What Quebec can learn from Yukon
Education in minority language for more kids makes a lot of sense
Who should have the right to control admissions to francophone schools outside Quebec — provincial governments or the minority-language school board?
Since 2009, the Yukon’s French school board — long faced with declining numbers — has been asking for the right to expand its enrolment criteria to include the children of French-speaking non-citizens and of “francophile” parents who wouldn’t otherwise qualify. In late August, the Yukon territorial government finally granted the Commission francophone scolaire du Yukon (CFSY) control over school admissions.
It’s a story that minority school boards in other parts of Canada — and parents interested in sending children to their schools — have been following with interest.
The new regulation under the Yukon Education Act caps a long fight in which the CFSY has sought to enrol students who do not fit within the strict criteria set out in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Article 23 of the Charter guarantees Canadian citizens the right to educate their children in the minority language of the province where they live provided that it is the first language they themselves learned and still understand (although this provision does not apply in Quebec, where Bill 101 generally requires anglophone immigrants’ children to attend French schools), or if they received their primary education in Canada in the minority language.
In 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that while provinces and territories retain the right to control school board admissions, it can be delegated to school boards.
At the time, the CFSY had hoped that Quebec would appear before the Supreme Court to advocate a position of “asymmetry,” one that would support the aspirations of francophone linguistic minority communities in other parts of the country. Instead, Quebec’s attorney general sided with the Yukon government and against Yukon’s francophone school board.
Quebec was concerned with giving linguistic minority groups more power over their educational institutions. This, of course, would have certain implications in this province, where the minority English community has long lamented the declining enrolment in its schools due to government restrictions.
Arguably, there is less at stake for the Yukon in giving greater latitude to their minority-language school board. The Canadian Office for the Commission of Official Languages notes that French is the first language of only 4.4 per cent of the territorial population. Yet in terms of population percentage, Yukon is third in Canada for being the most bilingual province or territory, after Quebec and New Brunswick. As is the case across the country, an increasing number of parents want their kids to learn French; enrolment in French immersion in the Yukon has increased by 50 per cent since 2004.
One of the things that makes this case notable is that it is Yukon — not Quebec — that is demonstrating leadership in the broader promotion of the French language in North America by privileging a more accessible, open approach to education over a protectionist one.
Under Yukon’s new regulations, eligibility will now include: students from francophone families whose parents are not Canadian citizens; children whose grandparents were mother-tongue francophones or were educated in French in Canada; immigrants who wish to learn French as their first official language and; Canadian citizens who speak French and who choose to integrate into the francophone community.
It comes with a caveat: The Department of Education maintains the right to take back the power should the need arise, and has put in place an appeal process for families who are refused admission, and also a way to track the admissions.
Ultimately, it’s a reasonable compromise between the government, the minoritylanguage school board and the community.
It is also a welcome institutional disruption. It allows Canadians to re-imagine a future vision for language, culture and education in ways that take into account increasing local diversity and global connectedness. Other provincial and territorial governments — Quebec included — should take note.