French-only software, drug firms ordered
Employees ask Alliance for help

YVONNE ZACHARIAS
The Gazette

It's not every day that a "francophone de souche" like Lynn Gendron finds herself complaining to an English-rights lobby group like Alliance Quebec about the tactics of Quebec's language police.

Yet the sales representative of a pharmaceutical company found herself doing just that after receiving a letter, along with her paycheque last week, informing her that she would no longer be able to work with English computer software because of a decree by the Office de la Langue Francaise.

"It's completely ridiculous. It's nonsense," she said, speaking in French. "I am a francophone, but it's a question of choice. It's the right to choose."

Though it might seem odd for a francophone, Gendron said she had no hesitation about going to Alliance Quebec, along with other pharmaceutical workers, to seek help. The Quebecer, who speaks French around the office but is more comfortable with English software, had tried several times to get the Office de la Langue Francaise to back down, but to no avail.

Gendron's company is not alone. Several pharmaceutical firms have been ordered by the Office to stop offering their employees a choice of English or French computer software, insisting on the latter, according to lawyer Julius Grey and the English-rights lobby group Alliance Quebec. Both are threatening legal action against the Office, saying the Supreme Court has decisively ruled that you cannot suppress a language.

The order has at least one pharmaceutical company scrambling and anglophone and francophone workers uniting in their battle against the Office.

Gendron is joined in her protest by Lorraine Chiasson, sales manager for the same Montreal pharmaceutical company, in the newly formed Regroupement des Travailleurs en Milieu Pharmaceutique du Quebec, which is reaching out to other workers faced with the same plight.

"They're throwing a curve at me that doesn't make sense," said Chiasson, who has worked with English software for 20 years.

Alliance Quebec says the group is composed primarily of "francophones de souche" who work in Canadian head offices of drug companies in St. Laurent. The fact that workers, mostly francophone and female, are behind the protest makes it unusual, said Alliance spokesman Rob Bull.

Pharmaceutical companies have been told that if they do not remove all English-language computer programs, they will lose their francization certificates, the lobby group says. Without these certificates, a Quebec-based drug company cannot sell its products in the province.

Grey is threatening to take the Quebec government to court over the office's ruling, saying it is a violation of fundamental rights. "Unilingualism is an unreasonable goal," he said, adding that the clampdown on pharmaceutical companies is being orchestrated by hard-liners "who are allergic to English."

It's one thing to promote French; it's another to deny use of another language, says Alliance Quebec.

But Office spokesman Gerald Paquette said pharmaceutical companies have been given five years to switch to French software. "You can't say that French is the language of work if the software is not French."

He confirmed that the Office is requiring most of the companies to use French-only software, although he denied that it is imposing arbitrary deadlines. It has agreed to delay the switch to the point where a company is ready to upgrade its software, he said.

He said a company is exempt from this French-only rule if it has a special agreement, obtainable if it exports more than 50 per cent of its products out of Quebec, has problems finding manpower or French software. However, these agreements apply to only about one-third of the industry and even then, they don't apply to pharmaceutical factories, he said.

He said the requirement goes back to 1993 when the Liberal government added French software to the list of requirements for workplaces in Quebec. This law started to go into effect in January 1994, Paquette said, adding that what is happening now is part of a natural progression.

Two years ago, the Office came up with a legal opinion acknowledging that there was a double standard in Quebec - that some companies offered their employees a choice, while others insisted on French-only software. It came to the conclusion that under Article 141 of the French-language charter, only the latter should be allowed. Article 141 deals with the requirement to use French in the workplace.

The office's objective "can only be attained by requiring the use of French software and by the prohibition of using English software," the legal opinion said.

The decision to impose French in the workplace applies to all employees without distinction, it added. "The objective of making French the language of work is urgent and important."

But for Chiasson and Gendron, the decree flies in the face of common sense. Their company, which they didn't want to name for fear of repercussions from the Office, sells drugs across Canada, a key reason that 68 out of 70 employees have chosen to work with English software.

Gendron said she is more comfortable with English software - "the words are simpler." Working in export sales, it's easier to communicate with other companies with English software, she said. "Besides, computers are personal. The language of software affects absolutely no one."

Yet, one by one, pharmaceutical companies are caving in, Chiasson said.

Pharmaceutical giant Merck Frosst expects official word any day now from the Office on the matter, as part of a routine review of its francization license, said Lyne Fortin, director of public affairs. The company, which has both English and French software and almost as many anglophones as francophones on staff, intends to comply with whatever is ordered.

"That's a different story than we were told," Chiasson said.

Alliance Quebec president Constance Middleton-Hope said she couldn't believe the Office would go after one of Montreal's leading industries, which creates jobs and boosts the economy. "What kind of a state are we living in when we dictate what goes on a computer screen?"

She suspects over-zealous bureaucrats rather than Culture Minister Louise Beaudoin, who is the minister responsible for the Office, are behind the crackdown.

Like most industries, pharmaceutical companies have become heavily reliant on software for everything from correspondence to accounting. In Gendron's and Chiasson's company, for example, Microsoft Windows, Lotus Notes, Excel and Office 97 are all heavily used. Paquette pointed out, however, that although the program language is in French, employees can still write documents in English.

While the employees argue that the language of software is a matter of personal choice, the Office, in its legal opinion, takes a different view. "Experience demonstrates that the language of communication is largely influenced by the language of software."

Grey said he doesn't know how many pharmaceutical companies have been contacted by the office. "It doesn't matter if it's one or 1,000. It's a travesty."