Oh, Montreal business owners are going to be all over this. And it would matter, if Legault cared what Montreal thinks.
It’s like Doug Ford and Toronto (or Hamilton): they know the cities won’t vote for them, and they get more engagement from riling up their reactionary base than trying to govern for the whole province, so fuck them urban elites, amirite? I mean, they’re only the economic engine of the province…
Can’t wait to hear arguments from those who have deluded themselves into believing this is about protecting Quebec’s culture.
Because its totally not about pushing anglophones and other minorities out of the province. We all know that Papa Legault just loves them. /s
The tuition hike I fully disagree with (to be frank I think tuition should be free for all universities but that’s a whole other conversation).
However, I agree with having a French requirement. Québec is a French-majority province, so it makes sense to require French language classes. I attended the largest Canadian francophone university outside Québec (l’Université de Moncton) and a lot of programs had an English requirement (you could get exempted by passing a test, which to be fair I don’t know if exemptions will be part of Québec’s policy).
Most jobs in New Brunswick, or at least most of those that require a degree, necessitate communicating in English at times, so it makes sense to have an English requirement. Similarly, most jobs in Québec necessitate some French so it makes sense to have a French requirement.
They seem determined to destroy one of the top 3 most prestigious universities in Canada.
That university seems determined to act like it’s not established in Quebec so…
Oh no, tuition for Canadians from outside Quebec will cost as much as it does for Quebecois when they study in other provinces! 😱
Oh no, international students will still pay less to study in Quebec than they would to study in Ontario! 😱
Oh no, the government is finally doing something so French universities in the only French province aren’t systematically underfunded! 😱
Easy to make a bad analysis when you don’t compare to the situation in other provinces.
Oh no, tuition for Canadians from outside Quebec will cost as much as it does for Quebecois when they study in other provinces!
Okay, so what does that have to with this policy, which only impacts English language universities? High tuition is a problem across Canada, yes, but that doesn’t justify unfair or discriminatory policies based around language in Quebec.
Oh no, international students will still pay less to study in Quebec than they would to study in Ontario!
Again, whattaboutism with no relevance to the story being discussed here. Unless you’re arguing that Quebec shouldnt be held accountable for this decision just because other provinces have problems as well.
Oh no, the government is finally doing something so French universities in the only French province aren’t systematically underfunded!
If you’re saying that French language universities in Quebec are underfunded compared to English universities, I’d love to see some data to support that. Because anecdotally, I’ve attended multiple English schools in Quebec – including one of the universities cited in this story – and I can tell you they were far from being well-funded.
And if French universities are comparably or better funded than their English equivalents, yet people still prefer going to English schools, then maybe the real issue may be the quality of education that’s available. Or maybe people want to attend university in Quebec without necessarily living and working there afterward.
Also, pretty sure New Brunswick is also a French province; its an official language there.
Quebec is the only province where French is the only official language.
The only way you can say funding is similar is if you ignore everything else but provincial funding (and even then it’s close but English universities still get more per student). McGill is the richest university in Quebec with over a billion dollars in its purse, in the meantime the UQ is struggling to find enough money for the students it has.
Donating to one’s Alma Mater isn’t part of French Canadian culture like it is for Anglo Canadian’s, there’s a whole lot of historical reasons for that, but the point is, it’s McGill that receives 200m$ from an ex student, not the French universities.
The tuition policy affects ALL universities, not just the English ones.
Sure, students should go to university for free, but that’s another debate and that’s an issue where Quebec can’t be singled out. There’s also very little reason to give free education to people who will then leave the province that educated them and that will therefore not pay taxes to reimburse what they cost the education system. Because let me remind you, education is a provincial responsibility.
Lol, “better integrate into society” says the province that refuses to integrate into anglophone society which is far larger and more important to international business.
I disagree with Legault but I also disagree with you. Quebec and New Brunswick have no obligation to become English monolingual provinces. But we also shouldn’t be discriminating against people based on language (any language) where we can accommodate, especially if it’s one of the official languages of the country or province.
English is also an official language, yet it’s perfectly ok for Quebec to discriminate against Anglophones?
Please read what I said again…
The question was rhetorical. They fucking do, it’s an absolutely horrible place for anglophones to live, and Quebec can go fuck itself.
Quebec an horrible place for anglos to live? Makes you wonder why more Ontarians move to Quebec than the contrary…
Montreal, Gatineau, Sherbrooke and the cities/towns around are all places where you can spend your whole life living 100% in English even though it’s not an official language. Find me the equivalent for French Canadians in a major city in Alberta.
Multiculturalism is when every culture is free to abandon theirs for British ersatzs.
Bilingualism in Quebec is at something like 90% for people who pursue post secondary education. How’s bilingualism in your province going? Just a quick reminder that there’s two official languages in Canada so it would only be logical that people be bilingual even if English is their first language, wouldn’t it?
Except at 49 years old, I’ve never encountered a moment I needed french. The same can’t be said going the other way.
Perfectly feasible to live in Quebec without ever needing English, we still learn it and bilingualism is much higher than in other provinces.
It’s just the Anglo North American attitude, even the British are more bilingual than Anglo Canadians and Americans.
How many different languages are spoken within a 1000 km of the UK? How large are those communities? How many of the people from other communities also speak English? Ask the same questions for Canada and the answers are 3 with any significant population, less than 10% for one and is spread across two countries while being the official language of the third country for the other, and the vast majority of them for two of the three countries.
The North American anglophone attitude is very pragmatic, as is the British anglophone’s. The same applies for the North American francophone attitude, although they like to complain like they aren’t a minority, both nationally and across the continent. And if a company from Quebec wants to expand outside the province’s borders, requiring their employees to speak French is going to reduce their candidate pool and hence increase their payroll costs, or their leaders are going to have to learn English which, as we’ve already discussed, they already mostly do.
You and I can talk about what we’d like to see, or how things should be, and we might even agree about it. But this is how things are.
They “can” but it’s rather useful as all hell to know English while living in Quebec. It’s a struggle to find anyone born in the province who is not bilingual for this reason.
It is very one sided overall.
Get out of major city centers and English is pretty much useless in Quebec but people will still know enough to get by.
Je m’en crisse!
The myopia is strong with this one.
