CFN – What started out as a one man picket by nurse Christopher Cameron exploded into a crowd that peaked at nearly 400 Saturday in front of the Cornwall Community Hospital.
The crowd braved winds as high as 70KMH that caused tree damage in the area. The signs were in full bloom and cars honked their support regularly.
Old school tail gate speeches ensued, but there was another element that has invaded the protest triggered by the Richelieu Club’s antics at Cornwall City Council Monday night. Sadly for some this is turning into a language war when it was never stated as such.
Interviews with none of the original protester revealed any inclination to not offer bilingual services. Nor did the Township of South Stormont’s motion suggest such; but after the Monday night council meeting in Cornwall language battlers as far away as New Brunswick invaded the protest.
This is what happens when you have a vacuum of leadership; extremists take over the agenda. With the MP, MPP, Mayor and Council in Cornwall playing hide the sock on this issue for fear of upsetting someone chatter seems to be spinning things further. None of the above were seen at the protest.
Add in a Hospital that is selective in who it speaks with, advertises its message with, and refuses to present copies of the French tests to the public that surely would put this subject to rest one way or another.
For mayor Bryan McGillis of South Stormont and Deputy Mayor Tammy Hart who were present it was public vindication as the good mayor has been crucified by the Standard Free Holder for their motion.
Apologies for sound issues on our video as the wind was brutal!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZC5xu_woTM
Thanks to Don Smith for the tailgate video!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j54eZzc_8Tc
Cornwall City Hall Monday
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyhqoWWJQ-Y
We will be updating this story as more information comes in. In the meanwhile you can comment below.
Remember one thing folks – The liberals brought in a lot of this expensive nonsense, bilingualism (forced french), multiculturalism, the charter, rights this, rights that…but the Conservatives have done nothing to repeal any of this crap. ??? Liberal, Tory same old story.
Remember one thing folks – The liberals brought in a lot of this expensive nonsense, bilingualism (forced french), multiculturalism, the charter, rights this, rights that…but the Conservatives have done nothing to repeal any of this crap. ??? Liberal, Tory same old story.
The Conservatives have allowed all of these liberal polices to remain??? How come?
The simple facts are as more francophone’s get hired for all government positions less and less English speakers are working for their own governments across the country. Don’t believe me; Go check the stats for yourself. Francophone’s are over-represented in all levels of government including hospitals, law, policing…etc. No fairness, no representation by population. They call it bilingualism, yet the term is never defined on purpose and believe me it doesn’t mean fluency in 2 languages in Canada, at least to the French it doesn’t. No political party will speak for the English speaking majority in this province and country. Practical bilingualism, where numbers warrant… is never defined on purpose. In Ontario, NB it now means segregation. The French (they are actually metis, a mixed race, not french) are demanding French only facilities all over the province, not bilingual, French only. $ Bilingualism is really nothing more then a hiring quota for francophone’s and that is a fact…just ask yourself, why are francophone’s over-represented in all government jobs and how come more and more positions are being designated bilingual all the time? And just as important, how come they are NOT fluently bilingual? Some can barely speak English!
See whats really going on here?
So while Quebec bans the English language (bill 22, bill 178, bill 101…), wipes out its real BNA, UEL history, while ethnic language cleansing is going on in Quebec, the rest of the country is forced to fund whatever the French (metis) demand. This is going on in every province. Go check.
“First Quebec, then we take over the rest of the country, one step at a time…through bilingualism…” PT, “How to take over a country through bilingualism…” SD. How ? First comes the right to communicate with gov’t in a minority language (ie French),then comes bilingualism, then comes the right to work in the language of choice(ie French), then comes a bilingual boss,(ie French) then comes a exclusively French department and on it goes until its all French. Its happening all over the country, Ontario, New Brunswick…That’s what’s really going on.
Go learn our proud, real BNA and UEL history. These were the builders of our country since 1763. Not this phony, revisionist lie, this bilingual, multicultural, 2 founding nations, linguistic duality lie, propaganda, spin that we’ve been living with since Trudeau, and kebec forced this upon the nation. We’ve been part of the British Empire since 1763 and officially an English speaking country for over 200 years…just a fact.
Until the charter and all the bs (bilingual, multicultural, phony rights…crap) connected to it gets repealed, we will continue to self destruct as we have for the last 5 decades. Until bill 8 in Ontario is repealed the french will continue to take over and wipe out our real BNA, UEL history. They have been bragging about it for decades and the Conservatives have allowed this to happen.
“My roll as Secretary of State of Canada is first and foremost to ensure that my French compatriots in Canada feel with deep conviction, as I do, that this is their country and that it reflects their image”. “I too had some difficult years as a politician; I’m still having them, in fact, because everything we undertake and everything we are doing to make Canada a French state is part of a venture I have shared for many years with a number of people”. “You know the idea, the challenge, the ambition of making Canada a French country both inside and outside Quebec — an idea some people consider a bit crazy, is something a little beyond the ordinary imagination”. – Serge Joyal, Secretary of State – Page 2 ‘ENOUGH’ by J.V. Andrew. – Serge Joyal – Now in the Senate.
“First Quebec, then the whole country, one step at a time…”
When you designate language as merit and essential qualification, it becomes a language issue. It is a transcendent issue across Canada and the most acute in Ontario and New Brunswick because of concentration of francophones in those two provinces. Anglo Society of New Brunswick is a respected anglophone rights organization and they came to Cornwall rally to support Ontario defenders of English language rights. It is preposterous that language is used to deny employment to anglophones. Anglo personnel at Cornwall hospital is subject to a very high level of French WRITTEN test when all medical records and administrative files are done in English. Should not all personnel, anglophone and francophone, that deal with files, pass the SAME ENGLISH written TEST?
Yes they sould do an english written exam: their results would probably be better than your French written exam.
Not wanting to learn another language is lazy !
You are all a bunch of lazy people !
Whenever the English-speakers protest this discriminatory policy, they are called “racists:, “bigots” or “French-haters”. However these some people who use these labels so freely don’t say anything about the French-speakers in Quebec dumping on the English-speakers. Ironically, the English-speakers come from all parts of the world and are made up of more diverse races than the French-speakers. So let’s stop with the silly labels and look at the facts. The fact is that French is a minority language, spoken in a very small part of Canada (Quebec, Eastern Ontario and Northern N.B.) As a minority language spoken only fluently by 12% of Canada’s population (report issued by Jack Jedwab of the Asso. for Canadian Studies) or if you want the 2006 census figure (17% are self-assessed bilinguals), this cannot translate into a Canada-wide language, especially when Quebec is officially unilingual, able and willing to legislate against their English-speaking minority. Nearly a million English-speakers have left Quebec, many to Ontario and they find that the same sickness has followed them from Quebec. The battle to reverse this trend is just beginning and the hope is that the hitherto silent majority will start to mobilize and fight back.
Curieux de savoir qui sera capable de lire ça. Je m’appelle Benoit. Je suis francophone et parfaitement bilingue. Ce n’est pas tellement une surprise. J’ai grandi à Gatineau, du coté québécois de la rivière des Outaouais. À l’âge de 8 ans, je faisais des phrases complètes en anglais. Je savais que c’était nécessaire. J’ai eu un premier emploi comme agent de sécurité à Ottawa en 2007. J’y ai travaillé pendant 3 ans. Dois-je préciser que je travaillais en anglais? En 2008, je suis également entré dans un collège Ontarien. Le seul francophone dans tout l’Ontario. N’empêche que mes déplacements, je les faisaient tout de même en anglais. Les chauffeurs d’OC Transpo ne parlent pas tous français. Et maintenant, je suis à l’Université d’Ottawa depuis 2 ans. Vous croyez je vais renoncer à ma francophonie pour autant? Non! Ceux qui croient qu’il n’y a pas de francophones en dehors de l’Ontario et du Nouveau-Brunswick, vous faites erreur. Il y en a partout! Et 90% d’entre eux sont bilingues. Pourquoi ne feriez-vous de même? En terminant, les franco-ontariens se souviennent de Montfort. Si vous croyez l’avoir facile avec Cornwall, détrompez-vous! Vous allez manger de la boue comme les conservateurs de Mulroney!
Subject: Hospital French Business Tip of the Iceberg
There’s more on this bilingualism idea than meets the eye. We smugly bury ourselves into the Charter or Bill of Rights and Freedoms. As a result we are up the creek without a paddle as far as changing anything except all of us should think twice before adopting top heavy French at English citizen loss of jobs and expense to pay for it, especially in their own communities. That is simply unfair and morally wrong.
Allow me to make a few points here.
First of all, the Cornwall Community Hospital gives the community the understanding that the legislature required the French or bilingual hiring of front line nursing care. That is an evasive line. What I am led to believe is that the hospital had to, and did, first request it before it was legislated. Mute point but still let’s clear the air on that one.
With the huge cost to the English majority to learn French, (not every teen and grown up can) and the cost of extra grant monies to the hospital for this designation
the hospital could have had three MIR’s bought over time and set up by now. It would cost a lot less for the minority of French to learn English. We could have saved countless lives by earlier detections and lots of out of town travel for MRIs.
For example, and this is my primary reason for my disgust of waste here in Ontario and this hospital issue has it wrong as it would be a lot less expensive for the minority of French to learn English. This problem is pervasive throughout Ontario.
Follow me here as I try to make a major point. Ontario has a $200,000,000,000 hole in its bank account (that’s 11 0’s my friends) at a cost of $30,000,000,000 a year towards the pay down over the next 7 years recommended. With 360+ suggested cuts (including 4 year old kindergarten cuts), we have another abuse of privilege of power to continue spending that surely can wait until the budget is under control. It matters little to these people that we are truly headed to become another Greece with this unnecessary spending.
I would agree that bilingualism is a moral concern for two percent of the local population. Yes, but just 2%, NOT 23% as claimed. 2% is a French only issue. As a moral issue, even the French should realize that more citizens than that have other language only issues as well despite the Charter. Read the following before you get too spoiled.
The economies of scale would never accept such a deficit as Ontario’s if it were run as a private business and neither should our Ontario government or its citizens. Pay the bills first and then consider only what we can and NEED to pay as we go forward. Perhaps the French would be willing to pick up the tab instead of dumping it all on all the other first languages of Ontario.
Let’s see, that’s 9,000,000 taxpaying Ontarians (of its 12.9 million inhabitants) divided into a $200.0 billion hole in our collective bank account equals $222,222 for each taxpayer or is that 222 million? Gee this math stuff is tough aye. When would YOU like to start paying. Even at $30.0 billion per year that is being paid down now just to keep your collective heads above water folks only costs us $24,691 per year each if we are contingent on paying it off within the recent budgets recommended 7 year hitch. Hey, how about working free for a few years in the administrative stratosphere salaries, inflated contracts, bonus’s and fully paid perks and expenses like free cars and meals. I’d just like a meal ticket please.
I went to the rally on Saturday and did not hear anti French diatribes from anyone. I heard people concerned about cost, fairness in hiring and the constant push for French language services truly needed by a small percentage. Not all staff need to speak / read / write English and French at the hospital. When will an MP or MPP notice how many votes they can get with pushing for fairness of English language concerns in this province? When we complain more!
To the 2 drive by’s Saturday that held up the one finger salute, first let me say thanks for thinking we are number one…..second you are not really aware of the issues…and third, the province is broke, change is inevitable.
Eric you can say that about Mr. Harper and his friends too. Canada is not in much better shape than Ontario. As Ontario lives and dies is pretty much as the country does.
Benoit, your writings seem like a battle cry, and using OC Transpo Drivers in Ottawa as an example tells me you have not read the statistics.
About 500,000 English only, about 14,000 French only and about 10,000 who do not speak either English or French are in Ottawa. From a business stance alone, we should provide more English language schools for the French to better thrive in a global economy.
Don’t believe everything you read from your government in Quebec and the media, they are the same ones telling us Quebec has 5 years of high school. Funny how those 5 years begin with grade 7, and finish a year before Ontario students after only 4 years. That math sounds right but we don’t start till grade 9.
I don’t believe anyone is asking Benoit or any other bilingual Canadian to give up their language or their heritage, This issue is about fundamental fair hiring practices, it is not about English versus the French as the French language zealots would like to spin it.
Benoit is obviously an intelligent young Francophone who at an early age in Gatineau, Quebec learned English to meet the requirements of today. Gatineau/Aylmer Quebec is the same town my grandchild lives and attends school and home to many of my ancestors. My own French heritage goes back over 400 years in Canada. Through college and now university he improves himself, having worked using his acquired language skills at English jobs.
Benoit believes that all OC Transpo drivers in Ottawa only speak English, which is curious, because I actually only know one OC Transpo driver and he is a Francophone.
Benoit does not understand why English are not bilingual when 90% of the Francophones outside Quebec and New Brunswick speak English. You see Benoit that is the exact reason English don’t speak French. it is because they don’t need to. Why waste time, effort, and untold billions of dollars forcing a language on the majority of Canadians outside these provinces that don’t need to speak it? Many of us believe while Francophones fully deserve service in the language of their choice, it is absolutely not fiscally prudent and responsible to pay for it unless numbers warrant.
Regarding l’Hôpital Montfort, the truly informed know that their administration is having extremely difficult time filling employment position with qualified Francophones to meet their French only designation criteria.
Lastly, although you are an intelligent and diligent Francophone with great passion for the language and your heritage and I wish you all the best in university, but hasn’t your mother ever told you it wasn’t nice to tell others to eat mud just because you disagree with their right to opinion. Tsk Tsk
Its funny to see people trash the Montfort Hospital – a french hospital for not serving people in english, obviously wrong on many levels, believe that removing a bilingual designation to a perscentage of applicants is NOT NEEDED and would be progressive! In reality it would be regressive!
The hospital doesn’t require all of its applicants to be bilingual and if you talked to some of the protestors and read some of the comments you will see that this is a common belief and is 100% wrong! Approximately 30% of the staff hired last year were bilingual the rest anglophone; so I ask you explain why this is wrong in a bilingual community?
An example of how distorted many of these leaders are from reality is that during Mr. McGillis speach he stated the majority of positions were filled by citizens of QUEBEC; complete horse manuer! They were filled mainly by Ontario residents and many from Cornwall – a huge majority! This is a perfect example of people bending the truth and the facts to gain public favour! The majority of the people complaining don’t know the facts and most seem to uneducated or non-working members of this community outraged over a pre-conceived notion or comment that is not entirely true!
I’m not reading any l’Hôpital Montfort bashing in this particular thread or article Mike. If you were referring to my comment regarding their administration having difficulty filling positions with qualified Francophones to meet their French only designation criteria, I was merely stating a fact to emphasize the point that finding applicants to meet the French language requirements was an issue. By no means was I challenging l’Hôpital Montfort’s right to exist as a French only facility or that they should have to serve people in English. If that is what you thought I apologize.
However, although I agree with you that there is no harm with the CCH being a bilingual hospital, please remember, the hospital board applied for this status themselves to increase funding, as the hospital French Language Service Act only applies to government agencies and according to the Ontario Hospital Association , hospitals are not considered government agencies at this time.
Furthermore, service was always available at all times in both official languages, and the issue here is the manner in which the administration is implementing the policies. The CCH working language, that is the language used for business, is English, yet many positions within the hospital are now being designated as Advanced French required which includes writing, reading and spoken in areas where there may never even be contact with patients or their families.. Not even Intermediate French is accepted, which means a part timer who can function in French successfully and has been doing so for 10 or more years will lose the opportunity for a full time job to someone who has 1 year or less of experience, but has the Advanced French designation This has and will continue to happen Mike and that is why many people are upset. It goes beyond nurses and language.
It is all about the money!
I am very disturbed that language is considered more important then qualifications when it comes to health care at the Cornwall Community Hospital. Now my question is; when the hospital was asking for donations for all those years, how come they didn’t mind taking money from the english public. Shouldn’t they have refused that money as well, knowing they were going to refuse them jobs later….
Maybe the people on the board will wake up….OMG I am so distrubed over this. If my loved ones ever needed care I couldn’t care less if the person giving it was fully bilingual or half or even just trying. As long as they administered the proper meds and provided the right care. I had no idea CPR and other life saving techniques had a language issue…
And how about the ones that speak very good french but can’t communicate in english worth a s**t.
So does that mean that the french patient deserve better care than the english patient !??.
Re: Left-to-Right. Benoit mentioned Mont-Fort in his comment above, not you. Aslo, who cares if it was administration who called for the Hospital to become bilingual! It should be bilingual and again they are only hiring approximatley 30% of the frontline staff who are bilingual not Francophone and the rest are Anglophone!
Re: Izzy B. I think you would care if they didn’t speak english! You need to be qualified to be in any health care position period after that experience and other assets such as being bilingual in a designated bilingual community is definitely an asset to those who possess the language skill!
Yes Benoit suggested that Franco-Ontarians remembered what happened with the Montford – hardly bashing in my view.
In regards to who cares if the board brought this on themselves in the pursuit of extra funding, I care, as I am sure others do as well. I feel that is important to know that this whole issue is about money, not language or service for the hospital. The hospital was always more than sufficiently bilingual before this designation was self-imposed; ask anyone who has worked there in the trenches, past and present and not just members of the administration, the front line workers will tell you there was no language issues before.
It is the hospital board who has been claiming all of this was mandated by the provincial government and that they were subject to limitations by the French Language Service Act as if they had no choice. They have been misleading the public to defend their actions. True, they have to follow guidelines now, they have quotas to fill now, but it was them and not the province that imposed these rules. So I definitely care Mike, even if you don’t, because what truly bothers me is the twisting of the truth and the misleading information the board has been feeding the public. That bothers me most of all, and it should bother all taxpayers who don’t like being misled by public officials elected or otherwise.
You are right Admin, federal is pushing provincial and they are pushing communities, all with money from the one taxpayer. Instead of such a cencerted effort to expand French, that money, time and other resources would be better put into our services. The rally was a start, some media ( thankfully) is listening, whats next. Letter writing to MP & MPP alike?
Eric I have said for ages now that people have to be more involved. If they don’t know how then learn. Pick one issue you’re passionate about and make it happen.
If this issue is the one for you I would suggest doing the letter writing thing to your MP, MPP, and other reps. You can even CC some to media and maybe; just maybe, they will get printed.
Chris’ protest started with one protester who was heckled. It led to two,and then Saturday. The politicians can only hide until the next election 🙂
Mike, let me correct your numbers with the information directly from the CHH website:
” In 2011 there were 217 positions to be filled. 132 of these positions were advertised as requiring French language skills and 57 were filled with candidates with the required French language skills.”
132 required bilingual positions out of total 217 is 60.8%.
57 bilingual positions filled, out of 132 bilingual positions required is 43%.
So, it’s 43% bilingual positions that were filled last year (not 30% as you said), and the reason they did not filled all required bilingual positions was not because they were so nice to anglophones, but because “the hospital is often not successful in finding candidates that meet the clinical or professional requirements as well as the French language requirements. These positions are then filled with unilingual candidates.”
The question, however, to ask is: WHY 60% bilingual positions are required in the first place? Cornwall’s francophone population is 24% (Census 2006), and only 2% speak French-only (babies and toddlers).
Re: Laura Lee. I agree that the french language should be an asset and I am all for that recommendation! Thanks for the softball because your math is completely off it was actually 26.3% and not 30%, much closer to the 24%!
However, this is again an example of twisting the facts, which I am sure are done unintentially, but my original comment was that approximately 30% of the people hired were bilingual!
Out of the 217 people hired 57 were filled with candidates who possessed advance french language skills! 57 out 217 is 26.3% exactly! Comparing the 57 to the 132 number only means that 43% of the jobs posted were filled!
I agree with you that 60% of the applicable jobs posted at first seems high but then again it isn’t! What if out of the over 1,000 people currently working at the hospital say 30% needed advance French skills but only say 10% currently have this designation? Then during the next hiring session you would see an increase in bilingual staff required ….wouldn’t you?
So there is a possibility that sometimes the numbers may look as they do now, correct? Now, by looking at the last hiring practice 74% of the new hires were Francophone…..but what if there is mainly Anglophone’s working currently?
Do you agree that it would be reasonable to say that if 25% of the (frontline only) staff were required to be fluently bilingual that this would be reasonable?………..If yes, then what if currently only 15% were fluently bilingual? Would this not force administration to hire a larger majority of bilingual vs. anglophone applicants during its next hiring session?……..Of course it would!
Don’t always believe the hype produced and NO ONE should ever consider stopping funding to our local hospital especially politicians with personal agendas! Look in the mirror and make the right choice everyone!
Thank You,
Mike Bedard
oooops…..I meant 74% of the new hires were Anglophone not Francophone!
I just can’t believe my ears. Some of you have turned bilingualism into an evil plot to turn Canada into a French state. James Wolfe, I seriously doubt Mr Serge Joyal ever made such comments. It’s totally absurd. C’est de la foutaise! Dave Windsor, what are you implying? Do you seriously believe bilin-gualism has put Ontario in the hole? How about an ailing automobile industry and a heavy reliance on an ailing automobile industry in the US? It just proves it’s never good to put all of one’s eggs in the same basket.
Enough with the French and Québec bashing! And if you quote articles, please list your sources.
I wonder if some of those anglophone hires were actually bilingual but couldn’t pass the french language test and how many of the francophone patients could actually pass the french language test.
Mike, I re-read it and agree that my 43% were wrong and your 26% are right. I was not “twisting” the facts, however. You cannot twist the math intentionally, 2×2 is always 4 as you promptly straightened me out.
Do you know how many total positions in the hospital and how many of them are bilingual? That would give the public a clear picture of the situation and avoid speculations on “what if” you engaged in in your previous post.
We also need to know what are the criteria for designating positions bilingual and why all RN positions were designated bilingual? Since all medical records are administered in English, priority language should be English. In this regard, why nurses (and other personnel) are subject to a (high level) French written test? Should not all nurses, anglophone and francophone, undertake the same English written test?
I am not sure how old many of you may be, but you seem to be caught up in an event predicated by politicians to simply create controversy.
I was born in Cornwall, well four score and seven, and the city at that time was filled as it is now with many many ethnic groups. Many Italians, Greeks, Germans, Polish and now we have people from India, Pakistan and many countries abroad.
Why is it that we only, once again, have issue with the French? If we can expect all other nationalities to learn English as was done for many years in the past, why do we not expect the same of the French?
Yes Canada has two official languages, but it would appear we are being directed by one, which in itself is as it is played out in this situation, is discrimination.
Kudo’s to all who are fighting for our collective linguistic equality and rights. Was proud to be one of the many on Saturday to stand in solidarity for my fellow Nurses, in Cornwall. Am an RN from Ottawa, and can say without a doubt, that we are facing the exact same linguistic discrimination.
The time has come to face many hard truths…for one, French is a minority language in Ontario and Canada. Outside of Quebec, Canadians are English at 97% of the entire population. In Ontario, we are English at 96% of the population. Of the four percent of French in Ontario, 2% are bilingual and 2% are unilingual French. When you look at the facts and reality, one can only surmise that it makes little sense to force the English majority to embrace a minorities’ language, culture and heritage. Especially, when we have our own to celebrate! With a dash of common sense, it is clearer to see that it makes more fiscal sense to immerse the French unilingual minority into English language training and studies, asap! Think of the monies saved that could provide for health care, military/defense, children/elderly, infrastructure and the environment…all of which would benefit ALL Canadians, no matter their collective language!!!
Any individual’s….are you listening Steph who are un-informed as to what any individual has said…namely Serge Joyal, should simply google the facts for yourself. Amazing to me that in this computer age, you would not have taken the time to do that for yourself, before embarrassing yourself here on a public forum. If, you wish to be informed of the sources…look them up for yourself…afterall, am pretty sure your Mother is not posting here.
Steph, the quotes from Joyal (and Trudeau and others) are correct, shocking, disgusting and racist. They absolutely wanted to turn Canada into a French state. It is currently a French-dominated state. Anywhere else in the world we would be considered an apartheid nation. But with the NDPQ supporting the racist anglophobic Bill 101 there is not ONE POLITICAL PARTY in Canada that does NOT favour francophones over anglophones. I believe the figure was around 75% of top jobs in the federal government are held by francophones (mostly from Kebec). “Bilingual” means two different things to francophones and the rest of Canada. A francophone who barely speaks English is bilingual. An anglophone who speaks near-perfect French IS NOT. And although Frenchification is not wholly responsible for Ontario’s woes, why do you think we have whole departments of our provincial government (never mind federal) who cater to a mere 3% of the population? Frenchification costs this country about $10 BILLION a year and I would estimate that 75-80% of that money is totally unnecessary. And it is OK to have French-only hospitals like Montfort but not English-only ones?
Are you aware that anglophones have been turned away by French-ONLY clinics in Ontario?
Or that tests for “bilingualism” are exponentially more difficult for anglophones than francophones?
I would happily refer you to several organizations or websites to educate you if you truly believe most francophones want “only” equality and not special treatment (we used to call that desegregation), WHILE having English Canada pay for it.
I have met a few francophones who are appalled at the actions of their compatriots. But most fit this mindset. And they are wonderfully skilled blackmailers, I’ll give them that.
Oh, and at our April March last year for equal (not superior!) English right sin Montreal, we were harassed, bullied, taunted, threatened, followed, and if it weren’t for police presence, I guarantee you we would have been assaulted. THAT is what happens in Kebec, it is happening in New Brunswick, and you seem to be perfectly content to have it happen in Ontario.
French/Kebec bashing? Name ONE French-language sources that support bilingualism where French is not given preferential treatment. I have read websites of organizations where the very existence of English is an affront to them. Some (not all) advocate violence to eliminate this cancer. Do you denounce them as well? I am eager to see that you do.
Finally, since we all know that Canada is not a bilingual country and never has been, I will join your movement to make it so….IF WE START WITH, AND IN, QUEBEC. Otherwise Canada (or I should say, the rest of Canada), should be ONLY as French as Quebec is English. And once THAT discrimination is lifted and anglophones can live and work in Quebec without fear, I will gladly march beside you.
Who’s with me?
This is all nonsense. Language would never be an issue if we didn’t have a socialized health care system. A lot of private sector businesses provide services in both languages (and more) and it doesn’t seem to be a problem. You wanted a soviet-style health care system? Then you’ll have to provide services in both official languages. Don’t make, French, Québec or Francophones your scapegoats for everything that’s wrong with government.
Yes a lot of Francophones are bilingual in the area, but being able to have a conversation about last night’s hockey game and describing your symptoms to a monolingual doctor are two different things. Failure to understand this leads to the kind of comments I’ve read here.
Learning another language is not that hard. And being closed-minded is too easy. Anyone going to university should be able to learn another language. Strangely, in my life I’ve met a lot of people who learned French as a second (or third) language, but really few of them were English Canadians. Is this a result of the politicization of languages or just bigotry?
Hugo, why do you think francophones are some kind of special creatures everybody should worship and pamper? Do you think only francophones have that human need to chit chat with a doctor and describe their symptoms in their mother tongue? Do humans of other ethnic origins and languages have less value in your eyes? So who is BIGOT here?
English should be one and only primary language in Ontario hospitals to ensure a level playing field for everyone – personnel and patients. Every adult in Cornwall speaks English.
Here is some language statistics for you in Cornwall (census 2006):
Mother tongue Count
Urdu – 430
Tamil – 325
German – 235
Punjabi – 195
Arabic – 185
Dutch – 165
Chinese – 150
Italian – 150
Spanish – 95
Romanian – 90
Greek – 75
Hungarian – 75
Pashto – 70
Portuguese – 45
Mohawk – 45
…and many others – more than 30 languages, 3000 human beings. You are effectively giving them finger by pushing for special language privilege for francophones only.
Pavel, the Francophones are not “some kind of special creatures”, but they happen to speak one of Canada’s official languages and, like it or not, they represent 30.5% of Cornwall’s population. Nothing against those who speak other languages (I learnt five), but they are usually people who came from another country and they don’t expect all of us to speak their language. They come here and learn one or both official languages. When I go to Rome, I do as the Romans and I try to do it in their language. I don’t impose mine!
Re: Hailey Brown. Thanks for the information. I looked it up on line but it only seems to be a private clinic “by appointment only” or “SUR RENDEZ-VOUS SEULEMENT”! I can see how it is scene as public clinic because it has mental health service and several other medical services. However, it was specifically created as a health option to areas who have heavily population of french residents in Ontario such as Alexandria, Embrun, Bourget and now has one in Cornwall. They are a collective of doctors, nurses, dieticiens, councillors and psychatrists that work under one roof to better aid a minority that is often overlooked (more specifically francophone patients)! I can see how it can be seen as a clinic, because it is, but not “walk-in clinic”!
You wouldn’t walk-in to Dr. Tombler’s office and expect to be seen without an appointment would you? Nor, any doctor’s office! Now I am sure any Doctor would help someone in dire need but this isn’t the case!
Doctors see people based on triage in the emergency departments, in order of arrival at walk-in clinics and by appointment at their office! Did that really have to be said or is everyone really that far out of touch with reality that we now have to describe the basics to make people understand how simple they are being?
Re: Pavel…..really only 45 Mohawks? Who says francophones are getting special privileges? Your example is not credible and honestly offensive! It is simple to take care of approximately 25% of the population by ensuring a few, not a majority and not all, speak french at the hospital! If it were that simple for the other 3000 than we I am sure we would have done so!
Everyone is so lost on this topic! A few people got passed over because the hospital has a need for a small minority if its staff to be bilingual NOT FRANCOPHONE.
> It doesn’t require all of its staff to speak french
> It doesn’t require a majority of the staff to be Francophone
> It does require all staff to speak english
> It does require a small minority to be bilingual
> Not all positions need to have a percentage be bilingual
> There is no FRENCH ONLY walk-in clinic
> South Stormont decided to stop funding the hospital before sitting down with the CCH administration
> Only 4 people (One part-time employee at the Hospital) protest consistantly
> Dr. Tombler has asked for people to keep donating to the hospital
> Dr.Tombler is right in saying the positions should be addvertised as French would be an asset to ensure the best pool applicants apply
> Due to our demographics it is an intelligent decision to ensure French patrents are served. The only way to do that is to ensure someone (a small minority) of staff are bilingual.
> There may be times were there are not enough bilingual people in a position and the “need” to hire a bilingual applicant over an anglophone applicant would arise.
Anglophone Canadians seem to suffer from a peculiar variant of the “Why you act so White?!?!” syndrome that some Blacks here in the U.S. suffer from. “Standard English, Math, History, [i.e., KNOWLEDGE] is useless to me — why do I have to spend time learnin’ all this White Man’s stuff? I’m gonna be a basketball player or autoworker, just like my Daddy.”
Anglophone Canadians suffer from “Why you act so French?” syndrome. French doesn’t seem to be applicable to my daily life, so why learn that Quebecois stuff? Well, to get ahead you need knowledge and skills. If you live in an area with lots of francophones and abuts a francophone province, what makes you think that people with bilingual skills won’t be more valued? No one stopped you from learning French. It’s like Black people complaining that that White person who knows how to write and speak standard English with high math skills got hired instead of them.
Anglophones want to have their cake and eat it too. You won’t allow Quebec to secede or be recognized as a “distinct society”, but you want to pretend that YOU are a separate people from Americans (there is less “distinctness” between English speaking Canadians and Americans than there is between English and French Canadians). If you’re so unhappy with the fact that knowing French is going to be pre-requisite to getting job then frickin kick out/let go of Quebec already and stop you’re whining!
Alex, who is stopping you or Quebec go? Go ahead and separate. The sooner the better.
Mike, what are you smoking? Hailey Brown did not say a word about any Cornwall clinic. In fact, nobody in this thread mentioned “French only WALK-IN clinic” in Cornwall. Lou, however, mentioned “French-ONLY clinics in Ontario”, one of which in fact exists in Cornwall. After reading your post, I got the impression you really need an appointment there.
Hugo, at the national level Canadians can receive services in both official languages in federal institutions only. At provincial level, only NB is officially bilingual and Quebec is unilingual French. Here in Ontario, provincial government provides French language services only in certain areas and only in government institutions. Hospitals and clinics are not government institutions and therefore are not subject to the FLSA.
Mike, yes really, 45 people in Cornwall have Mohawk as a MOTHER tongue.
Re: Tom. It was anotherthread, mentioned by Reg Coffey, which Hailey Brown kindly answered. If you were actually up to date then you wouldn’t be so lost!
@ Tom
“Hospitals and clinics are not government institutions.”
Hospitals and clinics are part of a socialized health care system paid for by taxpayers. And, in Cornwall, 30.5% of those taxpayers are French-speaking. You wanted a soviet-style health care system? Then you’ll have to provide services in both official languages.
All this would never bother anyone if health care wasn’t funded by the government. You would be able to be a client of the English-only private hospital not funded through force by taking hard earned dollars from citizens in the form of taxes. A lot of private sector businesses provide services in both languages (and more) and it doesn’t seem to be a problem because we can choose not to be a client.
Tom, there are over 216 instututions, hospitals among them, that were bribed with our money to accept the FLSA.
The 25 French language designated zones you mention covering 85% of the Ontario geography, now needs only 10% of an area to be Francophone or 5,000 in an urban area, of course the definition of Francophone was changed in 2009 to increase numbers. We have over 40 French Language Coordinator positions whose job is mostly to interact with Ministries to “strongly promote” French. “where numbers warrant” is one thing, but the rules are being changed to be sure numbers are increased to meet an ideaolgy and ALL taxpayers are the losers.
I certainly hope that some change will come of all these discussions. I had hoped that moving from BC to Ontario for school and family reasons, that going to university would provide me and my family with a better life. I spent six years in university, thinking that this is the best way to improve my situation and get a good job with benefits. I completed my education and ended up with a diploma in social work and a degree in nursing. I’m Anglophone, and I feel as though I have been made out to be a criminal for not speaking French in Cornwall. Why is French not mandatory in universities that are training people to work in the public sector? Should I have skipped unversity and taken the time out to become fully billingual in French, would that have improved my situation? It certainly would open the job market up. I also lost a job posting with CCH, as at the time they wanted mandatory billingual for the position, and I lost it as I’m Anglophone only, qualifed for the position but Anglophone. I was able to get a part time job at the hospital in another area, but it was not in the area I wanted to work in and I ended up working in a casual position just so I can work a job I enjoy as an RN. When you are casual you get no benefits, pension plan or paid sick days or any of that nice stuff. Even as part time you do not get benefits, so you can see where the hardships can start, as you may never be able to move up in the hospital or improve your situation, unless you are in a department that does not require further billingual staff. So it is disheartening, I feel I worked so hard, but according to messages written above, I’m a lazy Anglophone since I don’t have the time or money to learn French, if someone paid for me to take the French course to be billingual I would, I’m not dumb but currently this service is only available to part time and and full time staff at CCH, not casual staff. Sure maybe I could take some free French course, but to be fully billigual at an advanced level, written and oral, I need an advanced level of French, one only a good language course can teach. So I can become billingual if I can find the money and time off work to learn the language. I never ever thought I would be penalized and discriminated against for speaking my own language, but that is exactly what is happening here in Cornwall. Now I understand what so many Anglophone citizens have been going through here all along; being passed up for job postings to those who speak French. I don’t know all the facts, I can only speak from my own situation about what living in Cornwall and Ontario has been like for me. It has been difficult and I feel like a second class citizen, this is my story, from someone who has been discriminated against for not speaking French. No one can take this away from me, no one can call me a bigot or French hater, and I’m not “blowing this out of proportion” as the president of the AFO has recently stated, this is what it has been like for me and no one can challenge my story.
@ Danielle
“Why is French not mandatory in universities that are training people to work in the public sector?”
French and other languages are available voluntarily to anyone, anywhere in this country.
“Should I have skipped university and taken the time out to become fully bilingual in French, would that have improved my situation?”
Anybody learning another language improves his/her situation. No need to skip university.
“I also lost a job posting with CCH, as at the time they wanted mandatory bilingual for the position, and I lost it as I’m Anglophone only, qualified for the position but Anglophone.”
If you were not bilingual, you were not qualified (You could only provide services to 69,5% of the residents, while a bilingual provides services to 100%). Monolingual francophones didn’t get the job either.
“I don’t have the time or money to learn French, if someone paid for me to take the French course to be bilingual I would. Sure maybe I could take some free French course”
Learning a language doesn’t require a lot of money, and formal courses aren’t necessary. I speak five languages, but I didn’t learn any of them in school. Check out Benny Lewis’ web site http://www.fluentin3months.com/. Really interesting!
“I never ever thought I would be penalized and discriminated against for speaking my own language”
You’re lucky, some people are discriminated against for having French as a first language (even though they speak English too).
“Now I understand what so many Anglophone citizens have been going through here. It has been difficult and I feel like a second class citizen”
There are thousands of French-speaking citizens in Cornwall (30,5%) who are treated like second class citizens. They can barely get public services in their first language, even though the pay taxes.
“This is my story, from someone who has been discriminated against for not speaking French”
You’re lucky, some people are discriminated against for having French as a first language (even though they speak English too).
“No one can take this away from me, no one can call me a bigot or French hater”
You might not be a bigot or a French hater, but you seem to be putting the blame on bilingualism instead of doing something about it personally (like learning French). You could find a French-speaking person in Cornwall to help you out, start a French conversation group or go on a vacation to a French speaking part of the world (You have plenty of choice. French is spoken on 5 continents). A Spanish speaking friend of mine started a French conversation group in Moncton. And personally, I joined two Spanish conversation/book club groups to practice the Spanish I learned in Spain. It doesn’t cost any money and it’s fun.
@ Hugo, are you a nurse or a doctor? People in those professions should be spending most of their time keeping up to date on medical issues not language politics. Do you do anything else other than criticize people for not being able to or not having the opportunity to speak a second or third language? You are the one who is showing intolerance and bigotry here. There is every reason to believe that an anglophone learning french would never be able to pass the Official French test. Even fully bilingual applicants have failed the test and are now being told they are not french enough.
I would much rather have a qualified nurse taking care of me than a linguist.
Hugo nailed it. Learning a second language is fun. What I don’t get is why, after eleven years of schooling, people graduate from high school not being able to speak both languages.
Pete, because French immersion is a scam. It was never intended to make our kids bilingual so they give francophones competition. French immersion’s main goal is to turn our kids into supporters for francos’ cause while keeping them (our kids) out of good jobs.
Pete Dick, take a look at the Ontario school system. The requirments are for a French class a week through grade 8, then one French class must be passed in high school to graduate.
If the McGuinty government thought so highly of French, why has that not been changed in 8 years? Maybe since English is the majority in Ontario and the business world, plus more people may start to see and complain. Politicians don’t seem to like that….it provides less photo ops.
As I said in another post, considering someone from Vietnam who learned French while living in Brussels for a couple of years, then moved to Ontario a Francophone, is just to increase the numbers and promote an ideolgy. In that post I also said this only inflates numbers and does nothing for Canadian Francophones to continue their heritage.
I speak Spanish and I learned French in Montreal and later English. I think the attitude of these people on this site is pathetic. They are so closed minded. The only motivation possible to learn a language for them is jobs and money. What about opening your minds and discovering the world. French is still the most learned language in the world after English (of course). In South-America there are French classes in almost every good school. It’s the language of Beaudelaire, Voltaire, Victor Hugo, etc. Some of the greatest philosophers, poets, singer-songwriters were French. Everyone knows this. The French people in Canada saved the country from many invasions from the Americans during the war in Salaberry de Valleyfield, with the first French Canadian batalion. If it weren’t for them we would all be American today, because back then the capital was Montreal and they would have taken it. And in spite of some resistence to the two world wars, French Canadians did lose thousands of men to battle for this country, not counting North Corea and more recently Afghnistan (with the 22nd regiment of Quebec).
All you do squable against French this and French that, Quebec this and Quebec that, and you never show gratitude to your fellow compatriots that you seem to consider as ennemies. To find the ennemy you need only look in the mirror. All of you have let your own French ancestry fall to ruines and be neglected to a point where this hole protest is the saddest display of antipatriotism I think I have ever witnessed. I read that 30% of Cornwall speaks French and that 55% of people have French lineage. Yet, when I visited a Friend in Cornwall last year, I did not hear a single word of French. Could it be that with this type hate mongering from angryphones has litterally killed the entire population French speakers in Cornwall? If so, are you proud of your genecide? Because you have not physically killed the French people of Cornwall, but have definitely killed its racial identity, which in this case is language. Congratulations!!!!
Oh, by the way. Nearly 60% of all English vocab is of French origin. And actually the English language is a mixed French creole.
Liberty Fraternity Equality Vive la France! Vive le Canada français libre!
Actually Magda it was the French Voyageurs out in BC fighting of Americans that saves British Columbia from falling into American clutches too and that was way before!
Salaberry de Valleyfield was a small skirmish (1 in 1812 and another in 1813) in a 2 year war we know as the war of 1812. Yes a few of the soldiers from their helped down the road from Cornwall (Ontario) at Chyrslers Farm, but the Chyrsler Farm battle is known as the War that saved Canada.
However we were then the Province of Canada, a British colony and this is long after France gave up on North America with the Treaty of Paris in 1763.
Yes Quebec has contributed in the past, although seeing a German submarine in the St Lawrence did not increase war volunteers the way it should have, and today Quebec gets over 8 billion a year from other provinces in transfer payments out of the pool of 14 billion, Even though way off topic, I thought you should be reminded that not everyone is getting the same history classes.
Also, the Ontario Ministry for Francophones by changing the definition of Francophone has let down Canadian Francophones just to increase numbers.
The issue remains, the hospital hiring process is not fair.
The issue
Magda, I’m happy for you that you are skilled in languages but are you also trained as a nurse or doctor or perhaps a phlebotonist. What does your pro-France diatribe add the issue at hand, unfair hiring practices at the Cornwall Community Hospital. I don’t believe your obvious disdain for anglophones does nothing to address the situation.
I could say all sorts of things but what it all comes down to is that my Canada is not French. It includes French people and a French province…but that’s all.
I have never read so many articles as are in this conversation that are telling it the way it is.
Making French an official language was never sanctioned by referendum of the Canadian people which are most harshly impacted by it. A French Prime Minister and head of the liberal party pushed it through for the benefit of his own people by whipping the vote of a majority political party. In short there was nothing resembling democracy at work, Just a Frenchman, granted power, with an agenda to give jobs and power to his own people.
Now, as things stand, we have no option but to allow the take over of everything we value, by the French but the French themselves have provided us with an avenue to break the stranglehold they have placed upon us.
They have unwittingly made, or rather, have legislated themselves a unilingual French province, which provides their population safety from bilingualism. Their citizens need not constantly worry that some bilingual from another province waltzing in and take their livelihood or being constantly passed over by some twerp. They are free to work in their own language and they need not spend millions (Billions) providing separate services to a population that can already speak their language.
So the way out of all this language stupidity and hardship is to lobby the conservatives and convince them that they could win on a platform of a unilingual English Ontario. Ontario need only follow Quebec’s lead and legislate itself a unilingual English province. And further that The conservatives could gain tremendous support in the vote rich GTA by simply informing the enormous emigrant populations that a conservative government could cut the number of languages they need learn in order to find work from both French and English down to just English. And while they are at it save billions in duplication of services ….. as Quebec has already done.
Thanks for listening.
Im hoping quebec separates from us i can’t wait!