From: steven@spxtech.qc.ca (Steve Potter)
Subject: Re: Americans on English schools in Quebec (Was: Quebec)
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1992 14:34:45 GMT
Organization: Securiplex Technologies Inc., Montreal, Canada
X-Bytes: 6653

From article <1d9ut6INN6jt@iskut.ucs.ubc.ca>, by mathew@unixg.ubc.ca (Mathew B Englander):
>>steven@spxtech.qc.ca (Steve Potter) writes:
>>
>>> Tell us, please, what do Americans down there think of the fact
>>> that 1 in 10 English-speaking children are declared "ineligible for
>>> instruction in English" in Quebec?
> 
> Let me say, as an anglophone-Canadian who has lived in Vancouver and in
> southern Ontario, that I see nothing wrong with Quebec's current
> policy on language of instruction. That policy is:
> 

Mathew does not appear to understand the problem:-

> (1) If you were educated in English, anywhere in Canada, then you can
>     have your children educated in English in Quebec.
> 
> (2) If you were not educated in English, in Canada, but you choose to
>     live in Quebec, then your children's language of instruction will
>     normally be French.
> 
> I don't see why an American citizen, say, who chooses to move to
> Montreal, should be able to have their kids go to an English-language
> school at public expense. Certainly the converse is not true.
>

There is an English community in Montreal - with a number of publicly
funded English schools. Let's ask the question the other way around: Why
should an American citizen who chooses to move to Montreal not be able to
have his/her children go to an English-language school at public expense?

What is meant by "Certainly the converse is not true"? Doesn't an English-
speaking person from Montreal, who chooses to move to the States, have the
option to send his/her children to an English-language school at public
expense?

Perhaps Mathew means that a French-speaking family moving to the States
can't put their kids in a French school in the States. This is not a
legitimate comparison since there are no publicly funded French-language
schools (to the best of my knowledge) in the States. No doubt, if there
were, Mathew would be one of the first to complain if French-speaking
families moving there from Quebec were not allowed to send their children
to those schools?

> There is already a substantial English-language community in the
> province.

That's right - with a number of English-language schools!

> The govt of Quebec, via its language of instruction policy,
> is saying basically "We have no problem with the presence of the
> English community, or with its natural growth by means of human
> reproduction or migration from other Canadian provinces. However,
> all new residents of Canada who choose to settle in Quebec must
> be educated in the official language of Quebec: French."

NO!

The govt of Quebec, via its language of instruction policy,
is saying basically, "We feel that the English community in Quebec is
a threat to our language and culture. We were forced by the Supreme
Court of Canada (under the provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights
and Freedoms which are applicable to Quebec; provisions against which
we are unable to invoke the "notwithstanding clause") to allow people
who were educated in English anywhere in Canada to send their children
to English school in Quebec. We continue to lie about the "growth" of
the English community in Quebec. We continue to lie about the massive
influx of "immigrants" (English and others) who are refusing to learn
our language. We refuse to acknowledge that Quebec, as a province of
Canada, must accept that the English language is a legitimate part of
Quebec life; and we wish to make sure that all 'newcomers' to the
province are forced to send their children to our French schools so 
that we can continue the job of closing the English school system down
as much as possible. We continue to stress the 'importance' of learning
French to our 'newcomers' without admitting that French can be learned
as a second language by English families' children in French immersion
programs in English schools here. Our political survival depends on
perpetuating lies and myths that keep nationalist sentiment very much
alive."

Mathew's indirect assertion regarding "[The English community's] natural
growth by means of human reproduction or migration from other Canadian
provinces" is completely wrong. The community has been suffering a rapid
decline over a period of many years - more notably since the rise of
French Quebec nationalism and racial and linguistic intolerance.

There are now less than half the children in English schools in Quebec
than there were in 1970.

For every 10 children in English school in Quebec there is one English-
speaking child who has been denied access.

1/3 of English public schools that were operating in Quebec in 1977 are
gone.

The percentage of the Quebec population with English mother tongue has
decreased by 1/3 in the last 50 years.

From 1977 to 1991 the English school system in Quebec suffered a 53.3%
drop in enrollment with a corresponding loss of 156 (31.6%) of its 493
English public schools that were open in 1977.

During the same period, the French system lost 12.2% of its enrollment
and 45 (1.7%) of its 2,539 schools. Enrollment in French schools has
actually increased by more than 20,000 students from 1986 to 1991.

If the mother tongue criteria had been adopted in Quebec in 1986, there
would have been 10,335 more children eligible for education in English
in Quebec than the 111,178 actually enrolled.

The Chambers' Task Force report, commissioned by the Quebec Minister of
education, concluded that the excessive restrictions (my words) in Bill
101 were one of the main reasons for the extirpation (my words) of the
English school system in Quebec. The reports number 1 recommendation
called for the Quebec government to allow English speaking children from
anywhere in the world to attend English school in Quebec.

The number of children under discussion represent a possible boost of
10% to the English school system enrollment. The number is less than 1%
of the total school population of Quebec. (What threat?)

The English school system in Quebec is dying faster than the community
that tries to support it. Trying to adjust to the demands of their
French-speaking neighbours and friends and restrictive legislation like
Bill 101 are the main causes.

The loss of the school system is a definite threat to the survival of the
community.

Then there is the question of Human Rights and Freedoms and Civil Liberties.

-- 
  ///==================================================================\\\
  ||| Steve Potter:         steven%spxtech@CAM.ORG                     |||
  ||| Expertise/Experience: Computer Systems Engineering / Real Ale /  |||
  |||                       Politics in Education in Quebec            |||
Newsgroups: can.politics