While we mere mortals wait months or years to have our appeals heard, not so when questions of vital national importance, like the language of instruction for nine anglo children is in play. And so faster than you can say 'Jack Rabbit' the appeals court overturned the judgment and pinballed the children back to French schools.
The vim and vigour that the department displayed going after these children is in sharp contrast to the lethargic pace of change that it displays when introducing academic improvements in the school system that it oversees, so very badly.
Last week the education department finally admitted that it was prepared to reverse the disastrous decision it took a decade ago, to change student report cards from the traditional model that gave children easily understood marks based on what they had learned, to a touchy-feely system based on something they called 'competencies.' This led to a decade of furious protests by parents who couldn't understand what the hell was going on with their children's academic progress. Although it was apparent from the beginning that the change was a no-go, stubborn administrators burned a generation of students before finally admitting its folly. Even when the decision was made, the department announced a one year delay to give everyone time to adjust. Imagine! One year to change a report card? Massive retraining of students, teachers and parents to understand the complexities of a grading system that my immigrant parents, straight off the boat, understood within minutes! LINK
Elementary School GradesE(excellent)-VG(very good)-G(good)-F(fair) -U(unsatisfactory) Red =FAIL
Complicated eh? Do you think that you need a year to figure it out?High school Grades-30%- 40%- 54%- 55%- 60%- 80% Green =PASS
It seems, that this 'one year delay' is a popular device in Quebec, used to soften the impact of and take the heat off those who screwed up, either legally or administratively.
Back to the students who were denied entry into English High school after completing grade school in English...
The students attended a school that has both an elementary school and a high school division, with the grade school being completely private, but the high school receiving government subsidies. This makes a certificate of eligibility necessary for those who want to move up to the high school and it is this certificate that the government is refusing to issue to the nine students, based on the defunct Bill 104, the law rejected by the Supreme Court, but given a stay of execution for a year.
The students attended a private English school for all their entire academic career, obeying the precepts of the rules in place. Now that the law has been declared illegal, the education department still demands that students remain subject to its provisions until it can come up with another law, one which will invariably be just as illegal.
If you are confused don't feel bad, the system is designed to wear parents out in an effort to have them capitulate and send their kids to French school regardless of the circumstances.
Among the true democracies of the western world, those where Supreme court decisions represent the final word, Canada stands alone in making a mockery of the democratic concept of government being subject to the legal limits and the rule of law.
The absurdity of it all, is that the anglos won their case in the Supreme court, but are denied the fruits of that victory.
Only in Canada, or tin pot, banana republics, can you win your case in the Supreme court and still lose.
The ability of our provinces to set aside an inconvenient Supreme Court ruling by using the infamous 'Notwithstanding Clause' has the primary effect of bringing ridicule and disrespect to our legal system. Secondly, and perhaps more dangerously, it cowers the Supreme Court into making compromise decisions in the hope that it will not be humiliated by the imposition of the Notwithstanding Clause.
In the case of Bill 104, the court knew that its decision would be unpopular in Quebec, so it gave the province a year's grace to enact a new law to replace the illegal one, giving rise to the absurd situation where a law after having been declared illegal, still has force. A true 'Judgment of Solomon.'
So for Anglos, winning or losing in the Supreme court, amounts to the same thing, regardless of the verdict, we always lose.
The unfairness of it all has the chilling effect of convincing anglos that there is no point in pursuing an expensive and debilitating legal fight in the face of a linguistic injustice, when the best that can be hoped for is a Pyrrhic victory.
Of course this suits Quebec nationalists perfectly well, whose goal is to eliminate any court's ability to overrule the Quebec National Assembly, thus making it beyond reproach and above the rule of law.
To this end, they mock and denigrate the Supreme Court of Canada as a foreign institution, bent on depriving Quebec of its legitimate right to enact any law that it sees fit, legal, illegal moral or immoral.
And so our students are tossed around like footballs, subject to one illegal law after another, with zero consideration to their academic well-being.
Children who speak English as well as any student in Toronto or Vancouver are being forced into inferior French schools where their educational path is sure to suffer, all in the name of satisfying French language militants who care little about the students themselves and consider them nothing more than cannon fodder in the crusade to force French upon everyone.
Reeking vengeance upon English twelve year olds is somehow seen as redress by language militants for the loss at the Plains of Abraham. Fist pumping and congratulatory back slapping is the order of the day, for this great triumph of French over English. Disgusting.....
The policy of creating one illegal law to replace another illegal law was first enunciated by Quebec separatist journalist Josée Legault, who described waging a guerrilla warfare campaign against the legal system, "...mener une «guérilla» juridique." LINK
Each time an illegal language law is struck down, it would immediately be replaced by another illegal law and each subsequent legal challenge would take years to wend its way through the courts. In the meantime the laws would remain on the books and in force, until the next round!
Sound familiar? Welcome to our nightmare!
