Language of Communication at the CMQ

The Charter of the French Language (Charter) requires that all professional bodies, including the Collège, use only the official language in their written and oral communications with members, as well as with candidates for admission to the profession.

Impacts on Members and Future Physicians

• French becomes the only authorized language for oral and written communications with physicians, as well as with candidates for admission to the profession (students, residents, fellows, and those applying for the recognition of equivalence of postgraduate training).
• This rule applies to all types of communications the CMQ sends, whether they be publications (printed or digital), correspondence (email or postal), seminars, meetings, phone messages, and more.
• On their part, members and candidates for admission to the profession can continue to express themselves in English and even provide documents in English to their professional order. However, CMQ staff must use French exclusively to respond to them.

Impacts on the General Public

• In general, the Collège des médecins addresses the public in French. It nevertheless has the possibility of broadcasting communications in French and in English aimed exclusively at this specific audience.
• The CMQ staff can, at any time and under any circumstances, respond in English to the public who addresses them in this way.

Impacts on Physicians

• Throughout their career, every physician has the obligation to have a knowledge of French appropriate for the practice of medicine. It is no longer sufficient to have a knowledge of the French language only at the time of obtaining the permit to practice. The CMQ may require a physician to obtain an attestation, require them to successfully complete a French proficiency course, and file a disciplinary complaint for any violation of an act derogating from the practice of the profession.
  
• Furthermore, every physician must provide, in French and without translation fees, any notice, opinion, report, expertise, or other document they write to any authorized person who requests it. Exceptions may apply when the client is a legal entity.
  
• A physician cannot, in the exercise of their professional activities, refuse to provide a service for the sole reason that they are asked to use the official language in the execution of that service. Violating this requirement constitutes an act of derogation from the medical profession.
  
• It remains possible for a physician, at their convenience, to include documents written in either French or English in their patients’ medical records, unless a health service requires them to write exclusively in French. However, upon request from any authorized person authorized to obtain these documents, a health or social service must promptly and at its own expense, provide the French summary of a clinical record as well as the French version of any document added to the record containing information in English.

The Collège des médecins du Québec believes that everyone living in Quebec should have access to health care in French. It also has a duty to protect the public as a whole, as evidenced by a brief submitted to the parliamentary commission (in French only) by the CMQ in 2021.

As a result, the Collège is committed to ensure that the relationship of trust between patients and physicians is not hindered by any legal, linguistic, or administrative obstacles. The words exchanged between patients and physicians should never overshadow the ailments to be diagnosed and treated.