Immigration researchers and practitioners are calling for the abolition of a provision of the bill on the official language which, in their opinion, infringes the fundamental rights of newcomers. In the current version of PL96, after six months in Quebec, immigrants will no longer have access to state services in their mother tongue and communication with their doctor or a teacher in the public system will only be in French. .
Garine Papazian-Zohrabian, psychologist and professor in educational psychology at the University of Montreal, denounces this provision of the law which assumes that there will be no more state-subsidized interpreters for immigrants after six months, “because they are expected to speak French perfectly ”. The law provides that French must be the only language of public services, except for exceptions such as people who have attended elementary school in English in Canada, Aboriginals and immigrants who have been here for less than six months.
However, according to her, giving a few months to learn French to newcomers who are going through major upheavals is “unrealistic”. “It’s impossible,” she says, pointing to the difficulties that the most vulnerable immigrants will face, such as refugees who have lived through a traumatic situation or those who are undereducated. “If I gave you Armenian lessons, would you speak it in six months?” She recalls that for those who take them full-time, the francization courses last more than 10 months, not to mention the wait before they can actually start the course.
Violation of fundamental rights
Alongside the Table de concertation des bodies serving refugees and immigrants (TCRI), there are some twenty stakeholders and researchers to publicly denounce, with a supporting brief, Bill 96 which, according to them, hinders the accessibility and quality of essential public services for people who do not speak French. “We understand the desire to promote French and we agree with the overall objective, but we have the impression that [le gouvernement] hasn’t really thought about the impact it will have on allophones, ”said Janet Cleveland, researcher on migrant rights and well-being at the SHERPA University Institute.
How will a worker who has a workplace accident be able to fully understand the steps to be compensated? How will an Afghan refugee be able to understand what happens to her newborn baby if she presents to the hospital six months after her arrival and has not yet had access to francization? Mme Cleveland also gives the example of an immigrant mother who had been removed from custody by the Department of Youth Protection. “Without an interpreter, she couldn’t communicate well and she was given a poor evaluation. It took a year to get another one, this time with an interpreter, and she was finally given custody of her children, she says. We are already seeing cases like this, so if the law is adopted, it will be like that systematically. “
Ethical dilemma
By forcing them to communicate only in French with someone who is not at ease in that language, public service employees will find themselves in an “ethical dilemma”, believes Garine Papazian-Zohrabian. “They will be caught between the obligation to respect the law and that of respecting the code of ethics of their profession which obliges them to respond well to the needs of the person,” she said. It could also create “absurd” situations where, for example, a Spanish speaking social worker could not speak in Spanish to a Spanish speaking person like her.
The bill provides for the use of other languages “when health, public safety or the principles of natural justice so require”, but researchers believe this would only apply to emergencies. Failure to repeal this provision, the government could withdraw the obligation to communicate in French for essential services, such as health, education and other social and legal services, claim the researchers.
They also stress that studies have shown that coercive linguistic approaches are detrimental to good integration. “The integration of immigrants does not just happen through language. It goes through the feeling of being respected and the feeling of security, insisted Janet Cleveland. And if they feel welcome in society, they will want to learn French even more. “