TORONTO, March 30, 2001 -- The government of Quebec has given its support to Glendon College at York University to establish the first Chair in Quebec Studies in English-speaking Canada.

"This will further the mission of Glendon as a bilingual liberal arts college to act as a bridge between Quebec and the rest of Canada," said Glendon College Principal Kenneth McRoberts, a political scientist and one of Canada’s foremost scholars on Quebec politics and society.

Quebec Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs Joseph Facal announced this week that his government will contribute $200,000 over the next three years in support of the Chair. "We are pleased to participate in a concrete way to further pursue and strengthen the dialogue in which Quebec is actively engaged with its Canadian partners," said Facal in a statement. "It is in this spirit that the Quebec government has decided to financially support this York University endeavour in Ontario."

McRoberts acknowledged that the Chair is an innovation for Quebec, which has financed academic chairs internationally, but never in Canada until now. "Glendon has always played an important role as a forum for dialogue with Quebec," he said, recalling the days of Glendon’s first principal, the late Escott Reid, a distinguished Canadian diplomat who presided over Glendon’s 1968 conference on Quebec, hosting Rene Levesque, the hero of Quebec nationalism who became Quebec Premier in 1976. "It is central to Glendon’s mandate as a bilingual faculty to strengthen that role and expand our links with Quebec, which is the key source of Francophone students."

McRoberts noted that Jean-Louis Roy, a respected scholar of Quebec history and former publisher of the Montreal-based newspaper le Devoir, will be the first Chair holder. Roy is past secretary-general of l’Agence de la Francophonie, the French equivalent of the Commonwealth, and has been teaching courses at Glendon under the aegis of the Chair since last September.

York University is aiming to secure support to complete the endowment of the Quebec Studies Chair at $2 million, with the intent of expanding a constructive academic and cultural dialogue between Quebec and the rest of Canada. The Chair will rotate each year, bringing distinguished scholars from Quebec who will not only teach at Glendon but host an annual conference and speak at institutions across Ontario.

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For more information, please contact:

Kenneth McRoberts
Principal, Glendon College
York University
(416) 487-6727

Guy Larocque
External Relations, Glendon College
York University
(416) 487-6829

Susan Bigelow
Media Relations
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22091

Bureau du Québec à Toronto
Gouvernement du Québec
(416) 977-6713, ext. 229
YU/037/01