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Despite touting a “cultural diversity” policy for employees and patients, managers at the Institut de cardiologie de Montréal have reprimanded a group of workers for speaking to each other occasionally in an Arabic dialect and in Spanish — even when they’re on break.

The workers, some of whom were born in Algeria, have been told that they must speak French all the time while at work, even when discussing personal matters among themselves. One worker told the Montreal Gazette that he was scolded for responding in English to an anglophone patient at the east-end hospital.

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The de-facto all-French policy has been in force for the past two years despite the fact Quebec’s Language Charter does not prohibit workers from holding a private conversation in a mother tongue other than French. What’s more, the provincial health act ensures “English-speaking persons are entitled to receive health services and social services in the English language.”