Quebec Court Finds Official Languages Act Applies to a Web Site

In December 2004, a lower court in Quebec convicted a Quebec-based corporation, Produits Métalliques CMP Ltée (CMP), of a breach of the province's Official Languages Act (Languages Act) in allowing information to be published on its web site solely in English. A fine of $500 was imposed. Over a period of several years, CMP had failed to carry out several other aspects of a program of francisation proposed by the Office of the French Language. The Languages Act provisions which were found to have been breached require businesses to publish in French all catalogues, brochures, folders, commercial directories and any other publication of a similar type. The due diligence defence advanced was rejected by the Court because evidence indicated that CMP had been quite negligent in carrying out the overall francisation program. From the reasons for judgment, it appears that CMP did not defend on the basis that the legislation was intended to apply only to hard copy material and not to material on a web site, nor did CMP assert any other defence based on inapplicability of the legislation. As a result, the decision should not be taken as a definitive holding relating to such questions. For the full text of the reasons for judgment (in French), see: http://www.canlii.org/qc/jug/qccq/2004/2004qccq50385.html Summary by: The Editor