Let me read the two or three most important sections of the regulation and substitute the word “French” for the word “English” and vice versa wherever they occur, and I want you to take that home also and think it over. Let us read section 3 of the regulation No. 17:
3. Subject in the case of each school to the direction and approval of the superintendent of Education (I use that term advisably as corresponding to the term used in Ontario) the following modifications shall also be made in the course of study in separate schools.
The use of ENGLISH FOR INSTRUCTION AND COMMUNICATION.
(1) WHERE NECESSARY, in the case of English-speaking pupils, English may be used as the language of instruction and communication; but such use of English shall not be continued beyond Form 1 (that is the first two years the child goes to school) excepting that on the approval of the Superintendent of Education, it may also be used as the language of instruction and communication in the case of pupils beyond Form 1, who are unable to speak and understand the French language.
Now, gentlemen, will you seriously consider that? How would you like that kind of thing, you the English-speaking people of the Province of Quebec, if you could use your language in your schools, as a means of instruction and communication in the first form, that is during the first two years, only if and when the Superintendent of Education for this Province, after examination of your children, might say it was absolutely necessary to use English?
As a subject of study let us carry on the same process. I will read further from regulation 17, making the same transposition:
“English as a subject of study in separate (or dissentient) schools.”
4. In schools where English—(remember, gentlemen, we are now in 1912)—has HITHERTO been a subject of study, the separate (or dissentient) school board may provide, under the following conditions, for instruction in English, reading, grammar and composition in Form 1 to 4, in addition to the subjects prescribed for the separate (or dissentient) schools.
(1) Such instruction in English may be taken only by pupils whose parents or guardians direct that they shall do so, and may, notwithstanding section 3 above, be given in the English language.
(2) Such instruction in English shall not interfere with the adequacy of the instruction in French, and the provision for such instruction in English in the time-table of the school shall be subject to the approval and direction of the Superintendent of Education, and shall not in any day EXCEED ONE HOUR in each class room, except where the time is increased upon the order of the superintendent.