allison hanes: roberge's meeting with anglo community a total sham

in effect since july 18, these rules contradict the earlier promises premier françois legault’s government made to english-speaking quebecers when the new language law was adopted, including that no proof would be required to obtain health and social services in english. instead, the document repeatedly references certificates of eligibility for education in english as a means of qualifying for health care exclusively in english.

yet roberge took to the x social media platform to deny this was the case and wrote an open letter co-signed by christian dubé, the health minister, and eric girard, the minister responsible for relations with english-speaking quebecers, reiterating this assertion.

then roberge called a meeting with members of the anglophone community to dispel the confusion. but the guest list was a mystery until after the fact.

the qcgn, which has been openly critical of the directives , ultimately received an 11th-hour summons to the meeting, but decided not to participate because dubé was not present. quebec city’s community health and social services network also declined.

but let’s now zero in on the outcome of the meeting. in spite of his assurances that the government only needed to clarify the bafflegab that supposedly doesn’t really change anything, roberge conceded that the regulations need to be rewritten .

let’s face it: crisis communications have never been roberge’s strong suit. think back to his handling of the covid-19 pandemic , when as minister of education he tried to convince teachers and parents that the air in the province’s many poorly ventilated schools was perfectly fine.

after forbidding french-language service centres from purchasing air purifiers like independently managed english school boards did, he ordered up a series of air quality tests to show that everything was hunky-dory. experts immediately questioned the methodology, which included taking a reading after the windows had been open for 20 minutes. roberge said public health officials had signed off on the scientific validity of the protocol, but this was later exposed to be untrue, once radio-canada obtained an email exchange that showed objections were voiced and ignored while the minister proclaimed otherwise.