English-speaking Quebecers
[14] Emigration to other Canadian provinces was perceived as the biggest challenge facing the continued presence of English-language communities in Quebec, particularly outside Montreal, during the 1976 to 2001 period.
English-speakers accounted for half the out-migrants from Quebec as they are extremely mobile compared to their francophone neighbours because they share a language and cultural identity with most other Canadians and North Americans.
[16] Despite a lull in this outflux during an economic boom and break from separatist governments in 2003, this outmigration had returned to established levels by 2006 and is projected to continue at these rates over the next five years[citation needed].
The population is concentrated in the West Island and in the western half of Montreal's urban core, where there is a large network of English-language educational, social, cultural, economic, and medical institutions.
Irish Quebecers established their schools, churches and hospitals in the mid-19th century in traditionally working-class neighbourhoods such as Point St. Charles and Griffintown.
[citation needed] An English-speaking Black Canadian community grew in the 1860s with the coming of the railway industry centred in Montreal, settling in Little Burgundy and Saint-Henri.
Jews from Poland, Romania and Russia established a large Jewish community, and integrated into the English-speaking "Protestant" schools and businesses.
These and many other immigrant communities would initially settle along Saint Lawrence Boulevard (nicknamed "The Main"), before moving on to more prosperous suburbs such as Côte-Saint-Luc and Saint-Léonard.
Immigrants of today come from all over the world (some have argued that they are largely more secular than members of the established English-speaking communities[citation needed]).
Today, the southwestern portion of the Montérégie, notably the Chateauguay Valley and Vaudreuil-Soulanges, are home to a significant anglophone presence.
Many American and Anglo-Scottish merchants settled in Quebec City in the nineteenth century; however, the majority of anglophones were working-class Irish immigrants.
By the end of the nineteenth century, many grew into thriving small cities: Shawville, Aylmer, Hull, Lachute, Huntingdon, St. Johns (now Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu), Granby, Saint-Hyacinthe, Victoriaville, Drummondville, Magog, Sherbrooke, Sawyerville.
[citation needed] What remains today in many regions is only symbolic as anglophones have moved away, or assimilated into the French-speaking community (usually Catholics such as the Irish).
The province's English-language television stations are CBMT (CBC), CFCF (CTV), CKMI (Global) and CJNT (Citytv), all in Montreal.
These stations are available on cable throughout the province and can also be received for free with the use of home TV antennas in cities located near television transmission towers.
Southern Quebec is also served by American network affiliates from Vermont and New York's North Country who actually depend on the Montreal market for most of their revenue.
The Burlington, VT stations are WCAX (CBS), WVNY (ABC), WFFF-TV (Fox), and Vermont Public Television (PBS).
Parts of the province also receive English-language signals from Ontario, New Brunswick, New York or New England, notably VPR and PBS.
[33] The Canadian constitution protects the language rights of English-speaking communities and individuals in Quebec; however, since 1867, the Quebec provincial government has had full jurisdiction over schools, with only Section 93 of the British North America Act of 1867 (Constitution Act, 1867) guaranteeing Protestant confessional boards the right to administer most English schools.
Section 133 still allows French and English to be used in the Parliament of Canada and the Legislature of Quebec and makes both languages mandatory for the laws, records, and journals of those houses.
Bill 63, introduced by the Union nationale government in 1969, required that English schools provide all students with a working knowledge of French.
Structural unemployment in the private sector with the mass hiring of francophones in an expanding civil service limited the economic opportunities of especially young non-bilingual anglophones in Quebec leading them to search for work elsewhere.
It was supported by the federal Commissioner of Official Languages and members worked with provincial administrations to maintain and increase access to English government services across the province.
[43] It is generally understood that this happened because of the concentration of the Liberal vote in the Centre and Western part of Montreal, where English speakers are often a majority.
The curriculum is strictly controlled by the Ministère de l'Education, Quebec's provincial education ministry, and is generally identical to that offered in the French-language public school system.
Programs offering both French and English curricula as a first language have recently been approved by the Minister of Education and are increasingly popular.
Temporary residents of Quebec and English-speaking immigrants whose children have special learning needs may apply to the Ministère de l'Education for permission to enter these schools.
Over the years, without a truly unique symbol of their own, Quebec's Anglophones tended to gravitate towards British icons such as the Union Jack, the Red Ensign and then later on Canada's Maple Leaf.
In Spring 2007, an article was published in Flagscan (Issue 83 – ISSN 0833-1510) suggesting that Quebec's Anglophone population should adopt its own flag.
[47] Other than British heraldic charges, Quebec's Anglophone community still has no unique emblem representing itself that is officially recognized at any government level.
