Quebec's plan to bolster French language sets up Mohawk students to fail, educators warn

Having spent years working as a guidance counsellor in her community's schools, Arlene Teiohserahte Horne speaks glowingly about the younger generation of Kahnawake Mohawks and their potential.

"I have so much faith in our youth," Horne said.

She includes in that vote of confidence her grandson and granddaughter, who are both in high school, gearing up to leave the Mohawk territory on Montreal's South Shore to go to CEGEP.

"We're trying so hard in Kahnawake to push our children to get a better education. We want our own doctors; we want our own nurses; we want our own scientists. We have such creative people," she said.

Horne is worried those goals will be derailed by a plan by the Coalition Avenir Québec government to bolster the province's French-language law, and she warns it could set up hundreds of young people in Kahnawake for failure.

For Horne and many others, a major point of contention is a recent amendment to the proposed Bill 96 which would force students attending English-language CEGEPs to take three courses — history or geography classes, for example — in French.

This change was originally proposed by the Liberal Official Opposition and unanimously adopted earlier this month by the legislative committee studying the bill.

Days later, after an outcry from CEGEP students themselves and from college administrators who were not consulted about the amendment, the Liberals walked back support for their own proposal, asking the CAQ government to do away with it.

WATCH | Mental health consultant in Kahnawake explains how Bill 96 would hurt Indigenous students:

So far, both Premier François Legault and Simon Jolin-Barrette, the minister responsible for the French language, appear unwilling to scrap the amendment.

In a statement to CBC News, a spokesperson for Jolin-Barrette said Bill 96 was crafted in a manner to make sure "none of the bill's provisions infringe upon the inalienable rights of First Nations and Inuit to maintain and develop their traditional languages and cultures."

"We also made sure to facilitate access to learning the common language by giving college students the tools to thrive and participate fully in Quebec society," the statement read.

However, Horne, the Mohawk elder, sees the bill as yet another unfair hurdle for children in her community, many of whom do not speak French.

"You may as well tie their hands behind their back," she said, before switching from English to French.