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Bill 101 — the most loaded term in the anglo-Quebec vocabulary, along with its cousin “referendum.”

Bill 101 turns 40 this summer, but few anglos will be singing Bonne Fête and many will mourn.

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For decades the law aggravated, infuriated, exhausted and entertained us with its legal lunacies. Anglos resent and regret it, yet so do some sovereignists — because Bill 101 brought unpredictable consequences, even to those who created it.

The “Charter” was fathered by Camille Laurin, a psychiatrist with dyed black hair who claimed we anglos needed “shock therapy” en français.

The “language doctor” became our favourite villain, eventually replaced by Language Minister Louise Beaudoin, who Aislin famously dressed as a dominatrix with a whip.

Bill 101 provoked black humour by English journalists, as our tongue-troopers roamed Quebec — arresting apostrophes, tape-measuring English letters and occasionally sparking global headlines.