Charter of the French Language the linguistic situation in Québec", promoting the official language, and conducting research. In 2016–17, the budget of the OQLF was . The office is frequently accused of abusing its powers, such as occurred in 2013 during the pastagate affair when an Italian restaurant was cited for having pasta, antipasti, calamari, and the like on its menu, instead of using French equivalents. The office also objects to the sale of "grilled cheese sandwiches", insisting that they be called , which literally translates to "melted cheese sandwich". Likewise, the Quebec language office objects to "on/off" switches and to the sale of "steaks",
Charter of the French Language of the OQLF was criticized by a columnist of "The Gazette" who alleged that there was a "totalitarian mindset in the bureaucracy". The columnist complained of sections of the report which described the continued prevalence of languages other than French in two-thirds of Montreal's households as an "alarming" trend that would present a formidable challenge to francophones in Montreal. In reality, the report judged alarming the fact that adoption of English as home language by allophones grew faster than the adoption of French as home language. The use of the notwithstanding clause in the 1990s to circumvent the Canadian Charter