Automatic reply: Methinks Cardy is loving being in the limelight ce soir while his old buddy Higgy is being roasted on the coldest night of the year N'esy Pas?
| ||||||||||
Newsroom<newsroom@globeandmail.com> | Sat, Feb 4, 2023 at 3:54 AM |
| To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com> | |
Thank you for contacting The Globe and Mail. If your matter pertains to newspaper delivery or you require technical support, please contact our Customer Service department
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Methinks Cardy is loving being in the limelight ce soir while his old buddy Higgy is being roasted on the coldest night of the year N'esy Pas?
David Amos<david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com> | Sat, Feb 4, 2023 at 3:52 AM |
| To: Dominic.Cardy@gnb.ca, Hamish.Wright@gnb.ca, "blaine.higgs" <blaine.higgs@gnb.ca>, "kris.austin" <kris.austin@gnb.ca>, bruce.fitch@gnb.ca, Dale.Morgan@rcmp-grc.gc.ca, "Rene.Legacy" <Rene.Legacy@gnb.ca>, postur@for.is, newsroom@globeandmail.ca, "andrea.johnson" <andrea.johnson@pcnb.org>, "andrea.anderson-mason" <andrea.anderson-mason@gnb.ca>, "Tammy.Scott-Wallace" <Tammy.Scott-Wallace@pcnb.org>, David.Coon@gnb.ca, "robert.gauvin" <robert.gauvin@gnb.ca>, "Ross.Wetmore" <Ross.Wetmore@gnb.ca>, "robert.mckee" <robert.mckee@gnb.ca>, "richard.williams" <richard.williams@gnb.ca>, "jagmeet.singh" <jagmeet.singh@parl.gc.ca>, "John.Williamson" <John.Williamson@parl.gc.ca>, andre <andre@jafaust.com> | |
| Cc: motomaniac333 <motomaniac333@gmail.com>, briangallant10@gmail.com, BrianThomasMacdonald <BrianThomasMacdonald@gmail.com> | |
Friday, 3 February 2023
New literacy program based on years of research, new French program 'a political experiment'
CBC News · Posted: Jan 09, 2006 4:23 PM AST
An international expert on democracy has flown all the way from Egypt to help NDP candidate John Carty campaign in Fredericton.
Dominic Cardy is with a group called The National Democratic Institute. Its members include such people as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. The group's mission is to teach democratic values and spread democracy around the world.
Cardy has taught about democracy in Algeria, Bangladesh, and Cambodia during the past few years. When he heard his friend John Carty was running for office back in his home town of Fredericton, he hopped on a plane.
"It was a strange experience," Cardy said. "One evening I was watching the sun go down over the pyramids, and the next evening watched it go down over Fredericton airport as I came into land."
Cardy is no relation to the NDP candidate. But he loves elections and loves getting people pumped up about democracy.
Carty the candidate is running against federal Indian Affairs Minister Andy Scott, Conservative Pat Lynch, Green candidate Philip Duchastel and independent David Amos. The riding has sent Scott to Ottawa for the last four elections, despite the best efforts of the other parties.
Cardy says he doesn't care how tough the race his – he just wants people to participate in the process. "People have forgotten how incredibly precious these gifts that our ancestors fought for are and were just giving them away. It makes me furious when I talk to people and people just say 'ah there's no point in voting.'"
After election day, Dominic Cardy is flying back home to his wife in Kathmandu, Nepal. He hopes to leave behind a new Member of Parliament for Fredericton, his friend John Carty for the NDP.
Friday, 12 January 2018
YO Dominic Cardy how can you Conservatives brag of buying Butter Tarts when CBC tells me you dudes have to sell your HQ? Yet you wackos want control of our provincial economy?
http://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.ca/2017/10/methinks-if-blaine-higgs-had-two-clues.html
Tuesday, 10 October 2017
Methinks if Blaine Higgs had two clues between his ears he would not have hired the Arsehole Dominic Cardy in the first place
---------- Original message ----------
From: Michael Cohen <mcohen@trumporg.com>
Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2018 18:00:28 +0000
Subject: Automatic reply: YO Dominic Cardy how can you Conservatives
brag of buying Butter Tarts when CBC tells me you dudes have to sell
your HQ? Yet you wackos want control of our provincial economy"
To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
Effective January 20, 2017, I have accepted the role as personal
counsel to President Donald J. Trump. All future emails should be
directed to mdcohen212@gmail.com and all future calls should be
directed to 646-853-0114.
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signature under applicable law.
---------- Original message ----------
From: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
Date:
Fri, 12 Jan 2018 14:00:20 -0400
Subject YO Dominic Cardy how can you
Conservatives brag of buying Butter Tarts when CBC tells me you dudes have to
sell your HQ? Yet you wackos want control of our provincial
economy"
To:
"Jacques.Poitras" <Jacques.Poitras@cbc.ca>,
"ht.lacroix" <ht.lacroix@cbc.ca>,
David Amos <david.raymond.amos@gmail.com>
ethics-ethique <ethics-ethique@rcmp-grc.gc.ca
Cc: pm <pm@pm.gc.ca>, "Bill.Morneau" <Bill.Morneau@canada.ca>,
"Gerald.Butts" <Gerald.Butts@pmo-cpm.gc.ca>,
"Norman.Sabourin" <Norman.Sabourin@cjc-ccm.gc.ca
"Giroux, Marc A :FJA" <marc.giroux@fja-cmf.gc.ca>,
"Joly, Philippe :HoC" <philippe.joly@cie.parl.gc.ca>
<mary.dawson@cie.parl.gc.ca>, "Regan, Geoff - M.P. :HoC"
<geoff.regan@parl.gc.ca>, "ETHI@parl.gc.ca" <ETHI@parl.gc.ca>,
"cullen1@parl.gc.ca" <cullen1@parl.gc.ca>, "Zimmer, Bob - M.P. :HoC"
<bob.zimmer@parl.gc.ca>, "Erskine-Smith, Nathaniel - M.P. :HoC"
<nathaniel.erskine-smith@parl.
<emmanuel.dubourg@parl.gc.ca>, "Fortier, Mona - Députée :HoC"
<Mona.Fortier@parl.gc.ca>, "Gourde, Jacques - Député :HoC"
<jacques.gourde@parl.gc.ca>, "Kent, Peter - M.P. :HoC"
<peter.kent@parl.gc.ca>, "Murray, Joyce - M.P. :HoC"<joyce.murray@parl.gc.ca>, "Picard, Michel - Député :HoC" <michel.picard@parl.gc.ca>,
"Saini, Raj - M.P. :HoC" <raj.saini@parl.gc.ca>,
"Chagger, Bardish - M.P. :HoC"<bardish.chagger@parl.gc.ca>,
mcu <mcu@justice.gc.ca>, "Joly, Mélanie - M.P. :HoC" <melanie.joly@parl.gc.ca>,
Newsroom@globeandmail.com, christine.elliottco@pc.ola.
"derek.burney@
"Lampron.Raynald@psic-ispc.gc.
"Friday, Joe :PSIC" <friday.joe@psic-ispc.gc.ca>,
pat.martin@parl.gc.ca, "OGGO@parl.gc.ca" <OGGO@parl.gc.ca>,
"manon.hardy@chrc-ccdp.ca" <manon.hardy@chrc-ccdp.ca>,
"Clemet1@parl.gc.ca" <Clemet1@parl.gc.ca>,
"Gilles.Blinn@rcmp-grc.gc.ca" <Gilles.Blinn@rcmp-grc.gc.ca>,
"Gilles.Moreau@forces.gc.ca" <Gilles.Moreau@forces.gc.ca>,
"Kim.MacPherson" <Kim.MacPherson@gnb.ca>,
From: "Cardy, Dominic (LEG)" <Dominic.Cardy@gnb.ca>
Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2018 17:22:47 +0000
Subject: Hamish's birthday
To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
Cc: "Wright, Hamish (LEG)" <Hamish.Wright@gnb.ca>
Dear Mr. Amos,
As a regular correspondent I thought you would like to know that it's
Hamish's 20th birthday! We even gave him some butter tarts in your
honour! I'm sure he'd appreciate a note.
Have a good weekend, best wishes,
Dominic
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/
David Amos
Strange just today Dominic Cardy was bragging to me they have lots of
money to spend on Butter Tarts
Methinks the PCs are gonna lose the electin bitime with him as Mr
Higgs' Chief of Staff N'esy Pas?
(Piss Poor spelling a grammer I know but the real question is will CBC
even allow the comment o stand the test of time EH Jacques Poitras and
Hubby Lacroix?)
---------- Original message ----------
From: David Amos motomaniac333@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 7 Dec 2017 14:57:57 -0400
Subject: Yo Brucey Baby is that your signature I see on the note with the treats from Mr Higgs that your buddy Dominic Cardy sent?
To: kelly@lamrockslaw.com, david@lutz.nb.ca, David.Coon@gnb.ca, blaine.higgs@gnb.ca, brian.gallant@gnb.ca, briangallant10@gmail.com, bruce.fitch@gnb.ca, Brian.kenny@gnb.ca, Dale.Morgan@rcmp-grc.gc.ca, kirk.macdonald@gnb.ca, postur@for.is, newsroom@globeandmail.ca, Bill.Morneau@canada.ca, bill.pentney@justice.gc.ca, jan.jensen@justice.gc.ca
Cc: david.raymond.amos@gmail.com, bruce.northrup@gnb.ca, Dominic.Cardy@gnb.ca
http://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.ca/2017/11/yo-blaine-higgs-i-just-called-and-tried.html
Thursday, 2 November 2017
Yo Blaine Higgs I just called and tried to talk to your buddy Hamish
Wright Trust that I don't care that Dominic Cardy is concerned about
his fondness for butter tarts
Yo Mr Cardy Do Ya Think This Dude Cares About Your Dumb Puffin?
---------- Original message ----------
From: Póstur FOR postur@for.is
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2017 16:16:32 +0000
Subject: Re: Yo Mr Higgs I updated the blog for the benefit of your mindless assistant, your pal Chucky "The Welfare Bum" Leblanc and his many LIEbrano buddies for obvious reasons N'esy Pas David Coon?
To: David Amos motomaniac333@gmail.com
Erindi þitt hefur verið móttekið / Your request has been received
Kveðja / Best regards
Forsætisráðuneytið / Prime Minister's Office
---------- Original message ----------
From: "Gallant, Premier Brian (PO/CPM)" <Brian.Gallant@gnb.ca>
Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2018 18:00:25 +0000
Subject: RE: YO Dominic Cardy how can you Conservatives brag of buying Butter Tarts
when CBC tells me you dudes have to sell your HQ? Yet you wackos want control of
our provincial economy"
To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
Thank you for writing to the Premier of New Brunswick. Please be
assured that your email will be reviewed.
If this is a media request, please forward your email to
media-medias@gnb.camed
******************************
Nous vous remercions d’avoir communiqué avec le premier ministre du
Nouveau-Brunswick. Soyez assuré(e) que votre courriel sera examiné.
Si ceci est une demande médiatique, prière de la transmettre à
media-medias@gnb.camed
Cash-strapped PCs selling party headquarters in Fredericton
The Regent Street building could be all yours for just $479,000
By Jacques Poitras, CBC News Posted: Jan 12, 2018 6:30 AM AT
It symbolizes Tory anticipation of the precise moment — Sept. 24 of this year — when the party has a chance to oust Premier Brian Gallant's Liberal party from power.
But the clock's also ticking for the PC party itself, which is facing a cash crunch ahead of this year's campaign.
New literacy program based on years of research, new French program 'a political experiment'
Dominic Cardy worries 'just invented' French-language program will hinder success of new reading curriculum
Cardy worries the plan to replace French immersion hasn't been tested and if it's introduced, will interfere with the new science of reading program that officials in the Department of Education have been working on for years.
"That's going to be watered down and washed away a little bit with all the chaos going on around the second-language program and all for nothing," he said.
"Because this is now not an evidence-based, data-driven process, it's now purely politically driven and we've seen the results of endless political interferences in New Brunswick's education system. It doesn't work. It makes things worse."
Tried out in some classrooms
Development of the new literacy program, called Building Blocks of Reading, has included consultation with teachers, the development of new materials and classroom pilots for kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2 students.
Cardy, who resigned as minister in October, said that this is in stark contrast to the new plan for the French second-language curriculum, which would eliminate immersion in favour of a program where all students spend half their day in English and half in French.
He said the French framework was "just literally invented politically over the course of the last few months."
Mount A prof helped develop curriculum
The new reading curriculum has been in the works since 2015, when Department of Education officials started hearing from teachers who said they didn't have what they needed to help struggling readers.
That prompted a move to the new program based on the science of reading and away from the approach known as balanced literacy.
- The way we teach kids to read is changing — but will it work?
- Is new learning-to-read curriculum 'magic sauce' or just 'a better mousetrap?'
Mount Allison psychology professor Gene Ouellette, who researches literacy acquisition and language development, is a consultant on the new early literacy curriculum.
"The science of reading is basically what I do for a living in terms of research and have for 20-plus years," he said. "And so it's very timely now to see that governments and education departments are looking towards that direction."
Mount
Allison psychology professor Gene Ouellette has been studying language
development and literacy acquisition and teaching for more than 20
years. (Submitted by Gene Ouellette)
When he was first contacted by education officials in 2020, Ouellette said he was asked for "a little input" on the new program under development.
"I really thought the intent was excellent, and I loved to see the direction, but it wasn't quite necessarily compatible with the science of reading," he said. "So I ended up sending them back 25 pages of notes on it. Those notes were the beginning of a collaboration."
Ouellette said researchers usually just talk to other researchers, and teachers just talk to other teachers, so to be directly involved in developing curriculum that will be used in his home province has been rewarding.
The new science of reading program has five components, one of them being phonics, but Ouellette stressed it is not a return to the reading program from the 1970s and '80s,, when students sat at their desks doing worksheets.
Teaching based on research
"The science of reading basically means we're going to teach reading based upon research and the science of what we know about child development and how their reading brain develops," Ouellette said.
"Your oral speech and language is the foundation — how it's built upon your ability to process sounds, how it relates to vocabulary. So there's a lot of other components, but phonics is one piece. It's not simply a return just to to old-fashioned phonics."
Literacy comes first
Cardy said the new literacy program was his "singular focus" in his time as minister, because it is "at the very heart" of the problems the education system faces.
The
early results from pilots of the new literacy curriculum based on the
science of reading are encouraging and Prof. Gene Ouellette believes the
province is heading in the right direction. (Gagliardi Photography/Shutterstock)
The province has long struggled with low literacy rates. The most recent test results show just 59.5 per cent of Grade 4 students met the desired standard for reading in 2021-22.
"Giving more kids the chance to be properly literate is going to vastly improve some of the other issues that we regularly talk about around the school system," Cardy said. "Like the problems with discipline and classroom composition."
He said students who get to grades 4 or 5 without the ability to read often act out or withdraw.
"My team spent years putting a carefully timed package together that started off with the literacy reforms that we're talking about now," Cardy said.
After the literacy reforms, he said, the next issues to tackle are streaming and improvements to the inclusion program in schools, and then second-language training.
"All of those have to come in sequence."
Ouellette has lived in New Brunswick for more than 15 years and has seen the many changes to French immersion over the years.
He said those kinds of changes are something he hopes the new science of literacy curriculum will avoid, because it is based on scientific research.
"That's the thing with science is you don't have to throw out this approach and change it." Ouellette said. "You can just tweak it as more research is done and more findings come in.
"It evolves and then we make incremental changes to programs so we can stop abandoning programs and adopting something 100 per cent new every couple of years."
Time to set priorities
Ouellette believes it's time the government decided what it is going to prioritize — second-language acquisition or literacy.
"We're spending all this time and money developing this literacy program because it was recognized that it's an issue in New Brunswick, so now are you going to sacrifice some of that? Like what is the priority?
If
the proposed new universal French program goes ahead it September, it
would see all kindergarten and Grade 1 students learning in French for
half of each day. (Vanessa Blanch/CBC)
Ouellette said the proposed French program that would have students spend half of every day in French, and half in English is "not compatible with anything we know" about human development, nor language development.
Based on research he believes the Grade 3 entry point for French Immersion was the best compromise for the acquisition of literacy, and language.
"If we could focus on boosting oral language in the first language and developing literacy in the first language through kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2, and start immersion in Grade 3 — it's kind of the best of all worlds," he said.
"Why we abandoned that I'm not sure. And now to go a half day in each [language] — I don't see how you're going to have first-language or literacy development."
Cardy said ignoring the years of work that have gone into the new literacy program by rolling out an ill-conceived French program at the same time will be demoralizing for public servants, but ultimately students will pay the price.
"This is not right for the kids of this province," he said.
"We cannot inflict an emotionally driven program that is not properly developed, that is not properly resourced — not just because it's wrong on the face of it for French-language instruction but because it's going to damage other things like teaching our kids to read."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CBC News · Posted: Jan 09, 2006 4:23 PM AST
An international expert on democracy has flown all the way from Egypt to help NDP candidate John Carty campaign in Fredericton.
Dominic Cardy is with a group called The National Democratic Institute. Its members include such people as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. The group's mission is to teach democratic values and spread democracy around the world.
Cardy has taught about democracy in Algeria, Bangladesh, and Cambodia during the past few years. When he heard his friend John Carty was running for office back in his home town of Fredericton, he hopped on a plane.
"It was a strange experience," Cardy said. "One evening I was watching the sun go down over the pyramids, and the next evening watched it go down over Fredericton airport as I came into land."
Cardy is no relation to the NDP candidate. But he loves elections and loves getting people pumped up about democracy.
Carty the candidate is running against federal Indian Affairs Minister Andy Scott, Conservative Pat Lynch, Green candidate Philip Duchastel and independent David Amos. The riding has sent Scott to Ottawa for the last four elections, despite the best efforts of the other parties.
Cardy says he doesn't care how tough the race his – he just wants people to participate in the process. "People have forgotten how incredibly precious these gifts that our ancestors fought for are and were just giving them away. It makes me furious when I talk to people and people just say 'ah there's no point in voting.'"
After election day, Dominic Cardy is flying back home to his wife in Kathmandu, Nepal. He hopes to leave behind a new Member of Parliament for Fredericton, his friend John Carty for the NDP.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/cannabis-safety-regulation-schools-1.6735031
RCMP investigate after 7 children consume cannabis candies at Sackville school
Parent questions school officials' silence about the incident
New Brunswick RCMP are trying to find out how a girl in Grade 5 got hold of cannabis candies, which were then consumed by seven children at school Wednesday.
Sgt. Eric Hanson of the Sackville detachment said the students, aged 10 and 11, consumed the cannabis candies after the girl brought them to Marshview Middle School.
Hanson did not say if the children knew the candies contained THC. He said the candies were not legal Cannabis NB products.
Some of the students began to feel ill, he said. Once the school learned what happened, the principal called their parents and sent all seven students to hospital.
None had to be admitted to hospital, and they were at home later, Hanson said.
"No serious injuries or effects to report," he said Thursday. "All children are doing fine today."
The Anglophone East School District would not speak to CBC News about the incident at Marshview, which has students in grades 5 through 8.
The RCMP are now investigating where the girl found the candies, who bought them, and where that person bought them. Any cannabis product that is not bought at a federally licensed facility, which in New Brunswick is only Cannabis N.B., is illegal.
Hanson said it's too early to say what the possible outcome of the investigation could be.
"It would depend on what the investigation reveals," he said. "Charges could possibly be an outcome. It depends on the totality investigation, whether things were done willingly or not.
"We need to speak to a few people first, and find out exactly where they came from and under what circumstances they were obtained."
'Radio silence'
Shoshanna Wingate, a parent of a Grade 5 student at Marshview, said her biggest concern after the incident was the "radio silence" from the school.
She said no note was sent home to parents, and the students only heard about the incident from talk on the playground.
Wingate said her husband came back from the grocery store on Wednesday and told her he heard a rumour involving cannabis candies at their daughter's school. But when they asked their daughter that night, she didn't know anything about it.
On Thursday, she came home from school and confirmed the rumour.
Wingate said it wasn't right that students sat in class Thursday not knowing what happened with their friends, except for what they'd heard at recess.
"The only information that she got was from other 10-year-olds on the playground," Wingate said. "And so who knows how reliable that information is? And my question really was, you know, who was there to help the kids process this information, and process the feelings that they were having about such a serious incident?"
Wingate said the incident could have been used as an educational moment about the effects of drugs. It's important to have an open dialogue with kids about drugs and "not make it a taboo subject," she said.
"Do you really think that 10-year-olds should be repeating other 10-year-olds about drugs? I mean, is that what we want to happen? Because that's what happened today. You had 10-year-olds educating other 10-year-olds about a drug incident. And that to me is the whole point of this situation."
Health Canada warnings
Health Canada has published several advisories about children accidentally ingesting cannabis and THC in the form of candies or snacks. In 2021, a mother spoke out after her child ate cannabis cookies made to look like Oreos.
Health Canada said these unregulated edibles can cause serious harm when consumed, especially by children or pets.
"Any products with flashy packaging, pictures, catchy names, strange THC symbols or that mimic popular name brands are illegal and unregulated, should not be consumed and should be reported to your local law enforcement," the agency said.
Hanson said that typically, when something like this happens, the RCMP would be alerted by the school. However, in this case, the RCMP were alerted through a news media request late Wednesday afternoon.
He said if he hadn't heard from the media first, he would have "absolutely" heard from the school.
"The school was actively trying to figure what was happening and calling the parents and calling Social Development before we had been called," he said. "As soon as I got that media request, I called the school, spoke with the principal, and we've been working with them since."
School system cites privacy act
Over the course of the day Thursday, before the RCMP released any information, the CBC requested information from several sources.
"Due to RTIPPA we are unable to comment," Stephanie Patterson, the Anglophone East School District spokesperson, said, referring to the Right to Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
Patterson did not reply to questions about what this means or which section of the act she was referring to.
The school principal directed any media questions to Patterson. The Department of Education also directed questions to Patterson, as did the Anglophone East District Education Council.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from Hannah Rudderham
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/french-immersion-future-1.6619429
Cardy resignation puts focus on French immersion's future
Premier wants program replaced next year despite warnings from commission, auditor
French immersion was the last straw between Premier Blaine Higgs and Dominic Cardy.
The education minister's dramatic resignation last week was sparked by the premier's insistence that immersion be replaced next fall by a yet-to-be-defined new program.
There's no starker illustration of their disagreement over that September 2023 date than the Higgs government's own website.
As of 4:30 p.m. on Monday, the "Evolving French Language Learning" page still showed a slow and careful two-year consultation process leading to implementation in September 2024 – a timeline Higgs has now publicly rejected as too slow.
"My goal would be that we would be able to roll out a change in the program in the fall of '23," he told reporters the day Cardy quit.
Higgs said that was the original target date, "and then it got moved."
Premier Blaine Higgs is insistent that French immersion be replaced next fall by a yet-to-be-defined new program. (Shane Fowler/CBC)
The website went live in May with the 2024 timeline.
Cardy says cabinet approved the longer, more cautious process described in elaborate detail on the website, and Higgs was overruling it on his own — without any substitute program on the drawing board.
"You cannot change deadlines on large systems based on your emotional state, without undermining the quality of the work or the morale of your team," he said in his resignation letter.
The two men were once aligned on education reforms.
Both agreed immersion needed to change. Both agreed, as well, the school system had seen too many disruptive, poorly thought-out overhauls.
Over time, however, they diverged.
"The problem I had was that the premier was intent on adding to that list" of disruptions, Cardy told CBC's Information Morning Fredericton last week.
"The premier's emotional connection and opposition to the French immersion program has become his overriding and singular concern."
An
independent commission that reviewed French second-language learning,
co-authored by provincial court Judge Yvette Finn and former deputy
education minister John McLaughlin, said 90 per cent of students who
stick with immersion through Grade 12 achieve a conversational level of
French. (Government of New Brunswick)
Any reporter covering Higgs can attest to the fact that, when asked almost any question about minority language rights — an overriding issue for the province's francophones — he soon segues to French immersion, a program for anglophone students.
Higgs's four daughters took French immersion so he's not against children learning French.
But he's frustrated that, in his view, the program isn't working for everyone and that Cardy and his department were not moving fast enough to change it.
'Streamed' system
An independent commission that reviewed French second-language learning said in a report in February that 90 per cent of students who stick with immersion through Grade 12 achieve a conversational level of French.
"Seen in that light, French immersion has been a very effective program," wrote the co-authors, provincial court Judge Yvette Finn and former deputy education minister John McLaughlin.
The problem, they added, is more than 60 per cent of anglophone students aren't in immersion for one reason or another.
Former
auditor-general Kim Adair-MacPherson issued a go-slow warning in her
2019 report that found frequent education reforms hurt classroom
learning. (CBC News file photo)
Almost all students with learning challenges are not enrolled, it said, creating a "streamed" or two-tier school system in which "our academically strongest students are overwhelmingly in French immersion."
So the report recommended replacing immersion with a program for all students, aimed at achieving a conversational level of French.
But the commissioners warned that government should approach the recommendations "cautiously."
"We anticipate that if the above recommendation is approached strategically and with careful planning, it may take a number of years to be fully implemented," the report said.
Former auditor-general Kim Adair-MacPherson issued the same go-slow warning in her 2019 report that found frequent education reforms hurt classroom learning.
Any new reform of French immersion should have a "realistic" implementation schedule and should consider staffing requirements and the risk of more disruption, she said.
'Wrecking ball'
Higgs is ignoring those warnings by rushing, Cardy says.
"Change requires care, not a wrecking ball," he wrote in one of the many memorable lines of his resignation letter.
Moving up the implementation date of a new program to September 2023 goes against civil service advice and was not approved by the cabinet or Progressive Conservative caucus, Cardy said last week.
That will place "huge stress on the education system and damage the education of our province's anglophone young people," he wrote.
The same day the website with the 2024 timeline went live in May, a government press release announcing consultations made a little-noticed reference to the province "moving away from the two-tiered system of the English Prime and French Immersion programs."
The site's longer timeline includes several layers of consultation, piloting and assessing.
Prototype program underway
Chris Collins, executive director of the New Brunswick chapter of Canadian Parents for French, says he's concerned the "so-called consultation process" will mean little.
"We want to know that they're going to be intensively listening to data," he told CBC's Information Morning Moncton.
Eleven schools tried out new French-second-language methods last year. This year, 23 schools and nine early-learning centres are experimenting with a "prototype" program.
Next year was supposed to see more preparation and planning and more consultations to figure out staffing needs and transition plans.
All of that will be jeopardized if Higgs rushes a new model into place next fall, Cardy argues.
One question now is what Cardy's replacement, new Education Minister Bill Hogan, will do.
Hogan told reporters last week he shares the premier's concerns about immersion.
But what if he becomes convinced — as Cardy was — that Higgs is moving too fast?
"Certainly everything I've seen from Minister Hogan is he's someone who speaks his mind and stands up for what he believes in, so I would certainly expect that," Cardy said last week.
The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development would not say Monday whether Hogan supports the premier's timeline or the one on the departmental website.
Higgs made it clear last week, however, that September 2023 is the implementation date.
Waiting another year, until just a month before his Progressive Conservative government goes to the polls, would mean no change at all, he said.
"We all know that in an election year, if you think you're going to implement something significant, it's not going to happen. It just won't happen."
Higgs used to complain about that election-year-politics phenomenon when he was finance minister in the Alward government.
Now as premier he's suggesting he's still powerless to stop it.
To ensure the change happens, he said, and to guarantee it's "sustainable, long-term, despite the outcome of another election," he'll impose it next fall — against the advice of experts and at the cost to his government of a high-profile cabinet minister.
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