A T-shirt returns, and with it a weariness that never left.

There is a particular kind of weariness that comes from being asked, again and again, to prove you belong. For Quebec’s English-speaking community, that weariness has a long history—a history of language laws, of eligibility certificates, of the quiet bureaucratic work of demonstrating that your presence here is legitimate. In 2019, when the CAQ government floated the idea of a “list” to determine who qualified as a “historic anglophone,” broadcaster Aaron Rand responded not with a protest, but with a T-shirt. Seven years later, with a provincial election approaching and a new language law shaping how anglophones are treated at the polls, Rand has brought the shirt back .

The Historic Quebec Anglo T-shirt was never meant to be serious, exactly. It was a tongue-in-cheek retort to a policy that felt, to many anglophones, like a bureaucratic absurdity. Rand, who hosts the afternoon drive show on CJAD 800, created a website and began selling shirts, with proceeds going to the Gazette Christmas Fund . Liberal MNAs wore them. The CAQ’s point-man on anglo affairs was photographed holding one . It was a joke, but a pointed one—a way of saying that the demand to prove one’s identity was itself the problem.

Now, Rand says the anger is real again. “There’s real anger and frustration,” he said, describing the mood of his listeners as the October 5 election approaches . The source of that frustration is Bill 96, Quebec’s updated language law, which restricts access to government services in English. Under the law, Élections Québec employees have been directed to ask voters whether they have the right to English communication before speaking to them in English—a directive that has drawn sharp criticism from anglophone rights groups .

The policy, as communicated to election workers, requires them to speak to voters in French. If a voter addresses them in English, the worker must ask either “Have you been declared eligible to get an education in English?” or “Are you a member of a Native community?” If the answer to both is no, the employee must continue in French only . Andrew Caddell, president of the Task Force on Linguistic Policy, called the direction to refuse service to non-historic anglophones “disgraceful” .

A judge has already ruled that Élections Québec’s earlier decision to send election documents in French only violated anglophone rights, and the agency was ordered to send bilingual reminder documents. The government has said it will contest that decision, with a court date set for October 5—election day itself . The shirts, then, are not just merchandise. They are a signal, a small piece of fabric that says: I am here, I have been here, and I should not have to prove it to cast a ballot.

Aaron Rand has brought back the Historic Quebec Anglo T-shirt ahead of the October 5 provincial election, saying there is “real anger and frustration” among anglophones over Bill 96 and Élections Québec’s directive to question voters before serving them in English. The shirts, originally created in 2019, are a pointed response to policies that require anglophones to prove their eligibility for English services.

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Sources: Montreal Gazette, CBC News, Élections Québec