A4

By Adam Huras — Canadaeast News Service

Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

Speak Up

Duality in New Brunswick's health care system is absolutely essential and doing away with it for reasons of economic viability is wrong, according to an international expert on legal and language rights.

Fernand De Varennes, who grew up near Bouctouche, is now an associate professor at Murdoch University in Australia and an internationally recognized researcher on international law, human rights, minorities and ethnic conflicts. He objects to changes in New Brunswick's health care system that move the province away from duality - two separate health care systems based on language.

"I want to make the point clear that because of the large proportion of the population that is French speaking, duality in areas such as health care is appropriate," De Varennes said after a Université de Moncton faculty of law conference on language rights on Saturday. "It is a responsible, reasonable type of reaction to what we have."

Seven months after Health Minister Mike Murphy merged the province's eight regional health authorities into two, the province has been hit with a serious legal challenge from francophones who say their constitutional rights have been ignored in the government's attempt to save health care dollars.

Murphy maintains the move was necessary for the province's economic future as medical costs soar and New Brunswick's health care budget continues to eat up much of the province's revenues. Murphy says two health care systems based on language was not an option.

But De Varennes, who is a graduate of l'Université de Moncton's law program, takes issue with the minister's decision.

"I would disagree with the minister quite frankly," he said. "I do think when you have such a large proportion of the population that speaks French that you do have to have a not identical, but proportionate response.

"The explanation offered by the minister is not sufficient grounds to say ‘no.' Financial costs must be considered, but at the end of the day, duality means you have to provide an appropriate degree of services in the language."

The Committee for Equality of Health in French, which filed a lawsuit in the Court of Queen's Bench in Moncton, says it is not seeking complete duality, but a health authority that is legally francophone.

The committee primarily objects to the reforms eliminating the only francophone health authority in New Brunswick, the Beauséjour RHA.

The group has recruited Michel Bastarache, a retired Supreme Court of Canada justice, who listened in at the law conference Saturday and said the court case will define language rights.

"I think it all comes to a definition of equality," Bastarache said. "Is it just the fact of one person to be able to be served in his language, or is for a whole community to have access to services of equal quality?

"Basically we say from experience, especially in the area of education, we think that we need special institutions that are homogeneous."

De Varennes did not mention New Brunswick language rights in his address at the conference, but did explain the connection between international law and language rights, focusing on the idea that there are a few basic human rights that can result in certain types of language liberties.

"A simple example is freedom of expression which actually protects the private use of a language," De Varennes said. "Government can not simply forbid the private use of a language. That would be a violation of a fundamental human right.

"In many parts of the world, governments do not recognize the need to actually have a balanced response to the linguistic make up of their population and it spurs conflict because people are asking ‘why can I not be educated in my language when we're 45 per cent of the population and we pay taxes.'"

De Varennes said his interest in language law was fostered growing up on the Acadian shore in a community that has fought for the preservation of its language.

"It actually helped and I think I was much more aware of the importance," he said. "When I started working in this area 20 years ago it became more and more acknowledged in international law and human rights that yes, there is a connection between a denial of certain language and human rights."

His interest has taken him around the world as a former director at the Asia-Pacific Centre for Human Rights while also working closely with the United Nations' Working Group on the Rights of Minorities and UNESCO.

He is also a senior research associate at the European Centre for Minority Issues in Germany and has taught in Tokyo, Nepal, Indonesia, Italy, Spain, Hungary, France and Finland.

De Varennes believes New Brunswick remains a successful model of language rights.

"I think we have come a long way in New Brunswick and it is a pretty good example of what should be a proportionate response in language matters," he said. "New Brunswick is a good example of what ought to be done, while it's not perfect and there are a number of areas where we obviously have problems, it is something that could serve as a pretty good model for other parts of the world."