(Ottawa) Franco-Ontarian MP Francis Drouin finally apologized Thursday for having described witnesses three days earlier as “extremists” and “full of crap.”
“Any witness who comes before this committee should feel free to have a conversation in a respectful environment. I did not do that on Monday so I apologize once again to Mr. Bourdon and Mr. Lacroix,” declared Mr. Drouin during a meeting of the Standing Committee on Official Languages.
During the previous meeting, Monday, the member for Glengarry—Prescott—Russell vulgarly opposed the comments of researcher Frédéric Lacroix and CEGEP professor Nicolas Bourdon.
The two witnesses explained, based on Statistics Canada data, that when a Francophone or allophone attends an English-speaking university or CEGEP, this significantly increases the probability that they will then lead their life in English.
They had been invited to discuss with parliamentarians as part of a study on the financing of English-speaking post-secondary institutions in Quebec and French-speaking ones elsewhere in the country.