OQLF shifts explanations for Santa Cabrini Hospital visit

Article content

Facing an outcry by the province’s anglophone community, the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) has provided shifting explanations to the news media this week regarding a visit to Santa Cabrini Hospital by representatives of the French-language watchdog.

Initially, an official with the OQLF denied to news outlets the dispatching of a language inspector to the hospital founded in 1960 to serve the Montreal area’s Italian community. Two days later, however, the same official clarified that, in fact, an OQLF representative did visit Santa Cabrini. However, that representative was a “francization adviser,” not an inspector.

Article content

It all started on Tuesday when The Gazette reported that Santa Cabrini managers issued a memo to staff in advance of a planned visit Wednesday by the OQLF that would include a tour of its operating rooms.

“The operating rooms and minor surgery (although closed on this day) will be visited by the OQLF on Wednesday,” the memo stated, adding this was being done in the context of Bill 96, the Coalition Avenir Québec government’s overhaul of the Charter of the French Language.

A Santa Cabrini source described the visit as an “inspection” by the OQLF, likely as a result of a complaint. In response to queries by The Gazette, OQLF spokesperson Chantal Bouchard did not allude to Santa Cabrini but did say that “if a (hospital) facility offers to include an operating theatre in the tour, the visit always takes place in an unoccupied OR, in compliance with the facility’s safety guidelines.”

Bouchard explained that following the adoption of Bill 96 two years ago, health-care institutions must now “submit an analysis of their linguistic situation to the office, leading to the issuance of an attestation of compliance. The office issues an attestation of conformity when their use of French complies with the provisions of the charter and they meet their other obligations under the charter.

Article content

Article content

“It is within the framework of this approach that visits to different spaces can take place in (a health) establishment,” Bouchard added. “It is up to the establishment to determine the schedule and the sites to be visited, in conjunction with a representative of the establishment.”

CBC Montreal followed The Gazette’s story the next day, reporting that workers at the hospital in the city’s east end said the OQLF “checked whether Santa Cabrini was communicating in French as per the law.” CBC quoted one hospital worker as saying a visit by the OQLF took place on Tuesday.

“They didn’t attack us. They just looked at us in small groups,” the worker told the CBC. “They came to the hospital to check if everything was written properly.”

Bouchard of the OQLF denied to the CBC that it dispatched inspectors to Montreal hospitals recently or is planning to send inspectors in the coming days. “The office does not remove staff members from pressing medical tasks,” Bouchard was quoted as saying. “The office never goes into a busy operating room to check what language is spoken there.”

Article content

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the east-end health authority in charge of Santa Cabrini informed the CBC that “the OQLF visits our establishments, like all public establishments governed by the French language law. We comply with the requests of the OQLF.”

On Thursday, the OQLF spokesperson acknowledged for the first time that one of its representatives did visit Santa Cabrini. However, that employee was a “francization adviser.”

“A francization adviser visited Santa Cabrini Hospital this week to meet with an administrative representative of the facility,” Bouchard told The Gazette. “The visit was part of the hospital’s efforts to comply with the Charter of the French Language. However, no inspector from the (OQLF) has visited a Montreal hospital or is scheduled to do so in the next few days.”

On Friday, CTV Montreal ran its own story on Santa Cabrini under the headline: “OQLF clarifies why it was at Santa Cabrini Hospital after claiming ‘inspector’ never visited.”

CTV reported Bouchard’s explanation of a francization adviser visiting Santa Cabrini, adding that Bouchard “had previously denied that an ‘inspector’ had visited the hospital. … According to Santa Cabrini Hospital, the visit was routine and unrelated to a complaint.”

Article content

On its website, the OQLF draws a distinction between its inspectors and francization advisers. An inspector handles language complaints, “visits the inspection site” and determines whether the charter is contravened, among other duties.

In contrast, an OQLF adviser “supports companies in their francization process to encourage the implementation, use, maintenance and consolidation of French at all levels of the company.”

The OQLF uses the French word “enterprise” for company or business and it lists on its website businesses of at least 25 employees that have been “certified.” By comparison, the OQLF uses the French word “établissement” for health-care facilities like a hospital.

Ultimately, the 300-person OQLF did send one of its representatives to Santa Cabrini this week, to ensure — in the words of its official spokesperson — “the hospital’s efforts to comply with the Charter of the French Language.”

aderfel@postmedia.com

twitter.com/Aaron_Derfel

Article content

Article content