Advocacy

Over the years, ELAN‘s members have consistently rated Advocacy as one of our most valued member services, although the benefits are mostly indirect and long-term.

ELAN regularly meets with government and community leaders about issues concerning funding, market access, community broadcasting, and diversity. ELAN amplifies the voices of fellow arts and culture organizations, and organizations supporting Quebec’s official language minority community.

To ensure that our advocacy work and projects truly reflect the needs of the English-speaking arts community, we depend on our members to share their concerns and opinions with us.

Become a Member

ELAN advocates for Quebec’s English-speaking artists in several different arenas:

Arts & Community Advocacy

ELAN became a member of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) in 2006, and held a seat on the board for several years. ELAN collaborates closely with QCGN in many interventions in Ottawa. More importantly, ELAN works closely with QCGN and its members to ensure that community leaders appreciate the value of arts and culture as vectors of community vitality, positive identity, and youth retention.

ELAN works with Canada Council, CALQ and CAM to organize information sessions and grant writing workshops for English-speaking artists.

In 2018, ELAN received funding from the Secretariat for Relations with English-speaking Quebecers. One component of this new Government Relations project is to establish an Arts, Culture and Heritage Working Group in Quebec with participation from CALQ, SODEC, the Ministries of Culture and Education, and Télé-Québec.

Meeting with Canada Council for the Arts’ CEO Simon Brault.

Official Languages Advocacy

ELAN’s main funding source has been the Department of Canadian Heritage, under provisions of Canada’s Official Languages Act. ELAN is frequently invited to Ottawa for consultations with Parliamentary Committees and the Senate Standing Committee.

In collaboration with la Fédération culturelle canadienne-française (FCCF), ELAN ensures that arts and culture are well represented as important elements of community vitality.

The Official Languages Act celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2019 with year-long, cross-country consultation, seeking ways modernize the Act. ELAN was actively involved in consultations in Ottawa and Montreal.

Broadcast & Production Advocacy

Since 2008, in collaboration with Kirwan Cox, who became Executive Director of the Quebec English-language Production Council (QPEC) after serving several years on ELAN’s board of directors, ELAN has made dozens of interventions to the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), regarding broadcast policy and broadcasters’ licence renewals.

In 2018, ELAN joined a community media consortium with three community media partners (two representing radio, TV and newspapers in minority French-language communities across Canada, and the Quebec Community Newspapers Association). ELAN is filling a gap by representing English-language Community Radio in Quebec, with assistance from Hugh Maynard.

NFB, ONF Agreement (2015).

2015

20% of Videotron’s programming on MAtv, its community television station, is devoted to English-language content – the result of years of intervention alongside community groups and artists working in the field.

2015

In October 2015, the National Film Board (NFB) signed a $3-million, three-year cooperation and collaboration agreement to strengthen Quebec’s audiovisual sector and culture. This result was generated in collaboration with the Quebec English-Language Production Council.

2016

ELAN gathered community feedback for Quebec’s 2016 Cultural Policy Review, which has gone largely unnoticed in English media.

Arts, Culture & Heritage Working Group

In 2010, ELAN collaborated with the Department of Canadian Heritage to organize an annual Arts, Culture and Heritage Working Group meeting with federal departments and agencies, including Canada Council, Telefilm, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).

Learn More

Advocacy News

Quebec Relations, image with people on their devices getting updates2020
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Ministère de la Culture et des Communications: Plan to Consolidate, Promote, and Advance the Cultural Sector [Translated Document]

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Banner for Letter from the Director
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Letter from the Executive Director, May 2022

Happy spring everyone! There is such excitement in the air with so many live events and gatherings scheduled, it is time to put on our best and brightest outfit, leave the house (I know - but you can do it) and enjoy some amazing Quebec culture.   …
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ELAN’s Waves of Change Project: The Final Two Episodes

This month we release the final two episodes of ELAN’s Waves of Change project, a 200-year (1820-2020) oral history of Quebec’s English-speaking communities, created on the 50th anniversary of the FLQ Crisis. Waves of Change is a story about…
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ELAN History Series: 2017
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ELAN History Series: 2017

New Funding for Staff, New Offices, New Initiatives First day after moving ELAN from shared space at 610 to our very own office at 708. Arts Alive! Québec assistant, Sarah Lozinski. Photo by Guy Rodgers   2017 was a momentous…
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ELAN welcomes patrick lloyd brennan as ELAN's ed
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ELAN Welcomes Patrick Lloyd Brennan as ELAN’s New Executive Director!

After an extensive search and selection process, ELAN’s board and staff are excited to announce our new Executive Director, Patrick Lloyd Brennan! Patrick is no stranger to the ELAN community, having served on our Board of Directors and…
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Update from Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec
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CALQ Update: Special Measure for the Dissemination of Quebec Performances

On October 27, 2020 the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ) announced special measures and support it will provide concerning the dissemination of Quebec Performances during COVID-19. Deadline to apply is November 16 at 10 AM.…
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ARTS2U
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ARTS2U: ARTSCAST Pilot Project

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, ARTS2U project will be including live broadcast events to its arts event listings. The ARTSCAST Pilot Project addresses in depth details regarding inclusion and added value of live broadcasts to ARTS2U.…
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Quebec Relations, image with people on their devices getting updates2020
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Québec Relations: Free Grant Writing Assistance for CALQ COVID-19 Programs

Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ) has announced two significant new programs to support artists and arts organizations as they adapt their work during COVID-19, and it’s crucial to get your applications in as early as possible…
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“After years of decreasing production, no less than eight different TV dramas were in production this year. Six were funded by CMF’s [Canada Media Fund] Anglophone Minority Incentive and two from regular CMF funds. The combined budgets of these productions was over $85 million and an additional $10 million was being spent on documentaries. These productions provided work for directors, writers, actors, set and costume designers, and all of the other skills required for television production.”

— A Short History of Broadcasting Advocacy, published by ELAN (2016).

Archives

Over the course of ELAN’s 15 years, we’ve archived surveys, arts research, workshop materials, panel transcripts, project reports, policy papers, briefs and public statements on important issues, press releases, and other media. These archives will soon evolve into a Digital Library!

View Archives

Further Reading

Statistical profile of artists in OLMC (Canadian Heritage, 2011)

The Creative Economy and the English Speaking Communities in Quebec (QUESCREN/Industry Canada, 2012)

Portrait of Official-Language Minorities in Canada – Anglophones in Quebec (Statistics Canada, 2010)

Decline and Prospects of the English-Speaking Communities of Québec (Government of Canada & Canadian Institute for Research on Linguistic Minorities, 2012)

Support Arts Advocacy

Membership is a direct way to build relationships with us, help us to accurately represent your needs, and shape policy. To ensure that our advocacy work and projects truly reflect the needs of the English-speaking arts community, we depend on our members to share their concerns and opinions with us.

Become a Member Now!

460 Sainte-Catherine West
Suites 706 & 708
Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3B 1A7
Phone: (514)-935-3312
admin@quebec-elan.org

Click here to view our Accessibility Audit.

ELAN is an official minority language organization within a country that recognizes two languages as official. ELAN is located in Tiohtiak:ke, the original name for Montreal in Kanien’kéha, the language of the Mohawk—also known as Mooniyang, which is the Anishinaabeg name given to the city by the Algonquin. While we are based in this city, our projects have also taken place in many regions across Quebec.

We acknowledge the colonial origin of English and French in Canada, and recognize that both languages benefit from official status throughout the land. The province that we know as Quebec is an amalgamation of the traditional territories of the Innu and Inuit nations, Algonquian nations, as well as the Mohawk nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Kanien’kéha and Anishinaabemowin are but two of the original languages of this province; Atikamekw, Cree, Inuktitut, and Innu-aimun are also among the many Indigenous languages spoken across Quebec as majority languages, all well before French and English.

ELAN acknowledges the important work being done by First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples to revive the traditional languages of these territories, and their advocacy for the official status of Indigenous languages.