Many demand increased protection for rights of English-speaking Québecers: poll

Several people in Québec – both anglophones and francophones – feel the federal government should do more to support and protect the rights of English-speaking Québecers.

That’s according to a new poll commissioned by the Québec Community Groups Network (QCGN).

Of the 601 Quebecers polled online, 41 per cent said Ottawa needed to do more to protect the rights of English speakers in the province.

Eighty-seven per cent of anglophones said the feds needed to do more.

Roughly 19 per cent of respondents indicated they wanted the federal government to scale back its protection of the rights of English speakers.

Seventy-seven per cent of French-speaking respondents said Ottawa should continue to protect the rights of anglophones.

“This is not a divisive issue,” Sylvia Martin-Laforge, the QCGN’s director general, in a statement. “In fact, there is a clear consensus uniting French- and English-speaking Quebecers.”

Earlier this month the QCGN began an open letter opposed to proposed sweeping changes to the Official Languages Act.

The open letter also asks that Bill C-13 be amended to “remove all references to the Charter of the French Language and to ensure that all language rights created by Parliament are equitably extended to both official languages, English and French.”

The group has received more than 1,600 signatures so far.