Canscene) — The Harper Conservative government has left Canadians with language barriers to fend for themselves without sufficient information about the current H1N1 flu pandemic, Liberal Critic for Multiculturalism and Youth Justin Trudeau said recently.

Justin Trudeau: Immigrants shortchanged on H1N1 info.

“The Harper government has failed in its duty to protect all Canadians from H1N1 by neglecting to provide clear information, responsible planning or adequate funding support, but this failure is magnified for many Canadians who have difficulty understanding English or French,” said Trudeau, MP for Papineau.

Reports from across the country show that Canadians who are not proficient in either of Canada’s official languages are unable to get H1N1 information from official sources and are confused about what to do about the current pandemic.

“These concerns are being raised at the same time that the government is being criticized for failing to allocate $400 million promised in 2006 for pandemic response, said Trudeau. The Conservatives are spending $100 million of public money to try to convince Canadians they are doing a good job, but less than ten per cent of that amount on a public information campaign about the H1N1 pandemic.

“This government should divert what is left of the estimated $100 million of public money being spent on partisan advertising to a new H1N1 public awareness campaign,” said Trudeau.

–30–

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 12:05 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.