A ma-and-pop cupcake shop in Montreal is being asked to re-draw their chalkboard signs after they were issued an order from Quebec’s so-called “language police.”
The owners of the Cupcakes Emmagination bakery -- run by a French woman and her anglophone husband -- say they will follow through with the changes because they simply don’t have the means to fight the Office Quebecois de la Language Francaise.
“It's a useless organization, and it's fear mongering. It's bullying as well,” shop owner Emanuelle Chasse told CTV Montreal.
“I think that there's many more uses for the funding that the OQLF receives than what they're doing with their funding.”
The conflict centres around a hand-drawn chalkboard sign advertising ice cream sizes, Chasse says. Cones are sold as “baby,” “medium,” and “large,” and a separate sign advertises “'catering” and its French equivalent, “traiteur.”
All fonts are about the same size, which violates OQLF rules that require French text to be larger than English text in signs. The owner knew of the rule but says it was not clear to her how much bigger the French wording had to be.
After receiving an OQLF letter two weeks ago demanding new signs by October 19, the shop owner decided to speak out.
“Canada's a bilingual country and we strive to serve all of customers in both languages, whichever language they feel most comfortable,” Chasse said.
“I don't feel more important as a Francophone than any other Anglophone. I don't feel that my culture, my language is more important than the English language,” Chasse said.
And some customers are standing by the couple.
“She's trying to make a business … and we're worried about signs? It's a bit much,” said customer Louise Jones.
The bakery was opened last May on Westminster Avenue in Montreal West, an area home to a large portion of the city’s English-speaking population.
With files from CTV Montreal
