RAWQ’s New President

Arthur Ayers, the new President of the Regional Association of West Quebecers (RAWQ) says that his French heritage and Anglophone upbringing is what created his interest in minority language rights.

Ayers became president on June 8, when RAWQ elected its new Board of Directors.

 

Ayers replaces James Shea who has gone on to become the President of the Quebec Community Groups Network.

“I got involved with RAWQ when I met Mr Shea at a seminar on minority language rights,” Ayers said.

Ayers was born in Quebec, but grew up in Alberta after his parents moved west for the oil boom. His parents are francophone and Ayers identifies himself as a Quebecer. “It’s a part of my identity,” he said.

Ayers moved back to Quebec for high school in the mid-1990s right in the midst of the 1995 referendum and the related questions of national identity that rose from it. “The national identity question always fascinated me and got me into my profession as a lawyer,” he said.

For the future of RAWQ, Ayers says that it is time to update the image of the organization. He said that the anglophone community, the province and the country are changing and RAWQ needs to keep up.

Ayers says that his goals for his presidency are to preserve anglophone school systems and school boards and to better support the elderly of the community.

The update to RAWQ’s image is not one of just tone, but also of its surface image. Ayers feels that it is time for RAWQ to get a new website and have greater participation on social media. “It is important for us to be able to effectively transmit information relevant to anglophones,” Ayers said.