(Montreal) Two federal Liberal MPs from Montreal are concerned about the recent directive from the Quebec government which specifies in which circumstances health personnel can offer services in a language other than French, “the official and common language of Quebec.”
Anna Gainey, MNA for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce – Westmount, says the choice of language should simply be up to patients and that this directive from the Quebec government sows “confusion and uncertainty.”
She released a statement on the social media platform X on Wednesday evening. The MP said she spoke with federal Health Minister Mark Holland and hoped Ottawa would be prepared, “if necessary,” to intervene and insist on universal access in Quebec to care in both of Canada’s official languages.
Mount Royal MP Anthony Housefather wrote on X that he shared his colleague Gainey’s view that patient language preference was “paramount” in health care.
The thirty-page ministerial directive, published last July, specifies that an organization may deviate from the obligation to use French exclusively “when health, public safety or the principles of natural justice so require,” particularly “in any emergency situation.”
Jean-François Roberge, Quebec’s Minister of the French Language, says his government is not imposing barriers to people who want to receive health care in English.