Bilingual road signs petition hits Assembly

QUEBEC Even if the government’s response was noncommital, Montrealers who petitioned the National Assembly for bilingual traffic signs where pictograms don’t work are satisfied they made their point and got the government’s attention.

“It’s not a failure,” Côte-St-Luc councillor Ruth Kovac told the Montreal Gazette. “I do think that yes, we brought attention to this. Our MNA felt that it was important enough to sponsor it in the National Assembly.

“I’m counting on the spirit of openness, global thinking and welcoming people into our province. It doesn’t diminish any other language. I think it just makes it safer.”

Shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday, the MNA who sponsored the petition, D’Arcy McGee’s David Birnbaum, rose in the legislature to read the petition — in French and English — into the record.

As Kovac, Hampstead lawyer Harold Staviss and friends watched from the visitors’ gallery, Birnbaum announced the final tally for signatures was 6,938.

It specifically calls on the Ministry of Transport the “take the necessary steps,” that all traffic signs and electronic alert messages dealing with safety or health be in both French and English when no symbol or pictograph exists as is permitted under the Charter of the French Language.

The government has 45 days to respond.

But earlier, Luc Fortin, the minister responsible for the charter, tiptoed cautiously around the issue which invariably sparks controversy. Already Tuesday opponents to the idea were cranking up opposition on social media.

“We are taking this seriously,” Fortin said. "Health and safety is an issue. How do we respond? The pictogram is one way to do it.

"You know 90 per cent of Quebec’s road signs are pictograms. Obviously it is our desire to preserve the French environment of Quebec while being aware of the health and safety issue.”

There was no immediate response from Transport Minister Laurent Lessard.

Birnbaum did meet the group — which braved the snow storm to witness the tabling — after question period.

“I think my colleagues at cabinet understand this issue is very responsibly framed by the petitioners as one of security,” Birnbaum said later. “And the charter of the French language offers a clear answer on that question. So I’m hopeful.”