Nos études, Notre Choix—Town Hall, Exclusive Information Included

On May 5th, protests led by student unions took place in lieu of the emerging Bill 96 on the campuses of Marianopolis, Dawson, and John Abbott. Some Marianopolis students decorated their masks with red crosses to demonstrate the unheard voices of students, teachers, and others who will be impacted by the bill. Certain media outlets were said to be present to record the event, but only CTV News was seen during the protest.

During Activity Period, students gathered in the West Wing of the Mari campus. Pratham Meht, current President of Congress, introduced and briefly described the bill.

“This bill, if passed, will attack every single one of us”,

Pratham Meht

Bill 96, as you might have heard from other students and on the news, is a regulation pushed by the Coalition Avenir Quebec, the current party holding the majority of seats in Quebec.

From an anonymous source, we have obtained a recording of a Zoom meeting that took place between the Director General (DG), Christian Corno, and teachers to explain the bill and its implications for the staff members.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1P7vz0nHzggyn-OJOIo8wteR4xx_Q77Ug/view?usp=sharing

During this meeting, Mr. Corno stated that before the recent announcements in April there was no mention of the regulation affecting private colleges. Thus, all the private English institutions in Quebec were shocked to learn about the bill’s and the CAQ’s intentions. After the publication of official announcements, there was a shared sense of urgency. Private English Cégeps recognized they have no way of disputing with the provincial government, which, as Mr. Corno explained, is why Marianopolis has resulted in the involvement of the media, even as it is an unusual thing to do for this institution.

The DG talked to the personnel within the Ministry of Education, and some of them said the rollout of the regulations for Bill 96 is going to take a huge amount of work and serious alterations to the education system within Cégeps. If the bill passes, the linguistic family background of a student will be the determining factor of whether or not they are admitted to a Cegep. Additionally, admitted students will be sorted into categories such as anglophones, allophones (a student whose mother language is neither French nor English), or francophones. Students deemed as anglophones will do five French courses or courses in French during Cegep. Allophones or francophones will take the French Exit Exam and 3 French literature courses during their two years.

In summary, the bill will limit the number of students enrolled in English Cegep and stop English institutions from growing. Not forgetting the teachers, a considerable number of them currently teaching courses in English, never mind the ones who teach English as their subject, will lose their jobs. Furthermore, health care and legal workers will be restricted to using the French language for all service users, risking further marginalizing newly arrived immigrants and emigrants in Quebec who speak English but not French. These propositions will become our reality latest in the Fall of 2024 in the provincial government’s agenda. 

Following Pratham’s speech, the DG addressed the students in this rare face-to-face manner. Mr. Corno seems to be very involved in this cause, understandably because his occupation will probably be affected in the distant future. He stated that if the bill was currently in place, two hundred current students would not be studying at Marianopolis and would be studying in a French school instead. He pointed out that current students’ younger brothers and sisters will not have the same opportunities as we do. He also appealed to more competitive students, mentioning that students whose French is not as good as their English will experience a drop in their grades.

“Lower r-score means no Med School, no Law School.”

Mr. Corno

After the DG’s segment, a few students and teachers spoke out. Allison Engo, a member of the Consortium of English-language Cégeps, spoke on behalf of the health workers who will need to perform their work and speak to patients in French even though they and patients might not be able to articulate in the language as well as English if at all. She declares the bill to be “rigid and devoid of any empathy”.

Another student, Destiny Lazore, spoke up on behalf of the Indigenous communities. As she is an Indigenous student at Marianopolis, she said that this bill will only “perpetuate colonialism” by dictating what language to speak in schools and creating another obstacle for members of First Nations’ education.

Professors such as Christopher Forget and David Fleming spoke from points of view. Professor Fleming said that “job cuts are inevitable”, and that if the bill passes, he will be one of the first teachers who will no longer have a job bill. He reveals that he is the father of four kids and that losing his job will certainly cause anxiety within his family.

After the speeches, the gathered students and teachers proceeded to the lawn and walked the circumference of the front lawn, shouting different slogans such as “Hey hey, ho ho, bill 96 has got to go!” and “Nos études, Notre Choix!”.

For students who are interested in protesting against Bill 96 further, there is a public rally happening on May 14th.

This bill is certainly not of light importance and should be taken seriously.

Even as it feels like there is an abundance of important world events happening at this moment, all Quebecers should look out for the final decision made about this bill.