The owner of Tir du Soleil, a recreational air gun firing range on Queen Mary Road in Côte-des-Neiges, has a bone to pick with the Office de la Langue Française (OQLF).
“When you see that you pay taxes to pay these bureaucrats which do not help you, do not help people, I am angry about that,” Lev Chif said.
Last May, Global News reported that Chif received a letter from the OQLF.
The office claimed that English was too big on his business banner because it was more than half the size of the French letters even if the banner was mostly French.
Chif vowed to fight them and on Friday he unveiled his strategy.
“The only solution is to remove the English part,” Chif said. “I decided to cover it with a plate…and then I put the explanation why.”
Most of his original banner where the French text is written is still clearly visible, but where the English text was is now covered with a black square plate with French text that reads:
“We do not want you to see the English text because it is the same size as the French. Signed the OQFL.”
Chif said his banner was 75 per cent French and felt he could reason with the OQLF to reach an agreement that would not force him to spend money on a new banner.
When he tried to reach out to the OQLF, he said he received the following response:
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The banner has so far received positive feedback from his clientele on his Facebook page.
Chif said he is ready to leave it up there for as long as it takes to make his point.
“I want people to also think about this,” Chif said. “Bureaucrats have to work for people and not the vice versa.”
The OQLF did not grant Global News’ request for an interview but said the banner protest falls in the realm of self-expression.
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