Alliance Quebec

Alliance Quebec (AQ) was a group formed in 1982 to lobby on behalf of English-speaking Quebecers in the province of Quebec, Canada. It began as an umbrella group of many English-speaking organizations and institutions in the province, with approximately 15,000 members. At its height in the mid-1980s, the group had a network of affiliated anglophone groups throughout the province. However, a prolonged decline in influence, group cohesion, membership and funding ultimately led to its closure in 2005.

The Parti Québécois (PQ), a party that supports the sovereignty of Quebec and the dominant use of French in most areas of public and business life, won a majority in the Quebec National Assembly (the province's legislature) in 1976. The vast majority of Quebec anglophones (i.e., Quebecers who speak English as a first language), who at that time made up approximately 13% of Quebec's population (see Language demographics of Quebec), did not support this party. Some anglophones formed local lobby groups to promote federalism and argue against new laws such as the Charter of the French Language (also known as "Bill 101"). After the Parti Québécois was re-elected in 1981, several of these groups (notably the "Positive Action Committee" and the "Council of Quebec Minorities") joined together in May 1982, as "The Alliance of Language Communities in Quebec" (or "Alliance Québec") in an effort to gain more influence and to start a province-level dialogue between linguistic groups.

AQ's ideology reflected a desire to promote the rights and interests of the English language community while recognizing there were legitimate goals being pursued by the provincial government in promoting the French language, such promotion having strong support in the majority Francophone population. Alliance Quebec's best-known accomplishments from its earliest years included:

The group had widespread grassroots volunteer activity in its early years. It formed at least 20 regional chapters, including 8 in the anglophone neighbourhoods of Montreal. The federal government subsidized AQ in an effort to promote minority official language groups in the province, providing it with most of AQ's budget ($1.4 million in 1986). Similar funding was provided to French language groups outside Quebec.

...
Wikipedia