I wrote the following letter to the Ottawa Citizen in response to the “Secret Shoppers” article published this morning.
The article, written by David Reevely, and a link to it follow below. --JGP
RE: “Secret Shoppers to hunt for laggards on bilingualism,” David Reevely, July 30
If Quebec had the ordinary self-confidence found generally across the rest of Canada, they wouldn’t need to send their obsequious servant, Graham Fraser, into the byways sniffing out businesses that fail their official French-language duties. If Quebeckers were confident in themselves and their native abilities, they would recognize that businesses would be bilingual if and when it is to their advantage.
If Quebec were a place that Canadians respected and could work with as a partner, the Official Languages Act would not exist; we would learn French simply because we wanted to. We wouldn’t have to be coerced.
When Quebec comes to terms with history and learns to earn its way, we will be their best friend and partner. However, as long as they stamp their little feet, and whimper and whine to get their way, and as long as they act the adolescent and keep their little hands buried deep in the federal treasury, Quebec will continue to earn nothing but our contempt. - Gerry Porter
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Ottawa Citizen, July 31, 2011
By David Reevely
Secret shoppers working for the official languages commissioner are to fan out across the capital in mid-August to test whether they can get service in French.
The mission is to see what the experience of visiting Ottawa-Gatineau would be like for tourists who only speak the one language. Although the commissioner’s usual job is testing the bilingual fluency of federal departments and services, this time the plan is to case a wider net, including private businesses at likely tourist destinations.
Businesses that lease space from Public Works or the National Capital Commission typically have clauses requiring provide bilingual service, and they’re periodically checked out to make sure they’re complying. This plan goes beyond that.
A list included with the bid documents (it was originally left off, but added when The Citizen inquired) says that the mystery shoppers should visit the federal institutions downtown repeatedly — it calls for 50 visits each to Rideau Hall and the National Gallery, for instance — but also calls for one or two visits to practically every storefront in the ByWard Market, on Sparks Street, and in the Rideau Centre, along with visits to every downtown hotel, as far afield as Rideau Street motels. From hardware stores to hair salons, everybody in those areas can expect to be checked out at least once.
“What sort of impression does a French-speaking Quebecer get, visiting the capital of this country?” asked Graham Fraser, the official-languages commissioner. “My own experience is it’s easier to get an English menu in Barcelona than a French one in Ottawa.”
But, he said, his own anecdotal experience isn’t enough to draw any sure conclusions, which is why his office is conducting the study.
He said he draws the authority to examine private enterprises that don’t have any direct dealings with the federal government from the preamble to the Official Languages Act, which says that “the Government of Canada is committed to enhancing the bilingual character of the National Capital Region and to encouraging the business community, labour organizations and voluntary organizations in Canada to foster the recognition and use of English and French.”
The capital, he said, sends a lot of messages about what kind of country Canada is by the way it presents itself to visitors, and it’s within his authority to examine and report on what those messages are.
Furthermore, Fraser said, it’s plainly in Ottawa’s interests to serve French-speaking visitors well.
The country, he said, “can no longer count on a constant flow of American tourists” when there’s a strong Canadian dollar and tighter controls for Americans crossing the border. It’s useful for the capital to appeal to four million Canadians who speak only French.
The point, said Fraser’s spokesman Nelson Kalil in a separate interview, is not to name and shame particular businesses, but to produce an “impressionistic” report on what the francophone visitor’s experience to the capital is like.
News of the plan surprised Cindy VanBuskirk, the general manager of the Rideau Centre, where dozens of stores are due to be visited.
“This is private property and if there’s a mystery-shopping exercise planned, then it behooves them to inform the property owner of what they’re planning,” she said. She says she’s not against the work the commissioner’s office has in mind, and she’d have no intention of warning the mall’s merchants and skewing the results of the study, but if researchers plan to conduct a study in the Rideau Centre, they should tell the owners about it.
“Obviously the ability to serve customers in the language of their choice is a service profile that’s important, though it’s up to the individual retailer,” VanBuskirk said.
Matthew Mitchell manages Nicholas Hoare, a Sussex Drive bookstore slated for one visit. He says he’s lived much of his life in Quebec, so he’s accustomed to language politics, but he’d rather it be discussed openly rather than through a covert survey.
“No, I don’t think it’s fair, if it’s done in a clandestine fashion,” he said. He said most everyone working at the store has at least some French and he’s bilingual, so a unilingual francophone could be served with no real problem, which is what the store’s lease with the NCC requires.
“But we are an English bookstore specializing in British books, so I think there’s a bit of a hole in their thinking there,” Mitchell said.
The commissioner’s office is looking for bids, on a tight timeline, from companies willing to provide the testers. Between them, they’re to conduct about 545 checks between Aug. 22 and Sept. 30, according to the bid documents, for which the winning bidder would be paid about $40,000. The testing is to include an assessment of bilingual signs, greetings from workers and proper service once a person has been welcomed.
The secret shoppers are either to be unilingual francophones or native French-speakers who will pretend to speak no English. Kalil said that’s because there’s been very little evidence that English-speakers have trouble being served anywhere in the capital region, on either side of the Ottawa River.
“Maybe if you went off past Buckingham, you might run into that,” he said.
The shoppers are to fill out a detailed form documenting each experience. The bid documents say that similar work was done in each of the past two years, though Fraser said that refers to mystery-shopper visits to federal institutions and agencies, which he’s already documented.
The documents say that a double-decker tourist bus “will have to be used for a variety of the institutions being assessed,” but Kalil said that’s really just a suggestion. “It might be easier than fighting traffic to get from place to place,” he said. (The list of businesses to be visited does not include tour-bus or tour-boat operators.)
Bids are due by Aug. 12. They’ll be assessed on a variety of criteria, including the bidders’ experience doing mystery-shopper work and collecting research-oriented data, but the single most important category — accounting for a quarter of the total — is price.
The results of the survey will be included in Fraser’s report in 2012, he said. “We had hoped for a bit more of the element of surprise.”
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dreevely@ottawacitizen.com
ottawacitizen.com/greaterottawa@davidreevely
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