Nouvelles

Telegraph-Journal
6 novembre 2009, p. A5

Francophone group launches advertising blitz

Adam Huras

MONCTON - The francophone group locked in a legal battle with the province over health-care reforms says it needs to pad its war chest by $500,000 to take on the Graham government in court.

 

Égalité santé en français au Nouveau-Brunswick president Hubert Dupuis speaks during a news conference Thursday in Moncton. The group is launching an ad blitz to ask francophone New Brunswickers to help its legal battle with the province over the amalgamation of the province’s regional health authorities.

Égalité santé en français issued a public plea for funds on Thursday, unveiling an aggressive ad blitz aimed solely at fostering discontent in New Brunswick's French communities with the province's restructuring of New Brunswick regional health authorities.

Ads that depict the heart of health care in francophone New Brunswick flat lining now feature in campaign by a group poised to reverse the of the health authorities amalgamation.

"Right now the francophone regions of New Brunswick are our primary target," said committee president Dr. Hubert Dupuis. "The Graham government is trying to prolong this, so we really need the public's support to pay for their tactics."

Newspaper, television and radio advertisements will be rolled out in francophone New Brunswick communities over the next two weeks.

The group is still considering whether it will voice its opinion in English media, deciding for now it can garner the most financial support in francophone communities.

Thursday's event in Moncton included representatives of more than 30 francophone groups that dot the eastern shores of the province or represent New Brunswick francophones as a whole.

Dupuis told them he estimates that the government will spend more than $1.5 million if the trial drags on for more than two years, and that francophones need to raise $500,000 to continue the fight.