The Quebec Community Groups Network is seriously concerned about the impact of Bill 96 on Quebec’s English-speaking community and minorities in general. “We need to ask over and over and over: Why does protecting the French language require the blanket suspension of human rights? asks QCGN President Marlene Jennings.
For English-speaking Quebecers, being a minority within a minority can be both a burden and a blessing, writes retired senator and former editor in chief of the Montreal Gazette, Joan Fraser. While linguistic division is one of our defining features, Quebecers also have much in common, writes Fraser who sits on the board of the Quebec Community Groups Network and is a vice-chair of APPELE-Quebec, the umbrella group formed to defend English school boards.
“Frustrés et inquiets pour leur avenir, la moitié des jeunes anglophones du Québec estiment que leurs relations avec les francophones sont conflictuelles, au point où certains décident de quitter la province.”
Sixty per cent of young English-speaking Quebecers say they have considered leaving Quebec according to a new poll conducted by Léger for Journal de Montreal. Nearly half said they feel like relationships with francophones are tense and one out of three respondents believe those relationships will deteriorate. English-speaking youth also believe that Bill 101 should be softened, and they would like to see more bilingual signs and be greeted in both languages.
Read the main article in the Journal de Montréal
The Journal de Montréal dedicated much of its weekend editions to news and views about Quebec’s English-speaking minority community:
Bridging the Two Solitudes:
Une solution afin de réunir les deux solitudes
Plus riches, les anglos ? C’est désormais un mythe
Voters’ intention:
Frustrés, ils songent à délaisser le PLQ pour la CAQ
Youth and youth retention:
Ce qui agace les jeunes anglos
Son CV ignoré une centaine de fois
Anglophones de Québec : Quitter pour étudier dans sa langue
Le dernier anglophone à Irlande
Bill 101 and “Bonjour, Hi”:
Plusieurs anglos ont baissé les bras
La controverse du « bonjour, hi »
Le bilinguisme pas assez présent selon les anglos
Health:
Plus de 170 km pour être soigné en anglais
Education:
Le décrochage endémique à Stanstead
Des écoles menacées de fermeture
Fini, les batailles dans les cours d’écoles
Columnists:
Fatima Houda-Pépin : Les Anglo-Québécois : un rapprochement s’impose
Fatima Houda-Pépin Ne touchez pas à la loi 101
Isabelle Maréchal: Anglos et francos : même combat
Le blogue des Spin Doctors : L’assimilation tranquille…
Denise Bombardier: Le Québec anglophobe!?
Richard Martineau : 1-800-SAVE-AN-ANGLO
Lise Ravary : Qui a peur des anglos ?
Claude Villeneuve : Tantôt minoritaires, tantôt majoritaires
A feature in Le Devoir suggests that English-speaking Quebecers are becoming increasingly comfortable in their home province. However QCGN Director-General Sylvia Martin-Laforge says the minority community has concerns including recent health care reforms and the government’s decision to eliminate school board elections. Read more…
Montreal – May 7, 2015
Quebec’s English-speaking minority community and Francophone minority communities outside Quebec need the support of the federal government to ensure they take full advantage of the positive impacts that immigration can have on them, said Commissioner of Official Languages, Graham Fraser, as he delivered in his 2014-2015 Annual Report released earlier today.
La Presse, Malorie Beauchemin
(Ottawa) Devant les plaintes répétées des groupes de défense de la minorité anglophone au Québec, le Commissariat aux langues officielles entend analyser la présence et la représentation de cette communauté dans les médias québécois. « La communauté de langue anglaise du Québec se sent invisible non seulement face à la majorité, mais aussi par rapport à elle-même », indique le Commissariat dans un document obtenu en vertu de la Loi d’accès à l’information. Le Commissariat aux langues officielles (CLO) souhaite ainsi confier le mandat à un tiers d’analyser la couverture médiatique accordée aux Québécois de langue anglaise, dans les médias francophones et anglophones de la province. Read more…
Canwest News Service, Mike De Souza
OTTAWA – English communities, institutions and services in Quebec have weakened over the past four decades, and are in need federal support to stop a brain drain, an umbrella group for the province’s anglophones said in Parliament on Monday.
”English-speaking Quebec faces the particular challenge of being a minority within a minority which, let’s face it, is not always recognized as such by key decision-makers and opinion-leaders,” said Robert Donnelly, president of the Quebec Community Groups Network at a Senate hearing on Canada’s official languages. ”The answer is not to divide the existing pie differently because the francophone minority is also in need of fair funding. We just need a bigger pie.” Read more…
The QCGN is funded by the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage.
