News

OTTAWA, February 21, 2012 – The federal electoral district boundaries are readjusted every 10 years, and this process is under way right now: the 10 electoral boundaries commissions have just been established.   On Monday, February 20, 2012, the Speaker of the House of Commons announced his nominations for each of the ten provincial commissions.  The list of the nominations can be found here.    The redistribution process may affect the democratic weight of minority Francophone communities. The new boundaries could split these communities between two ridings, which would ...

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OTTAWA, February 9, 2012 – Senator Maria Chaput asked the government, during Question Period, for answers about the massive restructuring of Service Canada, which will result in the closure of 98 offices across Canada over the next three years.   Last year the government provided the communities with contradictory information about the Service Canada reorganization.  Now with the closure of 98 of the 120 employment insurance claim processing centres and the elimination of 600 positions, Senator Chaput is working to ensure that the communities are fully informed.   An ...

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OTTAWA, November 3, 2011 – Senator Maria Chaput expressed her strong concern about the recent trends set by the government in the matter of respecting Canada’s linguistic duality.   In September, the Prime Minister decided to hire, as his office’s director of communications, an editorialist who has often denigrated the policy of official bilingualism and even regretted the high number of Francophones in government.   This was followed by the completely inexplicable decision of the Minister of Foreign Affairs to remove the French ...

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OTTAWA, October 19, 2011 – Senator Maria Chaput said today that she was extremely disappointed by the Prime Minister’s decision to appoint a unilingual Anglophone judge to Canada’s highest court.   “It’s not just a matter of principle”, explained the Senator.  “The right of francophones to have access to a justice system of equal quality has been compromised by a decision that could easily have been avoided.  As the two vacated seats were previously occupied by fluently bilingual judges, this appointment ...

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OTTAWA, April 12, 2011 - Although the federal government is required to serve the public in both official languages in 83 of its Winnipeg offices, it is not required to ensure that employees in these same offices are able to work in the official language of their choice.  In a city with a large, vibrant official language minority community, this makes no sense. Having witnessed the shift of Canada's population toward the West, Winnipeg's francophone community is rooted in the country's history and ...

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OTTAWA, April 6, 2011 - Because a federal election was called, Bill S-220 has died on the Order Paper.  What this means is that the Bill will return to square one when Parliament meets again.  Senator Chaput will, however, ensure that Bill S-220 is tabled again. Senator Chaput opened the debate regarding S-220 on June 15, 2010.  Many senators have since spoken on the Bill.  Here are a few excerpts of what has been said: "Her bill seeks to amend the Official Languages Act, ...

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OTTAWA, March 23, 2011 - According to the Senior Associate Deputy Minister of the Department of Human Resources and Skills Development, Service Canada, "the administrative region of the Atlantic extends to Newfoundland and all of the Maritime Provinces and is designated unilingual".  The Minister responsible claims instead that "the Service Canada Atlantic Region has not been designated unilingual.  There has been absolutely no change in bilingual services in the region". However, according to the Canada Employment and Immigration Union which represents more ...

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OTTAWA, March 10, 2011 - The Associate Deputy Minister from Service Canada appeared this week before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages and confirmed that, from now on, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island would be considered a single administrative region designated as unilingual Anglophone under the Official Languages Act. "If I understand correctly", stated Senator Chaput yesterday in the Senate, "that means that Acadians and other Francophones in the Atlantic Region have just ...

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OTTAWA, February 17, 2011 - S-220 took a step in the right direction yesterday as the Honourable Andrée Champagne delivered her speech.  "I agree with our colleagues and the commissioner, Mr. Fraser, when they say that arithmetic cannot be the only criterion used to determine where there is sufficient demand", stated Senator Champagne in the Senate on February 16, 2011. Senator Comeau indicated in December 2010 that he would encourage his colleagues to refer S-220 to a Senate Committee "as quickly as possible".  It ...

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