I do have to agree with "missthealcos" on several points. Before I say anything, I want to make it clear that I do not mean any offense by any of my statements, and I do not intend to make any blanket claims, or insult or degrade the culture or language of French Canadians, be they in Quebec or elsewhere.
That being said, I have noticed the overwhelming presence of French-Canadian staff on board VIA Rail trains. It is quite clear that it is due to the bilingual requirement, and also in many ways the fault of our Canadian society. We anglophones have an easier time remaining "unilingual" in Canada, since pretty much anywhere you go you can expect to get English service. For Francophones, this can be much more of a challenge. If you intend to go anywhere outside of Quebec, knowing English is very much an asset. Since the pressure is higher, many more of them learn English, and as a result are considered bilingual. I have also noticed this trend working with the public within an hour of the Quebec border in Ontario. While I was required to be "semi-bilingual" for my job, I noticed that the majority of French speaking people from Quebec who came in could get by with only moderate difficulty in English.
It is no surprise then that VIA would find a greater number of employees who qualify as bilingual who speak primarily French. Also, many of their operations centre in Quebec.
Now, back to the trains, since this is a train forum.... I have noticed, unfortunately, that the "bilingual" requirement sometimes doesn't seem to fully be enforced. I recently had the experience on a train from Montreal to Toronto of the car attendant making an announcement about safety issues on the train and other general information. Since I do speak and understand French reasonably well, I understood the bulk of the French message. But when it was repeated in English, I could barely make out a word. I felt sorry for any of the English speaking passengers who couldn't understand French, because I doubt they could understand a word f what was said. In this case, I think it would be a good thing to make sure that staff, if required to be bilingual, really ARE bilingual. And when it comes to announcements, especially important ones, if one staff member can't make them clearly enough (be it in English or French), they should have a different crew member do it. It shouldn't be that hard.
Aside from all of that, I do agree, and find it hard to explain, that VIA seems to have such a poor staff overall. Yes, I have dealt with pleasant, attentive, helpful attendants, and had great experiences. But the majority have been less than satisfactory. Saying all that, I do acknowledge that I too am a huge VIA fan, and love the trains and everything. I just don't appreciate when, as happened to be recently, I'm on a train for 2 and a half hours in a car staffed by TWO attendants, and one of them comes around 15 minutes into the trip to offer services and such, but then the two of them spend the rest of it sitting at the end of the coach paying no attention to passengers.
VIA definitely needs to step up a little bit. I have dealt with wonderful people on their trains, I just wonder why there aren't more. Personally, I can't understand it. I mean, they get to spend all of their time at work on a train, why wouldn't they be happy?!
Maybe that's the answer....only hire railfans!