Jolin-Barrette draws back from "Hi" ban
Simon Jolin-Barrette has decided he won’t launch a bill to make it illegal to say “bonjour-hi” although he may put out some PR to try to squelch it.
I don’t actually know whether it’s possible, in our legal framework, to legislate what people say. Possibly it is, in a commercial setting.
I’ve told this anecdote before, but for example:
I was in an Italian grocery store on St-Viateur. Waiting at the cash, I noticed the two cashiers speaking together in native English, so when I got to the cash, I addressed the cashier in English. She replied in French. No problem, I switched to French. Then she turned and said something again to the other woman in English.
“Forgive me for asking,” I said. “You two are talking in English, but when I spoke to you in English, you replied to me in French, and I’m curious why.”
“We have to. The boss has had formal complaints about us speaking English so the policy is we always speak French to customers.” (She said this in English.)
“Even if they begin by speaking English to you?”
“Especially then. People have tricked us into speaking English that way, and then they complain we spoke to them in English.”
I don’t know whether a store can be fined for having staff who switch to English when it seems natural to do so, but this suggests they can.
Some thoughts on this from the ever-cromulent Toula Drimonis.
Meantime, three quarters of Quebec residents polled said they think Montreal is a bilingual city.
Kevin 14:43 on 2019-10-07 Permalink
I know that kind of manager: they don’t support their employees and they don’t like dealing with complaints, even if complaints are not grounded in reality, so they make up stupid rules.
Last time I checked, 95% of complaints the OQLF investigated were not violations of any law., but as long as the crown corporation accepts anonymous complaints, they’ll keep coming in, and the bureaucrats get to continue to justify their existence.
Chris 18:28 on 2019-10-07 Permalink
“I don’t actually know whether it’s possible, in our legal framework, to legislate what people say” -> well, we have “hate speech” laws, so I guess, yes, it is possible, in general.
Kate 19:27 on 2019-10-07 Permalink
Chris, it would be a stretch even for Simon J-B to declare “Hi” to be hate speech.
Chris 19:33 on 2019-10-07 Permalink
Kate, obviously. I’m not saying that at all. I’m saying that we have laws to limit speech for reason X, so we could potentially have laws to limit speech for reason Y.
Kate 19:47 on 2019-10-07 Permalink
I realize that, Chris. But it would have to be an awfully fucking compelling reason. I’m glad even the CAQ could see the impossibility of trying to control casual speech in a public setting.
Chris 20:20 on 2019-10-07 Permalink
I’m glad too!
EmilyG 22:41 on 2019-10-07 Permalink
I have seen some businesses with reward certificates on their walls (from the OQLF? or a similar organization?) praising them for using French, or for being a French-speaking business, or something along those lines.
Filp 01:45 on 2019-10-08 Permalink
I’m curious about the relevance of that poll, given the odd sample demographics. Out of 1937 Quebecois, 1019 were Anglos, 773 Franco and 144 other? I don’t understand how that can paint an accurate picture of the province when Francos are so extremely underrepresented in the sample.