Advocates for Quebec’s anglophone community are denouncing a new government directive that may require “historic anglophone” Quebecers provide proof of an English-language eligibility certificate if they wish to communicate exclusively in English in Quebec’s healthcare system.
A report by the Montreal Gazette points to a Quebec Health Ministry directive that explains the conditions for patients to be helped exclusively in English in the health sector.
According to the directive, they need to have an English-language eligibility certificate and they must also “expressly request (English services).”
English-language rights groups are not only worried that these new language directives could create dangerous confusion, but that the required certificates would almost be impossible to obtain.
The Gazette reported last October that the province’s Education Ministry had been slow to grant such certificates to students applying to CEGEPs, even if they were eligible.
Bill 96 now requires that anglophones who studied in French in high school and who now want to pursue their CEGEP education in English must produce an English-language certificate by the Education Ministry.
Advocates for the English-speaking community worry that backlogs to obtain such a certificate could lead to an inability to be served in their first language.
The 31-page Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services document outlining the new language directives also describes specific scenarios to demonstrate exceptional circumstances when French doesn’t have to be spoken.
For example, it explains that a father can give consent in English to have his child receive an immediate medical intervention if he’s in a serious condition.