Liberal MP Housefather could face long-term blowback for voting against own party

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Mount Royal MP Anthony Housefather could face long-term backlash for voting against Bill C-13, as he was the only Liberal and only Member of Parliament to do so, says Professor Daniel Béland. The language legislation was approved by a vote of 300-1, and is now before the Senate, where the Quebec Community Groups Network says several portions of the bill will hopefully be reconsidered.

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Liberal MP Housefather defies party, votes against federal language bill

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Mount Royal MP Anthony Housefather stood against the tide by voting “No” to Bill C-13 yesterday – the only MP in the House of Commons to do so. “It’s difficult to go against your own party, but he stuck with his principles and that’s admirable,” says QCGN President Eva Ludvig.

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Quebec is counting on ‘good faith’ from anglos seeking English services

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Quebec French Language Minister Jean-François Roberge says that government workers will rely on the honesty of citizens who say that they are entitled to receive services in English. According to the Quebec Community Groups Network, there were some 600,000 mother-tongue English speakers identified in the 2016 census in the province, but 1.1 million Quebecers whose first official spoken language is English.

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MPs Bibeau and Brière to vote ‘yes’ on C-13

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Sherbrooke MP Élisabeth Brière and Compton-Stanstead MP Marie-Claude Bibeau both intend to vote in favour of Bill C-13, the drastically overhauled Official Languages Act. The reference to Quebec’s Bill 96 embedded in the pending federal legislation “has been our major issue with C-13,” says Eva Ludvig, president of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN).

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Hanes: Trudeau is throwing Quebec anglos under the bus with Bill C-13

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Columnist Allison Hanes minces no words, in an analysis and recap of positions taken by the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), several outspoken federal Liberal MPS, and others on the new Official Languages Act: “English-speaking Quebecers shouldn’t be fooled” by Ottawa’s public packaging of Bill C-13, she writes.

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Official languages, real inequality

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In an editorial taking a broad view of the federal Action Plan for Official Languages announced last week, Robert Dutrisac of Le Devoir takes note of the response of the Quebec Community Groups Network with regard to federal funding levels.

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Federal official languages action plan gets mixed reviews

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Measures specific to English-speaking Quebecers include $6.5 million over five years to support the training and integration of bilingual health personnel. However, says Eva Ludvig, president of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), “our major concern (remains) Bill C-13, which will incorporate the [Quebec] Charter of the French Language into the [federal] Official Languages Act.” 

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Liberals attempt ‘balancing act’ with new Official Languages Action Plan: observers

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With their newly announced official languages policy, the federal Liberals are “speaking to different constituencies” both inside and outside of Quebec, and trying to balance political pressures on a file where they are “damned if they do, and damned if they don’t,” say observers. Meanwhile Eva Ludvig, president of the Quebec Community Groups Network, which has been critical of C-13, said her organization “welcomed” the funding announcements in the new action plan, but had concerns about whether the money allocated for Quebec’s anglophone communities would actually reach them.

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Teach anglophones and allophones French with $137.5M from Ottawa: Roberge

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The Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) expresses disappointment that Jean-François Roberge, Quebec’s minister for the French language, does not see any need to use funding for the province’s Anglophones – newly earmarked under Ottawa’s fresh Action Plan for Official Languages – to support English-language community organizations in Quebec. 

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New federal funding for Quebec’s anglophone community creates controversy

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A thriving and vibrant English-speaking community benefits the provincial government and all Quebecers, emphasizes Eva Ludvig, QCGN president, after an array of National Assembly figures blast new federal funding for anglophone groups and initiatives.

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The Action Plan for Official Languages will set aside money to support the English-speaking community in Quebec

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The ways new federally supplied funding under the Action Plan for Official Languages will ultimately be allocated, the process of nailing down specific purposes and objectives, is likely to be clarified over the next several months, Eva Ludvig, president of the Quebec Community Groups Network, tells Sabrina Marandola on the CBC Radio afternoon show Let’s Go.

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Official Languages: The money for communities must be put towards francization, says Roberge

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The federal Action Plan funds destined to assist Anglophones in Quebec should be utilized for French-language instruction of the English-speaking community, said Quebec’s minister of the French language, Jean-François Roberge, to reporters in a scrum this morning.

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Federal Official Languages Plan: Roberge calls for money for English-speaking communities to be used for francization

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While the approach adopted by Jean-François Roberge, Quebec minister for the French language, is disappointing, it is quite normal that some Action Plan funding is already used and will continue to be used to help francize Quebec Anglophones, Eva Ludvig, QCGN president, explains to TVA Nouvelles: “We need help. We have young people who are unemployed and who must be helped to learn French to enter the labour market.” 

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iPolitics

Anglo Mps from Quebec not in Attendance for Official Languages Announcement

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MPs representing Quebec ridings with a significant English-speaking population have raised objections to the Trudeau government’s Bill C-13, updating the Official Languages Act (OLA). None — other than Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — attended yesterday morning’s unveiling of the new Action Plan for Official Languages. MP Anthony Housefather earlier suggested he could not vote for the bill as written. Marc Garneau recently quit as MP and subsequently specified that defending the rights of Quebec Anglophones was “a hill to die on.” The Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) has repeatedly expressed concerns that Quebec’s Bill 96, embedded within the new federal OLA, and Quebec’s Bill 21 ignore fundamental rights and minority protections. Both Quebec bills include the pre-emptive use of twin notwithstanding clauses in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. This renders it particularly difficult to challenge these laws in court.

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Roughly $280M of Federal Languages Action Plan for English Quebecers

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“There are specific programs in here for English-speaking Quebec, and there is work to be done by our community sectors to take full advantage of the opportunities presented to us,” says Sylvia Martin-Laforge, QCGN director general. QCGN President Eva Ludvig notes that additional Action Plan funds pledged by Ottawa have been earmarked “for economic development, employment in particular, and arts, culture and the learning of French as a second language for the English-speaking community in Quebec,” However, she warns, implementation is potentially thorny: “These dollars go through the provincial government and we want to be sure that there’s an agreement” between Quebec and Ottawa “to ensure that these monies meet the needs of the English-speaking community, that they are channelled to the community.”

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