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03/24/2004 Archived Entry: "Oh, Bollocks..."

Posted by steve @ 07:58 PM EST [Link]

JE CONVIENS: The incomparable Paul Jané tears apart Quebec's language laws and the silly people who support them.

Fine, name ten normal, civilised, democractic countries (I know that that narrows things down mainly to Europe and North America, but those are the breaks) with laws that prevent people from putting up signs in whatever language they please. Furthermore, if you can come up with ten countries that have such laws on the books, I'll be fascinated to hear just how many of them can jail "offenders" or punish them with extremely steep fines.

I know for a fact - because I've seen it with my own two eyes - that I can go off tomorrow and open a shop in pretty much any large West European city with signs in English, French, Spanish, Swahili, or Urdu and not suffer any legal repercussions, yet I can't do that in La Belle Province. Hell, I can go to Toronto tomorrow, open up a store, and have all my signs in French. Sure, some of my customers may not have the slightest clue of what's written on them, but I won't suffer any unfortunate legal consequences because of it.

Montreal...greatest city in Canada. Quebec...silliest language laws anywhere.

Read on.

Replies: 2 comments

Thanks for the link (and the kind words), Steve.

(And yes, this could easily be the greatest city in Canada if it wasn't for the idiotic language laws.)

Posted by Paul Jané @ 03/25/2004 03:04 AM EST

Even the language laws aren't enough to rob Montreal of being the best city in Canada!

Posted by Steve Martinovich @ 03/25/2004 01:01 PM EST