For a panicked few days in early September, it looked like LaSalle College in downtown Montreal was going to close for good, forced into bankruptcy by the Quebec government for temporarily teaching too many students in English.
asserted
College → look → English
In the middle of any other provincial election, campaigning political parties would likely rally to support an institute of higher education that was dying, even indirectly, because of government punishment.
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that → campaign → punishment
But Quebec, which goes to the polls Oct. 5, is determinedly unique.
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which → go → polls
In 2022, Quebec strengthened the province’s language charter to make French the sole language for communication between the government and citizens, and what the province calls “a common denominator in the public sphere.”
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province → strengthen → sphere
For private Montreal colleges like LaSalle, and smaller ones like Marionopolis, it required their graduating students to have at least three courses taught in French, excluding courses in French language instruction.
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it → require → instruction
It also put a strict quota on the number of students taking courses in English, to keep that under a set proportion of all college students, specified in law and varying in different cases between 11.7 per cent and 18.7 per cent.
asserted
It → put → cent
But it offered no transition period before financial penalties would be imposed on violators.
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penalties → offer → violators
And it allowed no adjustment based on an unanticipated pandemic relief education program that artificially boosted the number of students in the short term retraining and skills development programs that lead to “Attestation of College Studies,” a lesser degree than a full diploma.
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that → allow → diploma
This led to what LaSalle calls a temporary, two-year “administrative imbalance,” now resolved, by which it exceeded the 2023-24 quota by 716 students, and the next year’s by 1,066.
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it → lead → 1,066
In response, the government levied far more in fines than LaSalle could afford to pay, and with the academic year about to start, the bill was due.
uncertain
bill → levy → fines
“It was a nightmare,” said the school’s director general Claude Marchand.
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general → say → ?
In the end it did not close, and by court order it survives to teach another year.
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it → close → year
Classes, suspended for a tense week, finally started on Sept. 8.
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Classes → suspend → Sept.
But legally, the reckoning has only been delayed.
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reckoning → delay → ?
The central problem remains, along with the political curiosity, as the school tries to bargain its way out of $30 million in punitive fines for excessive anglophone education.
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school → remain → education
Students, 3,000 of whom would have been left in the lurch, rallied at the school in advance of a last-ditch court appearance, with signs declaring “Studying is a right, save our education/our future” and “Laissez-nous étudier.”
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Studying → leave → education
“They’re tied up in knots,” said Merwie Garzon, whose 20-year-old daughter is a second-year student of fashion design at LaSalle.
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daughter → tie → LaSalle
Garzon is “furious” at what she sees as a provincial government discriminating against a linguistic minority in ways that are “calculated” to bring about the closure of the college, and “actively trying to drive out anglophones.”
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that → see → anglophones
“It’s uncomfortable to live in a place that is always sending you messages, in big ways and small ways, that you are not welcome,” she said.
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she → ’ → ways
“If you read a headline that stated ‘Government Shuts Down School For Accepting Too Many Minority Students,’ we as Canadians would probably be shocked and wonder in what oppressive regime this school is being shut down.
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school → read → Canadians
More than 400 employees faced impending unemployment.
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employees → face → unemployment
There was a contingency plan that would have seen almost all of them lose their jobs, keeping only a skeleton team of 16.
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all → be → 16
And Marchand, who has run LaSalle for 18 years and whose family owns this private college founded on Sainte-Catherine St. in 1962, wondered whether the government would finally start returning his calls, or responding to settlement offers, of which there have been a full dozen.
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government → run → which
Now, at least, they have to.
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they → have → ?
On Sept. 4, Quebec Superior Court Justice Martin Castonguay ordered the province to pay the school its allocated subsidies, which allows the year of classes to go ahead.
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year → order → classes
He also extended the school’s creditor protection, ordering the parties back to court later this month, just before the provincial election, in which the governing Coalition Avenir Québec is in a tight race.
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Québec → extend → race
“We don’t get it,” Marchand said.
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Marchand → get → it
“We don’t get that there was no dialogue from day one….
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We → get → day
It’s really strange.”
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It → ’ → ?
The school’s website now declares it “finds itself abandoned by the very organization with which it has collaborated for more than 67 years,” the province.
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it → declare → years
Marchand said he accepts the quota system as democratically legitimate, he just expected a period of transition within which to comply.
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he → say → which
“I will not say that personally that’s my vision of the world, but I perfectly respect that a duly elected democratic government can act pretty much however they want,” he said.
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he → say → world
As Marchand describes it, the school was abruptly in a dilemma, wishing to comply with the new law, but mindful of its duties to its students, seeking a compromise.
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school → describe → compromise
The school starts recruiting in early October, and by March 1 prospective students make their decisions.
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students → start → decisions
But the quota numbers arrive in mid-February, which is “really late to the game for Quebecer students, but absolutely late to the game for international students,” he said.
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he → arrive → students
The first year quotas were in fact lower than the school’s actual population, he said, because they were based on the highest numbers of the previous three years, and it seemed impossible to comply.
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it → say → years
As this was happening, then Premier Francois Legault launched a pandemic recovery program that made tuition free for Quebecers in LaSalle’s continuing education “Attestation of College Studies” stream, typically shorter than a diploma program.
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tuition → happen → program
The effect was what the school calls “an administrative imbalance in the distribution of English-speaking students between our (Attestation of College Studies) and (Diploma of College Studies) programs.”
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school → call → programs
The school now has fewer students studying in English than they have ever had, and fewer in their diploma programs, but because their anglophone class numbers exceeded the quota, they are being fined into bankruptcy.
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they → have → bankruptcy
In a statement, Quebec’s Minister of Higher Education, Martine Biron, told the Montreal Gazette that discussions between the government and school can continue through the court-monitored creditor protection process, and that “any settlement proposal submitted by the college can be analyzed in due course and through the proper process.”
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proposal → tell → process
…and 17 more, not listed.
