Like a space-time portal opened between two universes, events highlight the coexistence, in the same place, of two contradictory realities. In the matter of the forced francization of 80% of future students outside Quebec at McGill and Concordia, there is the world right side up and the world upside down. Let’s have fun going back and forth.
At the location. The measure will require English-speaking universities to set up, within two years, a system ensuring that 80% of future students from outside Quebec reach a level of French 5 orally. This means that after having spent three years in the French-speaking metropolis of the Americas, the young adult, whose intellectual abilities have allowed him to be admitted to one of the best universities in the world, will have, in a predictable, undemanding context, sometimes formal and facilitated by the occasional help of an interlocutor, capture the essence – but not all – of a conversation on current subjects. We don’t expect him to understand the jokes of a comedian, a Quebec film, a university conference. But he can order a meal, make a reservation, understand sports news or advice from a neighbor. Let’s summarize: a gifted young adult, in a French-speaking city, after three years of lessons.
Upside down. “In light of the damage these measures will cause, I can only see this as a targeted attack on institutions that are part of Quebec and have contributed to Quebec for hundreds of years,” he said in the following hour. the announcement of the measure the principal and vice-chancellor of McGill University, Deep Saini. It is, he added, an “incoherent” policy based on “impressions and emotions, rather than evidence-based decision-making”.
At the location. For decades, 100% of French-speaking students at Laval University, including if they come from abroad, have been required to reach level 6 of oral and written English before or during their studies. It’s a condition of obtaining their undergraduate degree, in arts, in engineering, in computer science, in all subjects. The requirement is eliminatory. They must reach this level in a city, Quebec, where the proportion of English speakers is 1.7%.
Upside down. “Expecting 80% of students from outside Quebec to learn intermediate French is about as unrealistic as expecting immigrants to know French in six months. But, of course, neither is serious. It’s just a way for the CAQ to urinate on anglophones and allophones whom they clearly despise,” says Dennis Wendt, associate professor of educational psychology and counseling at McGill, on X. I repeat: psychology and education.
At the location. For decades, 100% of McGill law students have been required to demonstrate advanced intermediate proficiency in written and oral comprehension in both languages. This is equivalent to levels 7 and 8, i.e. the ability to understand the gist of sometimes complex conversations, cultural productions or presentations, including humor. This skill required at the entry point of the first cycle is eliminatory. The University reserves the right to retest students during the program.
Upside down. “The bar has been set so unrealistically high that McGill and Concordia risk losing even more students, money and prestige if they are punished for failing to meet the terms of this Faustian bargain,” according to an editorial from Montreal Gazette.
At the location. Last year, François Legault’s government confirmed Philippe Couillard’s decision to offer McGill a large part of the former Royal Victoria Hospital, of inestimable heritage value. To finance this historic expansion of McGill, Quebec has also confirmed that it will grant more than $650 million, which propels the English-speaking university to a level of Quebec funding never previously known by a French-speaking university, whatever it may be. .
Upside down. “Why is François Legault determined to destroy McGill and Concordia,” asks the columnist of the National Post, Tasha Kheiriddin? She knows the answers: 1. To save his political skin, while the Parti Québécois is climbing in the polls, 2. Because in his childhood, he played hockey against the English. (I’m summarizing.) “He’s now acting like a five-year-old throwing a tantrum,” she concludes.
At the location. The number of unilingual English-speaking foreign students in Quebec increased from 16,000 in 2015 to 35,800 in 2021. To this must be added 5,300 unilingual English-speaking Canadian students. This is the equivalent of twice the population of Westmount which is thus permanently and until now growing in the city center. This creates, notes author Frédéric Lacroix, “centered on McGill, Dawson, Concordia, Matrix, Herzing, etc., an English-speaking city-state in the heart of Montreal.” In addition to the obvious increase in demand for services in English that their presence imposes, the Office québécois de la langue française notes that in the city center, we are welcomed more in English only in the evening and on weekends (in 18% of cases). This is a reflection of the hiring of these monolingual students by merchants in need of labor.
Upside down. “Ultimately, there is no reason to apply this measure and many reasons not to do so,” writes the Montreal Gazette in editorial, except to erode the vitality of Quebec’s English-speaking community, destroy English universities, weaken English institutions and score populist political points. »
Jean-François Lisée led the PQ from 2016 to 2018. He has just published Through the mouth of my pencils published by Somme Tout/Le Devoir. [email protected]