An anglophone health network in New Brunswick has been ordered to pay $5,000 to a Moncton man for violating his language rights.
Paul Ouellet brought forward his legal challenge after staff at the Moncton hospital couldn’t speak with him in French on numerous occasions in 2020.
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At the time, he had been overseeing the care of his sister at the hospital’s psychiatric unit.
In an Oct. 31 decision, Judge Maya Hamou of the Court of King’s Bench ruled that Ouellet’s right to communicate in his mother tongue had been repeatedly violated by the Horizon Health Network.
The judge said the hospital’s failure to communicate with him in French violated his rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and New Brunswick language legislation.
Neither the health network nor the province’s Health Department were immediately available for comment.
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