(Quebec) A photo of Drummondville Voltigeurs players wearing jerseys displaying the words “2024 Gilles-Courteau Trophy Playoffs”, in English only, is creating a commotion in Quebec. The Minister of the French Language, Jean-François Roberge, asks the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) to investigate.
The leader of the Parti Québécois (PQ), Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, was the first to denounce the situation on Wednesday on his X account. “Even the Montreal Canadiens, which play in a North American league of international scope, never dared to go so far in his lack of consideration towards French,” he wrote.
On Thursday, Mr. Roberge in turn denounced the situation during a press briefing in parliament.
“The leaders of the league must do better and must correct the way they work. […] It doesn’t make sense to have unilingual posters in English and to have Quebec teams that only have English terms on their jerseys. I think that this does not respect, at the very least, the principle [de la Charte de la langue française] “, he said.
La ligue s’explique
Sur le réseau social X, le directeur des communications de la Ligue de hockey junior Maritimes Québec (LHJMQ), Raphaël Doucet, a écrit mercredi que « dans les vestiaires […]the players come from all over the world, so English is frequently used to reach our young people.”
“Among our league objectives is to prepare our student players for the professional circuits in which the usual language, with some exceptions, is English. We must therefore immerse them in an environment similar to that of the other circuits in which they dream of evolving. As for jerseys only in English, the situation was discussed afterwards with the Voltigeurs. They should have been in French or, at least, bilingual. It won’t happen again,” he added.
This explanation from the QMJHL, however, did not pass muster in Quebec. The father of the most recent reform of Bill 101, Minister of Justice Simon Jolin-Barrette, described it as an “affront to Quebecers”.
“It’s a league that is in Quebec and in Quebec, it happens in French,” he proclaimed.
For her part, the Minister responsible for Sport, Leisure and the Outdoors, Isabelle Charest, affirmed that “the mission of the league [est] to prepare young people to become good citizens [et au] Quebec, we speak French.” She invited the league to become a good corporate citizen and to make its communications in French.