Suspended school board member in Halifax still advocating for French-language education on the peninsula

UPDATE Nov. 22: An English translation of the interview has been added to this story—the text is below, under the original French audio version.

It may surprise you to learn that there is no French-language high school on the Halifax peninsula. Not one. Parents, care-givers and students who go to primary school in French inevitably have to make a choice about Grade 9: go to an English school or take a bus to Burnside.

Here’s what you need to know: Nova Scotia has a French-language school board called the Conseil scolaire acadien provincial–CSAP. The CSAP council currently has 18 members across the province to represent the 10 CSAP school districts.

Halifax has three council members who are elected every term. Of those three, Jeff Arsenault is the only council member who lives on the Halifax Peninsula. The council has met regularly over the issue of too few schools in the province to serve the francophone community. Community consultations have, according to Arsenault, validated the fact that students need at least one new school on the peninsula. However, as of today the solution CSAP has provided has been the purchase of a school in Burnside to operate as a high school and the proposal of a new primary school to be built at the corner of Oxford Street and Bayers Road, to open within the next few years.

Arsenault has been a vocal opposition to these decisions because, he says, neither school is serving the students on the peninsula and parents and care-givers have lost faith in the CSAP as a result.

Earlier this month Arsenault was suspended from council for three months, until early 2024. However, he is still an elected member who represents the families of French-speaking students for the peninsula. As such, he has a message to parents and primary care-givers about what he considers to be an emergency within CSAP that could determine the next 50 years of French-language education on the peninsula–for better or worse.

English transcript of Jeff Arsenault’s interview

The Coast: Can you tell me what is the state right now of community consultation between the Francophone community in Nova Scotia and their elected school board members in the CSAP, when it comes to deciding how to best serve parents and students within the HRM and the larger Francophone community?

Jeff Arsenault: Yep, that’s a great question. It’s a huge problem that [the CSAP] doesn’t really listen to the Francophone community in the province. They’re not, therefore, serving the community they’re supposed to be serving. [At CSAP], they never ask [parents and families]: “What would you like? What do you need, or what’s lacking?” and don’t offer good responses or solutions in terms of [educational] infrastructure. In particular they don’t answer when parents ask: “What are our rights?” It doesn’t give the impression that [CSAP] cares about the Francophone community, or that we have solutions for the government or the community CSAP serves. It really gives them the opposite impression.

So, [CSAP council] is not helpful for the community, the community that we’re supposed to be concerned with asking: “What do you want?” That’s [the CSAP]’s job to take that voice of the Francophone community and amplify it to the government, advocating for what they want, what they have a right to have, what the [Canadian] Charter says we have a right to have, what the decisions of the Supreme Court [of Canada] says we have a right to…it’s our job [at CSAP] to make sure these rights are exercised and, sadly, we’re not giving the impression of what our rights are to the province [and minister of education] right now, and that’s the big problem.

And now, we’re at a point where decisions are being made poorly, like the new school Mer et Monde, or the school that’s replacing Mer et Monde at Oxford Street and Bayers Road. Now, [the CSAP] has said that there were community consultations [for both of these decisions]. There were none. Absolutely zero consultations. You can’t find one parent who was consulted in advance of the purchase of the [new school] property nor during the preliminary designs of the [future] school. The result of this is that we’re offering a solution to the [educational] infrastructure problem that isn’t adequate and isn’t acceptable for the [Francophone] community of the peninsula.

And what can parents do now, since no consultation happened? What is the alarm you are trying to raise or what is the action you are suggesting?

So, parents have lost confidence in the CSAP, especially those [Francophone] parents on the peninsula. There is no confidence whatsoever. So, parents have to take matters into their own hands. They are the ones who have the right to education for their kids under the Canadian Charter [of Rights and Freedoms], and they have the right to make sure that those rights are met.

I’m not sure if I can say whether it’s the CSAP or the government who is to blame for the lack of [educational] infrastructure in the region…but parents have the right to push this issue [of better educational infrastructure needed on the peninsula]. This is the main issue that one can bring to light. Parents have to find a better solution for their kids to get the Francophone education they deserve here in Halifax and Nova Scotia.

Maybe to contact their councillors?

I don’t think that contacting their councillors will lead to much, but certainly they should try. I think parents should collectively organize to find ways to raise awareness of their wants and needs publicly.

Are you available as a resource if people want?

Yes, everyone can always contact me. I’m passionate about this work. I’ve been fighting since 2015 to have a school on the peninsula. And before that, I’ve been fighting for more [Francophone] schools in general. I’m doing this for my entire community, because, although I would love to be able to say that my kids were able to attend a Francophone school on the peninsula, since 2015 we still don’t have one. Although I’m grateful that my kid was able to attend a Francophone high school [off the peninsula], I know that a new school is not for my kids; it’s for the community. And what I’d like to offer them is more than just a building and more than just a suburban high school in the middle of a parking lot that just doesn’t work as an urban school on the peninsula. I’d like to see us build [a school that helps to] develop a real [Francophone] community. It’s part of the CSAP mandate to consider the cultural aspects and, of course, prioritize the design fitting with the needs and wants of our community [when building new infrastructure]. So, when [the CSAP] asks “What’s missing in the design?” there are so many things missing in the new [school] buildings for our community.

How can people get in touch with you?

My information is all on the CSAP website, under the menu “Governance” because I’m still an elected board member. I’m here, I’m suspended, I’m not able to have a seat at the table for three months, but I’m still a board member. Even if I lost the responsibilities of speaking at the table for now, I’m still working for the parents of the Halifax region. And they’re the only ones who can decide if I work for them or not.