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Re:Hello Toronto – Waymo Is En Route by Bubble1296 on Friday October 16, 2026 @11:05AM (#50119291)
Canada has two official languages: Canadian English and Canadian French. This satisfies both the English-speaking population and the French-speaking population. As a result, signs, plaques, and public articles are posted with both the Canadian English version as well as the Canadian French version.
Re:Hello Toronto – Waymo Is En Route by mjr00 on Friday October 16, 2026 @11:38AM (#50119744)
> As a result, signs, plaques, and public articles are posted with both the Canadian English version as well as the Canadian French version.

In general this is untrue outside of Quebec (and maybe Ontario). I'm in Vancouver and while there's some federally mandated bilingual text, the French-speaking population here is extremely low and day-to-day everything is English-only. Even local public sector things like announcements on the train. You're more likely to see signs in Mandarin than French.

Re:Hello Toronto – Waymo Is En Route by nickspacek on Friday October 16, 2026 @11:56AM (#50120013)
In New Brunswick (officially bilingual), most signs are bilingual.
Re:Hello Toronto – Waymo Is En Route by julianlam on Friday October 16, 2026 @01:31PM (#50121564)
Last time I was in Vancouver I noticed more signs with translations in Sḵwx̱wú7mesh than French...

However that might be because I am an anglophone from Ontario and my mind filters out the French language on signs if an English equivalent is present.

Re:Hello Toronto – Waymo Is En Route by LawnGnome on Friday October 16, 2026 @05:28PM (#50125015)
No, you were probably right. About the only French in Vancouver is in federal facilities: so, in practice, the airport and some parts of the port that nobody in the general public would ever go to.
Re:Hello Toronto – Waymo Is En Route by senderista on Friday October 16, 2026 @11:17AM (#50119480)
The official language is Zesty Mordant.
Re:Hello Toronto – Waymo Is En Route by ChrisMarshallNY on Friday October 16, 2026 @11:07AM (#50119322)
I believe that bilingualism is required by law. Many US product packages have repeats of the information in french.
Re:Hello Toronto – Waymo Is En Route by jt2190 on Friday October 16, 2026 @11:45AM (#50119848)
Generally no. Some provinces officially operate in both English and French but some do not.

For a press release from a private company operating in Ontario there is no legal requirement to publish in both languages. Some companies might do so anyway if they have operations that are regulated by the federal government and/or they just want the goodwill.

Imported products have to meet Federal packaging laws, which do require both languages.

Re:Hello Toronto – Waymo Is En Route by ipaddr on Friday October 16, 2026 @12:25PM (#50120432)
Ontario has a large French population
Re:Hello Toronto – Waymo Is En Route by jt2190 on Friday October 16, 2026 @08:45PM (#50126670)
More specifically, just over 4% of the population:

> In 2021, 591,855 Ontarians (4.2% of the population) had French as one of their mother tongues. While this number varied little from 1991 to 2006 (+11,065 people), it increased steadily from 2006 to 2021 (+58,995 people).

- In 2021, 78.2% of these residents (463,120 people) had French as their only mother tongue, while 21.8% (128,740 people) had French along with other languages.

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/89-657-x/89-657-x2023017...

Re:Hello Toronto – Waymo Is En Route by mjr00 on Friday October 16, 2026 @11:27AM (#50119617)
This really depends on the context, but in general bilingualism is only required for the public sector and adjacent things (such as federal standards around food packaging). A private company like Waymo certainly does not need to send out a press release in English and French.
Re:Hello Toronto – Waymo Is En Route by sandworm101 on Friday October 16, 2026 @11:26AM (#50119602)
It is more complex than that. Quebec (Montreal) has additional laws over and above the national laws, often requiring that French text be bigger/longer/more prominent than the English text.

There was also controversy over proper names v. decryptions. "Macdonalds" is a proper name but should "Burger King" be translated to "Burger Roi".