The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 6

i IT ir .111 I I II i I II- -ill I 1 in i i i i i I i in -in i ii i i 11 I in i i i i I Ir2 All; i.i i i i 111 1 i i ii i i SARAH SCOTT THE GAZETTE authors said. Most English-speaking Montrealers want an English school board to group together the English schools in the Protestant and Catholic boards, so there's little chance Of a separate system in the English system, the authors said. Such a constitutional change could be accomplished by laws passed in Quebec's National Assembly and in the Canadian Parliament, they added. Although it would withdraw the constitutional rights of the religious boards, the authors note there is a large consensus in Quebec on the need to bring in French'and English boards. The premier's parliamentary assistant, David Payne, said "it would be much better for everyone" if language boards could be installed without a constitutional amendment.

But Payne said the government is not changing course because it still intends to bring in language boards. ment that has been proposed by Proulx, an education professor at Uni-versite de Montreal, and by constitutional expert Jose Woehrling. They suggest that the constitution be changed to eliminate the protection for Protestant and Catholic school boards in Montreal and Quebec. Instead, the city would have French and English boards, and the religious minority in each system would be allowed to set up their own dissident boards. This would allow French Protestants to set up a separate school system if they didn't like the way the majority Catholics were running the French school board.

But French Catholics could not set up their own religious board since Catholics would be the majority in the French system. This would not have a significant impact because there are only about 3,200 Protestants registered in French schools on the island of Montreal, the boards on the island of Montreal something that most Montrealers, English and French-speaking have wanted for a long time. For years the current system of Protestant and Catholic boards each with its own French and English systems has been criticized as an archaic, bureaucratic mess that fail? to meet the needs of parents and students. But there is one main roadblock to change-fierce opposition from the conservative leadership of the Montreal Catholic School Commission. MCSC President Michel Pallascio wants to maintain a Catholic board in Montreal.

And he has rock-solid legal grounds to de-fenditbausereligious-basboardsare protectedby the Canadian constitution. Less than a month ago, Premier Lucien Bouchard promised to seek a constitutional amendment that would replace the religious boards with Unguis- tic ones. Bouchard said he would discuss the issue with Prime Minister Jean Chretien when the politicians meet this spring. Buf'then last week Education Minis- ter Paiuline Marois suggested a differ- ent route that would not require constitutional change. said English and French boards could be installed on the island of Mon- i treal without changing the constitution by allowing Protestant and Catholic committees in each language board to run Protestant and Catholic schools, i That solution, proposed in 1994 by for-nler Concordia rector Patrick Kenniff has been criticized for leading to the same bureaucratic mess that exists today in Montreal's school-board system.

"You can see the government is improvising," said Ouimet. He said the government is headed for failure since the MCSC could use the constitution to block change. Ouimet advises the government to opt instead for a constitutional amend The Parti Quebecois government is backtracking on Premier Lucien Bouchard's promise to seek a constitutional amendment to replace Montreal's Protestant and Catholic school boards with French and English ones, the Liberal opposition says. "They are heading for a brick wall" by trying to change the school system without touching the constitution, Liberal MNA Francois Ouimet said yesterday And leading education expert Jean-Pierre Proulx said the Quebec government is issuing "contradictory signals" on how to replace the current religious-based boards with language ones. Education Minister Pauline Marois does not appear to have fully studied the complex issue, Proulx said last night.

The PQ government is trying to find a way to install English and French Closing of the Jeff symbolizes anglo But despite odds, English-speaking residents struggle to keep decline in traditions alive in CP April 1. they felt they would not have been wanted here," she said. But some anglophones like Calvin McBain are determined to stay put. The 34-year-old turkey farmer in Valcartier Village, 20 km north of here, said he's never had any problems living in the area. But he was nervous during the referendum, he says, more for economic reasons than because he is English.

And nothing and nobody will make Moe Rosenhek leave. The 77-year-old retired merchant is a member of the mostly English-speaking Jewish community, which numbered up to 500 around World War but has dwindled down to somewhere over 100, he says. He and his wife Regina are natives of New Brunswick; they arrived in 1952. 'I have no complaints' Rosenhek is a founder of VEQ and a member of the Greater Quebec School Board since 1972. He is chairman of the local Chevra Kadisha (Jewish burial society) and with his wife, has supported financially or otherwise, countless charity and community organizations, "notwithstanding religion, color or language," he said.

In 1990 somebody desecrated the the Jewish cemetery in Sainte-Foy (across the street from the Catholic cemetery where former premier Rene Levesque is buried, on BouL Rene Levesque). But aside from that incident, Rosenhek said, "I have no complaints business-wise, social-wise or any otherwise." Neither does Grant Hamilton, a na Quebec City provincial capital tive of Toronto who runs the translation firm Anglocom. Three years ago, he founded Gay and Lesbian Anglophones of Quebec City, which holds monthly meetings attracting from five to 18 people, mostly men. Hamilton said he had a few English-speaking friends who were hanging out together and decided to form a group allowing homosexuals to socialize in English. He said there is a high turnover of young English-speakers who are students at Laval.

"If they are also in another minority, namely gay, they are even more marginalized," he said. Anglo social groups Hamilton, 35, said his group also aims to encourage English-speakers to stay in the province. "By putting them in contact with people who live and work here, they may actually consider living and working here themselves," he said. There are other social groups, too. Many anglophones drop in, the third Friday of each month, to the restaurant L'Internationale in suburban Sainte-Foy, for a loosely-organized monthly event where people can eat, drink and be merry, all in English.

Seven years ago, a Gazette story quoted translator and part-time university teacher Wallace Schwab, who compared the deterioration of English usage in the area to the decline of French in his native New Orleans. The gloomy article prompted a volley of angry letters, but seven years later, the 54-year-old linguist is unrepentant. "People interpreted that I predicted English here would die out, but that's not what I said," Schwab said. "There won't be an end to English in Quebec because there always will be a sufficient influx." But the English language, he claims, has been corrupted by day-to-day speaking in French. Nowadays, Schwab said, Quebec City anglos don't go to the "corner store" but to the "depanneur." The survival of the English-speaking population of Quebec City depends on newcomers, says Jan Warnke, a geog raphy professor at.Champlain College.

In 1983 Warnke estimated that more than 80 per cent of area anglophones were fluently bilingual, and that 45 per cent spoke French at home, Warnke says: "Quebec anglophones tend to have more children than francophones nowadays, (but) anglophones have a low birth rate here because we have a high population of people who are aged," he said. Finding jobs for the young people, to keep them in town, is also a prime concern. That's why Voice of English Quebec set up a job bank, over two years ago. Said Graham Jackson's son Leon, executive director of VEQ: "Most of the people who come to us are bilingual and this sure is the place to call if you're lookingfor somebody bilingual." 7 J. -57: -f rs5 K.

KM i. The 130-year-old Jeffery Hale Hospital glophone Catholics have one elementary and one high school. Last September The Gazette reported an increase in enrolment in area English elementary schools. "We've survived Bill 101!" said Graham Jackson, director of instructional services for the Protestant schools. In his view, the English-speaking population has integrated here, but has not been assimilated, and is living happily in both societies.

High-school enrolment has been decreasing, but that doesn't worry St. Patrick's High principal Patrick McKenna, who awaits a boom from the elementary schools in 1997. McKenna noted that although money is limited, the Commission des Ecoles Catholiques de Quebec chose St. Pat's last year for construction of a new gym, at the cost of $100,000. But the closing of "the Jeff" is unmistakably a blow to the English community.

On April 1, the Jeff, the only hospital in eastern Quebec giving full services in English, became a 116-bed longterm-care institution, part of the government's plan to create specialized institutions. Retains outpatient clinic Many services are shifting to CLSCs. The Jeff retains an outpatient clinic, and a 24-hour emergency treatment service. "One of its roles will be to ensure English-speaking people get services at various hospitals," said Michael McCormack, chairman of the board of directors. Diane Kameen is information officer at the Jeff's Holland Centre, which dispenses information, referral and volunteer services.

She said "the primary concern among the population here is hospital stays." She said under the government's Equal Access Plan, English services in the area must be provided, where re hiMrmi-MriiniiTiiiiiiM RICHARD SMITH SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE QUEBEC It was 1865 when Jeffery Hale's Hospital opened its doors, a new institution to serve the 18,000 English-speakers in Quebec City. The hospital the way anglophones, many of them in the city's commercial elite, could live full lives without ever learning much French. The April 1 closing of "the Jeff" is a symbol, too. The English population, which was 30 per cent of the city back then, is just over two per cent today -and that includes those who claim both English and French as mother tongues. Today, Quebec City's anglophones are bilingual and virtually invisible in a French city.

And, unlike some anglo Montrealers, the Quebec City anglophones are not militant No one speaks of partition and English signs are an issue only for those French-speaking merchants who advertise in English to attract tourists. As in Montreal, the departure of young anglophones has been one factor in the fading of the community. Another is the city's suburban sprawl. The anglo community "used to be tightly centred in Quebec City, Sillery, and Sainte-Foy," said Richard Walling, a past president of the federally-funded community organization Voice of English Quebec. "It's hard to keep the old traditions going," he said.

Withering institutions Take for example St. Patrick's, the only English Catholic Church in the city itself. In theory, explains Clark McAulay, its 71-year-old-priest, St. Pat's is the parish for all English-speaking Catholics in the area, except those in Sainte-Foy In practice, however, "I understand if they don't drive 30 minutes to get here when they can just walk up to the French church near their home." Other institutions are withering, too. The Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph, which traces its roots to 1764, is now a weekly tabloid with just 2,000 subscribers.

There are only two single-copy sales points: La Maison Anglaise in Sainte-Foy, the area's sole English-language bookstore, and St. Bridgid's Home, a seniors' residence in Sillery Broadcast media offer little more. The local English CBC radio station, responsible for broadcasting throughout Quebec except the Montreal and Outaouais areas, offers local content just five hours weekday. CKMI, the CBC-affiliated English TV station, broadcasts a 30-minute newscast, weeknights, as the sole local programming. Host Karen MacDonald is also editor and co-owner, with her husband Frangois Vezina, of the Chronicle-Telegraph.

Anglophone community activity centres around the schools, a theatre group, the Quebec Literary and Historical Society, which houses the English library, churches, and the one synagogue. There are two Protestant grade schools and one high school to serve Quebec City and Sainte-Foy anglophones, plus another elementary school in Valcartier Village, and a combined primary-secondary school at Canadian Forces Base Valcartier. An- mm Moe Rosenhek, a founder of the Voice of VI Zr.if mJ Miff Centre became a longterm-care facility on sources permit "In effect" Kameen said, "good luck in getting English services!" Walling does not agree, saying there is no problem getting services in English, not only at the hospital but from many local professionals and businesses. However, "the first thing we tell people at Voice of English Quebec is they have to learn French," he said. "But in that transition, there is support we can give them." Shy to speak English Susan Weatherby, a social worker at CLSC Haute-Ville, said local anglophones sometimes are shy to ask for service in their language.

"In the '70s, it wasn't cool being an anglophone living in Quebec City," Weatherby said. "They bent over backwards to not ask for services in English." But the need to use one's native language goes beyond simple services. "It's hard to communicate your emotions in a second language," Weatherby said. Kevin Quinn, 47 and perfectly bilingual, points to himself as an anglophone success story Besides being general manager of the d'Orsay, a restaurant and pub across the street from Quebec's city hall, he owns La Nou-velle-France, another restaurant down at Place Royale, near the Old Port. "An anglophone Irishman owns the business under which (founder of Quebec City) Samuel de Champlain is buried!" he said.

Since the October referendum, however, psychotherapist Carole Dignam-Fournier reports a greater defensive-ness on the part of English speakers she talks to here, and a feeling of not being wanted. She tells of one immigrant from England, who was afraid to go to the store after the referendum because she feared people would be angry at her. "It's stressful being an anglophone in Quebec," Dignam-Fournier said. "Some people told me if there was separation, they would've moved, because GAZETTE PHOTOS BY OEDIER DEBUSSCHERE Sit 'A-- English Quebec, sits In Quebec City Synagogue. Grant Hamilton, outside his office, founded group for homosexual anglos..