Nothing wrong with language laws, people just need to stop being lazy. Learning a second language isn't that hard.
Anyone can send an anonymous message to this government agency and it will audit your business to make sure you are compliant. Have more than 50 employees? Make sure the copy button on your photocopier says "copiez" or you'll have to put stickers over it (true story, happened at my brother's pharma startup).
The sad thing is that most Montrealers have the attitude that "you're in Montreal, you should learn french." The problem is, this law goes far beyond that, and is a serious impediment for Montreal startups.
Anyways, I don't think it's asking much to have your website/blog/frontend in the language of the province where you operate, but the photocopier business, keyboards in french etc is ridiculous. Also it seems the language police always get more confident whenever a PQ government gets power.
Quebec is a joke, both economically and with respect to liberal democracy.
The company I work for had to put French stickers on every key of every keyboard. They had to put stickers on the microwave oven as well...
Now if you mean that you really hate the layout, it's really anti-programming, and sometimes I wonder why I stick to it. :) It's so easy to use a layout switching keyboard shortcut...
Despite being in Canada, I only buy laptops with US keyboards.
If you speak both languages (or have employees who do), how difficult is it anyway?
As you can imagine, hiring a full time french speaker just doesn't make sense. So, we have to "fire" our Quebec customers and block the province via IP. This is what dozens of startups (and big web companies) are doing now to circumvent the crazy laws.
> As you can imagine, hiring a full time french speaker just doesn't make sense.
So how are you based in Montreal, and why? Why not relocate to the US, or English-speaking Canada?
People speak in english. You can speak english all day if you want. My clients speak in english. We speak in english. We create websites that are 100% english for clients who are based in the USA.
What isn't allowed it having a workplace where the local (who can't speak english) have no chance of being hired because of the language. That is also why the employer must provide all workplace tools with french label. All else is lies, stereotypes and people not understanding the law.
Also, realistically if you hire many programmers who only speak English, it's simply not realistic to hire a programmer who speaks French exclusively because he can't communicate with the team. Putting "copiez" on your photocopier does not alleviate that.
These laws are discrimination, pure and simple, and have been found as such by the Canadian Supreme Court on many occasions. Most Quebecois just don't care about paltry things like individual rights, where their language is involved.
No. If that was true, Best Buy would have big billboards that say "Meilleur Achat". "Canadian Tire" would be "Pneus Canadiens". They don't. The law don't ask for it.
> Also, realistically if you hire many programmers who only speak English, it's simply not realistic to hire a programmer who speaks French exclusively because he can't communicate with the team.
That's the entire point of the law. It's the very reason it's there. To prevent business from hiring an all english staff which would prevent local people from working there.
Edit: Some of it may not make sense to you because we are working in the tech industry. The abuses those laws are there to protect against happen mostly to minimum wage workers in the industrial sector. Some people could get hurt if the machines are not labelled correctly. I admit that stickers on the photocopying machine is a joke but it could be life and death when we are talking about a big industrial machines filled with saws.
Even more so if you don't plan to use that language for anything else afterwards.
It isn't that hard but isn't that easy either.
There's a big difference between being really proficient and knowing enough to be productive. In any case, like other skills, everyone gets better by actually doing it, but they need to start first.
Especially amongst first generation immigrants like myself.
Any teacher will tell you that parenting is the biggest determining factor in academic achievement, and as a result French immersion is effectively the "academic stream" in the Canadian school system. It also receives additional federal funding which is not available to English programs.
They pretty much learn a second language for free. Why not?
And by extension, English schools that overlap with French immersion schools become biased towards kids with learning difficulties which makes them that much less attractive to high-achieving parents. The TDSB elementary system isn't supposed to be streamed but effectively it is.
(I had two kids in TBSB French immersion until grade 4 when we moved away)