June 23, 2022
On June 1, 2022, in its drive to strengthen the status of the French language in Québec, the Government of Québec received royal assent to its Bill 96, the Act respecting French, the official and common language of Québec. This statute, which amends the Charter of the French Language, imposes new obligations on employers and most of those new obligations came into effect on June 1. Employers will therefore have to adapt their processes and practices in order to meet the new requirements.
June 21, 2022
This article is a modified version of a case comment originally published by Éditions Yvon Blais in June 2022 (EYB2022REP3463).
Litigation privilege is an exception to complete disclosure of the relevant facts in a pre-trial examination and may be invoked in respect of documents drawn up in preparation for litigation, including during an internal investigation. The distinction between an internal investigation conducted in relation to a company’s activities and an investigation conducted in preparation for litigation can sometimes be tenuous, as illustrated by the decision in Zurich Insurance Company Ltd. (Canadian Branch) c. A.H. Lundberg Systems Limited.
June 9, 2022
On May 24, 2022, the Quebec government adopted the Act respecting French, the official and common language of Québec (the “Act”). The Act received Royal Assent on June 1st, 2022 and can now be found in Chapter 14 of the 2022 Annual Volume of the Statutes of Quebec (SQ 2022, c. 14).
The Act introduces a broad reform of the Charter of the French language (the “Charter”) and makes amendments to other statutes as well.
Through this reform, the Government of Quebec has not only affirmed that French is the only official language of Quebec, but also that it is the only common language of the Quebec nation.