PQ proposes 'Bill 202' that would force English students to take more French classes

Parti Québécois Leader Jean-François Lisée says his party's proposed "Bill 202" would require Quebec anglophones to demonstrate they can speak French well enough to work in French, Quebec's "common language."

At a news conference Saturday morning, in front of McGill University's Roddick Gates, Lisée said a degree from an English-language CEGEP, college or university in Quebec, without the capacity to work in French, would be "a one-way ticket to Toronto."

If the PQ wins the election Oct. 1, Lisée said, the new government will propose more French courses in English CEGEPs and universities.

As well, students enrolled in English CEGEPs will be required to study for one session at a French-language CEGEP.

Students in French CEGEPs will also be offered the possibility of studying for one session in an English school, but it will not be mandatory.

"There are several languages in Quebec," Lisée said. But there is "one common language: French."

Noah-Maxime Clarke, a student at Dawson College, already takes two mandatory French classes. 

He supports the idea of integrating more French into English schools, but doesn't think a mandatory semester in another school is the answer.

Instead he told CBC that there should be more classes offered in both languages at English schools and teachers should do more to encourage students to succeed.

"If you give those options to the students, it will bode far better than shipping them off to another CEGEP."

He also wonders how students' grades would be affected by a relocation to a French-speaking school.

Lisée's proposed "Bill 202" would be an update of Bill 101, adopted by the PQ government of the day in 1977.

It would also extend requirements that businesses prove they can operate in French to smaller businesses, changing it from the current 50 employees to 25.

It would also apply to employees of federally-regulated activities such as banking, broadcasting and aviation, now not covered by Bill 101.

Speaking French 'at the breakfast table'

During his announcement Saturday, Lisée said he worried that while 94.4 per cent of Quebecers now say they can speak French, crediting Bill 101 for the improvement, less that 50 per cent of Quebecers "speak French at the breakfast table."

Like Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François Legault, Lisée is concerned that 58 per cent of newcomers to Quebec in 2017 did not speak French. That figure was boosted by an influx of refugees.

Legault has proposed mandatory French tests for newcomers who have lived in Quebec for three years.

Lisée said a PQ government would require that 100 per cent of immigrants to the province have a mastery of French before they arrive.

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With files from CBC's Kevin Dougherty and Matt D'Amours