Let’s call it the Crowder Amendment.

Steven Crowder, the conservative talk show host, is the son of an American father and a French-Canadian mother, from Quebec. Born in the U.S., Crowder’s mother returned to the Montreal area with Steve and attempted to enroll him in an English language publicly funded school.  He was rejected because, you see, Steve does not have the right blood lines. Neither his father nor his mother attended an English language school in Canada and he was therefore denied an eligibility certificate. You can read more about what Crowder went through here.

Quebec funds both English and French language public schools.  The right to attend English language publicly funded schools is handed down from parent to child.  This is discrimination based upon descent which is a definition of racial discrimination according to both international law and domestic Canadian law.

Immigrants from France, Haiti, and any other French-speaking country can move to any of the nine provinces outside Quebec, become citizens and have the constitutional right to send their children to French public schools in that province. This is by virtue of Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which is part of the Canadian constitution.

However, due to an exception in the constitution granted Quebec — and only Quebec — immigrants from the United States, England, Jamaica, or any other English-speaking country, who move to the province of Quebec and become Canadian citizens, do not have the right to attend English publicly funded schools. This exception is found in section 59 of the Constitution Act, 1982.

Since June 2022, the discrimination against Americans has gotten worse; the eligibility certificate required to attend English schools has been extended to apply to all English language services in Quebec (with the noted exception of healthcare services).

That means that any American who immigrates to Quebec and hasn’t married a Canadian who has been educated in English in Canada cannot get any provincial government services in English. His next door neighbor who also speaks English but has an eligibility certificate can legally access these services. All based upon descent.  Bloodlines. In other words, discrimination based on race. You can read more about this here and here.

There are, literally, thousands of American citizens in Quebec who have been and are currently affected by this system of segregation of rights.

How do Americans reading this feel about Quebec segregating the rights of their fellow citizens who live in Quebec?  Do you feel that it is fair that Americans are being racially discriminated against?

President-elect Trump can solve this problem with one five-minute phone call to Quebec Premier Francois Legault. Mr. Trump can tell Mr. Legault in no uncertain terms that if he doesn’t immediately amend Canada’s constitution and allow all English-speaking immigrants the right to attend English language schools in Quebec that he will impose a tariff on all electricity sales to the United States.  And for good measure, all maple syrup imports as well. Full stop.

Mr. Trump can remind Mr. Legault that his government does not even have to pass a law in order for this constitutional amendment to come into effect.  Indeed, the question doesn’t even have to be debated in the provincial legislative parliament, Quebec’s National Assembly. All that needs to be done is a formal authorization by the Quebec cabinet (section 59.2).

In addition to all his other accomplishments, Mr. Trump can lay claim to having amended the constitution of Canada (section 59.3). By one simple phone call.

Tony Kondaks is the author of Why Canada must end.

Image: Free image, Pixabay license.