[lbo-talk] Quebec separatism

[Mark S]

tfast at yorku.ca wrote:
>
>This is part of the flawed logic of the BI&BI commission: the feds have no
>jurisdiction over education, that is, education is a beast of the 
>provinces.
>So the Feds tried using its spending power to coax provinces into 
>establishing
>bilingual programs.  The provinces were never committed to the project,
>particualrly he western provinces.  So what you have today is a scattering 
>of
>french language schools throughout the country which maybe, at best, could
>serve 5% of the k-12 population.  There is french being taught in 
>highschools
>but unless you are going to go to university you do not need more than 
>grade 10
>french to graduate and in some places less (and in many places french 
>language
>instruction does not start until grade 7).  The Feds have however been good 
>at
>demanding french language competence and training for individuals in their
>employ including the military.
>
I should point out that Canada is more than just English and French.  My 
school system in western Canada offered either French or Cree (an Aboriginal 
language) as the second language option after grade 7.  I see this as a good 
use of provincial power over education.

I was in Montreal yesterday and I was impressed by the diversity relative to 
other parts of Canada.  But as was mentioned earlier, any non-francophone 
immigrant in their right mind would move to the more economically-dynamic 
Toronto.

M.

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