Loi 104 : Prenez du recul, SVP

Brève remise en contexte. (Back to defending democracy in a sec, but this is urgent). As stated in post SCC, Bill 104, Hypocrisy, Future: I've long thought there should be a referendum on the question of whether we want an anglophone minority. If yes, as most claim, then there has to be some way for them to maintain themselves demographically as well as make them feel welcome. In which case, either we adopt the Chambers Report's recommendation of allowing immigrants whose mother tongue is English to send their children to English public schools, or we adopt some other mechanism to allow the English community to renew itself while respecting the need to preserve & promote the language & culture of the majority, through for instance, offering greater school choice along with tax credits for those who choose French schools - this would be a more liberal policy, philosophically, and might even encourage more non-francophones to enroll in French schools. (To satisfy allophones, the Chambers' criteria, if that was the way pursued, could perhaps be marginally widened to include all immigrants who speak English and little or no French, but as now, all students would have to pass an exam of basic French proficiency to graduate from secondaire &/or CEGEP, with perhaps different standards for different population groups, ex: Quebec-born, other province-born, Foreign-born French stream, Foreign-born English stream). Whichever course is chosen would not in and of itself have a great effect, assuming immigration stays more or less as is, with only about 10 000 more children eligible for English language education - a tiny share of QC's student population but enough to be helpful for the English and perhaps encourage a feeling of belonging that will convince more to stay in QC and help turn around our declining population rate (in combination with the already helpful effects of our family-friendly policies).

I say all this to put the decision on Bill 104 in context. Because right now, the current policy consensus is completely hypocritical. The francophone elites send their kids to private schools, some English, some just offering extra English lessons, and get them English tutors, and vacations and exchanges in English situations, and rich Anglos can make sure their kids are fully bilingual as well, but poor Anglos and Francos are screwed, with their school choice restricted. At least poor Anglos can be sure to get decent education in their second official language. And the most mistreated are those poorish immigrants (as many are) who arrive with more mastery of English than French, but who are forced to send their kids, no matter what their age, to French schools where they have little chance to succeed. Obviously, they are mostly fine if they're young enough, but forcing older immigrant kids from say, Jamaica, to attend French schools is crazy. It doesn't improve their French enough to justify their weaker academic results. And it creates unnecessary alienation. And since we can't meet our immigration targets as they stand, unless we're willing to let tons more (poor) francophone Africans and Muslims into QC (uh, did y'all see the Bouchard-Taylor hearings?), we're screwing ourselves.

Bill 104 was designed to further entrench our current hypocrisy, given the minuscule number of immigrants who were using the private school loophole to access public English schools (about 1000, at most). Before, immigrants with an English language background who could scrape enough money together to send their eldest to private school for a year were able to send all the kids to English schools. So there was a financial hypocrisy. By closing the loophole, we just made the hypocrisy of the French elites even more striking - they became the only group allowed to cheat. We could close all private schools, but realistically, that's not going to happen (uh, Brébeuf?). We could escape the Charters (Canadian & Quebec) by separating and making French the only language of education, but separation seems unlikely, realistically, and even if we did, as Parizeau has often pointed out, given the pressures on QC post-independence, we'd probably have to offer more English courses and concessions, not less. So here we are. What to do? I'm OK with SCC decision on restriction of education rights for francophones, but I'd prefer a more elegant, philosophically liberal policy, using financial, that is tax, incentives: give choice, but get recompensed for sending kids to French schools. We'd still have the ability to switch back if problematic. But politically unrealistic currently. However, a recognised strong nationalist leader, like Parizeau or Bouchard, maybe even a Dumont, could work the policy for anglos and immigrants, or at least implement the Chambers Report recommendation. And the nationalist elites, PQ MNAs included, do indeed favour such policies in private, but everyone's hostage to the 20% of the population who are ultra-nationalists and who dominate the PQ membership. They force the PQ leadership to pretend to believe in idiotic policies, which in turn forces the PLQ to mimic them, so as to seem legitimately nationalist for the median francophone voter, and on and on, and so 80% of Quebec is hostage to the other, most bigoted, 20%, with all the harm that does in QC, Cda and beyond.

At least the loophole offered some faint possibility of help for English proficient immigrants. What is needed, really, is some grandeur d'esprit, some generosity. I don't expect much from Charest & Marois, given they're hostages, but one can always hope. Maybe Harel & Lemieux will learn from their municipal experience and speak up. Maybe Bouchard will say what he really thinks out loud. Maybe the PLQ & PQ leadership will grow some backbone. I always thought Bouchard might bring in a modernising "Loi 2001" in light of the now established ascendancy of French - he was the one guy who could have got the population behind him. But given how much he was loathed and distrusted by the PQ membership, and which he reciprocated, as we saw from the circumstances of his departure, it probably would have ripped the PQ apart, which was obviously irrecevable from a separatist point of view. I guess all that is to be hoped is that everyone keep this decision in context, keep calm, and show some empathy, sympathy and generosity, all around. One can always hope.