Quebec's Language Wars

"He said: 'I don't have to speak to  you in English, speak French'. And I said: 'I can't speak enough for you to understand me or me to understand you'. He said: 'Then go get somebody'. I said: 'I can't, I'm alone'."

"I said: 'Is there nobody there who can speak to me in English?' And that's when he hung up on me."

"He spoke English like you and I. He had no accent, anything. He wouldn't let me speak any English. He just kept cutting me off."

"At the end, I said: 'We were guaranteed [English] for medical things."

Susan Starkey, 75-year-old Pointe-Claire resident

 

I want to reassure anyone speaking English, including immigrants, that we will not refuse to treat patients in English if it's needed."

"[The law] changes nothing [when it comes to health care. Claims to the contrary are unfounded] disinformation."

Quebec Premier Francois Legault 

"The services of the Regie de l'assurance maladie du Quebec [RMQ] are not considered as part of the services offered by the health network. We must conform with the dispositions of Bill 96."

"In keeping with the new articles of the Charte de la langue francise, ministries and government organizations, including the RAMQ, must demonstrate the exemplary use of French."

"[The RAMQ has adopted a two-year transitional policy to] modulate the duty of exemplarity to respond to the needs of our clientele [if all reasonable efforts to communicate in French have been exhausted and] the exclusive use of French to accomplish the mission of the RAMQ would be compromised."

Caroline Dupont, spokesperson, RAMQ

Major provisions of Quebec's new language law have gone into effect and there are concerns Bill 96 could impact access to services for those who don't speak French.  CBC

 

The Province of Quebec's Bill 96 was adopted over a year ago. At that time serious concerns were voiced, mostly by the Province's anglophone population, that their human rights to equal language treatment in the francophone-majority population would be imperilled once the law came into effect. That service in English would be denied them in a hospital setting, or in a court of law, or through government services. Quebec's premier assured that demographic that they would continue to receive such essential services.

At the time that Bill 96 was introduced, the Quebec government warned that the French language stood in danger of being eclipsed by English, and that it was imperative they do something to avert such a potential outcome, hence the new bill that would mandate all services to the province's citizens must be prioritized in French and English withheld. Such assurances aside, where Ms. Starkey had no complaints over a hospital setting honouring the need to recognize the rights of English speakers, the province's health insurance agency was exempt.

In the past five months, Ms. Starkey's 82-year-old husband has experienced a catastrophic health failure, transitioning from a once "fairly fit" man, given his age, to one having to be fed through a tube. He had recently undergone an emergency quadruple bypass, a heart valve replacement, resulting in internal bleeding, paralysis of the throat, food aspiration and a few incidents of pneumonia. "There was twice when we didn't think he was going to make it", Ms. Starkey remarked.

Hospitalized for five months at three different institutions, recovery was finally at the stage where her husband was considered strong enough to return home, feeding tube and all. His nourishment intake is confined to a special prescription diet of ISO-Pro obtained through their local pharmacy. Initially the formula was not covered by the Regie de l'assurance maladie du Quebec, but it was covered the second time while the third time it was only partially subsidized. On enquiry the pharmacy informed their client she would have to contact RAMQ for clarification.

The public servant who responded to her subsequent call refused to listen to her explanation of her situation as long as she spoke English. This was an entirely new and different experience altogether. During her husband's five-month stay at the Royal Victoria Hospital, at Ste. Anne's Hospital and at the Catherine Booth rehabilitation facility, there was no problem whatever communicating in English. "Everyone was wonderful", and then came her experience with the RAMQ.

Since June 1, it appears, the RAMQ -- much like the Societe de l'assurance automobile du Quebec, or city hall -- is permitted to communicate in English only with a narrow subset of the population. Eligible are Quebecers previously receiving services in English, Indigenous individuals and those immigrants resident in the province for less than six months. Those wishing services in English must "attest" in "good faith" that they qualify, even if all they plan to do is search out English content on a public  website.

Ms. Starkey's husband is an anglophone, he has lived in Quebec his entire life. Although his wife was born in Alberta, she spent most of her adult years in Quebec, having arrived in 1968. As an example of the reduced comfort given to English-speakers in the province, a bureaucrat in the Ministry of Natural Resources rejected a death certificate issued by Quebec in English to settle an estate, without a certified French translation. The municipality of Notre-Dame-de-l'Ile-Perrot no longer shows English films through its summer outdoor screening, concerned it could violate Bill 96.

The ISO-Pro required by Ms. Starkey's husband is expensive, for a couple without private insurance, and he is unable to speak or advocate for himself. Susan Starkey put off a scheduled surgery for spinal stenosis to enable her to care for her husband. Canada has two official founding languages, French and English. Federally, any citizen is able to demand to be served under the law in the language of their choice. Canada is officially bilingual. Only the Province of Quebec is opting to be unilingual.

The English section of the city of Montreal's website now carries the banner: "Who can view this page? This content is intended for the public covered by the exceptions under Bill 96." Image: montreal.ca

"It took me two days to be able to talk about it."

"I got off the phone, I was stunned. I was so humiliated because I've taken a gazillion French courses. But I've had a couple of bad head injuries where I've lost most of it."

"And I was never very good at language or at music. I can speak more than I can understand."

"I was so humiliated and angry."

Susan Starkey