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",
Official language Official language An official language is a language given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically a country's official language refers to the language used within government (judiciary, legislature, administration). Since "the means of expression of a people cannot be changed by any law", the term "official language" does not typically refer to the language used by a people or country, but by its government. About half the countries of the world have declared one or more official languages. The government of Italy officialised Italian only in 1999, and some nations (such as the