FREDERICTON — Dominic Cardy says he resigned as Blaine Higgs’s education minister because the premier’s policy on the French immersion program in schools is damaging to anglophone children.

A day after resigning from cabinet, Cardy said in an interview he couldn’t accept the premier’s desire to “dangerously accelerate” the end of French immersion in schools across the province.

Higgs has said he wants to reform the French immersion program by next fall.

Cardy is also questioning Higgs’s decision to name to cabinet Kris Austin, the former leader of the now-deregistered People’s Alliance of New Brunswick, which had been vocally opposed to certain bilingualism requirements in the province.

Austin’s appointment as minister of public safety is being denounced by the Société de l’Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick, which accuses Austin of having an “anti-francophone bias.”

Austin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 14, 2022.

The Canadian Press