The Burgundy Lion roared, and Office québécois de la langue française inspectors timidly backed off.

Well, maybe it wasn’t exactly like that, but Toby Lyle, co-owner of the Notre-Dame St. pub, respectfully pushed back when the language watchdog asked him to change his sign to make it more French. He contested, with common sense, their overzealous interpretation of his sign’s conformity with the language law. With a resultant media storm brewing, the agency retreated, admitting the incident was “an unfortunate situation” and saying it was “sensitive to the reactions it has generated” from both the pub and the public. Even Quebec nationalist columnists asked if the OQLF had gone too far, evoking the 2013 Pastagate controversy that elicited embarrassing international headlines.

Recently, more and more cases of overreach from Quebec’s beefed-up language law (Bill 96) are being........

© Montreal Gazette