Note: The government has tabled Bill 1, the Constitution Act, 2025 on Québec, and invited the public to submit comments. Here is the English version of the introduction to our submission. For the full text of our submission as filed in french, click here.
November 13, 2025
Committee on Institutions, National Assembly of Québec c/o Roxanne Guévin
Clerk of the Committee on Institutions
By email: ci@assnat.qc.ca
Subject: General consultation and public hearings on Bill 1, the Constitution Act, 2025 - Submission from Marc J. Ryan of Bonjour Merci Québec
Introduction
Bill 1, the Constitution Act, 2025, and invited the public to submit comments by November 24, 2025.
We have the following comments on two provisions in PART I - CONSTITUTION OF QUÉBEC.
The most concerning aspect for us is a seemingly innocuous recital (Considérant) that risks allowing courts to constitutionalize a treatment of Anglophone institutions that is not universally accepted in Quebec and that could undermine the collective attributes and rights of the Quebec nation that Bill 1 seeks to establish and protect. We recommend its removal.
We also recommend significant amendments to section 9, notably to recognize the right to be educated in French, with corresponding obligations for school systems, and especially for the English-language public school system, to ensure that its graduates acquire genuine proficiency in French.
Finally, we recommend specifying that English-language school boards be subject to Part 2 of Bill 1, the Quebec Constitutional Autonomy Act.
Marc J Ryan,
Marc Ryan
Author