French-only medical service?
Is this Canada?
Shirley Ravary doesn't just cough when she catches a cold.
She hacks.
And after suffering a partial lung collapse a few years ago, a common cold doesn't just 'go away' after a few days for the 57-year-old Ontario woman; it gets progressively worse.
So after two weeks of suffering with flu-like symptoms, Ravary needed to see her family doctor. But as she soon found out, she picked the wrong day to drop in for a check-up.
That day, Ravary contacted her doctor's office and was told to visit a nearby community health centre, where he occasionally works.
When she arrived at the centre, she was greeted by a French-speaking receptionist who promptly informed her that the health clinic was exclusively for "French people."
"I said to her, 'that's discrimination,'" said Ravary, who was then told to visit her family doctor during his regular office hours, or visit another walk-in clinic. "I didn't get past the reception at the front."
Worse yet, nobody at the clinic even asked her whether her condition required immediate attention.
"It could have been chest pains," said Ravary. "It could have been anything."
Marc Bisson, the Executive Director of the Centre de Santé communautaire de L'estrie, where Ravary was refused service, defends his clinic's policy. Bisson says it's part of the centre's mandate to target the local French population.
posted by GayandRight @ 10:35 PM
4 Comments:
Was this clinic limited to ethnic French people or simply french-speaking people? Either way, it's ridiculous.
I think your post is misleading. The clinic is a community health centre, of which you have to be a member to get service. It is not a walk-in clinic.
Since moving Toronto, I looked all over for a doctor and am fortunate to find one at local CHC. Most doctors do not take new patients. Is that discriminatory too?
It is not a walk in clinic but the first question out of their should of been "are you ok?"! Not are you French!!!!
This is a typical government funded place that puts minorities ahead of the rest of Canada. Not equal but ahead. I am all for equality but that means we all stand next to each other not someone standing above us...
If the government wants a bilingual Canada than they must insist on fully bilingual schools, yet they don't!
Same thing in Child care, they want 2 income parents to pay taxes rather than one. So they pick certain parents over others to fund....
Typical government run CRAP
There are 2 ways of dealing with this. One is to ensure that all health care institutions provide services in both official languages, and perhaps others. The other is to have specialized institutions along the lines of language. In my view, the latter makes the most sense when there is a significant size minority.
Having been the minority in Quebec, the last thing I would want is to see English institutions like schools and hospitals overrun by francophones. The quality of English taught in the schools would suffer greatly, while the ability to communicate your health problems may be compromised.
In this case, the issue does not seem to be one of whether she spoke French, but whether she was a member. Apparently she was not. She had no reason to expect service unless it looked like she was about to drop dead.
They are also having a bigoted go at this at small dead animals. There is obviously a lot of resentment about Canada's other official language group.
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