A regulation changing the composition of the Provincial Access Committee (PAC), the review body which oversees programs developed by regional health authorities to ensure access to English-language health services, was quietly adopted in late December. “It’s difficult to see the effect of this reform on the care provided to individuals, but it doesn’t make it … Read more
Join us for a Zoom Webinar to hear from the Honourable André Pratte and Christopher Curtis as they discuss the progress of Quebec’s Bill 96, An Act respecting French, and provide their insights on some of the legislation’s more controversial elements. Register here
Questions are being raised about whether Quebec will reduce health services in English. The government has insisted on several occasions this is not its intention, but last month, it dissolved a committee that had spent years working to improve access to English services. “It was a surprise that the minister was changing the rules of what … Read more
The Provincial Government has issued a call for expressions of interest and applications to be on the Provincial committee on the dispensing of health and social services in the English language after having dismissed the entirety of the previous committee through a regulation change in the latter half of 2021. The Quebec Community Groups Network … Read more
Despite strong objections from the English-speaking community that included a 4,500-name petition tabled in the National Assembly, the Quebec government has eviscerated the Provincial Committee for the Provision of Health Services and Social Services in the English Language. The government is now recruiting replacement members. “Two days before the petition was tabled in the National … Read more
Parents and students in Quebec are preparing to head back to school in one week amid a wave of Omicron cases. Adding to that stress, some parents of 12- and 13 year-old students say that, when it comes to the distribution of rapid test kits, they’ve fallen through the cracks. “I feel like what’s happened … Read more
Many continue to speak out against Quebec’s Bill 96, including businesspeople, community organizations, and politicians. English-speaking Quebecers fear that the bill would further marginalize their community, and that other minority groups, such as immigrants and Indigenous peoples, will also be penalized by various measures in the bill, says Sylvia Martin-Laforge, the QCGN’s director general. Read … Read more
Requests for tutoring services since the beginning of the pandemic have spiked, and the people at Phelps Helps in the Eastern Townships are getting ready to support students in this latest period of distance learning. Katie Lowry, programs director at Phelps Helps, discusses the uptick in an interview with CBC Breakaway’s Kim Garritty. Read more
Alexander Reford, manager of the internationally renowned Reford Gardens (Jardins de Métis) and president of Heritage Lower St-Lawrence has been named a Member of the Order of Canada. Read more
The Daily Telegraph reports: “[Quebec’s] ruling nationalist party, Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) says tough measures are ‘urgently required’ for the survival of the French language… but critics say it will penalise bilingualism.” “It’s nothing against English Quebecers,” says Premier François Legault: “It’s about protecting French.” Read more
The year 2021 was marked by a revival of the debate over the state of the French language in Quebec. And it’s not over. The anglophone community’s immediate concern is Bill 96, which the CAQ government wants to adopt before the October 2022 provincial election. “At its very core, Bill 96 is an attempt to … Read more
More than three dozen organizations are telling Premier François Legault that his restrictive definition of an historic English-language community is unfair and unacceptable. These groups, from across Quebec and from multiple sectors including arts and culture, education and health and social services have endorsed a resolution opposing the Coalition Avenir Québec government’s plan to limit … Read more