LaSalle College overenrolled 716 and 1066 students in its English-speaking programs in 2023 and 2024 respectively. In response, the Quebec Government imposed a $30 million CAD penalty on the college, forcing the institution to postpone the school year kickoff, initially scheduled for Aug. 25.
The cost of such substantial defunding calls into question the Quebec government’s strategy in preserving the French language. LaSalle’s disregard for the quota has been treated as an attack against the Charter of the French Language. The province has defended this legislation vehemently within the last couple of years, aiming to preserve French as the sole official language of the province.
By the time Quebec introduced these quotas, LaSalle had already accepted students for the 2023 school year. The school was unwilling to break contracts with students in 2023 and 2024, to avoid letting down students who had enrolled before the announcement of caps on English-speaking programs.
LaSalle stressed the damage caused by the cut, noting that subsidies cover about 40 per cent of each Quebecois student’s tuition bill. This penalty impedes the provision of quality resources to college, threatens staff jobs, and compromises the education of all its students.
While Quebec’s penalty on a law violation is legitimate, refusing to give the college a grace period for quotas and punishing non-profit institutions in ways that jeopardize their viability is not. Targeting LaSalle College over the school-wide language of instruction speaks more broadly to an inflexible and destructive aggressiveness in this endeavour of cultural preservation.
Quebec’s ambition to preserve francophone heritage is understandable in an increasingly globalized world. Linguistic conservation is vital as the province anchors its identity and culture in French, using the language to differentiate itself from the surrounding English-speaking provinces. However, Quebec’s sanctioning of LaSalle fuels resentment against the government’s goal. Quebec’s coercive measures cultivate a hostile environment that is counterproductive to the promotion of francophone culture.
The Quebec government updated the Charter of the French Language through Bill 96 in 2022. These updates incorporated policies encouraging French over English—for example, through quotas on anglophone students in collegiate institutions—but also implemented austere policies against non-French-speaking foreigners. For example, immigrants are now given only six months to learn French, after which they must use it exclusively in official government communications. Measures that pressure immigrants to learn French so quickly make Quebec appear less attractive for immigration, although the province largely relies on it.
English-speaking universities are impacted because international students represent a significant share of their student body—for instance, 30 per cent of McGill’s students come from abroad. In 2023, Quebec started to cut subsidies for English-speaking institutions like McGill, forcing a tuition increase for out-of-province and international students in its effort to preserve French linguistic dominance. As a result, prospective students are financially discouraged from moving to Quebec, and made to feel unwelcome by the fervent pushing of a French agenda.
Policies to enforce the Charter create downsizing by diminishing Quebec’s capacity to attract international talent. Provincial funding cuts forced McGill to announce approximately 99 layoffs for the 2025-2026 school year. The administration’s strategy to defund educational and research entities proves to be harmful to the province in the long run, as it hinders the province’s ability to provide resources and curbs development—especially considering that the higher education sector grew research and development from +$715.0 million CAD to $16.6 billion CAD in 2021.
This subsidy-cut strategy affects immigrants, workers, and students, while disheartening people from learning French instead of promoting the language. The harsh implementation of the Charter for the French Language undermines the province’s strengths—particularly its multiculturalism, which has long been a source of social, economic, and cultural vitality. Instead of using public services to pressure individuals into francophone culture, Quebec should aim to foster a community invested in preserving French out of cultural curiosity and gratitude for the province’s openness.
In its heartfelt intention to protect its heritage, Quebec lost sight of what it sacrifices by antagonistically enforcing French, forgetting that the true goal is to promote French as means of furthering, not suppressing, linguistic diversity.
