“Quebec is more polarized today than it has been in decades in large part over the undisputed assertion that French is under threat from all sides,” writes columnist Allison Hanes. This issue will be one of several discussed at Thursday’s conference, co-sponsored by the Quebec Community Groups Network. Hanes will join Jean-Benoît Nadeau, Jean-Pierre Corbeil … Read more
A conference to be held next Thursday will place the spotlight on a recently published book that takes a deep dive on one of the most pressing questions facing Quebec these days: Is French in decline? Some of the many contributors to Le français en déclin? Repenser la francophonie québécoise will participate in a panel … Read more
In the run-up to tomorrow’s Quebec budget, the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) met with Finance Minister Eric Girard to underscore a longstanding demand that funding for community organizations in Quebec representing Anglophones be upped to reflect the size of the English-speaking population. Read more
“All minorities should be worried about the ruling” on Bill 21 released Thursday afternoon by the Quebec Court of Appeal, Sylvia Martin-Laforge, director general of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), tells CTV. She adds that the ruling sets a dangerous precedent: “It means that the government can pass any bill, like Bill 96, that … Read more
Montreal – February 29, 2024 – QCGN expresses deep condolences to the family of former Prime Minister of Canada the Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney, who died today at age 84. He was a man of stature whose profound belief in the sanctity of human rights never wavered, and who did much to build bridges between … Read more
Quebec is expected to introduce legislation requiring digital streaming platforms, including Netflix and Spotify, to offer more French-language content. Quebec Culture and Communications Minister Mathieu Lacombe says the legislation will be based off a recent report on the protection of Quebec culture online. “In this report, we find common cause with Quebecers who are worried … Read more
The Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) shares the frustrations at McGill and Concordia that led to the decisions by both universities to turn to the courts, in separate actions, to try to reverse sharp tuition hikes that specifically target out-of-province students, says QCGN president Eva Ludvig. Read more
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