We cats admire the French language and wish we spoke it better. (As in how you get to Carnegie Hall, the answer is "Practice.") But the gendarmes in the Office Québécois de la Langue Française are a bunch of French fascists.
OQLF's storm troopers have been stomping through Montréal, terrorizing store owners who have a smidgen of English in their establishments' names. It's all a result of the infamous Bill 96, which the provincial government forced through and which is part of the reason that the poll numbers for Premier François Legault and his party are in la toilette.
The agents of the OQLF have their work cut out for them. Unlike Quebec City, Montréal is French, but also English, Scottish, Irish, and Indigenous. (The city's flag illustrates this nicely.) It's also a city of immigrants. English is everywhere, but so are zillions of other languages. We can only speak for ourselves, but having English so handy actually encourages us to redouble our efforts to speak French.
Nevertheless, the OQLF is undeterred. Their latest target was an English-style pub in an area of the city known as Little Burgundy. The pub, The Burgundy Lion, is nice. Also, its very English name celebrates its neighborhood. Here's a quick primer from The Montreal Gazette:
"Little Burgundy holds a special place in Montréal's Black history. Known as the 'Harlem of the North,' it was a destination for Black immigrants and railway workers and the cradle of the city’s jazz scene, which shaped Montréal's cultural identity and gave it an enduring international reputation. It's where jazz legends Oliver Jones and Oscar Peterson lived, just 12 doors apart, and where their style of play was shaped."
Leave it to the fascists to try to erase people of color. We're happy to report, though, that the pub owner stood his ground, and the OQLF surrendered. As they should have. Take that, Frankie. We cats PURR.
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