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Quebec hospital orderly demands to be addressed in French by family of cancer patient

A Gatineau Hospital medical staff is pictured. The Canadian Press Images / Nathalie Madore

The family of an Aylmer, Que., man dying of cancer want a hospital orderly fired after he ranted at them for not speaking to him in French.

The incident of insensitivity earlier this month at Hull Hospital, in Gatineau across the river from Ottawa, has made national headlines in the last couple of days.

The Ottawa Citizen's report Monday called it "a harrowing tale about health care gone wrong and misguided language rights."

Really? There's no question the family deserves some redress for the orderly's churlishness, but why are we making a federal case out of this?

This is reportedly what happened. John Gervais, a 77-year-old navy veteran, was admitted to hospital after his health suddenly declined. Tests pointed to lung or bone cancer, the Citizen said.

Gervais was being kept in the hospital's emergency room and growing steadily weaker, said his son-in-law, Steve Long of Ottawa.

[ Related: Bigoted outbursts in wake of values-charter proposal expose Quebec’s cultural divisions ]

The trouble started when an orderly in his twenties was asked to help Gervais use a portable commode, the Citizen said.

Gervais' wife, Iris Beeler-Gervais, told QMI Agency the man had been rough with her husband and rude to the family previously. But he got particularly hostile after some liquid from a bedside tray spilled on his shoes as he was helping the patient out of bed.

“[The orderly] said: ‘This isn’t a hotel. I don’t speak English; this is Quebec,’ ” according to Beeler-Gervais.

Responding to a call from his upset wife, Long went to the hospital and confronted the orderly.

“Speak to me in French! This is Quebec!” Long recounted him saying.

Long told the Citizen the man asserted his right to be addressed in French in a loud voice.

“He didn’t whisper it," said Long, adding it was apparent the worker could speak French and English. "Everybody in that emergency room heard him.”

Long said the family was already feeling vulnerable because of Gervais' rapid deterioration. Ironically, Gervais is bilingual but was too weak to speak.

“It’s a situation where you need someone to treat you with compassion," Long told the Citizen. "Instead he stormed off complaining about pee on his shoe [It turned out to be water].

"We want him fired. We really do."

That's fair enough. The last thing a traumatized family needs is guff from the bed-pan guy. But does this one incident signify anything bigger?

Quebec's Charter of the French Language mandates that French be the main language spoken in the workplace but it doesn't rule out the use of other languages, especially with clients and customers. Employees can also speak other languages when not on duty.

Last June, for example, a manager at a Montreal IGA supermarket was suspended for suggesting employees could not speak English in the store's break room, CTV News reported.

[ Related: Quebec’s French language battle descends on IGA break room ]

“I think that people who have lunch breaks can discuss in any language they choose, and I think a good manager should know that and implement that with good sense,” Jean-Fracois Lisee, the Parti Quebecois' minister responsible for Montreal, confirmed at the time.

Authorities at the Centre de santé et de services sociaux de Gatineau, which administers the Hull Hospital, have launched an investigation.

“It’s not a way to treat patients," hospital spokesman Sylvain Dubé told the Citizen. "You have to respect them.”

Dubé added patients aren't required to speak French with staff, especially given the Outaouais region's large anglophone population. Patients at the hospital speak many languages, Dubé said, and staff try to accommodate them.

“The communication is so important," he said. "If you don’t speak French, it’s not your fault.”

[ Related: Manor, Saskatchewan, fire chief’s anti-French rant shows old prejudices die hard ]

So we're not talking about a systemic problem, just one jerk who is likely to get his wrist slapped at a minimum and possibly lose his job.

The family apparently is unhappy the orderly had not been suspended and was still working in the ER. Gervais' wife encountered him.

“She saw (the orderly) when she came to visit yesterday,” Long QMI Agency said. “She had to sit down, she was so upset.”

It's possible the protocol outlined in the hospital's collective agreement makes suspending the employee difficult in these circumstances. But administrators at least could have reassigned him out of the ER for the time being.

Where ever he works, he's likely to be on his best behaviour.