Bill 104 opponent may keep son in French school

A Montreal mother of two who fought for the right to send her children to an English-language school says she may decide to keep her youngest son in a French school after all.

"He seems to love it, actually, and it's nice, you know," said Audrey Smith, one of two dozen Quebec parents who last month successfully challenged a provincial law that closed a loophole allowing children not eligible for the English-language public school system to gain access by first spending time in a private English school.

Jarett, 6, "actually brags," Smith told CBC News. "We even say something in English, and he responds in French, because he's so proud, he's all excited about his French. It's completely different" from her older sons, Smith said, who struggled in French school.

Smith and her fellow parents won their battle against Quebec's Bill 104 in October, when the Supreme Court struck down the legislation, calling it unconstitutional and excessive.

The court ordered Quebec to review and rewrite the law within a year, and to review the parents' requests to send their children to English-language schools.

Under the law, parents have to obtain a "certificate of eligibility" granted by a government agency, which proves they meet the criteria to send their children to an English school.

The law was designed to maximize the number of Quebec school children educated in French, as part of the province's pledge to nurture and promote its primary language.

After a five-year battle, Smith said she's not sure she wants to fill out the eligibility forms to get Jarett into an English school.

Her eldest son, Kevin, dropped out of a Montreal French high school because he was struggling so much with the language.

He later returned to school to obtain a high school equivalency diploma.

Smith's children were born in Montreal, but she immigrated to Canada from Jamaica and says English has always been her primary language.