MONTREAL - Language police have ordered the removal of stickers designed and distributed by an organization that seeks to promote economic development in the city’s west end.
The bilingual sticker, placed in windows at many commercial establishments, reads in letters of equal size: “I’m active in NDG, Je m’active a NDG.”
Merchants who posted the C-DEC sticker soon heard from the Office Quebecois de la langue francaise, which polices Quebec's language laws.
The government agents ordered the stickers removed because the text violates a provincial law stating that English letters must be half the size of French letters.
Paul Brodeur of the Boutique de Ski Austrian wasn’t impressed by the order to remove the sticker.
“I was a little surprised that something for the economic development of the community, that the OQLF would waste their time on that,” said Brodeur.
A representative of the OQLF told CTV Montreal that the C-DEC left merchants vulnerable to fines.
“They may not be aware that they put businesses in infraction of the charter of the French language. I’m sure they do that in good faith, in good will and we want to inform them that by doing those signs they put the businesses at risk,” said OQLF representative Martin Bergeron.
