A newly elected Progressive Conservative MPP has broken ranks with her party over Premier Doug Ford’s cuts to French-language services.Amanda Simard (Glengarry-Prescott-Russell) has taken to Facebook to express her displeasure at Ford’s elimination of the independent watchdog for French and his cancellation of a francophone university.“The decisions made last week concerning the office of the commissioner and the Franco-Ontarian university disappoint me greatly, and I share this disappointment and frustration today, having initially worked as much internally as possible to reverse these decisions,” Simard wrote.The rookie MPP, who was not at Queen’s Park on Thursday, said in French that she has asked Ford “to reconsider these measures.”“My first reflex is always to use diplomatic channels to resolve situations, and that`s what I did, before reacting publicly, as soon as I became aware of these decisions,” she wrote.“By the way, I read somewhere that MPP Simard ‘might be upset.’ False. I am ‘definitely upset.’ To my friends, to my community, to my riding, you know me — my francophonie is important to me.”Simard, a lawyer and the parliamentary assistant to Francophone Affairs Minister Caroline Mulroney, said she “needs to assess where we are and what we can do and must do.”“I am with you. I hope you will support me,” she told constituents in her Eastern Ontario riding on the Quebec border.Mulroney has defended the cuts as necessary because the Conservatives have a $14.5 billion deficit.Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser said the Tories are “pathological” in their bid to “silence their critics.”Both the French-language watchdog and the independent child advocate’s office have been melded into that of the ombudsman, while the environmental commissioner’s duties will be handled by the auditor general.On Friday, Mu ...
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