RICHMOND, B.C.—A Vancouver-area city where nearly half the residents identify as ethnically Chinese is requiring that all bus-stop ads be at least 50-per-cent English. Richmond signed a contract earlier this year with advertising agency Pattison Outdoor, and it includes a provision ordering all foreign-language ads to be half in English in terms of space, font size, content and detail. The contract came into effect on Aug. 1, about two years after the city backed down on a controversial proposal to impose the same English-language requirements on business signage. Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie said the idea for language regulations at bus stops came out of those discussions. “When it came time to renew the contract we inserted into the request for proposals and ultimately into the contract the provision that there had to be at least 50 per cent English on all the signage on the bus shelter,” he said in an interview.

Source: thestar September 29, 2016 23:26 UTC