"Fair play for the children of rich parents who weren't educated in English in Canada!" As a rallying cry, it's not exactly "We shall fight on the beaches ..." is it? But the Bill 104 debate is becoming more important for the anglophone and allophone community than the Quebec government seems to recognize.
Jean Charest and his caucus appear to be preparing a new restriction on language choice in schooling. But the Liberals should think twice before they offer this knee-jerk kick to communities that have supported them strongly.
At issue is Quebec's response to October's Supreme Court ruling striking down the 2002 law Bill 104, which closed a so-called "loophole" in Bill 101's restrictions on access to English schooling. Before Bill 104, a family otherwise barred from English schools could become eligible by sending the oldest child (usually) to a fully-private English school for one year. Receiving no government funding, those schools are expensive but exempt from Bill 101's rules. Bill 104 bricked up that loophole, until the Supreme Court deemed 104 unreasonable. The case, involving allophone, francophone, and anglophone families, was fought and won by the tenacious and resourceful lawyer Brent Tyler.
Charest, evidently determined never to be outflanked on language, instantly vowed to undo the Court's work. Ministers brandishing the notwithstanding clause emitted billowing choking clouds of rhetoric about "defending French."
One particularly unreasonable claim they're using is that before Bill 104, rich people could "buy the right" to English school. What circular illogic: If English schooling is a right, why does government restrict it? If it's not a right, why shouldn't rich people buy it, like a big-screen TV? And if "buying rights" is so wrong, why do we tolerate private clinics where you can "buy the right" to avoid a long wait for a medicare-paid blood test?
Nor does anyone in government seem to understand that today's "English" schools, public and private, teach more and better French than ever before - and have lower dropout rates. Success is no defence.
The Supreme Court gave Quebec a year to fix Bill 104. A bill will likely be introduced in the National Assembly next month, and passed before the summer recess. This tight timetable will minimize resistance - provided all parties back the bill. That tells us what the bill will be like.
It's all so cheerlessly predictable. Francophone Quebec is in no mood for accommodations right now, even reasonable ones.
But anglophones, too, feel like they are up against a wall these days, and with good reason. The new anglo angst is personified by Marcus Tabachnick, longtime chairman of the Lester B. Pearson School Board, always adept at working "within the system," rather than making a fuss. When he chooses to go public, you know there's a real problem.
Naturally enough, his concern begins with schools. Montreal's two English boards now have about 46,000 students, down by 8,000 in just five years. Government figures project a decline to under 38,000 by 2017. His board and the English Montreal School Board are trying to mobilize anglophone opinion over Bill 104, not on the narrow basis that rich parents should have choice, but on the basis that the whole English community needs "oxygen."
But the real problem, Tabachnick told The Gazette's editorial board Tuesday, is "more than just schools." As the English education system dwindles, what happens to the whole anglophone community? "There comes a point when you feel you have to say something."
What we heard was a genuine expression of concern, right from the heart of a sophisticated and experienced observer. "They've got to treat (anglophones) like citizens," Tabachnick said. But instead "they tolerate us. I don't like to be tolerated."
As usual, the anglophone community's fate in this matter is in the hands of the Liberals. Is it inevitable that access will be tightened? Probably. But how much? The group that speaks for private schools wants the "one year in fully-private school" trigger for access raised to two years. Others suggest four, or even six.
But what if the government summoned the imagination to show, at the same time, some concern for Quebec's historic anglophone community, too? What if the same bill offered a breath of "oxygen" to English schools? Tabachnick suggests, for example, opening access to English schools for immigrants from the United States, Britain, and Australia. Every week, he said, his officials must tell would-be immigrants from those countries that their children would not be eligible for English schools. This alone, he said, has choked off immigration to Quebec from those countries.
If they choose to, the Liberal government can now avoid dealing another body blow to anglophones and allophones. Anglophones understand all too well that francophone narrowness of spirit threatens to choke our community, slowly but inexorably. There's a payoff in the polls for "defending French" but the truly right thing to do would be to defend the broader interest of all Quebecers.