Software edict draws E-mail
Drug-industry workers get plenty of support in fight with language board
YVONNE ZACHARIAS
The Gazette
www.olf.gouv.qc.ca
Just look it up, Javell Barishack says, in one of a flood of E-mail messages sent to pharmaceutical workers who are fighting a ruling from the Quebec language police that computer software in the workplace must be in French unless a company receives a special exemption.
He advises people cruising the Internet to do a "view source" command on the Web browser and they will find that all the source code, or HTML, for the Office de la Langue Francaise is in English, which is perhaps not surprising, when you consider that this is the international Internet language.
"The OLF's campaign is a waste of time and money," Barishack continues. "They should use their budget to promo French, not prohibit English.
"Will the madness never end?"
Last week, a group of women working in the pharmaceutical industry held a press conference where they denounced the Office de la Langue Francaise for insisting that they work with French-language software.
The women appealed for support through their E-mail address, which is
regroupement@writeme.com.
Rob Bull, spokesman for the English-rights lobby group Alliance Quebec, which is supporting the women, said they have received no shortage of responses. The story seems to have struck a chord, he pointed out.
As a result, the electronic postman carried a heavy bundle, with messages of support pouring in all the way from England and the Universite de Sherbrooke.
In another E-mail titled "Down with the OLF," a relocated Quebecer said the Quebec-government agency responsible for enforcing the French-language charter is a laughingstock in Europe.
"It is for these stupidities that I now live and work in Zurich, Switzerland. In addition, four of my friends are in Toronto and two have moved to Boston. And this has only been in the last eight months. More are planning to leave Quebec," he writes.
"We are mostly young, bilingual, university-educated professionals and most of us are in the information-technology industry. Quebec is not only losing its intellectual property, but also a big push in its economy."
Referring to Culture Minister Louise Beaudoin, who is in charge of the OLF, the unidentified writer concludes: "So long, Ms. Beaudoin, so long, Quebec, I will remember."
Using forceful language, some went so far as to question Beaudoin's sanity.
This from a writer named Will Dutile: "I saw Louise Beaudoin on 60 Minutes and I sincerely believe that she is not a well person. Her tactics remind me of the tools used by fascist governments. I also read in a New Hampshire business magazine that many companies from the U.S. establish only sales offices in Quebec rather than manufacturing because of the language issue and the instability of the Quebec question."
He was referring to the widely circulated U.S.-based television program which recently ran a segment on Quebec's language woes.
The pharmaceutical workers' protest seems to have inflamed passions on both sides. Nicole-Marie Gagne, an OLF employee, sent an electronic message objecting to the use of the word "leash" by Alliance president Constance Middleton-Hope.
Middleton-Hope was suggesting that Beaudoin might need a leash to rein in OLF employees who insist on eliminating English software from the workplace, while the minister herself has said the law allows it.
Gagne found the word contemptuous and pointed out that French is the language of work in Quebec. "There is nothing surprising or offensive about the Office de la Langue Francaise's request to companies that they make French software available to employees."
However, a pharmaceutical employee who simply identified himself as Marty, wrote: "We are now supposed to upgrade the whole company to the French version of MS Office and Windows 95/NT. This is too much!"
And this from Rene Bauset: "You may wish to add that the French versions are usually out of date and the problem worsens with upgrades, ergo use the most up-to-date version of anglais."