Montreal IGA forbids employees to speak English - Page 3

On June 28 2013 11:05 Uncultured wrote:



If it's on their own time it's horseshit, and I agree with you completely. But if it's referring to speaking to customers, then I understand it.

On June 28 2013 11:10 RowdierBob wrote:
It's funny, I travelled through Quebec last year and there was a weird tension between the English and French. There was a definite antipathy for me in some places when I spoke English. My Aussie accent couldn't even save me

On June 28 2013 10:51 Uncultured wrote:
They are your employer. They pay you do do whatever the fuck they like. You do it, or you don't get paid. That's how I feel about this.

On June 28 2013 11:10 MooMu wrote:


Read the article, please.

Obviously everyone would understand if the policy only applied to customers.

On June 28 2013 11:12 sva wrote:



Said no slave ever....

Seriously that is the most ignorant belief....

On June 28 2013 11:15 kukarachaa wrote:
Silly rule, but they have every right to enforce it. Doesn't matter if it happens during breaks, it is still on company's property.

Constitutional lawyer and human rights expert Julius Grey said he thinks it's a clear violation of freedom of expression and equality.

“I do not see how it serves any purpose for a person who is capable of serving the public in French, and does because that's a duty and that's a given, to speak French other than English or Spanish or Italian to his friend on his break. It's a demand that simply doesn't have a sufficient justification to justify going against basic rights,” said Grey.

The store's administration explained it this way in an audio recording: “Mme. Menard is French Canadian, who signs the paycheques. She's asking that inside these walls people speak the language of work which is Quebec's language. It's the law.”

It's not the law, however.

Office québécois de la langue française spokesperson Martin Bergeron said there is no provision in the French language charter that prevents employees from speaking English to each other during the course of a workday.

On June 28 2013 11:09 sorrowptoss wrote:
Pauline Marois's retardedly stubborn government is totally ruining the province and the reputation of Canada as an open, free and democratic country. Pathetic policies that are irrationally founded on a completely dead sovereignist movement. And that's assuming that the severely butchered pseudo-french that the quebeckers speak here in Quebec is considered French in the first place. What a failure.

On June 28 2013 11:24 MooMu wrote:




It can probably be challenged in the courts and I would bet my money on it being found unconstitutional.

On June 28 2013 11:12 SnipedSoul wrote:


It wasn't because you spoke English, it was because you're an Aussie. Sorry, mate!

On June 28 2013 11:31 codonbyte wrote:

Or he could just add the manager's name, phone number, and address to the OP and have the internet mobs flood him with phone calls criticising his ridiculous policy :D. + Show Spoiler +

On June 28 2013 10:35 a176 wrote:
Quebec does have a language gestapo to enforce francophone as the primary language ... but this is the first ive heard of something like this going so far.

We have a fair share of racists and bigots (that sticks for a while after a culture gets told to "speak white [english]" for speaking French in public in Montreal all the way up to the 60's). This anger toward the English-speaking canadians has led to a huge portion of the rest of Canada to treat us like scum and discriminating against us too. You people are just disgusting as our shitheads sometimes.

On June 28 2013 11:29 Djzapz wrote:

Why insult our pseudo-french? It wouldn't be that way if we hadn't gotten fucked until like the 60's... It always makes me laugh when people criticize our butchered language... guess how it got like that. We got shit on for well over a hundred years because why be humane with a conquered people?

We have a fair share of racists and bigots (that sticks for a while after a culture gets told to "speak white [english]" for speaking French in public in Montreal all the way up to the 60's). This anger toward the English-speaking canadians has led to a huge portion of the rest of Canada to treat us like scum and discriminating against us too. You people are just disgusting as our shitheads sometimes.

On June 28 2013 11:38 Dazed_Spy wrote:
This language issue is really ridiculous, its entirely authoritarian and foreign. It's like something out of Russia, or whatever. How the fuck do these notions survive in an otherwise civilized society?

On June 28 2013 11:35 MooMu wrote:


She's not gonna understand that gibberish English.

On June 28 2013 11:39 sorrowptoss wrote:

Well it's funny because automotically assumed that I wasn't from Quebec. I'm from Montreal and I'm currently living in Montreal and I am more francophone than anglophone. I'm just being dead honest with the french that I myself speak. I'm not trying to be mean or anything either.

On June 28 2013 11:43 Djzapz wrote:

Well I like to think that most measures of promotion of French are not too bad, although some laws are indeed pretty ridiculous.

But the reason why these notions survive in an otherwise civilized society is because there's a backwash of bad blood that remains from the old days when Quebecers were oppressed. It doesn't justify it at all because it's no longer the case, but that's why. Let's not forget that the rivality is still strong. It's easy to be a simpleton and view the quebecers as the bad guys and the canadians as perfectly great people who are irritated at those mean quebecer dicks... But both sides feel like the others are disrespectful to them, which only feeds the fire.

Perhaps quebecers are more guilty but it's not going to stop. Just reading this thread, it's quite obvious that many, many people, even Canadians, are incredibly bitter against pretty much the whole lot of us. Insulting our French for instance is just a dick move.