Montreal City Weblog

Kate 11:17 on 2022-12-10 Permalink Reply  

• jeather 11:56 on 2022-12-10 Permalink

  Not for recent big games, but you can often get a board game cheaper in French bc it’s less popular.

• Ephraim 13:40 on 2022-12-10 Permalink

  Well… online games aren’t available either. Let see them ban them. I want to see how that will go down… please!

• Thomas 14:11 on 2022-12-10 Permalink

  As a connoisseur of the finer points of life in Quebec, I thought I knew my Charte de la langue française. But I was shocked to learn this morning that English boardgames (or technically non-French boardgames — an important distinction as many of the best ones are actually in German) are basically illegal in Quebec. Who knew? I’m surprised that’s even constitutional to be honest.

  Meanwhile, that fact that English books are still legal can only be seen as an affront to the Quebec nation. Hopefully this intolerable situation will not be allowed to continue.

• Kate 14:16 on 2022-12-10 Permalink

  Thomas, it’s been a long time that products not labelled in French, or failing to include instructions in French, have been illegal here. I used to see reports and complaints that certain toys, hobby kits and other items couldn’t be sold here, but the problem has largely disappeared with the rise of online shopping.

• Thomas 14:35 on 2022-12-10 Permalink

  Further down in the article they explain that cultural products are exempted from the Charte, and that the industry here (and in France) is lobbying to have boardgames recognized as cultural products with the same rights as books or films.

  Strangely enough, non-French videogames are allowed to exist because there is already an exception in the Charte for software. It’s all very arbitrary and not well thought out at all, even broche à foin you might say. Quelle suprise…

• Thomas 14:41 on 2022-12-10 Permalink

  @Kate the Charte bans their sale here outright, and specifically mentions online shopping as being illegal too. It’s just that most online merchants apparently ignore the rule and the Canadian federation being a customs union makes it hard to enforce. Although the article mentions that Hasbro sells many of their games everywhere in the Western world except Quebec, illustrated with a screenshot of the Hasbro website refusing to ship the Wordle game to Quebec.

  And thus the French language was saved.

• mare 15:36 on 2022-12-10 Permalink

  AFAIK Non-French movies are only allowed to have a limited run (8 weeks?), unless there’s also a French version (dubbed or subtitled) available. I can’t find an online source for this, someone told me.

• Kate 20:49 on 2022-12-10 Permalink

  I’m pretty sure that’s true, mare, but I don’t know where to look it up.

  By now, Bill 101 must be quite a thick book with all the rulings and exceptions that have been made since.

• dhomas 04:02 on 2022-12-12 Permalink

  My kids really like The Game of Life. I wanted to buy it for them in French because I like to have them practice their French. The french version is much more expensive and never goes on sale. I ended up buying it in English.
  As for things not being sold in Quebec because of lack of French instructions or packaging, not everyone follows those rules. Mostly, Amazon just completely ignores them. Case in point:
  https://www.amazon.ca/Hasbro-Wordle-Players-Official-Inspired/dp/B0B5B9CP17