https://twitter.com/DavidRayAmos/with_replies




David Raymond Amos‏ @DavidRayAmos
Replying to @DavidRayAmos@Kathryn98967631 and 48 others
Methinks her former McInnes Cooper partners such as Justice Richard Bell, Lenny Hoyt and Franky Boy McKenna would think me crazy if I did not find a little fun with the appointments of Denise LeBlanc N'esy Pas?


https://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.com/2019/05/relaxing-bilingual-rules-for-paramedics.html


#cdnpoli#nbpoli



https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/judge-ruling-bilingual-paramedics-1.5153849

Relaxing bilingual rules for paramedics would violate charter, judge rules

307 Comments



David Amos
Methinks her former McInnes Cooper law firm parteners such as Justice Richard Bell, Lenny Hoyt and Franky Boy McKenna would think me crazy if I did not find a little fun with the appointments of Denise LeBlanc. Nobody can deny that I had dealings with her associates when she was she was a member of the New Brunswick Securities Commission, a president of the Canadian Bar Association, chaired dispute panels under the Canadian Agreement on Internal Trade and a Tribunal Chairperson under the province's Mental Health Act, I doubt the liberal lawyers Dominic Leblanc, Brian Gallant, Serge Rouselle mentioned any of this to Jody Wilson Raybould N'esy Pas?


Josef Blow
Reply to @David Amos: Dave, start your own newspaper for god’s sake! You can make the front page everyday! You have far too much in common from a narcissistic perspective, with the orange-haired guy to be on here. 







John Valcourt
Then it is time to amend the offical languages act and the charter.


David Amos 










David Amos
A little Deja Vu N'esy Pas?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/official-languages-act-review-1.5051487

Ottawa launches review of official-languages law 50 years after its introduction

"The federal government is launching a review of the Official Languages Act, saying it is time to modernize the decades-old law.

The 1969 law enshrined Canadians' right to receive federal services in English or French.

The last major reform of the law was in 1988 and there have been recent calls to update it again, including from a Senate committee that late last month said the act needs to be applied more effectively and consistently."


Mack Leigh:
Reply to @David Amos: And in that review they are only allowing the Francophones to have a voice and be heard... The rest of us are to shut-up and put up.... This is all about Power and Control with Language being the weapon of choice.. 


David Amos
Reply to @Mack Leigh: Methinks you may not know about the interesting letter I got from the liberal lawyer known as Minister Melanie Joly a couple of years ago but I did publish on the Internet just like I always do N'esy Pas? 










Lou Bell
The " McKenna Law . He and the SANB assured there would be no Anglophone rights in their way to get complete control of the Province. Mission accomplished.


Cleve Gallant  














Jake Newman
time to use the notwithstanding clause


Daryl Doucette 

Marguerite Deschamps
Reply to @daryl doucette: you cannot invoke the notwithstanding clause in order to trump language rights. It can only override sections 2 and 7 to 15. Case closed !


David Amos















Michael G. L. Geraldson
Paramedics typically work in teams of two. As long as one is bilingual wouldn't that suffice? The bilingual rides with the patient and the other drives the ambulance.


David Amos 

















Les Cooper
NB will never improve as long as it's bilingual.


Marguerite Deschamps 
















Wendy Staples
Call me a cynical old broad but I suspect this was part of the discussion that took place in 2014 when the Official Languages Act got manipulated behind closed doors by a minority group of this province. When other stakeholders asked to be in attendance to ensure equal voices were heard for both official linguistic communities they were told no, it would be too controversial......well the fall-out from those discriminating closed door meetings are beginning to surface. I would hope that whatever changes were made in the 2014 meetings get clawed back based on blatant discrimination ….. Mr. Higgs, let's see if you have the gravel to actually straighten this linguistic mess out!  


David Amos

















Marguerite Deschamps
What is wrong with this province or country is that some refuse to learn the two official languages while many in the world can speak many, some up to 15 languages. It's either because of ineptness or pigheadedness due to a hatred of the French language. It it's the former, one can be excused. If it's the latter, then what does that makes him?


Les Cooper 

David Amos
Reply to @daryl doucette: Methinks the Trolls can come and go like lightening sometimes N'esy Pas?






David Stairs
since when does Public Safety get over ruled in the interest of a language requirement...this issue is not being presented in the proper light...can you imagine if a Paramedic or a Law Enforcement officer refused to treat or help someone in dire straights because he or she could not speak their language..that is called neglect of duty...what is wrong with these judges and their lack of common sense...it is not the judges duty to fix the woes of society but to rule on Common Law and Common Sense... 


John O'Brien 
















Mack Leigh
If garbage like this continues I forecast an uprising in the not too distant future.....people are fed up with this garbage..

















Samual Johnston
it is hard to understand the logic - are they saying the government has to fill the positions with bilingual individuals no matter the cost? It can be done -- offer $250,000 salary and all sorts of bilinguals will stream in from around the world. Not real good for us tax payers though.


Marc Martin  














Nathan Simpson
So if you're driving up the road and come across someone who is badly injured/maybe dying in an accident and you only speak English. You get out to help and the person hurt only speaks French (or it could be the other way). What do you do?

Are we getting into an area where people are going to stop and think about maybe they are violating someone's chartered rights to language before helping them? Maybe being unable to communicate leads to unnecessary pain, opening the possibility of being sued or something.

And for the record I have stopped before in the past to help people who needed it without seeing who it was that I was helping, and will continue to do so in the future. 


Mack Leigh 
















William Henry
So, nothing is better than something. Only in the SANB world. I assumed Madame LeBlanc was a graduate of the UdeM law school and guess what.........she is! How could I have known she was part of the UdeM mafia!!!!


Mike Steeves 











Daryl Doucette
Perhaps its time to get rid of official forced bilingualism here in New Brunswick.


Mike Steeves 

Relaxing bilingual rules for paramedics would violate charter, judge rules

Court of Queen's Bench Justice Denise LeBlanc quashes a 2018 ruling by labour arbitrator John McEvoy

A judge has ruled that Ambulance New Brunswick and the provincial government can't relax the bilingual hiring requirements for paramedics because doing that would violate the Official Languages Act and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The decision by Court of Queen's Bench Justice Denise LeBlanc quashes a 2018 ruling by labour arbitrator John McEvoy.

McEvoy found ANB's practice of not filling permanent, full-time positions with unilingual paramedics violated the union contract because it gave preference to bilingual candidates with less seniority.

McEvoy suggested the province forgo hiring bilingual paramedics in areas of the province where there is less demand for second-language service. He suggested crews use a "language line" that would let a patient talk to a bilingual staffer over a radio system.
But in her decision, LeBlanc said previous legal precedents make clear that a radio or phone system does not meet the requirement for equal service in both languages.

The effect of implementing the McEvoy ruling "would be the denial of the right of citizens of New Brunswick to receive services of equal quality in the language of their choice anywhere in the province," she wrote.

And she said that the radio system "does not, in matters regarding official languages, constitute a service of equal quality."


Premier Blaine Higgs said the decision is mostly irrelevant because his government decided not to implement McEvoy's decision and to find other ways to address idled ambulances and a lack of full-time work for unilingual paramedics.

"This decision is something that is related to our requirements as a bilingual province, and I'll respect the outcome of that," he said.

Ruling is 'nothing new'

Retired law professor Michel Doucet said the ruling was not a surprise because it's consistent with court rulings and legislation going back to 1969.

"It's nothing new," said Doucet, who represented Michel Carrier, the official languages commissioner, at the January hearing in the case.



"It's just that the government has to put in place measures to ensure that citizens receive quality services in the language of their choice everywhere in the province of New Brunswick."

Greg McConaghy, the president of Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 4848, which represents paramedics, could not be reached for comment.

The union filed the grievance that led to the McEvoy ruling and had urged the court to uphold it.
"Please allow us time to review the decision and update you soon on what this all means," said a post on the union's Facebook page.

CUPE lawyer Glen Gallant said the union would evaluate whether to file an appeal.

 In the 36-page ruling, LeBlanc writes that  "regrettably," McEvoy's analysis "was made outside and with no consideration of the constitutional language regime particular to New Brunswick" or previous court decisions.



That includes Section 20 (2) of the charter, which says any member of the public "has the right to communicate with, and to receive available services from," the provincial government.

The question of bilingual paramedics became a campaign issue in last year's provincial election.
The Progressive Conservatives and the People's Alliance campaigned on promises to address what they said were slow response times because many bilingual positions were not being filled.

After the PCs took power, Health Minister Ted Flemming said the government would adopt some of McEvoy's ideas, such as relaxing the bilingual requirement in some areas of the province.
But a month later the government abandoned that approach. Instead it said it would offer the unilingual paramedics permanent, full-time positions and assign them to "float teams" to fill spots where no bilingual applicant is available.

At the same time, the province and ANB said they would continue to try to meet the legal obligation to designate at least one bilingual paramedic position on every two-person ambulance team.

Ruling vexes People's Alliance

People's Alliance Leader Kris Austin called the new ruling "unfortunate" and said if he were the premier, he would implement McEvoy's recommendations regardless.

"It's easy for the courts to sit and interpret the law," Austin said. "It's another thing for the government and the province to implement the practicalities of everyday service to the citizens."



Austin also rejected the finding that the radio line translation is unacceptable, citing simultaneous translation used in the legislature — though that translation is required by different sections of the law and the Constitution.

"We might have to look at the law," he said. "That's what we're here to do. We're here to make laws and change laws."

He said he would consider introducing a bill to amend the act and a resolution to amend the charter.
Green Leader David Coon said the ruling should settle the long-running debate about the legal requirement for bilingual ambulance service.

"It should resolve it, because the decision is clearly that we have to provide those services directly, by people," he said.

"The People's Alliance have got to give that up and deal with the reality of New Brunswick, which is that we are a bilingual province, where we provide services to New Brunswickers in both official languages."

Beaulac decision

LeBlanc's decision cites two decades of legal precedents stemming from the Supreme Court of Canada's 1999 Beaulac decision.

That landmark ruling said that language equality requires "equal access to services of equal quality" in both languages and is not an accommodation or compromise for a minority language group.

The ruling also said that governments can't ignore their language obligations over a "mere administrative inconvenience."