Castanet

Snarf wrote:this is sooooo la stupid.....
Don't they have bigger fish to fry?

Snarf wrote:And don't get me wrong, I have nothing against anyone. But why do they try to force crap like this down our throats? Do we require them to have english on all packaging in QC?

Walmart to take Quebec to court over need for bilingual signs

Stores such as Walmart, Gap and Costco — the three horsemen of English imperialism — have been told their brand …Great news for shoppers in Quebec who can't find the nearest Walmart: The multi-national, multi-billion-dollar company could soon have its overly-English name changed to French for your convenience.

The Office Quebecois de la Langue Francaise (OQLF) is demanding several major international companies change their names in Quebec to suit a new interpretation of the province's French protection laws.

Stores such as Walmart, Gap and Costco — the three horsemen of English imperialism — have been told their brand names are no longer acceptable and must either change them into French or add a French tag line to their signs.

The OQLF has suggested Walmart, for example, change its name in Quebec to "Le Magasin Walmart," which translates to "The Walmart Store."

That should clear things up.

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The Canadian Press reports that these companies are not entirely thrilled at the new interpretation and are taking the Quebec government to court over the demand to change their names.

Section 63 of Quebec's French Language Charter says that company names must be in French, but until earlier this year it was not being enforced against trademarked names.

Presumably the OQLF believes it is acting in the best interest of the Francophone community, and not just batting at hornet's nests in an ongoing fight to rid the province of the English scourge.

Kentucky Fried Chicken has already changed to "Poulet Frit Kentucky" in Quebec. But its name is almost an entire sentence and not just a jargon-laden scrabble like Costco or Walmart.

The names of most international companies are nonsense anyway. Walmart doesn't mean anything in English that it doesn't mean in French. Someone would be hard-pressed to explain how the name Costco is doing the English language any favours.

Sure, Gap is an English word… but not really in the way the clothing store uses it.

The demand for name change came before the Parti Quebecois formed government, but they are certainly not backing away from it. You may recall how one minister announced upon forming government that workers should not be forced to speak both English and French.

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Out of the other side of its mouth, the government is insisting that companies that don't find it necessary to attract customers in both languages should be forced to make their signs bilingual anyway.

What's good for the goose is good for the oie (French word for goose), non?

French Castanut wrote:

Snarf wrote:And don't get me wrong, I have nothing against anyone. But why do they try to force crap like this down our throats? Do we require them to have english on all packaging in QC?

Yes you do. Everything sold in Canada has to be bilingual labeled.

Some of the stuff in the Asian aisle at the grocery store doesn't comply. Let's don't tell the QC, they will require Harper to get these emptied faster than in take you to cook a chinese noodle soup.

zzontar wrote:At least WAl-Mart is fighting it. Hopefully when Quebec loses the lawsuit, they'll take the loss from the provincial funds and not the federal.

French Castanut wrote:I always wanted to do banking with PC Financial out there. But they were PROHIBITED from serving Quebec, because they only offered English service.

Anything unilingual (other than French), is prohibited from doing business in that province.

As for signage, French have to be written so much % bigger than English.

If I have kids, I would be PROHIBITED from sending them to an English school, because I didn't myself received English education.

And if you owe a business, you serve all canada, have offices in every provinces, well, I bet you use computers and softwares. Well, for your Quebec employees, you MUST provide them with a French translated software.

Artofthedeal wrote:And this is a perfect recipe to handicap your economy and turn yourselves into one giant welfare state, dependent on the rest of Canada to support you.

John500 wrote:Guess they dont teach histoyr in Quebec. This reminds me of 30's Germany.