New Quebec Language Law silliness: "Le Magasin Walmart"

[Sophie Scholl]

With all of your bitching about the minority English speakers in Quebec, change the terms to minority French speakers in Canada.  It's fun.

[Zoupa]

K.

[Habbaku]

That's a fetish I'll never get.  Half asian-caucasian, cool, but full asian girl, no, just no.

meowtf

[Berkut]

I'm not sure these are the examples you want. After all, with no official language in many states (and not federally), we end up catering to many languages as necessary.

So I can move to the US and request my tax form in French?

Yes you can.

  I can get to a local unemployment office and ask for someone to speak to me in French and that would be seen as totally ok?

Probably. Why that not be ok?

A spanish speaking citizen in Mississipi would get a trial in Spanish if he desired so?

Not likely. But he could ask.

[Barrister]

Plus it establishes that their signs have to be changed at the whim of a bureaucrat.

Which is the core of the debate here.  Not that english canadian media will report it that way of course.
It's not unusual for the citizens to go to court against various government office because bureaucrats have a creative way of interpreting the laws.  It's not unusual for the government, the elected body representing us, to sit on the fence and claim "independance" when it suits them.

Judgement against the government have been numerous.  Wether it be the creative interpretation of the construction laws by the Commission de la Construction du Québec or the creative interpretation of what your revenues should be by Revenu Québec, corporations and citizens go to court every day against their government to have their rigths respected.  It's not like Walmart is some unique case just because it's about a trademark.  But it's damn sexier than "Citizen sues Revenu Québec for harassment".

So Quebec government sucks, and this is just an examle of that?

[Zoupa]

Yup. It sells papers and got you talking though, feeding the myth.

Oh, Canada.

[Neil]

Quebec is a racist province, and they deserve all the bad things that happen to them.

[Syt]

Sometimes it can be fun to try and force a square peg into a round hole.

TMI

[garbon]

Sometimes it can be fun to try and force a square peg into a round hole.

TMI

[garbon]

I'm not sure these are the examples you want. After all, with no official language in many states (and not federally), we end up catering to many languages as necessary.

So I can move to the US and request my tax form in French?

Yes you can.

  I can get to a local unemployment office and ask for someone to speak to me in French and that would be seen as totally ok?

Probably. Why that not be ok?

A spanish speaking citizen in Mississipi would get a trial in Spanish if he desired so?

Not likely. But he could ask.

Yeah we're pretty accommodating. Hell, my sample ballot came in a bunch of different languages that you can vote in.

[Razgovory]

Yeah, I mean you an get government communications in all sorts of languages.  The government has to make a good faith effort to communicate to its citizens, which means it will send tax forms to you in French if you so chose.  You won't get a trial in French, but I think the government is required to give you an interpreter so that you can aid in your own defense.  In practice it would be harder to find a French interpreter then a Spanish one due to the low number of French speakers in the country.  Now if you demanded a French interpreter and could speak perfectly fine English they might hit you with sticks for being an asshole.

[Josquius]

I'd be with them if it meant changing things like sub-titles, e.g. "Lowest prices in the world" or the like into French but the names of shops too? That is just stupid.

So some companies have taken steps to change their name — like Kentucky Fried Chicken, which is known in Quebec as "Poulet Frit Kentucky." But others, like Walmart and Best Buy, have set up shop under the same name that appears elsewhere in the world.

This KFC one is particularly weird. I was under the impression it didn't even use the Kentucky Fried Chicken name anymore and just stuck to the pure KFC branding as it said enough.

[Razgovory]

Man, now I want some Chicken.

[Camerus]

I liked Viper's explanations on the culture background of what is a pretty dumb measure.

Still, it's hard to believe nationalists are helping themselves in any meaningful way with such excessive measures (or by fostering a climate in which such could occur), since it just serves to make them look ridiculous - even in the eyes of many of their own members - and frighten business away.

But I suppose that's just a realistic side-effect once a society has largely accepted the "endangered culture" mentality (which is IMO probably a valid perception).

[Razgovory]

I thought Nationalists looking ridiculous was de rigueur.