7.2 Communications in French Directive
Communications in French Directive
| Year | 2009 |
|---|---|
| Issue | Little or no consideration of French-language services in the strategic planning of communications of ministries, specifically the Ministry of Health |
| Impacts following FLSC’s intervention |
|
| Current status |
|
In 2009, the Commissioner launched an investigation after the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care put out an English-only leaflet on the prevention of Influenza A (H1N1). The aim of the investigation was to determine the reasons for this blatant violation of the French Language Services Act.69
Shortly after initiating the investigation, the Commissioner met with the Communications Branch of Cabinet Office. That meeting demonstrated the government’s desire to correct the error. The government reacted appropriately by issuing a mandatory directive on communications in French which required ministries and other government agencies to take the needs of Francophone communities into account in planning their communications with the public.
Effectiveness of the intervention
In 2010, in addition to its Communications in French Directive, the government issued guidelines to improve the handling and management of communications with Ontario’s Francophones. The guidelines were intended to ensure that ministries would automatically include specific consideration of the Francophone population in their communications plans and strategies.
The Directive was accompanied by online and in-person training sessions delivered by the Office of Francophone Affairs to the communications branches of government ministries and agencies. Since then, government ministries and agencies have been making efforts to communicate in both English and French.
In addition, there has been a decrease in communications-related complaints, particularly regarding the ministries’ websites, since the Directive was issued.
Nevertheless, violations are still taking place. The issue of social media is becoming more important, in view of ministries’ tendency to dialogue and interact instantaneously with the public. In the past, the use of translation engines meant that the quality of some messages from ministries on social media left something to be desired. Even today, it is still a legitimate question whether posts and messages are always published simultaneously in good-quality French.
The proliferation of complaints in recent years about this and about advertisements in French-language media are of concern to the Commissioner. As a result, he announced in April 2016 that he was going to investigate government advertising in the media. He wanted to make sure that the Communications in French Directive was explicit enough about advertising requirements and verify that government ministries and agencies were following the Directive.
69. The Commissioner concluded in his investigation report that clearly French-language services were poorly integrated into the strategic planning of communications by government ministries and agencies.