More new immigrants than ever want to learn French in Quebec. But cuts to province’s public classes put their fluency into jeopardy

Olga Pyroh landed in Quebec in 2022 and started taking French classes the following year.The Ukrainian economist, who fled the war back home with her son, was learning part-time in the mornings at the Centre Saint-Michel, a school for adults, before going to work at the University of Sherbrooke.