Canada Post is backing down and will now require its mail carriers to speak French in Quebec

Two days after the report of Newspaper showing that it is not necessary to speak French to be a postman in Quebec, Canada Post backs down and says that “the descriptions [d’emploi] have been corrected to include the “essential French” requirement and [que] It is according to this criterion that the positions will be filled.”

“The language requirement for job offers posted online for delivery agent positions in Saint-Rémi and Beloeil should have been “French essential”. The description we posted for these positions mistakenly contained the language requirement “French or English”,” admitted Newspaper Canada Post spokesperson Valérie Chartrand.

“We regret the confusion this situation has caused and we will follow up internally to ensure that it does not happen again. Canada Post has adopted policies and practices to ensure that linguistic designations of positions are applied objectively and correctly, as required by Official Languages ​​Act“, she added.

To be a postman, you may require: “essential French or English”, “essential French” or “essential English”, according to a list from the Treasury Board. “A delivery agent can be unilingual French-speaking if the working language of his region is French or if his region is designated bilingual,” we summarize.

French not required

Last Tuesday, The newspaper reported that you do not need to speak French to be a postman in Beloeil and Saint-Rémi, even if it is the mother tongue of 90% of the inhabitants there, if we rely on recent job offers from Canada Post.

This did not go through like a letter in the mail for the Bloc Québécois saw it as “new proof of federal contempt” for Quebec.

CEO called to order

On Thursday, Quebec Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said he was going to “have a conversation with the CEO of Canada Post very soon” to remind him of his linguistic obligations in full.

The CEO of Canada Post is Doug Ettinger, based in the greater Ottawa area, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The members of the Canada Post board of directors with him are: Louise Champoux-Paillé, Krista Collinson, Ron Cuthbertson, Ricky Fontaine, Claude Germain, André Hudon, Ann MacKenzie, Tom Ruth and Melissa Sonberg.

– With Sylvain Larocque