Jean-François Roberge, Minister of the French Language, pushes his zeal perhaps a little too far by refusing certain accommodations to “law 96” to young Indigenous people who want to undertake higher studies at CEGEP and thus become even more useful to the Quebec society, which lacks qualified labor.
Indigenous people are not a threat to the maintenance of the French fact in Quebec. On this anniversary of D-Day, we must not forget that many First Nations soldiers fought, often at the cost of their lives, during the great wars for our freedom. We also forget that Frenchization and evangelization in orphanages were a cruel and genocidal failure.
How many Indigenous people still live on reserves without drinking water, in substandard housing, and lack adequate health care and educational services?
Some find themselves homeless in big cities, alone, without help to treat their addictions and psychological distress, sometimes freezing to death in a chemical toilet.
Let us end our paternalism, our colonialism and our systemic racism by doing everything we can to provide the best possible education to our young Indigenous people while respecting their rich ancestral culture.
Let us promote reconciliation, diversity and living together. We must not pull the rug out from under ambitious young people thirsty for knowledge and modernity. Francization will follow, once these young people are integrated into the job market. Hopefully, many students will return to live in their community to use the knowledge acquired at CEGEP.
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