two lawyers with long histories of challenging quebec language laws say english universities would be on solid ground if they took the legault government to court over the tuition hike and french proficiency requirements announced this week.
julius grey and michael bergman have been involved in multiple constitutional challenges of quebec language laws over decades. each is currently leading separate legal fights against bill 96 , premier françois legault’s wide-ranging expansion of rules promoting the french language.
this week, higher education minister pascale déry announced details of an effort to increase funding for french universities and reduce the number of non-french-speakers in quebec post-secondary institutions.
the province is hiking tuition for students from the rest of canada by 33 per cent and imposing new french proficiency requirements for all university students not from quebec. concordia and mcgill say the plan will devastate their finances and enrolment ; bishop’s is being given a partial exemption.
several lawsuits targeting previous coalition avenir québec legislation are currently winding their way through the courts — including bill 21 (restrictions on religious symbols), bill 40 (school board reform) and bill 96 .
advertisement
“i think there is a very good case,” he said. “there is clear discrimination as to language, which is forbidden” under quebec’s charter of human rights and freedoms (section 10) and the canadian charter of rights and freedoms (section 15).
after targeting other anglophone institutions , the government now hopes to turn english universities into “some minor facilities proportionate to their population,” grey said.
advertisement
advertisement