Latest news with #ÉricDufour
Montreal Gazette
03-05-2025
- Politics
- Montreal Gazette
Libman: Court's rebuke of tuition hikes a wider indictment of divisive CAQ tactics
'We observe an absence of data on which the minister claims to base her decision.' 'The evidence shows that the minister had no data on the matter, beyond tenuous information.' Two very telling extracts from last week's Quebec Superior Court judgment rendered by Justice Éric Dufour, in overturning the Coalition Avenir Québec government decision to sharply increase university tuition for out‑of‑province students attending McGill and Concordia. The judge criticized Higher Education Minister Pascale Dery's contentions regarding the retention rate of students from outside Quebec and their ability of integrating into Quebec society, posing threats to the survival of French. This is not just a slap-down of the minister, but a wider indictment exposing how the CAQ often seems to be improvising, particularly on matters of identity and language. Whether by design or incompetence, instead of working from hard data and facts, this government has adopted legislation and implemented important measures — with significant impact on Quebec society — based on anecdotes, hearsay and questionable perceptions. Bill 94 is another recent example. Prompted by a few alleged incidents in 17 (out of Quebec's 3,000) public schools, Education Minister Bernard Drainville is expanding the ban on wearing religious symbols in schools to now include almost all workers, including janitors. When it comes to language measures, forget hard data. Everything seems driven by the accepted orthodoxy that French is in serious 'decline' — thus the need to protect the language at all costs. If someone dares question just the means or the methodology, it's invariably seen as an attack on Quebec and unleashes relentless intimidation. When federal Liberal MP Emmanuella Lambropoulos cautiously asked at a language-committee hearing for more information or proof of the supposed decline, she was attacked from all sides, and subsequently quickly retreated. Measures to promote and protect French and maintaining Quebec's uniqueness are important. But flimsy evidence or fearmongering about the intensity of a decline, to justify measures that unnecessarily go too far, rightfully deserve to be challenged. The court's scolding on tuition is a welcome reminder that governments should be basing major decisions on facts, not exaggeration or phantom menaces. The French language is deeply rooted throughout Quebec as the dominant language at all levels of government and in public health care institutions and all professional corporations. According to the Office québécois de la langue française, even in neighbourhoods most heavily concentrated with anglophones, customers in businesses can be served in French 94 per cent of the time. According to Statistics Canada, never in the history of Quebec have so many non-francophones and newcomers been able to speak French. It's not the French language itself in decline, therefore, but the percentage of native-born mother-tongue francophones. That misleading statistic is often used to justify tougher French language measures, many of which go too far (Allez Canadiens Allez? Really?) Provisions of language Bill 96 — such as search and seizure, snitching and others — do little to protect French, yet clearly violate charter rights. Otherwise, the government wouldn't have used the notwithstanding clause pre-emptively to pass it. Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet recently called Canada an 'artificial country.' In Monday's federal election, his party was reduced to only about half the number of seats won in Quebec by the Liberals led by Mark Carney. Blanchet, in a display of exaggerated self-importance, offered collaboration but warned it was conditional on Carney not opposing Quebec's use of the notwithstanding clause when Bill 96 reaches the Supreme Court. Hopefully when the time comes, Carney will show leadership and prove that Canada is a very real country that values rights — and, as judge Dufour did, expose the distinction between laws buttressed by reality as opposed to 'artificial' arguments and tired notions that divide and weaken our society.
CTV News
29-04-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Higher education minister may appeal tuition fees for students outside Quebec
Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry has not ruled out appealing the Quebec Superior Court decision, which annulled the increase in tuition fees for students from other Canadian provinces. 'We're currently evaluating all the options. There is still a 30-day deadline for both parties to appeal,' the minister said at a news briefing on Tuesday at the National Assembly. Last week's ruling was a partial victory for Montreal's two English-language universities, McGill and Concordia, which had claimed that the Quebec government's recent changes had led to a drop in enrolments. Judge Éric Dufour said the government's 2023 decision to increase tuition fees for Canadian students outside Quebec by $3,000 (33 per cent) was unreasonable and 'not justified by existing and convincing data.' 'We have to ask ourselves the question: should Quebec taxpayers be paying a high price for the education of Canadian students outside Quebec?' the minister said. The ruling states that the government has nine months to comply. The ruling also overturns a new requirement that 80 per cent of undergraduate students outside Quebec enrolled in English-language universities achieve an intermediate level of proficiency in French by the time they graduate. This rule was due to come into force this autumn. 'However, the judge ruled in our favour, especially when it came to French. We are told that it is the minister's responsibility to protect the French language. So that objective will be maintained. For me, it's very important that the students we bring to Quebec are able to master French,' said Déry. Dufour did, however, confirm the Quebec government's decision to set minimum tuition fees for international students at around $20,000 and to recover a large part of the money from English-language institutions and redistribute it to French-language universities. This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on April 29, 2025.
CBC
24-04-2025
- Business
- CBC
Quebec judge invalidates tuition hike, French requirements for out-of-province university students
A Quebec Superior Court judge on Thursday struck down a tuition hike for out-of-province Canadian university students in Quebec and the French language requirements that the province had attempted to impose on them. In his 82-page decision, Judge Éric Dufour awarded McGill and Concordia universities a partial victory. He invalidated changes that the Higher Education Ministry made to its budgetary rules. Those changes raised tuition fees for out-of-province students by 33 per cent and said 80 per cent of them needed to learn French by graduation. The changes also affected international students, setting their minimum tuition fees at about $20,000. Dufour struck down the rules that affected out-of-province Canadian students, saying that the ministry lacked data to support its claims that they weren't integrating into Quebec society. "The evidence shows that the ministry has absolutely no data on this subject, or only fragile information to back it up," Dufour wrote. He also said that the requirement that 80 per cent of out-of-province undergraduate students at English-language universities reach an intermediate level of proficiency in French by graduation was "unreasonable given the near-certain impossibility of achievement." Dufour gave the ministry a nine-month timeline to revise the fee structure. For now, the current rules will stand, he wrote. The language requirements, however, are immediately invalidated, according to the ruling. But he did leave the international student fee increases unchanged. He said it was reasonable that the government should want to rebalance the funding that English and French universities receive. English universities tend to attract more international students, who pay higher tuition fees. The Higher Education Ministry has said the higher fee structure for international students would allow them to redistribute money to Quebec's French universities. WATCH | Why did Quebec want to raise tuition fees for out-of-province students? Breaking down Quebec's revised tuition plan and what key players are saying 1 year ago Duration 1:59 Quebec had initially doubled tuition fees for out-of-province students, later rolling that number back to a 33 per cent hike but imposing the French language requirement. The increase raised tuition fees for out-of-province Canadian students from about $9,000 to $12,000. Premier François Legault had said the presence of English-speaking students hurt the future of French in Quebec. The heads of Quebec's English universities had criticized the move, saying the increase in tuition fees made their programs unappealing to students across the country. Both McGill and Concordia had said the tuition hikes had led to a drop in enrolment, and caused them to tighten their budgets. The requirement to teach French to 80 per cent of their students was "totally unrealistic, both technically and academically," Deep Saini, McGill University's president and vice-chancellor, said in December 2023, when the Higher Education Ministry announced the changes. McGill and Concordia filed a lawsuit against the ministry, contesting the tuition changes, in 2024. It was not immediately clear if the ministry would contest Dufour's ruling. Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry's office said they would take note of the judgment, but issued no further comment.
Montreal Gazette
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Montreal Gazette
Judge rules Quebec's 33% tuition hike for out-of-province students is ‘unreasonable'
Concordia and McGill universities have partially won their legal challenge to Quebec's decision to sharply increase tuition for out‑of‑province students and impose new French‑language proficiency requirements on non‑Quebec applicants. The two universities filed their suit in February 2024, arguing the Coalition Avenir Québec government's actions contravened the Quebec and Canadian charters of rights. The Legault government said the measures would protect the French language and reduce the number of non-French-speaking students in Quebec. In a decision handed down Thursday, Quebec Superior Court Justice Éric Dufour ruled that some of the government's moves were 'unreasonable.' He invalidated the tuition hike for students from other provinces, but gave the government nine months to revise the fee structure. Starting in fall 2024, Quebec increased tuition for out-of-province students by 33 per cent, making it $12,000, up from $9,000. Quebec students pay about $3,000. The judge also invalidated, effective immediately, the French proficiency rules that Quebec had imposed. Quebec had announced that, starting in fall 2025, 80 per cent of newly enrolled non-Quebec undergraduate students in English universities must attain an intermediate-level oral proficiency in French by graduation. McGill and Concordia would face financial penalties if they did not meet the target. When his government announced the changes in 2023, Premier François Legault said it was part of a plan to 'reduce the number of anglophone students' in Quebec. He said English-speaking students from other provinces 'threaten the survival of French.' This story was originally published April 24, 2025 at 1:43 PM.
