Unscientific translations

A Francophone father contacted us after visiting the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto with his family in the summer of 2023. He told us that there were five staff members at the admissions counter, but none of them could speak any French beyond “bonjour.” He asked, in English, if he could be served in his language of choice. He was told that there was one bilingual employee, but it was unclear where that person was. Disappointed, he completed his transaction in English. Later, he also noticed that not all of the public announcements made over the Science Centre’s public address system were bilingual. For example, a message at 4:15 p.m. that announced the museum would close at 5 p.m. was in English only; the only bilingual announcement of the closing time came at  4:55 p.m. The man also noticed that the announcements asking visitors to take the parking lot shuttles were in English only.

RESULT: We raised this visitor’s concerns with the Science Centre. The Science Centre told us that they were looking for additional bilingual staff to meet their French Language Services Act obligations and promised to review the recordings of all their recorded public announcements. Before it closed on June 21, 2024, the Science Centre confirmed to us that it had begun issuing all of its announcements in English and in French.


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.