On a cold and extremely windy March 3, things heated up in front of Cornwall Community Hospital as about 100 people rallied to ask for an assessment of what they perceive as the hospital’s unfair hiring practices.
The rally participants complained that since the hospital voluntarily adopted the French Language Services Act, employees are not hired based on their skill levels.
Anglophones who already work at the hospital can’t move up in their jobs if they don’t pass a difficult French language skill assessment test, they allege. And while those hired can speak French, they may not be as qualified as a unilingual English speaker who cannot.
Registered nurse Christopher Cameron was one of the few current employees taking part in the rally.
“You’ve got to stand up for what’s wrong, that’s really where I stand. I want equality for all and that’s not how people are treated here. I want Ontarians to see this and say this is wrong,” said Cameron, a main organizer of the event.
He explained that although he is a qualified nurse with a specialty in hemodialysis, he has not been able to get a full-time job with benefits at the hospital because the French language proficiency test is so difficult.
“Since 2004 I have been applying for a lot of positions, many full-time positions, and been passed over. The last time I had an interview process the manager told me basically that ‘you don’t have French, you can’t have the job,’” he said.
