The Right to English health and social services in Quebec : a legal and political analysis

Résumé: Le droit de recevoir des services de santé et des services sociaux en anglais soulève des questions importantes par rapport à la politique linguistique québécoise, qui déclare le français langue officielle du Québec et qui vise à faire de cette langue la langue commune de l'ensemble des Québécoises et des Québécois. Tout d'abord, l'auteur résume la politique linguistique dans le contexte québécois et fédéral. Par la suite, il décrit l'évolution du droit des personnes d'expression anglaise de recevoir des services dans leur langue, sanctionné par le législateur en 1986, et la mise en oeuvre de ce droit. Il examine son application dans une période de transformation du réseau de la santé et des services sociaux, ainsi que le respect de ce droit par un nouveau gouvernement. Puis il s'interroge sur la possibilité d'un conflit entre le droit de recevoir des services en anglais et la Charte de la langue française, notamment quant au droit de travailler en français et aux règles relatives à l' affichage dans les établissements publics. L'auteur conclut à la politisation du droit aux services en anglais au cours des dernières années et au manque de volonté politique qui empêche le gouvernement d'assumer pleinement ses responsabilités en vertu de la loi en matière de santé et de services sociaux.||Abstract: The right to English health and social services in Quebec raises important issues in the context of Quebec language policy, in that French is the official language of Quebec and intended to be the common language of all Quebecers. The author first gives an overview of language policy in the Quebec and federal contexts. He then traces the evolution of the right to English health and social services, enshrined in legislation in 1986, and its implementation . He next examines the application of the legislation during a period of transformation of the Quebec health and social services system and respect for the right under a new government. Finally, he analyses whether the right to English services infringes the Charter of the French language, dealing particularly with the right to work in French and the issue of signs in the health and social services sector. The author concludes that the right to English services bas become politicized in recent years and that lack of political will has prevented the government from fully respecting its obligations under health and social services legislation

Spin correlation functions in random-exchange s=1/2 XXZ chains

The decay of (disorder-averaged) static spin correlation functions at T=0 for the one-dimensional spin-1/2 XXZ antiferromagnet with uniform longitudinal coupling $J\Delta$ and random transverse coupling $J\lambda_i$ is investigated by numerical calculations for ensembles of finite chains. At $\Delta=0$ (XX model) the calculation is based on the Jordan-Wigner mapping to free lattice fermions for chains with up to N=100 sites. At $\Delta \neq 0$ Lanczos diagonalizations are carried out for chains with up to N=22 sites. The longitudinal correlation function is found to exhibit a power-law decay with an exponent that varies with $\Delta$ and, for nonzero $\Delta$, also with the width of the $\lambda_i$-distribution. The results for the transverse correlation function show a crossover from power-law decay to exponential decay as the exchange disorder is turned on.Comment: RevTex manuscript (7 pages), 4 postscript figure

Unsaturated Flow Analysis of Heap Leach Soils

Thesis advisor: Alan KafkaHeap leach flow patterns are governed by hydrogeological parameters including, soil properties, saturated and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity, initial degree of saturation, and the method of irrigation. Optimizing production during leaching cycles requires knowledge of the hydrogeological parameters of the leach heap, and their effect on flow behavior. This thesis research involved quantifying the flow rates of unsaturated homogenous soil profiles. Finite element numerical modeling has been utilized to simulate 1-dimensional unsaturated transient vertical flow. A series of parametric studies were conducted to examine how various soil properties and differing initial and boundary conditions affect percolation and flow. Results indicate that flow and percolation are increased or impeded based on the saturated and unsaturated parameters of the soil profile. Sensitivity analysis illustrates that the initial degree of saturation affects hydraulic behaviour relative to soil hydraulic conductivity, matric potential (negative pressure head), and the method of irrigation. At the initial stage of the research, some analyses indicated that numerical instabilities may occur within simulations due to selected mesh density, initial time step length, error tolerance, and the selected form of the unsaturated Richards Equation.Thesis (MS) — Boston College, 2013.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Earth and Environmental Sciences

The Allocation Problem in Multiple-Claimant Representations

Multiple-claimant representations-classa ctions and other group lawsuits-pose two principal-agent problems: Shirking (failure to maximize the aggregate recovery) and misallocation (distribution of the aggregate recovery other than according to the relative value of claims). Clients have dealt with these problems separately, using contingent percentage fees to motivate lawyers to maximize the aggregate recovery and monitoring devices (disclosure requirements, client control rights, and third-party review) to encourage appropriate allocations. The scholarly literature has proceeded on the premise that monitoring devices are needed to police misallocations, because the fee calculus cannot do the entire job. This paper shows that this premise is mistaken and that its consequence has been to misdirect our understanding of the importance of information problems and bargaining costs in attorney-client relationships. In fact, it is relatively straightforward, as a mathematical matter, to design a two-part contingent fee arrangement that incentivizes a lawyer to both maximize the aggregate recovery and allocate it according to relative claim values. The failure of the market for multiple-claimant representations to generate fee arrangements of this type therefore reflects the operation of empirical factors, not the inherent limits of contingent fees. We believe the principal barriers are information and bargaining costs. Two-part contingent fee arrangements require more information than claimants or attorneys are likely to possess and require more expensive negotiations than the monitoring devices the market actually employs. Monitoring devices are thus cheaper substitutes for more refined contingent fee arrangements, rather than unique solutions to allocation issue