'Feels like harassment': Montreal café owner says years of language inspections taking a toll (www.cbc.ca)

submitted 1 day ago by RandAlThor@lemmy.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca

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[-] SleeplessCityLights@lemmy.ca 13 points 18 hours ago

For those who don't know, they forced everyone to speak French, then ran out of money for teaching people how to speak French and made French classes inaccessible for many people.

It was never about preserving French culture, it's about punishing English speakers, when everyone speaks French after being here for 5 years.

The fucking CAQ should be punished for the people's lives they ruined with new immigration rules and making immigrants pay out of pocket to learn French so they can keep living here.

[-] gyoo@lemmy.ca 2 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Although I agree that the CAQ is doing a terrible job at the moment and that the bureaucrats at the OQLF sometimes exagerate without considering themseleves if there exists an alternative, it is about culture and has always been. The politics in Quebec have always rotated arround the defense against english assimilation.

[-] Chais@sh.itjust.works 3 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Their motto is: "Je me souviens." If they know one thing it's how to hold a grudge.

[-] gyoo@lemmy.ca 2 points 14 hours ago

Well, the thing is that the threat is still very much present today. The french language is declining in Quebec, the youth speak more and more english, the internet is basically in english, no matter how hard you try, french music and movies are either inexistant or nobody watches them, there's routinely stories comming out of Quebecers trying to get a service from the federal, only to get shut down because nobody speak french on the other end of the line, it's more and more difficult to get a job where it's feasible to speak french all day, higher-ups in corporations live decades in the metropolis without speaking a word of french, university students are tought their fields in english, in a french class and McGill (an english university) get 90% of the grants in the province, and on and on and on. The battle is not about the conquest wars or the october crisis, it's about today.

[-] SleeplessCityLights@lemmy.ca 2 points 9 hours ago

That's funny because other than West Island, I don't know many people under 18 that know English. The youth have so much Francophone YouTube and online content available now, they don't need English. It's so bad that they use French expressions and memes.

Where are you getting any of this? It's like you live in Ottawa or somewhere in Ontario. It's really hard to be that out of touch.

[-] SleeplessCityLights@lemmy.ca 3 points 15 hours ago

If this was about culture they would be providing a way for people to assimilate. Since they don't, they are showing through their actions that they don't actually care. I know people that went back to France because it was easier than dealing with the CAQs policy. People who's native language is French. Meet and talk to some real people and you will see what is going on.

[-] villasv@lemmy.ca 1 points 8 hours ago

they would be providing a way

This line of reasoning doesn't work. Policies and funding are not perfect representations of ideals, unfortunately.

[-] gyoo@lemmy.ca 2 points 14 hours ago

As I said, the CAQ is doing a particularly bad job at the moment. They have made very poor financial decisions over the past decade and now they have to claw the deficit, blaming the problems on everything else, you know, the usual political stuff. So now they cut funding for everything, promising that nothing will be affected and they create new laws to make it appear as if they're doing something before the next election drives them in the ground.

I will conceed that there is a background of xenophobia in a lot of these movements, but it is not mainstream. And remember that the CAQ is not the OQLF and it is not the population. The CAQ's poll rating are devastating right now. And when that story came out, pretty much everybody reacted saying "yet another stupid decision from the CAQ".

[-] ryven@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 1 day ago

What even is the French equivalent of nachos? Google Translate suggests it's "nachos" which is apparently unacceptable. I thought perhaps "croustilles de tortilla" but if "nachos" isn't acceptable then I can't imagine "tortilla" is. Do you really have to call it "croustilles de pain plat au maïs avec fromage et poulet"?

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 6 points 17 hours ago

No one in Quebec orders a chien chaud. It's le hotdog.

[-] ieGod@lemmy.zip 4 points 15 hours ago

Yep. Imagine if the rest of Canads forced restaurants to rename poutine to cheese curd gravy fries.

Except we would never because we're not little bitches about language.

[-] ieGod@lemmy.zip 2 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

Quebec is really stupid for how far they go for some things. This is a good example.

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 points 17 hours ago

The laws are not fairly enforced. Big US fast food chains don't have to change their names. When Jacques Villeneuve opened restaurant in Montreal, he could call it NewTown.

[-] BCsven@lemmy.ca 0 points 15 hours ago

They received 22 complaints...how hard is it for a patron to talk direct to the owner and say "Hey your receipt should say Merci",etc instead of lodging a complaint with the language police. What's the French term for Karens?

[-] gyoo@lemmy.ca 4 points 14 hours ago

Des trous d'culs.

[-] HikingVet@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

They really should have transparency. Because it seems like the government is doing what the Quebec government does: create a problem then cry victim on behalf of all French Canadians.

[-] TribblesBestFriend@startrek.website 6 points 1 day ago

Sorry not sorry. I admit that Montreal is a weird city on its language but ultimately this is a French province. However the CAQ gov are stupidly racist and the way the OQLF work could be upgraded to help new 1st generation immigrants owners

[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

Ah, yes. The French Language Penis Envy. They have been and will be second to English, and that pisses them off.

We have something similar here. English is the first foreign language taught here, and French "only" the second one. But you should hear the French teachers talking about their subject.

[-] Zamboni_Driver@lemmy.ca 1 points 16 hours ago

Wtf no not at all.

The entire region mostly speaks French. They are trying to preserve their culture.

[-] gyoo@lemmy.ca 0 points 15 hours ago

Ah, yes. The Canadian Independence Penis Envy. They have been and will be second to the US, and that pisses them off. Why won't they just listen, stop defending their economy, and just be the 51st state already? There are so many benefits, I can't start to count.

Ah, yes. The English Language Penis Envy. They have been for a while and will be second to Chinese. Why won't they just accept that it would be far more economically efficient to speak the same language as our main producer? They just have to put their pesky superiority feelings aside and accept that every children in the US and Canada should now learn Chinese as their first language.

Ah yes. The Ukrainian Independence Penis Envy. They have been and will be second to Russia, and that pisses them off. Why won't they simply accept that they're not even a real country, bow down and finally accept Putin's rule?

Ah yes. The Taiwan Independence Penis Envy. The have been and will be second to China, and that pisses them off. Why won't they simply accept that they're not the real China and just come back inside the mainland? So many economic benefits.

Ah yes. The Indigenous Culture Penis Envy. They have been and will be second to European rule, and that pisses them off. Why won't they understand that there place is in the residential schools? Why won't they understand that to be properly civilized is for their benefit and that we know better than them?

Ah yes. The European Tech Sovereignty Penis Envy. The have been and will be second to American tech companies. Why won't they understand that they're too late, that it'll be too costly and that it's really just an unfair attack against American companies to declare that they have too much power over their infrastructure?

I could go on.

The defense of French language is not about saying that we are better than everyone else (although some disgusting people do think that). It is about fighting to stay alive in a world where any slippage means death. It's about fighting the 80%-90% of english-first speakers in North America that put enormous amounts of funds and weight behind assimilation. When the might of the United States and the government of your own country is pushing for you to speak english, the only way to survive is by lashing out some times.

[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 1 points 13 hours ago

It's not about "exterminating" or "assimilating". It is just about French speaking people making themselves annying assholes. Nothing else.

[-] xyro@morbier.foo -2 points 20 hours ago

She got an audit because clients complained to not have a service in French in a French province. Nothing special about it. There are plenty of other place where French is not required if that's too much of a hassle.