During a recent meeting of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages, the decline of the French language in Quebec was questioned. Other statements during the hearing suggested that Canada’s English linguistic minority does not exist. Let us quickly deal with this last point. Under the law of Quebec and Canada, there is … Read more
The Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) shares the disbelief of parents and school board officials who have just learned that English school board elections will be held December 20 – despite the sustained surge in COVID-19 cases. “This new date is valid for all school boards, even if their territory is considered to be located … Read more
The Quebec Community Groups Network marked its 25th year this evening during a virtual Annual General Meeting where members explored new ways of collaborating with member and stakeholder groups to ensure English-speaking Quebecers speak with one strong voice. Prior to the pandemic, the QCGN was close to completing an inclusive process to guide the development … Read more
Dear House Leaders: On October 1, 2020, Government House Leader Simon Jolin-Barrette introduced a motion in the National Assembly regarding the exclusive use of French by members of the legislature in their addresses to members of the press gallery, unless dealing with issues of safety and public health. The motion was supported by all parties. … Read more
The annual report issued today by the Commissioner of Official Languages underscores the breadth and depth of the preparatory work contributed to modernizing the Official Languages Act by linguistic minority communities across Canada. “The time for talk and promises is past; a substantive overhaul is overdue,” said Geoffrey Chambers, president of the Quebec Community Groups … Read more
The Speech from the Throne yesterday reiterates a core Canadian value – in the spirit of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, and the Official Languages Act. The Throne Speech emphasizes that our two official languages are woven into the fabric of our country and reaffirms the federal … Read more
The Quebec Community Groups Network is heartened by an encouraging decision last week from the Court of Appeal in our community’s fight against the imposition of Bill 40. In August, the Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) had obtained an injunction from Superior Court suspending application of Bill 40 for English boards until the merits … Read more
The Quebec Community Groups Network is heartened that the province’s highest court upheld a Superior Court stay of proceedings placing the provincial government’s controversial education reform on ice pending a court ruling on the constitutionality of the transformation. The QCGN strongly recommends the Legault government forgo an appeal of the Court of Appeal’s robust ruling, … Read more
The upcoming Throne Speech provides Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with a golden opportunity to make good on a longstanding pledge – and take the final steps needed to modernize the Official Languages Act. Time and circumstances have converged. As Parliament resumes later this month, consensus on how to update the Act has already been achieved. … Read more
As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prepares his third Throne Speech and a return to Parliament, he has a golden opportunity to make good on his longstanding pledge to modernize the Official Languages Act and fulfill his vision of linguistic duality and strong official language minority communities. Read more
Our community has the Constitutional right to manage and control our schools. The Coalition Avenir Québec government has taken this right away from our English-speaking community – and together we must fight to take back this fundamental right. All nine of our English school boards along with the Quebec English School Boards Association have launched … Read more
Rather than picking fights with our community, we urge the Legault government to alter course, work with us, and cease defining us as a problem, writes QCGN President Geoffrey Chambers in this opinion piece for The Gazette. Chambers argues that today’s English-speaking community is invested in Quebec. We have encouraged and enabled our children to … Read more
Quebec Superior Court has granted a stay to English school boards challenging a provincial government law abolishing them, pending the outcome of a legal challenge on its merits. The province passed the law — known as Bill 40 — in February, abolishing school boards and replacing them with service centres, eliminating school board elections for … Read more
A Quebec Superior Court judge has ruled in favour of the Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) request for a stay on Bill 40, the law that abolishes school boards and replaces them with service centres. “We are very pleased with the decision today which has the effect of suspending the application of Bill 40 … Read more
Quebec’s English School boards will remain as they are after the province’s superior court judged in favour on a stay of Bill 40 on Monday. The Quebec English School Board Association (QESBA) is applauding the court’s judgment on the education reform bill, a legislation that abolishes boards across the province and replaces them with service … Read more
Quebec’s plan to change English school boards into service centres has been put on ice temporarily after a Quebec Superior Court justice ruled that the plan raised “very serious questions” pertaining to the constitutionality of Bill 40. Justice Sylvain Lussier also ruled that the disappearance of English-language school boards (and their transformation into English-language school … Read more
As the economic recovery from COVID-19 begins, the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) has announced 10 innovative projects that will help vulnerable English-speaking youth and seniors find employment and fight isolation. A total of $1.1 million of fresh funding has been committed, via the renewal of the Community Innovation Fund (CIF) financed through the Government … Read more
In a landmark decision today, the Supreme Court of Canada has given a generous and broad interpretation of Section 23 of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees minority language educational rights to French-speaking communities outside Quebec and to the English-speaking minority within Quebec. In the decision Chief Justice Richard Wagner states that “the … Read more
Quebec’s English-speaking minority seeks interlocutory injunction APPELE-Québec has endorsed the Quebec English School Boards Association’s (QESBA) constitutional challenge to Bill 40, An act to amend mainly the Education Act with regard to school organization and governance. The filing includes a request to the Superior Court of Quebec for an interlocutory injunction to suspend those provisions … Read more
It is more important to understand why there is a difference in reporting anxiety levels among Quebecers than to deflect, writes Jack Jedwab, President of the Association for Canadian Studies (ACS). An ACS/QCGN survey reveals that some 34 per cent of Quebec anglophones know someone who has been diagnosed with the virus compared with 21 … Read more
A new poll commissioned by the Quebec Community Groups Network and conducted by Leger shows anglophones and allophones are more worried than francophones about contracting COVID-19. When asked why he thinks angolphones fear catching the virus more than francophones, Legault suggested English media coverage may be to blame. Read more
A new poll shows that English speakers in Quebec are significantly more worried about COVID-19 than French speakers, and are almost twice as likely to wear a mask. Faced with these numbers on Wednesday, Legault lashed out at English-language media, saying at a press conference that the Montreal Gazette in particular “has a certain responsibility.” … Read more
English-speaking Quebecers are more likely than francophones to be afraid of contracting COVID-19 and more likely to know an infected person, according to a new Léger Marketing survey. The survey, commissioned by the Quebec Community Groups Network and the Association for Canadian Studies, found 68 per cent of anglophones polled were afraid of contracting COVID-19, … Read more
The Quebec Community Groups Network and the Association for Canadian Studies commissioned Léger Marketing to conduct a Web survey on COVID-19 and the perceptions of English-speaking Quebecers. Results indicate that English-speaking Quebecers are more afraid of getting the virus than their francophone counterparts and more likely to be afraid of an immediate family member getting … Read more
Following strong advocacy efforts by the Quebec Community Groups Network and others, the Government of Quebec has taken measures to deliver its COVID-19 Self-care Guide to the majority of English-speaking Quebecers. The Parliamentary Assistant to the Premier for Relations with English-speaking Quebecers, Christopher Skeete, told CJAD’s Aaron Rand yesterday afternoon that the government will mail … Read more