Blue Dog Motel bar no longer in hot water with OQLF
Office québécois de la langue française chalks up letter ordering name amendments to misunderstanding
Montreal bar and barbershop Blue Dog Motel has now been cleared by the province's language watchdog.
Bar owner Raphael Kerwin got a call from the Office québécois de la langue française this afternoon and was told the letter he received which told him to amend the business' name was based on a misunderstanding.
Kerwin received a letter from the OQLF, dated May 9, that ordered a general descriptor be added in French to the name of the bar. It went on to say that he had until July 8 to contact them in order to discuss the next step.
This week, Kerwin posted a partial picture of the letter on the business’s Facebook page along with this comment: “After being called BLUE DOG for 20+ years, it looks like OQLF has caught up with us... #lechienbleu.”
But today, the bar owner said the OQLF had been in contact and that the Blue Dog had been cleared of any offence.
Kerwin said it appears the letter was based on an old photograph of the bar. Since then, the description "Bar/Barbier" has been painted on the window.
A spokesperson for Quebec's language watchdog said he could not comment specifically about this case, but that officials would work with the business to conform to the law.
