Tories broke law: Tabachnick

BY ANDY BLATCHFORD

andy.blatchford@transcontinental.ca

The Conservatives broke the law when they dumped funding that helped minority groups fight rights violations, the president of the Quebec English School Boards Association said.

Official Languages Commissioner Graham Fraser’s recent report reveals the government was “irresponsible” in its move to slash the program, QESBA president Marcus Tabachnick said.

He said the court challenges program, cancelled last fall, must be reinstated. “I think that the government now not only has a moral duty to reinstate the program, but they also have what appears to be a legal duty to do so,” Tabachnick said. “What it signifies is that we are open, democratic and allowed to question our government.”

The program has helped Canada’s English- and French-speaking minority groups test the extent of their rights to receive an education in their language, he said.

Fraser stated in his May annual report that with the cut, the government failed to respect the Official Languages Act. “This goes against the very essence of what we’re supposed to be about in this country,” said Tabachnick, who also serves as Lester B. Pearson School Board chairman. “We’re supposed to protect those who need the most protecting.”

He said the $5.4-million program is “pocket change” for the Canadian government and would be easy to reintegrate.

In his report, Fraser said he received more than 100 complaints since the program was slashed. The commissioner also said he asked the government hold off on the program’s cancellation, but was denied.

Lac St. Louis MP Francis Scarpaleggia, meanwhile, sits on Parliament’s heritage committee, which reviewed the court challenges program after it was turfed. The Liberal representative said the initiative was not mismanaged and had no bias. He said there was no rational reason for its elimination. “It became very clear through the hearings... that the program was working very well,” said Scarpaleggia, who believes it should be brought back. “It’s a very puzzling and inexplicable decision... when you have $12 billion surpluses why are you picking these fights?”