Bill 101 revisited: Anglo-rights activist calls for more English signage

A Montreal-areacity councillor is leading a campaign to encourage retailers in predominantly English-speaking neighbourhoods to add English to their signage.

• Quebec to tighten language law, force retailers to add French descriptions to names
• Quebec doesn't rule out tighter language law to force retailers to use French

Ruth Kovac, a councillor inCte-Saint-Luc,started the campaign more than a year ago, writing retailers to ask them to add English to signs which, under Quebec's Law 101, must be predominantly in French.

"We send [an email] to companies where we feel that English has vanished from the landscape," Kovac told Daybreak host Mike Finnerty on Tuesday.

"I just find that unacceptable."

Kovac considers big-box retailer Costco one of her greatest success storiesso far in her campaign.

"There was zero English before in the stores," she said. "No flyers, no birthday cakes in English."

"Lo and behold - they listened," Kovac said, adding she received a confirmation from the retail giant on Mondaythat it has put English signage in place.

Question of respect

McDonald's was one of the first companies to respond to Kovac's campaign - made easier, thecouncillorsays, by the fact that the fast-food retailer now has digital boards, enablingfranchises to post English as well as French, depending on the demographic make-up of the localclientele.

"Everything respects the law," Kovac said. "We're not here to change Bill 101. But we do want to make sure where I shop, where you shop and other people shop that the respect for the language was there."

She said US-based multinationals, including Sears, Winners and Bulk Barn, have all responded positively to her initiative.

Ironically, Kovac said, the Hudson's Bay Company is a different story.

"The Bay doesn't listen to anything we say or do," Kovac said. "This is a company rooted in British history that has just ignored us."

French 'visage' important: Culture minister

Quebec's culture minister, Hlne David, said successive Quebec governments have worked to increase the visibility of the French language in Montreal and across the province, and she said that is not about to change.

"We've worked hard on that. We're very proud of that.Collectively, with all the communities, we want to work on this French 'visage' (face) of Quebec," David said, noting her ministry will takes steps this autumn to strengthen the rules around French-language signage.

Other priorities

Sylvia Martin-Laforge, the executive director of the Quebec Community Groups' Network (QCGN) an umbrella organization for English-language minority groups across the province says English-language signs are, for the most part, not high on her members' priority list.

They're "worried about the vitality of the community their institutions,about the services they get in health and social services, about their kids being able to get jobs and their seniors being able to live here in Quebec," Martin-Laforge said.

However, she added it's in the interest of businesses to demonstrate to English speakers both Quebec citizens and tourists that they want to sell them their services and wares.

'No need for language war'

Gary Shapiro,an anglophone-rights activist who has spearheaded a petition to shut down the Office Qubcois de la langue francaise (OQLF) - goes further than Kovac in his campaign.

In an open letter published in the Montreal Gazette last June, Shapiro said Montreal needs special status, "to insulate our city's battered economy from the tiresome language debate and the never-ending threat of separation."

Montreal Mayor Denis Coderredemurs, calling special status "unnecessary."

"Every time I call a news conference, there is a segment in English," he said, adding some boroughs provide services in English and other minority languages as well, for reasons of security.

"We don't need to embark onanother language war," Coderre said.

"Montreal - as an international metropolis -- has the status of being a French-speaking city, but one where people get the services they need. I've had no indication it's not working well the way it is."