St-Laurent Bar Blue Dog Motel Receives an OQLF Notice About Its Facebook Page | Eater Montreal

"A St-Laurent Boulevard bar and barber shop, Blue Dog Motel has been ordered to remain closed for just over a month during the omicron wave, yet on January 21, 2022 it received a notice of complaint from the Office Québécois de la Langue Française (OQLF) about content posted to its commercial Facebook account and its business name — the agency says French must appear at least as prominently as any other language. I spoke with owner Raphael Kerwin, who said, "It’s pretty poor timing. We’re closed. We can’t operate, and you’re asking me to do all this stuff?" and noted the social media page only targets "like a thousand people"; he also described financial strain from repeated closures, layoffs, inability to offer takeout without a kitchen permit, and supply problems caused by a labour dispute at the SAQ. Kerwin told the OQLF he could not address the issue until COVID-19 restrictions lift, and the agency agreed to defer action; OQLF spokesperson Chantal Bouchard confirmed that the charter requires commercial publications to be in French (though other languages may also appear) and said the agency offers support to help businesses comply. This is not Blue Dog’s first run-in with the OQLF: in 2014 the agency issued a notice about signage but backtracked when it learned the storefront had painted the French descriptors "Bar/Barbier." - Valerie Silva