{"id":190250,"date":"2018-11-18T23:44:48","date_gmt":"2018-11-19T04:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=190250"},"modified":"2018-11-18T23:44:48","modified_gmt":"2018-11-19T04:44:48","slug":"scheer-has-concerns-about-fords-move-to-scrap-planned-french-language-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/11\/18\/scheer-has-concerns-about-fords-move-to-scrap-planned-french-language-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Scheer has ‘concerns’ about Ford’s move to scrap planned French language university"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cIt’s up to Mr. Ford to manage those types of things,\u201d Scheer said. \u201cI told him as prime minister in 2019 I would absolutely work with premiers across the country to ensure that French-language services are not affected by any kinds of changes.\u201d (File Photo<\/a>: Andrew Scheer\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Andrew Scheer says he has \u201cexpressed his concerns\u201d to\u00a0Ontario’s premier about the cancellation of a planned French-language university \u2014 but he has not asked Doug Ford to reverse the decision.<\/p>\n

The federal Conservative leader told a news conference on Sunday that be brought up the issue with Ford at this weekend’s Progressive Conservative convention in Toronto, but that ultimately the decision is the premier’s to make.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s up to Mr. Ford to manage those types of things,\u201d Scheer said. \u201cI told him as prime minister in 2019 I would absolutely work with premiers across the country to ensure that French-language services are not affected by any kinds of changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ford’s government announced it would scrap plans for the university on Thursday in its first fiscal update since taking office over the summer. The government did not immediately say how much money the move would save.<\/p>\n

Plans for the school were announced by the previous Liberal government in 2017. It would have been the first French-only university in the province, which is home to 600,000 francophones, and was set to be located in southwestern\u00a0Ontario.<\/p>\n

It would have been governed \u201cby and for francophones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau criticized Ford’s move at a news conference in Papua New Guinea on Sunday as he closed out an international summit, saying he was \u201cdeeply disappointed\u201d by it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe protection of official language minorities across our country, the protection of the French language across our country is something that’s extremely important to me and my government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Trudeau also noted that Melanie Joly, the federal government’s minister of official languages, had requested a meeting with the\u00a0Ontario\u00a0government. Joly also lambasted Ford’s decision, first in the Toronto Star and then on Twitter.<\/p>\n

\u201cScheer and Ford’s Conservatives should know that Francophones cannot and will not be shortchanged,\u201d she tweeted Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Scheer, who will have to fight for francophone votes in the polls next year, insisted that if his party forms government he would not make similar decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy support for the official languages is unwavering,\u201d Scheer said, adding that his position on francophone issues has been both \u201cclear and strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

He suggested the Liberals were trying to politicize something that had nothing to do with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople in the next federal election will be voting on federal issues, and people in provincial elections are voting on provincial issues,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrew Scheer says he has \u201cexpressed his concerns\u201d to\u00a0Ontario’s premier about the cancellation of a planned French-language university \u2014 but …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":167348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-nicole-thompson","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}