Brickbat: Sacré Bleu
When Maryam Rahimi opened SoLIT Café in downtown Montreal five years ago, she says she never imagined she would spend so much time dealing with the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF), Quebec's language watchdog that enforces Quebec laws requiring services are provided in French. Rahimi says years of complaints and inspections have forced her to change menus, signs, and receipts, and she claims inspectors even wanted her to find a French word for nachos, a request she found absurd. She says the repeated investigations feel like harassment and have cost her thousands of dollars, while the OQLF says it is responding to complaints and enforcing Quebec's language laws.