Charter of the French Language

The Charter of the French Language (French: La charte de la langue française), also known as Bill 101 (French: Loi 101), is a law in the Canadian 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 piece of legislation that forms Quebec's language policy and one of the three principle statutes upon which the cohesion of Quebec's society is based, 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]

First tabled 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 of which has been met with controversy in Quebec.^[4] Most recently, in 2022, the Charter was amended (also covered in this article) by the adoption of the Act respecting French, the Official and Common Language of Quebec, commonly known as Bill 96.^[5]