"We're in shock," said [Lorri Apps]. "We feel this is very short-sighted."

"I think if we're spending $20 million and we have one out of seven folks in the country that are functionally illiterate, we've got to fix the ground-floor problem and not be trying to do repair work after the fact," [John Baird] said as he handed out newspapers alongside [Stephen Harper].

"I think the major impact for us is the fact that Literacy Partners kind of provides a banner for literacy programs," said [Lorraine Kaczor].