Unavailable in French

A Francophone woman received a construction notice in English only from Metrolinx, which had been mailed to tenants of a residential building in Toronto. Under the English text it said “disponible en français” (“available in French”). The notice was about trees in the woman’s neighbourhood that were slated to be cut down for the Lakeshore West Line GO expansion. The woman told our Office (in French) that she felt the French services offered by Metrolinx were “not equivalent to those received by Anglophones” and that that she “just felt frustrated.” We raised the issue with Metrolinx.

RESULT: The agency informed us that this was an error and that they had reminded their team of their French service obligations. The team responsible for the notices informed us that all notices and posters regarding this issue have since been issued in French.

Learn more about the French Language Services Unit which answers questions and takes complaints about services in French.