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A spelling mistake on French-language posters promoting a City of Ottawa initiative caused them to mistakenly announce the formation of “pubic squares.”
Purple posters explaining the city’s “Uncommon Spaces” initiative, which will close off three sections of the Centretown area to create public squares for gatherings and events from June until October, were erected in both English and French.
Social media users quickly noticed the French version of the signs, which were meant to read “Placettes Publiques,” or “public squares,” instead read “Placettes Pubiques,” which translates to “pubic squares.”
The signs were noted in multiple locations on Saturday, but Sabrina Lemay, the executive director of the Centretown Business Improvement Area, said they have since been taken down.
“This was an unintentional translation error that made its way into production. As soon as we became aware of it, we took steps to have it corrected,” she told CTV News.
City of Ottawa said they were not involved in the creation of the posters.
City Councilor Stéphanie Plante, who serves as liaison councilor for the City of Ottawa’s French Language Services Advisory Committee, told Radio Canada the mistake is “unacceptable.”
“We want to attract Francophones. We want people from Gatineau to come here and participate in our events. I think they’ll think we’re taking this a bit lightly when we make mistakes like ‘publiques’ without the ‘l,'” she said.
