But while admitting that Article 52 makes no mention of the Net, Paquette said the OLF will still pursue Quebec businesses that refuse to include French on their Web sites. Graeur, who employs about 40 workers in his shop, first received a letter from the OLF Feb. 6 advising him to use French on his Web site. He was informed in the May 29 missive that a check done March 10 showed the situation wasn't corrected and Micro-Bytes was given 30 days to make the necessary changes. I'm enraged right now. Michel Leclerc, who works for a firm that designs Web sites for Quebec companies, said he believes most companies in the province operated by anglophones already have French Web sites.
Some people have their Web sites in French, English, and other languages such as Spanish.
Leclerc said he hasn't heard francophones complaining about English-only Web sites in the province. A lot of companies have specialists set up their Web sites and they can do sites in French as well as English. He said he hasn't noticed whether firms have English-only Web sites because when he searches the Net, his sole interest is information, not whether language laws are obeyed. But I don't think that's the spirit of the Internet. Julius Grey, a Montreal lawyer who has handled many cases dealing with freedom of expression, said there is nothing in Bill 101 giving the OLF the legal justification to serve infraction notices dealing with Internet communications.