New Brunswick: Judge says French Immersion Cuts Unfair & Unreasonable

Justice Hugh McLellan, of the Court of the Queen's Bench in Saint John,has ruled that there must be a a judicial review into the cancellation of the early French immersion program.

The province of New Brunswick was been handed a setback in its plans to cancel early french immersion. A judge's ruling has stated that the government's plan was unfair and unreasonable. "The application for judicial review is allowed. The minister's decision to phase out early French immersion is removed into the court and quashed." McLellan wrote. NB Education Minister Kelly Lamrock had announced last March that the province was cutting the program and replacing it with of a five-month intensive French program for all Grade 5 students, effective this coming September. When students enter Grade 6, they would then have the choice of moving into a late immersion program or continuing to take French as a single-class mandatory subject until they graduate from high school. "The government just got handed a speeding ticket," Michael Wilcott of Citizens for Educational Choice said after the judge's decision. Education Minister Kelly Lamrock is setting up a six-week consultation period that is meant to allow the government "to hear if there are other ideas from New Brunswickers as to how we can meet our goals. For example, making sure we have a higher rate of participation in immersion programs, making sure we have more bilingual graduates, not fewer, making sure we have more equality and equality of access to bilingual access. These are important questions." A website will be setup as part of the consultation process.