The presence of English within the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) has struck a nerve with a handful of local politicians.
With the QMJHL’s postseason kicking off, images of players on the Drummondville Voltigeurs wearing shirts and sweaters that read “Gilles Courteau Trophy Playoffs” began to circulate.
Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon was among the first to speak out against the English-only apparel, pointing out the league’s “lack of consideration towards the French language” in a statement.
“It’s very worrying to see that the league is not doing its job to this extent. Even the Montreal Canadiens, who play in a North American league of international scope, have never dared to go so far in their lack of consideration towards the French language,” the political leader wrote in a Wednesday X post.
St-Pierre Plamondon also shared photos of Chicoutimi Saguenéens players sitting in a locker room that features English words like “discipline” and “belonging” displayed on the wall.
“The QMJHL is the league responsible for the development of our young Quebec players,” he added. “Its common and official language should be French.”
« GILLES COURTEAU TROPHY PLAYOFFS VOLTIGEURS »
La LHJMQ a récemment changé de nom et de commissaire.. et de langue commune et officielle ? C'est très inquiétant de voir que la ligue ne fait pas son travail à ce point. Même le Canadien de Montréal, qui évolue dans une ligue… pic.twitter.com/SkiWje726c
— Paul St-Pierre Plamondon (@PaulPlamondon) March 27, 2024
The issue was also brought up in Quebec’s National Assembly on Thursday morning.
Jean-François Roberge, the minister responsible for the French language, encouraged the league’s executives to make more of an effort, saying that the appearance of English text in locker rooms “makes no sense.”
“We adopted a law which specifies that French is the only official language, the only common language in Quebec. I think the league has to do better,” he said during a press conference. “In the coming hours, I will ask the Office Québécois de la langue Française to look into the question and analyze the situation.”
Raphaël Doucet, the QMJHL’s communications director, responded to St-Pierre Plamondon’s complaints with an X post of his own on Wednesday evening. In it, he argued that English is necessary due to many players coming from international backgrounds.
“Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon, thank you for your interest in the QMJHL. Within the QMJHL’s locker rooms, players come from all over the world, so English is frequently used to unite them,” he wrote in French.
Bonsoir M. St-Pierre-Plamondon. Je suis le Directeur des communications de la @LHJMQ. Merci de lire ce qui suit et bonne fin de soirée. 🙂 pic.twitter.com/64l6QjxW88
— Raphaël Doucet (@raphdoucet) March 27, 2024
Doucet also addressed the Voltigeurs’ playoff sweaters, promising that the same error wouldn’t be repeated.
“As for the English-only sweaters, the situation was discussed after the fact with the Voltigeurs. They should have been [written] in French, or, at least, bilingually. It will not happen again,” he added in the conclusion of his statement. “The mistake is human.”
While the majority of QMJHL franchises are based in Quebec, the league includes six teams from the Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island.
Back in December, the league officially changed its name from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League to the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League to better represent that.
In French, the league remains known as the Ligue de hockey junior majeur du Québec, or LHJMQ.
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