'Back down for good': Liberals call on Legault to reverse language rules, tuition hikes for English universities

The Francois Legault government is dividing Quebecers by forcing English universities to adopt 'harmful' new French-language rules for out-of-province students, the Official Opposition says.

The François Legault government is dividing Quebecers by forcing English universities to adopt "harmful" new French-language rules for out-of-province students, the Official Opposition says.

One day after Quebec Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry announced the new requirements for McGill, Concordia, and Bishop's universities, the Quebec Liberal Party's interim leader, Marc Tanguay, published an open letter calling on the government to reverse course.

Under the new policy, announced by Déry in a social media post on Thursday, anglophone universities could face unspecified financial penalties if 80 per cent of their students don't reach an intermediate, or level 5, on the French-language proficiency scale by graduation. Just a few days ago, the trio of universities had proposed a threshold of 40 per cent, but now say what the government is asking for is unrealistic.

"Unfortunately, the government chose division over progress, rejecting this proposal in favour of an unrealistic 80% francization requirement," Tanguay wrote in his letter on Friday.

"The Legault government couldn't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that non-resident Canadian students changed the linguistic dynamic in Quebec. Instead, they made their choice based on ideology instead of facts. There was no need for such a mess, and this remains true. There is only one way out: François Legault needs to back down for good. Being a nationalist has nothing to do with harming Quebec or undermining its institutions."

Déry also announced Thursday that under the new measures, tuition for non-Quebec undergraduate students at McGill and Concordia would rise from about $9,000 to $12,000, down from the previous figure of $17,000 the CAQ had originally announced on Oct. 13. Bishop's University, located in Sherbrooke, Que., is exempt from the tuition hike.

Déry says the changes, which will take effect in the 2025-2026 school year, are necessary to stop the decline of French in Quebec, particularly in Montreal, and that the added costs will be redistributed to the French-language post-secondary institutions.