Official language communities cooperate on research

by Scott Stevenson - Sherbrooke, Quebec

Research on both the French- and English-speaking minority communities will now be more organized, as bonds between the two have been strengthened with the launch last April of the Quebec English-Speaking Communities Research Network (QUESCREN), a joint initiative of the Canadian Institute for Research on Linguistic Minorities and Concordia University’s School of Extended Learning.

QUESCREN’s coordinator-researcher, Lorraine O’Donnell, began preparing the groundwork for the organization last October and held an official launch in April. At the same time, QUESCREN, in cooperation with the Canadian Institute for Research on Linguistic Minorities and Concordia University’s School of Extended Learning, also released the third volume of a bibliography on English-speaking Quebec by Brendan O’Donnell (no relation).

Mr. O’Donnell’s previous volumes were published by the Eastern Townships Research Centre at Bishop’s University. The Centre and a myriad of other institutes and researchers, such as the Association for Canadian Studies, have long been studying English-speaking Quebec. However, QUESCREN is the first organization to connect them in a coordinated fashion.

According to Lorraine O’Donnell, QUESCREN grew out of an idea of a “satellite office” for the Canadian Institute for Research on Linguistic Minorities. Founded in 2002, the Moncton-based Institute rapidly developed expertise on linguistic minorities across Canada, but recognized the benefit of developing a local research capacity in English-speaking Quebec.

“We are interested in the English-language minority community as an official language minority […] and all research associated with the English-speaking community of Quebec,” says Ms. O’Donnell, who serves as a much-needed liaison between the various researchers.

In addition to coordinating projects and connecting researchers, Ms. O’Donnell participates in conferences and writes a weekly e-mail newsletter on research in English-speaking Quebec.

“The more we know, the better we will be able to serve the research and official language communities,” she says.