By QCGN president, Eva Ludvig “We wanted to have fireworks tonight,” Paul Simon said during Simon and Garfunkel’s 1981 concert in Central Park, “but they wouldn’t let us have that.” When the crowd started to boo, he quickly jumped in: “We’ll make our own fireworks.” As the Quebec Community Groups Network turns 30 in 2025, … Read more
The Quebec Community Groups Network is pleased to see Quebec voices at the federal cabinet table. They are familiar with the issues that touch our Official Language Minority Community and our community’s everyday lives. Read more
Federal recognition of a 10-year economic development plan aimed at Quebec’s English-speaking community was welcomed by two major groups last week. The Community Economic Development and Employability Corporation (CDEDC)’s report to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages, entitled Economic Development of Official Languages Minority Communities in Canada, stressed a “collaborative approach when implementing … Read more
The Quebec Community Groups Network welcomes the latest (and last) report on the status of Canada’s official-minority-language communities from Commissioner of Official Languages Raymond Théberge, as his term draws to a close in 2025. “This report underlines repeatedly what we and other English-speaking community groups have been saying for years: we are not the enemy … Read more
The Quebec Community Groups Network is heartened to see significant progress on the divisive issue of how English and other languages may be used in Quebec’s health and social services network. “The revised directives on language permissions go a long way toward assuaging the fears and concerns of the 1.3-million member English-speaking community of Quebec,” … Read more
Quebec’s National Assembly has unanimously adopted a motion affirming that English-speaking Quebecers don’t have to produce a certificate proving they’re entitled to English-language education in order to receive health care and social services in their mother tongue. Read more
As Quebec’s National Assembly resumed this week, it unanimously passed a motion on Thursday highlighting that English-speaking Quebecers do not need a certificate of eligibility for English-language education in order to access health and social services in English. French Language Minister Jean-François Roberge is revising Quebec’s new French-language directives for the health-care network after facing … Read more
Montreal’s West Island health authority — home to some of Quebec’s oldest anglophone institutions, like the Batshaw Youth and Family Centres — appears to be pushing back against the provincial government’s controversial language directive regulating health and social services in English. Read more
The Quebec Community Groups Network is very pleased to see the National Assembly unanimously pass a motion telling the government to not require “English-speaking to obtain a certificate of eligibility for English-language education, in order to have access to English-language health care and social services in Quebec.” The motion went on to demand that any … Read more
QCGN President Eva Ludvig joins CBC Radio’s Shawn Apel to weigh in on an op-ed published in the Gazette last week by former educator Ronald G. Macfarlane, who suggested that English-speaking youth consider leaving the province. “Macfarlane’s ‘cri de coeur’ should be taken as a wake-up call – not for the English-speaking community of Quebec, but … Read more
No two words can encapsulate French Language Minister Jean-François Roberge’s meeting with members of the English-speaking community Tuesday other than “total sham,” writes columnist Allison Hanes. She notes the fact that the QCGN turned down a meeting with Roberge to discuss directives on language in health care because provincial Health Minister Christian Dubé would not … Read more
The Assemblée de la francophonie de l’Ontario sends an open letter to the Quebec Health Ministry expressing concern over the directives around language in health care, and the precedent that such directives could set for other minority language communities in the rest of Canada seeking care in their language. Speaking with ONFR, QCGN Director General … Read more