Charter of the French language Flashcards
What is the charter of the french language?
1966, make french language for education, business, etc in quebec.
What was the purpose of the charter of the French language?
- Quebec desire to live in french and preserve the language
- 80% of population in quebec had french as their first language
- Immigrants choosing english 80% of the time though
What is OQFL
Office quebecois de la langue francaise
Inform companies of responsiblities and oblications. Inform customers, promote vitality of french, activities and festivals, can complain if your rights arent respected
How does charter affect freedom of speech?
Some parts were changed but it was mostly approved because french is not a major language in Canada therefore they want to preserve it.
Restrict but not erase
Why do we care about french more in Quebec than france?
Fell threatened, NA speaks english (except mexico), french is heart of culture, taste of Europe, Quebec is different from rest of NA
What was the state of the french language in 1977?
Low birth rates among francophones, immigrants joining at high rates, English main language in business and workplace.
What are the laws regarding the right to work in french?
- Employees have right to wokr in french. French must be used for:
1. Written communication
2. offers of employment/promotion
3. Employment offers in newspaper in another language must also be in french
4. Collective agreements
5. Written communication of employee associations
What are the rules regarding dismissal on the basis of language?
cannot fire, demote, transfer employee for sole reason that: Only speak french, employee has insufficient knowledge of another language, employee requests a right from chapter VI of the CFL to be respected
What are the facts in Case of Hebert V Sodema inc?
- A unilingual francophone call center worker was laid off just as the company was hiring several bilingual call center workers
- An important client had just taken its business away from the call center, significantly reducing the volume of French calls
- There was a simultaneous increase in English calls
- The employer resorted to temporary layoffs to unilingual francophone employees
What was the verdict of Hebert V Sodema Inc?
- The fact that the employee is a unilingual francophone, laid off just as bilingual employees were hired, creates a presumption that these people were laid off because they are unilingual French speaker
- The employer must therefore show that the fact that the employee is a unilingual francophone is not the sole reason of the lay-off and that there is another serious reason for the lay-off
- Here, the reason for the lay-off was in fact the change in the volume of French calls and English calls
What are the facts of the Bekteshi case?
- A daycare worker receives instructions form a parent to speak to his child only in English
- he daycare worker raises this with her manager, who instructs her to speak to the children of the group in both languages
- There follows a heated exchange between the worker and her manager about the use of English in activities, following which the daycare worker is fired
What was the decision in Bekteshi case?
The CFL doesnt cover this situation, the worker is french and english, cannot request their rights from CFL
What are the rules regarding hiring on the basis of language?
- Cannot require candidates for a position to have specific knowledge of another language unless it is in the nature of duties of the position
- Cannot be a mere advantage of knowing another language, it must be necessary
What are the facts of the Pouliot case?
- A building maintenance worker applied for a position in a small hotel
- The hotel owners speak Punjabi and French, and the clientèle is 40% English-speaking
- During the interview, which was conducted in French, he is asked whether he speaks English, and he objects to the question
- The position is reposted with a requirement to speak — English and the candidate made a complaint
What was the decision in Pouliot Case?
- employer did not respect CFL, a building maintenance worker does not need to speak English
- The complaint was determined to be well-founded, and the employer was ordered to pay $1,000 in moral damages and $2,000 in punitive damages
- The goal of damages: Put the plaintiff back into the position that they were in before they suffered the loss
What are Moral damages vs punitive damages?
Moral damages: damages to the person’s well-being,harder to quantify
Punitive damages: punish the wrongdoer for not following the law, with the hope that it will be a disincentive for them to re-offend
What are the facts of the Cosette case?
- Cosette was not hired as a security guard at the Casino de Montréal due to poor English proficiency
- The Casino seeks to cater to tourists and to compete with casinos outside Québec, and 13% of its clientele is English-speaking
- Cossette argued that she should not be denied her right to work in French just because the Casino was deliberately choosing to target tourists from outside Quebec
What was the decision of the Cosette case?
- Reasonable to have linguistic requirement as this is a high-risk environment that may require conflict resolution which may need to be done in English.
- Findings: the tasks of a security agent involve a significant component of communication with the public and the Casino’s clientele and its marketing objectives can justify the use of linguistic requirements for its staff
- The linguistic requirement was not unreasonable or unjustified
What are the facts of the Chiasson case?
- Two pharmaceutical companies applied for a francization certificate
- OQLF required that the companies provide software to employees only in French
- The companies wanted to be able to provide access to English software on request
- In order to generalize the use of French, is an employer required to offer software and other work tools only in French?
- Applicable law: 52.1. All computer software, including game software and operating systems, whether installed or uninstalled, must be available in French unless no French version exists.
- Software can also be available in languages other than French, provided that the French version can be obtained on terms, except price where it reflects higher production or distribution costs, that are no less favourable and that it has technical characteristics that are at least equivalent.
What were the findings of Chiasson case?
The OQLF may require that working documents and programs be provided in French However, nothing prohibits an employer from offering other options as well to its employees The employer can use other means to promote the use of French in the workplace, without prohibiting the use of English software
What are the rules regarding CFL and contracts?
Contracts pre-determined by one party, contracts containing printed standard clauses, and the related documents, must be drawn up in French. They may be drawn up in another language as well at the express wish of the parties.
