Get ready for a new skirmish in the eternal Quebec war to defend the French language.
Already Mario Beaulieu of the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste (SSJB) has said that 'the bilinguisation of UQAM is unacceptable.'
Michel Laporte, first vice-president of the Syndicat des professeurs de l'Université du Québec à Montréal (SPUQ), the union that represents the school's professors, says that the move contradicts the mission of integrating immigrants to francophone culture.
When John Abbott College decided to abandon courses in aeronatics, CEGEP Édouard-Montpetit in Longueuil decided to offer English language courses in aircraft maintenance as well as French at it's affiliated school based at St. Hubert airport.
l'École nationale d'aéronautique de Saint-Hubert will offer English courses to English students only, those coming out of the English school system.
It seems like a sweet arrangement, the school could use the extra students at the underused airport. The whole arrangement makes eminently good sense. But for language crusaders it was a dastardly attempt to pry the door open to bilingualism.
Back to the UQAM offering classes in English;
Is it an admission that foreign students just don't see French as useful in the business world?
It is a sad commentary that the school can't even attract foreign French students to the business program, considering that they benefit from reduced tution, because they are francophones.
