Canada Entrepreneur Asked Not to Use English Posts on Facebook
Canadian store owner Eva Cooper was asked to write her Facebook posts in French as posting on Facebook in English apparently violated the language policy of the province, Quebec. Ms Cooper is blamed for violating Quebec's language laws but she refuses to accept the blame as, according to her, the language laws in the province does not include social media.
Ms Cooper's clothing shop in Chelsea is called Delilah. The Office Quebecois de la langue francaise notified her on February 18 that a complaint had been lodged against her for not posting in French on the Facebook page of the store. Even though most of Ms Cooper's posts on Facebook are in English, some of them are in French while some are bilingual, CTV News reported.
The letter accused her of violating article 52 of "the language of commerce and business" in Quebec's French Language Charter. According to the Article 52, brochures, commercial directories, folders, catalogues and any "similar publications" should be written online in French. Ms Cooper's argument is that there is no mentioning of social media in the charter.
Ms Cooper has another shop on Ottawa. She started doing business in Quebec in 2005. She claimed that she had always followed the law. Ms Cooper told CTV News that she did post in French. She also insisted that she had bilingual posts of Facebook. At the same time, she admitted that she must have insulted somebody. She said that she had felt bad about hurting somebody. On the contrary, she claimed that she had never known that the laws involved Facebook.
Ms Cooper continues to insist that she has maintained the Facebook page of her store with bilingual representation. She also insists that she does not get indulged in business transactions through social media. Interestingly, she asked for the English version of the letter she had received as it was in French.
She must make changes before March 10. Otherwise, she risks facing legal consequences.