LA GESTION SCOLAIRE

This week’s edition of La Voix acadienne features an article celebrating an important 25^th anniversary.  On July 1, 1990, the Commission scolaire de langue française was granted the right to administer the French-language school system on Prince Edward Island.  The article rightly mentions the significant contributions of several individuals who were instrumental in bringing about this significant victory.  Though not among them, I was deeply involved in language politics at the time.  I’d like to share my recollections of three related events.

The first event goes back to the early 1980s when I was a member of the Board of La Société Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin.  We became quite interested in the debates around the Canadian Constitution.  Pierre Elliott Trudeau and the Premiers were hammering out an agreement to bring home the Constitution from London and to implement the new Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  Prince Edward Island initially opposed patriation and the new Charter.

Provincial Attorney General Horace Carver spoke to us one evening in Summerside.  The gist of his argument was that our interests would be better served by elected members of Parliament in Ottawa and our own Legislative Assembly than by the courts.  I had no doubt that Mr. Carver was well-intentioned, but we knew where Trudeau stood on the issue of minority language education rights and we trusted him.  Naïve as I was then, I knew in my gut that our rights would be protected by the courts, and that we had no chance if our fate was left in the hands of politicians.  My instincts were correct, as it turned out.

Section 23 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the section of the Constitution of Canada that guarantees minority language educational rights to French-speaking communities outside Québec.  Some scholars argue that Trudeau considered it one of the most important parts of the Charter.  The picture below is my favourite of Trudeau, taken April 17, 1982, the day he and Queen Elizabeth II signed the Proclamation of the new Constitution Act.

Our three children graduated from École François-Buote in Charlottetown.  Two of my grandchildren attend École Samuel-de-Champlain in Saint John, New Brunswick.  The youngest, barely three years old, attends a French daycare next door to École Gabrielle-Roy in Edmonton, Alberta.

None of this would have been possible without successive favourable decisions by the courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada.

The second event occurred during my brief term as president of La Société Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin.  In 1988, the French school board, Unité scolaire no. 5, administered only one school, École Évangéline.  The second French school, École François-Buote in Charlottetown came under the control of the Unit 3 School Board.

Believing the political climate would be favourable, with Joe Ghiz as Premier and Léonce Bernard as our representative in Cabinet, I met with Minister of Education, Betty Jean Brown, and Bernard, at the old Centre culturel Port-LaJoie on Dorchester Street.  Our purpose was to propose the formation of a province-wide French-language school board, in other words, La gestion scolaire provinciale.

I was struck by their evident surprise at the suggestion, and their apparent view that it made no sense.  I can still see the look on Léonce’s face; like he thought it was the craziest idea he’d ever heard!  Fortunately, reason prevailed.  In February 1990, the provincial government adopted new regulations, granting the Commission scolaire de langue française province-wide jurisdiction.  It became official that July 1.

I put language politics aside for awhile (two years in an MBA program at Université Laval) but continued to follow developments closely on the local and national scenes.  The two years I spent in Québec taught me a lot about being a member of a linguistic minority.  Most importantly, it taught me that it’s up to us to preserve the French language and culture.  We have very few allies, and Québec is not among them.

The third event occurred in April 1998 when I was the Chair of the Comité acadien, a group that advised the provincial government on matters relating to French-language services.  The Minister responsible, Mitch Murphy, a man for whom I had the greatest respect, walked up to me during a reception marking French Awareness Week.  He said: “I have very bad news.  The decision on the Arsenault-Cameron case just came down from the Court of Appeal.  It overturns Judge DesRoches’ decision and the lawyers tell us there’s no way it can be taken any further.”

I’d read the Armand DesRoches decision and I knew it was sound.  He was one of us and understood the Charter.  It was inconceivable to me that supposedly learned judges could have overturned it.  I nodded to the Minister, without saying anything.  As we say in French: “Je riais dans ma barbe.”  I knew that the next stop was the Supreme Court of Canada, and that there, our poor provincial government would get whacked.

I read the decision written for the Prince Edward Island Court of Appeal by Hon. Justice McQuaid.  In it, he laid out the Court’s finding that the Minister of Education had done the right thing by refusing to build a French school in Summerside, thus overturning the decision of the Commission scolaire de langue française.  Speaking of Section 23, he wrote: “…language rights are fundamentally different than other rights protected by the Charter in that they are founded on political compromise.”  I chuckled to myself, astounded at the ignorance displayed by the Court, remembering what we’d been told before the Charter came into force.

In November 2000, the Supreme Court of Canada disagreed with the Appeal Court, upholding Judge Armand DesRoches’ 1997 decision.  The Court wrote that: “…a school is the single most important institution for the survival of the official language minority.”  Regarding the decision of the Minister of Education, the Court stated: “The Minister’s discretion was limited to verifying whether the [School] Board had met provincial requirements. …he had no power to substitute his own criteria or decision.”  Amen!

And so the Summerside school was built, École-sur-Mer, yet another symbol of the determination of the Acadian people and the strength of the Charter.

The October 28 edition of La Voix acadienne contains another very important article, the one announcing the refurbishment of the former Rollo Bay Consolidated School, soon to be reborn as École La Belle-cloche.  The announcement by the Commission scolaire de langue française states that $6.1 million will be spent to construct new spaces for K-12, as well as a community centre to serve the Acadian and Francophone community of Eastern Kings.

What a contrast to the earlier fiasco surrounding the construction of the Rustico facility, École Saint-Augustin, when residents were pitted against one another because of the poor judgement of politicians.  This time, not only do we have competent elected trustees at the helm, we have a provincial government led by people who understand their obligations under the law.  It makes all the difference.

The other day, I stood in line at my bank and watched as a teller served an Asian customer in Mandarin.  My Charlottetown is being transformed by the arrival of new Canadians.  I welcome them.  We need their talent, their work ethic, and their tax dollars. 

There were no signs at the bank telling me that I could be served in French.  RBC is a business.  Its choice to hire and train a Mandarin-speaking teller is a business decision.  This example reminded me, yet again, that fundamental rights, like language, need and deserve the protection of the highest law of the land.  They cannot be subjected to the vagaries of political and business decisions.

When I started Grade 8 at École régionale Évangéline in the fall of 1965, it was the only French school recognized as such by the provincial government.  Now, there are six.  Each has its own unique story.  None was built without a struggle.  A solid 5% of Island students attend the six French schools.  Enrollment is steady.

I can’t imagine what the state of French-speaking minorities would be were it not for Trudeau’s vision and the presence of Section 23 in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  It granted us the right to control our most important institution, our schools.  And it reinforced what we always knew: the people know best!

I rest easy now, knowing that my grandchildren can be schooled in French almost anywhere in our great country.  I hope they will recognize the importance of preserving our mother tongue when their turn comes.