, as the official language of the provincial government. It is the central legislative piece in Quebec's language policy, and one of the three statutory documents Quebec society bases its cohesion upon, along with the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms and the Civil Code of Quebec. The Charter also protects the Indigenous languages of Quebec.^[1]

Proposed by Camille Laurin, the Minister of Cultural Development under the first Parti Québécois government of Premier René Lévesque, it was passed by the National Assembly and received royal assent on August 26, 1977. The Charter's provisions expanded upon the 1974 Official Language Act (Bill 22), which was enacted during the tenure of Premier Robert Bourassa's Liberal government to make French the official language of Quebec. Prior to 1974, Quebec had no official language,^[2] and was subject only to the requirements on the use of English and French contained in Article 133 of the British North America Act, 1867.^[3] The Charter has been amended more than six times since 1977. Each amendment has been controversial in Quebec.^[4] The amendments of 2022 (also covered in this article) were passed via the Act respecting French, the Official and Common Language of Quebec, and commonly known as Bill 96.^[5]