Canadian football player Marc-Antoine Dequoy recently became something of a folk hero in French-speaking Quebec. Dequoy, a native of Montreal, the province’s largest city, revealed in a tearful French-language interview what had riled him up during a championship game: too many English signs in the stadium.

“If you look around, everything is written in English!” shouted Dequoy, a defensive back for the newly crowned champion Montreal Alouettes. “They never believed in us! But you know what, man, you can keep your English!”

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Marc Beaudry, a part-time real-estate broker in Montreal, experienced Quebec’s linguistic zeal a few months ago, when he and his partner, Michael Webb, went to a provincial government office to renew Webb’s health insurance. Webb, who can’t speak French, worried about communicating with the agent. A sign on the wall indicated that service was available in English for those who qualified.

It was written in French. [Read More…]