LaSalle College says it helps French thrive, so why is Quebec cracking down on it?
The bookstore at LaSalle College looks a lot like a bookstore at any other college or university, apart from a large section offering fabric by the yard, coloured threads on bobbins, buttons, zippers and other notions, alongside textbooks with titles like 'Fashion: The Whole Story' and 'Tout sur la mode.'
It's all evidence of the school's long reputation as Quebec's foremost school for fashion design. But recently, this private, subsidized bilingual college at the corner of Ste-Catherine and Fort Sts. in downtown Montreal has been getting attention for something less glamorous than its flair for fashion.
The Quebec government has served the school with fines totalling almost $30 million for violating the province's language law by admitting too many students to its English-taught continuing-education programs over the last two years.
Education Minister Pascale Déry says it's a simple case of the college refusing to follow the rules. But many see it as another example of perverse effects caused by the CAQ government's single-minded zeal to show just how serious it is about protecting the French language.
According to the college's president and CEO, Claude Marchand, the draconian one-size-fits-all fines risk killing an institution that actually promotes French here and abroad, contributes far more to government coffers than it takes in subsidies and improves Quebec's image around the world.
On top of all that, Marchand argues, the main reason LaSalle College is in conflict with the language law is that it has been trying to help Premier François Legault's government meet another important objective: to fill a 170,000-person labour market shortage in the public service and other strategic economic sectors.
The college is fighting the fines in Quebec Superior Court but is hoping the government will relent and come to some reasonable agreement. In the meantime, staff members told a Gazette reporter last week they are telling nervous students that it's 'business as usual'… for now.
But what exactly is LaSalle College and why should the government reconsider these fines that threaten to put a 66-year-old institution out of business?
LaSalle College was founded in 1959 by east-end Montreal entrepreneur Jean-Paul Morin. The original campus was in the Montreal borough of LaSalle. When it opened its doors it was essentially a secretarial school. In its first year, a dozen young women signed up to take courses in shorthand, touch typing, filing and record keeping, along with a course called 'Charm and Finishing.'
The college grew, and in 1962 Morin moved his school downtown to be closer to the office jobs the school was filling. But Morin had a passion for fashion, having worked at the iconic Ogilvy clothing store and several clothing design firms during and after obtaining a business degree at Sir George Williams University. In 1973, Morin hired local fashion maven Michèle Boulanger-Bussière — best known as the longtime fashion editor at La Presse — to design and head up a new fashion faculty at the school.
In 1989, LaSalle College embarked on a project to 'internationalize' by establishing the first LaSalle College International (LCI) campus in Casablanca, Morocco. The LCI network now includes 23 campuses in nine countries, including Canada (Montreal, Laval, Vancouver), Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Morocco, Spain, Turkey and Australia. These institutes are all independent, but LaSalle College students have the option of taking a few courses or even a full degree at these institutes.
By the early 1990s, the college had more than 1,000 students. The school established a charitable foundation called the Montreal Fashion Foundation, which supported education and research in the field, organized fashion galas and awarded scholarships to young designers to continue their studies in Canada and abroad.
Today, LaSalle College has about 4,500 students enrolled in seven faculties, including Information Technology and Engineering; Gaming, Animation and VFX; Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary; Business Management; Education and Social Sciences; and Arts, Design and Communication. Students can take courses in 65 programs, all offered in English or French.
Students can do a three-year Diploma of Collegial Studies (DCS or, in French, DEC), which prepares them for the job market or to continue their education at university. The school also offers continuing education for those in the workforce but looking for a change of career. These courses lead to an Attestation of Collegial Studies (ACS, or AEC in French) and generally require less time to complete.
'What makes LaSalle really unique is that all of our programs are available in French and in English. So that means our students can pick what is best for them,' Marchand said. 'At LaSalle, half the students are enrolled in our French-taught programs and half are enrolled in our English-taught programs.'
The other element that makes the school unique is the high proportion of international students who enrol here. In any given year, from 30 to 40 per cent of the student body of about 4,500 students hail from countries other than Canada.
'No other college-level institution, whether in the public or private sector, welcomes as many international students,' Marchand said.
And since LaSalle is categorized as a francophone institution, all of its students must pass the French exit exam to receive their degrees.
'It's amazing for the French language because every student studying in our English-taught programs must follow courses of French, courses in French and must successfully pass the (French exit) exam at the end of their studies to show they are proficient in French. Our belief is that is easier to (learn French) at LaSalle because at the cafeteria, or when we organize activities ... half of the students are already living in French. I don't want to be stereotypical, but, yes, there are couples being formed between kids in the French-taught programs and in the English-taught programs, and … they need to make it work.'
The high quotient of international students is one reason LaSalle ended up over-enrolling in its English-taught programs.
Law 14, formerly Bill 96, amended Quebec's language law to limit the number of students studying in English at public CEGEPs and at private, subsidized colleges like LaSalle. The law was passed in May 2022, but each institution's enrolment quotas and the fines that would be levied if those were surpassed were only made public at the end of February 2023.
By that point, Marchand says, enrolment for the 2023-2024 academic year was already mostly complete, and many international students were already enrolled for the 2024-2025 year because they need to secure acceptance well in advance to obtain visas.
Another complicating factor for LaSalle College was that it was participating heavily in a Quebec government program to address labour shortages.
In 2021, Labour Minister Jean Boulet launched a program called 'Operation main-d'oeuvre' to fill critical gaps in the public service and certain economic sectors. Over five years, the government aimed to spend $3.9 billion to attract, train or retrain 170,000 workers, including 60,000 in essential public services such as health, social services and early childhood education, and 110,000 in information technologies, engineering and construction.
'So what the government did was encourage, post-COVID, workers to go back to school and re-qualify, and LaSalle played a key role in that program,' Marchand said.
In fact, LaSalle reoriented its offerings to accept many more continuing-education students in programs like IT, early childhood education and special-care counselling so its graduates could meet needs in those sectors, including in daycare centres and long-term care facilities.
The overall number of students studying in English at LaSalle has decreased since 2019, but more students are now taking continuing-education (ACS) courses in English, while fewer are taking pre-university (DCS) courses in English.
The college receives government subsidies for all Quebec residents doing pre-university (DCS) degrees. In addition, the school gets a fixed sum per year regardless of how many students it accepts in ACS programs. For example, in 2023-2024, LaSalle was subsidized $9.3 million for its ACS programs.
Marchand points to an economic impact study that shows the college generates $31.8 million in government revenues annually.
'We receive about $20 million of public subsidies, so we generate an excess in cash of about $10 million a year to the government,' he said.
He is still hoping the government will relent and cancel the fines, noting the school will be meeting the Law 14 quotas for English-taught admissions in the 2025-2026 year.
He said instead of punishing the school, the Quebec government should be using it as a model for francization and the principle of harmonious 'vivre ensemble' that politicians love talking about and for which Montreal is famous.
'We fulfil a very important public mission for Quebec society. We are not stealing from Quebec society. On the contrary, we are heavy contributors. We don't deserve any kind of fine. We deserve additional investments or recognition.'
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