Walmart, Costco and Best Buy, along with other retailers are taking Quebec to court after the province’s “language watchdog” l’Office québécois de la langue française insisted they include French on their signs according to The Globe and Mail. Apparently the language laws of Quebec have not officially changed to give the OQLF the right to do so, and the companies
have decided to let the provincial courts decide. “According to Section 63 of Quebec’s French Language Charter, the name of a business must be in French. But it hasn’t generally been applied to trademarked names” (The Globe and Mail, 2012). Several companies including Kentucky Fried Chicken have embraced these requests and converted to be known by French aliases.
I think that the OQLF’s requests are within reason. The organization is attempting to preserve a dying culture that continues to be assimilated into a more general “Western” category. These new interpretations of the law come as the minority Parti Québécois attempt to buckle down further on language laws and increase overall use of language in the workplace and in education province wide. Personally, I fully support this aspect of the PQ. The rich French culture of Quebec should not be jeopardized under any circumstances.