Anglo groups contest Quebec’s decision to hold English school board elections during pandemic

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November 14, 2020 – Two English-language school and community groups are demanding the Quebec government backtrack on its decision to go ahead with school board elections despite the pandemic.

Last month, Quebec’s premier announced the elections would be postponed, without specifying when they would take place. Read more

New QCGN president Jennings reaches out to regional anglos

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November 11, 2020 – The newly elected president of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) says she wants to rebuild ties with regional anglophone associations that bolted from the organization last year.

Marlene Jennings, 69, beat incumbent president Geoffrey Chambers in a vote of representatives from member organizations gathered in an online annual general meeting on Nov. 5. Read more

Opinion: The path toward a stronger anglophone community in Quebec

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November 9, 2020 – Last Thursday, members from across the English-speaking community elected me as new president of the Quebec Community Groups Network — at a critical time in our organization’s 25-year history. I am humbled by their confidence and trust. Congratulations to my fellow board members for stepping up to serve our linguistic minority community. Our network, our communities and individual English-speaking Quebecers face many challenges. Together, we will tackle them with passion and conviction. Read more

Marlene Jennings vows to rebuild bridges as QCGN’s new president

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November 6, 2020 – After a challenging year that saw many of its members resign, newly elected Quebec Community Groups Network president Marlene Jennings says she’s ready to rebuild bridges and reach out to anglophones across the province.

Jennings was elected president at the QCGN’s annual general meeting Thursday evening. A former Liberal MP who has been serving as the network’s treasurer, Jennings replaces Geoffrey Chambers in the role. Read more.

 

The Quebec Community Groups Network Has a New President!

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November 6, 2020 – Marlene Jennings, newly elected President of the Quebec Community Groups Network, speaks to CJAD’s Aaron Rand. Listen here 

EMSB trustee Marlene Jennings elected president of the Quebec Community Groups Network

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Marlene Jennings’ time as the English Montreal School Board (EMSB) trustee is coming to an end this Thursday at midnight, but she’s already taking on new challenges.

Jennings, a former Liberal MP, was elected president of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) — a non-profit umbrella organization bringing together English-language organizations across Quebec — during a virtual assembly Thursday evening.

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[VIDEO] Marlene Jennings elected president of English-language rights group QCGN

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November 6, 2020 – The Quebec Community Groups Network, a network of English-speaking groups across the province, has a new president. Former Liberal MP Marlene Jennings was elected Thursday night. As Global’s Tim Sargeant reports, there are plenty of files Jennings plans to tackle starting with improving relations with other Anglophone groups. Read more

Marlene Jennings is the new president of the Quebec Community Groups Network

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November 5, 2020 – A year after members of the Quebec Community Groups Network resigned citing issues with the network’s leadership, the organization has elected Marlene Jennings as its new president.

The network held its annual general meeting Thursday evening, highlighting some of its priorities for the year. Read more

Jennings looks ahead

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November 5, 2020 – It’s a busy week for Marlene Jennings. Completing her mandate as trustee of the English Montreal School Board, winning the presidency of the Quebec Community Groups Network, and on the eve of her 69th birthday next week, the former Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine MP is looking to the future of Quebec’s English speaking minority.

Jennings presented her candidacy to some 25 voting members of the Quebec Community Groups Network on Thursday and was elected, defeating incumbent president Geoffrey Chambers, who faced growing criticism over several leadership issues as far back as last year. Read more.

Opinion: Time for CAQ government to stop seeing anglos as a problem

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By Geoffrey Chambers

The focus of most Quebecers remains the pandemic, a safe return of our children to school and the reopening of our economy. However, our government appears to have shifted its focus to language. And as it does so, it is once again minimizing the importance of the contributions to this province by Quebec’s English-speaking community.

Premier François Legault and his government recently asserted there is too much “English” in the hiring practices of Quebec businesses and municipalities. These comments were based on a two-year-old study. While French-language skills are essential, knowledge of English is an asset. Yet Legault repeatedly frames this as a problem.

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Huge Victory for Minority Language Rights in Quebec’s Superior Court

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The Quebec Community Groups Network applauded a Quebec Superior Court decision to suspend the application of Quebec government reforms to the governance of English school boards while the courts review the constitutionality of Bill 40: An Act to amend mainly the Education Act with regard to school organization and governance.

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Recalling the question that divided families, and the night the No side won

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QCGN President Geoffrey Chambers, who worked for the No camp during the 1980 referendum on Quebec sovereignty, said the English community was fairly united on the No side, but in other communities “there were families in which you couldn’t talk about it.” Read more

English-speaking Quebecers fear COVID-19 more than francophones, poll suggests

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Anxiety levels surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic vary based not just on where people live in Quebec, but also on their mother tongue, a web survey conducted by Léger Marketing has found.

Allophone and anglophone respondents are much more likely to fear that they or somebody in their immediate family will catch the disease than francophones are, the survey found.

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COVID-19 Self-care Guide distributed in French only

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by Geoffrey Chambers, President of the Quebec Community Groups Network

The Government of Quebec determined it was a public health imperative that a detailed 24-page guide providing Quebecers with critical information on best practices in dealing with the coronavirus (COVID-19) public health emergency be delivered to every household. This was done, at substantial cost, because every Quebecer needs to have this information. Unfortunately, the Guide autosoins or Self-care Guide was circulated only in French. On page two, the document notes, in French, that an English version is available online.

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Quebec erred by not sending out English version of COVID guide

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By Geoffrey Chambers, President of the Quebec Community Groups Network

The government of Quebec determined it was a public health imperative that a detailed 24-page guide providing Quebecers with critical information on best practices in dealing with the coronavirus (COVID-19) public health emergency be delivered to every household. This was done, at substantial cost, because every Quebecer needs to have this information.

Unfortunately, the Guide autosoins was circulated only in French. On Page 2 the document notes, in French, that an English version is available online.

Read more