In 1984, a group of Quebec retailers challenged the provincial law prohibiting the use of English advertising on outdoor signs, and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada (Ford v Quebec [Attorney General]). In its decision, the Court declared that the sections of Quebec’s Charter of the French Language requiring mandatory French-only signage were unconstitutional. The Quebec government would then invoke the notwithstanding clause in the Canadian Constitution to pass Bill 178, which maintained the obligation to use only French on outdoor signage. This legislation would generate discontent among English-speaking Quebecers and Canadians.

The effect of the notwithstanding clause would expire in 1993, after which Quebec would pass Bill 86, which established the principle of French predominance on public signage.