Official Languages committee  Members of the committee, Mr. Chairman, good morning, bonjour. On behalf of the Quebec Community Groups Network, the QCGN, and its member organizations, I wish to thank you for inviting me to speak to you about the ramifications of the government's decision to abolish the court

Official Languages committee  Thank you for that question, because I think you've partially answered the first question by your second question. In fact, there are more similarities between the official language minority communities—the French-speaking outside and in the rest of Canada, and English-speaking i

Official Languages committee  Absolutely not, given its commitment.

Official Languages committee  Certainly English-speaking Quebeckers have the right to have access to the same services as all Canadians. I think that's what the court challenges program allows us to think about when test cases are brought in front of it. Not all cases will be looked at in the same way under t

Official Languages committee  It is certain that anglophones living in Quebec need this program to ensure access to representation.

Official Languages committee  Absolutely. Abolishing this program does not affect minorities exclusively: it also affects other groups that fight for equality rights.

Official Languages committee  Absolutely.

Official Languages committee  I would like to say from the outset that I don't quite agree with you about the number of wealthy people. English-speaking anglophones in Quebec. With the Townshippers in Pontiac, the Coasters on the north shore, dans les Îles de la Madeleine, there are many regional anglopho

Official Languages committee  School closures are a problem. In fact, you probably do not hear about this problem outside Quebec. There are no stories of English schools closing in Toronto, Sudbury, British Columbia or New Brunswick. It is important to know that children must spend hours on a bus in the morni

Official Languages committee  In just a few days we will be publishing a report on English speakers in Montreal. The consultations took months, and they involved groups, individuals and experts. The priority for everyone was employability: the ability to work, not in English, but just to work, given their bil

Official Languages committee  That's right.

Official Languages committee  We are incredibly worried. I only want to say that the Quebec Community Groups Network has just gone through a re-mobilization, if you will. We have moved our offices from Quebec City to Montreal. We have increased our staff. The QCGN is worried and has put a lot of resources i

Official Languages committee  In my opinion, the three ways of lodging complaints are exactly that: three different ways of proceeding depending on the case, the scope of the complaint and what we want to obtain. In Quebec, the Court Challenges Program was the one that we needed when we used it. The other alt

Official Languages committee  In Quebec, we've begun our first round of talks with the people from Canadian Heritage at the national level. The QCGN and our people in the regions are using a kind of hybrid model right now. With no money put aside for evaluation, our fundamental problem is that we have not ha

Official Languages committee  Indeed, the Quebec Community Groups Network has established a collaboration agreement with the federal government.