My star of the week, not of the month, not of the year, goes to Manuel Tadros.
The actor, presenter, father of Xavier Dolan and father of the song C’est Zéro by Julie Masse lost his ground to a company that was unable to serve him in French in the heart of downtown Montreal.
Coudonc, how many stars will it take to sound the alarm so that we wake up together and shout together to the companies that make fun of us: “Not serving us in French is ZERO!”?
OVERVIEW BY MANUEL TADROS
Here’s exactly what Manuel Tadros wrote on social media (including coronations).
“There’s a Tim Hortons on the corner of St-Urbain and Ste-Catherine. Right in front of the TNM and the entrance to the PDA artists. At peak times, six employees work there. Not ONE alone speaks French. I ask for salt (don’t get it), milk (don’t get it).”
“I know that workers are hard to find and that they are easier to find among immigrants. But could you, Calisse, at least teach them the few words needed for a damn coffee??? Salt, milk, coffee, numbers $$. It’s depressing. Really!! It’s even scandalous.”
If this speech from Tim Hortons makes you cringe, it’s because the theater man Serge Denoncourt only made his breakthrough right there in April 2022!
On the show Bonsoir, bonoir he said: “I went to Tim Hortons in front of the TNM, the largest French-language theater in America. “Hello, I would like a number 1 with a Diet Coke.” “We don’t speak French.” “Well, is there anyone who speaks French?” “No, we don’t have anyone who speaks French.”
I feel like as a company being screwed over by a star on a popular show, I really need to remedy the situation.
However, as of April 2022, nothing has changed at this donut and coffee vendor, located between the Théâtre du Nouveau-Monde and Place-des-Arts, two of the highlights of French-speaking culture in a French-speaking city!
Researcher Frédéric Lacroix recently complained that the media had said little about the OQLF numbers. For example, in an interview with QUB Radio on Monday, he told me that “only 16% of Quebecers who were educated in English in post-secondary education prefer to speak French in local shops.”
And after that they will tell us that there is no problem with the number of Quebecers attending CEGEP or university in English?
RARE ON THE BUTTE
Did you know that “of the thousands of complaints received by the OQLF, almost a third concern the lack of service in French in retail stores”?
That’s why the office launched a very funny campaign on the Internet in October of this year.
To the tune of Y mouillera pu pantoute by Oscar Thiffault, an emblematic figure of Quebec folklore, the young comedian Danick Martineau sings: “We understand pu pantoute, pantoute, we understand pu pantoute. Being served in French is what it has become.” rarely at the end.
Hopefully he will be more successful than the peregrine falcon.
