Meeting fails to save French university
Cross-party leadership confab in Ottawa was mostly symbolic
OTTAWA— Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and leaders of the main federal parties left divided a meeting on how to help Canadian francophones.
Missing was any plan to save a Frenchlanguage university in Ontario.
Trudeau met with Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh, Green Leader Elizabeth May and interim Bloc Québécois Leader Mario Beaulieu — a rare cross-party leaders’ confab Scheer requested Monday after reductions to francophone services announced two weeks ago by Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government.
The mood after the Parliament Hill meeting was that it was largely symbolic — a show of support for francophones outside Quebec.
But did anything new come out of it? “No,” May said.
Franco-Ontarians reacted to the Ontario government’s planned cuts with a fury that spread to Quebec:
The city halls in Montreal and Quebec City raised the Franco-Ontarian flag and the immensely popular Tout le
monde en parle current- affairs television show devoted an episode to the issue.
A backbench Tory legislator for a heavily francophone riding in eastern Ontario broke ranks and criticized her government’s moves.
Premier Doug Ford rapidly backtracked on a plan to abolish the independent office of the French-language services commissioner.
And after having demoted francophone affairs from a distinct ministry to a mere area of responsibility for Attorney General Caroline Mulroney upon winning power, Ford gave it back its cabinet status on Tuesday.
The French-language university cam- pus in Toronto that the previous Liberal government had planned, however, is still off because Ontario can’t afford it, Ford said.
The Liberals say they’re open to financing the construction of the university, but Official Languages Minister Mélanie Joly said the Ford government has to make a request to unlock federal funding.
Gerard Deltell, a top Quebec Tory, said Scheer’s Conservatives want to find a way to save Ontario’s French-university plan, including with federal dollars.