École des Deux-rives opened in 1998. École des Deux-rives, in collaboration with its partners, is committed to offering a healthy and safe school environment. By respecting differences, the school supports the development of independent, respectful, competent individuals who are proud of their language and culture. Technology is an asset used in all the classrooms.
Obtain a new gymnasium as large as and of equivalent quality to the gymnasiums in the English-language schools in Mission.
Francophone parents in Mission have the right to a homogeneous school with facilities that are “proportionate” to those of the majority. This right is not currently being respected in Mission. The gymnasium is too small to offer a quality physical education program. According to the judge, however, due in particular to the cost of construction of a gymnasium for the number of francophone students in Mission, remedying the problem is not justified. The judge suggests that the CSF and the provincial government request funding from the federal government to pay for the construction of a new gymnasium in Mission.
Francophone parents residing in the Fraser Valley (Mission, Abbotsford, and Chilliwack) have the right to have their children educated in French, in their region, at the secondary level. According to the judge, once a secondary program has been established (a program that would likely be established in leased space for approximately 29-40 students) and has grown, parents in Mission, Abbotsford, and Chilliwack will have the right to have their children attend a homogeneous secondary school in Abbotsford that is able to accommodate approximately 120 students, with facilities that are “proportionate” to those of the majority. Currently, there is no French-language secondary program in the Fraser Valley. Secondary-aged students in Mission, Abbotsford, and Chilliwack must attend either École Gabrielle-Roy in Surrey or École des Pionniers in Port Coquitlam to continue their studies in French at the secondary level. According to the judge, the great distance between these communities and the French-language secondary schools discourages parents from choosing secondary French-language education for their children.
The implementation of section 23 of the Charter at the secondary level in Mission, as well as in Abbotsford and Chilliwack, will be supported by the order requiring the provincial government to establish a separate long-term funding envelope for the CSF’s capital projects, by the order requiring the provincial government to help the CSF acquire sites to meet the CSF’s needs, and by the order requiring the provincial government to fund the CSF’s leases where a program is offered in leased space. The implementation of section 23 at the secondary level in Mission, as well as in Abbotsford and Chilliwack, may also be aided by the order for damages regarding the decade-long freeze of funding for the CSF’s transportation budget.
The CSF and the Fédération des parents francophones will ask that the Court of Appeal recognize that it is justified that the Province correct the lack of equivalence in Mission, and that the community has an immediate right to a homogeneous elementary school in Mission that is substantively equivalent (and not just “proportionate”) to the competing English-language schools (i.e., schools with “real” gymnasiums), as well as a homogeneous kindergarten to grade 12 school in Abbotsford that is substantively equivalent (and not just “proportionate”) to the competing English-language schools.
The CSF is negotiating to obtain funding to rebuild the gymnasium. A number of letters have been sent by the Board of Trustees to the Department of Canadian Heritage.