MIFI targeted by a complaint for the closure of French language classes

Photo: Valérian Mazataud Archives Le Devoir The Minister of Immigration, Integration and Francisation, Jean-François Roberge, recently assured that the amounts allocated to francization in schools had not decreased.

Quebec is the subject of a complaint to the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) for failing to provide the promised francization services. The teachers’ group that filed it alleges that the Ministry of Immigration is thereby contravening the Charter of the French Language.

The complaint, signed by a group called “Collectif francisation”, criticizes the government of François Legault for its inability to “compensate for [the] announced closure of courses that were given until now” in Quebec's school service centers. This situation, the group points out, directly contradicts section 6.1 of “Bill 101,” which states that “any person domiciled in Quebec has the right to the services provided and offered […] to learn French.”

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“Making it harder for people already in our territory to access French language training contravenes this section,” argues the complainant, Victorine Michalon, one of the members of the teachers’ group “affected by the total or partial withdrawal of French courses given in the CSS [school service centres] network.”

Series of closures

Since this fall, a series of school francization programs have closed their doors across Quebec. Saying they were unable to respect their budgets, the CSS gradually stopped offering courses, even before the halfway point of the year.

The Minister of Immigration, Integration and Francisation, Jean-François Roberge, assures that the amounts allocated to school francization have not decreased; Quebec provided them with $104 million last year and $104 million this year. He blames the CSS, which according to him spent “100% of their budgets in the first half of the year.”

But for a network that normally supports 40% of the supply of French language courses, the demand has become too high, maintains the Collectif francisation in its complaint to the OQLF. “The end or suspension of our courses in the education network, through two reforms […] wiping out the budget of adult education centres […] is already or will soon deprive thousands of people of quality French courses that could allow them to integrate in French into our society,” it states.

The Charter of the French Language provides that the teaching of French provided for in section 6.1 “must allow the person who has received it […] to have acquired sufficient skills to use French as a common language in order to be able to interact, flourish within Quebec society and participate in its development.”

Although the government is offering to relocate French-language students whose classes have closed “as a priority,” “MIFI partners in major cities are at full capacity,” the Collective points out. Added to this is the lack of course offerings in certain regions of Quebec, which “forces learners to sometimes travel hundreds of kilometres to find a course,” as well as the end of incentives for part-time French-language courses.

The OQLF has 30 days to contact the Collective following the filing of its grievances.