Media Articles
The Greater Quebec Movement
For immediate media commentary, please email us at [email protected]. Below are links to editorials by our directors, Giuliano D’Andrea and Richard Walsh Smith, as well as notable Quebec public figures on GQM-related themes.
Published Articles Related to Integrated French-English Education
The following are two articles, published in 2017 by GQM’s director Giuliano D’Andrea and Montreal lawyer and retired McGill law professor Julius Grey, advocating for more integrated French-English public education in Quebec.
Montreal Gazette August 24th, 2017
Title: It’s High Time for Bilingual Schools in Quebec
https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/
In this article, Giuliano D’Andrea recalls how it was the Italian community who first attempted to create integrated French-English language public schools in the St. Leonard area of Montreal in the 1960s. A prospect he argues is needed just as much today: suggesting it as a logical alternative to our segregated educational system. He asks, “If our children are expected to play together, grow up together and work together, why can we not educate them together, as well?”
Montreal Gazette May 24th, 2017
Title: Forty Years After Bill 101
https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/
In this article, Julius Grey argues for “the creation of a new school system, accessible to all Quebecers, functioning two-thirds in French and one-third in English. Not only would graduates be very employable — the subsequent intermingling by all students would also help to end misunderstanding and mistrust.”
Published commentary articles related to a Quebec constitution since 2017
In addition to the articles by our GQM directors in English supporting a Quebec constitution, presented here are editorials by former Quebec cabinet minister, the late Benoît Pelletier, former Gatineau mayor, Maxime Pedneaud-Jolin, former Parti Québécois MNA, Daniel Turp, Quebec Liberal Party activist Antoine Dionne Charest, and Alain Breton, interpreter. Collectively, these articles speak to the public policy and possible social dimensions of a Quebec constitution and what it could represent to the English-speaking community — and Quebec as a whole.
Montreal Gazette June 2nd, 2022
Title: An Urgent Need for Renewed Dialogue in Quebec
https://montrealgazette.com/
While the late Hon. Benoît Pelletier supported Bill 96, he admits in this article that it “currently contributes to a certain extent, as does Bill 21, to the accentuation of a divide between francophones and anglophones in Quebec.” He describes “an urgent need for a renewed dialogue,” and when considering anglophones’ historic contribution to Quebec, he writes: “A constitution would present a wonderful opportunity to accord such recognition.”
Montreal Gazette August 21st, 2019
Title: Minorities Shouldn’t Dismiss Interest in a Quebec Constitution
https://montrealgazette.com/
This first article was written by Giuliano D’Andrea and Richard Walsh Smith, responding to the interest in a Quebec constitution by the Quebec Young Liberals. They argue that even if a Quebec constitution might seem counterintuitive to most anglophones, it doesn’t mean the prospect lacks merit from the point of view of minorities.
Update: On October 12th, 2023, the Quebec Liberal Party proposed the rights of the English-speaking community be enshrined in a new Quebec constitution. The proposal is from a report by an internal party committee that studied the relaunch of the party after consulting with its membership.
CTV Montreal October 22nd, 2020
Title: Our Leaders Should Propose Creating a New Linguistic Social Contract
https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/
This article, by Richard Walsh Smith, expands on his 2019 Montreal Gazette piece, co-authored by Giuliano D’Andrea, proposing that French and English-speaking Quebecers try to find common ground and common identity in a Quebec constitution, which could include a new linguistic social contract. It builds on — and is hyperlinked to — their August 21st 2019 Montreal Gazette op-ed.
CTV Montreal November 6th, 2020
Title: Montreal-area Anglophones Need Their Own Organization
https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/
While not directly related to the Quebec constitution, this second piece by Richard Walsh Smith talks more about how Montreal-area anglophones could position themselves for the drafting of such a document, by creating an individual, membership-based regional organization. It is also hyperlinked to the October 22nd articles of the CTV series.
CTV Montreal November 24th, 2020
Title: Quebec Anglophones Can Play an Important and Timely Role in Uniting Canada
https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/
This article, by Richard Walsh Smith, stresses that nationalism in Quebec endures and is competitive. Inversely linked to the past setbacks for either sovereignty and federal constitutional change can be the CAQ government’s need to compensate for those losses by taking a stronger stance on language. But Quebec anglophones are not powerless to positively influence events if they consider a new constitution for Quebec as one means of redress. This installment received themost positive feedback of the series. It could serve as the lead article, and it is also hyperlinked to the other CTV articles.
CTV Montreal December 1st, 2020
Title: How to Better Unify Quebec and Canada Despite the Sovereignty Obstacle
https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/
This article, by Richard Walsh Smith, includes a YouTube hyperlink to a speech by Jean Charest, former Quebec Premier, given at Yale University on March 31st, 2016 and related to a Quebec constitution. Richard’s op-ed argues that a Quebec constitution offers an easier mechanism to recognize Quebec’s “distinct” identity than the previous failed efforts in the 1980s and 1990s of using interpretative clauses — with the sweeping statements in the federal Constitution and Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. By using this vehicle, all Canadians will be able to finally bring final closure to that long-asked question: What does Quebec want?
Note: Following the publication of this article, Richard quickly apologized for referring to Quebec sovereignty as an “obstacle” believing that he should have used the word “question” instead.
Montreal Gazette August 23rd, 2024
Title: A Quebec constitution would unite us, not divide us
https://montrealgazette.com/
A Quebec constitution would offer English-speaking Quebecers and other minority groups a “robust safeguard against any further attempt to question or trample their rights,” writes Antoine Dionne Charest, a member of the Quebec Liberal Party’s policy commission. “More than ever, Quebecers need a unifying project establishing the foundation for an inclusive vision of Quebec within Canada,” he adds.
La Tribune August 13th, 2024
Title: Une constitution québécoise, qu’ossa donnerait?
https://www.latribune.ca/
Karine Millaire, assistant professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Montreal, Patrick Taillon, professor and co-director of the Center for Studies in Administrative and Constitutional Law of the Faculty of Law of Laval University, and the president of Droits Collectifs Québec, professor emeritus at the Faculty of Law of the University of Montreal, speak out on what a Quebec constitution could look like, and what it could bring and who would benefit from it.
La Presse March 4th, 2022
Title: Une Constitution pour le Québec
https://www.lapresse.ca/
In this op-ed, former Quebec cabinet minister, the late Benoît Pelletier, outlines how Quebecers could affirm the great principles dear to them, such as the fact that they form a nation whose official and common language is French — as well as recognize the rights of the Aboriginal people and the English-speaking community. Doing so would underline a belief that all Quebecers have helped to build a common homeland within Canada.
La Presse March 8th, 2023
Title: Le fruit est mûr
https://www.lapresse.ca/
In this article, Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin, former Gatineau mayor, references former Parti Québécois MNA Daniel Turp’s 2007 private member’s bill to give Quebec its own constitution. Ms. Pedneaud-Jobin argues that since the conquest of New France in 1760, the people of Quebec have been governed by six successive constitutions and they have not directly approved any of them. Part of our eternal, existential questions comes from this flaw. To know what we want to become, we must first say what we are. To improve the contract that binds us, we still need to have one. The article also offers links to another article on the topic by Mr. Turp.
HuffPost Québec March 6th, 2017
Title: Le Québec peut-il sortir de son impasse constitutionnelle?
https://www.huffpost.com/
Alain Breton, translator and interpreter, and GQM director, Richard Walsh Smith, argue that the best way to answer the long-asked question “What does Quebec want?” would be for Quebec to draft a Quebec constitution. It is the only option to define Quebec’s political status and could apply to all the possible choices before its population. Given that various versions of such a document are likely to emerge, the best way for the population to choose one of them would be through a referral to a multiple-choice referendum.
International
Articles about the GQM
The Anglo-Celt August 4th, 2005 Republic of Ireland
Title: A ‘Quebec anglophone’ identifies parallels between Quebec and Ireland
Click here to view article PDF
This article draws some humorous and concerning parallels between Ireland’s religious nationalism and Quebec’s linguistic nationalism while also covering GQM director Richard Walsh Smith’s first visit to Ireland by a member of his paternal family since they emigrated to Quebec in 1901. Smith also discusses the GQM’s optimistic vision for a more united Quebec as a way to avoid repeating some of Ireland’s unfortunate history.