Concern over access to English CEGEPs returns to PQ ranks
30 riding associations want to restrict access for francophones and allophones to English CEGEPs
Some hard-line members of the Parti Québécois want to bring a promise to restrict access to English-language CEGEPs for francophones and allophones back to the party's program.
The measure was previously adopted by the PQ at its 2011 convention, but it isn't mentioned in the proposed program for the party's upcoming convention in September.
Thirty PQ riding associations are proposing amendments to the program, and reinserting the restriction on access to English CEGEPs is one of them.
Figures from Statistics Canada's latest census revealed that more francophone Quebecers are learning and speaking English, to the consternation of Quebec nationalist leaders.
"It's going to be a major issue at the convention," said Pierre Dubuc, director and editor-in-chief of the pro-independence publication L'Aut'journal.
Confidence vote
He said the issue will also prove a test for PQ head Jean-François Lisée's leadership, which will be put to a confidence vote.
Marc Laviolette, president of the PQ's riding association in Beauharnois, says Lisée hasn't been strong enough on language issues.
"On the question of language, he hasn't got it, and that's nothing new," Laviolette said.
Dubuc echoed that concern, and pointed to the fate of former PQ leader Bernard Landry in a 2005 confidence vote as a warning.
"It's an important question of leadership. I don't know if Jean-François Lisée realizes that Bernard Landry lost a confidence vote on the same issue," he said.
Landry actually received 76.2 per cent support in the vote, but he considered that insufficient to continue as leader. Dubuc contends that the vote was partly a reflection of dissatisfaction with his position on language-related issues.
In the campaign leading up to the 2012 provincial election, the PQ promised to extend Quebec's language laws to CEGEPs.
Once elected, however, the minority PQ government wasn't able to fulfill its promise.
With files from Radio-Canada's Hugo Lavallée