The owner of a Gatineau, Que. café says it’s “silly” that Quebec’s language watchdog is telling the business to write its Instagram posts in French.
The Petites Gamines dessert shop says it received a letter from l’Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) on Wednesday about a complaint that the café’s social media posts are in English only.
“The office asks you to correct the situation as soon as possible,” says the letter posted on the Petites Gamines Instagram page. “To do this, you can write publications of a commercial nature in French and in one or more other languages, provided that their French version is accessible under at least as favourable conditions.”
Quebec requires businesses to post signs and advertising in French. The letter from l’Office québécois de la langue française says it’s a violation of the Charter of the French Language to make a social media post that is not in French when a French version is “not accessible under at least equivalent conditions.”
The letter tells the Petites Gamines, “We are counting on you to take the necessary measures now.”
The OQLF tells CTV News Ottawa it received a complaint regarding the language used on the Petites Gamines Instagram account, and sent a warning letter to the business.
“As part of handling a complaint, the Office communicates with the company to explain the nature of the infraction,” the OQLF said.
“Depending on the subject of the complaint, the Office may intervene by sending a warning or by assisting the company until the identified issues are resolved. In this case, since it was the first complaint received concerning this company, a warning was sent to inform them of the provisions of the law and to urge them to correct the situation. The complaint file has since been closed.”
The language watchdog notes the Charter of the French Language states that commercial publications, including those on social media, must be written in French.
“They may also be written in one or more other languages, provided that the French version is accessible under at least equally favourable conditions,” OQLF said.
Owner Gabrielle Sexton tells CTV News Ottawa a signficant portion of her clientele is English-speaking.
“I would say almost more than half of our clientele is anglophone when they come here, or at least are more comfortable speaking in English. We serve a lot of people from the federal government so, I mean, it’s vital for a business to be able to supply with the customer needs so, of course, we’re going to offer the English, speaking option if someone is more comfortable,” she said.
“Of course we’re not anti-French language or anything of that sort, but it’s it’s just resting on our Instagram right now where the complaint stems from.”
In a post on Instagram, Sexton said she thinks she knows who made the complaint to the language watchdog.
“Though we understand your right to be served in French in Quebec businesses, which by the way is always the case here, as well as all our internal signage being in French only, we reserve the right to do (what) we want on our Instagram,” the post says.
“Our Facebook page is in French only since the beginning so receiving this is an extremely petty move from a person who should really find a new hobby. Stay tuned for this battle!”
Sexton said the café is having fun with the whole affair.
“It’s very silly and that’s why we’ve been taking that very silly as well, and we’re kind of trying to make light of it and seeing how, you know, there’s way more important issues to be taking a stand against for other small businesses that are operating in the region,” she said. “Especially since Instagram is built with a button that you can just press to translate.”
With files from CTV News Ottawa’s Tyler Fleming