Quebec’s Bill 99
Quebec’s Bill 99 was passed in the year 2000 by then Premier Lucien Bouchard under the title, “An Act respecting the exercise of the fundamental rights and prerogatives of the Québec people and the Québec State.” The intention was to repudiate, overrule and annihilate within Quebec the federal Clarity Act, passed that year to set conditions that Quebec must meet before the federal government could agree to enter into negotiations on the secession of Quebec. The Clarity Act gave legal effect to the advisory opinion on secession delivered on August 20, 1998, by the Supreme Court of Canada, in response to a reference from the Government of Canada.
Chairman of The Special Committee, Keith Henderson launched a challenge to Bill 99 in the year 2001. The Attorney General of Quebec immediately presented a Motion to Dismiss which the Courts later rejected. In October 2013, in a landmark decision, the Federal Government intervened in the case, prompting a separatist motion of censure in the Quebec Assembly which all provincial parties approved. Henderson v. Attorney General of Quebec, was heard March 20 - 27th, 2017. Decision expected in August, 2017.