Montreal backtracks and allows English book club in library, says French laws unclear

MONTREAL — Days after a local Montreal library refused to offer space for an English-language book club, the City of Montreal has backtracked and asked the Quebec government for more guidance in applying the province’s language laws.

Christopher DiRaddo, the author behind the Violet Hour book club, which focuses on LGBTQ+ literature, said the city told him Friday that he can hold his club meetings at the library after all.

“They apologized for the situation … and acknowledged that they too are unsure how the law applies … and it’s difficult to get exact guidelines,” DiRaddo said in an interview.

On Monday, the Père-Ambroise library in the Ville-Marie borough told DiRaddo that he could hold events only in French. City officials had backed the library’s decision, saying his English-language book discussions would be permitted if he offered simultaneous French-language translation — a requirement he said was unrealistic.

After DiRaddo went public with the situation, the Quebec government said Wednesday that the province’s language laws do not apply in his case.

“Since the book club is only looking for a place to hold its activities, without providing services to the public for a municipal organization, it is not covered …. The Charter (of the French language) therefore does not apply in this situation,” the office of Quebec’s francization minister said in a statement.

In response, the City of Montreal issued a statement Friday saying it needs more guidelines to determine “when the law applies and when it does not.” The city said it would educate its staff on how to properly interpret the province’s 2022 language reform, which makes sweeping restrictions on the use of English in the civil service and other institutions.

However, while DiRaddo welcomes the reversal and hopes it establishes a precedent, he said he fears that “ambiguity” in the language reform may lead to the cancellation of English cultural events like his own.

Alexandre Fallon, a lawyer who specializes in Quebec language laws, said the legislation is written in a way that discourages civil administrations from authorizing communications in English, with very few exceptions.

“There’s nothing that expressly permits (English library events). There’s nothing that expressly prohibits it,” Fallon said. “But I can see why the city would say, well, I’m gonna err on the side of caution.”

The law, he said, obliges the civil service to promote and protect the use of French in an “exemplary” manner, which leaves municipalities afraid of running afoul of the provincial government.

Julius Grey, a civil rights lawyer who defends the rights of English speakers in Quebec, said the issue is not about ambiguously written laws but the restrictive atmosphere it engenders. “There’s no provision of law that says that you cannot have an activity on municipal territory that is in English,” he said.

“What is more serious is the atmosphere in Quebec, which allowed people to make such a ludicrous, ridiculous proposition with a straight face. It cannot be that you need a simultaneous translator to hold a book club,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 31, 2025.

Joe Bongiorno, The Canadian Press