A petition calling for planned cuts to the Montreal Gazette newsroom is being circled widely across Quebec’s English-speaking community. “The Gazette provides the perspective of the English-speaking community and to all Quebecers,” says QCGN President Eva Ludvig.
Marlene Jennings, former QCGN president and board member of the Red Coalition, is one of three new columnists being welcomed by the Montreal Gazette. “Jennings will be bringing her extraordinary professional and personal experience to bear on, among other things, the once-again tumultuous issue of language in Quebec,” writes Bert Archer, editor in chief of the Gazette.
“Quebec’s minister responsible for anglophone issues is raising hopes that the concerns and needs of the province’s English-speaking communities will be tackled in a concrete way in Quebec’s next budget.”
Minister Kathleen Weil held an all-day forum at Concordia University to hear from about 40 leaders of groups and institutions that serve the English-speaking communities of Quebec. Weil told that the Liberal government intends to present a five-year action plan on issues they have brought to her attention in online consultations. She also said the new Secretariat will become a permanent part of the Quebec government.
QCGN President James Shea said Weil’s commitment is a real, true agreement to engage the English-speaking community. Sharlene Sullivan, executive director of the Neighbours Regional Association of Rouyn-Noranda said she is concerned about a “backlash” against the new-found attention English-speakers are getting from the government.
“With English-speaking Quebecers bluntly saying they feel like a “square peg in a round hole,” a cabinet minister says a plan to deal with the community’s frustration and angst will go beyond symbolism and offer concrete ideas to ensure its vitality.”
On the eve of a Montreal forum gathering minority English-language groups from across the province, the Minister responsible for relations with English-speaking Quebecers, Kathleen Weil, reported productive discussions about the future of the community during her visits of the past two months across the province. The list of grievances that has emerged: breaking the myth of wealthy privilege; increasing the number of English-speaking Quebecers within the Quebec public service; and others.
The Quebec Community Groups Network welcomed news of the forum and the promises, but said successive government have failed to act on those promises. Communications director Rita Legault said the QCGN is counting on the Minister to come up with an action plan that will make a real difference for English-speaking Quebecers.
“The Plante administration recently announced that it will hold public consultations on its new Municipal Action Plan for Seniors 2018-2020. It has since been criticized (rightly, in my opinion) by two research organizations based at Concordia University for developing a plan using a process that excludes some of Montreal’s most vulnerable and marginalized seniors, including unilingual anglophones, immigrants and people with limited mobility.”
Celine Cooper argues that the Plante administration is not trying hard enough to reach Montreal’s most vulnerable in consultation on how to make Montreal more senior-friendly. Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante added a new English consultation meeting on Feb. 26 at the Cummings Centre, but the consultation website remains entirely in French.
While noting she was research project manager for a QCGN study, Cooper explains how Montreal’s English-speaking seniors do not form a uniform group and that they have needs and priorities that are unique and not like their French-speaking counterparts.
“The next Quebec election is still eight months away, but already it’s starting. The quadrennial flirtation between political parties and Quebec anglophones, that most awkward and unfulfilling of courtships, is upon us again.”
Montreal Gazette columnist Allison Hanes is asking Quebec’s political parties to do better if they hope to gain the vote of English-speaking Quebecers. Notably, Hanes presents Coalition Avenir Québec leader François Legault promises at a radio interview to CJAD’s Leslie Roberts as disconnected and the Quebec Liberals’ past actions on Bill 10, school boards reform and Bill 62 as far from heartfelt for the English-speaking community.
Hanes refers to an editorial board meeting with the Quebec Community Groups Network where the organization suggested the new Secretariat must be enshrined in law by the National Assembly. The QCGN said the secretariat is key to ensuring community interests are considered, especially by people in the civil service who draft policy and design programs.
“The Liberals have 312 days ahead to prove they merit the renewed confidence of Quebecers and the party is up to the task, Premier Philippe Couillard said Friday.”
Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard appeared in campaign mode as he addressed voters and his party at the Quebec Liberal Party convention. Couillard said the Liberals are prepared to create a Quebec that is modern, welcoming, able to overcome obstacles and without limits in his opening speech. The party convention begun the day after Couillard delivered on the promise of creating a Secretariat dedicated to English-speaking Quebecers.
The QCGN welcomed the initiative and applauded the choice of William Floch to head the new Secretariat. However, they calling it “a small, albeit promising” first step to ensure the concerns of English-speakers are heard in the government machine. They thought the $1-million budget allocated to its operations might not be enough to make an important step forward.
“Claudia Di Iorio, an advocate for road safety, won the Young Quebecer Leading the Way Award in 2017. She is only 23, but Montrealer Claudia Di Iorio has known more pain than many.”
After her near-fatal collision, Claudia Di Iorio marshalled remarkable strength and resilience and now serves as a spokesperson for Cool Taxi while sitting as a member of the SAAQ board.
Di Iorio is one of five Quebecers being honoured with awards from the Quebec Community Groups Network. She will receive the Young Quebecers Leading the Way Award. Another QCGN award, the Sheila and Victor Goldbloom Distinguished Community Service Award, will go to four people
“For Kathleen Weil, it was one of those ‘Mom would be proud’ moments of her life. The mother who made her daughter wear green ribbons in her hair to school on St. Patrick’s Day was very proud of her family’s Irish and Scottish roots, Weil said in an interview with the Montreal Gazette.”
Following the nomination of Kathleen Weil as minister responsible for relations with English-speaking Quebeckers, political columnist Philip Authier interviewed her to get a better sense of her expectations on the job. She had to defend her credentials to take on the job, especially since it’s the first time a Liberal government has created such a position.
Her past experiences as director of legal affairs at the now-defunct anglophone rights group Alliance Quebec was also mentioned. Geoffrey Chambers, vice-president of the QCGN, said it’s important for the English-speaking community to have someone that they can talk to.
The QCGN is funded by the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage.
