If Montrealers want to keep the city's current status, there would be no change, he said.
"The National Assembly will not determine the character and nature of the city of Montreal," he said Tuesday. Regardless, Holness says it should be up to the people to decide. Under the current law, bilingual status is given only to those 84 municipalities with 51 per cent or more of the population who speak English as a first language. If that happens, Quebec's language law, known as Bill 101, or any changes made under the Coalition Avenir Québec government with Bill 96 would not affect Montreal. Should a referendum be held and the city's status changed, Holness says he would expect the provincial government to respect the vote and approve a modification to the city's charter, which identifies Montreal as a French-speaking city in the first article. Holness, leader of Mouvement Montréal, is proposing a one-year public consultation on the use of the English and French languages in public and private institutions, followed by a referendum on the linguistic status of Montreal.
Montreal is one of the largest francophone cities in the world - about 65 per cent describe French as their mother tongue. Montreal mayoral candidate Balarama Holness says it's time to reopen the debate on the city's language status.
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