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This is the final Politics Briefing newsletter of 2022. We will be back on Jan. 9. In the meantime, all the best for the Holidays and the New Year. See you in 2023.
A major Acadian group in New Brunswick is calling on the province’s Conservative Party to review the Premier’s leadership over his policies on bilingualism in Canada’s only officially bilingual province.
Friday’s development involving the Acadian Society of New Brunswick and Premier Blaine Higgs reflects tensions that have recently drawn Prime Minister Justin Trudeau into the fray.
In an open letter released Friday, the Acadian society, representing the community that is about one-third of the province’s population, accused Mr. Higgs of abdicating his responsibilities toward official bilingualism.
The letter, signed by more than 40 individuals calls on the party to conduct a review of Higgs’s leadership, suggesting the Premier has become wildly unpopular. Story here.
Among other things, the society accuses Mr. Higgs of sowing discord between linguistic and cultural communities, portraying himself as a victim of bilingualism and lacking respect for the province’s Acadian and francophone communities, and its Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqey First Nations.
The letter criticizes the Premier’s recent review of New Brunswick’s Official Languages Act and his proposal to introduce a new French immersion program that cuts the time elementary school students spend learning in French. Education Reporter Caroline Alphonso reported here on that policy change.
In November, Mr. Trudeau criticized the Premier for naming Kris Austin – former leader of the defunct People’s Alliance of New Brunswick known for his past criticism of bilingualism – to a committee reviewing the province’s Official Languages Act. Mr. Austin is the province’s public safety minister.
“You don’t put someone who’s spent his entire career attacking official bilingualism and questioning the need to protect French in New Brunswick or elsewhere, on a panel designed to protect bilingualism in New Brunswick,” Mr. Trudeau told a news conference during a visit to the province.
“It doesn’t make any sense and it’s certainly something I’m going to be bringing up with Premier Higgs when I see him in about an hour.”
The government also came under fire from Dominic Cardy, who resigned as education minister in October and accused Mr. Higgs of moving too quickly to reform the French immersion program in schools.
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