Achi news desk-
Franco-Ontarian parliamentarian Francis Drouin apologized Thursday for referring to witnesses three days earlier as “extreme” and “full of —.”
“Any witness who comes to this committee should feel free to have a conversation in a respectful environment. I didn’t do that on Monday, so I apologize again to Mr. Bourdon and Mr. Lecroix,” Drouin said at the committee meeting. Standing Committee on Official Languages.
At the previous meeting on Monday, the MP for Glengarry-Prescott-Russell took exception to the comments of researcher Frédéric Lacroix and CEGEP professor Nicolas Burdon.
Both witnesses explained, based on Statistics Canada data, that when a francophone or allophone attends an English-language university or CEGEP, it significantly increases the likelihood that he or she will continue to live his or her life in English.
They were invited to share views with members of parliament as part of a study on the funding of English-language post-secondary institutions in Quebec and French-language institutions elsewhere in the country.
– This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on May 9, 2024.
