The Bill 96 effect: CEGEP student warns others to get their English eligibility certificate before it's too late

A John Abbott College student has learned the hard way that applying for a certificate of eligibility for English instruction before graduating high school has become even more critical under the new French language law in Quebec.

A John Abbott College student has learned the hard way that applying for a certificate of eligibility for English instruction before graduating high school has become even more critical under the new French language law in Quebec.

It's a cautionary tale that rights-holders should heed if they want to safeguard those rights to English education down the line, especially now, says the executive director of the Quebec English School Board Association (QESBA).

"Even before Bill 96 (as it's known), we have been saying publicly, with only limited success, I might add, that there is a definite value and advantage to getting a certificate of eligibility for your children, even if they're going to French schools," said Russell Copeman. "And with Bill 96, those advantages multiply."

Heni Mockin, a Montreal resident who speaks English at home, has missed out on the benefits that might have rightfully been hers, which include passing on those English education rights to any future offspring.

She says that based on her father's schooling in Montreal, she thinks she'd be eligible, but she's been told it's too late to request the document now.

And she never needed it before. Mockin attended an accredited French-language elementary and high school, Beit Rivkah Academy in Montreal.

The 19-year-old only learned about the existence of eligibility certificates when she realized she'd been funnelled into the newly designed CEGEP stream for non-rights holders and couldn't keep up with her Francophone classmates.