French Language cops bite down on restaurants

[grammafreddy]

http://www.castanet.net/news/Canada/877 ... estaurants

Language cops bite down on restaurants
by The Canadian Press - Story: 87705
Feb 21, 2013 / 1:09 am


Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Massimo Lecas, co-owner of buonanotte restaurant, poses for a photograph with a menu at the restaurant in Montreal, Wednesday, February 20, 2013. The Office quebecois de la langue francais has warned a Montreal restaurant owner there's too much Italian on the menu of his Italian restaurant.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes.

Mamma Mia! The word 'pasta' is a little too Italian for Quebec's language cops.

They'd prefer something more in the language of Moliere than Michaelangelo when it comes to menus, even in Italian restaurants.

Pasta wasn't the only word that left a sour taste when they recently chewed over the menu at Buonanotte, a trendy Italian restaurant in Montreal. There were several other words that didn't have enough of a French flavour for the Office Quebecois de la language francaise.

For example, the agency says 'bottiglia' which is Italian for bottle, should be 'bouteille' on the wine list. Using 'calamari' instead of the French word for squid is also a little fishy.

The restaurant's owner couldn't believe it when he got a letter from the agency pointing out the transgressions.

"We were taken aback by it," said Buonanotte owner Massimo Lecas on Wednesday.

Buononotte is a high-profile Montreal eatery that has catered to a host of sports and entertainment stars including Maurice (Rocket) Richard, Celine Dion, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro.

Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Brian Mulroney have also dined there but it wasn't immediately clear if Premier Pauline Marois has ever been a customer. It also has a restaurant in Toronto under the same name.

Controversy was the flavour of the day Wednesday as people stewed on social media over the intervention from the Office inspectors, who were dubbed 'tongue troopers' back in the darker days of Quebec's language battles.

In a statement issued late Wednesday, the provincial government reiterated that the language agency would review the whole situation.

It conceded that despite finding non-French words on the restaurant menu, the officials involved were "overzealous."

Lecas said his restaurant hasn't had a language complaint in the 22 years it's been open and he's handling the controversy with a sense of humour.

Lecas did lament that the brouhaha seemed to be reflective of current language tensions in the province that followed vows by the PQ to toughen laws.

Ironically, the saga started the day after the Sept. 4 election when the PQ won a minority government.

"Overzealous" is right. Gezuz.

How did Quebec come to be so special anyway? I musta missed that part of Canadian history. I am getting a bit tired of all this "specialness".

[Phoenix Within]

Racism at it's finest, disguised as "cultural preservation".

Anyone remember Jack Parizeau getting all liquored up, going on TV, and blaming the "minorities" for the PQ losing the Referendum vote?

[French Castanut]

They care about a pasta on a menu but they certainly don't care shopping at Wal Mart - Le marché de Wal - in proper FRENCH.

Let me chair this video with you: (Start video at 15 seconds):

[Corneliousrooster]

You will find more english on signage and packaging in Mexico than you will in quebec.

[steven lloyd]

You will find more english on signage and packaging in Mexico than you will in quebec.

Another good reason for moving to Mexico and not Quebec.

[Bsuds]

What I would like to say would just be deleted so.... :-# :-# :-#

[French Castanut]

[French Castanut]

[FreeRights]

Can someone with better understanding of this than I explain, this Office that enforces language regulations, are Quebec-based establishments required to comply? Like, are these actually legitimate laws that pasta cannot be called pasta?

[French Castanut]

Can someone with better understanding of this than I explain, this Office that enforces language regulations, are Quebec-based establishments required to comply? Like, are these actually legitimate laws that pasta cannot be called pasta?

Bill 101, article 58 says:

58. L'affichage public et la publicité commerciale doivent se faire en français.

Ils peuvent également être faits à la fois en français et dans une autre langue pourvu que le français y figure de façon nettement prédominante.

Toutefois, le gouvernement peut déterminer, par règlement, les lieux, les cas, les conditions ou les circonstances où l'affichage public et la publicité commerciale doivent se faire uniquement en français ou peuvent se faire sans prédominance du français ou uniquement dans une autre langue.

1977, c. 5, a. 58; 1983, c. 56, a. 12; 1988, c. 54, a. 1; 1993, c. 40, a. 18.

Basically, that crap says that legally, French must be prominent over any other language. It means that "Pasta" can be on the menu, but "Pâtes" must be there first, and bigger. It also says that the government can decide to make bilingual menus illegal as well if they feel like it.

http://www2.publicationsduquebec.gouv.q ... 1/C11.html

[logicalview]

The saddest thing is that we Canadian taxpayers are subsidizing this racism. When will enough finally be enough? I expect after one more election where Quebec votes NDP and the rest of Canada Conservative, their gravy train may finally be over. We can only hope.

[my5cents]

The rest of Canada has a federal language law the mandates the use of French on packaging, TV, official documents, in courts etc etc. In Quebec they have a language law that prohibits languages other that French in certain instances.

(now, what is the French phrase for "dim sum")

There is even a portion of the law that requires the use of French in all internal workings of a company with a certain number of employees, which gets pretty crazy if the type of company that is forced to use Frebch in all it's internal memos and documents is an English language newspaper or radio station.

[sobrohusfat]

(now, what is the French phrase for "dim sum")

Montant Sombre


Quebecois are certain that Adam must have been an Anglo since only an Englishman would think about eating an apple while standing in front of a naked young woman.

tough choice.jpg (4.47 KiB) Viewed 91 times

[The Rooster]

So Canada is supposedly Bilingual as enforced by the Trudeau government , costing $billons to initiate , and continue to fund.
WELL BILIGUAL MEANS TWO , SO QUEBEC IS IN DIRECT CONFLICT OF FEDERAL LAW AND SHOULD BE FEDERALLY CHARGED .

I still remember the Quebec language police freaking out at the BC Olympics , saying that there was not enough French . The OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF THE OLYMPICS NO MATTER WHERE IT IS HELD , IS FRENCH ,

What a unch of ugly entitlement issued filled SPOILED BRATS .they should be ousted

Vote for Tru-Dum jr and Quebec will bully us again . Just look at ow Quebec attacks Harper over being from the West . Harper was born and raised in Toronto . Just goes to show how STUPID the Quebec mafia news is.

[Phoenix Within]

What a bunch of ugly entitlement issued filled SPOILED BRATS .

The student protests should be enough proof of that!