The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

MaArceH 28 ~ Pleads for Bilinguali In Schools of Ontari ' Pleading the cause of bilingual--|lingual schools just as well as it is ism in the public schools, Aurelien |taught in the English schools." l Belanger (Lib., Prescott), yesterday | Asks Government Aid. KE "in the Ontario Legislature, chal--| The issue arose a: he drew' f lenged its opponent: to launch a toward the conclusion of his con-- | government inquiry into the man-- L':&"'f,';"c:";n';'f':"'(':";'; Speech de-- | ner in which English is taught in |;p, French -- Canadian be?y:ém::\l:; the English--French schools. "without fulfilling my duty to my| | _ 'The challenge was made in answer | English--speaking _ constituents by | > to criticisms, which he said, were bringing to the attention of this made outside the House. "We would | House a resolution asking this goy-- like an official investigation," said |ernment to give them not only the | the member heatedly, '"in our bi--| permission, but the help necessary | lingual schools and I can tell you|to introduce French into the cur. what they will find. They will find |riculum of the public schools in that English is taught in the bi-- lh<i>lsc" sections where French pre-- s ------ ! VAilS, Behind the resolution, he sajd, was . their recognition of the fact that "in this country, French is an * official language wit. the same footing under the constitution as English." He pointed out that ad-- vertisements were made frequently for bilingual applicants to the civil service. One--language men and wo-- men were under a handicap. Be-- cause of this handicap, ratepayers of Russell and Prescott have asked he said, that the bilingual teaching provision be extended. ' Mr. Belanger charged that French | was taught in the high schools of | the Province as a dead language, f | "and as a result, the students in | this bilingual country of Canada come out unable to speak properly one sentence in that language." | In his concluding remarks, the member declared, "We are trying in our (the bilingual) schools to instil in the hearts of the children a love of King, a love of country and a | love of this Province." | Question of Religion,. _ _Mr. Belanger, in discussing an-- | other phase of education, lauded _ Opposition Leader Drew for having stated that religion should have a wider space in the public schools. He claimed that, under the present system, in the children's schooling "religion is divorced from the pro-- fane sciences." He lauded Colonel Drew for having stated publicly also, in reference to the English-- French racial question: "While there may be a majority, there is no dominant race. The two were on a footing of equality." . "A statement like that goes a long way to cement the unity for which we are striving in this House," said Mr. Belanger. a In critical mood, he scored the Opposition Leader for having sug-- gested "the best interests of the people of this Province can be serv-- ed by surrendering some of their| rights to the Central Government."l Hon. Eric Cross, Minister of Wel-- | fare, will continue the debate today. ' $