First of all, there is nothing unusual or unfair about having two English-language and two French-language universities in Montreal. The city is essentially bilingual, and if you do your entire schooling before university in French (whether by law or by choice), that pretty much makes you fully capable in French. Allowing people to study in University in the language of their choice, under professors which may be French-speaking or English-speaking, is a great boon for the city, its ability to mix ideas from different spheres, and a big part of what makes Montreal unique in the world.

Secondly, you make a mistake by assuming that there is Francophobia in English-language universities and that they teach English-Montrealers only. This assumes that both Concordia and McGill are bastions of anglo-Montreal, which, they aren’t. Both have quite sizeable amounts of francophone students *and* professors. Many francophones are actually forced to go to English universities because the Quebec public school system does not adequately teach English which, if you want a successful career, is pretty much required.

Thirdly, McGill is consistently rated as one of the top universities not just in Canada, but in the world. Whether rankings are fair or not, or whether citation-based rankings are fair when comparing universities with different languages and which might not publish in English thus ensuring a greater amount of repeat citations, all that might be true, but McGill’s ranking is still significantly and consistently higher than other Montreal universities (and I did not go to McGill) :

QS 2012:
McGill #17
UdeM #137

Webometrics 2012:
McGill #98
UdeM #175

ARWU 2010:
McGill #64
UdeM #134

HEEACT 2011:
McGill #36
UdeM #110

Times 2012:
McGill #28
UdeM #104

In the end, your choice of university does not only depend on how highly it is ranked, though it helps. My personal choice was made based on how flexible the University was with regards to scheduling. I ended up choosing Concordia, personally, because out of all four universities it catered the most to working students (location helped also). Happily, when I left Concordia a few years later, I could finally say I was completely bilingual, and it’s a skill that I found probably the most useful out of everything I learned in university.

Fourthly, saying that 70% of English-speaking PhD students leave after graduating is neither surprising nor a bad thing. At all. I don’t quite know where you got the statistic, but if you have a PhD in something, if you want to get a professorship it’s not good to get one at the university you graduated from (academic inbreeding), and finding someone who wants to hire you in your specific academic field is never easy. Plus, many of these PhD’s were themselves students attracted from somewhere else, and while at the University their treasure trove of knowledge from a different land/university gets shared at the university where they are studying presently. That’s what makes them universities and not just another trade school.

Fifthly, regarding point #6, you should know that universities are a federal jurisdiction and belong to the Canadian people, not the Québec people.

Sixthly, regarding the neo-colonial bit, I bet the nice folks at Kahnawake and Kanesetake might take a different view on what you’ve said.

You probably don’t want to come off as a rabidly angry ranter, but that’s how it looks. I love Montreal as it is. It’s not French, but it’s not English either. It’s something else. I don’t want a Montreal without Leonard Cohen or Céline Dion, without smoked meat or St-Hubert chicken, without Westmount or le Plateau.

There is no working-around the fact Québec’s university grossly underfunds French-language education in favor of English-language education.

There is also no working around the fact the Anglo-Québécois are among the best treated minorities in the entire world.

Your Concordia / McGill bashing is just part of your ranting that makes you a typical bitter-all-the-time separatist. I minimize contact with any of you types in my day-to-day life.

Here are the questions that Quebec separatists can never seem to answer in a practical and clear way:

- How does one win over to a movement those who by definition and/or practical consequence are excluded from it? I was constantly being told to ‘accept 101 or take the 401′ while in French school… I was there to learn the language Bill 101 enforces. That means language isn’t the entire point of the issue, only a means to a great end, right?

- How can you truly blame those who block your dream from coming true, when you’ve failed to explain it clearly to anyone, even those that apparently share it? Some separatists actually don’t bash on minorities, but most do. Seems your ‘shared dream’ has different interpretations…

- What would it be like to live in a separate Quebec country in your ‘dream’ for one? Just be clear and truthful, that’s all anyone wants… not fluff about ‘determining your own destiny’. Concrete terms, please. It would be great if you could point me to a proposed Quebec constitution or some document almost as thorough and serious.

- How will a separate Quebec country avoid ‘Tyranny of the Majority’? Separatists imply this is the only way to ‘right the wrongs of the past and present’ in a separate Quebec country. If minorities could have Quebec country laws struck down in a Quebec court, then what would have been the point of separating from Canada?

I could write out more specific questions, but I’m trying to see if you’ll clearly explain these direct ones. I dare any separatist to do so, especially AFG…

Yeah, AFTER the other hundreds of thousands were basically exiled from Quebec with the discriminatory and racists laws that deprievd them of THEIR heritage and rights.