Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Mr. Guy Rocher! In the same way that it only takes a few miserable individuals to transform the earth into hell, it also takes a few exceptional beings, animated by kindness, knowledge, a spirit of justice, to make the world in which we live.
You have honored the land of Quebec with your visionary presence for 100 years! You have never stopped shedding light on our education system, on the protection of French, and showing us the pitfalls of abysmal multiculturalism.
But it is on a personal basis that I would like to thank you. Without the loan and scholarship system, I would not have been able to access university studies. And for that, I will always be infinitely grateful to my country, Quebec, which has resolutely entered the modern era thanks to you and some great Quebecers. Coming from a working-class neighborhood, Limoilou, and from a single-parent family due to the premature death of my father, I knew that my dreams of higher education would not have been destined to come true otherwise.
My generation, that of today’s baby boomers, then entered university in force, girls and boys, thanks to these financial measures aimed at democratizing access to education, which made the roadblocks of societal elitism. It is a generation that can be found in large numbers with a book in hand at the café, or at classical concerts, at the opera, at the theater. It was the first generation of Quebecers to immerse themselves in the intoxicating spiral of culture and the arts, sciences and sports. It is the first generation to benefit from “the joy of living in Quebec”, thanks to a much more equitable society. And this fairness comes to us from school, where we all rub shoulders in the emulsion of learning, sons and daughters of workers and doctors. A whole generation comes from these schools open to all, creators, writers, scientists, entrepreneurs.
Provided that there are a few other enlightened minds who understand as quickly as possible that it is almost midnight for the establishment of law 101 in CEGEPs, of reinforced secularism and applied from kindergarten, and of more rigorous laws for protect French, which, as an official language, must have predominance, even exclusivity, everywhere, without exception.
Thank you, Mr. Rocher, for this vision that as a great people, we can remain despite all odds. However, it would be enough to give ourselves the means, and to stop begging from these empty-handed people who despise us.