On this page Wednesday, Stephanie Kwong, a healthcare worker who moved to Montreal from Toronto several years ago, wrote about the frustration of not being able to receive health information in English from CLSC staff. (She is six months' pregnant.) Kwong, who is bilingual and speaks to the patients she treats in French or English, depending on their preference, said: "A CLSC provides an essential service and I believe this is completely unacceptable." Here are some of the many comments in response at montrealgazette.com:
Bravo!! Excellent points. Your health concerns shouldn't have a language.
adams8
I love the French language. I love the French culture. One year ago, I packed up my life in Ontario and moved to Quebec to learn and embrace both of those things. While I love this city, it is for the very reasons Stephanie describes that Quebec will never be my home.
lindscraig
Totally! Totally!! I have lived in Montreal for several years as well. One time in the métro, apparently there was a problem with smoke. The car stops. Intercom comes on: emergency procedures given solely in French, so quick it was beyond my comprehension. Most people calmly but swiftly moved to exits. I (and others) sat - because we couldn't understand. Talk about putting people's lives in jeopardy!
Wade21
There are thousands of tourists who come here in the summer. I wonder how they get by.
doublezer0
You should be able to get health-care services in English in Montreal, there is no doubt about it. Big mistake by the CLSC. But let's be fair: Quebec is the most bilingual province in Canada. I don't see why bilingualism should go one way only.
I feel your pain! My father is in the hospital at Sacré Coeur and the doctors and nurses can barely string two words of English together. I'm born and raised in Montreal. My French is okay, enough to get me by, but hardly good enough to understand the medical terms they're throwing my way. All I want to know is what they found, what are the next steps, and when he can come home. Is that too much to ask - in English?
rhgirl
If one uses local-government (municipal or provincial) institutions in such cities as Vancouver and Toronto, one will notice that these institutions are staffed and managed by multi-ethnic/ multicultural employees reflecting the diverse nature of that city's population. Conversely, here in Montreal, while the city's population is now majority ethnic and anglophone, local municipal and provincial institutions (CLSCs, the police, the Montreal city bureaucrats, etc.) continue to be staffed almost exclusively by employees who are white and French Québécois. As long as the various local-government apparatuses do not reflect Montreal's diverse ethnic, linguistic and cultural population, this type of insensitivity to the majority's wants and needs will continue.
The Hooded Fang
Hey! Je vous ferai savoir que vous êtes au Québec ici et que c'est français. En plus, vous êtes bilingue! J'ai vécu pendant un an à Edmonton et deux ans à Kiel en Allemagne. Dans les deux cas, lorsque je consultais un médecin ou que j'accédais à un service, je parlais soit en anglais ou en allemand (même si le médecin était en mesure de parler français à Edmonton). Normal. J'étais dans une province anglophone, et dans l'autre cas, dans un pays germanique. C'est la moindre des choses d'au moins se forcer pour parler dans la langue d'accueil. Cela m'apparaît davantage respectueux des gens de l'endroit. N'est-ce pas? C'est quoi cette lâcheté à ne pas vouloir parler la langue d'usage de l'endroit?
dickköpfig
I'm born here and a French speaker and I did not know it was that hard to get health care in English. Though after I've read the comments, I want to say: Please don't generalize. I'm always happy helping people in my work (I'm a travel agent) in English if they need it, or showing them their way in the street. It's multicultural here and we should all do our best to help others. But we're not all bilingual and sometimes English is hard. Quebec is officially unilingual French. However, important services like health care should be bilingual. Please don't consider every French speaker stubborn and not wanting to move forward.
Van123
Quebec is not a bilingual province. Only New Brunswick is. It is not obligatory to offer English service, only polite.
qwerty