[Hopey]

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Are you passionate about the language issues in Quebec. Does it piss you off to see signs in English.

If it does, don't you think you should relax a bit?

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It depends, I think it is normal as a majority to require at least a version in a sign in the majority language. Some people would want it exclusively in french but I think it is going too far.

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Don't you think a business owner has the right to display a sign in any language he or she wants?

Does a culture truly deserve protection through legislation? Isn't it reasonable that if a culture cannot survive on its own merits then it should fade away?

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It's a shame that Quebec's fascist language laws aren't really well known outside of Quebec and Canada. Whenever I tell a non-Canadian about Quebec's language laws, they're always quite shocked.

For instance:

1) If you are working in a retail shop that serves the public, you MUST greet everyone in french. If you greet someone in english (even if you know that this person is english), you can be fined by the language police.

Every so often some seperatist retard will file a complain with the language police about being served in english at a particular store. An undercover language police officer will then visit the store to investigate. If he/she is greeted in english, the store gets fined.

2) The french text on all signs must be at least 2X the size of the english text. The language police go around with rulers measuring the size of text on signs that they feel do not meet the "prominently french" requirement. If the signs do not comply with the law, the store is fined for each sign.

This applies EVERYWHERE in Quebec -- including places like China Town in Montreal, where many store owners get fined for having signs which are only in Chinese, or in places like Shawville, which is about 90% english and have had numerous run-ins with the language police.

Also, if you dare use an "Anglicism" on a sign -- which is a common english word that is understood by almost all french people, such as "Le Week-end", you get fined.

3) If you move to Quebec from outside Canada, you *must* put your children in french schools -- even if your kids do not speak a word of french. For special cases (for instance, if you have a kid who is a prodigy of some sort, and an english school is best able to accomodate his/her gift), you can go to a tribunal and argue your case for english schooling. However, it takes years to get your case heard before the tribunal (and in the interim, your kid will have to attend french school), and they turn down almost every request they hear. As a consequence, english schools are closing all over Quebec due to the fact that english people are leaving the province, and new immigrants aren't permitted to send their kids to english schools.