Mayor Plante Is Against Making Montreal Officially Bilingual

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante said that she is "completely at odds" with making Montreal an officially bilingual city, unlike one of her opponents in the mayoral race.

The mayor said the city and its partner organizations are well-positioned to be "key players" in the propagation of French and its promotion as the language of work.

"I am [...] with the efforts that have been made by our administration to promote the French language in recent months, completely at odds with a position such as that of a current mayoral candidate."

Plante was invited to speak at the National Assembly hearing on Bill 96 on Tuesday evening and was asked by Minister Responsible for the French Language Simon Jolin-Barrette what she thought of a candidate's plan to make "the city of Montreal become bilingual and multicultural."

The candidate in question, Balarama Holness, would move to officially recognize Montreal as a bilingual city and promote multiculturalism.

In a statement of support for the principles in Bill 96, Plante said she hopes French becomes the "social glue" of the metropolis.

"We have to promote the French language by giving ourselves the means and tools to bring people together."