It was in the distant spring of 2022. The English-speaking press, the directors of Dawson CEGEPs and others, and the Quebec Liberal Party announced the catastrophe. Imagine: the Quebec government was going to force Anglo CEGEP students to take not two French courses, as was already the case, but five. French or, worse, in French. This was going to jeopardize the careers of these poor students, helpless in the face of a strange, to say the least, indecipherable idiom. Their results would suffer, in particular their “R rating”, a key that opens, or locks, the door to the best universities. Anglos, it goes without saying.
In any case, the organization of this reform was going to cause chaos. We simply could not mobilize the resources, the teachers, the premises. Insurmountable. Quebec’s reputation would not recover. Five French lessons meant pushing our young people to flee to Ontario.
Where are we, 18 months later? The reform is taking place smoothly, reports the Montreal Gazette. Dawson, we learn, finds it reasonable to direct his deemed “intermediate” students to courses in French. R rating? “Not a major concern,” says communications manager Megan Ainscow now. For what ? “Because each student will be placed according to their abilities. » Which was planned from the start.
Graduates of high schools of Quebec may well be legally deemed “bilingual”, they do not all have the required level for PGL Dictation. According to a compilation from the Ministry of Education, 13% of them are “advanced” speakers of the language of Vigneault. Fastoche: these are mainly French speakers who, through family ties, had the right to do their primary and secondary education in English. The “intermediaries” make up the bulk of the troop: 68%. Beginners, 19%. The weakest will take French lessons and, if an intermediate stumbles in his French lesson, he will be demoted. So, no crisis, no exodus, only a gradual process of improving the knowledge of French for young people destined for the Quebec job market. A new normal, which we are simply surprised was not introduced much earlier.
Let’s return to the present and the end of fall 2023. The Anglo press, the rectors of McGill and Concordia, the Liberal Party of Quebec announce the catastrophe. Imagine: the Quebec government will force 80% of non-French speaking, non-Quebec students to take French courses. This will jeopardize the viability of institutions, drive away paying students to Ontario, and further tarnish Quebec’s international reputation.
It’s safe, it’s sure. When they learn, in Berlin, San Francisco, Shanghai and Mumbai, that you need a minimum of French to study in Quebec, they will not believe their ears.
Let’s be on good account. Among the students from outside Quebec who come to study at McGill and Concordia, there are people who absolutely do not want to learn French. From now on, we will tell them (except 20% of them) that it is obligatory. Refractory people will decide not to come. Why can’t I be scandalized by this situation? Why do I rather have the reflex to rejoice about it? And why didn’t we think of it sooner? It’s clear, it’s clear and it should apply to everyone (except tourists): if French doesn’t interest you, don’t come to Quebec! Here there is the French Touch. Take it or leave it.
It must be admitted that reaching level 5 orally (there are 12 levels) will be more difficult for students whose language is very different from French, such as Mandarin or Hindi. However, students from China and India have for several years been a gold mine for English-speaking universities around the world. McGill will either have to offer them intensive summer sessions to bring them up to speed (with a branch in Saguenay, why not?), or fall back on other recruitment areas. But it is likely that the golden age of foreign student income that they have experienced over the past five years is, for our English-speaking universities, in the rearview mirror. They won’t die from it.
We can both welcome this announcement from Minister Pascale Déry and regret that it does not go further. Why 80% and not 100%? We talk about a question of resources, of availability of teachers. Let us then spread the implementation over a few more years. Why level 5 oral at the end of the baccalaureate, and not more? Same answer. Why not then require level 7 at the master’s level, and 9 at the doctorate level? Why not apply the measure to Quebec students from McGill and Concordia and demand, for them, level 9 at the end of the baccalaureate? (McGill requires level 9 of English at entry for non-Anglos. It must be good, right?) Notice to the writers of the next electoral program of the Parti Québécois.
A word on the compromise concerning tuition fees for Canadians outside Quebec, which will go from 9,000 to 12,000 dollars rather than 17,000. This is not expensive, in exchange for 80% francization. And given the cost of housing in Toronto and Vancouver, the overall Montreal offer will remain competitive.
My nationalist friends are angry that we continue to finance Canadian students in this way. But we have no idea of the existence of the reciprocal, of the level of funding, by other provinces, of Quebec students. This data has not been compiled, to date, by anyone. So we simply don’t know whether or not we benefit from reciprocity.
I am informed that the idea of returning to the Quebec rate for the French and Belgians, mentioned in a document, has been definitively ruled out. That’s wise. Above all, we must not renew the bilateral agreement with Paris where Quebec is the turkey of the joke. We must replace the entire system with a general program to attract the best French-speaking students in the world to Quebec, whatever their origin, and only support them financially in exchange for their commitment to then work in Quebec for several years.
It must be recognized that with this announcement, and a few others, the CAQ is showing real audacity. This is why its near linguistic catatonia in the face of the tsunami of temporary workers (half a million), whose cumulative impact is deleterious for French and counteracts the impact of other measures, leaves one speechless. Perhaps we should give this file to M.me Déry?
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].