It’s pretty easy to be uncomfortable about the Office Quebecoise de la Langue Française.
This is an organization dedicated to making sure people see English – the language that I speak – as little as possible. Inspectors armed with notepads and measuring tapes hit the streets each morning searching for offences. God forbid – or rather, Bill 101 forbid – the English on a sign is too big.
It’s easy to feel persecuted, and some days I do.
When Massimo Lecas went public with his OQLF problem two weeks ago, I didn’t want to do the story. His restaurant, Buonanotte, was a one-off. Some inspector following the letter of the law went way too far. The word ‘pasta’ as a header in a menu? Come on. Even the PQ government laughed it off.
Well, it turns out it wasn’t a one-off. It was more of a “dozen-off” – Or more.
Other restauranteurs started coming forward with their own stories. Italian restaurants with Italian names had been told they had to change “Ristorante” to “Restaurant” – not that there was much confusion. Another was told “Caffe Conti” had to be lose an F, and become “Café Conti.” A British fish and chips joint was told they should sell “poisson frit et frites” – even though the term would make most French speakers chuckle. And a Parisian style brasserie was told their chef’s shopping list – underneath the words sucre, salade and oeufs (sugar, lettuce and eggs) – included an offensive word: “steak.”
The whole thing blew up. Even some normally less-than-sympathetic French media outlets spent the last couple of weeks uncovering new “Pastagate” stories du jour.
Now, you’re never going to get everyone to agree the Office went too far, but we’ve come pretty close. The French media’s been full of fairly critical stories and editorials. The PQ government has ordered a review. Restaurateurs have been notified by the Office their dossiers are closed.
And this one really blew me away… Last week, I sat down with the head of the St-Jean-Baptiste Society – as ferocious a language activist as there is – and even he admitted an Office inspector had made a mistake with Pastagate. This is a guy who last year took part in a campaign to find as many English sign offences as possible, and handed the OQLF more than 800 complaints all at once.
So… bash away. It’s easy. The Office made itself look pretty ridiculous. The stories went around the world, and Quebec’s reputation took a beating.
The province doesn’t need the OQLF – and it doesn’t need Bill 101.
Well, I don’t think that’s the case.
You don’t have to go back very far to find a time when Quebec was very different. The French-speaking majority lived more like a minority. It’s easy to forget.
The electricity meter at my cottage is pretty old. It was likely installed in the 60s, and pre-dates Hydro-Quebec. The name on it is “Shawinigan Light and Power Company.” Back then, even though Shawinigan was 90 or 95 per cent French, there was no French translation of the company’s name.
Now, that’s just a small example, and more of an annoyance than anything else.
Last week, I was talking to my mom about language, and she remembers working at a textile factory in the early 70s in Granby, Quebec. When the company would get a new machine, the instructions were often exclusively in English. It usually meant the staff that had to operate the machine couldn’t understand the manual. That doesn’t happen anymore.
Bill 101 was supposed to help French speaking Quebecers live in French. Well, three decades later, that’s a lot easier.
Canada’s bilingual packaging laws have helped as well. Could the purchasing power of Quebec have forced multi-national corporations to label cereal boxes in both official languages? I’m not sure.
But back to the Office…
If Quebec was going to try to make French its only official language, the OQLF was necessary. We often call them the language police, but it’s usually an exaggeration for effect. I hate to think of the actual police enforcing the language laws.
Also, we make fun of the Office and their efforts to create French lexicons for things like golf. Does the province really need to replace “putter” with “fer droit”? Nope.
But – sometimes that type of thing is necessary. When a company is translating a manual, and they hit a word they can’t translate, who do they call? Yep. That’s one of the things the Office does.
Now, Pastagate…
The best analogy I’ve heard recently involved a toothbrush. I wish I could remember who said it.
Basically, the Office was created to clean up Quebec…and three decades later, it’s still at it. Only now, it’s on its hands and knees scrubbing in the corners – on a lot of stuff that doesn’t really matter. Most of the Pastagate offenses – don’t matter.
People can say Montreal has never been so English, but it’s not true. Pull up any old picture of this city, and you’ll see English signs all over. It’s not like that anymore.
At some point, I hope the government realizes it’s always going to find some dirt…but when you’re cleaning your house with a toothbrush – your house is pretty darn clean.
Mike is Global National’s Quebec correspondent, based in Montreal. Follow him on Twitter: @ArmstrongGN.
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