We'll fight bid to plug loophole, Tyler says

PHILIP AUTHIER

Montreal Gazette Saturday, March 09, 2002

English-rights group Alliance Quebec yesterday warned the province any attempt to plug the loophole in the French Language Charter that allows wealthy Quebecers to buy access to the English school system by first sending their children for a year in private school will be challenged in court.

Alliance president Brent Tyler said Quebec's intention to amend the law to block access shows "flagrant disregard" for the courts, where he is already representing a client challenging the rule. Tyler won at a lower court level, but Quebec is appealing. A ruling is pending.

In a TV interview this week, new Education Minister Sylvain Simard said he will act on a commitment by the Parti Québécois to put an end to the practice, which had been largely used by anglophones or mixed families, but is increasingly popular with francophone parents. A recent article in the Journal de Montréal outlined in detail how parents went about it.

"The minister said there is a flaw in the law and wanted to put an end to the subterfuge," Simard's press aide Nicolas Girard said yesterday. "We can't allow what's illegal through the front door to take place through the back door."

'False Information'

Simard has said the amendment will be in effect by September, but yesterday Tyler said it might not happen so easily. "Alliance Quebec will contest the amendment before the ink of royal sanction is dry," he said.

Tyler said Alliance Quebec is getting dozens of calls from parents who have children enrolled in English private school or are about to enroll them.

By telling them that the Alliance will appeal the amendment, Tyler said he wants to counter the "government's campaign of false information."

Equality Party leader Keith Henderson also issued a statement condemning what he called the PQ's "restrictive, ignorance-fostering initiative."

Tyler said if the PQ is so sure its interpretation of the law is right - he says the access is guaranteed under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms - it should submit its proposed amendment to the appeals court for an advisory opinion.

Since 1993, every Quebec education minister has accepted that attendance at an English private school for one year in Grade One or Grade 7 was sufficient to meet the major part requirement, Tyler said. Between 1,000 and 2,000 children per year use the option.

Under pressure from Péquiste hardliners who say it is unfair the wealthy can buy their way into English-language schools, ministers have said they put a stop to the practice. Tyler conceded the clause is unfair in a way, but "this is perhaps as close to freedom of choice" as Quebecers can get.

"Yes, it's unfair that only the wealthy can take advantage of this, but the reason it's unfair is because the entire regime is discriminatory," Tyler said.