Immigration.ca - Canada Immigration News - October 2009
A new court ruling on language in Quebec’s schools could open the door to allow immigrant children to study in English, rather than in French.
In the province of Quebec, there is a law prohibiting children from entering English schools if they do not have direct ties to English schooling in Canada. This law was intended to protect French as the majority language in Quebec, as most francophones and immigrants would not qualify for an English education.
However, until 2002 many people were able to circumvent that law by first enrolling students into private English schools and then transferring them into the public system.
In 2002 Bill 104 was passed to prevent such a practice, and many families were left no choice but to either accept a French-language education or move away from Quebec.
This week the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in favour of the group of parents fighting Bill 104, giving the province one year to improve the law. The judges found the law to be unfair in its lack of consideration of specific cases and circumstances for each student.
“[Bill 104 is] total and absolute, and it seems excessive in relation to the seriousness of the problem,” said one of the Court Judges.
Yet hard-line Quebec nationalists might disagree with the Court as to how serious the language problem is, and the one year time frame could be long enough for them to fight for the law. If that does happen, and the population of English students continues to decline, the English schools in the province may have to present their own case to both levels of government.
“We have no security for what will happen in a year,” said Montreal English School Board chairwoman Angela Mancini when speaking of the Court ruling’s implications.
Source: The Globe and Mail
