Take lead on H1N1 translation, Ottawa told
November 17, 2009
Joanna Smith
OTTAWA BUREAU
OTTAWA–The Liberals are urging the federal government to translate H1N1 pamphlets into dozens of languages, but local public health officials say Ontario is already reaching out to linguistic minorities.
"Across the country, we are hearing again and again (about) the lack of information in languages that Canadians can understand, in the 60, 70, languages that need to be there (and) that it is folly to just hand a press release or an information package out to ethnic media, expect them to do the translation," Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett told a news conference Monday.
Bennett (St. Paul's) called on the federal government to take on the role of translating the material so that local public health units can concentrate on administering the H1N1 vaccine at flu clinics across the country.
"It's the right thing to do," Bennett said, adding that it would also avoid a duplication of efforts and ensure accuracy of the translated messages. She could not provide any specific examples of these problems.
Ontario health ministry spokesman David Jensen said the province has not received calls for help from public health units.
Jensen added Ontario is taking numerous steps, including advertising in 94 ethnic newspapers, running radio spots in 19 languages and making pamphlets available in 28 languages on the ministry website.
Toronto Public Health offers information about the H1N1 virus in English and 18 other languages.
In an interview Monday, Dr. David Butler-Jones, the country's chief public health officer, said about 20 per cent of Canadians have received the H1N1 shot, the highest percentage of vaccination in the world.
With files from Theresa Boyle, Vanessa Lu and The Canadian Press
Toronto Star
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