Why an Association for West Quebecers?
by John E. Trent
Why can’t we all sit back by the fireside, quietly sipping cognac and musing about the world without worrying about this French-English thing? And why do we need a regional association like the West Quebecers (formerly Outaouais Alliance) to protect the rights of the English-speaking minority in Quebec?
The short answer is in the form of a political saying we owe to that hard-headed political visionary, Jean Piggott: “the warrior who stays in the battle field five minutes longer wins the victory”. As long as we are still governed by a hard-line separatist party, Quebec Anglophones will have to remain on their guard. We can never abandon the struggle.
But there is a broader, more long term reason. People who believe in Canada must also believe in its federal and democratic system. One of its great achievements, recognized around the world, is its protection of human and minority rights. But, they come at a cost. Minorities must always be organized and tough enough to demand their rights. The unfortunate reality is that, even in the best of worlds where there is no overt attempts at discrimination, majorities just take their dominant situation for granted and steam-roll over minorities who are asleep at the switch.
You can’t ever take rights for granted, even once you have won them. Nothing is for free. Not even in a democracy. Look at how hard the Franco-Ontarians have had to struggle to keep the Montfort hospital they built and to keep the bilingual rights they had already won in the former City of Ottawa.
It is also true that minority rights are a two-way street. If Anglo rights are squashed in Quebec, you can bet your bottom dollar that French rights would not last very long in the rest of Canada. Our precious vision of our country would be lost. English-speaking Quebecers who want to keep Canada together have to recognize that part of their struggle for their own rights, even if they feel relatively comfortable and protected in an English North-America, is to make sure that minority rights across Canada are not minimized – which is the continuing aim of culture-bound Anglo federalists and Quebec separatist-nationalists who are feeling their oats as a local minority.
A continuing agenda
Access to health and social service institutions, language policy in the new City of Gatineau, and finding careers for our youth in Quebec are only three current examples in a long, complex and continuing agenda for the Regional Association of West Quebecers. The agenda also includes aid to our educational institutions, promotion of bilingualism youth activities, the sign law, cultural events, economic and human resource development, relations with the Francophone community, participation in economic development, coordination with other English-speaking groups, etc., etc. There is a never-ending agenda of real and meaningful French-English issues that require continuing attention and forceful representation.
Forceful representation also requires a pressure group that can speak for all English-speaking Quebec. Since the loss of credibility of the once strong Alliance Quebec, the West Quebecers has been working to build the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) to make it an organization capable of taking policy decisions that represent the expressed views of its 21 member associations. Our local representatives play leading roles in running the QCGN and in such joint projects as the Global Development Plan for the English-speaking community of Quebec and the Community Advisory Committee on Public Service Employment.
But forceful representation does not require everyone to be implicated. YOU do not have to worry about French-English things – if you have an effective association to represent you when the chips are down and to do the dog work when problems aren’t front page enough to mobilize your attention. But to be effective we very much need your membership in the West Quebecers if we are to have legitimacy. Please contact us at: Tel. 819-692-9602 or Toll Free: 1 877 733 0177; Email: wq@magma.ca Website: www.westquebecers.com, Fax: 819-682-4033, Office: 53 Principale, Gatineau (Aylmer), QC, J9H 3L4.