A breakdown in Canada-US trade talks has exposed an unusually sensitive fault line between the two neighbours: the protection of French language and culture in Quebec.


Prime Minister Mark Carney ordered Canadian negotiators to walk away from talks in Washington on August 21 after the sides failed to bridge wider disagreements over US tariffs, access to the Canadian market and Ottawa’s ability to protect key industries, according to RFI.


Language and culture were also contentious. Carney said Canada had refused to compromise on French-language protections, accusing Washington of pressing the issue “until the very last minute”. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer disputed that account, saying French-language protections were not a US “red line”.


The immediate dispute has since eased. On August 27, Canada's minister responsible for US trade, Dominic LeBlanc, said Washington had withdrawn its objections to French-language labelling and the visibility of French-language content online, and confirmed that measures promoting French and Canadian culture would not be targeted by future US trade action.


The controversy, however, highlights the long history behind Quebec's language laws.


Christopher Skeete, Quebec's minister of international relations and La Francophonie, told RFI that protections for French date back to the Quebec Act of 1774, when the British Crown pledged to protect the language and culture of French-speaking Canadians.


Quebec's 1977 Charter of the French Language, or Bill 101, made French the province's official language and established it as the normal language of government, work, education and business. Canada itself has two official languages, English and French, whose status in federal institutions is protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.


French is the first official language spoken by about 22% of Canada's population, with most francophones living in Quebec and nearly 1 million elsewhere in the country.


Quebec strengthened its language regime with Bill 96 in 2022. US trade officials subsequently identified the legislation as a technical barrier, citing requirements affecting product packaging, labelling and trademarks.


The province extended those protections into the digital sphere through Bill 109, adopted in December 2025, requiring greater French-language visibility on digital platforms.


Skeete said French remains vulnerable because English dominates North America. Quebec's language authorities enforce requirements covering areas such as commercial signage, where French must be markedly predominant.


For businesses such as Lièvre Rouge, a chalet retreat founded by francophone Mathieu Cleroux, the rules are not necessarily viewed as burdensome. “I don't see it [language laws] as a barrier to doing business,” he told RFI.


Yet Benoit Dubreuil, Quebec's commissioner of the French language, said English remains considerably more powerful despite Canada's official bilingualism, leaving French speakers feeling pressure to use English.


Political scientist Linda Cardinal told RFI that protecting French and culture has long been embedded in Canada's trade policy. “All former trade agreements with the United States included a disposition on cultural exception, meaning that language and culture are not to be part of or affected by any trade deal,” she said.


By Tamilla Hasanova