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

  • Who can topple Trump? Dems' electability fight rages in Iowa

    World News CTV News
    DES MOINES, IOWA -- The urgent fight for the Democratic presidential nomination raged across Iowa on Sunday as the party's leading candidates scrambled to deliver closing arguments centred on the defining question of the 2020 primary: Who can beat U.S. Source

  • Rocket strikes dining facility at U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad

    World News CTV News
    One rocket hit a dining facility Sunday on the compound of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, a U.S. official told CNN. The official said at this early stage there are reports of minor damage. Source

  • Iraq PM condemns rocket attack at U.S. Embassy in Baghdad

    World News CBC News
    Five Katyusha rockets crashed into a riverbank near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone without causing any injuries or serious damage, a statement from U.S. Joint Operations Command said. One rocket landed inside the embassy walls, an Iraqi security official said. Source

  • Rockets fired at U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraqi PM condemns attack

    World News CBC News
    Five Katyusha rockets crashed into a riverbank near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone without causing any injuries or serious damage, a statement from U.S. Joint Operations Command said. One rocket landed inside the embassy walls, an Iraqi security official said. Source

  • Where will Prince Harry and Meghan live? In B.C., hopes of becoming home

    Canada News CTV News
    VANCOUVER -- A striking sight, the Royal Standard flaps against the dark skies and unrelenting rains of Vancouver. Monarchist Raymond Greenwood raised the Queen's banner atop his house just days ago to welcome Prince Harry and his wife Meghan after learning that the royal runaways were considering moving to his oceanside Kitsilano neighbourhood. Source

  • 2 more snowmobilers pulled from Lac Saint-Jean

    Canada News CBC News
    Quebec provincial police divers have located and retrieved the bodies of two more missing snowmobilers who were lost in the Lac Saint-Jean region after they broke through the ice during an expedition on Jan. 21. A group of eight French nationals, led by a guide, were trying to cross a snow-covered channel between the towns of Saint-Henri-de-Taillon and Alma on Tuesday night when the ice gave way. Source

  • Toronto Public Health says it's ready for infectious diseases like coronavirus

    Canada News CBC News
    With the confirmation of Canada's first case of the coronavirus in Toronto, health authorities are assuring the public the required systems are in place to keep people safe. Coun. Joe Cressy, chair of the Toronto Board of Health, says he has "full confidence" in the city's Medical Officer of Health and the Toronto Public Health team, and will continue to work closely with them to ensure the public remains protected and informed. Source

  • Who will share the Holocaust's horrors as its survivors disappear?

    World News CTV News
    TORONTO -- As the Holocaust fades further and further into the reaches of history, some surveys suggest it may be difficult to maintain the memory of one of humanity's greatest atrocities. Monday marks 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, the most infamous of the Nazi death camps. Source

  • In China, people wonder how open government is being over coronavirus

    World News CBC News
    The 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) left 44 Canadians dead, but it wasn't documented on social media. That's because Facebook, Twitter and YouTube didn't exist back then. "Social media adds a whole new layer to all of this messaging that's out there that I didn't have to deal with when I was reporting on SARS," Maureen Taylor said today on The Weekly with Wendy Mesley. Source

  • Quebec Court of Appeal to hear Alexandre Bissonnette appeals on Monday

    Canada News CTV News
    MONTREAL -- Quebec's high court will hear arguments Monday as to whether the length of the sentence handed down to convicted Quebec City mosque shooter Alexandre Bissonnette should be changed. Nearly three years after the massacre that claimed six lives at the Islamic Cultural Centre in the provincial capital, lawyers will argue the matter before the Quebec Court of Appeal. Source