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<h2 id="ctl00_MainTop_GenericControl8_uc951d66daad574dd5ab305aa6867a98a7_lblArticleHeadline" class="">Health insurance board posts "we speak French in Quebec" signs at service desks</h2>
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<span id="ctl00_MainTop_GenericControl8_uc951d66daad574dd5ab305aa6867a98a7_lblPostedOn" class="">7/17/2015 2:08:00 PM</span>
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<span id="ctl00_MainTop_GenericControl8_uc951d66daad574dd5ab305aa6867a98a7_lblAuthorName"><a href="http://www.cjad.com/cjad-news/author/emily-campbell" class="" target="_blank">Emily Campbell</a></span>
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<div id="ctl00_MainTop_GenericControl8_uc951d66daad574dd5ab305aa6867a98a7_ucPrimaryMediaTop_lblPrimaryMediaCaption" class="">Sign posted at many desks at RAMQ offices in downtown Montreal</div>
<div id="ctl00_MainTop_GenericControl8_uc951d66daad574dd5ab305aa6867a98a7_ucPrimaryMediaTop_lblPrimaryMediaAttribution" class=""><a href="mailto:yourstory@cjad.com">yourstory@cjad.com</a></div>
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<p dir="ltr"><span>A man walked into the health insurance board office to renew his health card and was greeted with this sign: "Au </span><span>Québe</span><span>c on communique en </span><span>français</span><span>!".</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>He was aghast.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>CJAD visited the downtown Montreal RAMQ offices to
verify the signs were present, and to see how the RAMQ’s Bill
101-inspired language policy is implemented.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>The signs were littered throughout the office, though
despite the apparent statement of official government policy, the
employees themselves came off as more sympathetic to non-francophones.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span> “Normally if people are talking to me in English and
I answer back in French and they understand, I’m supposed to continue
in French,” said a RAMQ employee. “A lot of people here are immigrants
and they don’t speak French so like I did with you I just switch to
English.”</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>But as listener Jennifer writes in an email sent to
CJAD’s Your Story, having the sign on the desk is too political a tactic
for an essential service.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>“It is one thing for an individual, or perhaps even a
private company to bypass laws to impose the language of their choice
when operating in a territory which is subjected by a law which clearly
states both languages are equally official,” she says. “I am
disappointed when a public governmental office chooses to go ‘rogue’ and
flaunts it in front of their taxpayers.”</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Jennifer isn’t the only one uncomfortable with the implication.</span></p>
<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-27c7e97b-9d3f-b680-b7aa-7433bb1271c1"><span>“It’s
weird for us sometimes,” said a RAMQ worker. “We know when you don’t
speak French so it’s kind of weird to speak two languages at the same
time...but that’s the rule.” </span></span></p>
<a href="http://www.cjad.com/cjad-news/2015/07/17/health-insurance-board-posts-we-speak-french-in-quebec-signs-at-service-desks">http://www.cjad.com/cjad-news/2015/07/17/health-insurance-board-posts-we-speak-french-in-quebec-signs-at-service-desks</a><br></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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