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<h1 class="entry-title">Katimavik could be revived, Joly hints</h1>
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<a class="gmail-author" href="http://montrealgazette.com/author/marianscottgaz"><img alt="" src="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/f640ffc98d7d4cdaf80e0c289df39724?s=33&d=identicon&r=G" class="gmail-avatar gmail-avatar-33" height="33" width="33"> <span class="gmail-name">Marian Scott, Montreal Gazette</span><br> <span class="gmail-author-more">More from Marian Scott, Montreal Gazette</span></a> </div>
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Published on: August 30, 2016 | Last Updated: August 30, 2016 7:51 PM EDT </div>
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<img class="gmail-wp-post-image" alt="Katimavik participants in 2009 at their residence in Montreal." src="http://wpmedia.montrealgazette.com/2016/08/montreal-que-may-28-2009-from-the-left-katimavik-part.jpeg?quality=55&strip=all&w=840&h=630&crop=1" height="630" width="840">
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<p><span class="gmail-img-caption">Katimavik participants in 2009 at their residence in Montreal.</span>
<span class="gmail-img-author"><span>john kenney</span> / <span>The Gazette</span></span> </p>
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<p>Katimavik, the youth exchange program cancelled in 2012 by the
Conservative government, could be revived in time for Canada’s 150th
birthday, Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly hinted Tuesday.</p>
<p>Speaking at the close of a round table on official language policy at
the McCord Museum, Joly noted that some of the speakers there had
praised the program, whose 40<sup>th</sup> anniversary is next year.</p>
<p>“Next year is the 150th anniversary of Confederation. Our goal is to
have, more than ever, an enormous number of student exchanges,” Joly
said.</p>
<p>“I don’t want to reveal the punch line,” she added, hinting that an announcement on Katimavik could be in the offing.</p>
<p>In the 2015 election campaign, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised
$25 million for community service programs in which young Canadians
could gain life and work experience.</p>
<p>In this year’s budget, the government earmarked $105 million over the
next five years for youth service programs. It did not name Katimavik,
but Trudeau has been a staunch supporter of the program, created under
his father, the late Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau.</p>
<p>Katimavik
was the brainchild of the elder Trudeau’s friend Senator Jacques
Hébert, who went on a 21-day hunger strike in 1986 to protest
cancellation of the program by the Progressive Conservative government
of Brian Mulroney.</p>
<p>More than 35,000 young people have taken part in the program,
contributing some 30 million hours of volunteer work, deepening their
knowledge of the other official language and culture and promoting
ecological values. In recent years, the organization, which has survived
on a much-reduced budget, has focussed on indigenous youth.</p>
<p>Earlier, speakers from minority-language communities and community
groups called on the federal government to promote jobs and training to
keep non-francophone youth in Quebec.</p>
<p>“Jobs are the key to keeping a vibrant community in Quebec,” said
John Aileen, president of the board of directors of Youth Employment
Services, a non-profit organization that provides counselling, coaching
and networking opportunities for anglophone youth.</p>
<p>Dan Philip, director of the Black Coalition of Quebec, called for the
need to depoliticize language – a suggestion other speakers dismissed
as impossible.</p>
<p>Saul Carliner, a professor of Education at Concordia University, said
many of his students are foreign born, speaking English and another
language but struggling with French. After graduation, most are forced
to leave Quebec because of a lack of job opportunities, he said.
Programs to help foreign-born graduates transition to the Quebec job
market would be beneficial, he said.</p>
<p>Mount Royal MP Anthony Housefather said the exodus of younger
generations of anglophones is leaving an increasing number of seniors
without family support.</p>
<p>Joly said the government is working on an official-language action
plan to support the vitality of minority-language communities and
promote bilingualism. There is no contradiction between the two, she
said, praising Montreal’s uniqueness as a multilingual city.</p>
<p>“We’ve heard you and my parliamentary secretary Randy Boissonnault and I are working on it,” she told participants.</p>
<p>Joly and Boissonnault, have been crossing the country since July
holding roundtables to gather feedback for the government’s new action
plan on official languages. Participants are chosen in advance but the
public can follow the proceedings online at <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage.html">https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage.html</a> and submit questions or comments.</p>
<p>The roundtables move on to Calgary, Whitehorse, Vancouver, Edmonton and Sudbury in the coming weeks.</p><p><a href="http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreal-hearings-on-federal-official-languages-action-plan">http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreal-hearings-on-federal-official-languages-action-plan</a><br></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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