The latest news is that Quebec's Liberals are going to respond to the demand by the Supreme Court of Canada to reform the laws governing access to public English education by not selling out the English immigrants! Bill 104 closed a loophole that allowed immigrants to get their kids into English public schools after one year of English private school. The Court said that closing this loophole was not Constitutional, so the Liberals could have just said "Screw the Charter of Rights" and invoked the notwithstanding clause, which is what the Parti Quebecois favored. Instead, the Liberals have proposed to change it so that three years of private school can get one into public. This raises the bar but does not eliminate it. I don't know how they can get this proposal into the Assembly since the Liberals missed the formal deadline for introducing legislation.
The PQ say this means that some people can buy rights that others cannot afford. And they are right. I would strongly prefer that people have the ability to choose which public system to enter if there is more than one. This is not going to happen because of the fear that English will eclipse French. If the PQ let this happen, then it is not clear what the party is good for. [Insert your own good for nothing joke here]
I also believed that people should be able to choose whatever private school they want if they so choose with two qualifiers: that private school is not subsidized and that it is well-regulated. If no subsidies, then there is no favoritism among the different private options (religious vs non-religious, etc). Plus it keeps me consistent with my previous views opposing "School choice" movements in the US. And well-regulated so Bob's School of Edumication has to provide the basics. [What are the basics? See this story for some consensus in the US, of which, unsurprisingly, Texas is opting out]
I think the best solution to protecting French in Quebec is to make sure that whatever path one chooses (private/public; English/French) has a strong French and a strong English component. English is required for interacting with the rest of the planet in the age of the internet. French is important to Quebec's identity. Treat both well and educate the next generation in both, and a lot of conflict will go away.
My daughter's school has a nice way of doing it for first through sixth grade: each year, she would have two teachers, one Anglophone and one Francophone, and get half of her education in each. Her French is not perfect now, but that is because her parents do not force her to watch French TV or take her to French movies. But she has the basics to build on--in both official languages of Canada.
I am still uncertain that the Liberals will be able to get this proposed policy through, but I am a bit more certain that I will not have to move out of the province to keep my daughter in an English high school. And that is important to us as we don't want to see her grades nosedive as she prepares for college/university and as we want to be able to communicate with her teachers.
Mr. Saideman writes:
ReplyDelete"The Court said that closing this loophole was not Constitutional, so the Liberals could have just said "Screw the Charter of Rights" and invoked the notwithstanding clause, which is what the Parti Quebecois favored."
I wish someone would tell me how that could be done.
Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is outside the purview of the "notwithstanding" clause which can only be applied to sections 2 and 7-15. Yet I keep seeing references in the media to its possible use in the legislation under contemplation.
I've asked several lawyers and community leaders and no one has yet been able to tell me. And here Mr. Saideman is saying it...so either he's just repeating what he hears others in the media say or he knows how it could be done...and, if so, I'd appreciate it if he'd tell me!