Navigating on Main Street East between Wyld and Ferguson could be a challenge on Saturday.
The group Resistance Nipissing is holding a protest outside the office of Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli to protest Francophone service cuts.
Rally organizer Michel Pagé suggests motorists might want to detour around that area from 1:00pm to 3:00pm.
“We don’t know how many people to expect,” Pagé said.
“You may want to take a little bit of a detour because it may slow things down. It’s not intentional but depending on the number of people it may complicate things a little as far as traffic goes.”
The rally is one of 40 going on at various MPP offices spread across Ontario and Pagé says the goal is to ensure the voice of Francophones is heard.
Protests are planned in centres like Sudbury, Ottawa and Toronto.
Pagé accepts that Fedli won’t be in the office on Saturday.
“This’s his prerogative,” he said.
“I’m sure that he’s aware that we’ll be there and I can guarantee you that he’ll know that we have been there once it’s over because we really want to make sure that we’re visible.”
Pagé says some members of the Francophone community have requested meetings with Fedeli over the cuts and it’s his understanding that some meetings with the Tory MPP have been set up.
Two of the issues Franco-Ontarians oppose is the transfer of the French-Language Services Commissioner to the Ombudsman office because they believe the office will lose its independence and the cancellation of the Francophone university earmarked for the Toronto area.
On the matter of the language commissioner, Fedeli says the government is taking steps to ensure the office maintains its independence.
Regarding the university, the government is not reversing its decision on the post-secondary school but Fedeli says it will work on education models that meet the needs of Francophone students.
