Ottawa, Canada – A French-language signage initiative in Ottawa intended to promote public spaces inadvertently advertised "pubic squares" due to a typographical error. The signs, part of an effort by the Centretown Business Improvement Area (BIA) to encourage pedestrian use of streets, were meant to read "public place" in French. However, the word "publiques" was printed without the letter 'L', resulting in an unintended and embarrassing message.
The error quickly came to the attention of the city's Francophone population. Councillor Stéphanie Plante, a member of the city's French language services committee, described the situation as "bad."
The signs were installed along Bank Street early in the weekend and were removed by Sunday morning. The English versions of the signs, which advertised the initiative as "uncommon spaces," were printed without errors.
Sabrina Lemay, executive director of the Centretown BIA, issued an apology for the mistake. "While we embrace the humanity in imperfection here in Centretown, we also take responsibility when mistakes happen," Lemay stated, according to CBC. The BIA stated that new signs without the typographical error would be installed soon.