Quebec backtracks on English eligibility certificate for hea…

Article content

Responding to an outcry from the anglophone community, Quebec’s Health Ministry has issued a new directive stating explicitly that people in the province can obtain medical and social services in English without a certificate, replacing controversial rules last July that appeared to restrict access to such services in languages other than French.

The new rules no longer require “historic anglophones” to have an eligibility certificate from the Education Ministry to obtain health care in English exclusively. The new directive — streamlined to 10 pages from the original 31 — stipulates in bold in three places that “no validation of the user’s identity is required to access these services in English or any other language.”

Article content

In a statement early Monday morning, Health Minister Christian Dubé reiterated that the eligibility certificate requirement has been dropped.

“As we had pledged to the groups that we met a few weeks ago, we have rewritten the directive,” Dubé declared in a post on X. “Let’s be clear: There will be no verification of a citizen’s status for access to health and social services in English.

“The changes to the directive are simply to ensure that the text reflects the government’s intentions and that it is easier for our employees and the public to understand.”

“There has never been any question of restricting access to health and social services on the basis of a linguistic criterion,” he added. “We will treat you, no matter your language.”

Article content

Article content

In addition to the directive, the Health Ministry has made public a two-page “checklist” in English, stating it “is intended as a summary of situations in which a language other than French may be used with users of health and social services. It is intended for use by institutions in the health and social services network (RSSS).”

Although the Quebec Community Groups Network was made aware that an announcement about the new directive was imminent, its release online early Monday morning caught the QCGN by surprise. The Gazette started making inquiries about the new directive on Friday before it was leaked to the CBC.

The Gazette has learned that three bilingual health organizations with anglophone roots had sent a letter to the government last week demanding that the rights of patients be enshrined in the new directive. Although a preliminary review of the new directive does not appear to include such a clause, it nonetheless reiterates “the right of English-speaking people to receive health and social services in English to the extent provided by (English-language) access programs.”

Article content

And the new rules add something that was not available in the old directive: the right to file a complaint if health and social services are not available in English.

“Any user … who believes that his or her rights have not been respected, or who is dissatisfied with the services he or she has received, may lodge a complaint.” It adds that the grievance can even be filed “in another language if they are unable to do so in French.”

The Coalition Avenir Québec government introduced the eligibility certificate requirement for health care in English on July 18 in response to the adoption two years ago of Bill 96, the CAQ’s overhaul of the French Language Charter. But the eligibility requirement and other aspects in the directive not only upset the anglophone community, it raised concerns by the federal government that the rules may have been in violation of the access provisions in the Canada Health Act.

This story will be updated.

[email protected]

twitter.com/aaron_derfel

Article content

Article content