The beginning of our debate on the French language is often attributed to the late 1960s, arguing that the French language became vulnerable, particularly in Montreal, due in large part to the refusal of Italian immigrants to enroll their children in schools. French speakers. The Saint-Léonard riots in 1969 were triggered by this perception.
The strategy of pointing the finger at immigrants for linguistic challenges in Quebec, a practice that continues, has its origins with the Italian immigrant community. This version of the facts, which criticizes Italian immigrants, ignores the treatment reserved for Italians by the French-speaking Catholic educational system in Quebec at the time, thus evading a crucial dimension of this debate.
PHOTO MICHEL GRAVEL, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Riot of September 10, 1969 in Saint-Léonard, where French-speakers and Italian-Montrealers clashed over the language of instruction.
From the period of the Conquest until that of Confederation, education in Quebec, as we know it today, was provided by “confessional schools”: these were French-speaking Catholic schools, Catholic schools English-speaking and Protestant English-speaking schools. L’British North America Act of 1867 constitutionally guaranteed the protection of Catholic and Protestant schools in Quebec. The importance of religion in the society of the time and its significant impact on the education system cannot be understated. Religious faith thus constituted the selection criterion for the registration of children in Quebec schools.
After the Second World War, this education system faced an unprecedented wave of immigration. Among the new arrivals, Italians constituted a significant group. Mostly Catholic, they were theoretically granted the right to enroll their children in French-speaking Catholic schools.
However, a disturbing reality, omitted in Quebec history programs and absent from discussions in the media, concerns the journey of Italian families, including that of the author of these lines, in the educational system of the time.
These families, seeking to enroll their children in French-speaking Catholic schools, encountered a categorical refusal and were directed to English-speaking Catholic schools.
It is difficult to avoid talking about discrimination when it comes to the systemic refusal to enroll students of Italian origin in French Catholic schools. Although Catholic, Italians were seen as different. Their names, considered atypical and difficult to pronounce, contrasted with those, homogeneous, of the French-speaking students whose ancestors went back to the era of New France.
French-speaking Catholic schools, keen to preserve this status quo, were dedicated to teaching the descendants of French colonial society, which at that time had the highest birth rate in the Western world. French-speaking Quebec at that time did not feel the need for demographic reinforcement provided by students of Italian origin.
Rejected then blamed
How can we be surprised that, during the 1970s, Italian immigrants continued to enroll their children in English Catholic schools where they felt accepted?
Students of Italian origin were rejected by the French-speaking Catholic education system during the 1950s and 1960s, only to be blamed in the 1970s for harming the French language by not attending French-speaking schools, an accusation that coincided with a drastic drop in the French-speaking birth rate attributable in particular to the decline in the influence of the Catholic Church and the sexual revolution.
The Italian community, predominantly trilingual, has skillfully integrated into Quebec society and contributed to its prosperity.
The less than welcoming experience of Quebec’s French Catholic education system has been overcome, but not forgotten.
In my opinion, the Quebec government should apologize to the families of the Italian community here who were prevented from attending French-language Catholic schools by a systemic practice in the years following the Second World War.
Time cannot erase historical facts or alleviate the injustice suffered.
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