On Wednesday, the Quebec government is expected to introduce an important change to the law that limits access to English education.
According to CTV Quebec City bureau chief John Grant, the government will continue to allow the loophole that permits children to acquire the right to an English education, but that instead of requiring one year of unsubsidized English education, the government will insist that students have three years of English schooling before entering the public system.
Linguistic law background
The French Language Charter restricts English education to those with a family history of being educated in English in Canada.
However the law did not apply to unsubsidized private English schools, so every year a handful of parents sent their children to these so-called 'bridging schools,' then transferred their children to the public school system.
In 2002 the Parti Quebecois government amended the charter with Bill 104, which closed that loophole. Several people challenged the law, and in October 2009 the Supreme Court of Canada struck it down, giving the provincial government one year to come up with an alternative solution.
New law to be introduced Wednesday
After months of debate, with some groups calling for the application of the notwithstanding clause, and English school boards petitioning to let the law go unchanged, the Liberal government appears to have worked out its solution.
"The Supreme Court of Canada in its ruling asks the Government of Quebec to better define what they call a 'parcours authentique' for a child and that is what we are going to do," said Premier Jean Charest.
That 'parcours authentique' would require considering each child's educational and linguistic history, which could be an administrative and legal nightmare.
It is believed that requiring students to attend an unsubsidized English school for three years will probably satisfy the Supreme Court.
However the court has said a strictly mathematical solution is to be avoided, so there may still be surprises from the government on Wednesday.
