Québec solidaire considers it “unacceptable” that Quebecers “could not make themselves understood in French in an emergency situation” by contacting 911 via an internet telephone line (IP).
The party’s spokesperson for the French language, Ruba Ghazal, reacted to a headline in The Press Monday, mentioning that a Montrealer could not be served in his language when contacting 911 on a Transat Télécom IP line.
Michel Ménard, who wanted to report a car fire in front of his home on January 9 at 1:20 a.m., tried to make himself understood for 10 minutes to a monolingual English speaker.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Michel Ménard was unable to speak French to an agent during his call to 911 through his IP telephony provider.
The employee in question worked at Northern 911 in Ontario. Under contract with most IP telephone companies, this company routes Internet calls, which do not go through the regular telephone network, to the correct emergency centers.
“It could have had very serious consequences,” says Ruba Ghazal. She asks the Minister of Public Security François Bonnardel “to formally commit to ensuring that this sad incident is the last”.
Québec solidaire proposes to repatriate to Quebec the powers in this area, currently in the hands of Ottawa. The political party wants the creation of a “Quebec Communications Council” to regulate and supervise communications in Quebec and better avoid this type of situation.
Last March, Northern 911 was also involved in an incident involving another emergency call. This time it came from an Oxio customer (Cogeco Connexion), in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, in Chaudière-Appalaches.
The citizen was trying to contact help for his partner, who had just collapsed on the ground, but the employee was unable to speak to him in French, as reported The duty.
After these events, Cogeco required Northern 911 to route all emergency calls from its customers to bilingual employees, regardless of the setting associated with the customer.