Allison Hanes: Quebec’s rebuff of Indigenous CEGEP students is heartless and hypocritical – Montreal Gazette

Jun 10, 2024

You’d think that in this era of truth and reconciliation, the CAQ government would have at least feigned enough compassion to take their concerns about new Bill 96 rules under advisement.

There’s a powerful moment in a video released by five English CEGEPs last week that features Indigenous students pleading with the Quebec government to exempt them from onerous new French requirements under Bill 96.

Cameron Biron, a Cree student at John Abbott College, tells Kim Tekakwitha Martin, the school’s dean of Indigenous studies, how hard it is already to be 18 hours away from her community of Wemindji to pursue her education. She explains how adding three extra French classes to her course load next year will put her at risk of failing, since she had no French schooling growing up. So her only choice, she feels, is to leave Quebec and move even farther away to study.

“You come here wanting to make your family proud. You don’t want to go back. You don’t want to give up,” Biron says as the tears begin to flow. She apologizes and tries to regain her composure.