Law student pushing Dieppe city council for bilingualism bylaw for business signs

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By Nick Moore
Times & Transcript Staff

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Efforts to force Dieppe businesses to include French and English on all their interior and exterior signage, by way of a municipal bylaw, won the support of two federal politicians yesterday.

Brian Murphy, Liberal MP for Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe, and Yvon Godin, New Democrat MP for Acadie-Bathurst, have both endorsed Martin LeBlanc-Rioux, a McGill University law student from Dieppe, in his continuing bid to get city council to adopt a city language bylaw.

LeBlanc-Rioux started the process last fall and in January presented a petition to council with 4,016 names supporting a bylaw. At the time, city council was non-committal on what to do with the petition but said they'd study the proposal.

LeBlanc-Rioux said he's trying to make sure French is kept prominent in Dieppe -- a city which tags itself as the Acadian capital of the world.

Dieppe businesses with interior French or bilingual signage were recorded at 39 per cent in 2005, growing to 73 per cent in 2007. With exterior signs, the number went from 45 per cent in 2005 to 72 per cent in 2007.

LeBlanc-Rioux said a language bylaw would force national chain stores, which might not respect or recognize Dieppe's demographics, to abide by rules.

Murphy and Godin said they hoped their added voices would encourage councillors to speed up the process of making a decision.

"Dieppe could be the example for the province," said Godin, suggesting the city could serve as an example to other cities and towns in the New Brunswick -- Canada's only officially bilingual province.

Moncton -- Canada's only officially bilingual city -- has 80 per cent of its business signs in English only, with two per cent in French only and 18 per cent in both official languages, according to the findings of the New Brunswick Council on French Language Planning.

Murphy, a former mayor of Moncton, said Dieppe could be an example to the city next door.

"Maybe it's something that the City of Moncton will think in its wisdom is a very positive thing," he said.

Murphy said New Brunswick's French-speaking community has waited long enough to see language equality exhibited in the front windows of businesses, and not just on the written papers of laws, bills and motions.

"It leaves open whether there should be a renewal of provincial policies with respect to official bilingualism," said Murphy.

Both Murphy and Godin brushed off suggestions the provincial or federal governments would intervene in forcing a language bylaw on municipalities.

However, they're still calling on Dieppe to lead the way.

Calls made to Dieppe city hall yesterday were not returned.

LeBlanc-Rioux said he was confident the city was taking his proposal seriously, but hoped for an answer sooner rather than later.

"I didn't want a doctor's thesis," he said. "I wanted a bylaw."