MP Justin Trudeau has accused the Canadian Government of putting non-English speakers at risk in the current flu pandemic.

The son of the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau criticized the Government for failing to provide "clear information" for "many Canadians who have difficulty understanding English or French."

Trudeau, a Liberal, said that PM Stephen Harper's Conservative Government had spent too much money on partisan advertising, when they should be disseminating public information on the N1H1 crisis.

"These Canadians have been left to piece together information from family and friends - many of whom are also confused," he said, appealing for a public awareness campaign that takes into account all of Canada's ethnic minorities. "This initiative must also reach out to vulnerable Canadians facing language barriers with a comprehensive multilingual information campaign to ensure all Canadians receive the support they deserve from their national government."

Last week, health officials in Waterloo, ON, said they did not have the staff or finances to translate all the H1N1 flu information into other languages for the city's diverse ethnic communities.

Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, Waterloo's Associate Medical Officer of Health, said, "It's just not possible for us to translate everything we produce into all different languages. We count on the province to do it provincially, including in local communities."

Lucia Harrison, of Waterloo's K-W Multicultural Centre, told The Record (Waterloo) that many of the workers at her office had turned to foreign TV channels to find health information, but expressed regret that smaller communities had no access to such stations.

The Province of Ontario has provided a self-assessment H1N1 form in 27 languages, available for download from its website.

06 November 2009

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