CFN – Bright and early last Monday morning, some members and supporters of the area’s Language Fairness for All group descended upon Cornwall Community Hospital in a demonstration designed to coincide with a three day hospital accreditation site visit. CCH Board Chairperson Helene Periard escorted the four member inspection team onto the site as the Accreditation Canada group from Quebec proceeded past the latest in a series of LFA “Acts of Activism”, this one right in front of the hospital.
According to the bilingual Accreditation Canada website: “Accreditation Canada is a not-for-profit, independent organization accredited by the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua). We provide national and international health care organizations with an external peer review process to assess and improve the services they provide to their patients and clients based on standards of excellence. Accreditation Canada’s programs and guidance have helped organizations promote quality health care for over 50 years.”
As is often the case at these gatherings, many drivers waved and/or honked horns as a show of support for the group’s efforts to highlight inequities in hiring practices which highly favour Francophones in a country whose vast majority is English speaking. Cornwall Police were summoned mid-morning and LFA spokesperson Chris Cameron was asked to ensure that no signs created a hazard to those entering/exiting the hospital lot by obstructing view.
Acting upon a recent recommendation, the LFA group provided coffee and Timbits to anyone wishing to avail themselves of the morning snack. It was envisaged that some hospital staff might be inclined to join the protest during break time were it not necessary to lose out on the break itself.
One CCH nurse who joined the group on her break used the time to speak on camera with CFN. Darlene Walsh who, after working part-time at the hospital for the past 18 years, was just recently awarded a full-time position.
Walsh spoke passionately on the topic of the quality of patient care transcending linguistic differences. Visibly upset about the impact on patients, she also addressed the issue of hospital cleanliness and overcrowding. An apparent common practice is to place patients in hospital hallways for days at a time. Some of these patients, she reports, require enemas, which are conducted behind a screen in the busy hallways, affording very little dignity to the patients. She couldn’t help but observe that the hospital had been cleaned and hallways cleared of patients just in time for the site visit. We’ll let you hear Darlene in her own words in our video clip.
“Language Police” at Cornwall Tim Hortons?
On Saturday evening at the Tim Hortons on Brookdale near 13th Street, some regular customers found it impossible not to take note of a needlessly lengthy dialogue which caused a considerable delay in service. The conversation was in French and the “customer” was quizzing the clerk at length about just how French she is, which is her first language, how comfortable she is in dealing in French, does she prefer to converse in one language or the other, does she generally address people in English first, etc, etc. How do you say Timbit in French? Have the language police come to Cornwall now?
South Stormont Council Leading the Way?
It should be interesting to witness the exchange at the South Stormont Council meeting tomorrow evening. Every major media outlet has been encouraged to provide coverage of what promises to be history in the making. After hearing a presentation from human rights activist Howard Galganov, Council is expected to vote on whether or not to make a formal commitment to always respect Canadians’ right to do business in the language of their choice, be it English, French, Chinese, Italian or anything else.
Fearless Patrick wrote:
“by kilroys logic we should do away with everything that is not for the benefit of the majority, so lets do away with: elevators, handicap ramps, bike lanes, special ed education, the whole welfare system, battered women shelters…and I’m only naming a few.
– Now I’m thinking kilroys logic, its the if it doesn’t benefit me, do away with it.”
Patrick are you comparing those with handicaps to very capable Franco-Ontarians or Quebecois? Are you suggesting that to be a French speaking person is akin to being a person who may have a physical, mental or psychological impairment and that if it is, then people who are of French descent are somehow impaired?
Because if this is the case, then I guess it would merit the use of special legislation that caters to the French language to try and level the playing field. Come on, the UN has chastised Canada already for this stupidity. But our Canadian gov’t (chock full of Francophones) dictates for the most part laws and gov’t policy.
Wasn’t it bilingual (French) judges that heard Jean Serge Brisson and Howard Galganov’s court case in Russel Township?
Cory
Cory said:
Wasn’t it bilingual (French) judges that heard Jean Serge Brisson and Howard Galganov’s court case in Russel Township?
Yes Cory it was !-Can you believe this as impartial from a judge that has numerous Francophone affiliations -and they call that justice?
She has stated that” yes it violates the charter of rights but feels it in the interest of bilingualism”
So its OK to violate the charter …..what gives her the right to violate the Federal charter of rights and freedoms ?
So its fine to violate someones rights for anothers ?
What a warped sense of entitlement from a judge to do this!
But hey its an agenda right?
Wake up Canadians ,this is your country ,your rights!
Your so reading my words wrong…
Just before I start, funny reading highlander howard refer to himself as two individuals.
– sujet à l’interprétation…
– Maybe that is why we need bilingualism, because, tu lis ce que tu veux et tu l’interprète de ta façon pour le mettre à ton avantage. Smart move.
– I’m simply saying its not a question of choice to some. You can continue to blame everything but the weather for your lack of qualifications in your quest for better employment. TU peux continuer à demander à ta femme de rédiger tes texts en français. Its a question of curtesy. Curtesy that most anglos in eastern ontario are willing to give…but a select few chose to say… I’m sorry sir, we are in Ontario speak english or go live in Québec.
Indeed, frenchification of Canada today looks like germanization of Germany in the 1930s. Quebec is complete, New Brunswick and Ontario are half through. It’s creeping into the West even at the provincial level.
LOL, are you serious helga. What planet are you living in. This is beyond ridiculous. Your comparing french to the nazi movement. I wont comment further…your perception is SOOO beyond ridiculous…it doesn’t need me to elaborate on it..
Patrick, at the risk of repeating myself, I’ll quote myself. Cause you clearly haven’t read my post from before and had the common decency and courtesy (which you speak of constantly) to address the issues rather than change the subject back to where you “think” you have the upper hand.
–
You said, “AGAIN, there are no job openings for unilingual anglos at the montfort.”
–
“Perfect. Just perfect… That is indeed completely fair isn’t it Patrick? According to you, and your insane logic this is completely fair to all the majority unilingual English speaking tax paying citizens of this country who forked out a billion dollars
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-5zWHkeE0ujM/UGf7GLROyOI/AAAAAAAAAEs/WjJ93XlZFQ8/s1280/Montfort%2520gets%2520cash.jpg
to re-build the Montfort and turn it into what we see today, right? A place where only bilingual applicants are welcome you say? Of course, we all know that bilingual = “French only” which is backed up by many people who have gone there and complained that “French only” staff — not bilingual but, “French only” staff — could not help them in English. AND THEN, to top it off they were treated with disdain by French staff and people in the cafeteria to boot — see article
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-cWstByW0f-0/UGfyfSW_ipI/AAAAAAAAAEY/yEf_oG8020U/s640/Montfort%2520-%2520French%2520-%2520B.jpg
Why don’t you explain or deal with this information Patrick. Is that fair? Is it just? Is it right for the unilingual English people to be shut out from jobs at a hospital that is in Ontario (which has a population of at least 96% non French) while this hospital has practically totally been paid for by those 96% non French tax payers?”
Also:
Patrick said, “by kilroys logic we should do away with everything that is not for the benefit of the majority, so lets do away with: elevators, handicap ramps, bike lanes, special ed education, the whole welfare system, battered women shelter”
Oh, I get it… You are comparing the “minority” French to the “minority” people that actually DO NEED REAL support and help like the handicapped, those with special needs and those on welfare etc etc etc. Nice try pal. But, these two classes of “minorities CANNOT be compared. One group is TRULY in need. They truly deserve “the help” and further more, they also really appreciate the help that the majority Canadian tax paying citizens give them.
–
But, the “other minority group you are using in your comparison (the French). They are just babies that whimper and whine whenever they don’t get their own way. They are more than happy to take money from the majority tax paying citizens of Canada claiming they are “helpless minorities” that deserve it while they spit in the face of those same Canadians tax paying citizens that gave it to them. Then, as fast and you can blink they run to cash those cheques so they can have all the wonderful benefits which majority tax money allows them to have.
–
So, (your words) “maybe we should do away with everything that doesn’t benefit the majority?” Well, if one of those things “that doesn’t benefit the majority” happens to be those things that ONLY benefit the French minority group then YES we indeed should do away with those things that ONLY benefits “them” as they don’t deserve any of it, and they certainly don’t appreciate any of it either, that’s for sure. AND before you freak out going around saying that I said to “do away with the French minority group,” read carefully. I didn’t say that at all. I SAID, “We should do away with anything that ONLY benefits the French minority groups as they don’t appreciate it or deserve it.”
I nly read your first reply kilroy, well the first paragraph. Cause, like I said….too long. So the people that pay the most taxes, according to you get the most from the government. Smart…I guess bill gates in the U.S. must be happy. Millionaires and billionaires get it all, and us minorities get the shaft…thanks kilroy
Monfort has a DND wing. Are Anglo soldiers treated with the same disdain as Anglo Ontarians by French nurses from Quebec employed at this hospital?
Patrick said:
“I nly read your first reply kilroy, well the first paragraph.”
Well now we know you really choose not to listens to others viewpoints ,I can say that even when your comments are winded ,I still read them.
This truly shows your ignorance ,for you only value your own viewpoint and refuse to listen to others .
So a question to you is why bother to respond?
To gain true wisdom one must listen to both sides of the story!