Something Happened

"Something happened in a ward where some employees -- probably two Haitians -- were talking ... in front of a [francophone] employee ... who didn't understand what the two people were saying."
"We met with the personnel and told them that they have to work in French."
"I don't think there is an epidemic of Creole [there]."
Johanne Gagnon, director of communications, Hopital Riviere-des-Prairie

Derrière l'hôpital Rivière-des-Prairies.

Invariably, years ago, living outside of Quebec in majority anglophone Canada, it seemed extremely rude when two francophones would speak with one another in public, in French, with the obvious intention of snubbing non-francophones and certainly people unable to speak French. Now it is the

French who take immense umbrage at the unspeakable incivility of anyone speaking any language other than French in public.

The Hopital Riviere-des-Prairies psychiatric facility, attempting to forestall the threat of a $20,000 fine and an intrusive 'visit' to check out the sanctity of their French-language-imperative communications at the hospital, convened a staff meeting to ensure that the vital message that all employees were in possession of be emphasized: "When you are at work, you have to speak French", Ms. Gagnon stated.

During breaks and lunch hour it is perfectly acceptable for employees to speak in the language of their choice. But they must be mindful not to make their co-workers feel excluded from their conversation, it is uncivil, after all. The hospital was given a deadline by the Office quebecois de la langue francaise, and they were relieved to be able to advise that the measures to correct the dreadful revelation of Creole being spoken had been taken care of.

Someone from within the hospital staff had been affronted, on hearing two Haitian nurses speaking to one another in Creole. Mandatory French speech was being flagrantly disobeyed and that was quite simply intolerable. Instead of speaking discreetly within the hospital itself even to the hospital's director of communications, the disgruntled employee went directly to the province's "language police".

After all, all Quebecers were encouraged to act as "language sentries" by Diane de Courcy, minister of immigration and cultural communities, to report any overheard infractions of Quebec's language law. Should they feel that the protection of French language had been violated, it must behoove them to take corrective action to report said violation. And so it was done.

"Is it interpersonal, a racial problem, a misunderstanding?", wondered Ms. Gagnon of someone on staff having turned in the hospital as being non-compliant with Quebec's language laws. She would have expected an issue such as that to be resolved by calling in a supervisor to mediate if a gentle overture to the miscreants didn't do the trick, not to enlist the language police. But this is, after all, serious business. And this is Quebec.

"I have not studied the law in detail", said Ms. Gagnon. "I have not had the time to do it, because I was only named recently." Without a doubt it might never have occurred to her that to be able to carry out her duties in full cognizance of her province's strict language rules, she would have to 'study the law in detail'. And now, doubtless, she will.

Haiti has a very close relationship with the French language, just coincidentally. With Creole resulting from it. Haitian immigrants are generally fully fluent in French, capable of carrying out their hospital duties conversing in French. Relaxing sufficiently when the situation permits to speak the primary language of Haiti, a blending of 18th-Century French with several African tongues, developed during the days of colonialism.

However, Quebec's Charter of the French Language must be respected. Workers "have a right to carry on their activities in French", and the public has the right to receive health services in French, but nothing in the law prevents a private conversation taking place in a language other than French.

Between consenting adults.