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Comment by jefft255 | Hacker News Reader

Of all the unintended/bad consequences of bill 101, I’m not sure about this one. Maybe you witnessed something but I’d be surprised if that was a regular thing. Also, depending on the context this could be a very legitimate request; how is anyone supposed to know the intent of someone asking for a translation?

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I confirm this is true. Happened to me twice.

First time was a company that had 0 clients in Qc (or Canada if that matters), still received a complaint.

Fortunately, since we didn't care about the FR website, we basically added a link which was pointing to a google translate version of it.

But yeah, this law is definitely used by many as an "exploit against companies" just to make you waste your time.

Multiple different times, different companies, different people and knowing the intent because they either told me point blank or I asked.

Yes I understand that you know the intent; but are you suggesting that we shouldn't mandate businesses to hand out some documents in French because a few people you know are assholes? Do you realize that there is a reason that this law exists and that people could legitimately want to ask for documents in French?

> Do you realize that there is a reason that this law exists and that people could legitimately want to ask for documents in French?

I don't see where my comment is saying that individuals shouldn't be provided the documents in French.

I'm only discussing what I observed and further providing context when it was suggested it doesn't happen often and it could be legitimate.

Equally it might not be legitimate.

It is actually fairly common reply I get when I mention it can be abused.

Ok then I misread what you were trying to say. I wish Bill 101 wasn't abused (like the Italian restaurant scandal thing). Sadly, as with most laws, people will always find a way to twist it...

It really is not the bad, most of the time when there is actual abuse there is a social outrage and they back off.

Bill 101 was created to protect the only French-speaking group in America. It's by definition a lesser evil to protect French from declining and it is visibly not enough since the percentage of French speaker across the province is going down.

There are quite a few other French-speaking places in America and most of them are (or see themselves) under no cultural threat.

Bill 101 was only created by the Quebecers for themselves, not by some entity above them in order to protect them.

Citation needed. French is definitely in decline in Louisiana and some efforts are being put in place https://www.seattletimes.com/life/lifestyle/louisiana-french... .

Similarly story for New Brunswick as far as I know. Those two are, to my knowledge, the biggest francophone regions outside Québec in North-America. Franco-Ontariens are not very happy either right now with Doug Ford cutting French services. I don't disagree with you second sentence.

I didn't really think about New Brunswick and Louisiana as those only have French-speaking minorities of tens of thousand people.

Haiti and the various French territories have many more French speakers than those (more or less 7 million, only slightly less than Québec has).

Edit I'm afraid that without an actual source you might not believe me, so here it is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_distribution_of_F...

Replying to seszett; You're right, I forgot about Haïti. Don't forget that they are their own country so they are not quite under the same amount of pressure than Québec or other French minorities in NA. Apart from that I don't really see your point; the other francophone territories in NA are mostly France's Territoires d'Outre Mer so of course they wouldn't feel that their French culture is under threat... Let's just say I'm less than convinced by your point here

I was just saying that Quebec is not the only French speaking place in America, nothing more.

>> There are quite a few other French-speaking places in America and most of them are (or see themselves) under no cultural threat.

Well... This reads to me like you're saying something more.

Well I was saying that they don't seem to need bill 101, since you were saying that bill 101 was created to protect the only French speaking group in America.

Québec is not the only French speaking group in America and bill 101 is only a Québec law, that's what I wanted to say. Maybe that wasn't clear.

Well, of all the other places, either they are a) Haiti, which is its own country b) territories of France c) places where French is dying.

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