New campaign to prevent the closure of the International Association for Quebec Studies (AIEQ)

Press Release

MONTREAL, May 19, 2026 – The Royal Society of Canada and the academic research community are joining forces to call for the preservation and renewed funding of the International Association for Quebec Studies (AIEQ). The aim today is to protect an entire ecosystem within which Quebec, thanks to the AIEQ’s ongoing support, occupies an enviable position in research, university education and the production of scientific knowledge. What is under threat is Quebec both as a political subject and as a subject of study, at a time when minority nations are at risk of being erased and their space for freedom is constantly shrinking. The disappearance of the AIEQ would lead, among other things, to the abandonment of study programmes, research grants, author tours and research chairs on Quebec both in Canada and abroad, and would weaken the production, dissemination and impact of work in Quebec studies. This runs completely counter to the remarks made by the Premier of Quebec, Christine Fréchette, in her speech at UNESCO in Paris, in which she affirmed that Quebec and Francophone culture must have a strong presence on the international stage.

This petition brings together heads of research centres and institutes, strategic networks, university press directors, and seasoned academics who have placed Quebec at the heart of their academic careers.

Trois-Rivières Declaration

– with a view to saving the AIEQ from closure –

Gathered for the 93rd ACFAS Congress in Trois-Rivières on 15 May 2026, the undersigned learned during the symposium on the ‘discoverability of cultural, media and scientific content’ organised by the Royal Society of Canada of the critical situation currently facing the International Association of Quebec Studies (AIEQ). There is a real risk that the AIEQ will cease to exist following successive decisions by the Ministry of International Relations and La Francophonie (MRIF) to cut half of its operating budget for the 2025–2026 financial year last December and, on 13 April 2026, to unilaterally terminate its financial assistance agreement with the AIEQ, which had been in place under a tripartite agreement (also involving the Fonds de recherche du Québec) and had been in force for three years since 5 July 2024.

Shocked by this decision by the MRIF, which they view as both brutal and incomprehensible, effectively condemning this association which has been working for nearly three decades to promote Quebec studies abroad and to ensure the discoverability of the cultural, scientific and media content it disseminates in nearly 40 countries worldwide through its network, the participants at the aforementioned conference decided, at the instigation of the chair, Professor Alain-G. Gagnon, to sign this joint declaration, known as the ‘Trois-Rivières Declaration’, to affirm their support for the AIEQ and call for the continuation of its activities. Other prominent participants in the Congress and in ACFAS activities, equally moved by this incomprehensible and unjust decision by the MRIF, were keen to affirm their solidarity with the AIEQ by also signing this Declaration in their official capacities.

Thus, through this manifesto which they wish to make public, the undersigned urge those in charge of the MRIF to reverse their decision, and appeal with vigour and conviction to the Premier of Quebec, Ms Christine Fréchette, to take the necessary measures to ensure the continuation of the activities of the International Association for Quebec Studies under the best possible conditions. This can only be achieved by renewing the most recent agreement concluded with the MRIF, or by establishing, in consultation with the leaders of the AIEQ and its main partners, a new three-year agreement which the signatories strongly advocate.

Signed by:

Isabelle Archambault, Secretary of the College of the Royal Society of Canada, holder of the Canada Research Chair in School, Well-being and Educational Success of Young People, Université de Montréal

Françoise Baylis, President, Royal Society of Canada

Daniel Béland, Director, Institute of Canadian Studies (MISC) and Director of the Programme d’études sur le Québec (PEQ), McGill University

Éric Bélanger, Co-holder of the Quebec Research Chair in Democracy, Social Cohesion and Shared Values, McGill University

Harold Bérubé, Co-holder of the Research Chair in Contemporary Quebec History, Université de Sherbrooke

Linda Cardinal, Professor Emeritus and International Secretary, Royal Society of Canada, University of Ottawa

Aline Charles, Director, Inter-University Centre for Quebec Studies at Laval University (CIEQ-Laval).

Marc-André Éthier, Professor of Didactics at the University of Montreal and member of the Inter-University Research Centre on Teacher Education and the Teaching Profession.

Éric Forgues, Executive Director, Canadian Institute for Research on Linguistic Minorities, University of Moncton

Alain-G. Gagnon, Past President, Royal Society of Canada, and Director of the Centre for Political Analysis: Constitution and Federalism, University of Quebec at Montreal

Frédérick Gagnon, holder of the Raoul-Dandurand Chair in Strategic and Diplomatic Studies and Director of the Observatory on the United States, Université du Québec à Montréal

Stéphanie Gaudet, Director, Interdisciplinary Centre for Research on Citizenship and Minorities (CIRCEM), University of Ottawa

Dominic Hardy, Co-Director of the Centre for Inter-University Research on Literature and Culture in Quebec (CRILCQ), University of Quebec at Montreal.

Claude Hauser: President of the AIEQ, Co-Director of the Swiss Centre for Studies on Quebec and the Francophonie (CEQF) and Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland)

Mahdi Khelfaoui: Co-Director of the Inter-University Centre for Quebec Studies (CIEQ), and Professor in the Department of Humanities at the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières

Sylvie Lacombe: Director and Editor of the journal Recherches sociographiques and Full Professor in the Department of Sociology at Laval University

Mireille Lalancette, co-holder of the Quebec Research Chair on Democracy, Social Cohesion and Shared Values, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières

Simon Langlois, Professor Emeritus, Department of Sociology, Université Laval, and former President of the Academy of Social Sciences of the Royal Society of Canada

Vincent Larivière, holder of the UNESCO Chair in Open Science, co-holder of the Quebec Research Chair on the Discoverability of Scientific Content in French, Université de Montréal

Claire Legendre, Director, Centre for Inter-University Research on Literature and Culture in Quebec (CRILCQ), University of Montreal

Martin Maltais: President of Acfas and Professor of Education Funding and Policy, University of Quebec at Rimouski

Carmen Mata Barreiro: Professor of French Philology at the Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain)

Mireille Mathieu: Acfas member emeritus and professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Montreal

Geneviève Motard, Faculty of Law, Laval University, and Director of the Inter-University Centre for Indigenous Studies and Research (CIERA)

Geneviève Nootens, full professor of political science, University of Quebec at Chicoutimi

Pierre Noreau: President of the Institut québécois de réforme du droit et de la justice (IQRDJ), Emeritus Member of Acfas and Professor at the Faculty of Law, Université de Montréal

Martin Pâquet: Vice-President for Administrative and Financial Affairs at the AIEQ, Professor of History at Université Laval

Jonathan Paquin: Director of the École supérieure d’études internationales (ESEI) and Professor of Political Science at Laval University

Stéphane Paquin, holder of the Jarislowsky Chair in Trust and Political Leadership (École nationale d’administration publique/Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières)

Michèle Rioux, Director, Research Laboratory on the Discoverability and Transformations of Cultural Industries in the E-commerce Era (LATICCE), Université du Québec à Montréal

Stéphane Savard, Co-holder of the Research Chair in Contemporary Quebec History, Université du Québec à Montréal

María-Sierra Córdoba Serrano, Associate Professor of Multilingual Digital Communication, McGill University

Myriam Suchet, Director of the Centre for Quebec Studies (CEQ), Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3

Destiny Tchehouali, Holder of the UNESCO Chair in Communication and Technologies for Development, Université du Québec à Montréal

Stéphanie Tremblay, Director, Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Diversity and Democracy (CRIDAQ), Université du Québec à Montréal

Nathalie Watteyne: Director of the Anne-Hébert Centre and Professor of French Literature at the University of Sherbrooke

Thomas Wien, President of the Institute of French American History, University of Montreal

You may contact Alain-G. Gagnon, gagnon.alain@uqam.ca and Claude Hauser, claude.hauser@unifr.ch and Martin Pâquet, Martin.Paquet@hst.ulaval.ca and cell : 581-849-1627 for any further information.

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