WATCH ABOVE: A frozen yogurt company in the Montreal area has been asked by Quebec’s language police to stop using its disposable spoons. Rachel Lau reports.
MONTREAL – It was an end of the school year treat these kids were looking forward to, but excitement soon turned to disappointment.
Gone are the colourful spoons at Menchie’s frozen yogurt shop in Dollard.
Instead, patrons have to make due with plastic spoons.
The reason: a complaint to the province’s language police over four little words.
“This is my mix.”
These four words engraved on the spoons are too much for the Office Québécois de la Langue Française.
Menchie’s has been forced to take their disposable spoons out of the store.
“They came by the store earlier in the week and handed us a letter showing the complaint,” said owner David Lipper from his house in LA. “The woman took pictures of the spoons and said that we have to get rid of them immediately.”
The OQLF apparently received a complaint about the spoons earlier this week.
They have asked Menchie’s to replace their spoons with something more language appropriate.
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This, despite the fact that according to the Charter of the French Language (chapter c-11, ss. 54.1,58 and 67), an English engraving on a product made outside of Quebec is completely legal.
“The product in fact embossed, engraved or inlaid with an inscription in English, that product can exist in English,” said Dino Mazonne, a lawyer and member of Critiq: Canadian Rights in Quebec. “You don’t need to have a French language equivalent.”
Global News called the OQLF, but were told that they did not want to comment on the story.
Instead, they referred us to this press release.
It says journalists are making a mountain out of a molehill.
So they don’t want to talk.
“This is obviously bigger than a spoon,” said Lipper. “This is a very big debate that’s going on and I think this has been the last straw for many people.”
Menchie’s points out all of their signage is actually in French.
They didn’t think four words on a spoon would be an issue.
Some are even now calling the debacle “Menchiegate.”
It’s going to cost about 30,000 dollars to create a new mold for the spoons.
Until then, Menchie’s says they’ll have to serve their frozen yogurt with generic white plastic spoons.
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