"That is the only way you get equal services. Otherwise, it's an English institution that accommodates the minority. That is a big difference," he adds. "We've had experience with bilingual institutions and it's always a situation where the minority gets the short end of the stick. ... What we want is real equality."

The two regional health authorities will not be defined primarily along linguistic lines, says Bernard Thériault, chief of staff for [Shawn Graham]. "We won't have separate French and English medical systems," he says. "We'll have one system in New Brunswick."

"The judgment recognized that Montfort was more than a hospital - that it was a very important institution in preventing assimilation. It was a way for the francophone culture in Ottawa to sustain itself," says [Bernard Leduc], a family physician and the hospital's chief executive officer. "The minority rights of francophones are not negotiable." - Quentin Casey, Halifax, NS