WESTMOUNT – Quebec’s language police has come down on a Westmount salad restaurant for using terms like “ice-cold,” “sweet sisters” and “November salad.”
“It’s not a nice feeling, you know?” said Mandy Wolfe, co-owner of Mandy’s on Sherbrooke Street. “We’re young entrepreneurs and we’re just trying to do our business. We don’t have any political vendetta here.”
The Office Quebecoise de la Langue Francaise first wrote the business in November about the alleged infractions. Some of them have already been meted out – Wolfe and her sister Rebecca, the other co-owner, have printed out French menus at the location, and the OQLF have told the sisters they can keep the other signage because it’s merely decorative in nature.
But they are concerned the agency is singling them out.
“We believe strongly that it wasn’t an actual customer that came in here with a complaint, we believe that it was an OQLF person who came in here because it was a Westmount target,” said Rebecca Wolfe.
The agency denied this, saying that they received a legitimate complaint from a customer.
“If we receive a complaint we have to have a look and see if there’s a problem,” said Jean-Pierre Leblanc, an OQLF spokesperson.
When asked if the agency’s investigations have intensified in the heat of election season, Leblanc declined to comment.
About a year ago Culture Minister Diane de Courcy issued new directives for the OQLF to triage complaints, in order to avoid controversy. But the agency says the new guidelines haven’t been finished yet.
Mandy’s has two locations, the other one being in Outremont. That location’s signage is completely in French.
“We’re just trying to sell good healthy salad, good food to people, and we believe we’re doing a great job of that,” said Mandy Wolfe. “So when we get little obstacles like this in the day-to-day business operation, it just feels like a real waste of everybody’s time.”
The OQLF has yet to issue a final ruling on what punishment if any Mandy’s will receive.
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