They were departmental documents in English. They told us they had no money to have them translated into French and asked us whether we did. Obviously we do not. It was a document from the Yukon government on the prevention of sexual assault, and since they had no funds to translate it into French, they asked if we would do it.
One of the things the committee should try to ascertain is whether there is any form of consultation or communication between people. At the present time, there are consultations on services in French in areas deemed by the community to be a priority, including the ones dealing on the justice system that took place two weeks ago. We received an invitation in December, I believe, and the consultation did take place, but there has been no information provided as to whether there will be a report or a plan of action. We met with officials to talk about the current situation, but without ever receiving any information to suggest that a report or plan of action would be produced at a given time. It's all very vague. A process is in place, but in terms of results, I'm not sure what they will look like.
As for policing services, the RCMP is the police force in charge in the Yukon. In the territories, violence against women, which includes domestic violence and sexual assault, is three to four times higher than in the rest of Canada. So, it's a major problem. Furthermore, access to bilingual police officers is crucial in order for Francophone women to be able to properly explain their circumstances, and thereby lay charges and launch the judicial process. At the present time, the RCMP has no bilingual officers available on an ongoing basis. A woman may make a complaint because her husband is beating her and call the police station, but there will not necessarily be any Francophone officers available, meaning that she will have difficulty recounting what happened. In a document published by the Alliance des femmes de la francophonie canadienne, entitled “Mythes et réalités sur les femmes francophones victimes de violence”, they cite the example of a woman trying to explain that her husband assaulted her, and the officer asking her if she was “beaten”, when what she is actually trying to say is that she was “bitten”. They couldn't understand each other. The officer thought that her husband had beaten her, when she was telling him that he had bitten her. This is the kind of situation that makes it difficult to access services, not to mention the constant obligation to translate.
With respect to health care services, access is problematic because of a lack of bilingual health care personnel, which results in additional problems for women, who are not always able to explain their health issues. As was mentioned this morning, when you have a health problem and you're stressed out, it's difficult to explain what is going on. It's complicated, and if, in addition, you have to do that in a second language, it's even worse. That can lead to delays in receiving services, either because the person does not receive the correct diagnosis, or because the physician doesn't understand us, which means that treatment is increasingly delayed. I also found out about one women who had been seeing a doctor for two years. He couldn't understand her and didn't realize that she had a chronic illness. Finally, she came to talk to staff at the Community Health Partnership to get help. They realized that the doctor had not understood a thing about her issues and had no idea what was going on. As a result, he had not done the diagnostic tests that he should have done to allow her to receive appropriate care. She had been waiting for two years because her doctor didn't understand what she was saying, and she did not realize it. Those are specific situations.