Tag Archive for: Marlene Jennings

Quebec cuts funding to English college in favour of French schools ahead of election

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Squeezed for space, Montreal’s Dawson College has for years been planning an expansion of its medical technology department that would include a clinic to serve the community and train its students.

Marlene Jennings, the president of the anglophone organization Quebec Community Groups Network, said the cancellation of Dawson’s medical technology building is a sign that English-speakers aren’t welcome in Mr. Legault’s Quebec, even if they also speak French.

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Dawson College students, staff say everyone loses when CEGEP becomes pawn in Quebec language war

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“We’re being told that we’re not welcome here unless we shut up, unless we assimilate, and that the government will take every measure possible to put the squeeze on our community,” says Marlene Jennings, President of the QCGN.

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Opinion: CAQ’s message to English-speaking Quebecers seems loud and clear

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Increasingly over the past few months, English-speaking Quebecers have been witnessing alarming signals.

Less than two months ago, the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government gutted the provincial committee responsible for advising the government on the delivery of health and social services to English-speaking Quebecers. It now seeks to replace the ousted members, presumably with others who may be more compliant. This has left in limbo regional access programs that list which services are available in English in any given region.

Without consulting our community, the CAQ cabinet last week appointed a new assistant deputy minister responsible for the English-language educational network as well as intercultural and Indigenous relations, the most senior bureaucrat responsible for services to English-speaking Quebecers. The candidate selected is a career civil servant with no evident knowledge of or experience in our English-language education network. Meanwhile, the Minister of Higher Education quashed a badly needed expansion of the campus of an overcrowded Dawson College.

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Noovo Le Fil 17 S2E:103

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QCGN President Marlene Jennings speaks with Noovo’s Noémi Mercier about the Quebec government’s decision to scrap the planned expansion of Dawson College. (33:25).

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Collège Dawson: un organisme dénonce le retrait de Québec du projet d’agrandissement

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The lack of space at Dawson College has been recognized and documented by the Ministry of Higher Education, and the Quebec government-funded expansion was needed to create more space, explains QCGN President Marlene Jennings. She adds that the move to scrap this project is yet another example of the Legault government’s attack on the vitality of Quebec’s English-speaking community.

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After decades in public service, she isn’t slowing down any time soon

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Marlene Jennings is known as someone who isn’t afraid to talk about the elephant in the room.

And at 70, now president of the Anglophone rights organization, the Quebec Community Groups Network, the former federal politician and a self-taught expert in governance and organizational change, Jennings has no plans to kick back and relax.

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Dawson College expansion abruptly axed to ‘prioritize francophone students’

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Response Monday to the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government decision to pull the plug on a long-planned expansion of Dawson College — an expansion Premier François Legault’s government had initially supported — was swift and angry.

Marlene Jennings, president of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), called it “simply appalling” and “yet another example of the Legault government’s persistent and relentless attack on the vitality of Quebec’s English-speaking community.”

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What happened at Dawson?

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QCGN President Marlene Jennings speaks with CTV’s Maya Johnson about the decision by the Quebec government to shelve an expansion project for Dawson College in favour of “prioritizing francophone students.”

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Quebec halts Dawson College expansion plans, asks CEGEP to rent space

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Quebec is putting Dawson College’s expansion plans on hold, despite promising the CEGEP millions for additional classroom space in 2020.

An internal memo sent Sunday by Diane Gauvin, Dawson’s director general, says the infrastructure project was quashed following a meeting with Higher Education Minister Danielle McCann.

“The government has chosen to prioritize, in [McCann]’s words, ‘francophone’ students,'” Gauvin said.

Marlene Jennings, leader of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), said obtaining new facilities is critical to improving Dawson students’ learning environment.

“Dawson, like other English CEGEPs, has an enviable record of welcoming Quebecers of all backgrounds including a large number of students who completed their secondary school education in French,” she said.

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Dawson College expansion project faces ‘serious setback’ as province changes course

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Dawson College has “suffered a serious setback” in its expansion plans after a “hastily called” meeting with the province’s higher education minister last week, the Montreal-based institution said in an internal memo.

Diane Gauvin, the director-general of the English-language CEGEP, wrote about the meeting in a letter issued Sunday.

“The government has chosen to prioritize, in her words, ‘francophone’ students,” Gauvin wrote.

The Quebec Community Groups Network said it was “utterly dismayed” by the government’s decision to change course.

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