Quebec minister reminds university of its linguistic duty

[Harold F. Schiffman]

 Wednesday  February 14  2007

Quebec minister reminds university of its linguistic duty

Dave Rogers Ottawa Citizen Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Benoit Pelletier, the Quebec provincial cabinet minister responsible for
the Outaouais, says Gatineau's Universite du Quebec en Outaouais should
recognize that it must serve the whole community as it considers a plan to
phase out the only English-language university courses in West Quebec. Mr.
Pelletier said the university needs to adapt to the dual reality of the
Outaouais, which has a population of 53,000 anglophones and 249,000
francophones. The statement is the first indication from a Quebec cabinet
minister that the university's role to promote French should not exclude
others in the region. For the past two months the university has been
consulting students, professors and the public about a proposed language
policy that would end English-language MBA and graduate project
administration programs for about 400 of its 5,500 students.

Jean-Paul Perreault, the director of l'Imperatif Francais, an Outaouais
French-language rights group, said Tuesday the Quebec government should
recognize that French-speaking people are discriminated against in access
to post-secondary education in Ottawa-Gatineau. He said anglophones
receive 27.7 per cent of university funding in Quebec, while they are only
8.4 per cent of the population. Mr. Perreault, who is a University of
Ottawa professor, said eliminating English-language university programs in
Gatineau would avoid diluting the Universite du Quebec en Outaouais and
strengthen its ability to educate the francophone majority.


http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=8f1b451b-cc62-40f3-8b86-549d057b342b&k=95225
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