Marlene Jennings is known as someone who isn’t afraid to talk about the elephant in the room. And at 70, now president of the Anglophone rights organization, the Quebec Community Groups Network, the former federal politician and a self-taught expert in governance and organizational change, Jennings has no plans to kick back and relax. Read … Read more
Response Monday to the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government decision to pull the plug on a long-planned expansion of Dawson College — an expansion Premier François Legault’s government had initially supported — was swift and angry. Marlene Jennings, president of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), called it “simply appalling” and “yet another example of … Read more
QCGN President Marlene Jennings speaks with CTV’s Maya Johnson about the decision by the Quebec government to shelve an expansion project for Dawson College in favour of “prioritizing francophone students.” Watch here
Quebec is putting Dawson College’s expansion plans on hold, despite promising the CEGEP millions for additional classroom space in 2020. An internal memo sent Sunday by Diane Gauvin, Dawson’s director general, says the infrastructure project was quashed following a meeting with Higher Education Minister Danielle McCann. “The government has chosen to prioritize, in [McCann]’s words, ‘francophone’ students,’” Gauvin said. … Read more
Dawson College has “suffered a serious setback” in its expansion plans after a “hastily called” meeting with the province’s higher education minister last week, the Montreal-based institution said in an internal memo. Diane Gauvin, the director-general of the English-language CEGEP, wrote about the meeting in a letter issued Sunday. “The government has chosen to prioritize, … Read more
The Legault government confirms that it has asked Dawson College to “work on alternative options to its expansion project”, despite the millions promised to the CEGEP for additional classrooms. The president of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), Marlene Jennings, is asking the Legault government to back down, arguing that the Dawson College expansion project is essential to … Read more
Today’s question on Radio Noon: Is Kent Hughes a Quebecer? Do you feel like one? QCGN President Marlene Jennings challenges Christopher Skeete, the Coalition Avenir Québec’s parliamentary secretary for Relations with English-speaking Quebecers, on whether or not he is defending anglophone Quebecers. Listen here
The Quebec government will not give a penny to expand Dawson College, Prime Minister François Legault said on Tuesday, judging that “it is better to expand the French-speaking colleges before increasing the capacity” of the 8,000 English-language college students. The president of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), Marlene Jennings, was indignant at the “simply appalling” … Read more
The English education community is hopping mad that the Coalition Avenir Québec government has named a new assistant deputy minister responsible for the anglophone system without consulting it. It’s the second time in two months the government has ruffled the feathers of the English-speaking community. Earlier in January, the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) denounced the government’s … Read more
The Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) explored Bill 96 from all angles at a webinar on the evening of Jan. 20. The wide-ranging, controversial legislation was first tabled in May 2021. Although it technically died on the order paper when Premier François Legault prorogued the National Assembly in October, the government has asserted its intention … Read more
In an open letter written by Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) to Premier Legault, QCGN states that the government definition of “English Eligible” is limiting and minority groups, under international norms, should define themselves. The current definition of English Eligible excludes between 300,000 and 500,000 English-speaking Quebecers, making the category far from inclusive and limiting … Read more
A regulation changing the composition of the Provincial Access Committee (PAC), the review body which oversees programs developed by regional health authorities to ensure access to English-language health services, was quietly adopted in late December. “It’s difficult to see the effect of this reform on the care provided to individuals, but it doesn’t make it … Read more
Questions are being raised about whether Quebec will reduce health services in English. The government has insisted on several occasions this is not its intention, but last month, it dissolved a committee that had spent years working to improve access to English services. “It was a surprise that the minister was changing the rules of what … Read more
The Provincial Government has issued a call for expressions of interest and applications to be on the Provincial committee on the dispensing of health and social services in the English language after having dismissed the entirety of the previous committee through a regulation change in the latter half of 2021. The Quebec Community Groups Network … Read more
Parents and students in Quebec are preparing to head back to school in one week amid a wave of Omicron cases. Adding to that stress, some parents of 12- and 13 year-old students say that, when it comes to the distribution of rapid test kits, they’ve fallen through the cracks. “I feel like what’s happened … Read more
Many continue to speak out against Quebec’s Bill 96, including businesspeople, community organizations, and politicians. English-speaking Quebecers fear that the bill would further marginalize their community, and that other minority groups, such as immigrants and Indigenous peoples, will also be penalized by various measures in the bill, says Sylvia Martin-Laforge, the QCGN’s director general. Read … Read more
Requests for tutoring services since the beginning of the pandemic have spiked, and the people at Phelps Helps in the Eastern Townships are getting ready to support students in this latest period of distance learning. Katie Lowry, programs director at Phelps Helps, discusses the uptick in an interview with CBC Breakaway’s Kim Garritty. Read more
Alexander Reford, manager of the internationally renowned Reford Gardens (Jardins de Métis) and president of Heritage Lower St-Lawrence has been named a Member of the Order of Canada. Read more
The Daily Telegraph reports: “[Quebec’s] ruling nationalist party, Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) says tough measures are ‘urgently required’ for the survival of the French language… but critics say it will penalise bilingualism.” “It’s nothing against English Quebecers,” says Premier François Legault: “It’s about protecting French.” Read more
The year 2021 was marked by a revival of the debate over the state of the French language in Quebec. And it’s not over. The anglophone community’s immediate concern is Bill 96, which the CAQ government wants to adopt before the October 2022 provincial election. “At its very core, Bill 96 is an attempt to … Read more
Rachel Watts writes: “As a Quebecer, and one with a unique perspective on this latest development, I’m of the view that labelling individuals “historic anglophones” based on schooling not only excludes anglophone newcomer families, as well as those who prefer to access services in English, but also puts Quebec identity on a continuum.” An open letter released … Read more
In 2021, human rights and minority rights in Quebec took a sharp turn for the worse. After years of relative calm, English-speaking Quebecers have been propelled into the middle of another language storm, centred on the Coalition Avenir Québec government’s overhaul of the Charter of the French Language (Bill 101). When Bill 96 was introduced … Read more
Journal de Montreal columnist Antoine Robitaille remarks that representatives of Quebec’s English-speaking community should feel a responsibility to publicly rectify outrageous remarks such as those by the president of the Regional Association of West Quebecers who said Bill 96 is part of “xenophobic nationalism” that contains “totalitarian measures”. Robitaille then draws his own outrageous parallel, … Read more
The Quebec Community Groups Network criticized the Quebec Liberal Party convention last weekend for an “epic failure to listen to Quebec anglos who are worried about Bill 96.” This rebuke followed leader Dominique Anglade’s remark that anglophones are still better off with her party than with the Coalition Avenir Québec, reflecting a somewhat condescending presumption that the community has … Read more
Author Frédéric Bastien criticizes Arthur Ayers, president of the Regional Association of West Quebecers, for speaking out against the Quebec government, and making comparisons to Nazi Germany during the QCGN’s hearings on Bill 96. “We are not Nazi Germany, but we have taken a step in this direction,” Ayers said during the hearing. Read more