It’s not just internet telephony subscribers who have difficulty making emergency calls in French. A customer of the mobile service of the telecommunications giant Rogers also came across a unilingual English-speaking agent while calling for help in the Laurentides wildlife reserve. Like other cases reported in recent days, the incident concerns the Northern 911 call center in Ontario.
What there is to know
A Rogers mobile service subscriber reported to The Press service only in English during an emergency call made from Quebec.
The call center responsible, Northern 911, in Ontario, has just made the news for a unilingual English service given to IP telephony customers.
Rogers, however, assures that in principle, calls from Quebec “in these circumstances” are supposed to go to “completely bilingual” operators.
On December 29, Julie Boudreault was driving on an isolated section of Route 175, between Chicoutimi and Quebec. Around midday, she saw two people leave the road. “People were really stuck, they weren’t going to make it alone and it was snowing,” she said.
So she called 911.
A telephone operator responded fairly quickly, but in English. I told the story in French. She asks me: “I don’t understand. Do you need a translation? » I didn’t understand the situation at the time.
Julie Boudreault
Julie Boudreault replied that it was not necessary, that she could describe the accident in English. “So I explained the situation. She asked me: “Is it in Quebec?” I told her that the closest town was Chicoutimi, but she didn’t understand. She asked me to spell it. »
She finally made herself understood. Transmitted to Saguenay, the call concluded a few seconds later.
The adrenaline subsided, Julie Boudreault thought about the situation. “If I didn’t understand English, I wouldn’t have been able to get any service! she laments. And if I had been panicking or distressed, I would have needed someone to react quickly…”
“Confidential business agreement”
Julie Boudreault made her call in an isolated area. “In remote areas that are not served by a local 911 call center, wireless service providers route emergency calls to various third-party providers staffed by certified emergency response specialists in French and English,” according to an email from Laura Crochetiere, spokesperson for Rogers.
Her statement evolved since Monday, when she instead said that “all third-party call centers” with which the telecommunications giant does business “are fully bilingual.” “So we are investigating what happened,” she told The Press.
One thing is certain, the operator on the line with Julie Boudreault on December 29 did not speak French. Rogers refuses to clearly explain what happened, citing a “confidential business agreement.”
The “third-party provider” contracted by the Toronto-based company is Northern 911 of Sudbury, Ontario. This company has just made the headlines for not being able to respond in French to emergency calls from Quebec via IP telephony.
Contacted by The Pressthe vice-president of the parent company, Northern Communications, in fact considers that her subsidiary offers bilingual service if the agent who takes a call offers translation.
“Northern 911 offers service in both of Canada’s official languages internally at all times,” writes Taylor Shantz in an email. The call in question was taken by a telecommunications manager who provided interpretation services to the caller. The latter refused, citing her competence in English. »
Recurring issues
The Press reported Monday how a Montrealer also encountered service only in English when reporting a car on fire in front of his home. His call via a Transat Télécom IP telephony service also reached a Northern 911 agent on January 9.
The duty reported a similar event last spring. At the time, Gaétan Nadeau, from Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, also encountered Northern 911’s unilingual service, when his partner had just collapsed in front of him.
In interview with The Press, the 70-year-old man still can’t believe it. He had called for help using his IP line with Oxio, a subsidiary of Cogeco Communications.
She had fainted, her eyes rolled back, her pulse very low, he said. It was an English-speaking employee who answered me. I didn’t understand his English. I froze: is this the right number?
Gaétan Nadeau
Gaétan Nadeau was finally transferred to the emergency center, but the operator could not hear him. He hung up and the ambulance only arrived after another call to the local CLSC.
“There is a panic setting in, that’s for sure,” he said. I imagine an elderly, destitute person, it would have been more difficult! Imagine someone in Mégantic, in the worst crisis, coming across someone who doesn’t understand anything, that would have been a terrible problem! »
He believes that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is “dragging its feet” on this issue, instead of forcing companies to respect the Official Languages Act.
“To our knowledge, no technical solution has been identified to allow direct routing of 911 calls made via an IP service,” says Mirabella Salem, spokesperson for the CRTC.
In emergency centers, employees contacted The Press to report the increasing problems with calls from Northern 911.
When they are the ones making a call, no one ever speaks French well. They are never able to say street names. This increases delays.
an employee of an emergency center in the greater Montreal area, who requests anonymity because he does not have authorization to speak to the media
A colleague in another Quebec emergency center says the same thing.
“You raise a big problem that I see every day with Northern 911,” he said.
The Ontario company dominates the market for 911 calls not attributable to an emergency center associated with a territory.