« Violence is a settler feeling: Michael Lechuga, The Far-Right Rhetoric of Dog Whistles: Settler Feelings and Unspeakable Acts, Palgrave, 2026
Still Indigenous: Freddy Cabral, We are Still Lipan: Identity Erasure, Settler Colonialism, Historical Memory and the Persistence of the Non-Reservation Lipan Apache, PhD dissertation, The University of Texas at El Paso, 2026 »

The language of settler colonialism: Katya Kredl, ‘Québec’s Bill 96: A Case Study of Indigenous Cultural and Political Dispossession’, Journal of Critical Race Inquiry, 13, 1, 2026, pp. 23-38

24Jun26

Abstract: This article examines Bill 96 (now Law 14; 2022), a language law enforcing French as the official language of Québec, in relation to language hierarchization and Indigenous dispossession. While this bill impacts all non-French speaking individuals in Québec, it carries especially important implications for the Indigenous Peoples residing on this territory whose languages are already endangered. In this article, I explore Bill 96 as an extension of settler colonialism that legitimizes white settlers as founders and that assimilates through language. Using previous Canadian language laws as a guide, I demonstrate the dangers of exclusionary language policies. From insular decision-making strategies to strict legal enforcement, these types of policies are grounded in dominant, colonial logic and have the potential to eradicate vulnerable cultures. Using political discourse analysis (PDA), I argue that this bill ultimately threatens the survival of Indigenous cultural and political structures in Québec. Finally, I reflect on Indigenous languages as a tool of refusal to settler colonialism.


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