NEWS RELEASES
MINISTER MARLEAU PARTICIPATES IN THE ACADIAN WORLD CONGRESS IN LOUISIANA
July 28, 1999 (11:20 a.m. EDT) No. 171
MINISTER MARLEAU PARTICIPATES
IN THE ACADIAN WORLD CONGRESS IN LOUISIANA
The Minister for International Co-operation and Minister responsible for La Francophonie, Diane Marleau, will
visit Louisiana from July 30 to August 3, to participate in the activities commemorating the tricentennial of this
American state. She will also attend the opening ceremony of the Second Acadian World Congress, in the city
of Houma, on August 1.
During her stay in New Orleans, Madame Marleau will extend a personal invitation, on behalf of Prime Minister
Jean Chrétien, to the Lieutenant-Governor of Louisiana, the Honourable Kathleen Babineaux-Blanco, to attend
the Summit of La Francophonie in Moncton this coming September.
The Minister will then travel to Lafayette to meet with leaders of the Cajun community and with leaders of the
Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL).
"This visit to Louisiana, the home of the Cajuns, is of particular importance on the eve of the Moncton Summit
in Acadia," said Madame Marleau. "I would like to pay a very special tribute to the courage and determination of
those in the Cajun community who have safeguarded the roots of this very rich culture and language."
The Minister will also greet participants in the Pélagie caravan, a group of New Brunswick Acadians who are
travelling all the way to Louisiana for the Acadian World Congress. During a stopover in Washington, D.C. last
Tuesday, the group was greeted at the Canadian Embassy.
The Moncton Summit will take place from September 3 to 5. This gathering of heads of state and of
government of member countries of La Francophonie will be the first to be held under the direction of a
Secretary-General -- and the last of the millennium. The Summit's main theme is youth, with the economy and
new technologies as secondary themes.
Canada will also be in the forefront of La Francophonie early in the new millennium, as it will host the fourth
Francophonie Games in 2001.
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For further information, media representatives may contact:
Chantal Reinert
Office of the Minister for International Co-operation
and Minister responsible for La Francophonie
(819) 997-6919
Media Relations Office
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
(613) 995-1874
This document is also available on the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Internet site:
http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca
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