French vs. English Volume 8

Blogger Demands Anglos Help Haitians in French?
For resident Anglo bashing fruitcake, Louis Prefontaine (who's got quite a following of like-minded twits,) a Facebook group called Montreal-Answering Haiti's cry for help is an outrageous abuse because the group is misrepresenting itself by including "Montreal" in it's name. According to Mr. Prefontaine Montreal is officially French and an English group is an affront. "Helping Haiti is okay, but not at the expense of denying our language and our values."

Calls for boycott of Montreal Catholic Church & the Red Cross
The Catholic church in Quebec has come onto the radar of French language zealots for running church affairs bilingually and offering services in English. This has upset Hélène Pelletier-Baillargeon who wrote in Le Devoir that it's time to boycott the collection plate. With just 6% of Francophones attending church services regularly, the only new worshippers are immigrants who prefer services in English. She demands that the Church adhere to the written and the spirit of Bill 101, the Quebec language law, notwithstanding that the law doesn't apply to religious institutions.

Another complainer advises Quebeckers to boycott the Red Cross's Haiti fund because the organization advertise job vacancies in English only on their bilingual web site. All the jobs were for positions outside Quebec.

The Brick Offers $25 to complainer
The Brick furniture store offered an enraged client Laval resident $25, because it sent out a English only circular to his house in error. The complainer was insulted by the offer and brought the matter to the attention of the easily offended Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal and it's president Mario Beaulieu. He too was furious and asked the rhetorical question, "Is a Quebeker's pride worth a mere $25?" I guess it is...because he then invited readers to phone the store and complain in order to receive their own $25 hush money.

Defenders of the Faith organizing
Following the lead of the Mouvement Montréal français and the newly-minted Mouvement Montérégie française, a similar group is forming in the Laurentians to the put the brakes on the inexorable encroachment of English in the hereto linguistically pure expanses of cottage country north of Montreal. Fifty odd people are to hold a founding conference in the lovely town of St.Eustache later this month. The usual gang of suspects will attend including Mario Beaulieu, president of the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal.

Quebec artists group will no longer hype sovereignty in public

A recent poll of members of the l'Union des artistes (UDA) indicates that the majority are against their union taking a public stance in the debate over sovereignty.

This doesn't mean that the majority don't support sovereignty, 58% of respondants admitted to supporting the option while 18% declared themselves opposed. 28% decided to duck the question completely and offered no opinion.

The likely reason is that the artists feel punished by Mr. Harper's $40 million cut in their subsidy two years ago and wish to avoid baiting the bull in the future.

95% of members who were asked, favoured the UDA to demand that Ottawa increase significantly the cultural and communication bugdet and 82% were in favour of Ottawa repatriating the power to administrate these funds to Quebec .

Language zealots disapprove of French classes
It's hard to come to terms with the reaction of French language nationalists to the English- Montreal School Board decision to serve up exclusively French only classes in order to keep up enrolment.
There are approximately 14,000 English students attending schools run by French school boards, despite the fact that the students are eligible for an English education under Bill 101. Most of these families are from mixed French/English marriages or couples. It is these students that the EMSB would like to repatriate and is willing to offer French only classes to accommodate those parents who want their children to have a French education.

The EMSB is facing a continuing decline in it's enrolment and is looking to stem the flow in which ever way they can. The enforcement of Bill 104 robbed the school board of about 500 students a year and is a contributing factor to the loss about 900 students a year, resulting in school closure after school closure. Since 2001, the board’s enrolment has dropped by more than 5,000.
A spokesperson for the Mouvement Montréal français thinks its a bad idea to allow the English school boards the right to run French only schools within their system."It will poach students and therefore weaken the French school boards." (read-strengthen English school boards)

General Wolfe gay?

For sovereignists and nationalists the Battle of the Plains of Abraham is an obsession that is all-encompassing. Quebec historian Jacques Lacoursière recently told an audience that it was a possibility that Wolfe was a homosexual. His evidence- Wolfe remained engaged throughout his adult life without ever getting married and that on the eve of the great battle, he wrote a letter to his mother, instead of his fiancée. Arggh!!.....