Linton Ave Deserves Better

Linton Avenue in Cote-de-Neiges is not the fanciest of addresses, but the residents don't deserve the disgraceful condition that the pavement is in.
I had the misfortune to drive on the street between Lavoie and Cote-de-Neiges and can tell you that it must be the worst maintained street in the city. There are so many potholes that they sort of meld into each other. Cars are forced to drive slowly as they bounce up and down into some of the nastiest potholes you can find. It doesn't look like the city has done work on the street in years. I can't wait for the Spring, it can only get worse!

Montreal's Obscene Radar Traps

Last year, with great fanfare, the mayor announced the creation of a special traffic unit of 133 officers within the Montreal police force to crack down on speeders. To hear him speak, one would surmise that Montreal faces carnage on it's streets and that road accidents are out of control.
The truth is somewhat different. Traffic deaths have plummeted over the last thirty years and in fact, Montreal's traffic record boasts the second lowest number of fatalities per 100,000 residents (Toronto is first), as compared to other large North American cities. Bet you didn't know that!
So why the crackdown? In a word - MONEY.
It hard to announce tax increases and so disguising a money grab by claiming a safety issue is an easy way out for the city. Montreal already boasts some of the highest parking meter rates in North America, coupled with a no top-up system that charges twice for the same time. Montrealers also pay some of the highest parking fines for expired meters and restricted parking infractions. It is telling that the most efficient department in the whole city work force are the 'Green Onions', the ticketing agents.

Let's dispel some myths about speeding itself.
City officials have bandied about the statistic that says that in 30% of accidents, drivers were speeding. It sounds ominous, but upon closer examination that fact is almost as relevant as pointing out that in 50% of accidents, drivers were listening to the radio or that in 100% of accidents, drivers were breathing. Considering our ridiculously low speed limits, a large proportion of drivers are always driving above the limit and subsequently when accidents occur, it is likely that many of them are 'speeding'. However, speeding is not relevant unless it is the cause or major contributor of the accident, which in the vast majority of cases, it is not.
Here is a list of the principle reasons for car accidents.

Unknown 18.7%
Failure to yield 18.1%
Loss of control 14.0%
Tailgating 12.6%
Driving too fast for road conditions 12.6%
Improper turn 7.9%
Disregarding signage or lights 6.0%
Improper lane change 5.6%
Improper passing 2.3%
Speeding 1.9%
Driving the in the wrong direction 0.2%
Driving too slowly 0.1%

• The biggest cause of accidents (40%) is impairment (alcohol, illegal drugs and prescription medicine.)
• Driver distraction is the second biggest cause of accidents. Eating, talking on the phone (even with a hands-free devices) drinking coffee, applying makeup and arguing with passengers are all infinitely more dangerous activities than speeding.
• More accidents happen because drivers are over-tired, than by dangerous driving or speeding.
• Tailgating is 3 times more dangerous than speeding.
• Failing to yield at a stop sign or merging into traffic unsafely is 9 times more dangerous than speeding.
  

Germany's Autobahn, the equivalent to our Autoroute system has no speed limit at all. That's right, you can go as fast as you like, yet their highway system has significantly less accidents of all types than we do here. Hmm...
Finally when the US, in an effort to curb gas consumption as a result of the Arab oil embargo, lowered the speed limit on freeways to 55 mph from 65mph, a consequential side effect of lower traffic deaths was anticipated. It did not happen. In fact highway deaths crept up. Go figger..

Now let's look at our mayor's major concern, pedestrian safety. Of the 24 people killed on Montreal streets in 2007, twelve were jaywalking and responsible for their own fate. The causes of the other 12 deaths can be attributed to all the other causes combined. While statistics are not available for the exact cause of those accidents, even using the very misleading statistic (30% of accidents have speed involved) it's likely that speeding was responsible for no more than three or four deaths.
Now every death is a personal and family tragedy, but for the mayor to get bent out of shape over speeding is disingenuous.

Finally let's not mix up speeding and dangerous driving. Travelling 20 or 30 kilometres over the speed limit on the Autoroute or 50k in a 30kph zone in the city is not a public danger, regardless of what we are told. It is something drivers know intuitively. Travelling 50 kilometres over the limit in a urban setting is dangerous driving. The problem is that ticketing those who engage in reckless and dangerous driving will not modify their behavior, just as drunks are not dissuaded by the courts not to re-offend. Unfortunately, the vast majority of tickets are issued to those drivers in the first category.

Now to the crackdown.
One would think that in an effort to reduce accidents, our police would concentrate on problem areas where excessive speeding has been a factor in accidents in the past. It would make sense.
What do our police do? They set up operations in places where they can give out the most tickets in the shortest amount of time, period. Pedestrian safety is not a criterion in selecting where enforcement traps are placed and in fact most of these locations are not dangerous in the least.
Some of these speed traps are deserted roads, devoid of pedestrians such as in the Cavendish underpass in St.Laurent where police use the bridge as a sight barrier to nail people as they come up the hill.
The Autoroute 40 service road (at Place Vertu) doesn't see 10 pedestrians a day walking on it's sidewalk, yet the police set up on it on an ongoing basis strictly because of it's profitability.
By far, the stupidest radar trap of all is on Decarie Boulevard service road near Jean Talon. This one is of particular interest because the police actually represent a public danger as they dash out into traffic, across three lanes to nab drivers who haven't de-accelerated fast enough when coming off the Decarie expressway. Cars are forced to come to a screeching halt as the police officer leads the offender across the traffic to the curb and this on one of the busiest roads in the city. All this in the interest of traffic safety!

It's clear that Montreal Police radar traps have everything to do with revenue production and nothing to do with safety.

So why will photo-radar be different?

Only In Quebec

President Obama should speak French
A letter writer in the Quebec City newspaper, Le Soleil complains that President Obama didn't speak any French in his visit to Ottawa. What's amazing is not the idiot letter itself, but the fact that a newspaper would publish such drivel. Article

The Insidious March of English
In another letter, a reader from Baie Comeau complains that English names are taking over French business'. He complains about a hotel called 'LE MUST" and another called 'TIMES'. He implore the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste to take action. Article

Bloc Comes out Against Volunteerism
The Bloc Quebecois has a such pathological hatred of the name Trudeau that it actually found grounds to oppose Justin Trudeau's proposal that the federal government offer financial support and create programs encouraging young people to get involved in their communities by way of volunteer work. Bloc youth critic Nicolas Dufour postulated that the program could become “federalist propaganda.” Article

Mntrel Roads Dptmnt spels bdly

It's not often you get a spelling mistake on a street sign. Photo journalist Martin C. Barry captured this picture at the corner of Rosedale Ave. and Terrebonne Avenue . Read the article in The Chronicle.

Habs Party On

Sunday night Jean Perron, the ex-coach of the Habs and popular commentator on CKAC radio in Montreal visited ' Tout Le Monde en Parle', the wildly popular Sunday night talk TV show on the French CBC. He shed some light and provided some background vis-a-vis the recent not so positive headlines concerning 'Nos Glorieux'.
Mr. Perron is not only famous for winning a Stanley Cup with the Habs in 1986, but also for his honest and hard-hitting commentary on the CKAC radio, as well as his witty catch phrases which have entered the lexicon of modern Quebec vernacular. Mr. Perron has a lot of good sources and knows a lot of stuff about the players that is unflattering. He clearly knew more than what he was willing to divulge, but just the same gave out some interesting tidbits.
If you're not interested in Habs dirt, stop reading, otherwise--carry on!

First of all he cleared up mystery concerning Ryan O'Byrne's arrest in Florida for 'stealing' a purse. It seems Ryan was trying to retrieve a telephone from somebody's purse in order to erase a compromising photo of a team mate. M. Perron made it clear that he did not know specifically if the picture was of Cristobal Huot, the only married member of the group. Methinks he doth protest too much!
He went on to say that Cary Price, Sergei K and Chris Higgins are partying and carrying on to the point where their performance is being affected. He even called Bob Gainey to fill him in on the goings on.
He said that their behavior is much worse than '3 Amigos' as they were known, (Ribero, Theodore, Dagenais) ands who were shipped off because of off-ice escapades.
He predicted that something bad may explode.
His conversation is highly nuanced and if you understand French watch it here.


If you want some great dirt on the Hab players , by all means go to the 25Stanley.com blog where you'll find some great off-ice photos and stories. The site is not mean spirited at all and is great fun. Congratulation to them.

Patrick Bourgeois and the RRQ's Dangerous Victory

Most sovereignists and some journalists would have you believe that the re-enactment of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham was called off because the growing opposition by both mainstream anglophones and francophones. The idea is patently false. See my previous post entitled Josee Legault- Out to Lunch Once Again.

The Reseau de resistance du Quebecois, a small radical sovereigntist organization and it's spokesperson Patrick Bourgeois deserve all the credit.
A potential violent protest hinted by the RRQ, was the overriding consideration in the decision by organiser's to deep six the event.

Up to now, the tiny, year old group was satisfied with organizing a few protest and vigils and it's most dangerous activity was some alleged graffiti tagging. They were roundly ignored (except by the police and various security agencies) and spent most of their time preaching to themselves and the converted in separatist bars and coffee shops around Quebec City.

In protesting the battle re-enactment at Plains of Abraham, the organization changed tactics and whether by accident or design, stumbled onto a magical formula. It appears that the mere suggestion of violence, even couched in the most oblique terms is enough to set the dogs running.

The Parti Quebecois was so alarmed by M. Bourgeois statements which they themselves described as "inappropriate comments with seemingly violent undertones.", that they pulled all advertising from M. Bourgeois separatist revue, "Le Quebecois" and severed all relations and associations with the radical. Until now the newspaper derived up to 80% of it's revenues from Bloq and PQ advertising.

Abandoned by the PQ and the Bloc, will the organization now pursue an even more radical profile? Given it's success in the Plains of Abraham affair it seems likely that they might well use the same successful tactic in the future. It's hard to put the genie back into the bottle.

Patrick Bourgeois is not a hothead, by any means. He is passionate, educated and articulate. In his blog he denies that he ever threatened anything violent and that he only promised acts of civil disobedience. In speaking with a reporter from La Presse, Mr. Bourgeois did say that there was a risk of violence because of the 'excited' situation. If you read French, you can read his defence here.
Whether he threatened violence or only hinted at it, his opponents believed that a violent threat was made and reacted in consequence.

Now all of this cannot be lost on the radical sovereignist movement. With one little threat of violence, perceived or real, the RRQ accomplished something they never had before, a change in public policy based on their actions.

The RRQ and Patrick Bourgeois are at a crossroads. Getting dumped by the PQ and the Bloc may have a liberating effect that will allow the group to push it's agenda in the more radical direction they demonstrated in the Plains of Abraham dossier.

I predict that the group will use similar tactics in the future. Once success is achieved, it's hard to go back to old unsuccessful methods.

What's next on the hit list?
If I had to guess, it's the future MUHC super hospital in Montreal. Mr. Bourgeois and his cohort Pierre Falardeau have been kvetching about the project and it's threat to the French language for a while now.
It is a perfect target.

Josee Legault- Out to Lunch Once Again.

The Montreal Gazette's resident separatist, Josee Legault has her own take on the cancellation of the re-enactment of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham debate. In today's piece she provides her particular spin and posits that it wasn't really the threat of violence by extremists, but rather public opinion, both anglophone and francophone that forced the cancellation.

I don't have any problem with Ms. Legault speaking for her separatist constituency, but she clearly has no understanding of Anglophones and what we are thinking.

Although this issue is a swirling controversy in the French media and in sovereignist circles, it is a non issue to anglophones. In the great scheme of things, the re-enactment of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham is less important to anglophones than who will get kicked off American Idol this week.

Francophone school children have it drilled into them, early and often by their sovereignist teachers that the battle was a disastrous and humiliating defeat, ever after to be known as 'La Conquete', Quebec nationalist's very own version of the Palestinian 'Al Naqba.'
Anglophones also learn about the Battle in school, but it's importance sits somewhere between Jacques Cartier sailing up the St. Lawrence and the Louis Riel rebellion, boring historical facts easily forgotten with the passing years. I'll bet you that until this month a large portion of anglophone community couldn't tell you what the Battle of the Plains of Abraham was and where it took place, it is that forgettable to us.
It's a difficult notion for nationalists to comprehend, the fact that we don't care or think about the things that they are passionate about. We don't watch 'Star Acadamie' and we wouldn't recognize one out of five guest on 'Tout le Monde en Parle'. The immense consternation that nationalists feel over the Battle doesn't translate in the least to our concern.

Now as proof of the anglophone community's rejection of the re-enactment based on the merits of the sovereignist's position, she cites several English language editorials. What Ms. Legault fails to understand is that without the threat of a violence, nobody in the English media would have cared or written about the controversy.
The event only became an issue to anglophones when the threat of a violent confrontation arose.
Based on that threat, anglophones immediately gave the issue their attention and rightly advocated for the cancellation of the event based on safety concerns. That's it. Period.

Ms. Legault is your polite, garden variety type of separatist, loath to give credit to the radical Reseau de Resistance (RRQ) and it's unrepentant hardliner, Patrick Bourgeois for the victory. The group did an bang-up job scaring the crap out of everyone, by introducing a level of anxiety to the equation. They never said that there would be a violent reaction, but made sure the implication was there. Well-played!
How Ms. Legault can forward the idea that the threat of violence was not the over-riding consideration in the event's cancellation is not only self-serving but beyond belief. She spins an unbelievable yarn of wishful thinking.

At any rate, I hope Ms. Legault and M.Bourgeois remember to thank the National Battlefields Commission for planning this event and giving the sovereignists an issue to sink their teeth into.
'Humiliation' and 'Insult" is what keeps the militants motivated and sovereignty movement alive. I haven't seen true separatists so happy and passionate since the run-up to the last referendum.
The only downer for the separatists is that Ottawa caved so quickly, they were just starting to have fun.

Montreal Police Get the Respect They Deserve

Lately the Montreal Police have been complaining that they are not getting much respect from the public and have stooped to begging authorities to make the practice of insulting them illegal. If the request wasn't so sad it would be laughable. Perhaps they should be reminded of the old adage that says that respect can only be earned, not demanded.
Most large metropolitan police forces are not wildly popular, but most are respected as tough, businesslike and for the most part professional. Unfortunately our Montreal police force cannot make that claim on any level.
For several months now they have been wearing camouflage pants and red baseball caps as a pressure tactic in their ongoing labour negotiation.
If the Police brotherhood thought that the public would be so offended by the garish wardrobe that they'd demand a settlement, they must have been smoking some of the stuff that they sometimes confiscate.
Truth be told, we couldn't care less. Montrealers look upon their police as clowns and if they want to dress the part, so be it. Disrespecting their own uniform is the clearest of signals that the cops themselves have no respect for their organization.
Why should we?

Whenever I see a Montreal cop wearing camouflage, I am reminded of the burlesque, clichéd scene in the movies wherein a Mexican Federale cop stops the innocent tourist. You know, the overweight, badly groomed, sweaty cop with a toothpick hanging out of his mouth, wearing a slovenly uniform and driving an equally beat up police car.

"Señor Gringo, pleease step out of the car."

Think about the pang of fear that we whites associate with that type of a stop and now picture our very own police in camaflauge, rousting a group of blacks for committing the dangerous crime of shooting dice. There's little doubt that had the group been white and in an east end park, the cops wouldn't even have gotten out of the car. At worst they'd have rolled down the car window and shouted at the group to beat it.

Yes there is crime in Montreal North and yes blacks are involved, but it doesn't mean that every black is a criminal and should be treated as such.
It is a fact that our police stop and harass black people at an inordinate and unacceptable rate. It's sad that black mothers must school their children in how to behave when stopped by police. Did your mother do that?

Looking 'suspicious' is enough probable cause for our boys in camouflage when you are black. Ask the two Montreal Alouettes, defensive-end Alain Kashama and cornerback Mark Estelle, who were driving one evening on Notre Dame St. when they were stopped for allegedly failing to use a turn signal. Of course, the situation escalated when the two men furiously objected to the frivolous stop based on their colour. Does it sound disturbing familiar to the Villanueva tragedy?

I ask myself when I was last stopped for failing to make a signal?.....Never.
I've driven the city street for forty years and cannot recall one time having been stopped for no good reason by the police.

The Montreal Police will not earn public respect until they start acting in a professional and dignified manner and by treating all citizens equally, regardless of ethnicity, language or colour.
It's as simple as that and no legislation is going to change it.
The Montreal Police force's treatment of blacks and ethnics is not the only reason they are widely disrespected, but it is the most egregious.

Habs Meltdown Painful

It's probably a sign of the times but in the old days a car on Sherbrooke St. adorned with a Bruins flag wouldn't last long before being vandalized.
Never mind the world economic meltdown, the Canadiens collapse hurts a lot worse.

If you are, or know a true Canadiens fan, (and who doesn't) these last two weeks have been particularly painful. Watching the Canadiens perform recently is like attending the proverbial train wreck. Problem is, the consensus around the water cooler is that things are not looking to get better and this year's season looks grim with a distinct possibility that the team won't make the playoffs.
Mind you, not everyone is upset about the situation. Commentators at the Toronto Sports Network (TSN) are enjoying a healthy case of schadenfreude, recounting in delicious detail the problems that beset Nos Glorieux.

Pierre McGuire's colour commentary on last week's broadcast of the Canadiens/Avalanche game was particularly painful. True the Canadiens played poorly, but they did win the game and while they deserved to be called out for poor play, his comments were beyond the pale. This from a Maple Leafs fart-catcher who once put a positive spin on a 5-1 Leafs loss.
Why are the Canadiens so bad? Except for the injured Lang, they are essentially the same team that played so well for the first forty games. This usually means that there is either dissension in the ranks or that the coach has lost control of the team or can no longer motivate them.

Turning to Gainey and Carbonneau, it's plain to see that they are in total panic (though you'd never know it from Gainey's poker face), making moves that even a part-time fantasy league coach can recognize as dumb and desperate.
Their latest move is sitting the struggling Alex Kovalev. Do they think this will improve the motivation of this moody Russian or increase his value on the trading scene? Look how well the exercise worked with MICHAEL RYDER!
Next, the logic in acquiring Mathieu Schnieder, a player past his prime and incidentally one whom they traded away while in his prime, is to say the least, somewhat suspect.
And finally, using the Hamilton Bulldogs as punishment for under-performing players doesn't seem much of a plan either.
It's hard to say if management will last the season. Montreal's jock-sniffing sports writers have always acted as an extension of the team, choosing to report the positive, lest they be banished from the dressing room.

Montreal is not Toronto, one thing is sure, soon the knives will be out.

Anglo Montreal Blog -First to Predict Cancellation of Battle Re-Enactment

Anglo Montreal's first prediction of the year comes true.
In a post on January 31 ,2009, Anglo Montreal was the first blog or newspaper to publicly predict the cancellation of the re-enactment of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham next year.

"Someone in Ottawa will get the message, the event will be canceled, it is a matter of time. Let's hope it's sooner than later."

Celine Dion - Francophone Impersonator

Celine Dion has begun another set of sold out concerts at the Bell Centre as described in the review in by T'CHA DUNLEVY in today’s The Gazette. The show is reported to be the same one she gave last year and one that I had the dubious pleasure of attending.

My wife is a fan and when her friend offered up a gracious invitation to a corporate box, I could only smile and accept my fate.

Music aside, my dislike for Dion goes back to her behavior at the beginning of her career and her performance at the concert last year confirmed that she is the same two-faced person she always was.

After her early success as a French artist, her manager, Rene Angelil sensing her world-wide potential, positioned her to conquer the North American market. After learning English and releasing her first English album “Unison” she became a bona fide rising star on the English language pop scene.

Some of her faithful Quebec fans called her a sell-out and Dion defended herself with an unpardonable insult to the English.

The annual Félix Award show salutes Quebec artists. The gala event is a big deal in Quebec, but nowhere else. It is shown exclusively on the French language network and in 1992, it was there where she decided to show her “French” face by pulling a grandstand stunt. After winning the 'English Artist of the Year' for her English language album, she marched up to the stage and refused to accept the award, claiming that she was and forever would be a French artist, not an English one. Hmmm.
Guided by her astute manager Rene Angelil, her career exploded after an association with fellow Canadian super producer David Foster and she quickly became what she promised she would never become - an English artist.
Her album art work reveals the transformation from French artist to English. She dropped the accent ‘egeu’ (‘é’) in her first name and adopted the English pronunciation of her name- ‘CEE-LEAN- DEE-ON’ from the French version- ‘SAY-LEAN DAY-ON’

After an exhausting career, the Angelil family settled down to family life in a luxury Las Vegas estate as Celine fulfilled a five year run an an Anglophone artist at Caesar Palace. She became the darling of entertainment media and cleverly pushed her career onto the world stage.

Each year, she returned to perform in Montreal, where she would magically transform herself back into a unilingual Francophone.

Notwithstanding the sizable percentage anglophones in the audience, the Montreal concert is a uniquely French affair with nary a ‘how-de-do’ in English.
The opening opening act, an impersonator who did a take on various French artists, was the harbinger that English is not welcome. Opting for a bunch of weak French songs instead of her mega English hits and her exclusive French interaction with the audience is meant to maintain the fiction that she is a francophone artist.

That ship sailed long ago.

Viewing Patterns of Anglophones vs. Francophones

This week's debut of the latest round of 'Star Acadamie' (a Francophone American Idol) on the TVA network drew an amazing 1,700,000 viewers. It means that almost one out of every four Quebeckers watched the show.

Looking at the ratings for both English and French shows reveals some interesting facts.The penetration level of Quebec produced shows is startling compared to the English side.
There are three English Canadians for every French Canadian, but francophones in absolute numbers watch more locally produced content than anglophones.

Using statistics for the week of January 26 to February 1 we see that;

• Nine out of the ten most viewed shows by Francophones were produced in Quebec. The only American show to break the top ten was a dubbed version of 'HOUSE'
• The ten most viewed shows by English Canadians were all produced in the USA.
• The top 10 shows produced in Quebec all drew over a million viewers.
• Only two Canadian produced shows (Rick Mercer & Corner Gas) drew over a million viewers.

Francophones have more choices when it comes to Canadian programming. Amazingly, in absolute numbers, a Canadian production company would be better off producing a show in French rather than in English, they will generally have a larger viewership.

Of course the wide variety of programming available on the English side splits the audience, but the penetration of local programming on the French side makes those shows much more influential. A prime example is the Sunday night talk show called 'Tout le monde en parle'. Artists, athletes and politicians face a round table panel and discuss current events. The show generally pulls in around a million and a half viewers and may be the most influential show in Canada.

Et les Anglos?

In an article in today's Le Devoir, Odile Tremblay asks what anglophones think about the proposed re-enactment of Battle the Plains of Abraham scheduled next year.

First let me say that anglos don't think much about it all. While the French press burns with debate, it is a non-story amongst anglophones.
That being said, I promises you that if the project goes ahead, you won't see busloads of West Islanders trudging off to Quebec City to savour the victory.

Not one to often agree with nationalists, I can say in no uncertain terms that the project is an unacceptable provocation, if for no other reason than it is perceived as a provocation by large number of Quebeckers.
Why on earth would we artificially create a public event that offends so many people? It is stupidity of the nth degree.
This ill-thought out project is the brainchild of the Battlefield Commission, an organization with too much time on their hands and not enough to do. The Commission should be disbanded and the Plains turned over to Parks Canada.
Those politicians who feel a need to defend this project should re-think their position.
Countering the emotional response of those opposed, with a logical rebuttal is an exercise in futility.

Calling off the event now may be a bit embarrassing, but is necessary. It may require a dose of intestinal fortitude by those making the decisions. I hope they find it. The consequences of letting this re-enactment take place is a confrontation that may or may not become violent.

I believe that if the Prime Minister stepped in and canceled the event, it would be perceived by the majority as wise and statesmanlike.

There are legitimate differences of opinion between anglophone and francophone Quebeckers. We're not going to advance this debate by celebrating an event that represents the very worst way of settling differences.

Canadiens Brainwash Students

The Montreal Canadiens are coming under fire for a project called Canadiens@school, a website created by the team as a teaching tool for young students. The website has come under sharp criticism today. RDI, the French news network had a piece about it this morning and La Presse's Michèle Ouimet writes about it in an article. It seems that some professionals in the education field view the site as nothing more than publicity and brainwashing for the team. All the exercises and lessons carry a heavy dose of information about Montreal Canadiens.
Pierre St-Germain, president of the Fédération autonome de l'enseignement, denounces the project as unacceptable. Publicity disguised as pedagogical material.

Donald Beauchamp of the Canadiens protested that the Canadiens are a hockey team and not a business that sells products in the traditional senses. He did however, grudgingly admit that Canadiens are a private enterprise.

How much did this crafty investment cost the magnamamous Canadiens? They haven't said. But we do know that The Quebec Education Department has contributed over $250,000 of taxpayer money to the project.

Oh yes, there is an English version of the website,

Loto Quebec Owes Answers Regarding Insider Fraud

Loto-Quebec has been strangely silent in view of the insider winner scandal that brewed in Ontario last year. Perhaps they consider the problem unique to Ontario, but more likely are afraid of opening a Pandora's box. Their silence in regard to the problem is scandalous.

It seems that Ontario's Ombudsman Andre Marin, blew the whistle on insider fraud and theft in 2007, at the Ontario Lottery and Gaming. Loto retailers were cashing winning tickets at an extraordinary rate and fraud was the culprit. It appears that at least 198 million dollars was shifted away from legitimate winners by a variety of means.

Here's how it's done, from a comment on the article in the Toronto Star entitled "Lotto's Dirty Secret"

How it can be done.
You hand your winning ticket to a retailer and he switches it for a loser and the machine says you are not a winner. Before the signature requirement to check your ticket it was easy to do. The 12.5 million dollar winner could not tell the O.L.G. where she purchased the ticket that generated the winning free ticket because she had not purchased it in the first place.The person who the retailer stole the ticket from went to the O.L.G. with all the correct information about the winning ticket but the lottery insiders paid out the 12.5 prize even when they knew the wrong person was claiming it. If you want the whole story read the Ombudsman's report. Since the O.L.G. audit only revealed the fraud and corruption in Ontario how many more insiders stole from the other 4 lottery corporations in Canada???????????????

Submitted by larryl at 8:57 PM Saturday, February 07 2009

Read the enlightening document prepared by the Ontario Ombusman entitled A Game of Trust

In light of the scandal, a big shakeup occurred at the OLG and strict measures are being implemented to combat fraud. Here's a link to see what the measures the OLG adopted.

Now if you think this problem is isolated to Ontario, think again. A CBC News investigation has uncovered that there are similar problems at the the Western Canada Lottery Corporation, where lottery clerks are actually claiming prizes at a disproportionately high rate. Read the article over at the CBC.ca website.

What about Loto Quebec? Cognizant of what is happening around the country, why haven't they undertaken a similar investigation. Do they believe that Quebec retailers are inherently more honest or are they afraid of what they will find?

Although they haven't investigated or admitted to the problem of insider fraud, Loto-Quebec has introduced new measures to reduce cheating. As of January 1, 2009, they have added a signature box to each ticket. For other safety measures refer to the related page on the Loto-Quebec site.

So tell us, Loto-Quebec, how much money have Quebeckers been defrauded of?

Wonderful Article about Canada in Newsweek

Here is a reprint of a wonderfully written article about Canada by Fareed Zakariain in Newsweek, from the magazine issue dated Feb 16, 2009.

I'm sure every Canadian will find it uplifting.

Worthwhile Canadian Initiative

• Email the Author
• Biography
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The legendary editor of The New Republic, Michael Kinsley, once held a "Boring Headline Contest" and decided that the winner was "Worthwhile Canadian Initiative." Twenty-two years later, the magazine was rescued from its economic troubles by a Canadian media company, which should have taught us Americans to be a bit more humble. Now there is even more striking evidence of Canada's virtues. Guess which country, alone in the industrialized world, has not faced a single bank failure, calls for bailouts or government intervention in the financial or mortgage sectors. Yup, it's Canada. In 2008, the World Economic Forum ranked Canada's banking system the healthiest in the world. America's ranked 40th, Britain's 44th.

Canada has done more than survive this financial crisis. The country is positively thriving in it. Canadian banks are well capitalized and poised to take advantage of opportunities that American and European banks cannot seize. The Toronto Dominion Bank, for example, was the 15th-largest bank in North America one year ago. Now it is the fifth-largest. It hasn't grown in size; the others have all shrunk.

So what accounts for the genius of the Canadians? Common sense. Over the past 15 years, as the United States and Europe loosened regulations on their financial industries, the Canadians refused to follow suit, seeing the old rules as useful shock absorbers. Canadian banks are typically leveraged at 18 to 1—compared with U.S. banks at 26 to 1 and European banks at a frightening 61 to 1. Partly this reflects Canada's more risk-averse business culture, but it is also a product of old-fashioned rules on banking.

Canada has also been shielded from the worst aspects of this crisis because its housing prices have not fluctuated as wildly as those in the United States. Home prices are down 25 percent in the United States, but only half as much in Canada. Why? Well, the Canadian tax code does not provide the massive incentive for overconsumption that the U.S. code does: interest on your mortgage isn't deductible up north. In addition, home loans in the United States are "non-recourse," which basically means that if you go belly up on a bad mortgage, it's mostly the bank's problem. In Canada, it's yours. Ah, but you've heard American politicians wax eloquent on the need for these expensive programs—interest deductibility alone costs the federal government $100 billion a year—because they allow the average Joe to fulfill the American Dream of owning a home. Sixty-eight percent of Americans own their own homes. And the rate of Canadian homeownership? It's 68.4 percent.

Canada has been remarkably responsible over the past decade or so. It has had 12 years of budget surpluses, and can now spend money to fuel a recovery from a strong position. The government has restructured the national pension system, placing it on a firm fiscal footing, unlike our own insolvent Social Security. Its health-care system is cheaper than America's by far (accounting for 9.7 percent of GDP, versus 15.2 percent here), and yet does better on all major indexes. Life expectancy in Canada is 81 years, versus 78 in the United States; "healthy life expectancy" is 72 years, versus 69. American car companies have moved so many jobs to Canada to take advantage of lower health-care costs that since 2004, Ontario and not Michigan has been North America's largest car-producing region.

I could go on. The U.S. currently has a brain-dead immigration system. We issue a small number of work visas and green cards, turning away from our shores thousands of talented students who want to stay and work here. Canada, by contrast, has no limit on the number of skilled migrants who can move to the country. They can apply on their own for a Canadian Skilled Worker Visa, which allows them to become perfectly legal "permanent residents" in Canada—no need for a sponsoring employer, or even a job. Visas are awarded based on education level, work experience, age and language abilities. If a prospective immigrant earns 67 points out of 100 total (holding a Ph.D. is worth 25 points, for instance), he or she can become a full-time, legal resident of Canada.

Companies are noticing. In 2007 Microsoft, frustrated by its inability to hire foreign graduate students in the United States, decided to open a research center in Vancouver. The company's announcement noted that it would staff the center with "highly skilled people affected by immigration issues in the U.S." So the brightest Chinese and Indian software engineers are attracted to the United States, trained by American universities, then thrown out of the country and picked up by Canada—where most of them will work, innovate and pay taxes for the rest of their lives.

If President Obama is looking for smart government, there is much he, and all of us, could learn from our quiet—OK, sometimes boring—neighbor to the north. Meanwhile, in the councils of the financial world, Canada is pushing for new rules for financial institutions that would reflect its approach. This strikes me as, well, a worthwhile Canadian initiative.

© 2009

Golden Parchutes the Norm For Those Who Fail

As described in the previous post, Henri-Paul Roussseau got a $400,000 severance payout when he quit his job last summer as the CEO of the Caisse de Depot. Under his leadership the Caisse embarked on a foolish gamble to invest in the U.S. mortgage market. The Caisse is preparing to announce a 38 billion dollar loss.
Monseiur Rousseau is not the only idiot receiving a big payout for disastrous performance.

Over at UQAM the (Universitie de Quebec a Montreal) a building project at the Berri de Montigny location went badly over budget and would have bankrupted the university without a government bailout of 400 million dollars.
Th auditor general criticized those responsible and the province considered laying criminal charges against them. Instead two of the three implicated were given golden parachutes.

The ex-rector, Roch Denis, received $173 000 after leaving his job in 2007 and Mauro Malservisi, the ex vice-rector (responsible for financial affairs) took a retirement package in 2006 that included a $153 000 payout.

Over at McGill University, Ann Dowsett Johnston worked less than a year and a half as vice-principle and received an exit payment of $321 000. Coupled with her salary she pocketed $760 000, for 19 months of work. This from a school claims poverty.

At any rate, it seems that these golden parachutes exist for senior management in all government jobs and is unrelated to performance.

Caisse de Depot's Losses Staggerring

It is being reported that the Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec had a C$38 billion loss on its investments last year, which represents a 26% drop in value in our collective pension fund. The average decline last year for similar pension funds in Canada is 16 percent .
It's hard to get your head around a number like 38 billion, so consider this; the Caisse lost over $4,ooo dollars for every citizen of Quebec.

It's no wonder that the Caisse's chief executive abandoned ship abruptly last summer. Seeing the writing on the wall, Henri-Paul Rousseau took a job with Power corporation, but not before cashing in a $400,000 severance package. One has to question how he got a severance package, when he quit his job.

His successor, Richard Guay took one look at the books and promptly took sick leave. He's been at home ever since and finally resigned at the beginning Of January. His severance package, if any hasn't been made public.
Fernand Perreault has been chosen as interim CEO, but a hunt is on to find an outside replacement. Don't bother sending in your resume if you're an anglophone.

Premier Charest has promised to name a new board of directors soon.

Canadian Companies Cheat Less.

When I decided that I wanted to cancel my service for Sirius Canada satellite radio, I geared up for a battle, but was surprised at how easy it was to get done. I called the 1-800 number and waited of less than a minute to be answered. After talking to a very polite operator and explaining that I no longer wanted the service, he thanked me and promised that I'd get no more bills after this month. Was I surprised? You bet.

When I had an apartment in the USA, I tried to cancel something called WebTV, a service whereby you could get internet on your TV, without a computer. I called the 1-800 cancellation number every night for a week and was put on hold for anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes before hanging up. When I finally got through to an operator, my line got mysteriously cut off.
Finally in frustration, I dialed the number listed that activated the service. As you can guess, I got through to an operator within two rings. When I explained that I wanted to cancel the service, he told me that I had to call another number."Whoa," I said. "Cancel the account now or transfer me to a supervisor!" It worked and I didn't think about the incident until I visited my parents in Florida and tagged along with my father to run some errands. We went to mall where he went to SEARS to renew his car insurance. I asked him why he would buy insurance at Sears instead of a broker, who would likely be cheaper.
He looked me straight in the eyes and said. "Son, they don't cheat you at SEARS"

I came to realize that he was completely right. In the years that I kept a vacation apartment in the US, I can't count the number of times I was cheated, it is ingrained in American business model.
When I finally gave up my apartment and as a final insult, the landlord refused to return the security deposit claiming some vague rule. When I threatened to take his company to small claims court, he laughed. "You Canadians never sue, you'll have to come back and it isn't worth it." Apparently he was talking from experience.
In the USA is routine to get your long distance carrier switched without your permission, to be overcharged for your cable and to be swindled on car repairs. Don't bother with phone cards, they don't give you a fraction of the minutes promised and don't ever get an American credit card, unless it's issued from the biggest banks. Hospitals charge $80 for an aspirin and will put you through a battery of useless tests just to wring more money out of you. It's no wonder that there are so many lawyers and so many lawsuits, it is a case of cheat or be cheated, it's ingrained in the American psyche.

For your entertainment, here is a taped conversation of someone trying to cancel his AOL account. It's a couple of years old but if you haven't heard it, it's hilarious and a good example of American business practices. An AOL rep tries to bully a client into not cancelling his service.

'Ot She-ken' Sandwich

Often, convenient words and phrases jump the language barrier. Few Quebec anglophones would ever use the words 'convenience store' and usually refer to the corner shop as the 'depanner'
I don't know if French language defenders would appreciate the migration of this phrase found on a sign in a Joliette fast food restaurant. It's the first time I've seen it.

Villanueva Affair to Cost Millions

The public inquiry into the death of Freddy Villanueva is already turning into a fiasco as several witnesses demand that their their lawyers fees be paid for by the state. The government has already promised to pay the fees of the Villanueva family, but no one else. The witnesses (the other people shot by police) threaten not to testify.
The inquiry will likely be delayed, a circumstance that would suit the government just fine. These type of inquiries are held not to discover the truth, but to delay discussing the event until the public loses interest.

Certain facts are not in dispute.

Police officers Stéphanie Pilotte and Jean-Loup Lapointe, drove by a Montreal North park and spotted a group of about ten blacks shooting dice, which is illegal.

The police approached and recognized Freddy's brother, Dany Villanueva, a career criminal who has a history of armed robberies and associating with gang members. For a detailed history of his criminal past see the Montreal Gazette article of August 14, 2008. The police picked him out of the group for special scrutiny. He objected and reacted aggressively, enraged at the rough treatment. Police then arrested him and a scuffle broke out. The rest of the group, including Freddy, approached the police who ordered them to back up. Shots were fired.

Dany Villanueva describes the confrontation in his own words to a Journal de Montreal reporter in an December article in the paper.
“Le policier s’est avancé vers moi et m’a dit Je t’ai vu jouer aux dés. Normalement, il aurait dû juste me donner une amende parce que c’est interdit de jouer à l’argent“
("The policeman approached me and said 'I saw you playing dice.' Usually, they should have given me a ticket, because it's illegal to play for money")
“Mais il m’a pris la main, la policière m’a pris le bras et ils m’ont accoté sur le capot de leur auto. Je lui ai dit Qu’est-ce que tu me veux? “
(But he took my hand, the policewoman took my arm and they shoved me onto the hood of their car. I shouted 'What do you want from me?')
“Ça faisait mal, alors j’ai résisté. Il m’a pris par le cou et m’a jeté par terre.
(It hurt, so I resisted. He grabbed me by the neck and threw to the ground")

Two eye witnesses confirm that Dany was combative with the police.. Reference

“Elle m’a mis un genou sur ma poitrine. J’ai entendu mon frère crier Arrêtez! Arrêtez! “
(She put a knee on my breast. I heard my brother shouting 'Stop! Stop')

It was at this point the police turned and fired at the group.

The Police contend that they were being swarmed and were defending themselves.
Their take on events is neatly summed up by crown prosecutor François Brière, in an article by the CBC. who explains why the shooting was justified.
The defendants admit approaching the police but not attacking them.

There is a question as to whether the police over-reacted to the dice playing, a relatively minor offence. They could of shouted an instruction for group to break up.
What is also in contention is whether the approaching group was actually attacking the police. The Police say yes and the others say no..

At any rate the death of Freddy is going to cost millions.
The ensuing riot in Montreal North that followed the death has already cost a small fortune.

The Villanueva family has already sued are are looking for a big, big payoff. It remains to be seen whether the City on Montreal will back the Police or cave in to the demands for political expediency.

Sovereignists Apoplectic over Sarkozy Remarks

As I predicted the day before yesterday, sovereignists are going crazy and are literally foaming at the mouth over comments made by French President Sarkozy in a speech at Premiere Charest's investiture in the Legion D'Honneur.
The President absolutely trashed the idea of sovereignty and called it a form of 'sectarianism'
For those old enough to remember Charles De Gaulle's infamous "Vive La Quebec Libre" speech, the pronouncement is sweet revenge.

Everybody's Talking About....

Most anglophones hardly bother with French television. Unless you have superb French, it's hard to understand and truthfully most of the original programming is exceedingly dull. One of the programs that anglophones should know about is the wildly popular Sunday night talk show-"Tout le monde en parle" It is a talk show where people in the news are invited to face a critical panel and explain their positions. The program has wide following and averages up to a million and a half viewers each week.
Last Sunday the guest was Jean-François Mercier, the producer of the infamous Bye-Bye 2008, Radio Canada's annual new year's eve show.
There probably isn't a francophone in Quebec who hasn't seen or heard about the show and this year's edition was seen by an amazing four and a half million Quebeckers.
The show lampoons Quebec personalities and has a history of cruelly insulting anglophones and immigrants.
This year, people complained that two of the sketches crossed the line of decency. One was a mock interview of Barak Obama that made fun of the fact that he was black.
The second skit mocked Quebec personality Nathalie Simard, who for those of you who don't know, is the sister of René Simard. The two were a Donny and Marie-like tandem who as children were very popular singers in the 1980's.
At any rate it turns out that Nathalie, as a child was abused by her trusted manager, Guy Cloutier, a pedophile who repeatedly raped her for seven years.
Poor Nathalie hasn't been right since and wrote a book about her experience. For his crime Cloutier was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.
The skit made fun of the fact that Miss Simard, apparently suffering an emotional breakdown, announced that she was abandoning Quebec for the Dominican Republic.
Not only was making fun of Nathalie Simard viewed as a low blow, what infuriated everyone was the fact that one of the two writers who wrote the skit was actually the daughter of the pedophile.
Yup, incredibly Veronique Cloutier, the writer, is the daughter of Guy Cloutier, pedophile.
According to Jean-François Mercier, "When you take a chance, sometimes it backfires." He claimed that he never saw anything wrong with Veronique writing the skit, as he viewed both father and daughter as distinct.
As for being a racist, Mr. Mercier defended himself by claiming that some of his best friends are black.
It made for quite a show!
I shall be reporting on future shows.

French President Knifes Sovereignists

Last summer President Sarkozy's gave a speech in Quebec city that seemed to support Canadian federalism. It was seen as a betrayal by most sovereignists , but was explained as being ambiguous by others.
In a speech in Paris, at a ceremony honouring Quebec Premier Jean Charest, he dispelled any illusions that Quebec sovereignists might have had.
In no uncertain terms he came out in support of a united Canada, so much so that according to LE DEVOIR, "it overshadowed the ceremony."
It seems that sovereignists will have another 'humiliation' to suffer and I'm sure we will soon see a vitriolic attack on the French president reminding him to mind his own business.
For anglophone Quebeckers, it will be delicious entertainment

First, Do No Harm.

Do-gooders and social engineers should be interested in the article in Le Journal de Montreal concerning the new healthy menu served in Quebec high schools. It appears that the change to healthy food in school cafeterias is driving students to McDonald's and other fast food restaurants. School administrators are concerned about the perverse effect of this healthy food edict. It seems that you can lead students to the salad bar, but you can't make them eat.
As for solutions, one spokesman put forward the idea of more legislation. The area around schools should be designated junk-food free, where fast-food restaurants would be barred from operating.

We should take heed of the law of 'unintended consequences'. There's been talk of banning the sale of bottled water. The question is, what will it be replaced with. Social engineers would have us believe that we'd all drink from the water fountain when in reality we'll probably just buy soda pop. Not a great advance by any standard.

Radio Canada Exec First Class Pig

It seems that $6,000 for an airline ticket to Paris is justified, according to a spokesman for La Société Radio-Canada (the French CBC).
Vice-President Sylvain Lafrance, flew over to attend a board meeting of TV5, a worldwide French language network. When he got there, the meeting was canceled for lack of a quorum, but that didn't stop our dedicated public servant from spending a week in the City of Lights, racking up another couple of thousand in expenses. According to the SRC apologist, Mr Lafrance touched base with the Canadian embassy, met some Radio Canada personnel and held "secret meetings", so the trip was not in vain.

I don't know why they paid for $6,000 for the ticket, the SRC must have the world's worst travel agent. According to the Air Canada website a executive-first ticket for tomorrow's flight to Paris, returning a week later costs from $2,500 to a maximum $3,600.