'Last-minute' amendment to Quebec health bill would allow agency to revoke hospital's bilingual status

A new amendment to Quebec's mammoth health-care bill would allow the new Sante Quebec agency to revoke a health-care institution's bilingual status — a move English-rights activists say is shocking.

A new amendment to Quebec's mammoth health-care bill would allow the new Sante Quebec agency to revoke a health-care institution's bilingual status — a move English-rights activists say is shocking.

With only days left before the parliamentary session is set to end before the holiday break, the surprise amendment was introduced Tuesday during a parliamentary committee debate on the proposed legislation, known as Bill 15. The bill has more than 1,200 articles and there have been hundreds of amendments introduced since it was tabled last March.

The new proposal concerns communities that qualify, under existing laws, to receive services in a language other than French if the numbers warrant it. What was revealed this week is that the government wants the board of directors at Sante Quebec to be able to revoke the status of institutions like hospitals if the minority community has shrunk below 50 per cent based on census data.

But the health-care system doesn't poll on language of service, so it would be up to the provincial language watchdog, the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF), to collect it.

The Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), which represents anglophones communities in the province, said the "last-minute" amendment threatens English-speaking people in Quebec and is calling on the province to not adopt the bill in its current form.

"We are shocked that Health Minister Christian Dubé would try to drop an amendment like this into Bill 15 at the last moment, days before the government is about to invoke closure to ram this bill through the Nation Assembly," said Eva Ludvig, President of the QCGN, in a statement on Friday.

"This is part of a very nasty pattern with the CAQ: it seems the only way they feel they can protect and promote French in Quebec is to restrict or deny the rights and access to services of the English-speaking community here – even when those minority-language rights are guaranteed by law."