Chinatown sign deal possible, PQ says

KATHERINE WILTON and CAMPBELL CLARK
The Gazette

In an effort to quell a highly publicized dispute with Chinatown merchants, Quebec Language Minister Louise Beaudoin is considering allowing some ethnic businesses to post bilingual signs where French is not predominant.

The government could achieve this by resurrecting a section of Bill 101 that was abolished in 1993. It allowed certain ethnic stores to post bilingual signs with letters that were the same size.

"This is one of the ideas that we are considering," Martin Roy, Beaudoin's press attache, said yesterday.

The section in question, Article 62, was scrapped by the Liberal government in 1993 when it adopted Bill 86, the new sign law that allows advertising on outdoor and indoor commercial signs in French and other languages, as long as French is predominant.

Government regulations deem predominant to mean the French letters are twice as big, or that there are twice as many French signs as those in other languages.

The proposal is one of several being discussed by a government agency that advises Beaudoin on language policy. Members of the agency plan to meet with Chinatown merchants over the next few weeks in a bid to reach a compromise.

However, if the government resurrected Article 62, it would only apply to "commercial establishments specializing in foreign-national specialties or the specialities of a particular ethnic group," as outlined in the section, Roy said.

"That means it might apply to a Chinese grocery store, but not a hairdresser in Chinatown," Roy speculated.

Some local Chinese leaders said that proposal might not go far enough, but they are happy the government appears to be listening.

"Any type of movement away from the strict compliance of the law is good," said lawyer Douglas Yip, adding that the Chinese community has not yet decided what is an acceptable long-term solution.

Other Chinese leaders are calling for ethnic signs to be exempt from the French Language Charter. They say reducing the size and frequency of Chinese characters would reduce the community's cultural identity.

"The decision to put up French signs in Chinatown should be left to the individual owners," said Kenneth Cheung, president of the Chinese Professionals and Businesspeople's Association. "If people want to attract French Canadian customers, they will put up signs in French."

Cheung said the French Language Charter already makes some exceptions - signs and posters in languages other than French are allowed if they convey a religious, political, ideological or humanitarian message.

The government also allows cultural institutions, such as the news media, to advertise in the language in which they publish or broadcast, said Hubert Troestler, a spokesman for the Office de la Langue Francaise.

Beaudoin has been forced to search for a compromise following complaints by Chinese merchants that they are being harassed by language inspectors with the Commission de Protection de la Langue Francaise.

The commission began cracking down on Chinese businesses last year after receiving several complaints.

The president of Alliance Quebec said her organization would oppose any law that discriminates between ethnic groups. "This whole issue is making us a laughing stock, said Constance Middleton-Hope. "It makes me wonder whether these bureaucrats have enough work to do."

Liberal leader Daniel Johnson yesterday called on Premier Lucien Bouchard to drop the "coercive" measures the Commission has used in Chinatown, saying language authorities should open a dialogue with the community instead.

In a letter to Bouchard, Johnson said the Quebec government should not force Montreal to be the only major city in the world that does not "tolerate" the presence of a Chinatown.

Johnson said language laws should be applied to all languages - but he said it also has to be applied with common sense and sensitivity.

"They should just use their noggins," Johnson said in a telephone interview.

He ripped into Bouchard's government for setting a harsh tone on the enforcement of language laws by re-creating the Commission, which the Liberals had abolished.

"Why is it for the last half century that no one has complained?" he said.

"Suddenly - when French is making tremendous progress - Mr. Bouchard signals that the Commission de Protection should be reinstated. ... So that sends signals out there that what we've been living with for the last half-century is not tolerable any more to the government. When people send wrong signals that's what happens."

It's that kind of signal that leads people to complain about signs that Quebecers have lived with comfortably, he said.