A Francophone who had been unemployed for a long time requested a background check from the OPP so he could be hired for a new job. He was impatient to rejoin the workforce. The OPP uses a private service provider to conduct the background checks. After submitting his request, the man contacted the …
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A Francophone who had been unemployed for a long time requested a background check from the OPP so he could be hired for a new job.
/en/our-work/case-stories/checked-out
Your call is important to us
A man called the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) call centre in December 2022 to make an online purchase. He requested service in French and was put on a long hold before receiving unilingual English service. RESULT: We discussed the issue with the LCBO, which adopted a new system for …
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A man called the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) call centre in December 2022 to make an online purchase.
/en/our-work/case-stories/your-call-important-us
Returning French to the French River
A Francophone resident from the Sudbury area informed us about an English-only sign marking the French River on Highway 69, located between Parry Sound and Sudbury. We brought this issue to the attention of the Ministry of Transportation. RESULT: As a result of our intervention, the Ministry …
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A Francophone resident from the Sudbury area informed us about an English-only sign marking the French River on Highway 69, located between Parry Sound and Sudbury.
Our Unit handled a case involving more than 600 English-only road signs in Northern Ontario, reported by a Francophone who told us he drove more than 800 kilometres to document them. The content of the signs ranged from notices about construction zones, to geographical information, to messaging …
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Our Unit handled a case involving more than 600 English-only road signs in Northern Ontario, reported by a Francophone who told us he drove more than 800 kilometres to document them.
/en/our-work/case-stories/one-complaint-600-signs
Translation in progress
Walking to work one day, a man noticed English-only signs about the upcoming construction of Corktown Station in Toronto for the future Ontario Line. We raised his complaint with Metrolinx, which is in charge of this project, and they told us that the staff members who designed these temporary …
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Walking to work one day, a man noticed English-only signs about the upcoming construction of Corktown Station in Toronto for the future Ontario Line.
/en/our-work/case-stories/translation-progress
Substantial improvement
A Francophone member of the military contacted us about a regulation in the Environmental Protection Act that he needed for work, but was not available in French. He told us that the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks requires an exam before working with certain substances. The …
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A Francophone member of the military contacted us about a regulation in the Environmental Protection Act that he needed for work, but was not available in French.
/en/our-work/case-stories/substantial-improvement
No room for failure
Two Francophone students from Northern Ontario reached out to us with concerns about the quality of the French version of the accreditation exam for emergency medical care assistants. According to the students, the French version of the exam contained grammatical and contextual mistakes that …
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Two Francophone students from Northern Ontario reached out to us with concerns about the quality of the French version of the accreditation exam for emergency medical care assistants.
/en/our-work/case-stories/no-room-failure
A Place for French?
A Franco-Torontonian reached out to let us know that content on Infrastructure Ontario’s X account (@InfraOntario) about plans for an upcoming spa, water park and multi-storey parking garage at Ontario Place was only available in English. He looked to see whether the posts were available in French …
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A Franco-Torontonian reached out to let us know that content on Infrastructure Ontario’s X account (@InfraOntario) about plans for an upcoming spa, water park and multi-storey parking garage at Ontario Place was only available in English.
/en/our-work/case-stories/place-french
Bet on bilingual
A Francophone reached out to us because he was unable to find French versions of posts on the social media accounts of Lotto Max (Facebook, Instagram and X). The posts were only available in English. We raised this with the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG), which told us that Lotto Max …
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A Francophone reached out to us because he was unable to find French versions of posts on the social media accounts of Lotto Max (Facebook, Instagram and X).
/en/our-work/case-stories/bet-bilingual
Everything at the ready
A Francophone filed a complaint about an announcement of a public consultation on the reform of housing industry regulations posted to the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery’s French LinkedIn page. The post was written in French, but four of the five attached informational documents …
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A Francophone filed a complaint about an announcement of a public consultation on the reform of housing industry regulations posted to the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery’s French LinkedIn page.
/en/our-work/case-stories/everything-ready
Our voices matter too
A Francophone municipal employee in Eastern Ontario was invited to take part in an English-only survey on the quality of municipal and provincial emergency management programs. The goal of the survey was to collect information about the effectiveness of compliance review and quality assessment …
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A Francophone municipal employee in Eastern Ontario was invited to take part in an English-only survey on the quality of municipal and provincial emergency management programs.
/en/our-work/case-stories/our-voices-matter-too
2022-2023 Annual Report of the French Language Services Commissioner of Ontario
Annual Report of the French Language Services Commissioner of Ontario O F F I C E O F T H E O M B U D S M A N O F O N TA R I O 2022-2023 O N TA R I O ’ S WAT C H D O G • C H I E N D E G A R D E D E L’ O N TA R I O Office of the Ombudsman of Ontario O N TA R I O We are: DE GAR D E Doffice E of the …
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Commissioner's Message - Tangible results: I am pleased to present the 2022-2023 Annual Report of the French Language Services Commissioner of Ontario. The Commissioner plays an important role in supporting Ontario’s Francophone community, and is responsible for monitoring compliance with the French Language Services Act and recommending ways to improve the delivery of government services in French.
A pregnant woman who had tested positive for an infection contacted us when she received the results from Public Health Ontario and realized that the wrong follow-up test had been done. We made inquiries with staff at the Public Health Laboratory, who determined that the woman’s doctor hadn’t …
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A pregnant woman who had tested positive for an infection contacted us when she received the results from Public Health Ontario and realized that the wrong follow-up test had been done.
/en/our-work/case-stories/positive-test-result
Permanent solution
A man was trying to renew a health card on behalf of his son, who has a disability and does not have a driver’s licence. The only way his card could be renewed was to visit ServiceOntario in person, or have a family doctor fill out a form exempting him from the photo and signature requirement. He …
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A man was trying to renew a health card on behalf of his son, who has a disability and does not have a driver’s licence.
/en/our-work/case-stories/permanent-solution
Lessons for the Long Term
O N TA R I O Lessons for the Long Term Investigation into the Ministry of Long-Term Care’s oversight of long-term care homes through inspection and enforcement during the COVID-19 pandemic OMBUDSMAN REPORT PAUL DUBÉ, OMBUDSMAN OF ONTARIO SEPTEMBER 2023 O N TA R I O 1-800-263-1830 …
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Investigation into the Ministry of Long-Term Care’s oversight of long-term care homes through inspection and enforcement during the COVID-19 pandemic.
/en/our-work/investigations/lessons-long-term
Translation audit-y
A man noticed a post in French on the Office of the Auditor General’s Twitter account, announcing the release of its annual report on the environment. A click on the hyperlink took him to the Auditor General’s website, and he noticed that only the executive summary of the report was posted on the …
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A man noticed a post in French on the Office of the Auditor General’s Twitter account, announcing the release of its annual report on the environment.
/en/our-work/case-stories/translation-audit-y
Language integrity
A man saw a post in French on Twitter from the Office of the Integrity Commissioner of Ontario, indicating that the latest report from the Integrity Commissioner was available, with a link to the report “Re: The Honourable Peter Bethlenfalvy, President of the Treasury Board.” This link took him to …
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A man saw a post in French on Twitter from the Office of the Integrity Commissioner of Ontario, indicating that the latest report from the Integrity Commissioner was available, with a link to the report “Re: The Honourable Peter Bethlenfalvy, President of the Treasury Board.”
/en/our-work/case-stories/language-integrity
Equivalent access to information
A woman seeking a review as part of her work visited the website of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC). While browsing the site, she noticed that its URL was in English. She also noticed translation omissions. For example, the URL for the contacts page read “Contact us” even though the …
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A woman seeking a review as part of her work visited the website of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC).
A man shared with us his family’s experience after their dying mother was admitted to a designated hospital in Northern Ontario. On several occasions, he and his family were unable to obtain services in French when visiting their mother. They noticed that their mother received very few services in …
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A man shared with us his family’s experience after their dying mother was admitted to a designated hospital in Northern Ontario.
/en/our-work/case-stories/please-speak-english
Positive result
A man complained to us about the lack of French language services at a COVID-19 vaccination clinic. The clinic was organized and operated by a hospital partially designated under the French Language Services Act . We contacted the facility and they acknowledged that the recruitment and deployment …
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A man complained to us about the lack of French language services at a COVID-19 vaccination clinic.
