Nouvelles

The Gazette
28 octobre 2009

New Brunswick Acadians seek Quebecers' support

By AARON DERFEL,

 

A group of New Brunswick Acadians arrived in Montreal yesterday, urging Quebecers to support their fight against a health reform in their province which they say has deprived them of specialized medical services in French.

 

"We are losing our institutions and when it comes to health care, that's a problem," said physician Hubert Dupuis, president of the group Égalité santé en français. "This is an anti-francophone measure that will lead to the assimilation of the Acadian people."

 

Under the reform brought in by New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham in March 2008, eight regional health boards - including the Régie régionale de la santé Beauséjour - were replaced by two authorities. The Beauséjour board had been responsible for delivering a wide range of health services in French to the province's estimated 250,000 francophones.

 

Égalité santé has launched a constitutional court challenge against the reform, arguing that it infringes on minority language rights.

 

The group's fight is similar to the one waged by supporters of the French-language Montfort Hospital in Ottawa, which the former provincial Conservative government of Mike Harris threatened to close in the late 1990s. Prominent Quebecers at the time, including Premier Lucien Bouchard, threw their support behind the hospital.

 

A group called SOS Montfort took the case to court, arguing that the closing would be an attack on minority language rights. Ultimately, the courts sided with SOS Montfort and the province abandoned its plan to close the hospital.

 

Gérald Savoie, director of the Montfort Hospital, attended the Montreal news conference, saying that Quebecers played a pivotal role in saving his hospital. He appealed to Quebecers to get involved again - this time, in saving New Brunswick's French-language health institutions.

"There are two great jewels in (francophone) health care in Canada outside Quebec - Montfort Hospital and Dr. Georges-L. Dumont Regional Hospital as part of the Beauséjour health board," Savoie said. "Yet it's in danger of disappearing."

 

Réjean Thomas, a former New Brunswick resident and the former president of Médecins du Monde Canada in Montreal, also appeared in support of the Acadians' cause. He alluded to the inverse situation in Quebec of anglophone minority rights, noting that the English-language McGill University Health Centre is thriving.

 

For that reason, Quebecers should fight to preserve minority francophone rights in New Brunswick, he added.

 

Michael Murphy, New Brunswick's health minister, could not be reached for comment yesterday. However, government officials have said the two health authorities in the province are bilingual and that no one is being denied medical care.