Brief by Bonjour Merci Québec to the government to ensure a real mastery of French by English-speaking students in Quebec
The Government of Quebec has created an advisory committee on constitutional Issues in Quebec ( Comité consultatif sur les enjeux constitutionnels du Québec au sein de la fédération canadienne.) within the Canadian Federation. Its mandate is to recommend measures to protect and promote the collective rights of the Quebec nation, including Quebec's ability to make its own language choices. The committee is composed of six members under the chairmanship of Messrs. Guillaume Rousseau and Sébastien Proulx. The Committee invited interested persons to submit briefs.
I am honoured to announce that I have submitted a brief to the Committee, entitled Pour une véritable maitrise du français par tous les étudiants au Québec - Un projet d’amendement à l’article 59 de la Loi constitutionnelle de 1982. My brief was submitted to the Committee’s public website on September 6, 2024. The full text can be viewed on the Committee’s website, or on my blog.
Your comments are welcome and can be submitted through my Bonjour Merci Québec website.
In summary, my brief examines the main constraint limiting Quebec’s ability to make its own linguistic choices, section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights. The brief makes recommendations to eliminate the application of this constraint in Quebec, and thus allow the Government of Quebec to take all measures it deems necessary in the educational field to ensure true mastery of French by English-speaking students in Quebec. I invite you to read the full text of the brief. Otherwise, here is a summary:
SUMMARY
The mandate of the ¨Comité consultatif sur les enjeux constitutionnels du Québec au sein de la fédération canadienne¨ is to recommend measures to protect and promote the collective rights of the Quebec nation, including Quebec’s ability to make its own language choices. This brief examines the main constraint limiting Quebec’s ability to make its own linguistic choices, and makes recommendations to eliminate this constraint.
Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights, adopted by the United Kingdom Parliament in 1982 at the request of Canada, grants the right to English-speaking parents in Quebec to send their children to study in the public education system in English, thereby imposing on Quebec a linguistically segregated public education system.
Section 59 of the Constitutional Act, 1982, also adopted by the United Kingdom Parliament at the request of Canada:
- Partially limits the application of section 23 in Quebec;
- Implicitly enshrines the principle of constitutional asymmetry in linguistic matters in Canada;
- Implicitly recognizes the need to further protect French because of its fragility in Quebec, a fragility that has since been recognized by the Official Languages Act.
Despite the above, the application of section 23, even partially, has the following adverse effects in Quebec:
- It results in additional costs annually that are ultimately paid by all Quebec taxpayers. The federal government and the 9 other provinces requested that this obligation be imposed on Quebec, but are not required to pay the financial costs resulting from this duplication of the education system.
- The public English education system, which benefits from significant management freedom, continues to produce graduates who are not fluent in French (speaking, writing, reading and thinking).
- This lack of fluency in French has many harmful effects: it harms the ability and motivation of English speakers to use French as the common and habitual language, to pursue post-secondary studies in French, to work in French and even to remain in QC for the long term.
- Section 23 of the Canadian Charter impedes the promotion of French in QC by limiting Quebec's right to become involved in the management of schools in the English education system to ensure that all graduates are fluent in French.
The Supreme Court of Canada’s interpretation of section 23 has been resistant to any interpretation favoring Quebec’s jurisdiction in education, and this trend is likely to increase.
This submission proposes to expand the non-application of section 23 of the Canadian Charter to Quebec by a constitutional amendment to section 59, without amending the text of the Canadian Charter of Rights. This will ensure continued protection of French elsewhere in Canada by maintaining the application of the section 23 outside Quebec.
It is proposed to proceed by constitutional amendment in the same way that section 93 of the Constitution, 1867 was made non-applicable to Quebec.
The brief identifies three interim measures to promote the mastery of French by English students that can be taken while awaiting the adoption of the proposed amendment.
- require increased proficiency in French in the current English-speaking system
- adopt increased language requirements for admissions to a profession or trade
- adopt increased language requirements for admissions to an English-speaking CEGEP.
Marc Ryan
Author