The Quebec government considers it unacceptable that players from the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) wear a jersey displaying only terms in English. The Office québécois de la langue française will investigate.
Wednesday evening, the PQ leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, relayed images on social networks showing players of the Voltigeurs de Drummondville displaying sweaters with text only in English indicating “Gilles Courteau Trophy playoffs“.
Photo taken from the Voltigeurs de Drummondville X account
Another photo of the Chicoutimi Saguenéens also showed lettering in the locker room printed exclusively in English.
“The QMJHL recently changed its name and commissioner and its official common language? It’s very worrying to see that the league is not doing its job to this extent. Even the Montreal Canadiens, who play in a North American league of international scope, have never dared to go so far in their lack of consideration towards the French language,” affirmed the leader of the PQ, adding that “the QMJHL is the league Quebec player responsible for the development of our young Quebec players. Its common and official language should be French.
The matter came up again in the National Assembly on Thursday. The minister responsible for the French language, Jean-François Roberge, affirms that the leaders of the League must do better and must correct the way in which they work.
“We adopted a law which specifies that French is the only official language, the only common language in Quebec. […] In the coming hours, I will ask the Office québécois de la langue française to look into the issue and analyze the situation,” he said. The Office decided to investigate.
The Minister for Sports, Isabelle Charest, asks the QMJHL to make “an effort to Frenchify” the players because in Quebec, “we speak in French”.
“There may be the use of English, it happens, I come from a sporting background. It happened, it was the universal language. On the other hand, I think that in communications, in the efforts made to make the League known, it is a flagship of Quebec,” she said, maintaining that she however had no recourse as as a delegated minister. “The francization effort must be there,” she said, demanding the good faith of the QMJHL.
“I appeal to their civic spirit to impose this requirement.”
• Read also: Hockey in Quebec must happen in French, that’s it!
The league defends itself
In a message sent to Paul St-Pierre Plamondon on the X network last night, the League admits that the display should have been bilingual, however defending the use of the language of Shakespeare to immerse the players in a professional environment.
“In the QMJHL locker room, players come from all over the world, so English is frequently used to reach our players. Among the League’s objectives is to prepare our student players for professional circuits in which the language used is English. We must therefore immerse them in an environment similar to that of the circuits in which they dream of evolving,” said Raphaël Doucet.
“An affront”
The Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette, considers that the comments of the director of communications are unacceptable.
“It doesn’t make sense, it’s an affront to Quebecers,” he said.
The Minister for Sports adds that “the mission of the QMJHL league is to prepare young people to become good citizens.”
For their part, the Voltigeurs de Drummondville stressed in a press release that French will always be of capital importance in their organization.
“Our communications, our social networks, our relations with supporters and partners are done only in French. The Maritimes Quebec Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), of which the Voltigeurs are a part, is a league that operates in four territories and in certain specific cases, the interaction with the players and the displays are done in such a way as to represent this bilingualism. , wrote David Boies, the director of operations of the Voltigeurs.
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