MONTREAL — A Quebec college facing a $30-million fine for enrolling too many students in English-language programs, contravening the province's language law, is postponing the first day of classes scheduled for Monday.
LaSalle College said the suspension is tied to the fine imposed on the Montreal school it deems "abusive" and Monday classes are cancelled, but the campus will remain open to students.
In a statement issued Friday, the college said the first day back-to-class will go ahead on Tuesday. The post-secondary institution assures the measure won't have an impact on students' academic careers.
Quebec's government imposed limits on the number of students who can be enrolled in English-language college programs as part of a new language law passed in 2022.
The fine, which relate to those quotas, threaten the survival of the 65-year-old bilingual institution, which has referred to it as an "existential threat."
Claude Marchand, the CEO of the college, said in a LinkedIn post that despite calls for leniency and the college being in compliance with the law for the 2025 school year, the government is maintaining a hard line in cutting into the college's operating subsidies.
The college admits to having exceeded the number of students allowed in its English-language programs for the last two years and has defended its actions, saying that it was impossible previously to abide by the quotas without impacting current and enrolled students.
In the 2023-24 school year — the first year the new limits were applied — LaSalle College exceeded its quota by 716 students and received a fine of $8.8 million. In the most recent school year, the college surpassed its quota by 1,066 students, and was fined an additional $21 million.
The college has asked the Quebec Superior Court to overturn the fines, arguing they are unreasonable.
Both the college and the government accuse the other of not negotiating good faith.
Quebec's Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry accused the college of holding the students hostage in the middle of the negotiation process with the school and said the college was offered several options to maintain the fall academic year.
"Once again, we urge the college to demonstrate good faith and continue discussions, in the best interests of its students" Déry said Friday on social media. She repeated in a post on X that LaSalle College is the only private subsidized college that has not respected the quotas.
"It … is the only privately funded institution to have knowingly defied the The Act respecting French, the official and common language of Québec for two years, despite support and several warnings," Déry said.
LaSalle College said it remains open to resolving the situation, to "find a fair and sustainable solution."
"We hope that the government will end its stubbornness and negotiate in good faith with us," Marchand said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 23, 2025.
Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press
