Quebec’s English colleges say they are being targeted by government for their success

The Quebec government's Bill 96 would also force English CEGEPs to prioritize students who did their primary and secondary education in English.

Recent amendments to Quebec’s new language bill are targeting English junior colleges because the schools are increasingly popular among non-anglophones, say students and representatives of the college system.

The colleges are being scapegoated for the perceived decline in the vitality of French in Quebec, they say, adding that if the bill is passed, it would jeopardize student success and compromise the freedom of young French speakers to decide where they go to school.

Bill 96 includes several amendments restricting access to English-language junior colleges, including a cap on the number of students who can attend. The bill is designed to strengthen the province’s flagship language law, Bill 101, but two representatives of the college system say the schools are being targeted by the government because of their success.

Bernard Tremblay, head of the association of Quebec junior colleges – called CEGEPs — says that over the last decade or so, the popularity of English colleges has grown among francophones and allophones — students whose mother tongue is neither English nor French.

“We’ve made CEGEPS the scapegoat for the issue of French vitality in Quebec when we all know the real question is, ‘why are more and more young francophones and allophones wanting to pursue their training in English?”’ said Tremblay, president of the Fédération des cégeps.

Blaming junior colleges, he said, is an attempt to find “a simple solution to a complex problem.”

Since hearings on Bill 96 resumed after the Christmas break, parliamentarians have approved a series of amendments that have raised alarm in the junior college community, which says it was not consulted on the changes.

Those amendments would freeze the number of students enrolled in the English system at current levels, and they wouldn’t allow the number to rise even if the population of anglophones grows in Quebec. They would also force all students at English colleges to take at least three core classes in French, excluding courses about the French language.