MONTREAL -- Employers should have to justify why speaking a language other than French is necessary to work a job, the Parti Quebecois suggested on Wednesday in a proposed law.
Their proposed law would modify the charter of the French language. Were it to pass, businesses would have to show that speaking a language other than French was crucial to a job.
People who speak only French shouldn't be excluded from working in Quebec, interim PQ leader Pascal Berube said. "If you work in a shop and you're not in front of people, and you don't have to respond to those people in the front office, and you do a hard job, I don't think you need to speak English," he said.
Premier Francois Legault sounded open to the bill on Wednesday but didn't give it his full support. French-language Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette was already readying an action plan to better defend and promote French, the premier said.
The PQ is waiting to see such a plan, Berube said, noting that he thinks the PQ knows best when it comes to strengthening language laws.
The PQ currently holds nine of the 125 seats in the National Assembly after taking a hit in the 2018 provincial election. The party has traditionally been the defender of French in Quebec and, when in power, has twice driven the province to hold a referendum on the separation of Quebec from Canada.
