Final Project (in progress)
The Supreme Court of Canada will play a big role in deciding what school Alexia Silvestri will be attending in the fall. Her parents are awaiting a Supreme Court decision on the legality of Quebec’s Bill 104, which affects accessibility of students to the English public school system in Quebec.
Bill 104 has already affected the education of thousands of Quebecers. However, the law was challenged in court and in 2006, the Appeals Court dismissed the law, saying it infringed the Canadian Charter Right for minority language rights. Overall the appeal process has taken seven years.
Most of the appellants to the initial appeal have since graduated from school or moved away. Their lawyer, Brent Tyler, said that this turn of events is hardly surprising.
“We expected this to happen. Some parents cannot afford to stay involved in a long drawn-out process.” Tyler noted that of the original 130 families who were involved in the initial challenge, only 25 remained. Even the main appellant Hong Nguyen, for whom the case is named, moved to the United States because his child would graduate from high school before the Supreme Court would issue a ruling.
This episode is the latest in a long line of struggles that has marked the right to English education in the province of Quebec since the early 1950s.
What used to be a battle to keep students from entering the French school system has turned into a battle to keep them there.
Frank Valenti knows a thing or two about being turned away from French school. He came from Italy in 1960 and remembers when local authorities wanted to restrict French school to francophones. “It was as if Italian Catholics and French Catholics were two different peoples. First they wanted us in English school. Then the government changed their mind. I remember how angry my parents were.”
Frank took part in the infamous Saint Leonard riots in 1968 in the tiny Montreal suburb. After quietly encouraging Catholic immigrants to get their education in English, Quebec politicians feared the French language would fade if immigrants kept learning English.
“Why were we second class citizens?” Valenti asks. “I am lucky they put me in English school. Now my kids get a better education.”
Frank’s kids have access to English education because the Quebec government restricts access to the English education system only to those whose parents have received instruction in English in Canada. Robert Bourassa instituted this law in 1973, so all the children of immigrants who came to Quebec as adults were forced into the French system.
Veronica Silvestri finds herself in a similar situation. Her parents immigrated in 1962 but were too old to go to school. As a result, Veronica and her four older siblings all went to French school. Her husband Sergio is in the same scenario.
Despite going to school in French, Veronica and her husband speak mostly English in the home. Before 2002, they would have been able to send Alexia to an English private school for one year, and then transfer her over to the English public school system.
There was a loophole in the Quebec education system, which allowed parents of ineligible children to get in through the backdoor. Bill 104 closed this loophole. If the court invalidates the law, Alexia would be headed to English private school in the fall for one year.
The Quebec government wants to prevent this loophole from flooding the English school system with ineligible children. Lawyer Brent Tyler disputes the government’s fears. “This is such a small portion of the overall figures of English students. The French language I hardly threatened by a few hundred kids.”
According to figures released by the Quebec Ministry of Education, students using the exemption to get around the law account for a fraction of one percent of students in the Quebec education system. English students account for 11% of all children in elementary and secondary schools in Quebec. Of that 11%, less than 2% of students are affected by this change.
For Brent Tyler, this is a rights issue. “We see scenarios where families have to move away to prevent their children from failing school.” Among the case’s 130 appellants, one child was forced to switch from English to French school between elementary and secondary school. In English school he was a straight-A student. He failed grade seven and has seen his grades plummet.
Tyler questions whom the government is trying to help here. “This is ridiculous. The bureaucracy is affecting the academic future of some of these kids.”
Once the ruling comes down this spring, hundreds of Quebec families are hoping to have a little bit more control over their children’s education.
Alexia Silvestri began Kindergarten just after her fifth birthday in September. She is adapting quickly to the French environment and is doing well at school. Veronica would transfer her to English private school for one year if she had the option.
“She has many more opportunities with the English language credentials. I do not want my daughter to be educated as a unilingual francophone. They do not teach English in French schools like they teach French in English schools.”
The public school Veronica is looking to eventually send her daughter to is East Hill in the East End of Montreal. It is a school that teaches Grades 1-3 in French and Grades 4-6 in 50-50 French English Immersion. The school is only open to students eligible for English education.
“I find it silly that I have to get Alexia eligible for an English school to send her to an elementary school that is 75% French.”
French schools only offer one hour of English education until Grade 4, where it increases to four hours of education per week. Many parents fear their children will not know enough English to enter the workforce in Montreal.
“Where I work now, you need to be bilingual. We deal with American clients as well as other companies in English Canada. Speaking both languages is the key to getting a good job here. I want to help out my daughter as much as possible.”
Once the decision is made by the Supreme Court of Canada, it is expected to be final. The section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that protects minority language education in Canada cannot be superceded by the not-withstanding clause.
“The Quebec government would be sent back to the drawing board and have to come up with a new law,” Tyler says. The fear from many activists in the English community in Montreal is that the government will draft legislation similar to the last one and kick off another seven year legal marathon through the courts.
“These families deserve better than this. I hope if they try anything similar to Bill 104, we will be able to convince the court to let the old law stand until it is debated,” states Tyler. “Only 25 families are left. They just want to move on.”
Veronica Silvestri will accept either outcome. She just wants a decision. “I want to know what my daughter’s future is. I guess it is a mother’s instinct.”
Frank Valenti also wants his neighbour to go to school with her best friend. “It would be nice to have Alexia in my daughter’s class. They speak to each other all the time. English or French, school is where you learn about life and nobody should be able to take that away. I hope I don’t have to go back and get my signs and start another riot. All we can do is wait.”
