The health of francophones in minority communities : Santé des francophones en situation minoritaire : un urgent besoin de plus d'informations pour offrir de meilleurs services

In addition to the obligations inherent to its institutional services under the Official Language Act, the Government of Canada is responsible for enhancing the vitality of English and French linguistic minorities in Canada and for supporting and assisting their development, as well as fostering the full recognition and use of both English and French in Canadian society (section 41 of the Official [...] For this purpose, the CNFS and SSF propose the following solutions: 1. With respect to the selection of language variables and their systematic use: That the three variables, namely mother tongue, knowledge of both official languages, and language spoken at home be retained by all relevant authorities as core variables to describe the characteristics of the Francophone minority population and that [...] The interpretation of language rights must be compatible with the maintenance and vitality of the country’s official language minorities, and the principle of linguistic equality in government service delivery provides a guarantee of equal quality in the provision of services by federal institutions. [...] Under section 41 (part VII) of the legislation: […] The government is committed to enhancing the vitality of the English and French minority language communities in Canada and supporting and assisting their development as well as fostering the full recognition and use of both English and French in Canadian society. [...] As well, the recent addition of the Survey of the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities (SVOLM) (2008) supplies complementary and extremely useful information on the health field.11 The creation of the Research Data Centre (RDC), piloted by the Canadian Institute for Research on Linguistic Minorities (CIRLM) at the Université de Moncton, gives researchers easier access to the microdata of house