OQLF Faces Backlash for Salad Bar Sign Fine

Journal de Montréal columnist Sophie Durocher opines on the most recent Office québécois de la langue française controversy and concludes that the apparent Bill 101 infringement by Mandy's Salad Bar in Westmount is just another case of overkill and petty harassment.

Here, a partial translation of Durocher's criticism.

If a business that welcomes customers in French puts up a lovely sign in a language other than French, do we really need to break out the whip? A poster in Russian at a restaurant that sells in vodka, is that an offense ladies and gentlemen of the OQLF? Should we prohibit signs in German at a brewery that specialises in German beers? Rip the La Dolce Vita poster off the wall of a small Italian trattoria? Where does the delirium end?

Not a good sign when you lose the support of someone like Durocher. This is a columnist, after all, who once wrote (translation): "Retailers and artists from here who give themselves an English identity are a sign of colonization that worries me much more." [Source: Canoe]

So, yeah, the OQLF? Clearly out to lunch on this one.

· OQLF: 2 autres cas loufoques [Journal de Montréal]