Que. eye specialist loses permit after failing to pass French test
Quebec’s only specialist in hereditary retinal diseases can’t practise in his own province because he failed an obligatory French test.
Amer Omar, a 37-year-old Egyptian born ophthalmologist and Canadian citizen for the past 15 years, has failed a dozen times to pass the written portion of the mandatory exam from the province’s official keeper of the French language, according to Quebec media.
His temporary permit to practice, granted on condition that he pass the French test, expired on June 30.
Omar, co-author of several scientific papers, including, most recently, a study of the “novel insights into the molecular pathogenesis of CYP4V2-associated Bietti’s retinal dystrophy,” reportedly made too many syntax errors. And, when asked to write at least 200 words on a topic, his examiners said he wrote only 190, according to Le Devoir.
“I want to practise here. I love this country. I’m attached to Montreal,” Omar told the newspaper. “My wife is Quebecois and francophone but I am not good enough according to the Office,” he said, in reference to the province’s language watchdog, the Office quebecois de la langue francaise, or OQLF.
Omar, whose first language is Arabic but who is bilingual in English and has a “professional working proficiency” in French, according to his LinkedIn profile, said he did well on the oral part of the exam.
However, he failed 12 times to pass the writing section, scoring 36 per cent on his last effort.
He now must wait at least three months before trying again. If he passes, “he can obtain a regular permit to practise,” a spokeswoman for Quebec’s College of Physicians told the Post.
Omar, who couldn’t be reached Thursday, told Le Devoir the ruling has left his patients “orphaned“ and that he’s appalled the language agency’s powers trump those of the doctors licensing college.
The language office was not commenting late Thursday, saying only that a press release would be issued “soon.”
The story was quickly shared on social media. “How do you expect him to truly treat his patients properly without knowing how and when you use an accent circonflexe?” one man commented on a Quebec news sharing Facebook page.
“Tell him to move to northern New Brunswick … oh wait … no, they only accept French speaking medical staff here too,” added another.
Omar, a consultant ophthalmologist at the Montreal Retina Institute, specializes in retinal and macular degeneration, the leading cause of sight loss in the developed world.
James Shea, president of the Quebec Community Groups Network, said Omar’s temporary licence should be reinstated to give him more time to meet the language requirements.
“It seems to me a little bit draconian that they would go to suspension,” Shae said.
“It would be too bad to lose such a talent to another province.”
Dr. James Ross can sympathize with Omar. The Toronto native did his residency in psychiatry at McGill, and then worked at an anxiety disorder clinic at a Montreal hospital.
He could do decent assessments in French; he also treated many of his patients in French. “But there’s also a reasonable English population in Montreal who need to see psychiatrists,” said Ross. “I definitely didn’t have a shortage of patients, or have any difficulty serving the population that came to the hospital.“
He wrote the OQLF exam twice, failing both times, though he did pass the comprehension part. Ross said his examiners were not only picky about marking, they seemed particularly obsessed with grammar — gender agreements, correct tenses of nouns, and so on.
“To me it almost didn’t seem worth the effort. The amount of work I would have had to put in to pass would have interfered with my ability to do my job.”
Ross moved back to Ontario in 2012, where he now works as a psychiatrist at London’s Victoria Hospital.