Quebec government says ‘Go Habs Go!’ expression is part of province’s identity

In a statement Friday, Quebec's French-language minister said the slogan is part of "our DNA, our identity," and has been used for decades to support the Montreal Canadiens.

The Quebec government has stepped in to defend the phrase “Go Habs Go!” as the provincial language watchdog takes heat for objecting to the English word “go.”

In a statement Friday, Quebec’s French-language minister said the slogan is part of “our DNA, our identity,” and has been used for decades to support the Montreal Canadiens NHL hockey team.

“It’s a unifying expression, rooted in our history, and part of our cultural and historical specificity,” Jean-François Roberge said on the social media platform X. “It’s a Québécisme and we’re proud of it!”

Roberge’s statement was meant to quell the uproar in Quebec over the Montreal transit agency’s decision to remove the expression “Go! Canadiens Go!” from city buses and replace it with “Allez! Canadiens Allez!” to show support for the hockey team’s NHL playoff run.

The change was made because Quebec’s French-language watchdog received a complaint last year about buses displaying the words “Go! CF Mtl Go!” — a reference to Montreal’s professional soccer club. In response, the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) decided to remove the word “go” from all of its messaging.

The decision made headlines on Thursday after it was first reported by the Montreal Gazette.

Roberge said employees of the language watchdog, the Office québécois de la langue française, have received threats since the news broke. “This is completely unacceptable. This must stop,” he wrote.

He said he’s had “several exchanges” with the language office about the matter, and any future complaints about the phrase “Go Habs Go!” will be dismissed.