Libman: Say Bonjour-Hi to more scapegoating, divisiveness and waste
Undercover observers. Secret shoppers. This week, The Gazette’s Andy Riga outed the
latest covert operation
by the Office québécois de la langue française to dispatch investigators into thousands of private stores and businesses over the next few months to spy on and record what languages retail workers use to greet and serve customers.
Targeting primarily the Montreal region and areas with large anglophone and immigrant populations, an OQLF spokesperson explained that part of its mandate is to monitor changes in, and track the evolution of, Quebec’s linguistic situation.
The operation is estimated to cost cash-strapped taxpayers up to $350,000 beyond the watchdog agency’s $49 million annual budget, which has doubled since the Coalition Avenir Québec government took power in 2018.
So what is the end goal of this type of research?
The last study published in 2024 concluded customers were able to be served in French in 98 per cent of visits across all urban areas studied. This should have been the only number that really mattered. However, that doesn’t conform to the nationalist narrative of a decline of French in Montreal, so attention and headlines focused again on “Bonjour-Hi.” It’s shameful and demeaning that the use of this inclusive bilingual greeting in areas with many non-francophones sparks any controversy whatsoever.
If this latest investigation uncovers that initial greetings in French are slightly down in certain areas, or that the use of Bonjour-Hi is on the rise, will it lead us in the direction of regulating what people can or can’t say in private settings? That would be a very slippery and dangerous slope.
Francophones are justified in wanting to ensure the vitality of the French language in North America. But this type of initiative not only does nothing to advance that goal, it lends itself to manipulation by politicians to further deepen division and suspicion.
A government can apply regulations on commercial signage, for example, to maintain a prevailing French face and character. But the real language of business and commerce is the language of your clientele. The objective is to make money. A private enterprise shouldn’t be told how to communicate one-on-one with customers.
Quebec merchants don’t need the government telling them to offer service in French. None of them want to deprive themselves of a client base making up 80 per cent of the province’s population. That’s just bad business.
If your business operates in an area largely servicing a particular demographic, like in western sectors of Montreal, you naturally do what you can to be courteous and welcoming to that group to encourage their patronage and satisfaction with your services. The state has no business compelling you to be dismissive or disrespectful with your clients or customers.
The National Assembly twice passed unanimous resolutions discouraging the practice of Bonjour-Hi. We live in a divided world. Anyone who has a problem with this inclusive greeting, primarily used where many non-francophones live (and still a French-first greeting anyway) is basically saying that anglophones shouldn’t be acknowledged and are inferior clients.
When it comes to the protection of French, anglophones aren’t the problem. We have done our part to perpetuate the use of the language as much as anyone. Our school system churns out bilingual graduates. Anglophones can speak French in higher numbers than ever before. Unfortunately, these facts are rarely, if ever, acknowledged.
When will francophone leaders have the guts to stand up and say “enough is enough”? When will any prominent francophone call out initiatives like this OQLF clandestine operation as petty and meaningless, not to mention an embarrassment?
It’s easier to find a scapegoat than to look in the mirror and delve deep into real issues and develop more substantive means of protecting French, rather than simply diminishing non-francophones.
Outing an anglophone store clerk at Fairview for privately greeting an anglophone shopper with Bonjour-Hi accomplishes absolutely nothing, except to further belittle this province.
Robert Libman is an architect and planning consultant who has served as Equality Party leader and MNA, mayor of Côte-St-Luc and a member of the Montreal executive committee.