Premier to apologize for 1912 law banning French in Ont. schools

Details
Category: Canada News
Published Monday, February 22, 2016
CTV News

TORONTO - Ontario's premier will issue a formal apology in the provincial legislature today for a 1912 regulation that prohibited teachers in elementary schools from speaking with students in French.

See Full Article

Kathleen Wynne said last December that it would be "very appropriate" for her to offer an official apology on behalf of the Ontario government for Regulation 17, which was enforced for 15 years before it finally fell into abeyance by 1944.

The premier said she wanted to acknowledge that the province's bilingual heritage wasn't always respected in the past.

Sudbury Liberal MPP Glenn Thibeault moved a motion in the legislature asking for the official apology to the province's French-speaking residents.

Thibeault said it will demonstrate that the government recognizes its past errors and is serious about growing the Franco-Ontarian identity and culture.

New Democrat Gilles Bisson said his party will support the apology because "it doesn't hurt," but he called it "much ado about nothing" because the ban on French in Ontario schools hasn't been enforced in 70 years.



Advertisements

Latest Canada & World News

  • Spain dismantles migrants' "dock of shame" in Canary Islands

    World News CTV News
    ARGUINEGUIN, SPAIN -- Spanish authorities have dismantled the bulk of a makeshift camp for migrant processing that for over three months wasknown as the "dock of shame" for holding in unfit conditions thousands of Africans who arrived recently in the Canary Islands. Source

  • Russia under renewed pressure to explain Navalny poisoning

    World News CTV News
    THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS -- Russia came under renewed pressure Monday to explain the nerve agent attack on opposition figure Alexei Navalny as the annual meeting of the global chemical weapons watchdog got underway amid measures aimed at reining in the spread of coronavirus. Source

  • Charity says shelling kills 11 civilians in Yemen's Hodeida

    World News CTV News
    CAIRO -- Artillery fire killed at least 11 civilians, including four children, near Yemen's strategic port city of Hodeida amid that country's grinding war, an international charity said Monday. Yemen's internationally recognized government blamed the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels for the attack. Source

  • Quebec reports 1,333 new cases of COVID-19, 23 more deaths

    Canada News CTV News
    MONTREAL -- Quebec health authorities reported 1,333 more cases of COVID-19 on Monday, bringing the total number of cases in the province since the start of the pandemic to 142,371. Of them, 12,138 are active. The province's seven-day average now stands at 1,309 new cases per day. Source

  • 'Thank you for keeping our world safe': Grade 3 students pen letters of support to Manitoba health-care workers

    Canada News CTV News
    WINNIPEG -- Following a COVID-19 exposure in their school, a group of Grade 3 students in Manitoba decided to take some control by sending their gratitude to workers on the frontlines of the pandemic. Linda Andres, the teacher of the Grade 3 class at Happy Thoughts School in Selkirk, Man. Source

  • A man fatally shot a teenager in Oregon for playing loud music Thanksgiving week, police say

    World News CTV News
    A man in Oregon fatally shot a teenager Thanksgiving week after getting upset that the 19-year-old was playing music loudly in the parking lot of an inn that the two were staying at, police said. Source

  • Ontario logs more than 1,700 new cases of COVID-19 as positivity rate inches higher

    Canada News CTV News
    TORONTO -- Ontario is reporting more than 1,700 new COVID-19 infections Monday morning as the province’s positivity rate inches closer to five per cent. Health officials added 1,746 cases, which is up slightly from the 1,708 infections added a day earlier Source

  • B.C. report on anti-Indigenous racism in the health-care system to be released Monday

    Canada News CBC News
    An independent investigation into the extent of anti-Indigenous racism in the health-care system in B.C. is complete, and the findings are set to be released on Monday at 11 a.m. PT. The report is expected to include findings of fact and specific recommendations. Source

  • Senators ponder how far to go to protect charter rights in assisted-dying bill

    Canada News CBC News
    There was a strong message conveyed to cabinet ministers last week as senators grilled them on the Trudeau government's bill to expand access to medical assistance in dying. We told you so. Ministers were repeatedly reminded that when the federal government introduced its first bill in 2016 to legalize doctor-assisted death in Canada, senators warned it was unconstitutional and predicted it would be struck down by the courts. Source

  • CBC News journalists deported from Uganda, despite having press credentials

    World News CBC News
    A CBC News crew was deported from Uganda this weekend despite following protocols laid out for foreign journalists entering the country. The deportation, which occurred on Friday, happened about a month before the country's elections. Opposition parties and election observers have expressed concerns the vote won't be free or fair. Source