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MONTREAL — Quebec’s law society is heading to court to challenge the way the provincial government goes about drafting and passing laws.

The Quebec Bar Association, along with the Montreal bar, said the current process is flawed and doesn’t respect the Canadian Constitution, making the province’s laws and decrees null and void.

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In a motion filed last Friday and that names national assembly Speaker Jacques Chagnon and Justice Minister Stephanie Vallee, the bars state the problem is the laws are drafted in French and then translated into English only after the fact instead of simultaneously.

The bars argue legislators therefore never get to see the English version before a bill is passed.

According to an interpretation of Art. 133 of the 1867 British North America Act, while either language may be used in debates and pleadings, laws must be adopted in both English and French.

The bars say the resulting legislation deprives all Quebec litigants of the right to the same version of the law in accordance with constitutional norms.