Chantal hébert political leaning

Chantal Hébert was smart, precocious, shy-and spoke only French-when she came to Toronto to live in 1966.

Her father was transferred from their home in Hull, Québec.

Today Hébert is the savvy, articulate National Affairs writer for the Toronto Star, columnist for Le Devoir in Montreal and appears regularly as a political analyst on French and English-language CBC radio and television.

The transition might have never occurred if it hadn't been for Carol Schofield, her Grade 10 English literature teacher at École secondaire catholique Monseigneur-de-Charbonnel in Toronto.

Hébert-who had already skipped a grade or two-entered Grade 9 at the age of 11.

De Charbonnel was a French-language school, but by law three subjects-mathematics, science and English-had to be taught in English even in French-language schools.

In her first year in the Toronto school, Hébert relied on her excellent memory to make passing grades in her English