Quebec’s language police went after a Montreal bakery for too many English social media posts

An Armenian bakery that has been serving the Montreal community for over 40 years just received a complaint from Quebec’s language watchdog — and it’s not over a sign or a menu. It’s about their TikTok page.

Lahmajoune Villeray, the Villeray neighbourhood staple known for its Armenian pizza, received a formal complaint notice from the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) on February 25, informing the business that someone had filed a complaint about the language used in its social media posts, “specifically on TikTok.”

The OQLF’s position is that the bakery failed to make French sufficiently accessible when publishing content in another language, citing provisions under the Charter of the French Language that govern commercial publications.

Charbel Hannan, whose parents own the business, posted the letter on Instagram, where it racked up nearly 2,000 likes and over 500 comments within hours.

In the caption (written only in French), he made the family’s position clear. “We want to clarify that our business is deeply rooted in the Montreal and Quebec community, and that French is naturally an integral part of our identity, our customer service and our communications,” he wrote, adding that the business does not support “this kind of letter full of nonsense.”

In an interview with Narcity Quebec, Hannan said the whole situation left him feeling both sad and unsettled. “It’s a bit sad, and not only sad, it’s a bit frightening too, because we no longer know where we’re headed. We’re not doing anything wrong,” he said. He pushed back firmly on the idea that the business has been working against the French language. “Our intention has never been to harm the French language or make it less accessible.”

Hannan says the bakery tries to post bilingual content on both Instagram and TikTok. “We do the best we can to make sure subtitles and captions are visible in French and English. We’re not experts, but we try to be the best we can every day.” A quick look at the bakery’s Instagram bears that out — as of February 26, the vast majority of posts include both languages. TikTok, according to the OQLF, is a different story.

He also pushed back on any suggestion that the in-person experience is anything but French-first. “When you come in, we’ll speak to you in French. And if you’d like us to speak English, we can adjust,” he said. Despite the complaint, the family has no plans to change how they operate. “We’ll stay true to ourselves. We’ve been doing this for 40 years. We’ll continue to do our work the right way.”

The online reaction has been overwhelmingly supportive, with both francophones and anglophones rallying behind the bakery. “I’ve been meaning to try your bakery for a while, and this motivates me even more,” wrote one commenter in English. “When the government thinks it has the right to impose the language you use on your own social media, that’s going too far,” wrote another in French.

The OQLF has not publicly commented on the specific complaint.

This story was adapted from the article “L’OQLF s’en prend à un resto de Montréal à cause de ses réseaux sociaux et ça fait réagir” which was originally published on Narcity Quebec.