The former Commissioner of Official Languages of Canada, Graham Fraser, judges that the new CAQ policy on university funding is a matter of “ignorance” and “distrust” – notably that cultivated by Prime Minister François Legault during the snowball fights from his childhood against English speakers in the West Island of Montreal.
In an open letter published Tuesday on the digital platforms of DutyMr. Fraser recalls that the current Prime Minister recounted, in his book Heading towards a winning Quebec (2013), his difficult interactions with members of the English-speaking community of Montreal. However, this “haunting” of English speakers seems above all “marked by fear”, indicates Mr. Fraser.
In an interview, he denied wanting to “assail Mr. Legault’s intentions.” “But I think that it is a deputation that has very little support in Montreal and in the English-speaking community, so I think that we do not have [à la Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ)] sensitivity to the needs, feelings or realities of the English-speaking communities of Quebec,” he explains.
In his letter, Mr. Fraser recalls that the CAQ have only two elected officials on the island of Montreal, and only one English-speaking deputy in their ranks. “Clearly, Canadians are seen as foreigners,” he also writes.
“Cash cows”
In accordance with the government’s new policy, Canadian students will pay approximately $17,000 per year starting this fall rather than the current $8,992.
“This gesture follows others which reveal a negative attitude towards the English-speaking community, as if this community did not have the right to manage its own institutions, and only existed thanks to the benevolence of the French-speaking majority,” deplores Mr. Fraser. He recalls, among other things, that the CAQ canceled its financial participation in the Dawson CEGEP expansion project in 2022.
According to him, François Legault’s party perceives English-speaking universities “as a liability, as a threat to the cultural and linguistic health of the majority”, while McGill, for example, “is one of the most respected universities in North America “.
English-speaking universities have developed a culture of patronage. “Now they are paying the price for their success” and are treated “like cash cows for the university network,” denounces Mr. Fraser. The government’s new policy establishes a revenue sharing system between establishments, a formula which risks depriving English-speaking universities of significant revenue.
“Weaken institutions”
According to Mr. Fraser, “there is no province, except Quebec, which has made a systematic effort in recent decades to weaken the institutions of the linguistic minority.”
Are French-speakers in Ontario, for example, really better treated than English-speakers in Quebec? “If we make a comparison, I think it is worth not making it with the English-speaking community of Montreal,” replies Mr. Fraser. If we compare the English speakers of Sherbrooke with the French speakers of Sudbury or Saint-Boniface, we can make a fairer comparison. »
Mr. Fraser said he decided to publish an open letter because he was “struck by the potential impact” of the government’s decision, particularly on Bishop’s University. “ [Mais] I don’t believe that it’s a text from a former English-speaking journalist who lives in Ottawa that will change [M. Legault] idea,” he says.
The former Commissioner of Official Languages of Canada points more towards the criticisms of the mayor of Montreal or the French-speaking press, and suggests that the Legault government tackle the root of the problem: the question of underfunding of universities.