For Olivier Baenninger, it’s important that his two children receive a francophone education, just as he did when he was growing up in Geneva, Switzerland.
“I want my kids to have an education in French,” he says. “In Canada, that’s guaranteed, not just possible, which is fantastic. It’s what makes Canada great, for me.”
But Baenninger is worried that that guarantee is in jeopardy in Vancouver.
Both of Baenninger’s daughters spend their weekdays at École Rose-des-Vents, in the city’s Oakridge neighbourhood. His eldest attends school there, while his youngest goes to the French-language preschool that operates on the same site.
In recent years, high demand has left the school drastically overcrowded, and Vancouver’s francophone school board has decided to close the daycare in order to increase space for the school.
“The school was built for 199 kids, and there’s currently over 350 kids attending,” Baenninger said. “We were only given six months to find a new preschool.”
Now, parents at the school have their eye on a vacant building close to École Rose-des-Vents - the former RCMP E-Division headquarters on 37th Avenue and Heather Street - which they would like to see retrofitted as a new school.
They created a petition calling for such a change, which has received more than 1,000 signatures so far. The parents say they’re owed a new school because of a 2015 Supreme Court of Canada ruling that concluded francophone students in Vancouver were not receiving the same school services as anglophones, a violation of their Charter rights.
In a statement, the provincial Ministry of Education said it is “actively engaged with staff” from the city’s French language school board, but is unable to comment further because of an ongoing court case.
Baenninger said he is optimistic that a new school space - either at the former RCMP headquarters or somewhere else - isn’t far off. He said parents won’t stop pressuring the province and the francophone school board until they get it.
With files from CTV Vancouver’s Michele Brunoro
