French report may revive divisions, professor says

A recently released report on the future of French-language education in New Brunswick has the potential to stir up linguistic tensions in the province, says a political science professor.

Released by the French second-language commission on Feb. 27, the report recommended the elimination of early French immersion in the province's English schools.

If the government accepts the report, the immersion program that currently begins in Grade 1 would be grandfathered out in favour of a more intensive French program beginning in Grade 5.

Under the proposal, students would get five months of intensive French in Grade 5 and then have the option of either moving into a more extensive version of the current core-French program, which makes the language a mandatory subject in school, or entering a late-immersion program. All French-language schooling would continue to Grade 12.

Parents who don't want their children to learn French may be upset that they'll be forced to enrol their children in Grade 5, said Geoff Martin, a professor at Mount Allison University who researches linguistic conflict in the province.

"My concern is that you're going to have a significant segment of the English population of New Brunswick that's going to say once again, 'Don't drive this down our throats,'" Martin told CBC News.

The controversy that the report's recommendations are already creating in the province could become more volatile if New Brunswick takes an economic downturn, Martin said.

"We may be heading for some rough economic times judging from what's happen in the United States, and in my opinion this is just the kind of thing that can get us back into scapegoating," he said.

The linguistic conflict between the anglophones and francophones in New Brunswick has been at a "truce" for about 12 years, Martin said, but the sentiments the report is stirring up may put that into jeopardy.

"You'll have a certain part of the Anglophone population who says we would be better off if we did not have bilingualism; that we're spending too much money on the French minority.… It's the kind of thing that gets some traction under the right circumstances," he said.

Education Minister Kelly Lamrock has said the government is not yet decided if it will follow through on all of the commission's recommendations.

The government is waiting to see how New Brunswickers react to the report and examining what resources are needed to implement its recommendations, Lamrock said.

If the government does accept any of the recommendations this spring they could be included in the education system for September, he said.