concerned citizen

On the one hand I can see the point about discrimination blah blah. But, according to th elink provided, the clinic was a French clinic. Now I don't know the whle scoop, but it seems to me that an "English speaking person in a city that is majority English and in a province that is majority English and that is not OFFICIALLY BILINGUAL" shouldn't have a problem finding an English clinic. But I'd like to know the whole story. The whole story is that the lady in question wanted to see her doctor and no one else. Her doctor works in 2 different clinics and on the day in question he was working at the French only clinic. Now as a resident of Cornwall I am extremely amused at how this is all blown out of pro-portion. It isn't like there weren't english language services available. In fact this is the only french-only clinic in a town where approximately half the population has french as their mother tongue. what is most likely the case is that the patient got upset with the way the secretary talked to her and this is her reaction to it. The reason it's not a wide spread story is that there is no story. Some woman just throwing a hissy fit because she didn't get her way. She had a cold for crying out loud. It wasn't like it was any life threatening condition.

found one, in Alberta, http://www.jobbank.gc.ca/ShowJob_en.asp?Or...urce=JobPosting It's a resturant job, you get tips on top of that. Either way, you'd be hard pressed to hire anyone in Alberta right now at minimum wage. They can't even fill $12/h positions at Superstore because theres no one to work them. We're actually flying in newfies to fill the jobs, entry level jobs that used to go to 14 year old kids. Well I'm really happy for you and Alberta but here in Ontario there are tons of minimum wage jobs to be had. I'd like to see the removal of the student wage and also the lower wage for waitresses. While yes they can safely assume to make tips, not everyone is generous. It would be best if there was just one minimum wage in Ontario and put everyone on a level playing field. But i'm not holding my breath

Unbelievable! Sure there is blatant cultural discrimination against the English in Quebec (language police), but in Ontario too? Agreed Monty...that is BS. You can be sure if that happened to a francophone in Quebec, going to an "anglo only" hospital in a majority French province we'd never hear the end of the lawsuits/OLF investigations. I hope she sues and wins. Why do you want her to sue and win? It's a medical practise funded by the gov't. So it'll be the gov't that ultimately pays whatever the settlement is and ultimately it'll be the taxpayers who are paying for it because thats where they get the money from. I don't want to pay for this idiot who couldn't go to one of the many many english clinics in the city. She had a cold, not a life threatening condition. She has placed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission but I really hope it gets thrown out. Think about it. Then every person with every dialect would then be able to expect service in their native language. We wouldn't have any doctors because they'd all spend the rest of their lives learning languages instead of treating patients. This is going to open a box best left shut.

How do the people who only speak (Chinese/Hindi/Spanish/fill-in-the-blank) get by? Is the problem that there aren't enough French speaking doctors obtaining medical licences, or that too many people want to live in an area with a shortage of French doctors without bothering to learn English, and our official language policy rewards their obstinance by making the majority pay for services they aren't allowed to benefit from? I don't care about the Chinese/Hindi/whatever. English and French are the OFFICIAL languages of this country. Like I said 1/2 the town is French and they aren't getting half the services so by your reasoning it's the French that are getting the shaft because they are paying out 1/2 the money and not getting 1/2 the service. If we want to get rid of the problem make Canada unilingual. I'd be happy because then so many employers wouldn't be bugging for French language skills.

I take it you've never needed any social assistance, cause that is the biggest crock I've ever seen or heard. EI gives you a small percentage of your wages in the event of a job loss. I'm not even taking home 1/2 of what I was making when I was working. I've been looking for work for over 8 months to no avail. There are no programs to retrain me, I can't get the language training necessary (French) and if GOD forbid I don't find a job before my EI runs out and I need to go on Ontario Works I wouldn't get enough money to cover my rent! And I live in the slums of my town, cheapest rent to be found anywhere. Building should be condemned really. Now to add on to all of this that I have medical conditions in which I need to take medication in order to live. I have no coverage, the gov't won't help because the programs that are available take into account your previous years income and I wouldn't be able to pay the deductibles (Trillium program). So now (and no I'm not dramatizing this) I get to have a slow, painful, agonizing death because of our lack of assistance available. And you call it too generous. Ya Right I'm sorry to hear about your medical condition, but the rest of your post is a crock. Do you think EI should pay you the same amount as you made when you were working? Looking for a job for 8 months and can't find one? I was on EI (UI back then) once in my life and I found a job within 3 weeks--and I live in a have-not province. I would have taken almost anything to get off UI and make a higher wage. Why is learning French necessary for an Ontarioan? Sounds like you are unwilling to take a job unless it is the certain job you want. There's lots of ppl with medical conditions and lots of disabled ppl who take what they can. Welfare pays too much. By the time you take into consdideration that they are subsidized for nearly everything (utilities, training, etc), they take in just as much money as a lower-waged person. They even get free schooling. I had to pay for mine. All you have to do in my province to collect welfare is to phone teh govt. You don't even have to physically go see them and apply. Giving too much welfare discourages ppl from working. I see lots of unemployed able-bodied ppl able to work, but where is the incentive if the govt will pay you to sit at home, get drunk, and go out and commit robberies from ppl who are working? Look at how successful Europe is with their generous welfare system. It's killing them. My post isn't a crock and I have issues with some of the things that you are saying. 1. Welfare isn't generous. I'm thinking you aren't in Ontario. As a single male I would get 520 a month. Being single I'm at the end of the line when it comes to subsidized housing. You speak of training. They will only pay for high school education which I already have. Yep that's real generous there. We are entitled to a certain standard of living by the United Nations. Canada agrees to it by being part of the united nations and I think that maybe just maybe we could put a little money back into the system because Mike Harris cut it back too far. I'm not saying to have a life and live high on the hog, I'm saying I'd like to have a roof over my head, food in my stomach and a telephone to use for job search. (Welfare DOE NOT consider the phone an essential, it is considered a luxury) 2. French language training. Seems to me you're probably in a province that doesn't have much of a bilingual population. I live in Cornwall. Ontario where for almost any job you are required to speak French because 1/2 the town is french. Congrats on finding a job within 3 weeks, but I bet if you had a criminal record (like I do) that it would have taken you longer. Also with all of my medical conditions there is a limit on what I can do. If I was just a little more limited then I could be given a disability pension but according to the gov't I'm not disabled enough. Don't know if you've been looking for work lately but just about everything nowadays either has a check box on the application under the question of "Have you ever been convicted of a criminal offense for which a pardon has not been granted" or they ask for a criminal background check outright. It's the latest fad as everyone wants perfection. Now I'll admit I was a stupid young boy who was conned by an older woman - you get the picture but that was 10 years ago. I'm a much different person now but no one sees that, they see a checked mark box on an application that immediately disqualifies you. And please don't get me started on the pardon process. Long and expensive. Employment Insurance should be privatized or optional. I'm not saying that I should be getting what I was making but I am saying I should be getting at least 50%. I have other insurance for bills that is paying out more per month than what I'm getting and the premiums were cheaper. They also cover for a longer period of time than EI. EI is ok but the gov't is using it to fund their surpluses instead of what it was actually meant to do.

I take it you've never needed any social assistance, cause that is the biggest crock I've ever seen or heard. EI gives you a small percentage of your wages in the event of a job loss. I'm not even taking home 1/2 of what I was making when I was working. I've been looking for work for over 8 months to no avail. There are no programs to retrain me, I can't get the language training necessary (French) and if GOD forbid I don't find a job before my EI runs out and I need to go on Ontario Works I wouldn't get enough money to cover my rent! And I live in the slums of my town, cheapest rent to be found anywhere. Building should be condemned really. Now to add on to all of this that I have medical conditions in which I need to take medication in order to live. I have no coverage, the gov't won't help because the programs that are available take into account your previous years income and I wouldn't be able to pay the deductibles (Trillium program). So now (and no I'm not dramatizing this) I get to have a slow, painful, agonizing death because of our lack of assistance available. And you call it too generous. Ya Right

Harper has nothing to do with Provincial politics. Whatever the Sask gov't decides to do it surely isn't coming from Ottawa. Nice to see that the NDP can adapt to meet the needs of the people. After all what good would it do them to have businesses leave to say go to Alberta.

This is being blown way out of whack so that it could become a story. They don't mention a lot of things. 1. Almost about half of Cornwall's population is French 2. With the doctor shortage here most of the new doctors don't speak French (that I've seen anyway) So what are these people to do? Move to Quebec to get service in French? Nothing wrong with this clinic or it's policies. It was created to meet a demand and that is what it's doing.

According to the latest poll the NDP are in a "dead heat" with the liberals in Ontario. As a side note, I still don't understand all this hate towards the former Rae government especially with the government workers. He at least saved their jobs, Harris just cut them out of the budget altogether. I wouldn't put too much into that poll. That poll had the NDP leading in Ontario and yet they only rec'd about 19.5% of the Ontario vote in the election itself. The reason for the hate of the Rae gov't is that he mismanaged everything and spent money that the province didn't have. But that's more for the provincial forum. The poll said that it's accurate 19 times out of 20. I think this is the 20th time. Can't see how in a couple of weeks with nothing really going on how they could almost double their support. Just doesn't make sense.

I'd take a conservative over a liberal anyday. The liberals in the past 12 years have acted like dictators and squandered so much of our taxpayer dollars that they should be forced to hand over their pensions and every dime they earn to pay us back. The only reason we had balanced budgets and surpluses is because of the programs that Mulroney set in place. But could someone fill me in on the "lies" of the Mulroney gov't? I remember gov't lies but they're all Liberal. I do however remember unpopular policies of the Mulroney gov't but I don't remember any lies.

How did Wilson sell us out? the FTA and NAFTA are the reasons that we have a trade surplus. The GST replaced a tax that was 6% higher (the Manufacturers Tax was 13%) and we are able to get rebates from this tax where we weren't able to get anything from the previous tax. I really like this appointment because along with some of the key cabinet positions it shows that Harper is supporting former Tories instead of Reformers and should help in the next election.

The NDP started out as the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and it was a socialist party which many people associate with communism. I believe that it is a moot point because the NDP will never come into power federally. As we have seen in past elections you need Ontario in order to form the gov't and Ontario will never forget what Bob Rae and the NDP did to it for the brief time they were in office.

There is something that I don't understand (but that is nothing new ) and that is why we need a public broadcaster in the first place. We have the CRTC to mandate the minimum amount of Canadian content that all broadcasters who air programming in Canada have to adhere to. The CRTC is also the reason why we are limited to the number of channels that digital cable and satelite can provide as there has to be a ratio of Canadian channels to American. The CRTC is doing a fine job of cramming Canadian culture down our throats. Let's put the money to better use (military, homeless people, healthcare, education etc) and close the CBC down.