Premier Jean Charest is applauded by his deputies during debate. (Jacques Boissinot/ Canadian Press)

Quebec Liberals have successfully pushed through Bill 115, the controversial language law, after more than 20 hours of emergency debate in the legislature.

Just after 7 a.m. Tuesday, the ruling Liberals used their majority in the Quebec national assembly to adopt the bill, which sets out who qualifies to attend English public school in the province. The final vote was 61-54.

Ordinary assembly rules were suspended, and the government invoked closure to get the bill passed. It was the first time closure was used in passing a language law in Quebec.

The province was ordered to come up with alternative school and language eligibility rules last year after the Supreme Court of Canada struck down an older law, known as Bill 104, calling it excessive and a violation of constitutional rights. The court gave the province a deadline of this Friday.

Bill 104 was enacted in 2002 by the Parti Québécois government of the day to close a loophole in Quebec's French Language Charter. The loophole enabled parents to enrol their children in the English public school system after sending them to an English private school for a year or less. Bill 104 eliminated that option.

A group of parents launched a legal challenge to Bill 104, which culminated in the Supreme Court ruling on Oct. 22, 2009.

PQ warns of headaches to come

Parti Québécois members of the legislature weren't happy with the government's response to the ruling. The party's language critic, Pierre Curzi, called Bill 115 "complicated … imprecise" and predicted the law "will create headaches for everybody."

Under Bill 115, children who attend English private schools would accumulate points over at least three years to qualify for English public school. Curzi said the law creates a two-tier system, where people with money can buy their way into the English public school system.

He also said civil servants would have to apply the new law, and "of course, their decision will be followed by a lawsuit."

Even the lawyer who successfully fought Bill 104 all the way to the Supreme Court said the Quebec government is leaving itself open to a new court challenge.

The new language law is "not consistent with the letter or the spirit of the judgment of the Supreme Court," said Brent Tyler, adding it is just a matter of time before a family denied access to the English school system challenges the new rules.

Tyler agreed with Curzi that the law is complicated and impractical. Quebec is throwing up new roadblocks for children who want to go to English-language schools by setting up an elaborate point system to gauge each child's eligibility, he said.

For example, under the law, it would take three years in a non-subsidized English school to get the 15 points needed to obtain a certificate, Tyler said. "But then those 15 points can be subtracted from, depending on where the brothers and sisters went to school, depending on where the parents went to school — and a whole series of factors that are completely irrelevant to the situation of the child."

Bureaucratic discretion a concern

Tyler said the bureaucrat in charge of a child's dossier would also get discretion over eight points, "so conceivably, you could have a child that did all of their elementary instruction in English at a private non-subsidized school, and they still wouldn't get a certificate."

Francophone groups opposed to Bill 115 staged protests outside the national assembly in Quebec City and Premier Jean Charest's offices in downtown Montreal on Monday night. The demonstration in Montreal was organized by Quebec's largest union federation, the CSN, pro-sovereignty organizations and other groups.

BLOC MP Jean Dorion said that Supreme Court judges should not be meddling in provincial politics, given they are appointed by a mostly anglophone government

Marguerite Bilodeau, who was among the demonstrators, said she's concerned about the consequences of Bill 115 on the future of the French language in Quebec.

"Slowly but surely the English will get to go to English schools more and more so, and this is what I'm worried about," Bilodeau said.

The final vote on Bill 115 came after politicians spent most of Monday shouting at each other across the floor of the legislature.

The Parti Québécois argued the government should have used the Constitution's notwithstanding clause to ignore the country's high court.

Charest sees 'balanced approach'

The PQ favours imposing Quebec's original language law, Bill 101, on all public and private English schools in the province, which would essentially limit access to an English education to anglophones born in Canada.

Speaking to reporters soon after the vote, PQ Leader Pauline Marois promised a PQ government would repeal Bill 115.

Charest called Bill 115 — a "balanced approach that respects the primacy of the French language."

The bill still needs royal assent, which is expected before the end of the week. Then the new point system will be published in the province's Official Gazette, giving the public 45 days to voice any concerns or recommendations before the law takes effect.