Office qu�b�cois de la langue fran�aise

The Office qu�b�cois de la langue fran�aise (Quebec Office of the French language) was established by the 1977 Charter of the French Language. This governmental institution has the following mandate:

To define and apply Quebec's policy pertaining to linguistic officialization, terminology and francization of public administration and businesses;
To provide support so that French is the usual and normal language of work, communications, trade and businesses in the Administration and companies;
To help to define and elaborate the francization programs of the law and to follow the application of it;
To supervise the evolution of the linguistic situation in Quebec and submit a report on it every five years to the minister;
To ensure the respect of the Charter of the French language, acting on its own initiative or following the reception of complaints;
To establish the research programs necessary to the application of the law and to carry out or have carried out the studies needed by these programs.

In order to carry out these responsabilities, the office has the powers to:

Take the appropriate measures to insure the promotion of French;
Assist and inform the Administration, the businesses, individuals and groups concerning the correction and enrichment of the French language;
To receive observations and suggestions on the quality of the language as on the difficulties of application of this law, and to submit a report to the minister on it.

The Charter of the French Language has also established two other organizations: The Commission of Toponymy and the Conseil sup�rieur de la langue fran�aise (Higher Council of the French Language).

Table of contents

1 Negative Perception
2 Today
3 See also
4 External links

Negative Perception

The OLF was created by the sovereignist Parti Qu�b�cois government as a way to promote the normal use of the French language in the only North American society where a francophone majority lives.

There is a lot of animosity towards the OLF from English Canadians, some of whom strongly feel that as citizens of Canada they are discriminated against in the Province of Quebec.

The OLF became widely referred to as "tongue troopers" among English speakers of Canada after the American show 60 Minutes did a program on Quebec language laws and the term "language police" was used. In reality, the organization has no police power. In the majority of the cases, the office will convince businesses that it is in their own financial interests to respect the majority of the customers who speak French. Nowadays, it is pretty rare for English language businesses to ignore 6 out of 7 million people who speak French in Quebec. However, there have been cases where businesses have been fined and even shut down for violating these laws.

Today

Since the 1988 court ruling, Quebec's language regulations require that French be predominant on exterior business signs as suggested by the Supreme Court of Canada in the Ford v. Quebec case. Since that time, the law has complied with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, and all court rulings on the matter.