Plain English in Quebec legislation.

• Author: Day, Lena

Why is it that the average person, even a well-educated one, setting out to read a bill or law for the first time, half if not fully expects to have trouble cutting through the language to get to the meaning? It could be argued that bills and statutes use complex language because they address complex subjects-taxation or securities regulation, for example-or because they are meant mainly for people "in the know" such as members of lobby groups, practitioners in the fields concerned, lawyers and officials. The bottom line, though, is that laws affect everyone and this alone is a compelling argument for using idiomatic and understandable language. This article looks at efforts made by the Quebec National Assembly to introduce plain English in its legislation.

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Quebec came under British law in 1763 when France signed the Treaty of Paris. Eleven years later, the British Parliament restored French civil maintained British criminal law when it passed the Quebec Act. As a result, civil law was drafted exclusively in French from 1774 to 1866 and criminal law, exclusively in English from 1774 to 1841. (1) To guarantee that both French and English in Quebec would have access to statutes in their own language, the framers of the Constitution Act of 1867 included a requirement, in section 133, that the Acts of the Legislature of Quebec be printed and published in both French and English.

Today, Quebecers have access to bills and newly enacted laws in French and English on the National Assembly website and can follow every step of the law-making process by downloading transcripts or webcasts of Assembly and committee sittings. (2) They can obtain paper copies of annual or revised statutes at reasonable cost from the government publishing house and electronic versions free of charge on its website. (3) But access is about more than physical access. It is also about understanding.

Many of the problems in English, in particular, come from the traditional British style of legislative drafting, which leaves modem-day readers to struggle with long sentences, archaic words and strings of synonyms or near-synonyms. English-speaking jurisdictions the world over are now turning away from this traditional style of drafting and aiming to produce legislation in clear, concise language. (4) Inspired by their efforts, we--the legislative translation team of the Quebec National Assembly--have recently begun moving to plain English.

Our Constraints

Quebec's...