Ensuring bilingual service

A Francophone man told us about a workplace accident that left him unable to use his legs for a few years. After multiple complex surgeries, he started walking again. His injury claim was submitted to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB). He shared a letter with us from the WSIB that was written in English and sent via the unilingual Anglophone nursing consultant assigned to his case, even though the man had stated that French was his preferred language. He asked for a translation of the letter but did not receive one.

RESULT: As a result of our intervention, the WSIB provided the man with a French version of the letter. The WSIB told us that confirming a claimant’s preferred language is part of its procedures for assigning cases, including through nursing consultants. The WSIB sent out a newsletter to remind its staff to take each claimant’s preferred language into account and assign cases involving Francophones to French-speaking staff. Lastly, the WSIB told us it would have internal discussions about its information system so that a claimant’s preferred language can be more easily identified when their file is opened.


Learn more about the French Language Services Unit which answers questions and takes complaints about services in French.
Read about how we helped other people in our Selected cases.