In Ontario, where French-speaking communities live in a minority setting, receiving health care in French is about far more than convenience—it’s about safety, trust and dignity. In this episode, Dr. Jean Roy and Dr. Kay-Anne Haykal explore how French-language medical education has transformed health care for Ontario's Francophone communities and why its future matters more than ever.
Listen to the episode on Spotify (in French).
When people seek medical care, they need to communicate clearly. They must explain what they’re feeling, understand their diagnosis and confidently follow treatment recommendations. For French-speaking patients living in predominantly English-speaking environments, language barriers can make these conversations more difficult, increasing the risk of misunderstanding and affecting the quality of care.
That’s why the University of Ottawa established a French-language medical education program more than three decades ago. Today, it remains the only medical program in Ontario that allows students to complete their education entirely in French—a unique initiative that continues to train physicians who understand both the language and the lived realities of Francophone communities.
A program built around community needs
According to Roy, associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Ottawa and one of the program’s early architects, the French-language stream emerged from a growing recognition that Francophone patients deserved care in their own language.
In the early 1990s, consultations with communities across Ontario revealed a clear message: French-speaking residents wanted physicians who could communicate with them directly, without relying on interpreters or translations.
At the same time, medical education in Canada was evolving. New competency frameworks stressed that excellent physicians needed more than scientific knowledge. They also needed strong communication skills, cultural awareness, professionalism and advocacy for their patients.
Language was no longer viewed as an optional skill. It became an essential part of providing safe, patient-centred care.
Establishing the Faculty of Medicine’s Office of Francophone Affairs and the partnership with Montfort Hospital provided the institutional foundation needed to bring this vision to life.
Building something new
Creating a French-language medical program was no simple task.
At the time, Montfort Hospital hadn’t yet become a teaching hospital, and there were relatively few French-speaking clinicians with experience supervising medical trainees.
Rather than creating an entirely separate curriculum, the University adapted its existing medical program to the realities of French-speaking students. Academic standards, examinations and accreditation requirements remained identical to those of the English-language program, while teaching methods and clinical training environments were redesigned to reflect the Francophone environment.
Over time, physicians working in community practice were encouraged to become educators, helping expand the network of French-speaking clinical instructors.
That investment gradually transformed Montfort into a leading academic health centre and a cornerstone of French-language medical education in Ontario.
Learning medicine in the patient’s language
For Roy, the importance of French-language clinical placements goes beyond language itself.
Medicine is fundamentally a people-oriented profession built on communication.
Physicians must understand not only their patients’ symptoms but also their concerns, cultural references and personal experiences. Every community has its own expressions, ways of describing illness and expectations about health care.
Training future physicians in French therefore means exposing them to the linguistic and cultural realities of the patients they will eventually serve.
Even students who already speak French often need to become familiar with the vocabulary, accents and expressions commonly used by
Francophone communities in Ontario.
As Roy notes, some of the best teachers in medical education are not professors at all—they are the patients themselves.
From student to leader
Haykal understands the importance of the program from a deeply personal perspective.
An immigrant and Francophone who completed her elementary and secondary education in Ottawa, she returned to the city after studying optometry in Montreal to study medicine in French at the University of Ottawa. Her goal was simple: to serve Ontario’s Francophone and immigrant communities.
Although the program offered unique opportunities, studying medicine in French also came with challenges.
Many textbooks were available only in English, some specialized courses were shared with English-language cohorts and several clinical rotations took place in predominantly English-speaking hospitals.
These experiences reflected the broader reality of learning and practising medicine in a minority-language environment.
Today, as vice-dean, Francophone affairs, Haykal views her own career as the result of more than 30 years of collective effort to build French-language medical education.
Her priorities include strengthening academic programs, recruiting and supporting Francophone students, expanding the number of French-speaking professors, promoting research in French-language medical education and developing partnerships with Francophone communities across Canada and around the world.
Training compassionate physicians
Throughout the conversation, both guests return to one central idea: medicine is about people before procedures.
Technical expertise is essential, but compassion, empathy and attentive listening are what allow physicians to build meaningful relationships with patients.
Haykal believes future doctors must learn to accompany patients through some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives, offering not only medical knowledge but also understanding and reassurance.
Roy shares this philosophy, arguing that medicine has much to learn from fields such as sociology, philosophy and the humanities. These disciplines help future physicians better understand the diverse realities, values and life experiences of the people they care for.
For him, the role of physicians is, ultimately, to put their knowledge in service of each patient’s life journey.
Caring for future doctors
Medical education is demanding, both academically and emotionally.
During her years overseeing student affairs at the Faculty of Medicine, Haykal witnessed first-hand the pressures faced by medical students, including stress, burnout and mental health challenges.
These experiences led her to help develop a curriculum focused on resilience.
For Haykal, resilience is not about enduring hardship without complaint. Rather, it means learning to adapt, recognizing personal limits, seeking support when necessary and maintaining balance throughout a demanding career.
She also notes that Francophone students in minority settings often face additional pressures related to language, cultural identity and access to fully French-speaking learning environments.
Supporting students’ well-being is therefore an essential part of preparing compassionate, sustainable health-care professionals.
Why language changes everything
One of the strongest messages from the episode is that language directly influences the quality of health care.
When patients are able to speak in their preferred language, they’re generally more comfortable describing symptoms, asking questions and expressing fears or concerns. Physicians, in turn, gain a more complete understanding of their patients’ situations, allowing for more accurate diagnoses and safer treatment plans.
Speaking the same language also creates trust.
For Francophone patients, being welcomed in French is about more than convenience—it affirms their identity, respects their dignity and strengthens their sense of belonging within the health-care system.
As Haykal explains, the long-term goal is clear: receiving health care in French should become the norm rather than the exception for Ontario’s Francophone communities.
Looking ahead
While significant progress has been made, major challenges remain.
French-language health services continue to be limited in many regions, and physicians often struggle to identify available resources or specialists who can provide care in French.
Roy believes stronger collaboration among universities, hospitals, community organizations and health professionals will be essential in meeting these challenges.
He also sees promising opportunities in artificial intelligence, which could help physicians access information and connect patients with appropriate resources more efficiently. Yet even as technology evolves, he stresses that nothing can replace the human relationship between doctor and patient.
More than 30 years on, French-language medical education at the University of Ottawa continues to shape the future of health care in Ontario. Its success shows that language is not simply a means of communication—it’s a cornerstone of trust, equity and compassionate care. For Ontario's Francophone communities, that makes all the difference.