Latest news with #GoHabs
Montreal Gazette
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Montreal Gazette
Drimonis: You can't stop 'Go Habs Go' or ‘Bonjour-Hi'
Hockey playoffs may be over for the Canadiens — and what an unexpected thrill they provided our city! — but the 'Go Habs Go' controversy lingers. Here's my view from the cheap seats. Every time we have another language kerfuffle in Quebec — more specifically, debates over linguistic purism, like when the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) decides to meddle with popular sports chants — I think of Greece. Let me explain. When Greece regained its independence in 1821 after 400 years of Ottoman occupation, certain scholars decided the naturally evolved colloquial language of the people — referred to as Demotic — wasn't up to snuff. They wanted to 'cleanse' the language from Turkish influences and all foreign words and introduced a new, mostly contrived language, referred to as Katharevousa, which loosely means 'purified'. Their goal was to make Modern Greek closer to Ancient Greek by gradually eliminating all outside influences from the common parlance. For a while, Greeks spoke one language and studied another in school. The Greek Orthodox Church still uses Katharevousa. But today, Greeks speak, create and live in Modern Greek, which is mostly the evolution of the Demotic language of the people. I won't bore you with the many historical, political and cultural reasons why this linguistic experiment ultimately failed. Suffice it to say, I have long looked at the attempt as a cautionary tale. You can only socially engineer so many things in society — and language, which evolves naturally, isn't usually one of them. Despite the Greek government's best efforts, people continued to speak the common everyday vernacular, which was shaped organically over the centuries and included many Turkish, Italian and French words. Expressions and words survive because languages are living entities. They reflect and absorb the lived experiences and circumstances of the people using them. While I'm not suggesting a direct comparison between this linguistic experiment with the language battles we routinely see fought here, there are lessons to be learned about what I think is often pointless, needlessly divisive and bound-to-fail government overzealousness to extract or ban certain words or expressions that evolved organically throughout Quebec and multilingual Montreal. A society won't suddenly adopt a new language, or in Quebec's case, stop using words and anglicisms that gradually developed over centuries of coexistence, just because government officials say so. When I see attempts to 'purify' Québécois French from English words and expressions — by now, every bit the language's own, the same way many English-speaking Quebecers say dep and guichet — or when politicians and pundits argue franglais threatens the viability of the French language, or when some mock and disparage common Québécois expressions or words not used in France, judging them to be inferior French, I chuckle at the futility of it all. Language evolves naturally. You can create offices that help guide people and offer alternatives. Sometimes those words catch on. Sometimes they don't. But there is also beauty in Québécois French and French-Canadian expressions, and certainly in the way Montrealers speak to one another, innately using expressions like 'Bonjour-Hi!' — expressions that only truly resonate here, born from our common lived reality. When Montrealers scream 'Go Habs Go!' in unison or shout 'Olé, Olé, Olé!' (a term whose Spanish origins have nothing to do with hockey and yet have everything to do with hockey in Quebec now) a committee of scholars or bureaucrats didn't come together to decide on their usage. We did. Everyday Montrealers of all languages and backgrounds, in love with our hockey team, started the chants. And they stuck. Franglais is natural. Expressions that use both of Canada's official languages are natural. Québécois expressions completely removed from France's linguistic reality are natural. What evolves — and is embraced — organically is what ultimately survives. Long after a solitary complaint to the OQLF tried to tell us otherwise.
Global News
24-04-2025
- Sport
- Global News
Montreal buses remove ‘Go! Canadiens Go!' after language watchdog complaint
City buses in Montreal have dropped the expression 'Go! Canadiens Go!' following a complaint to Quebec's language watchdog. Montreal's transit agency is now using the French expression 'Allez! Canadiens Allez!' on the electronic displays on the front of its buses to show support for the Montreal Canadiens' NHL playoff run. The decision was made because the word 'go' is an anglicism, said spokesperson Isabelle Tremblay. The expression 'Go Habs Go!' is used extensively in Quebec to support the Montreal hockey team. It is also used widely by the team itself, including as a social media hashtag. But Tremblay said Quebec's French-language office received a complaint last year about buses displaying the words 'Go! CF Mtl Go!' — a reference to Montreal's professional soccer club. In response, the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) decided to remove the word 'go' from all of its messaging. Story continues below advertisement 'This type of message provided STM employees with a way to salute national sports teams, support the STM's official partners and establish the STM as a player in its community,' Tremblay said in an email statement. 'Note that the use of the word 'Go' was used in a sports context …. It allowed for quick understanding and a sense of belonging to these teams.' Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Tremblay said replacing 'go' with 'allez' — the French equivalent — 'maintains team spirit' while complying with Quebec's recent overhaul of its French language charter. The agency has been gradually changing the language on its fleet of buses since the end of last summer. Tremblay said the modification must be made manually on each bus, so the work was only completed earlier this year. The change was first reported Thursday by the Montreal Gazette. The Montreal Canadiens clinched a playoff spot last week. In an email statement, a spokesperson for the Office québécois de la langue française stressed that the watchdog agency didn't launch the intervention on its own, but was instead responding to a complaint. Still, the office informed the transit agency that public bodies 'must use the French language in an exemplary manner, which includes not using English terms in their signage,' said Gilles Payer. In Quebec City on Thursday, the move was widely panned by opposition parties, including the sovereigntist Parti Québécois, which positions itself as a champion of the French language. Story continues below advertisement 'We have other priorities for the French language in Quebec,' said PQ MNA Catherine Gentilcore, adding that Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon will continue to use #GoHabsGo on the X platform. The Quebec Community Groups Network, which represents English-speaking Quebecers, dismissed the decision as 'silliness' in a social media post, and said the language watchdog and the transit agency 'scored on their net.' 'EVERYONE yells #GoHabsGo! at the Bell Centre,' the group said. 'Our buses should be allowed to do the same.'
