The Quebec government’s resolve to continue to target out-of-province university students with tuition increases is “very harmful” to both McGill and Concordia universities, says Sylvia Martin-Laforge, director general of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN). In a video report by Global News, she underscores that severe damage is simultaneously being inflicted “to Montreal and to … Read more
“We would look to the federal government to intervene or express their concern about allowing the pre-emptive use of the notwithstanding clause by provinces,” says Sylvia Martin-Laforge, director general of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN). The QCGN was responding to Jean-François Roberge, Quebec’s minister responsible for secularism, after he tabled Bill 52 — legislation … Read more
Quebec’s English-speaking community views the English-language media as part of its institutions, says Quebec Community Groups Network President Eva Ludvig. The recently-announced job cuts at Bell Media are another blow to a community which relies on such media to publicize its issues, she says. Watch here
Premier François Legault says that renewing the notwithstanding clause to protect Bill 21 would maintain the “social peace” that he says the secularist law has created. The Quebec Community Groups Network is among those who have called the renewal of such a clause an affront to fundamental freedoms. Read more
Bill 21 “has created more division (in Quebec society), taken away rights from minorities,” Eva Ludvig, president of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), emphasizes during an interview this morning with host Peter Tardif on CBC’s Quebec AM. She explains the legal context. Listen here
“Bill 21 is a discriminatory law that is an affront to the fundamental freedom of conscience and religion of Quebecers,” Eva Ludvig, president of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), responds after the Quebec government serves notice that it plans to extend its law on state secularism for a further five years. “Citizens in a … Read more
Eric Girard, the Quebec cabinet minister responsible for relations with English-speaking Quebecers, tells a closed-door meeting with about 40 McGill University students that his role is to keep communication lines open between Anglophones and the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government. The story notes that Girard, a McGill-trained economist who also serves as finance minister, has … Read more
Quebec Finance Minister Eric Girard will meet with McGill President Deep Saini for a private chat about economic policies, which may include the topic of tuition hikes for out-of-province students. Saini had called the tuition hikes a “targeted attack” on English universities. The Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) urged Girard, who also holds the title … Read more
The Coalition Avenir Québec government must consider the financial impacts that government legislation can have on all Quebecers, including linguistic minority communities, the Quebec Community Groups Network told provincial Finance Minister Eric Girard last week. Read more
“It’s clear that the only Francophones the CAQ (Coalition Avenir Québec) wants to attract are Francophones from Europe,” states the Editorial Board of the McGill Daily. In a fiery synopsis, it quotes Eva Ludvig, president of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN): “If a government were trying to devise a plan to starve Quebec’s English-language … Read more
The Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) called on provincial Finance Minister Eric Girard to consider the financial impact that some government policies have on Quebec’s English-speaking community during a pre-budget consultation on Monday. Read more
“At a time when Quebec is dealing with economic uncertainty, this is a reminder that businesses will have to comply with additional measures bringing added costs,” says QCGN Director General Sylvia Martin-Laforge about the Quebec government’s recently-announced requirements for commercial signage in French. Read more
In her review of the Coalition Avenir Québec government’s treatment of English-language universities, columnist Toula Drimonis quotes an earlier message from QCGN President Eva Ludvig: “If a government were trying to devise a plan to starve Quebec’s English-language universities out of existence, it would look a lot like this.” Read more
“In the thick of contentious issues, we are finding and expressing common cause with Quebecers who share our concerns about a crumbling health and social services network and an education system under immense stress,” writes QCGN President Eva Ludvig in an op-ed in The Montreal Gazette. Read more
The Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) has expressed concern over how Bill 15 will impact services in English in bilingual health institutions. “It’s very top down and creates bureaucracy that controls the health institutions in the whole health-care system, and removes much of the autonomy of the institutions,” says QCGN President Eva Ludvig. Read more
The Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) sounds further alarm over out-of-province students being singled out with tuition hikes. “English-speaking Quebecers will tell you they feel targeted right now,” says QCGN director general Sylvia Martin-Laforge. Among the likely consequences: “People will not be coming to Quebec because they will not feel they will be able to … Read more
“Discrimination on the basis of language is discrimination,” says constitutional lawyer Julius Grey. He cites Section 15 of the federal Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well as Section 10 of the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. Recent Quebec legislation is grounded in “identity politics,” says Sylvia Martin-Laforge, director general of the Quebec … Read more
The measures to be placed on English-language universities by the Coalition Avenir Québec government create “clear existential threats” to these institutions, says QCGN President Eva Ludvig in a statement. Read more
Amid public cries for the university tuition hikes for out-of-province students to be scrapped, the Coalition Avenir Québec government is proposing additional measures to protect French – cutting tuition costs for francophone students from France, Belgium and Switzerland, and requiring 80 per cent of graduates from English-language universities to have an intermediate-level knowledge of French … Read more
Despite a petition calling for the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government to hold off on Bill 15, the CAQ invoked closure on the legislation last week. The Quebec Community Groups Network is concerned that this massive piece of legislation will “upend Quebec’s health and social-services network. Read more
Amid the Coalition Avenir Québec government’s proposal to increase university tuition for out-of-province students, McGill and Concordia say they’ve been attempting to reach out to Premier François Legault and his government to no avail. “There have already been severe consequences as the result of this ill-thought-out policy proposal — even before it has been put … Read more
The patients committee at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) says its members are upset that board meetings are being conducted exclusively in French. Some Anglophones are thus being excluded from the institutions that are supposed to serve the English-speaking community. “The board of directors, and the MUHC in general, is under fairly intense pressure … Read more
Both the Quebec Community Groups Network and the McGill University Health Centre are concerned that the power to be given to Santé Québec – the province’s proposed centralized health agency – through Bill 15 will put English-language minority rights at risk. Read more
The proposed amendment to Bill 15 aims to equip Santé Québec – the proposed provincial health agency that would be established under this legislation – with the power to strip health institutions of their bilingual status if the agency believes it to be unnecessary. Critics of this proposed amendment, the Quebec Community Groups Network among … Read more
Robert Bussière, the MNA representing Gatineau for the Coalition Alliance Québec (CAQ), says anyone who lives in Quebec before the government adopts Bill 15 will have their rights to health care service in English grandfathered in under the new Bill 15 regime. But he isn’t so sure regarding anyone who moves to the province after … Read more