The CEGEP is a unique institution in Quebec and access to the Anglophone CEGEP must be restricted to members of the Anglophone community only. […] Free access to English-speaking CEGEPs has the effect of encouraging the pursuit of university studies in English, which has obviously been done to the detriment of French-speaking colleges and universities, whose population in Montreal, moreover, is stagnating or declining. This is not without influencing the training of teachers in French, research and publications conducted in French. Likewise, the CEGEP prepares graduates, whose language of learning was English, for the job market, while Bill 96 aims to strengthen the use of… French. Find the error! Restricting access to English-speaking CEGEPs to only those entitled to rights would take nothing away from the English-speaking community in Quebec, other than its capacity for assimilation. English is a compulsory subject throughout elementary and secondary school in Quebec. If we want to improve learning, it is at this level that the discussion must be developed. The Quebec state, whose mission is to promote French, does not have to pay for those who aspire to become “perfectly bilingual”, a legitimate choice, but of a personal nature. At the same time, he could also question the degree of real bilingualism acquired by his English-speaking minority. Perhaps there is work to be done there as well. Restricting oneself to controlling only the number of French-speaking and allophone students who can access English-speaking CEGEPs is tantamount to sparing both the goat and the cabbage. In doing so, the Legault government knowingly ignores the objectives pursued both by Bill 101 and by its own reform.
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