David Young thesis: Chapter Two

Chapter 2:

The Evolution of the Quebec Education System

Introduction

In his work The Long Road to Reform: Restructuring Public Education in Quebec, Henry Milner (1986: 10) cogently asserts that "[i]t would be foolish to attempt any kind of comprehensive historical survey of 200 years of Quebec education in one short chapter, nor would it serve any useful purpose." As a result, building upon the caveat offered by Milner, I have opted to simply highlight those events and circumstances which are particularly relevant to providing a rather terse overview of the evolution of the Quebec education system up to, but not including, the transformation of the system to a linguistic one.

As such, for purposes of both simplicity and clarity, the following account will be divided into three distinct phases, based primarily upon the chronological delineations offered by Smith and Donahue (1999: 2-4). The first phase, which dates from 1608 to 1960, may be termed "From New France to the Quiet Revolution;" the second phase, simply referred to as "The Quiet Revolution," dates from 1960 until 1970, and, the final phase, "From the Quiet Revolution to the Present" deals with the post-1970 period to the present.

Of course, it must be noted that the various time periods examined are perhaps not as easily demarcated as is indicated. However, by dividing the evolution of Quebec education into various epochs, it provides a more logically coherent and comprehensible overview than would otherwise have been possible. Thus, it is this evolution which this thesis will now address (Young, 1997: 21).

From New France to the Quiet Revolution

Without question, the education system in Quebec is similar to arrangements found elsewhere. Education in the province has evolved from a predominantly elementary-level system controlled by church and family, to a multi-level system governed by the state. However, Quebec is different than other Canadian jurisdictions in that it has different roots from which it has evolved. First, there is a French dimension influenced by the Roman Catholic Church, and, a British dimension inspired by various Protestant denominations. In essence, these religious and cultural differences led to the manifestation of different languages, resulting in the evolution of a dual system of education, one Catholic and predominantly French, and the other Protestant and predominantly English (Smith and Donahue, 1999: 1).

Historically, Quebec society was and is an outgrowth of the French efforts to colonize North America in the 17^th century. From the outset of the French régime, education was characterized by the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, as religious orders of both men and women such as the Jesuits, Recollects, Sulpicians, Brothers Hospitallers of the Cross, Ursulines, Grey Nuns, and Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame were responsible for the formal education in New France, as Quebec was then known (Boudreau, 1999: 9). While the original intent of these various orders was to spread Christianity to the native Indians, the priests, brothers, and nuns were successful in establishing a number of elementary schools scattered over the rural regions of the territory (Henchey and Burgess, 1987: 21).

Despite the laudable efforts of the Catholic Church, general conditions in the colony inspired little interest in education and schooling. As Henchey and Burgess (1987: 22) point out:

The early preoccupation with the fur trade, the harsh environment and the lack of significant numbers of settlers caused the Catholic colony of New France to grow far more slowly than Protestant colonies....The French were numerically incapable of either monopolizing the fur trade or of holding on to the vast tracts of territory in North America to which they had laid claim. This situation eventually led to the military defeat of the French in the Seven Years' war in 1759 and then to the eventual disappearance of France as a major colonizing power in North America.

With the ascent of the British régime in 1760, the French-speaking and Catholic settlers had to face a new power that was both English-speaking and Protestant. Fearing that their very existence and survival were in jeopardy of disappearing, French-Canadians began to turn for guidance and support to the Roman Catholic Church, which was in essence one of the few institutions of the French régime which the British permitted to remain in the colony. In the years immediately following the Conquest, the Church assumed the role of providing educational services to the French population (Henchey and Burgess, 1987: 22-23). Of course, the Catholic Church was concurrently faced with the threat imposed by the religious body of the conquerors - the Anglican Church, and, as a result, a dualism between Catholicism and Protestantism emerged which would characterize education in Quebec for over two centuries (Giles and Proudfoot, 1994: 10). While numerous attempts were made to develop a centralized education system common to all, all efforts resulted in failure, largely due to the lack of support from Catholics, who feared that such a system, controlled by English-speaking and Protestant authorities would signal the assimilation and "Protestantization" of the French Catholic population. (Henchey and Burgess, 1987: 22-23).

However, despite the resistance of the Catholic population, with the massive influx of English-speaking settlers in the late eighteenth century into Lower Canada, as Quebec was then known, the demand for a public system of education became more rancourous. In 1789, a commission of inquiry on education headed by William Smith recommended the establishment of a system of non-denominational public schools, but, because of opposition within the colony to such a scheme, the proposal failed to reach fruition (Milner, 1986: 11). Despite the efforts to reform education in Lower Canada:

...the Church in Quebec resisted all attempts to place the authority for education in the hands of the state - whether the initiative came from Anglo-Protestants when an attempt was made to create a public system of education with the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning created in 1801, or...from French-Canadian nationalists such as Louis Joseph Papineau, who advocated the separation of Church and state. The Catholic Church in Quebec, following Rome's directives, was uncompromising about the supremacy of the Church over the state in educational matters (Boudreau, 1999: 10).

Despite the refusal of the Catholic Church to accept any governmental involvement in the realm of education, the state did not remain entirely docile. Through the passage of the 1824 Act Respecting Fabrique Schools, which authorized the fabriques (Catholic parish corporations or vestries) to establish and maintain schools in each parish, and the 1829 Syndics Act, which provided for an elected board of commissioners which would manage and administer the schools within a town or parish (Milner, 1986: 11), real substantive progress was made . As Henchey and Burgess (1987: 23) point out, the board of commissioners was the forerunner of present-day school boards, where schools are placed under the control of locally elected lay persons rather than religious authorities. However, the expansion of the school system in Lower Canada was interrupted by a political crisis in 1836, and the subsequent "Patriotes" revolt in 1837-1838, which resulted in the legislation of 1829 not being extended, a suspension of all educational subsidies, and a subsequent closure of numerous schools (Milner, 1986: 11).

With the crisis of the late 1830s over, Quebec was eventually united in 1841 with Ontario (Upper Canada). In spite of the passage of an Education Act in 1841 to serve both Quebec and Ontario, it was apparent that any act would be incompatible and incapable of meeting the divergent interests of the two areas. As a result, Quebec was granted its own school law in 1845, and, through a series of subsequent revisions, the Education Act, 1846 emerged, an act upon which all educational laws were to be built (Henchey and Burgess, 1987: 23-24).

As Milner (1986: 11) asserts, the acts of 1841, 1845 and 1846 represented a "...working compromise between the clergy who wanted church-controlled schools and those who sought common public schools." According to the 1846 Education Act, referred to at that time as "Quebec's magna carta of education," (Johnson, 1968: 34), the principle of dichotomy based upon religion was accepted (Sissons, 1959: 135). In Montreal and Quebec City, there would be two elected boards of school commissioners, one Catholic and the other Protestant, with both types serving its own religious community. Throughout the rest of Quebec, the arrangement was different, as segregation was voluntary, with only one set of "common" schools run by elected Catholic and Protestant school boards, but, if the "common" school proved unacceptable to the minority denomination (usually Protestant), the religious minority could withdraw from the "common" school, and establish a school of its own religious preference (Cornell, 1993: 81-82). As section 26 of the 1846 Education Act stated:

That when in any municipality, the regulations and arrangements made by the School Commissioners for the conduct of any school, shall not be agreeable to any number whatever of the inhabitants professing a religious faith different from that of the majority of the inhabitants of such Municipality, the inhabitants so dissentient may collectively signify such dissent in writing.... (in Sissons, 1959: 135).

This right of the Catholic or Protestant minority to dissent from the system of "common" schools to establish separate denominational school boards led to the creation of what are referred to in Quebec as dissentient boards (Henchey and Burgess, 1987: 24). "Effectively, this meant that the common and dissentient schools served different religious communities and were confessionally identifiable (Cornell, 1993: 82).

As it became evident that the two provinces of Canada were to become part of a larger union in 1867, Protestants, recognizing that they were about to become a minority in a Lower Canada separated from Upper Canada, strove to maintain the autonomy of their schools. At the same time, Catholics sought to preserve the supremacy of the Church in educational matters. As a result, the concurrent aspirations of both groups effectively led to the protection of the confessional aspects of the system (Smith and Donahue, 1999: 19).

In essence, the rights and privileges afforded to Catholics and Protestants by the existing laws, essentially those found in the 1846 Education Act, were written into the Canadian Constitution as section 93 of the British North America Act, 1867. As Section 93 states:

93. In and for each Province the Legislature may exclusively make laws in relation to Education, subject and according to the following Provisions:-

(1)Nothing in any such Law shall prejudicially affect any Right or Privilege with respect to Denominational Schools which any Class of Persons have by Law in the Province at the Union:

(2)All the Powers, Privileges, and Duties at the Union by Law conferred and imposed in Upper Canada on the Separate Schools and School Trustees of the Queen's Roman Catholic Subjects shall be and the same are hereby extended to the Dissentient Schools of the Queen's Protestant and Roman Catholic Subjects in Quebec:

(3)Where in any Province a System of Separate or Dissentient Schools exists by Law at the Union or is thereafter established by the Legislature of the Province, an Appeal shall lie to the Governor General in Council from any Act or Decision of any Provincial Authority affecting any Right or Privilege of the Protestant or Roman Catholic Minority of the Queen's Subjects in relation to Education:

(4)In case any such Provincial Law as from Time to Time seems to the Governor General in Council requisite for the due Execution of the Provisions of this Section is not made, or in case any Decision of the Governor General in Council on any Appeal under this Section is not duly executed by the proper Provincial Authority in that behalf, then and in every such Case, and as far only as the Circumstances of each Case require, the Parliament of Canada may make remedial laws for the due Execution of the

Provisions of this Section and of any Decision of the Governor General in Council under this Section.

As Bezeau (1995: 18) points out in regards to section 93, as a result of the preamble, responsibility for education was a provincial responsibility, with some protection afforded to denominational minorities by virtue of the four subsections. Thus, "...denominational boards were placed out of the provincial legislators' reach," (Milner, 1986: 13) and, the "...confessional basis of public schooling in Quebec was constitutionally protected" (Cornell, 1993: 82). Therefore it is abundantly clear that "Quebec entered Confederation educationally established" (Magnuson, 1980: 38).

During the period following 1867, there was little if any state involvement in education in Quebec, which of course stood in direct contrast to affairs throughout the rest of the country. In fact, both the Catholic and Protestant religious communities favored a dual denominational system free of governmental interference (Henchey and Burgess, 1987: 24-25). It is not an exaggeration to state that from 1867 until 1960, there was a constant and continuous movement towards specific religious affiliation in the educational realm, with the two major religious groups becoming more deeply separated and entrenched. By 1869, building upon an already established de facto principle, legislation drafted in the name of "confessional autonomy" dictated that in regards to property-based school taxes, taxes from Catholics would go to Catholic boards, and from Protestants to Protestant boards, As well, in 1869, the Council of Public Instruction that had been set up in 1856 was reformed for the same purpose. The Council would now be divided up into both a Catholic and Protestant committee, composed of both clergy and lay people (Milner, 1986: 12-13).

The 1875 Education Act went even further in emphasizing religious differences, by abolishing the short-lived Ministry of Public Instruction (1867-1875), and vesting authority for education in the Council of Public Instruction, or, more particularly, its Catholic and Protestant committees, which would oversee the entire administration of their respective systems, including both the preparation of the curriculum, and, the certification of teachers. "This definitely removed education from the political sphere and gave to Quebec education [a] distinctly confessional character..." (Percival, 1946: 24). As Henchey and Burgess (1987: 25) put it, without question, the 1875 Education Act reaffirmed the dual religious nature of Quebec education, while increasing the separation between Catholics and Protestants.

By the late nineteenth century, Quebec public education had achieved its final form, namely, two denominational systems functioning side by side but rarely touching, each governed by its own administrative apparatus and distinct philosophy, and each serving a different clientele (Magnuson, 1980: 49).

Of course, it is important to note that besides their isolation, the two systems exhibited several fundamental differences. Without question, both in terms of its overall organization, as well as its curriculum, the Protestant system was clearly less denominational, and, more secular than the Catholic. In regards to organization, only the Catholic system had clerical representation at every level, while the Protestant system lacked such homogeneity. As well, the religious thrust of the Catholic schools was reflected in the religiously oriented curriculum, and the vast number of nonlay teachers. On the other hand, the Protestant system, staffed by lay teachers, was committed more to the teaching of morality as opposed to the doctrinal tenets of Christianity (Magnuson, 1980: 49-51).

As well, in terms of structural differences between the two denominational systems, secondary education was provided in public schools in the Protestant system, whereas Catholic secondary education was provided by the private sector in the classical colleges operated by various religious orders (Henchey and Burgess, 1987: 25).

Until the 1930s, this dual system, endorsed by Protestants and Catholics alike, began to exhibit serious shortcomings in its efficiency and ability to adapt to modern realities. Unlike the late 1800s, when almost the entire population could be classified as being either French Catholic or English Protestant, Quebec society was now experiencing a newfound pluralism. Certainly, this was chiefly a result of a massive influx of immigrants, mainly English-speaking Catholics from Ireland, and Jews from central Europe. Undoubtedly, the system was not designed to accommodate these new arrivals, and, as a result, both groups found it extremely difficult to assume a place within the existing confines. After some struggle, however, the English Catholics did succeed in being permitted to send their children to English Catholic schools, which were administered by Catholic school boards. At the same, and with equal difficulty, the Jews eventually found accommodation within the Protestant system. However, it was abundantly clear that the Quebec education system, with some 1500 school boards, all of which were either Catholic or Protestant, was not easily malleable to the emerging pluralistic society that Quebec was becoming. As a result of increasing pressure from numerous sources, "...during the 1960s, following many years of benign neglect, the government eventually acted to modernize and reform the province's educational system" (Henchey and Burgess, 1987: 27), and, as a result, Quebec was to embark upon a new era referred to as the Quiet Revolution.

The Quiet Revolution

Writing in 1978, Marcel Rioux (74), in his book, Quebec in Question, described the 1960 electoral victory of Jean Lesage as a watershed in Quebec politics, and, although the Liberal government was voted out of office in 1966, the ideology of reform advocated by Lesage prevailed until 1970. Certainly, there is general agreement that Quebec during the 1960s was far from a quiet place, as the measures introduced had a rumbling effect throughout the province. In fact, "Quebec was in an uproar" (Bothwell, 1995: 79-80). Yet, this revolution was quiet in the sense that it did not produce any type of turmoil or hostility, as is often associated with revolutions. "Quebec's Quiet Revolution was revolution of ideas. As a result of shifting values spurred on by the inter-related factors of increasing industrialization, urbanization, and modernization, French Canadians declared war on their belief system, which resulted in numerous changes to many aspects of their society" (Smith and Donahue, 1999: 31).

Unlike the dominantly held view that the only way for the French people to survive was to remain traditional, this new administration, increasingly nationalistic in orientation, asserted that survival depended upon a "rattrapage," or catching up. According to William Johnson (1994: 19):

[t]he Quiet Revolution, when it came at last, began as an outbreak of hope. Suddenly after a century of withdrawal and retreat into the past, Quebec decided to join the modern world. Everything seemed possible. Quebec began to change its institutions rapidly and deeply. The attitudes and values of the people changed even more rapidly. History quickened its pace. Long-standing walls crumbled.

For Lesage and his new government, precious time had been lost in Quebec's social development, and, as a result, the state would have to assume full responsibility for the services previously directed by the Church (Gingras and Nevitte, 1984: 8). Accordingly, "...the state replaced the Church as the defender of Quebec's primary interests" (Henchey and Burgess, 1987: 27).

In no one area was the state's role more active than in regards to education. "Educational changes thought unthinkable a decade earlier were carried out with little respect for tradition" (Magnuson, 1980: 105). The first major step undertaken by Lesage and the principal architect for reform, Paul Gérin-Lajoie, was the 1961 passage of a series of laws collectively known as the Grande Chartre de l'Éducation, or Magna Charta of Education. Stemming from the recommendations of the 1961 Royal Commission of Inquiry on Education in the Province of Quebec (the Parent Commission), in 1964 the government succeeded in passing Bill 60, which created, for the first time in almost a century, a Ministry of Education responsible for all educational policy in the province, thus replacing the Catholic and Protestant Committees of the Council of Public Instruction (Henchey and Burgess, 1987: 27). As well, the Act of 1964 created a new body, the Superior Council of Education, which would provide advice to the Minister. Of course, the real purpose of the Council was "to combat any claim that Bill 60 [bill creating both the Ministry of Education and the CSE] would produce a state-managed educational system insensitive to the interests of the population" (Smith and Donahue, 1999: 40).

Despite the initial hostile reaction to this reform, especially from the Catholic Church, its leaders reluctantly accepted the idea of an education ministry, although they feared its impact on clerical education. In spite of their fears, it was now clear that power for education in the province had been centralized within the ministry, and, reform continued with unfettered force. Beginning in 1966 the Ministry of Education reduced the number of years of elementary school from seven to six years, while increasing the number of years of secondary school from four to five. As well, with the creation of new two-year colleges, and the re-adjustment of university undergraduate programs from four to three years, a 6-5-2-3 pattern of education had emerged, with these numbers corresponding to the number of years of elementary, secondary, college and university education respectively (Magnuson, 1980: 109).

At the same time, in response to recommendations of the Parent report, the Ministry "...regrouped the small local boards in the province into 55 regional Roman Catholic school boards and 9 Protestant regional boards; reduced the number of school boards off the Island of Montreal from 1252 to 189 and the number of boards on the Island of Montreal from 33 to 8..." (Cornell, 1993: 84). The government also legislated that each denominational system would now maintain secondary schools offering both generalized and specialized courses. These new secondary schools under the Catholic system emerged as a major threat to the viability of the private classical colleges, who, prior to the 1960s, were solely responsible for secondary education. In fact, the policy of expanding and promoting public secondary education dealt a near fatal blow to the cause of private education, as evidenced by the substantial decline in enrolment in these institutions from 40,000 pupils in 1965-1966, to only 16,000 students in 1968-1969. However, the 1968 Private Education Act reversed this alarming trend, largely through guaranteeing that any school declared in the public interest would be eligible to receive a grant of up to 80 per cent of the cost of instruction in a public school. As a result, many of these schools survived, although the numbers enrolled within them never equalled their pre-1968 numbers (Magnuson, 1980: 110).

Despite the scope of reform clearly evident during the 1960s within the realm of education, the dual denominational system remained essentially intact. However, among the major proposals of the Parent Report was Recommendation 55, released in 1966, which asserted that the dual confessional system be replaced with neutral or nonconfessional school boards, which would exist alongside existing Catholic and Protestant ones (Cornell, 1993: 83). As with the Parent Commission, the Mouvement Laïque de Langue Français (MLF) supported this creation of a third or neutral school system. The Committee for Neutral Schools, an English counterpart of the MLF, went even further, openly advocating the abolition of the Catholic and Protestant system, and, the creation of school boards divided along linguistic lines (Magnuson, 1980: 119).

However, despite these recommendations, the proposals never reached fruition, mainly due to lack of consensus, particularly among those members of the Superior Council of Education (Boudreau, 1999: 56-57). Yet, despite the fact that the confessional structure remained, the Catholic schools in particular underwent a secular transformation, bringing them more in line with the Protestant schools. For instance, by 1965, 80 per cent of all teaching staff in Catholic public schools were lay persons, and, in terms of curriculum, religious instruction was now given less priority. "The declining importance of religion seemed to disprove the old adage that you go to Catholic schools to learn to pray and to Protestant schools to learn to count" (Magnuson, 1980: 121).

As the 1960s drew to a close, and, despite the fact that the major reforms of the provincial education system were complete, the rumblings so prevalent during the Quiet Revolution continued. "With the falling away of Roman Catholicism as an institutional and moral force in Quebec, the French language assumed a new and critical importance..." (Magnuson, 1980: 124). This new reality was brought to the forefront in 1968, in the Montreal suburb of St. Leonard, when the local Catholic school board decided to phase out its English-language schools. Despite vociferous protest, especially from immigrant families, the Quebec Superior Court refused to intervene on the grounds that there were no laws in the province which guaranteed that students would receive instruction in English. As Henchey and Burgess point (1987: 28) out, the position of the judiciary was justifiable, in that educational rights for the minority were founded upon tradition, and on the rights granted to Protestants and enshrined in section 93 of the British North America Act - rights that were clearly denominational, and not linguistic.

With Francophone nationalists demanding that the government compel immigrant children to attend French schools, and Anglophone and immigrant groups arguing for assurances of English-language school rights, the Union Nationale government of Jean-Jacques Bertrand responded to this language crisis by convening a Royal Commission on linguistics rights, named the Gendron Commission. Amid increasing demands for action, the government in 1969 introduced in the National Assembly Bill 63, "An Act to Promote the French Language in Quebec." This law, which granted all parents the right to have their children educated in the language of their choice was met with applause from the immigrant community, but, drew scorn from French nationalists (Henchey and Burgess, 1987: 28).

Thus, as Quebec entered the 1970s, with religion having been firmly supplanted by a linguistic cleavage, and mass demonstrations raging against the government and its language policies, it was inevitable that steps would be taken to both expand and promote the French language in every sphere of society, including the educational arena.

From the Quiet Revolution to the Present

In the examining the decade of the 1970s, it is easily discernible that this period was characterized by an ever-increasing linguistic nationalism, with the question of who should have access to English-language schools dominating the educational agenda. With the 1972 Gendron Commission, as well as the 1968-1969 federal government report on Bilingualism and Biculturalism drawing attention to the fragile state of the French language in Quebec and Canada, coupled with the fact that more than 85% of all immigrant children, as well as some 75,000 Francophone children were attending English schools created tremendous pressure for governmental action to curb these disturbing trends (Henchey and Burgess, 1987: 28-29).

Responding to pressure to introduce legislation that would go beyond the measures included within Bill 63, the Liberal government of Robert Bourassa introduced the Official Language Act, 1974, or Bill 22 as it was commonly referred to. In declaring French to be the sole official language in Quebec, this act in effect eliminated the province's traditional policy of bilingualism. Besides this:

[a]t the heart of Bill 22 was a controversial education section which redefined the school population. The principle of language choice in education was replaced by a provision restricting entrance to English schools to those possessing a working knowledge of English. At the same time, the act charged school boards with the responsibility of setting English-language proficiency tests for those applicants whose mother tongue was other than English. The new regulations governing admission to English schools were directed against immigrants in the first instance and Francophones in the second (Magnuson, 1980: 127).

Unquestionably, this law served to appease the interests of neither Anglophones nor Francophones. The English community viewed the law as discriminatory against immigrants, and a violation of fundamental human rights. In fact, the Quebec Association of Protestant School Boards went as far as to petition the federal government to disallow the law, or, at the very minimum, refer the case to the Supreme Court of Canada. On the other hand, the French community believed that the law had not gone far enough in restricting access to English schools, and, cited examples of the ease in which immigrant children were circumventing the intention of the law (Henchey and Burgess, 1987: 29).

However, despite the utter failure of Bill 22, the record of the Liberal government in the field of education was not entirely ineffective. For instance, in 1971 and 1972, by two separate pieces of legislation, the 1100 school boards in the province were reduced to 8 on the Island of Montreal, and 226 throughout the rest of the province - a reform which confirmed separate confessional structures in Quebec, and, which was supported by Catholics and Protestants alike (Boudreau, 1999: 59-60).

Yet, regardless, the crisis surrounding Bill 22 "...finished off a government already beset with scandal and dissension" (Milner, 1986: 39). In the provincial election of 1976, the separatist Parti Québécois, led by René Lévesque, registered a landslide victory. The first major piece of legislation passed by the new government was Bill 101, known as the Charter of the French Language. In repealing Bill 22, this new language act was committed to making French the only language of Quebec in all areas of social, economic, cultural and administrative life. In terms of education, Bill 101 was, much like its predecessor, designed to restrict admission to English schools. However, unlike Bill 22, with its reliance on language tests to determine English school eligibility, the Charter of the French Language based this admission decision on family educational roots in Quebec (Magnuson, 1980: 128-129). Accordingly, it limited access to those who had at least one parent who attended English-language elementary school in the province. Thus, it ensured that all others, regardless of language or place of origin, would receive their instruction in French schools. Not surprisingly, the English-speaking community was outraged by the government's action, lamenting that the Parti Québécois was violating fundamental educational rights. Unquestionably, Bill 101 had a devastating effect on English-language schools. In fact, "[t]he law cut enrollment drastically, since 35 per cent of all students in English language schools were either francophones or the children of immigrants" (Boudreau, 1999: 58). By the end of the 1970s, "...deprived of new immigrants and suffering the effects of a depressed birth rate, Quebec's English schools were showing severely reduced enrolments..." (Magnuson, 1980: 129).

As the 1980s began, despite the fact that school boards were still divided along denominational lines, because of the declining importance of religion, and the emergence of a linguistic nationalism, the development of a de facto language-based system had begun. Through Bill 101, language, rather than religion was now the determining factor in defining the province's school population (Magnuson, 1980: 129).

"Obviously, something did not fit. In a secular society a confessionally based educational system struck a discordant chord" (Milner, 1986: 42). However, as Bezeau (1989: 52) points out, despite the fact that a majority of Quebecers would have been pleased to see an elimination of the denominational rights contained within section 93 of the British North America Act, 1867, the degree of protection provided by this very section had assumed mythical proportions. "Section 93 was viewed by most observers as circumscribing what could or could not happen in terms of school board reform, be it as a 'stumbling block' to reform, or as the 'last line of defence' of minority rights" (Smith and Donahue, 1999: 45). The ability of section 93 in preventing school board reform was given credence by the passage of the Constitution Act, 1982. Included within the "Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms" was a clause which gave "...denominational rights and privileges established when the provinces entered Canada precedence over any provisions of the Charter" (Bezeau, 1995: 23).

Despite the "mythology" surrounding section 93, in 1982, Dr. Camille Laurin, the father of Bill 101, and, by now Minister of Education, did attempt to reform the confessional system. A government White Paper entitled The Quebec School: a responsible force in the community, outlined the government's intentions.

First, new school boards would be created: de-confessionalized, linguistic, and territorially aligned with regional county municipalities. In Montreal and Quebec City, the historic Catholic and Protestant school boards would remain confessional, but operate only within their 1867 boundaries. The dissentient boards, and the principle of dissent, would remain in existence. The new boards would be linguistically divided on the Island of Montreal but linguistically homogeneous off-Island (Cornell, 1993: 86).

In 1983, after a year of heated public debate, the government introduced Bill 40, an Act Respecting Public Elementary and Secondary Education, which was designed to implement the reforms proposed in the white paper, through the creation of linguistic school boards. However, as a result of public outcry, which resulted in a cabinet shuffle, the bill was withdrawn, and new legislation, Bill 3, containing further revisions to the government's education policy, was tabled in the fall of 1984. This act, which became law in December of the same year, proposed replacing all common denominationally based boards with common linguistic boards, while maintaining the confessional boards in Montreal and Quebec City and the 5 remaining dissentient boards, with the boundaries they had in 1867 (Smith and Donahue, 1999: 64). This would have created the unique situation where these boards would now administer areas with few or no schools remaining within them.

Almost immediately, Bill 3 was challenged in Quebec Superior Court by the Quebec Association of Protestant School Boards, the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal and other of its member boards in Montreal, Quebec City, and Trois Rivières, along with the Quebec Federation of Home and School Associations, and La Commission des Écoles Catholiques de Montréal. The petitioners claimed the law denied to Protestants and Catholics as a "class of persons" the rights and privileges granted them according to section 93 of the British North America Act, 1867. Mr. Justice André Brassard agreed that in fact, Bill 3 was ultra vires, and that the school board boundaries were constitutionally protected, as was the right to dissent. Thus, the Court issued a permanent injunction which prevented the law from being implemented (Cornell, 1993: 87). As a result, "...the structural reform movement was brought to a sudden and dramatic halt" (Henchey and Burgess, 1987: 31).

It was not until 1987 that the newly-elected Liberal government of Robert Bourassa opted to re-open the debate surrounding education in Quebec. With the passage of Bill 107 in December of 1988, Education Minister Claude Ryan stated unequivocally that the objective of this Act was to "reorganize the school boards along linguistic rather than religious lines..." (in Boudreau, 1999: 65), with the exception of three multi-confessional boards, the Commission Scolaire du Littoral, the Cree School Board and the Kativik School Board. Bill 107 also proposed to retain the four confessional boards in Montreal and Quebec City, as well as the five dissentient boards, including the right to dissent, thus conforming with the earlier decision rendered by the Quebec Superior Court in regards to Bill 3 (Smith and Donahue, 1999: 65).

Since the government realized that a legal challenge from those who wished to preserve the existing denominational system was inevitable, the Liberals preempted such a move by referring a series of constitutional questions to the Quebec Court of Appeal. According to the Court, Bill 107 did not violate constitutionally protected rights. This decision was subsequently appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada by the Quebec Association of Protestant School Boards, its related boards, and La Commission des Écoles Catholiques de Montréal (Smith and Donahue, 1999: 68). In June of 1993, in "Reference Re Education Act, Quebec," the Court determined that the province was free to create linguistic school boards, but, denominational guarantees had to be maintained for both Montreal and Quebec City, including the right of dissentient school boards outside these territories (Boudreau, 1999: 67).

Yet, by maintaining the confessional boards in Montreal and Quebec City, as well as the dissentient boards, "...some level of coexistence between the old and the new systems would continue, a situation that many saw as very problematic..." (Smith and Donahue, 1999: 68-69). Even though no studies were ever conducted, it was commonly held that such an arrangement would be too costly to undertake, and as a result, the implementation of linguistic school boards gradually disappeared from the policy landscape.

In fact, it was not until the release in October of 1996 of the Commission for the Estates General on Education that the idea of linguistic boards resurfaced. This particular study called for the implementing of linguistic school boards throughout the province, including Montreal and Quebec City. According to the report, "confessionality must be unlocked at all levels of the system, so that all students can be taught the shared values that we as a society wish to embrace" (in Boudreau, 1999: 80). The Parti Québécois government of Lucien Bouchard recognized that such a plan could only be achieved through a constitutional amendment, even though the separatist administration indicated that in no way did this decision represent an acceptance of the Constitution Act, 1982. As a result, Education Minister Pauline Marois announced the government's intention through Bill 109 to seek the abrogation of section 93 of the British North America Act, 1867. According to the provincial position:

WHEREAS the Government intends to institute linguistic school boards as soon as possible;

WHEREAS it is desirable, for that purpose, to amend the Constitution Act, 1867, so that Quebec may recover its full capacity to act in matters of education;

WHEREAS such amendment in no way constitutes recognition by the National Assembly of the Constitution Act, 1982, which was adopted without its consent;

WHEREAS undertakings were given by the Federal Government to proceed rapidly with such amendment, through bilateral action and with the agreement of the National Assembly and of the Federal Parliament;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED

THAT the National Assembly authorizes the amendment to the Constitution of Canada by proclamation of His Excellency the Governor General under the Great Seal of Canada....

Despite the condemnation from various religious groups, the Quebec National Assembly on April 15, 1997 gave the proposal a unanimous vote of approval. After public hearings in Ottawa, on November 18^th of that same year, the House of commons voted 204-59 in favor of Quebec's resolution, with but one Quebec Member of Parliament, Clifford Lincoln, voting against the amendment (Boudreau, 1999: 82). With the Senate also voting in the affirmative one month later by a vote of 51-17, the last stumbling blocks to removing the right to denominational education in Quebec had been cleared, and, on December 31, 1997, the Constitution Act, 1867 was amended, by inserting the following after section 93 (Smith and Donahue, 1999). "93A. Paragraphs (1) to (4) of section 93 do not apply to Quebec." As such, all denominational rights and privileges would no longer apply to Quebec. At the same time, the Protestant and Catholic committees of the Superior Council of Education were reformed to include English and French language advisory boards.

Provisional councils were established to assist in the transition from a denominational to linguistic structure, and, on June 30, 1998, these councils ceased to operate. On July 1, 1998, the province's 137 Roman Catholic and 18 Protestant school boards were replaced by 60 French language and 9 English language school boards (Smith, Foster and Donahue, 1999: 2), boards which guaranteed free choice between moral education and Catholic or Protestant religious education.

Conclusion

In 1934, George M. Weir, in The Separate School Question in Canada wrote that "educational evolution in the province of Quebec has been unique in Canada. This evolution has been neither neutral nor Godless, but of a distinctly ecclesiastical nature" (176). As the preceding discussion has demonstrated, Weir's assertions are certainly justifiable. From its genesis in New France, to the 1990s, the denominational character of Quebec education was unmistakable. In fact, it was not until the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s that serious demands for reform began to surface, and, it took four decades for Quebec to rid itself of the vestiges of an anachronistic system unattuned with the modern realities of a secular society.

Despite the long road to reform, the province has succeeded in creating a linguistically based system of education which reflects the French and English duality of the society. With these new school boards still in their infancy, it is impossible to speculate whether they will in fact achieve their mandated expectations. Yet, it is clear that the transition from denominational to linguistic was an arduous and interesting progression, and it is this progression, and the manner in which it impacted upon the Eastern Shores School Board, which this thesis will now address.