I find myself often talking back to the television, correcting pronunciation or challenging the facts presented. I usually don't get much reaction, aside from my wife, who tells me to shut up more often than not.
It was with mouth ajar that I screened a YouTube video of a demonstration in front of Immigration Minister Yolande James' office in Montreal.
The media variously reported the crowd between several hundred and two thousand, but the reality was it numbered closer to 200.
The reality was that the demonstration had nothing to do with language, but rather about the thirty jobs or so, that were to be lost by the union, the Syndicat des professeurs de l'État du Québec.
Watching the video, it became evident that the whole affair was put up by teachers who recruited their students to demonstrate in their stead, under the guise of protecting the French language.
Nobody in the mainstream media pointed out the shameful pimping out of students by the teachers union.
I imagine that this type of extra-curricular activity leads to extra credit....
- At the 3:00 mark of the video a teacher is asked for a comment by a reporter and tells him she can't comment because she's a public employee, but she pushes a student in front of the microphone to speak for her.
- At 3:30 of the video, a Spanish accented student tells the camera that he came to the demonstration to speak French. His teacher, standing to one side, tells him to repeat what they practised in class!!
The placards that the students held up were much too sophisticated for people learning French as a second language. Not many immigrants can successfully use the word 'PRECARITÉ,"(precarious) or can make a play on the two different meanings of the word "TOUR." (tower/turn)
I remember way back in Grade 10 in high school, one of my teachers spent half a period beseeching students to attend a demonstration in favour of teacher contract demands.
It was creepy and unethical then, as it is now.
