Charter of the French Language with the adoption of the "Official Language Act" in 1974. Quebec is constitutionally obliged nonetheless to provide English services in the courts and the National Assembly of Quebec (see below). The fundamental French language rights in Quebec are: French is the declared language of the legislature and courts in Quebec. Section 133 of the "Constitution Act, 1867", still in effect, nonetheless requires that bills be printed, published, passed, and assented to in French and in English in Parliaments and the legislatures of Canada and of Quebec. French or English may be used by any person before the courts of Quebec.
Charter of the French Language of the OQLF was criticized by a columnist of "The Gazette" who alleged that there was a "totalitarian mindset in the bureaucracy". The columnist complained of sections of the report which described the continued prevalence of languages other than French in two-thirds of Montreal's households as an "alarming" trend that would present a formidable challenge to francophones in Montreal. In reality, the report judged alarming the fact that adoption of English as home language by allophones grew faster than the adoption of French as home language. The use of the notwithstanding clause in the 1990s to circumvent the Canadian Charter