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MONTREAL — Jean-Pierre Savage wouldn't shop at the Depanneur de l’Eglise even before an anti-Quebecois tirade by one of the convenience store’s employees sparked a Saturday protest by nationalists.
The 67-year-old Verdun resident, crippled by arthritis, would rather hobble to a convenience store four blocks away than patronize a store where he says he never gets served in French.
“That store won’t survive,” he said.
On Thursday, a Depanneur de L’Eglise employee would only speak in English when phoned by a local French-language radio producer pretending to be a customer. She reminded the employee about Bill 101, the Quebec language law that gives customers the right to be served in French.
Businesses that contravene the law are liable to a fine from $1,500 to $20,000.
Irritated, the employee snapped back against French Quebecers.
“What is your contribution to Quebec?” he asked. “You stay home, you drink beer, you smoke cigarettes, you take welfare. I am an immigrant here. I have a business, I take care of you people.”
The incident prompted angry calls and comments in the French-language media, along with a Saturday afternoon protest by the nationalist Jeunes patriotes du Quebec.
About 30 protesters waved flags while drinking beer and eating chips in front of the closed convenience store.
“This is the case of a person who doesn’t want to integrate,” said Jean Philippe Decarie-Mathieu, a spokesperson for the Jeunes patriotes.
Decarie-Mathieu could not say specifically whether the incident was isolated, but noted that complaints to Quebec’s French language watchdog — the Office quebecois de la langue francaise — were on the rise.
In the quiet Verdun neighbourhood now undergoing gentrification, few store owners or residents were aware of the depanneur incident. On the street, French and English-speaking customers were being served by Chinese, Vietanamese and Greek shopkeepers.
“You have to respect your customers,” said Mario Fragiadakas, who serves his clients in accented English and French at the diner he’s owned for 32 years.
For Savage, the best form of protest is to buy his wine at a nearby depanneur owned by a Chinese Canadian. The owner, who works about 100 hours a week, has never had the time to take formal language classes.
He speaks heavily accented English and enough broken French to serve his customers. If he needs help, he asks his daughters who go to a French school.
Montreal Gazette
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