British citizen creates national uproar in Quebec

[HVC]

So it would be illegal then for me to post an ad in strictly English, for example? A completely private advertisement?

Absolutely.

Moreover, it would be illegal to post a bilingual ad in which the French was the same size as the English.

French must "predominate".

Can someone post a sign in a third language with no french? it'd feel weird walking through chinatown here with bilingual signs.

[Grey Fox]

Well not if it's an english newspaper.

[HVC]

Montreal is nice, and so is quebec city. If you speak passable french (or at least attempt too ) youèll have a great time. Even if yu speak no french you'll have a great time in most areas of those two cities.

As an aside, the french we're taught in ontarion is european french, it's not too useful in quebec

Why?  Wouldn't the teachers be from Quebec?  But I guess if Quebec English teachers do not even have it as their first language either...

Anyway Quebec French sounds really funny when you are used to hearing Euro French.

all my french teachers were of italian ethnicity, so i wouldn't know lol. I used to be relativly good in french (awesome by my peers standards) and the first time i went to montreal i was very confused.

[Valmy]

Can someone post a sign in a third language with no french? i'd feel weird walking through chinatown here with bilingual signs.

The law clearly indicates simply 'another language' so English is not singled out.  Your Serbo-Croatian sign must have French on it as well it seems.

[Grey Fox]

They don't really translate in Montreal's China town either.

It's the kind of law that is only enforce if someones complains & since no one does except the random "can't find any real news" journalist. It's not really enforced, especially in China Town.

[Oexmelin]

So it would be illegal then for me to post an ad in strictly English, for example? A completely private advertisement?

Absolutely.

Moreover, it would be illegal to post a bilingual ad in which the French was the same size as the English.

French must "predominate".

No. Any type of ad, in English speaking media - TV, newspaper, internet - is fine. Political speech is fine. You get unilingual political signs on lawns. What is targetted is outdoors or indoors commercial ads. You can't post «SALE» without posting «VENTE». The «French must predominate» was necessary because, of course, you got Angryphones wiseasses who tried to circumvent the law by posting a French version in small prints.

[Berkut]

Apart from that, lessons on bilingualism from people who admit being unilingual is interesting.

Who is that?

[Malthus]

Imposing a whole level of added costs and niggling petty bureaucracy on doing business - such as having the police carefully measure your signs to ensure that the font on the french version was larger than the font on the English version (a requirement under Quebec law)

Do you have any report that this was actually done ? In your trips to Montréal, did you notice that policy enforced ? Had you had the chance to visit Montréal before the language laws ?

Certainly. There have been court cases of businessmen fined for not having French "predominate".

Moreover, it isn't really significant to my point whether the laws are enforced stringently or not, as business people doing due dilligence have to assume that they will obey the existing local laws, not flout them because they aren't strictly enforced - and plan for the costs of doing that. Which, in Quebec, always means printing up special "Quebec only" materials to conform to Quebec's bizzare language laws.

[crazy canuck]

Indeed. Fortunately, «growing an economy» requires both Mom & Pop's where the need to learn English is nil and multinationals (Rio-Tinto-Alcan ; Cirque du Soleil ; Power Corporation) where the need is enormous.

Apart from that, lessons on bilingualism from people who admit being unilingual is interesting.

My intention is not to give you a lesson in bilingualism.  The math is simple.  If a small percentage of the population of Quebec can speak English then you have a small pool of people from which you can draw from for the talent to deal with the English speaking world.  Those people who cannot speak English must then rely on the bilingual speakers for economic relations with the English speaking world.

If you have found a solution to this obvious problem then more power to you.  Not only can you speak more languages then I but you are obviously much more intelligent as well.

[The Minsky Moment]

Even if it is not true (and honestly, I have no idea) there is certainly the perception that it is true. For example, I would never visit Quebec because of that perception - if I was visiting Canada, there are lots of places that seem just as nice where I won't have to run the risk of dealing with some spaz who is going to act like an ass because I don't speak French.

So you would specifically choose not to travel to a place because there is a "perception" that people might be rude or because there is some risk someone might be rude?  On that basis, how could you visit anyplace?  In my experience, people are capable of being a "spaz" and acting like an ass in any language.

Certainly languish is proof that English speakers are not immune.   

[HVC]

Apart from that, lessons on bilingualism from people who admit being unilingual is interesting.

Who is that?

i speak two an half languages, can i bitch freely?

[Malthus]

So it would be illegal then for me to post an ad in strictly English, for example? A completely private advertisement?

Absolutely.

Moreover, it would be illegal to post a bilingual ad in which the French was the same size as the English.

French must "predominate".

Can someone post a sign in a third language with no french? it'd feel weird walking through chinatown here with bilingual signs.

Nope. Chinese, English, all must be subordinate to "predominate" French under this law.

[Berkut]

So it would be illegal then for me to post an ad in strictly English, for example? A completely private advertisement?

Absolutely.

Moreover, it would be illegal to post a bilingual ad in which the French was the same size as the English.

French must "predominate".

No. Any type of ad, in English speaking media - TV, newspaper, internet - is fine. Political speech is fine. You get unilingual political signs on lawns. What is targetted is outdoors or indoors commercial ads. You can't post «SALE» without posting «VENTE». The «French must predominate» was necessary because, of course, you got Angryphones wiseasses who tried to circumvent the law by posting a French version in small prints.

Ahhh, so it is actually the fault of the non-French that the law says that "French MUST predominate" with "predominate" being defined as being twice as large? Because if it wasn't "twice as large", why, that would be a sign that the sign writer is an "Angryphone"?

Uh-huh.

[Grey Fox]

Certainly. There have been court cases of businessmen fined for not having French "predominate".

Moreover, it isn't really significant to my point whether the laws are enforced stringently or not, as business people doing due dilligence have to assume that they will obey the existing local laws, not flout them because they aren't strictly enforced - and plan for the costs of doing that. Which, in Quebec, always means printing up special "Quebec only" materials to conform to Quebec's bizzare language laws.

It doesn't seem that hard since every sizeable industry seem to be able to do it. It's an added cost sure. It's the choice we made.

[Valmy]

Ahhh, so it is actually the fault of the non-French that the law says that "French MUST predominate" with "predominate" being defined as being twice as large? Because if it wasn't "twice as large", why, that would be a sign that the sign writer is an "Angryphone"?

Uh-huh.

Well almost all laws are written as knee-jerk reactions to specific outrages so it seems logical.