Unfortunate typo prompts removal of French-language posters from downtown Ottawa
Posted on: Jun 29, 2026 21:56 IST | Posted by: Cbc
An unfortunate person typo on French-language posters promoting a public blank melioration programme has prompted their gustavus franklin swift removal from Ottawa's downtown.
The bright purple posters should have read "placettes publiques," French for small public squares or spaces, but they were printed without the critical L in the second word, turning "publique" into "pubique" — French for pubic.
French and English versions of the poster appeared at key intersections along Bank Street on the weekend. By Sunday morning, the French-language posters had been removed.
"I thought, 'Ooooh, this is bad in general,'" said Rideau-Vanier Coun. Stéphanie Plante, council's liaison on Ottawa's French language services advisory committee. "The translations were bad, the phrasing was bad."
Plante expressed surprise that the error went unnoticed until after the posters went up.
"It's not like there aren't any francophones in Centretown," she said.
The posters were meant to promote an effort by the city and the Centretown BIA to pedestrianize parts of MacLaren, Frank and Waverley streets between June and October. In English, the program is called "uncommon spaces."
Sabrina Lemay, the organization's executive director, confirmed the French-language posters were removed and will be replaced with a corrected version.
"While we embrace the humanity in imperfection here in Centretown, we also take responsibility when mistakes happen," she said.
In a French-language statement, the City of Ottawa said BIAs are responsible for the "quality assurance" of their messaging, and directed any questions about the error to the Centretown BIA.
Louis Aucoin, president of Aucoin Stratégie et Communication, said the error was unfortunate.
"There's a lot of people working hard on making the those kind of things happen and making those kind of things fun, and this little error sends the wrong message at the wrong moment," he said.
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