Executive Director’s Message

ELAN’s 12^th Annual General Meeting took place on Tuesday (August 30^th) at the MAI Café, 3680 rue Jeanne-Mance. In addition to unveiling our brand new website, we also confirmed our 2016-17 board slate.

ELAN’s executive consists of: President Bettina Forget (Visual Arts), Vice-President Valerie Buddle (Dance), Treasurer Kristelle Holliday (Regions), and Secretary Karen Cho (Film/Video).

Newly elected and re-elected board members are: Valerie Buddle (Dance), Fortner Anderson and Karen Cho (Film/Television), Rob Lutes (Music), Dan Webster (Presenting Organisations), Kristelle Holliday (Regions), Warona Setshwaelo (Theatre), Deborah Forde (Theatre: QDF), Khosro Berahmandi (Visual Arts), and Jeramy Dodds (Writing/Publishing: QWF).

Continuing board members are: Farah Fancy (Corporate), Louise Campbell (Music), Kalina Skulska (Regions), Bettina Forget (Visual Arts), and Paul Bracegirdle (Writing/Publishing), and Keith Henderson (Writing/Publishing: AELAQ).

Click here to see bios of our new and continuing board members.

Warm thanks to Andrew Tay (Dance), who has reached the maximum six years of service to ELAN’s board. Thanks as well to Amy Blackmore (Theatre), Deanna Radford (Writing/Publishing: QWF), Len Richman (Theatre: QDF), and Valérie d. Walker (Visual Arts), who have stepped down after valuable board service.

The annual business meeting was followed by a lively Schmoozer and Minute Market. A photo gallery will be available soon. If you could not attend the AGM and wish to see the package including documents for discussion, click here.

Guy Rodgers

Executive Director

Land Acknowledgement

ELAN is an official minority language organization within a country that recognizes two languages as official. ELAN is located in Tiohtià: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.