The controversy over which languages are allowed to be spoken at Longueuil city council meetings continued Monday when a group of people gathered outside city hall to voice their support for Mayor Caroline St-Hilaire.

The debate began when St-Hilaire wrote in a Facebook post that she was irritated by Greenfield Park Councillor Robert Myles’s insistence on speaking in both French at English at council meetings. Greenfield Park is a bilingual borough within the city of Longueuil.

St-Hilaire says she received death threats after posting her opinion on Facebook. But she also has plenty of supporters, including the group that congregated at city hall Monday morning.

The group called on the Quebec government to change Bill 101 in order to forbid English at council meetings. Its members said it is a waste of time for English to be spoken in a municipality where the vast majority of residents understand and speak French, and that they want to see Greenfield Park’s bilingual status revoked.

“Let’s say in Toronto, some city councillor would make long interventions in French and English. Maybe someone would say ‘Well English is the common language,’ and I don’t think he would be [called] an extremist for saying that,” said Mario Beaulieu, president of the Bloc Quebecois.

Myles said he is surprised that things have escalated this far.

"A lot of anglophones or francophones, some of them don't understand the political jargon," he said. "I think it's important that I go back and speak in both langauges to explain what's going on.

"As far as I'm concerned, the French langauge doesn't have a problem," he added. "I'm not breaking the law of the French langauge. I'm always going there speaking French (first)."

Languages Minister Helene David has already said the Liberals won’t touch Bill 101 to ban English from council meetings.

One of Myles’s staffers pointed out Monday that Myles speaks for a total of roughly 18 minutes at council meetings, nine minutes in each language, out of a total of 2.5 to three hours. The argument, therefore, that Myles’s bilingual speeches take up too much time doesn’t make sense, the staffer said.