French Language Services Commissioner

The Government has introduced a proposed legislation that:

“…would officially recognize the contribution of the Franco-Ontarian community to the cultural, historical, social, economic and political life of the province”.

September 25th is already the Franco-Ontarian Flag day. One cannot underestimate the power of symbols which, with delivery of quality French-language services, goes a long way to recognize a community with a rich history, diversified and a promising future. I applaud this initiative.

Today, I released the conclusions of my first formal investigation report. It’s into the lack of integrated French-language health services in the Peel-Halton region.

The well-founded complaint allowed me to conclude that the time for good intentions is over for the Ministry of Health and Long-Term care, and it’s now time to take action. For the Francophone community of Peel-Halton, after more than 20 years of wait, and several rejected proposal submissions, it’s important to have access to integrated health services, in French, without any delays.

My investigation is completed, but the work is not over yet. In the next year, I will closely follow up on the actions taken by the Ministry, in cooperation with the two LHINs that serve this region, to find specific measures and permanent solutions to this problematic situation regarding the lack of French-language health services in Peel-Halton.

For its 50th anniversary, Laurentian University in Sudbury offered itself a 2-day forum on the franco-ontarian identity. Thursday and Friday, more than a hundred people attended to discuss the role that played the University in the enhancement of the franco-ontarian culture and identity.
 
Was this university the cradle or the taproot in the development of a franco-ontarian culture? Was this institution or the students and teachers that reinforced this identity? Opinions are really diversified about it within the Gervais, Grenier, Renaud, Paquette, St-Jules’s generation.

The Institut franco-ontarien made a tribute to Gaétan Gervais, whom the tenacity doesn’t need to be demonstrated. Same for his accomplishment; it goes so far beyond the creation of the franco-ontarian flag. This tribute is certainly well deserved. All my congratulations!

The Institute also launched the book La loi 8, La Charte et l’avenir. Needless to say that I have my own copy, as well as our Office. This book was written after a forum in 2005, so two years before the creation of our Office.

The Central Southwestern Ontario Health Forum held, last Tuesday and Wednesday, their 4th annual conference in Hamilton entitled  ” My Language, My Culture Determinants of my Health”.  Our Manager Investigations and Executive Policy Advisor attended this workshop on my behalf as an observer. 

Needless to say it was successful! In fact, the forum gathered over 120 participants representing varying area such as academic, community sectors, ministries staff and government agencies. It was an opportunity to explore, among other things, the connections between language, culture, and health, and the importance of having linguistically and culturally-adapted health care.

The  guess speakers were  heterogeneous. Among them, there were Mr. Mamadou Ka, Professor of the Collège univeristaire de St. Boniface, the Consultant Ms. Lise Paiement and the Exective Director of the Centre francophone de Toronto, Ms. Lise-Marie Baudry.

Bravo to the Réseau franco-santé du Sud de l’Ontario and its partners for organizing this event which provided a wealth of exchange and networking

What I’ve seen in the media today worries me. It seems that, according to the story, the hearings, scheduled last Monday, will be held at a later time for a lack of a bilingual judge. If this is true, it can only reinforce what I recommended in my last annual report in October regarding, precisely, the lack of bilingual judges in Ontario.

This situation is not unique, far from it. But if this could happen in such a story highly publicized regarding an issue involving a regulation on bilingual signage, while the dates were set in May 2009, one can only ask how many other cases have been rescheduled for the same reason through the years.

I will investigate this story with the ministry of the Attorney General.

Last week, Jean-Louis Roy, former Secretary General of the ACCT (now the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie) and the actual Chair of the Centre de la francophonie des Amériques gave a magnificent speech (in French only), full of clarity of view. With a great style, he proposes a clear vision of this country which invites us as thinkers.