A poll finding reported in our news pages today offers a happy compromise to Premier Jean Charest and his government, if they choose to grasp it.
Respondents to a survey conducted for The Gazette by the respected Léger Marketing said, by a two-to-one margin, that everyone should have access to schooling in English.
The question was clear: "At present, English-language primary and secondary schools are open only to students who had a parent in English school in Canada. Should other Quebecers, including francophones, also have access to English-language schooling if they wish?"
The response, too, was clear: 66 per cent of respondents, including 87 per cent of non-francophones and an impressive 61 per cent of francophones, answered Yes.
Now, one poll question is not the voice of God. If the question had, say, mentioned Bill 101 by name, the francophone Yes reply might well have been weaker. But the result does also suggest that Quebec's robust "French-is-in-peril" industry has over-amplified the public's language concerns, or perhaps under-stated francophone parents' desire for their children to learn English.
So opening English schools to more children might not be the political killing zone it is often imagined to be. Could the Liberal government summon the courage and the acumen to take a step in this direction? Some activists would howl, but if this is what the public wants ...
It is, we judge, unrealistic to expect any government to open English schools to everyone who wants to attend. However, as we await the government's response to the Supreme Court's invalidation of Bill 104, a neat compromise suggests itself, one which the Charest government could and should consider:
First, the government could go ahead, as we understand it intends to do, to tighten access to English schools via the one-year-in-a-fully-private-school-for-the-firstborn route. Second, and in the same bill, Quebec could open English schools to any children with at least one parent educated in English anywhere on Earth. Or access could be limited to those with a parent educated in English in only the U.S. or Britain, say. Either way, this access could be opened just for a trial period, say three years.
A bill like that, moving in both directions on access at once, so to speak, would be a respectable compromise - and, according to our poll, a crowd-pleasing one, too.