Bed Store Signs a Nightmare for French Advocate
Published by Cynthia Turpin on 2010-02-02
by Dave Rogers
When Frère Jacques snoozes in Gatineau he's in "Sleep Country," but at 35 other Quebec mattress stores the company owns, the sign above the door reads "Dormez-vous."
This discrepancy is especially troubling to Jean-Paul Perreault, president of the French-language advocacy group l'Impératif français, who argues the signs violate Quebec's "linguistic environment."
Perreault said the Sleep Country Canada stores on Boulevard du Plateau in the Hull sector and Boulevard de la Gappe in the Gatineau sector should have French-language Dormez-vous signs like the mattress retailer's other Quebec stores.
"In Gatineau and Hull, customers who want to buy a mattress are not welcomed by the banner Dormez-vous, but by the name Sleep Country, which has nothing to do with Quebec," Perreault said. "The company's website, www.sleepcountry.ca, is not available in French.
"More respected customers in Quebec City and Montreal are well-served by the same retailer, which has the French sign Dormez-vous and welcomes its clients on the French website www. dormezvous.com."
Perreault said the company's website promises its customers a good night's sleep, but he says on a "mattress hostile to French from Sleep Country they will have nightmares and insomnia."
The mattress retailer should respect Quebec's "linguistic ecology" by replacing the Sleep Country signs with Dormez-vous signs, Perreault said.
"After all, the Outaouais is in Quebec so the business should choose a French name for the Quebec market. People will be much more comfortable if they can shop at stores that respect Quebec's linguistic and cultural norms."
Martin Bergeron, a spokesman for the Office québécois de la langue française, which enforces Quebec's Charter of the French Language, said the law allows English-language business signs, but French must predominate.
Both Gatineau stores have English-only signs but nobody has complained about them.
Businesses face possible fines of $500 to $1,400 for a first offence and $1,000 to $7,000 fines for subsequent offences.
Christine Magee, the founder and president of Sleep Country Canada, said the Gatineau stores carry Sleep Country signs because the company is widely known by that name throughout Ottawa-Gatineau and uses the name Sleep Country in French-language radio advertisements.
The company operates 138 Sleep Country stores and 35 Dormez-vous outlets.
"We have been in the Ottawa area since 2001 and have been serving customers from Hull and Gatineau," Magee said. "When we opened two new stores in Hull and Gatineau, we wanted to make sure we did it properly.
"We decided to continue using the name Sleep Country because people know us by that name. We are thrilled by the reception we have received in those two communities and pleased by the results in those two stores."
