The government of Quebec had a recent $2.5 million publicity campaign warning Quebecers that the greeting “Hi” in a store poses a threat to French and that instead the greeting should simply be “Bonjour”.   The government is even using undercover agents who are on a reconnaissance mission on Quebec’s war against “Bonjour-Hi” and on stores that don’t serve customers in French.  They come in to a store and wait to be greeted. Back in 2019 the Quebec government floated the idea of trying to formally ban “Bonjour-Hi” but backed off realizing how hard to impossible it would be to legislate conversations between citizens and store workers.   Under the Charter of the French Language, stores are not legally obliged to greet customers in French. However, people do have the right to be served in French if requested.  The phrase Bonjour-Hi has sparked debate for a long time.  Some Francophones find it dismissive and disrespectful to the French language while Anglophones see it as a polite way for employees to gauge a customers language preference.  Canada is a bilingual country with one province, Quebec, whose first language is French.  In New Brunswick,1/3 of the population is Francophone.   In Manitoba, an area of Winnipeg, Saint Boniface, is largely French speaking.  We have some Franco-Sakatchewanians or Francaskois  in our province. Statistically, I read where more than 50,000 Saskatchewan residents could hold a conversation in French, 99% of whom could also do so in English.  No need for marshalls…..I mean undercover agents here