Canada: Hospital told to remove English direction signs

Signs relating to health and safety can remain, but not those giving directions

A hospital in eastern Canada has been told to remove English-language signs informing people about how to find their way around the facility.

The health centre in Gaspe, on Quebec province's eastern coast, posted signs around the building in both English and French directing people to different departments. But the Office quebecois de la langue francaise - Quebec's French language office - says that using both languages violates the region's law on bilingualism, with the exception of notices relating to health and safety, the CBC news website reports.

A spokesman for the office says at least 50% of the local population must be English-speaking in order for the language to feature on signs. "When this is not the case, they're not recognised and they have to go according to the law," says Jean-Pierre Leblanc. It means, for example, that notices asking people to wash their hands can stay, but those showing the way to waiting rooms will be removed.

According to CBC, about 14% of the hospital's patients are English speakers, and most are elderly. The local health authority says it will comply with the order, but stresses that English speakers will still have access to bilingual staff, who wear yellow badges.

The province's language law, designed to give French prominence over English, has long proved contentious. In 2013, a pastry shop owner in Montreal was told a sign welcoming customers in 35 languages broke the law, because the French greeting was written in the same sized lettering as all the other languages.

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