Year in Review: Advocacy

Vanessa Herrick joined ELAN as the Executive Director in February of 2022. She got down to business quickly, taking the lead on ELAN’s advocacy initiatives. In August of this year, she led the team in our first in-person Annual General Meeting in a few years.

Throughout the year, ELAN’s projects, events, workshops, and community news take a lot of the spotlight, but advocating for English-language artists and arts and culture workers in Quebec is an important part of what we do. From meeting with the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pablo Rodriguez to discuss Bill C11, to welcoming Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Minister of Official Languages to the CDAH studios and meeting with the CALQ to review their strategic plan, ELAN works hard to be a voice at the table for the English-language arts community in Quebec. Here’s an overview of some of the community outreach and advocacy work we did this past year:

We met with Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pablo Rodriguez to discuss Bill C11 and the impact changes could have on Quebec’s English-speaking artists.
We welcomed Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Minister of Official Languages to our Community Digital Arts Hub Studios and had a conversation about Bill C13 and the importance of the inclusion of English-speaking minority communities.

We met with Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Quebec (CALQ) to review their strategic plan and discuss ways they can engage and support the English-speaking community.

We presented the perspective of the English-speaking community at the Senate Committee hearing for C11.

We presented the position of the English-speaking community at the House of Commons Senate meeting on C13.

We were invited to Global Affairs to discuss the work of English-speaking Artists in Quebec and ways we can collaborate with their international work.

We met with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to reiterate their obligation to consult with Official Language Minority communities on any decisions that could impact us.

We look forward to another year of working together!

*ELAN Executive Director, Vanessa Herrick at 2021-22 AGM*

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.