MONTREAL -- The town council of a largely English-speaking Montreal suburb said reports it would contest the legality of Quebec language legislation were 'unfounded.'
Mayor Reginald Dawson of the Montreal suburb of Town of Mount Royal said Thursday the town has submitted a 'Francisisation program' for converting municipal signs and names to French only.
'We are not taking any legal action,' said Dawson, mayor of the area represented federally by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. 'I'm very annoyed and frustrated by this idea. It's completely unfounded and a tempest in a teapot.'
TMR town council recently ordered city workers to cease painting out the English words -- such as avenue, crescent, road -- on street signs that were being repaired.
There were reports that the orders indicated the town of 20,000 just north of Montreal would take the province to court over the language charter.
'The public workers had not received official instruction to paint out the words, so they were told to desist. We are talking about only 45 signs out of about 2,700 in TMR,' Dawson said.
'But how could we be violating or challenging the bill when (the city signs section) doesn't even come into effect until September?'
Dawson said his only continuing disagreement with the provincial language authorities was a requirement to change the town's name to Ville de Mont Royal.
'We don't want to because of long tradition. It's always been known as TMR.'
Dawson said the latest in the town's battle with language officials drew a compromise that the town could be called simply Mont Royal.
