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Since the election of the Coalition Avenir Québec government a year ago, there has been a resurgence of long-dormant fears among many English speakers that their interests are once more threatened.

But rising tensions broke into open warfare Monday when the Quebec Community Groups Network, an umbrella group representing the province’s anglophone minority, alleged the CAQ government is politicizing the work of the Secrétariat aux relations avec les Québécois d’expression anglaise, a bureaucratic body set up two years ago.

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In a strongly worded statement in response to the defection of nine regional organizations from its fold, the QCGN accused the government of trying to sabotage its coalition and seeking to divide anglophones at a sensitive time.

“The strategy of the secretariat and the CAQ government is to undermine the legitimate leadership of the community in health, education and other fields. This attempt at destabilization is not limited to the QCGN,” reads the memo sent to member organizations and posted to the QCGN web site after a meeting of its executive committee Monday. “Furthermore, the secretariat has sought to substitute itself as a voice and representative of community interests. The resigning groups’ defence of the secretariat in the context of these actions is particularly telling of their motives.”