These dangerous students from far away

For many years, Toronto parents have packed up their offspring and taken Highway 401 to drop them off at the University of Montreal. I myself did it three times to drop off children in barracks, like McGill residences perched on the slopes of Mount Royal.

For obvious reasons, not all bars and clubs hurt. Montreal has always been a popular destination for young people from other parts of Canada who want to go to school away from home. In Montreal, they can attend good universities like McGill or Concordia while enjoying life in this beautiful and dynamic city. A few stay after graduation, learn French and become productive residents of Quebec. Those who don’t gain memories, knowledge, and connections that can stay with them for a lifetime.

In a country of two solitudes, educational migration to Quebec schools constitutes a bridge between cultures. Today, Quebec imposes a punitive toll on this bridge.

By doubling tuition fees for out-of-province students to around $17,000, thereby disqualifying all but the wealthiest students, Premier François Legault’s government is telling them: stay home, we don’t want you.

More specifically, he says: We don’t want your language. Although Mr. Legault insisted that increasing tuition fees has nothing to do with the disappearance of anglophones, he said the presence of so many anglophone students in Quebec threatened the survival of French.

His Minister of the French Language, Jean-François Roberge, went further. According to him, the arrival of tens of thousands of students on the island of Montreal could only have an Anglicizing effect on the metropolis.

He continues: There are many people who come to Quebec, who attend an English-speaking university and who very often express themselves in English on a daily basis.

On a daily basis, nothing less. The horror.

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The idea that groups of students chatting in English while walking on Saint-Laurent Boulevard pose a threat to the future of the French language in Quebec is so absurd that it is tempting to laugh at it. If the language is really that weak (it’s not), imposing a tax on young English speakers in Calgary and Hamilton won’t save it.

Unfortunately, this is no laughing matter. Mr. Legault’s nasty little decree is spreading everywhere. This hurts the many enthusiastic students whose dreams of going to school in Quebec are now in ruins. This hurts McGill and Concordia, these admirable places of learning that have done so much to adapt to a changed Quebec; not to mention Bishops, the University of Sherbrooke where 30 percent of students come from other provinces. Its very existence is now threatened.

This hurts the English-speaking community in Quebec. Already worried about the multitude of new linguistic rules introduced by the Legault government, he now sees the government attacking three major Anglo-Saxon institutions. Even if English-speaking families are not directly affected, making out-of-province English-speaking students unwelcome is sure to make many of them feel unwelcome as well.

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This hurts Montreal. Much of the appeal of this great city lies in the fact that it is not just a French city but a multicultural city, a place where people of diverse origins speak French, English, allophone; Italians, Portuguese, Jews, Haitians, Vietnamese mingle freely. Mayor Valrie Plante emphasizes that to prosper in the modern world, Montreal must attract students and talent from everywhere. The government’s decision tarnishes the city’s international reputation.

Besides, this hurts Quebec too. Quebec’s reputation has already been tarnished by another odious measure by Mr. Legault: the law prohibiting certain civil servants from wearing religious symbols at work. Its harsh new language laws make the problem worse. Now this.

Although it is difficult to expect a pioneer from Quebec like him to care what the rest of Canada thinks, he should at least care about maintaining the good opinion of the rest of the world. Even a Quebec that is master of its own home must think twice before putting an end to the exchange of people and ideas that make modern societies flourish.

Quebec nationalists always say that their movement is open and forward-looking. They insist they are not trying to exclude anyone. Everyone is welcome in New Quebec. Then they do something like slam the door on innocent young people who want to come study in Montreal. And all because someone didn’t like hearing English on Saint-Laurent.