Parti Québécois Leader Pauline Marois was forced to clarify her position on English after being openly attacked by several high profile sovereigntists this week, some of whom accused her of promoting Trudeau-style bilingualism.

In an open letter published in Quebec newspapers on Wednesday, Marois offered her mea culpa, conceding it was wrong for her to suggest children in French elementary schools be taught courses such as history and geography in English as early as Grade 5.

"I say no to bilingualism in Quebec," Marois said Wednesday, reiterating her belief that the province's institutions should function in French. But the PQ leader insisted there is no harm in promoting more English instruction for children, a desire she said is misunderstood by her critics.

Some PQ members rallied around her position on the thorny language issue, including PQ MNA Sylvain Simard.

"Of course, we should learn English, we should learn Spanish," Simard said, pointing out that francophone parents across the province want better English instruction for their children.

Simard said he is a good example of a Quebecer who speaks English without threat to his francophone identity. Quebec has to adjust to the realities of the world, he said.

"French is the only public language in Quebec. But [people] should also learn a second, and possibly a third language. Because we are in a global world, and it is necessary," he said.

Defence of bilingualism is treachery, hardliners say

Quebec health minister Philippe Couillard, whose career as a brain surgeon took him around the world before he entered politics, agreed with the pressing need for people to speak at least two languages.

"To succeed in today's life, and today's world, you have to be at least bilingual," the Liberal minister said on Wednesday.

Victor-Lévy Beaulieu, a respected Quebec author and playwright led the charge against Marois this week, calling her position an "act of treachery" that would lead to the eventual assimilation of francophones.

Other sovereigntists lined up with Beaulieu, including Gérald Larose, who said the obsession with bilingualism was typical of a colonized people.

Bilingual Quebecers will eventually become English Quebecers, said another prominent Quebec nationalist, Yves Michaud, whose comments in a 2000 byelection about the role of Jewish voters in the 1995 sovereignty referendum stirred controversy in the party and the province.