Simon Jolin-Barrette (born 1987) is a Canadian lawyer and politician in

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

. He was elected to the

National Assembly of Quebec The National Assembly of Quebec (, ) is the Legislature, legislative body of the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec in Canada. Legislators are called MNAs (Members of the National Assembly; ). The lieutenant governor of Que ...

in the 2014 Quebec election. He represents the riding of Borduas as a member of the

Coalition Avenir Québec The Coalition Avenir Québec (, , CAQ) is a Quebec nationalism, Quebec nationalist, Autonomism in Quebec, autonomist and conservatism, conservative

(CAQ).

Personal life

Jolin-Barrette grew up in Mont-Saint-Hilaire, a south-shore suburb of

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

. He is a practicing lawyer, with a BCL (civil law),

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

(common law) and

Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is a postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in another subject. In many jurisdi ...

from the

Université de Sherbrooke The Université de Sherbrooke (UdeS; Quebec English, English: ''University of Sherbrooke'') is a French-language Public university, public research university in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, with a second campus in Longueuil, a suburb on the Mont ...

, where he wrote his Masters Thesis on the subject of Senate reform (comparing the

Senate of Canada The Senate of Canada () is the upper house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons, they compose the Bicameralism, bicameral le ...

to the

Australian Senate The Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives. The powers, role and composition of the Senate are set out in Chap ...

). At the time of his election in 2014, Jolin-Barrette was employed as a lawyer by the

City of Montreal Montreal is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest in Canada, and the ninth-largest in North America. It was founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", and is now named after Mount Royal, the triple-pea ...

. He was also pursuing a LL.D in

constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in ...

at the

Université de Montréal The Université de Montréal (; UdeM; ) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce on M ...

as well as a diploma in public administration at the

École nationale d'administration publique The (; "National School of Public Administration"; abbr. ENAP) is a graduate school in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. It was established in 1969 by the Quebec provincial government as a means of encouraging people to study professional public adm ...

Political career

Jolin-Barrette was part of a group of 40 young entrepreneurs who joined the CAQ at the time of the party's founding in 2011. He ran as the CAQ candidate in Marie-Victorin in the 2012 Quebec election, coming in second to Bernard Drainville of the

Parti Québécois The Parti Québécois (PQ; , ) is a sovereignist and social democratic provincial political party in Quebec, Canada. The PQ advocates national sovereignty for Quebec involving independence of the province of Quebec from Canada and establishi ...

(PQ). In the 2014 election, Jolin-Barrette defeated the PQ candidate in Borduas,

Pierre Duchesne Pierre Duchesne (born February 27, 1940) is a Canadian public servant who was the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec and former secretary general of the National Assembly of Quebec. As lieutenant governor he was the viceregal representative of ...

(the then Minister of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology), by 99 votes. Notwithstanding the small margin of defeat, Duchesne and the PQ chose not to seek a judicial recount of the ballots.

Minister of Immigration (2018–2020)

On October 18, 2018, Jolin-Barrette was sworn in as Minister of Immigration of Quebec, under

Quebec Premier The premier of Quebec ( (masculine) or eminine is the head of government of the Canadian province of Quebec. The current premier of Quebec is François Legault of the Coalition Avenir Québec, sworn in on October 18, 2018, following that ...

François Legault François Legault (; born May 26, 1957) is a Canadian politician serving as the 32nd premier of Quebec since 2018. A founding member of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), he has led the party since it began in 2011. Legault sits as a Nationa ...

. As Minister of Immigration Jolin-Barrette in 2019, he introduced and passed Bill 21, the bill bans public workers in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols. The government invoked section 33 of the ''

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms The ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms'' (), often simply referred to as the ''Charter'' in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, forming the first part of the '' Constitution Act, 1982''. The ''Char ...

'' (the notwithstanding clause) so as to prevent it from being overturned by the courts. Jolin-Barrette has been criticized by some for his introduction of Bill 9, on February 7, 2019, cancelling out 18,000 immigration applications (Quebec Selection Certificates). The 18,000 applications from various parts of the world were accepted by the immigration department of Quebec according to the existing immigration intake rules at the time. After the CAQ government took charge, those applications were cancelled for which the immigration lawyer's association of Quebec has filed and won a temporary injunction from the Superior court of Quebec. In late 2019, under Jolin Barrette term as Minister of Immigration Quebec he introduced a ''Quebec values test'' where immigrants would have to pass. Also in 2019, under Jolin Barrette term as Minister the title of Minister of Immigration, Diversity, and Inclusion was changed to Minister of Immigration, Francization and Integration.

Minister of Justice and French Language (2020–present)

On June 22, 2020, Premier Legault shuffled his cabinet, and Jolin-Barrette was moved to the

Ministry of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

. In late 2020, Jolin-Barrette announced plans for 2021 that he will be strengthening

Bill 101 The ''Charter of the French Language'' (, ), also known as Bill 101 (, ), is a law in the Canadian province of Quebec defining French, the language of the majority of the population, as the official language of the provincial government. It is th ...

, the French language in the province of Quebec. On May 12, 2021, he announced bill 96 which will strengthen

. On October 21, he announced bill 2, an omnibus bill meant to reform family law. This bill faced unanimous disapproval from the trans community in Quebec. Members of the trans community expressed fears that it would return Québec to the legal gender recognition laws that existed before 2015, could forcibly out trans people (if they chose to add the "gender" option instead of applying to change the "sex" field), and could potentially lead to people being "forced" into having surgery in order to change the contents of the "sex" field. Celeste Trianon of the Centre for Gender Advocacy at Concordia University argued that the bill was "attempting to reintroduce a sterilizing surgical requirement," calling it "a direct attack on the trans community."

Manon Massé Manon Massé (born 22 May 1963) is a Canadian politician in Quebec and was one of co-spokespersons for Québec solidaire from 2017 to 2023. She has represented Sainte-Marie–Saint-Jacques in the National Assembly of Quebec since the 2014 ...

Québec solidaire Quebec is Canada's largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, New Brunswick to the southeast and a coastal border ...

co-leader, said that her party still needed to review the entirety of the bill, but that it appeared like it would move Québec "backwards in terms of the rights of trans, intersex and non-binary people."

Quebec Liberal Party The Quebec Liberal Party (QLP; , PLQ) is a provincial political party in Quebec. It has been independent of the federal Liberal Party of Canada since 1955. The QLP has traditionally supported a form of Quebec federalist ideology with nuance ...

LGBT+ spokesperson

Jennifer Maccarone Jennifer Maccarone is a Canadian politician in the province of Quebec. Maccarone was elected to the National Assembly of Quebec in the 2018 provincial election. She represents the electoral district of Westmount–Saint-Louis as a member of the ...

stated that the provisions were a "regressive change." On June 1, 2022, Jolin-Barette became the first to hold the position of minister of the French language; this was following the gaining of royal assent of Bill 96.

Electoral record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jolin-Barrette, Simon 1987 births Living people Coalition Avenir Québec MNAs Lawyers in Quebec Members of the Executive Council of Quebec Politicians from Montérégie Université de Sherbrooke alumni 21st-century members of the National Assembly of Quebec