CEGEP students protest Bill 96 in co-ordinated demonstrations in and around Montreal
Global News
Students across Montreal held simultaneous demonstrations on Thursday against Bill 96, the province's proposed language reform. Demonstrations happened at five English CEGEPS.
CEGEP students across Montreal and surrounding areas held simultaneous demonstrations on Thursday against Bill 96, the province’s language reform.
They’re concerned about a controversial amendment to Bill 96 that would have required all students in English-language CEGEPs to take three program-related courses in French in order to graduate.
That amendment has since been modified but students are unsatisfied.
Students who don’t have the required language skills to take core courses in French will be allowed to substitute them for three French-language classes of 45 hours each. This will only be allowed for those who went to English elementary and high schools.
At Dawson College on Thursday, a few hundred students gathered in the campus’s busy atrium.
“When we’re over 10,000 students, there’s very few times that we all agree for the most part,” said Dawson Student Union president Alexandrah Cardona. “Especially when it comes to political or social issues.”
Both students and teachers agree Bill 96 is not the way to encourage anglophone students to improve their French language skills.
“Everyone at Dawson, teachers, community members, students, we all want to celebrate the French language in Quebec,” said Adam Bright, a teacher at Dawson. “Smart policy would involve consultation with students, teachers and administrators on how best to do that.”