Pastagate

Pastagate is the informal name of an incident that began in 2013 in Quebec, when, on 14 February, an inspector of the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) sent a letter of warning to upscale Montreal restaurant Buonanotte, for using Italian words such as pasta, antipasti and calamari on its menu instead of their French equivalents. The incident occurred as the National Assembly was debating Bill 14, a bill to toughen the province's Charter of the French Language.

Instead of complying with instructions on the letter he received from the OQLF, the owner of Buonanotte went public, and it generated a widespread public outcry across the province, even among francophones, about the OQLF abusing its powers. The incident also received international attention in newspapers, causing embarrassment to the provincial government.^[1] The incident led to the resignation of Louise Marchand, head of the OQLF, on 8 March.^[2]