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There are any number of reasons one might find this impractical (are Legacy Anglos supposed to carry around their grandparents’ birth certificates?), pointless (why does Quebec want to make it harder for people to pay their hydro bills?), rude, discriminatory or downright appalling, Like the bonjour-hi ban, it has been very poorly received in many quarters.

But for whatever reason, Legault likes this balloon. “If your parents went to English school, you have rights in Quebec, and we will respect those rights,” he told reporters. “If you’re a new immigrant, we have to talk with them in French. That’s the difference.”

Quebec’s limits on freedom of expression in the name of protecting the French language are so entrenched that we hardly even think of them as such

So that answers the practicality question, then: Just bring along your framed diploma from Westmount High. (In practice, of course, proof of status is likely to come down to whether you … shall we say … look the part.)

The idea is ripe for a court challenge, needless to say. “The creation of classes of citizens carries the potential for an equality challenge, as well as a freedom of expression challenge,” human rights lawyer Julius Grey told CBC News. National and ethnic origins are prohibited grounds for discrimination under both Canada’s and Quebec’s charters of rights (though at this point Quebec might as well just feed its through the shredder).

At that point, if not before, the issue would land in the only slightly less bizarre and volatile atmosphere of federal politics. We just recently concluded a federal election campaign during which a nominally conservative party with religious freedom in its front window promised maximum deference to Quebec on manifestly unconstitutional restrictions on religious civil servants’ attire, and a nominally social-democratic party led by a turban-wearing Sikh promised only slightly less deference, and the self-styled party of multiculturalism bragged of not having “closed the door” on doing something about it.