Montreal-area mother challenges Quebec government over language law

A woman in Laval is taking the Quebec government to court over the province’s language law as she says her son, who is autistic, has been denied certain services based on language.

In December 2022, Giancarlo Rodriguez Montecalvo, who is 12-years-old, was recommended by his psychiatrist to go to Rivière-des-Prairies Hospital for treatment. Giancarlo was experiencing what his mother, Elena Montecalvo, described as “a state of extreme crisis.”

“He was having two or three violent meltdowns every day. And although we were being followed closely by his psychiatrist, she was out of options and she recommended hospitalization in a psychiatric ward so he can wean off of his antipsychotic medication, which wasn’t helping him,” said Montecalvo.

However, Giancarlo was denied services at Rivière-des-Prairies Hospital because he goes to an English school.

“At that point I stated that we’re a bilingual family, that every adult is bilingual and although my son doesn’t speak French, that we could arrange for one of us to always be present to translate for him, and they said it wasn’t a question of the spoken language, it was a question of the language of scholarity,” said Montecalvo.

This all happened 14 months ago. Since then, Montecalvo says her son has received services to help his diagnosis despite not going back to that hospital, but the experience has her determined to seek justice.

Now, Montecalvo is one of the six plaintiffs taking Bill 96 to court.

“I couldn’t believe that on top of dealing with the crisis that I was dealing with, on top of the difficult situation at home, I also had to fight this legal battle for essential services.”

Andrew Caddell, president of the Task Force on Linguistic Policy and the lead plaintiff of the lawsuit, filed in May of last year, says the case could take a while to navigate through the legal system.

“It is a very substantive, highly researched case with affidavits that have been signed by each of us saying that there have been significant damages to our lives with the passage of Bill 96,” said Caddell.

He says that there could be an appeal filed this Fall.

The office of Quebec’s French Language Minister tells CityNews that they will not comment as the case is before the courts.

The CIUSSS du Nord-de-l’Île-de-Montréal said the same thing.

Despite not needing the hospital’s services anymore, Montecalvo says, she’s hoping her case will help others in similar situations.

“No one in this province should be denied any services or any rights based on the language they speak or the language that they study.”