From my experience, not all non-francophones roll their eyes at the OQLF, deplore its budget or dub its agents \u201cthe language police\u201d (though admittedly many do.) But much of the valid work it performs is too often overshadowed by the clumsiness and heavy-handedness of inspectors and a government that seems unable to acknowledge Montreal has always been more than just French.<\/p>\n
Who can forget the OQLF forcing STM buses to remove \u201cGo! Canadiens Go!\u201d<\/a>\u00a0from its electronic displays after a citizen complaint, before the government was shamed into skating it back? Is the OQLF working overtime to come off as ridiculous?<\/p>\n It feels like not a month goes by when we don\u2019t get hit by groan-worthy headlines involving the overzealousness of inspectors from the Office qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois de la langue fran\u00e7aise.<\/p>\n A CBC story about SoLIT Caf\u00e9<\/a> in downtown Montreal\u00a0that has received repeated complaints, visits and compliance requests recently caught my eye. The OQLF had issues with the caf\u00e9\u2019s name, with an inspector raising the question of whether \u201cSoLIT\u201d could be interpreted as an English phrase if split in two. So now small business owners are being harangued about\u00a0potential\u00a0word combinations, not even actual words?<\/p>\n Not only that, that agency asked the owner to translate \u201cchicken nachos\u201d on the menu. When she changed it to \u201cnachos au poulet,\u201d she was told no, no, she also needed to change \u201cnachos.\u201d\u00a0Pastagate all over again.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n For the record, the word \u201cnacho\u201d appears in the Le Robert online dictionary.<\/a> If French in Quebec is in danger from a corn tortilla chip the entire world knows as \u201cnacho,\u201d well, what more is there to say? <\/p>\n Sadly, there is more. <\/p>\n A few months ago,\u00a0a family-run Syrian-Armenian-Lebanese bakery in Villeray<\/a> also found itself in the OQLF\u2019s crosshairs \u2014 this time for social-media posts the watchdog said lacked sufficient French content. The irony is that the family is French and Arabic-speaking. It\u2019s not like customers were not being served in French. <\/p>\n The owner\u2019s son delivered some much needed perspective that for me \u2014 the daughter of hard-working restaurant owners \u2014 hit close to home: \u201cWe\u2019re not experts,\u201d he was quoted as saying. \u201cWe don\u2019t pay $2,000 a month for social-media consultants. We\u2019re up at 5 a.m. baking.\u201d <\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n I fully understand the frustration of those investing their money here, having to navigate complex language laws and maybe trying to drum up some business on social media with limited means in a tough economy \u2014 only to face the added stress of unwarranted language inspections over a TikTok video.<\/p>\n Now, the latest OQLF saga is unfolding in St-Henri.\u00a0The co-owner of Arthurs Nosh Bar<\/a> (it\u2019s trademarked), a popular brunch spot, took to Instagram to complain her business was targeted for having the word \u201cnosh\u201d in the window. Nosh isn\u2019t even an English word; it\u2019s Yiddish for \u201csnack\u201d or \u201csmall bite.\u201d<\/p>\n UNESCO lists Yiddish as a \u201cdefinitely endangered\u201d<\/a> language. Many who spoke it died in the Holocaust. If Yiddish endangers French, one of the most popular languages in the world, what\u2019s next on the OQLF\u2019s target list \u2014 Ancient Greek?<\/p>\n
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