It wasn’t regarding who was allowed to attend English language schools; it was who was allowed to attend publicly-funded English language schools - in other words, Quebec at that time funded both majority and minority language schools, and decided to cut back on eligibility to attend the minority language publicly funded schools.
Was that oppressive? Well, with the possible exception of New Brunswick, in the mid-70s none of the anglophone provinces provided separate publicly funded minority language schools; the only publicly funded education was in English. Were those other provinces not being more oppressive than Quebec?
Suranyi, you’ve also mentioned that you moved to the United States. In the state where you moved to, is there a publicly funded school system for the linguistic minority (e.g. - a publicly funded Spanish school system)? If not, do you consider the lack of a minority public school system oppressive?
That’s why I’m with one of the smaller ISPs. I get 500GB/month for the same price I paid for 60GB/month with Rogers. There is more than enough freely and legally available content in Canada that I cancelled my cable. I couldn’t do that with Rogers data caps, which I suspect is the precise reason the caps are set so low.
You make a good point, which made me think a little. Actually, I personally would not be opposed to a publically financed Spanish-language school system in California, though I’m sure I’d be in the minority on that one.
However, bear in mind is that it’s harder for people to accept a change that involves the removal of an option that used to exist, than to accept a change that involves the addition of a new option. For many years before 1977, public English schools in Quebec, at least in the parts with a substantial Anglophone population, had been taken for granted. People lived in Montreal assuming they would always be there. We moved from the U.S. to Montreal in 1972 partially under that assumption. So it was a shock to see that option taken away.
The trajectory of the laws has been all the other way in the other provinces - notably, Ontario. One of the major greivances of francophones in Canada - and rightly - was that education in French was forbidden in places like Ontario in the early 20th century. By the late 1960s, this had changed, and french-language schools were recognized; nowadays, there exists a full and publicly funded French language school system in Ontario.
While other provinces were adding these rights, Quebec was taking them away - in a series of increasing restrictions which continues to this day. The trajectories in play here are disturbing - the contrast being between Quebec, where minority rights and entitlements are constantly being restricted, and the other provinces, in which they are being enhanced over the same period of time. One would not wish to see Quebec treat English speakers in (say) 2017 like Ontario treated French speakers in 1917.
Personally, I would not use the term “oppressive”, because of course both Quebec and the other provinces remain free societies. That doesn’t mean one has to approve. A measure can fall short of being “oppressive” and yet still be a cause for concern.