Calls to 911 via IP phone Quebec Solidaire calls for changes

The party's French-language spokeswoman, Ruba Ghazal, responded to an address in Journalism Monday, noting that Montrealers cannot be served in their language when calling 911 on the Transat Télécom IP line.

Michel Menard, who wanted to report a car fire in front of his house on January 9 at 1:20 a.m., tried to make his speech intelligible for 10 minutes to a monolingual English speaker.

The employee in question worked at Northern 911 in Ontario. Under contract with most IP phone companies, this company routes Internet calls, which do not pass through the regular phone network, to the correct emergency centers.

“It could have had very serious consequences,” says Ruba Ghazal. It asked Public Security Minister François Bonnardel to “formally commit to ensuring that this sad incident is the last.”

Quebec Solidaire proposes to return powers in this region to Quebec, which are currently in Ottawa's hands. The political party wants to create a “Quebec Communications Council” to better regulate and supervise communications in Quebec and avoid this type of situation.

Last March, North 911 was also involved in an incident involving another emergency call. This time the message came from a customer of Oxio (Cogeco Connexion), in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, in Chaudière-Appalaches.

The citizen was trying to call help for his partner, who had just collapsed on the floor, but the employee was reportedly unable to speak to him in French. duty.

Following these events, Cogeco required Northern 911 to route all emergency calls from its customers to bilingual staff, regardless of the setting associated with the customer.