Quebec frozen yogurt shop allowed to use English-only plastic spoons

MONTREAL – A frozen yogurt chop in a suburb of Montreal has been told by Quebec’s language police that it can continue to let customers use its English-only plastic spoons.

The Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) has given American frozen yogurt chain Menchie’s in Dollard-des-Ormeaux the all-clear after the spoons were banned when a complaint was filed and an inspector visited the store in June.

The spoons were molded with the words “It’s your mix” and “It’s moosic,” which was cited as a violation of Quebec’s language laws.

In fact, 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.

“If the product is in fact embossed, engraved or inlaid with an inscription in English, that product can exist in English,” Dino Mazonne, a lawyer and member of Critiq: Canadian Rights in Quebec, noted in June.

“You don’t need to have a French language equivalent.”

Following the media storm around the incident, Quebec’s language watchdog issued a statement to say that it had not banned the frozen-yogurt spoons; but it had opened a yogurt-spoon investigation.

Read more: Social media reacts to #spoongate

It read: “Every time the OQLF opens a complaint file, a member of its staff goes to the spot to check the situation. To do that, they might take pictures, request documents, or simply seek information from the business. They will also hand over a letter explaining the reasons for the intervention.

“After that, the OQLF analyzes the file and, if it sees a violation of the Charter of the French Language, it asks the business to take corrective measures.”

– With files from Rachel Lau and The Canadian Press