Pastagate is the informal name of an incident that began in 2013 in Quebec, when, on 14 February, an inspector of the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) sent a letter of warning to upscale Montreal restaurant Buonanotte, for using Italian words such as pasta, antipasti and calamari on its menu instead of their French equivalents.
[2] Dan Delmar of radio station CJAD in Montreal first broke the story on his blog[3] on 19 February 2013.
A group called putbacktheflag[4] was credited for fuelling Pastagate by sharing over 20,000 links on its Facebook and Twitter pages within the first day of the initial story breaking.
According to Sun News, "the story has gained traction on social media, with the Facebook page entitled 'Put Canadian Flag Back In Quebec Assembly', leading the charge".
Specifically, the office investigates complaints on the basis of whether they affect an individual or are of concern to the general public.