this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2026
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It's funny from afar, but not fun to be in. They have what essentially amounts to a language police that enforces absurd and IMO human rights infringing laws. They regularly land in the news for things like threatening to fine a restaurant for using the word "pasta" on their menus.
Human Rights infringing?!? Everything all right up there on your kilometer-high horse?
Nom shit There s a great documentary about it. https://youtu.be/M1p52z6XEmI
Having received warnings from the OQLF for stuff, they have always been courteous, patient and open to accommodations. Honestly, if you don't throw a hissy fit it always works out fine and any penalty is easily avoidable.
The unfortunate reality is they have to investigate every complaint even if it's spurious.
They also have cool guides on vocabulary for stuff you might only have english words for. People need to move on from 1976 lol.
The only people who stand to benefit slacking on enforcement are big American companies who want to save a tiny expense. The same who are pressuring us in current trade talks. So no, I don't accept this constant malicious framing of reasonable enforcement of the law.
Yeah, no, that's not an argument. It doesn't change that the system is unacceptable.
And no, it's not just big American companies who are affected - in fact, they're affected the least. They have the deep pockets that small, local businesses don't have. And none of it changes the fact that the government has absolutely no fucking business telling anyone which languages they are and aren't allowed to speak.
You are quoting me having modified my words, so you are not engaging with this in good faith.
Signage laws are not human rights abuses.
The right to work in French is not a human right abuse.
Making a strawman of it doesn't change reality.
My rights as a Quebec anglophone have been better respected in the last 100 years than the rights of francophones in Ontario, Manitoba and New Brunswick. We should be proud of this heritage we built for ourselves in Quebec. Our cultural rights are legally protected.
Yes you are simping for American companies who have literally been pressuring the federal government for weeks/months/years to cave on every single language protection.
Small businesses have been, at worst, mildly inconvenienced in the last 50 years of signage laws existing. Society has been fine, apart from angryphones bitching now and then.
I was paraphrasing you. But OK, then we'll play by your rules:
If they restrict what I'm allowed to write in which language, that's a restriction of my freedom of speech, which is a human right. Next.
I never said it was. But ah, the accusations that are actually confessions. Next.
Hmm, weird, I don't recall laws forcing Francophones in Ontario to run their businesses in English, make their signage English, forcing them to go to English schools, and a whole range of other things.
Ah, another accusation that's actually a confession. Next.
Yeah, when a significant portion of the province's politics are "how can we further restrict what is allowed to be done in one language while using the excuse of protecting another language as a way to drown out any opposition", society is not fine.
Related "fun" fact: Quebec is the most prolific user of the Notwithstanding Clause, which allows the Parliament of Canada or any province or territory thereof to "temporarily" override parts of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (essentially Canada's Bill of Rights). They know what they're doing.
I'm not sure why you're getting all the downvotes, you're absolutely right.
With the trade war on, Quebec has been declared the good side. Whyever would you mention negative things about the good side? Are you on the bad side????
Downvote deployed, take that, evildoer!
-AverageLemming, apparently
It's natural to have many enemies with a career as long as mine.
(I have no idea.)
I am legitimately curious what portion of the municipal budget is spent on having every fucking sign in two languages.
I am quite conflicted about it. On one hand, it's kind of hilarious. But it's also extremely tryhard and tedious.
It's not even that, signs have to be mainly in French. Bar a few small exceptions, the English has to take up significantly less space than the French. Their stop signs literally say "ARRÊT" instead of "STOP" because that would be too much English influence. It's incredibly fucking petty.