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If he were to abide by a request from the Office québécois de la langue française, Peter Bahlawanian says it might force him to close up shop in Montreal.

Bahlawanian is the owner of Spice Station, a business he established in California in 2009. The Montreal native moved to California in 1994, but says he still considers himself a Montrealer, and that is why he chose to open a location here in 2011.

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He says the OQLF started sending letters to the Montreal location, on Bernard St., in early June because of his English-only website. But because he has not been to Montreal since November, the employees did not open the letters. It was only when one arrived in late June via registered mail did Bahlawanian have one of the employees open it.

He was surprised to learn that the OQLF was taking issue with his website, which only sells items to U.S. customers.

In early July, he decided to look into having the website translated to French, as requested by the OQLF.