Hanes: Why not let some Ukrainian refugee children go to school in English?

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It was the suffering of children that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy so poignantly emphasized when he addressed the House of Commons on Tuesday and the killing and maiming of kids that he so graphically depicted in a video he played during a speech to the US Congress on Wednesday.

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“Dear Justin, dear guests, can you imagine that every day you receive memorandums about the number of casualties, including women and children,” Zelenskyy said in a direct appeal to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canadian parliamentarians three weeks after Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. “You have heard about the bombings. Currently we have 97 children who died during this war.”

Bloodied babies, lifeless toddlers and crying preschoolers figured prominently in a montage of the destruction caused by Russia’s merciless bombardment of Ukrainian cities that Zelenskyy showed to US lawmakers the following day.

“I’m almost 45 years old. Today my age stopped when the hearts of more than 100 children stopped beating,” he said switching to English.

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In addition to the deaths and injuries, youngsters make up the bulk of the roughly 3 million refugees who have fled Ukraine since Russia attacked. Most have been separated from their fathers, who must stay behind to fight. Some have also left without their mothers, traveling with grandparents — or even alone — to foreign lands.

Images of children pressing their faces to the glass of train windows in tearful farewells and sleeping in shelters with their worldly possessions stuffed into suitcases are heartbreaking.

As the smallest victims of Putin’s war crimes disperse across Europe and the world, Canada is among the nations planning to welcome them.

Premier François Legault said Quebec is ready to do its part and that there is “no limit” to the number of people the province is willing to take in. Government officials, charitable organizations, the local Ukrainian community and ordinary citizens are all mobilized to assist. Some 600 families in Montreal are poised open their homes to mainly women and children who could be arriving imminently.

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But apparently the Quebec government’s willingness to help stops short at allowing refugee children who speak English to attend English school. After the Quebec English School Boards Association offered to lend a hand resettling refugee children, the Education Ministry ruled it “out of the question.”

No such exceptions were made for Haitian or Syrian refugees, an official said, so none will be made for Ukrainians.

Since immigrants to Quebec must attend French school under Bill 101, Ukrainians looking to live here permanently might as well start adapting to this French-speaking province now. French schools have experience integrating children from the four corners of the globe in their classes d’accueil. The Center de services scolaire de Montréal and other service centers have the resources and are already making preparations. So there may be a certain logic to this refusal.

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But no one even knows how many Ukrainian refugees will be coming or how long they’ll stay. For some children, this may only be a temporary safe haven as they wait to reunite with parents or other relatives in their homeland or elsewhere.

So why can’t English schools help? The drafters of Bill 101 included an exemption on humanitarian grounds. These seem like appropriate circumstances to invoke it, at least in certain cases. Even Legault didn’t immediately close the door when asked about QESBA’s offer.

There could be reasonable criteria for triaging who gets to attend English school. Age, grade level and knowledge of English could be factors, since it’s much easier for very young children to learn a new language than teenagers. If the students are being hosted by a family whose children are already in the English system, it might make sense for them to all go to the same school.

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Why not share the responsibility for helping these distressed children with English schools, which tend to have more space and capacity? This doesn’t mean Quebec should send all Ukrainian refugee children to English schools. But why does it have to be none? Rejecting the QESBA’s assistance outright seems dogmatic and petty.

Just because the possibility of English school was not offered to Haitians escaping after the earthquake is no justification for barring Ukrainians now. French is already one of Haiti’s official languages. Perhaps a similar offer should have been extended to some Syrians, who are more likely to speak English as a second language than French – although it was clear upon arrival most were moving here permanently.

The points is, Quebec should be looking at how best to help traumatized Ukrainian children, not adding to their burdens.

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