Ici Ont Commerce En Francais Part Deux

Quebec is hilarious sometimes. I was out shopping today. I hit two places that were littered with those idiotic "Ici ont commerce en Francais" stickers. Really? I took one look at the sticker and didn't even bother to set foot in it. The first place was Zellers. The second was Le Marche (I forget the name) which sells vertical blinds and the like.

Fine. Be like that. Pft.

Thankfully, competition remains (for now) and so I went to the competitors (in this case Fabricville) who professionally and courteously served me while having no problem speaking the dreaded English language. It was a pleasant give and take scenario. That's where my money goes.

Stick a frivolous ignorant sticker on your window and I'll stick it back by not giving you my money.

Why would a company, a place of business that should be blind to such stuff, do that? Do they not stop and think "Well, maybe I may offend a few people and it may very well cost me $200 in lost sales?"

Meh. Alas, that's how I would think. Obviously, some don't.

***

That's why I no longer support the Montreal Canadiens - despite their excellent run in the playoffs. When the president of one of the best brands in sports comes out and essentially says, "you have to speak French because 66% of our market is French" he alienates me in the following way.

The best available talent is overlooked and bypassed. All that does is keeps you wallowing in mediocrity because you've cornered yourself to one segment of a talent pool. If the Yankees or an NFL team pulled that shit they'd be rightfully attacked for discriminatory practices. The media would wreck them to smithereens.

In world soccer, managers of different nationalities are hired at clubs all the time. They learn the customs and language of the team they represent. So why doesn't Le club hockey Canadiens accord the same chance to a non-French speaking candidate; especially if that person is coveted?

Imagine if the Yankees said, "Well, our market is increasingly Spanish speaking ergo we must have a manager who speaks Spanish." Or if the past to reflect its demographics, "Well, given we have so many Germans and Italians our manager must speak those languages." Dumb, huh? I doubt New Yorkers would accept such parochial logic?

But here in Montreal, Quebec (partly because we're shielded by language and that no one in the States really cares what goes on up here) we get away with it. No ACLU here. Human Rights Commission here in Canada? Bah. They're busy attacking freedom of speech.

The majority of people don't look at it this way but I do. So. Pft. Convince me the errors of my ways.