Aucun poutine pour vous!

The supreme court pulled off a nice one today, sort of. They have really handicapped Bill 101, the language law in Quebec, by allowing access to English schooling in Quebec to be much easier. It still doesn't allow French-speaking parents to have their children educated in English, but I imaging that won't be *too far behind (*keeping in mind the glacial speed of lawmaking by the courts in Canada).

The clever part, in my opinion, is that the court did not go all the way to actually striking down the law. Had it done so, the province could have used the Notwithstanding Clause (which was my prediction, if you look down the page) to shrug off any ruling the court had given.

In my honest attempt to avoid a flame war spanning two languages, I will say this: Quebec needs to get with the times. You can't save French-Canadian culture by denying citizens their right to access English as guaranteed in the Charter. It's like trying to hold back a wave with your bare hands. French has a distinguished place in Canada, but parents have a legitimate right to want their children to learn English, the language the rest of North America, the language that business all over the world, uses. I don't think the arguement here is cultural, its practical. That is, of course, unless Quebec is planning to cut itself off from the rest of the world, and pretend it can survive all on its own, culture perfectly intact (and we all know how well that's worked out for every other place that's tried that one!).