What should Montreal publishers translate under Bill 96?

What to take away

• Montreal content publishing rules under the Charter of the French Language and Bill 96 mean French must be markedly predominant in most commercial publications, signage and public-facing material.
• Translate or adapt the assets customers actually read, including product pages, packaging, signage, catalogues and receipts.
• Trademarks can stay in another language only where no French version is registered, and even then a French generic descriptor, explanation or slogan must accompany them.
• Bill 96 tightened enforcement: the OQLF can now seek penalties more directly, and businesses with 25 or more employees face added francization duties.
• Montreal publishers should build French into the content workflow stage, not bolt it on at the end, and keep a documented review trail.
• Municipal publishing offers a working model: the Ville de Montréal posts bilingual content through its own channels, which you can study before setting your own standard.

What Montreal publishers must translate under the Charter of the French Language

The Charter of the French Language, originally Bill 101, has governed commercial language in Quebec since 1977. Bill 96, adopted in 2022, amended it to extend French requirements to more businesses and to sharpen enforcement. For a Montreal publisher, the practical question is not whether French applies but which assets it touches.

Start with anything a customer reads before or during a purchase. Websites, product pages, catalogues, brochures, order forms, receipts and contracts of adhesion all fall inside Quebec commercial publication rules. So do menus, wine lists, event programs and promotional flyers distributed in the city.

Signage is the most visible obligation. Outside and inside signage, posters, and commercial advertising must be in French, and where another language appears, French must be markedly predominant. That standard goes beyond equal billing: the French text must occupy a clearly larger visual space.

The Charter also reaches employment documents. Job postings, offers of employment, internal communications and training materials must be in French, though a translation can accompany them for staff who need it. Grievance procedures and collective agreement notices follow the same logic.

Trademarks get limited room. A recognized trademark may appear in a language other than French if no French version is registered. Where that applies, a French descriptor, generic term or slogan must be present nearby so the reader still understands what is being sold.

This is where a translation-only approach breaks down. A literal rendering of an English campaign often reads as foreign to a Montreal audience. Teams that treat this as French content marketing in Canada tend to fare better, because they adapt tone, idioms and cultural references rather than swapping words.

One caution: the Charter does not require you to translate every internal email or every private note. It targets commercial publications, public signage, employment documents and consumer-facing material. Drawing that line correctly saves budget and avoids over-translating.

Bill 96 labelling and signage rules for commercial publications

Bill 96 changed the compliance arithmetic. Before it, enforcement often moved slowly through warnings and negotiated timelines. Now the OQLF has stronger tools, and the burden sits with the business to demonstrate good faith.

Labelling rules matter most for anyone selling physical goods in Montreal. Product labels, packaging inserts, warranty text and instruction manuals must be in French. A translation can appear alongside, but French must be available and, in most cases, at least as prominent.

For publications, the rules cover catalogues, price lists, annual reports distributed to the public, and advertising inserted in print or digital media. If a Montreal reader can order from it, the French version is not optional.

Signage rules apply to storefronts, interior directional signs, point-of-sale displays and vehicle signage used in the city. A bilingual sign where English dominates will not pass. Think in terms of visual weight: type size, contrast, placement and the amount of space each language occupies.

There is a narrow exception for cultural or educational products and for media in a language other than French, such as English-language newspapers and broadcasters. Even then, the exemption is specific and does not blanket the whole business.

Penalties have risen. Repeat offences carry higher amounts, and directors and officers can be held personally liable in some cases. The reputational cost in a bilingual market is often larger than the fine.

If your team also handles email and data, the same compliance file usually covers Quebec's French Rules alongside federal rules like CASL and PIPEDA. Keeping one register of obligations beats maintaining three.

OQLF guidance for Montreal content teams

The Office québécois de la langue française publishes guidance that is more practical than the statute. Its terminology bank, the Grand dictionnaire terminologique, gives accepted French equivalents for technical and commercial terms, which saves arguments with reviewers.

The OQLF also issues guides on signage, commercial advertising and francization programs. These are written for business owners rather than lawyers, and they answer questions the Charter leaves open, such as how to handle a registered trademark on a storefront.

For content teams, the most useful habit is to check the OQLF's terminology before inventing a French term. Invented vocabulary tends to fail review and confuses customers. Accepted terminology also keeps your French consistent across channels.

Francization requirements apply to businesses with 25 or more employees. Those firms must register with the OQLF, form a francization committee and report progress. Content operations feed into that reporting, because internal communications and training materials are in scope.

Good content planning makes this manageable. If French review is scheduled as a fixed step with named owners, it stops being a scramble before a campaign launch.

The OQLF's approach rewards documentation. Keep records of your language policy, reviewer sign-off and terminology decisions. If a complaint arrives, evidence of a working process is the strongest response.

Quebec's broader cultural policy also shapes what gets funded and promoted, which is worth tracking if you publish arts or heritage content. The province's culture ministry publishes its own priorities and programs, which give useful context on language and cultural expectations.

How the Ville de Montréal publishes bilingual municipal content

The City of Montreal runs one of the largest bilingual publishing operations in the province, and its habits are instructive. It maintains separate French and English channels rather than mixing both languages in a single page.

That structure is deliberate. It keeps French as the default experience while giving English-speaking residents full access. Publishers can copy the pattern by treating French as the primary URL and English as a parallel version, not a toggle on the same text.

The city's media centre shows how announcements, permits information and service notices are issued in both languages with matching structure and dates. You can review the format through the Media centre | Ville de Montréal to see how a public body handles parallel publication.

Its article section goes further, publishing explainers and service guides that read naturally in each language rather than as translations. The Articles | Ville de Montréal collection is a useful benchmark for tone: plain, service-oriented and consistent across both versions.

What the city does not do is treat English as an afterthought. Both versions are edited to the same standard, which is the opposite of the common corporate habit of translating late with a machine tool and shipping without review.

For a commercial publisher, the lesson is structural. Decide which language is primary, mirror your navigation and metadata, and keep publication dates aligned so search engines and readers see two complete versions.

Quebec business registration and publisher identification context

Publishing commercially in Quebec usually means registering the business. Registration produces a Quebec Enterprise Number, a ten-digit identifier used on official documents and filings. The Québec Enterprise Number (NEQ) | Gouvernement du Québec page explains what the number is and where it appears.

Why this matters to content teams: the NEQ and your registered name must match the legal name used in contracts, invoices and privacy policies. Mismatches create friction in advertising disputes and in any OQLF file.

If you operate a newsletter or sell advertising, your identification lines should be consistent across French and English versions. That includes the legal entity name, address and contact details.

Language law and civil status questions sometimes intersect here, particularly for contracts and formal notices. The province's justice and civil status portal sets out the legal framework that Bill 96 amends, which helps when you need to cite the underlying rule rather than a summary.

The Justice and civil status | Gouvernement du Québec section is the starting point for that.

Cultural content carries its own expectations in Quebec, and publicly funded or promoted work often follows language conditions. If you publish arts, heritage or media content, the province's culture pages outline the policy environment. See Culture | Gouvernement du Québec for the current programs and priorities.

A content governance framework helps tie these threads together: one owner for legal identifiers, one for language review, one for publication records.

A Montreal translation checklist for French-first publishing

A Montreal outdoor gear retailer plans a fall catalogue, a website refresh and new in-store signage. The team lists every asset, marks which touch customers, and assigns French review before design freeze. Signage gets a visual check for marked predominance.

The catalogue gets a terminology pass against OQLF terms. The website gets parallel French and English URLs with aligned metadata. Nothing ships without a named reviewer's sign-off.

Use this checklist before any Montreal campaign goes live.

• Inventory every customer-facing asset: web pages, catalogues, packaging, signage, receipts, contracts
• Confirm French is markedly predominant on all signage, including interior and point-of-sale displays
• Verify trademarks in another language have a French descriptor or generic term nearby
• Check product labels and instruction manuals for a complete French version
• Align French and English URLs, navigation and publication dates
• Record terminology decisions and reviewer sign-off in one shared register
• Confirm legal name, address and NEQ match across both language versions

Then set the sequence. 1. Freeze the English source so translators work from a stable text. 2. Run terminology checks against OQLF guidance. 3. Have a francophone editor review for tone, not just accuracy. 4. Publish both versions together. 5. Log the review in your register.

Treat translation as thought leadership content with its own approval gate. Teams that do this stop treating French as a last-minute cost and start treating it as part of the product.

Common questions

Does Bill 96 require everything to be in French only? No. French must be present and, for signage and commercial publications, markedly predominant. Other languages can appear alongside, subject to prominence rules and trademark limits.

Do small Montreal publishers have to comply? Yes. The Charter applies to businesses regardless of size. Francization program duties, however, generally attach to firms with 25 or more employees.

Can I use machine translation for a Montreal catalogue? You can draft with it, but shipping unreviewed output risks errors and weak French. A francophone editor should review anything customer-facing before publication.

What happens if my signage is not compliant? The OQLF can require changes and pursue penalties, which increase for repeat offences. Fixing signage promptly and documenting the change is the usual response.

Do English-language media in Montreal need to translate? Media published in a language other than French has specific exemptions, but these are narrow and do not cover the whole business. Check the scope before relying on them.

Where should a content team start? Audit customer-facing assets first, then signage, then employment documents. Assign owners, set a review gate, and keep records of every language decision.