Statement Regarding Member Resignations from QCGN

The QCGN claims to be a member-driven network but the level of tension within the organization has been rising steadily over the past year to the point where today, nearly a third of voting members have left. The organizations that have left QCGN strive to work in collaboration within their networks and with their partners, whether they be community organizations or government, to bring solutions to the table and promote a positive working relationship. Our experience over the past year is that the QCGN leadership prefers to be abrasive and divisive rather than collaborate to tackle the issues facing vulnerable English-speaking communities. Hostility towards partners is not an effective way of enhancing the vitality of our communities.

View full statement in ELAN Archives | Also view full statement here:

[gview file=”https://www.quebec-elan.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Resignation-of-member-organizations-from-QCGN_EN.pdf”]

Statement issued on behalf of:

Council for Anglophone Magdalen Islanders (CAMI)
Committee for Anglophone Community Action (CASA)
English Community Organization of Lanaudière (ECOL)
English Language Arts Network (ELAN)
Megantic English-speaking Community Development Corporation (MCDC)
Neighbours Association of Rouyn-Noranda
North Shore Community Association (NSCA)
Quebec Writers’ Federation (QWF)
Vision Gaspé-Percé Now (VGPN)
Voice of English-speaking Québec (VEQ)
4 Korners Family Resource Center

Media contact:

Brigitte Wellens, VEQ
(418) 683-2366 ext.223
brigitte.wellens@veq.ca

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.