Opinion

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

Of late, notably regarding the tuition targeting of Quebec’s three English universities, suggests CJAD radio host Elias Makos, more voices in francophone media have started “coming to the defence of Anglos.” Eva Ludvig, president of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), welcomes signs of this apparent turn: “It’s been a long time coming.” She emphatically … Read more

Critics of Bill 15, including the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), argue that the far-reaching legislation – on which the National Assembly may hold its final vote as soon as this week – would limit access to health care in English and jeopardize the status of bilingual institutions. A surprise amendment last week to the … Read more

The purpose of the Bill 15 petition submitted to the National Assembly is to urge legislators to “listen to the community, to take a step back, to do a proper consultation so that we understand how Bill 15 could potentially impact Quebecers, and of course specifically Anglophones in the province of Quebec,” Jennifer Maccarone, Liberal … Read more

A last-minute amendment to Bill 15 sprung by the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government – and subsequently dropped – was aimed at “bringing in elements of Bill 96 and the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) to the whole question of health care” under Bill 15, explains Eva Ludwig, president of the Quebec Community … Read more

The National Assembly petition, launched by the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), argues that insufficient consultation has taken place on Bill 15, Quebec’s controversial and sweeping overhaul of governance and administration across the health and social services sector. Read more

“We expect our members of Parliament to support our minority language community,” Eva Ludvig, president of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), tells Global News. Read more

Quebec’s English-speaking community has been left with “the impression of not being considered by the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government and that its relations with (the government of Premier François Legault) are worse than with previous governments in Quebec, including those of the Parti Québécois,” observes commentator Michel C. Auger. He cites Friday’s news release … Read more

A Canadian Press story quotes Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé on a controversial change briefly proposed for Bill 15: “You are going to explain to me what would change because if we have to modify it or remove it, we will remove it.” The story notes the intervention by the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN). … Read more

A La Presse story on Bill 15 notes that the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) has pointed out that Quebec government has not shut the door on closure to ramming Bill 15 through the National Assembly by the end of this week. Read more

The Journal de Montréal cites Friday’s news release from the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) in its coverage of the brief attempt to add a mechanism to Bill 15 allowing access to English-language health and social services to be stripped from institutions across the Quebec system currently designated bilingual. Read more

The QCGN is alarmed by the last-minute amendment in Bill 15 by the Coalition Avenir Québec government, which aims to give Santé Québec the power to revoke the rights of health institutions from offering services in English. “We are shocked that minister (Christian) Dubé would try and drop an amendment like this into Bill 15 … Read more

The latest volley against Quebec’s English-speaking community by the Bloc Québécois – this time being a critique of the funding it receives from the federal government – is a red herring, comments columnist Toula Drimonis. She makes note of the reaction by the QCGN, which wrote in a statement that the funding is meant to … Read more

Eva Ludvig, president of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), says she hopes the Quebec health minister really is taking the community’s concerns seriously. But she isn’t entirely convinced. “You’ll forgive me if I’m being a little bit sceptical,” says Ludvig: “We’ve seen the impact of Bill 96 in spite of all the reassurances and … Read more

Health Minister Christian Dubé backtracks Friday: “I will withdraw (a surprise fresh amendment proposed for Bill 15) if I am not able to realize, or put in place, the commitment that we’ve have made that there will be no change in services for anglos or the status of their hospitals. I just want to be … Read more

QCGN President Eva Ludvig was on hand at a town hall meeting at Dawson College earlier this week to warn attendees of the potential negative impacts Bill 15 could have on accessing health services in English. “This act is centralizing under one body, under control of the bureaucracy,” she explained. “They know nothing about the … Read more

Quebec’s Bill 15 has been structured to create a centralized provincial agency that will oversee the public health-care system — using a top-to-bottom approach many critics suggest constitutes a recipe for disaster. Elizabeth Zogalis reports, with video, on a Town Hall at Dawson College where Eva Ludvig, president of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), … Read more

Bloc Québécois MP Mario Beaulieu is spreading misinformation about the province’s Anglophones, the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) responds to the former president of the nationalist Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal. Beaulieu says he has concluded that federal official-languages policy is “financing the anglicization of Quebec.” Federal support for the vitality of the English-speaking community of … Read more

Identical stories in the Journal de Montreal and on the TVA Nouvelles website, two Quebecor media arms, continue their coverage of this week’s assertions by Bloc Québécois MP Mario Beaulieu. Reporter Raphaël Pirro leaves it to the end to tuck in a capsule of the response from the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN). He quotes … Read more