Petition calls for full exemption from French CEGEP courses for Indigenous students

Article content

A petition launched by the Dawson College student union demanding that the Quebec government exempt all Indigenous students from the provisions of its language law has already gathered more than 1,100 signatures.

The petition states that the Act Respecting French, the Official and Common Language of Québec, known as Bill 96, “requires Indigenous students with little or no knowledge of French to take additional French courses beyond their abilities, thereby compromising their chances of academic success” and acts as a “deterrent for Indigenous students in their pursuit of post-secondary education.”

Article content

Last spring, Indigenous students from several English CEGEPs made public a video of testimonials about how the new law would impact them and their communities.

Leilah Doyle, vice-president external affairs of Dawson Student Union, said those testimonials inspired the DSU to launch the petition in support of the Indigenous students’ struggles.

“After seeing this, we decided it was time to do something a bit bigger and gather voices, signatures, and people to make the change,” Doyle said at a news event to promote the petition at Dawson’s downtown campus Monday morning.

“What I have seen and heard is that a lot of (Indigenous) students are choosing to move to Ontario to complete their education in English. I can’t even imagine this. Coming from their communities to CEGEP (in Montreal) is already a very long trek. Having to move to Ontario … is just wild. It doesn’t make sense to me. I’m 18 and I can’t even imagine it. I am from the West Island. I have friends and family here. They don’t. … It’s a whole new world.”

Zye Mayo, a second-year social sciences student at Dawson from Kahnawake, a Mohawk community just south of Montreal, said the impacts of the law on Indigenous students are already obvious.

Article content

Article content

“I’ve seen friends who dropped out after first semester because they know they are not going to be able to do the French classes,” he said. “I’ve seen a whole grade of students from my community … either decide not to come or they just dropped out after the first few weeks.”

He said most of the Indigenous students he knows who want to pursue a post-secondary education intend to return to their communities afterwards, where, he says, they won’t need to speak French. “The goal for most Indigenous students from what I know is, you’re leaving your home for a bit to go and learn, so you can come back and make your home better, in about five or 10 years.”

Bill 96, adopted by the National Assembly in May 2022, changed the graduation requirements for those attending English CEGEPs in Quebec. Anyone without a Certificate of Eligibility to study in English now has to pass a French exit test to graduate; the same test francophone students in French-language CEGEPs must pass.

Under the Charter of the French Language, a child living in Quebec is eligible to attend English primary or secondary school if they themselves, one of their siblings or one of their parents did the majority of their elementary schooling in English in Canada. Parents who want their children to attend English schools must apply for an eligibility certificate from Quebec’s Education Department.

Article content

The law divides students attending English CEGEPs into two categories: certificate holders and non-certificate holders. Non-certificate holders must pass the French exit exam, which means taking three obligatory French literature courses to prepare for that exam. They must also take at least two of their core program courses in French. Certificate holders are exempt from the French exit exam — they take an English exit exam — and can either take three core program courses in French, or they can take three courses designed to improve their French skills (either French as a second language or French literature courses, depending on their level of French).

The new law poses particular challenges to many Indigenous CEGEP students because they are not necessarily exposed to French, either in their education systems or their communities. Because of rights enshrined in treaties and agreements with the Quebec government, Indigenous students can be educated in English and/or in their own ancestral languages, in their communities, without needing to obtain English eligibility certificates.

Article content

Last spring, after an outcry from Indigenous organizations, students and educators, the government made adjustments to the law that exempt some Indigenous students — those who can prove they are eligible — from the French language exit exam and the requirement to take two of their core courses in French. But Indigenous groups have said this still puts roadblocks in the path of Indigenous students to post-secondary education.

Jennifer Maccarone, the Liberal MNA for Westmount—Saint-Louis, is sponsoring the Dawson Student Union petition in the National Assembly. She said the law as it stands will ensure the academic failure of many Indigenous students or discourage them from even attempting post-secondary education in Quebec.

“Protecting and promoting the French language is of course important to all Quebecers of all languages, but this will negatively impact the future and education of these (young people), and they have said they will leave the province if they have to adhere to these rules.”

According to the Indigenous Student Success Report produced at Dawson last April, Indigenous students were already struggling to complete their college courses before the extra language requirements came into play.

Article content

According to data gathered for that report, the number of Indigenous students at Dawson has tripled within the last decade, partly due to dedicated programs designed to prepare and integrate Indigenous students into post-secondary life. But less than half of Indigenous students were passing all their courses in the first semester, compared to 80 per cent of students collegewide. And about seven per cent of all first-year Dawson students do not return for a second term, versus 15 per cent for Indigenous students.

“Promoting French is important, but doing it on the backs of these students who are extremely vulnerable will do nothing to promote and protect the French language, which is why the government has to repeal these articles” that affect Indigenous students, said Maccarone.

Diane Gauvin, director general of Dawson, said it’s too early to know how the language law has impacted enrolment levels of Indigenous students this academic year.

“First, it is difficult to know who is Indigenous, so to get the data we have to go to about five different sources,” she said. “Also we haven’t reached the course drop deadline, which is Sept. 17, so students can still drop courses. But anecdotally, we already know that some (Indigenous) students have left Dawson because of these requirements and I am also aware that some have left John Abbott (College).”

In recent years Dawson has had between 130 and 150 Indigenous students enrolled for the fall semester.

Gauvin said she met with a group of Indigenous students last spring who told her they are refusing to apply for an exemption from the law because they agree with leaders of Indigenous organizations, such as the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador, who have made the argument in court that the Quebec government does not have the power to determine the languages that Indigenous students can be educated in.

Indigenous leaders have argued Indigenous students shouldn’t have to jump through bureaucratic hoops to be exempted from the French language rules.

mlalonde@postmedia.com

Article content

Article content