François Legault’s true goal is to fundamentally transform Quebec’s English universities
JEFFERY VACANTE
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Jeffery Vacante is an assistant professor of history at the University of Western Ontario. He is the author of National Manhood and the Creation of Modern Quebec.
The Quebec government announced on Thursday that it is moving ahead with its plan to significantly raise tuition fees for out-of-province students studying at one of Quebec’s English universities. Beginning next fall, students from outside Quebec will pay $12,000 a year, which is less than the $17,000 originally proposed but still well above the cost of tuition in other provinces. The government also announced that students from outside the province will have to attain a certain level of proficiency in French before they graduate from either McGill or Concordia. If not enough of these students attain proficiency, the government will punish these two universities by reducing their funding.
Bishop’s University, which is located in Lennoxville and thus not seen as a threat to French in Montreal, will be exempt from the tuition-fee increase, although the number of out-of-province students it will be permitted to admit will be capped. These students will be subject to the same French proficiency requirements, but the government will not penalize Bishop’s if these students fail to learn French.
This latest plan appears designed to inflict maximum harm on McGill and Concordia, something that Deep Saini, the principal of McGill, recognized when he described it as a “targeted attack” on Montreal’s two English universities. Dr. Saini also expressed frustration that the government has been unwilling to even discuss the “thoughtful and realistic proposal” that he and the leaders of Concordia and Bishop’s had put forward last month in response to the government’s initial plan.
In that proposal, Dr. Saini and the two other leaders promised that if the government scrapped its planned tuition-fee increases, they would pursue “a full range of new initiatives to promote the French language and a better understanding of Quebec society,” as well as help “students from outside Quebec adopt [the] French culture and language when they arrive here.” They also acknowledged that “French remains under threat in Quebec, particularly in Montreal,” and pledged to be “the government’s natural allies in the protection, promotion and influence of French in Quebec.”
By suggesting that French is threatened in Montreal and that their institutions could do more to promote French, McGill and Concordia effectively made the case for the government to impose these new French proficiency requirements. This became clear when Pascale Déry, the Minister of Higher Education, praised the three English universities for recognizing that French is in decline in Montreal and for their willingness to do more to promote French.
If Dr. Saini or Graham Carr, the president of Concordia, ever believed that they could convince the government to change course, then they fundamentally misunderstood what this government hopes to accomplish with these increases.
The government hopes that the increases will discourage English-speaking students from coming to Quebec to study. This is a government, after all, that complains about hearing too much English on the streets of Montreal and that blames out-of-province students for the supposed anglicization of the city. The new French proficiency requirements have nothing to do with any desire by the government to teach French to out-of-province students. They are intended, rather, to act as a deterrent to students thinking of applying to McGill or Concordia.
The government is also attempting to weaponize tuition fees and funding for universities in ways that would allow them to punish students and universities that it believes are working against the interests of Quebec. If an English-speaking student from outside the province is deemed a threat to the French language in Quebec, for example, then that student will pay more in tuition fees than another student at another university who is not deemed a threat.
Likewise, by proposing to punish McGill and Concordia when they inevitably fail to meet the new francization targets, the government is establishing a justification for further cuts down the road and in perpetuity. In order to hold on to their funding, McGill and Concordia will have to either accept fewer unilingual students or offer more courses in French in the hopes of demonstrating to the government that they are no longer threats to Quebec’s French character. As they begin to offer more and more courses in French, and as they begin to conduct more and more of their affairs in French, McGill and Concordia will no longer resemble the institutions they once were, nor serve the English-speaking community they once served.
That, in the end, appears to be the point. Premier François Legault’s true goal is to cut McGill and Concordia down to size, redistribute their resources to francophone universities, and ultimately to begin the process of transforming them into French-language institutions.
