Former des médecins in English au service des Canadiens français : le cas de la Faculté de médecine de l'Université d'Ottawa, 1945-1965.

Abstract

This article examines the contradictory linguistic posture adopted by the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Ottawa and the way in which Francophones and French language evolved there from 1945 to 1965. We suggest that the institution used English as a key to access government funding, allowing it to develop and, above all, to accredit its medical school. We also show that the standardization process in which the Faculty engaged opened the door even wider to the English language and to Anglo-American models of medical education. Even if French Canadians were able to create spaces for survival within the Faculty, the University negotiated their access to medical education at a high price. The result, we suggest, is that it continued to evolve in this unusual posture, convinced that it had to train doctors in English to serve French Canadians.