Parizeau Chooses Anglo Hospitial
Ex-PQ Premier, Jacques Parizeau is putting paid to the argument that Montreal's officially bilingual hospitals treat only Anglophones. Pulling a 'Danny Williams,' Monsieur Parizeau checked into the Jewish General Hospital for treatment for a rapid drop in blood pressure. In attack after attack, nationalist claim that the government is spending too much money on these hospitals because of the small proportion of the general population that Anglophones represent. I'm sure that for many nationalists, Mr Parizeau's decision to seek the best medical care in an Anglo institution is somehow treasonous and a stab in the heart to the sovereignty movement. We wish Mr. Parizeau a 'prompt re-établissement' and a hearty 'Mazel Tov' on his vote of confidence.
Baby on Board Sign irks Nationalist
In one of the most moronic pieces I have ever seen published, Martin Lavallée in vigel.net complained that a hoard of new immigrants have been seen tooling around the city of Montreal in cars with the infamous "BABY ON BOARD" sign attached to the inside of the rear window. He claims that it signals an Anglophone invasion from other parts of Canada and the United States and that the Anglos have moved into sacred Francophone territory outside the traditional Anglo bastion in the western end of Montreal. Without a shred of evidence, he builds a rant against the English based on his nonsensical fairy tale premise. He notes that all the new construction of condos and apartment buildings are being built to house an onslaught of invading Anglos.Now there are paranoid nut cases in all communities, Anglos included, but one must ask what kind of editor, even of a nationalist web site would allow such demented ravings to be published?
Voodoo Mathematics from Striking Newsman
Perhaps being on strike from The Journal de Montreal for over a year has affected journalist Jean-Philippe Pineault's math skills. In a piece on the striking journalists' news web site, Rue Frontenac, he draws a hilarious conclusion from a report published by separatist language critic Pierre Curzi.The report, which most likely is another self-serving separatist creation, contends that 157 thousand immigrants chose to adopt English as their new language, while 143 thousand chose French. I don't for a minute have any faith in those numbers but notwithstanding, by my calculations it represents a 52% / 48% split.
Not so according to the writer of the article, it actually means that English is five times as popular as French!
How does the author arrive at this conclusion? Well, Francophones are five times as numerous as Anglophones, so it's natural that five times as many immigrants choose French. Because only half do and so, English is five times more popular.
I'm not making this up.....
Get that? No?
Let me give you an analogy --- A marketing company takes a survey commissioned by PEPSI to compare it's product to COKE. The polling firm ascertains that 85% of Quebeckers prefer PEPSI, with the remaining 15% preferring COKE. It then surveys immigrants arriving to Quebec and finds that this group is split 50%-50% between products. The marketing company then goes back to PEPSI and tells the company that immigrants prefer COKE five times as much as PEPSI.
"How can you possibly draw such a conclusion, the immigrants prefer both products equally?" asks the PEPSI representative. "Well," answers the polling firm, "Immigrants are five times more likely to choose Coke than traditional Quebeckers and so by logical extension it is five times more popular among them."
"BUT ONLY HALF OF THEM CHOSE COKE, IDIOT! HOW COULD IT BE FIVE TIMES MORE POPULAR!!!! "screams the Pepsi executive.
"You don't understand our methodology..."
"Jewish" Court Responsible for allowing 'Kirpan' in Class
In another rant, prolific Anglo, immigrant and non-Christan basher, Jacques Noel now refers to Canada's Supreme Court as the "Jewish" court, which he blames for ruling that the dastardly Kirpan be allowed to be worn under the clothes of religious Sikhs in schools. LINK.It isn't so bad when his idiotic and logic twisting rants are confined to obscure sovereingist web sites, but every now and then his nonsense spills out into the main stream media.
He is famous for twisting voodoo statistics to Quebec's advantage and has published a beaut in a letter published by LE SOLEIL.
In it he attacks Stephen Harper's plan to increase the number of Parliamentary seats to Alberta, BC and Ontario as statistically unfair.
His justification is based on the fact that while these provinces are under-represented based on population, they are not by virtue of registered voters. The fact that many are new immigrants and can't vote means that they should not be considered in determining proportional representation. Yup......
When it comes to proportional representation I bet Monsieur Noel didn't consider this fact, as pointed out by Chantal Hebert in l'Actualité.
It takes more than twice as many voters to elect a member of the NDP to Parliament as it does to elect a member of the Bloc Quebecois. Here's the breakdown of how many votes each party got divided by the members it elected.
-Bloc Québécois : 1 seat for each 28,163 votes.
-Conservatives: 1 seat for each 36,427 votes.
-Liberals : 1 seat for each 47,184 votes.
- NDP : 1 seat for each 67,981 votes.
- Green Party: 0 seats for all 937,613 votes.
OOOH.......
Jacques Parizeau is the epitome of hypocrisy. After all, he did send his children to ENGLISH private school.
ReplyDeleteA Naughty Moose Said:
ReplyDeleteCan someone tell me how to get to this Montreal sovereignists speak of? Journalists keep mentioning this anglo bastion where people refuse to speak French and service is available only in English. I worked downtown for the last 15 years yet I can go days without speaking to anyone in English. The only place that have employees who have difficulty in French are places with out of town students. The reality is that anyone who does not speak French in this province is in a severe disadvantage career wise. Anyone who refuses to speak French is usually out of lack of ability and is certainly not an act of defiance as the French media want you to believe.
For another example of creative math, an article on the canoe site posted yesterday points to how any day now Montreal will revert to French.
“After all, he did send his children to ENGLISH private school.”
ReplyDeleteI don’t know if it’s true, but I heard that even when he lived on his vineyard in France, he would send his children across the channel to England to have them educated in English.
The most ardent Quebec nationalists always find ways to bypass their own laws and backdoor their children into English schools, while denying that right to other Quebecois and all the immigrants.
“How does the author arrive at this conclusion?”
They always seem to compare everything to the so called “poids demographiques du Quebec”. OK, fine, but that includes a lot of people in the regions that an average Montrealer, especially Allo or Anglo, has nothing to do with. Why should you leverage your argument with the French-speaking rural population of Quebec, knowing that they have absolutely no effect on the lives of over half of Montreal residents. I personally deal with a lot of people from Ontario, the US and the UK, on both professional and personal level, as well as English-, Polish-, (and some French-) speaking residents of Montreal, yet I’m told constantly about the “primacy” of French because someone arbitrarily decided that the province of Quebec and ONLY the province of Quebec should be the point of reference for all eternity. How about zooming out a bit and including Canada in the equation and getting 3/4 English 1/4 French. How about expanding the argument to the US, and right there you go to 2% French 98% English. Or how about zooming in and looking at Montreal only, where we have 20% Anglos, 30% Allos (who speak English and like speaking it) and quite a lot of Francos who speak perfect English and don’t mind it at all. So we have over half of our city’s population that is OK with English. Throw in the fact that English is the world’s lingua franca, and it becomes rather understandable why so many immigrants to Quebec (ehem…Canada) are so into English.
Yet separatist mathematicians choose to fixate only on the province of Quebec, knowing well that if they don’t, all their calculations fall apart and their conclusions are rendered invalid.
“a report published by separatist language critic Pierre Curzi”
ReplyDeleteWhat is striking about people like Curzi or Landry is that they don’t even realize that they get caught in their own contradictions. I recently listened to B.Landry’s speech that I linked to from vigile.net and he spent the first part of his diatribe talking about how French is in danger and English is gradually overtaking it. He talked about Quebec being the last place in North America where French is still spoken, a small island in the ocean of English, and how powerful a force of attraction English has for the immigrants, and in the end he stunned his SSJB/MMF audience with a revelation that French is in great danger of going extinct if nothing is done. So he concluded that bill 101 needs to be extended to Cegeps. Then he switched gears and went into this whole argument about French being the official language, the “demographic weight” of French, the French being the language of the majority, and he capped it off with a statement that Bill 101 is actually doing a favor to immigrants because it integrates them with the said “majority”. And again he concluded that bill 101 needs to be extended to Cegeps.
But hold on a second. You are EITHER a language in peril (in which case you’re actually plugging English – why learn French if it is losing and going extinct?), OR you are the well established majority with the language that has the official status (in which case why do you need language laws?). You can’t be both, yet separatists contrived the debate in such a way that they flip flop from one argument to a completely contradictory argument with such ease, making a rational discourse impossible.
I recently talked to someone with pro-bill 101 leanings and the argument started with her saying that the language laws are necessary in Quebec because they “reflect the demographic situation of Quebec and ensure that the language of the majority is dominant, as in all normal countries”. Faced with my counter-argument that you can’t limit the debate only to the province of Quebec, as we live in a fully bilingual city and we’re surrounded by the ocean of English, she said “see, that’s why we need bill 101, to protect our language which would otherwise die out”. So her argument started with French being the “dominant” and ended with French being “in mortal danger”. Voila. How convenient.
"In another rant, prolific Anglo, immigrant and non-Christan basher, Jacques Noel now refers to Canada's Supreme Court as the "Jewish" court, which he blames for ruling that the dastardly Kirpan be allowed to be worn under the clothes of religious Sikhs in schools."
ReplyDeleteNo surprise here, Jacques Noel believes as hard as iron that Quebec is less indebted than Alberta!!!
Enough read, I rest my case.
The Bloc would be litterally killed by proportional representation.
ReplyDeleteJust in Québec, they get 66% of all seats with only 40% of the vote.
Talk about some Gérald Tremblay getting between other adversaries type of way of getting elected.
adski, this is National Post editorial (ironically archived in Vigile) saying that Mr. Parizeau sent his children to English private school.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.vigile.net/spip.php?page=archives&u=http://archives.vigile.net/ds-langue/docs/02-3-12-np.html
Regarding the hipocrisy of the French language militants, I have another case in mind. This time in Imperatif français.
Here:
http://www.imperatif-francais.org/bienvenu/articles/2010/quebec-un-etat-bilingue-2.html
they protest about the inclusion of English language in government publications in Quebec.
While here:
http://www.imperatif-francais.org/bienvenu/articles/2010/le-commissariat-aux-langues-officielles.html
they protest about the exclusion of French language in government publication in British Columbia.
So which one do they want? Do they want unilingual government publication according to the majority language of the relevant province or do they want all government publications in all provinces contain both English and French?
TO Tym_Machine, 2h37- ''The Bloc would be litterally killed by proportional representation.
ReplyDeleteJust in Québec, they get 66% of all seats with only 40% of the vote.
Talk about some Gérald Tremblay getting between other adversaries type of way of getting elected.''
DO you know what means majority ? If it's only 40% of the vote they win the 66 % of seats. It's the Bloc that receive the MAJORITY of the same votes No parties want to change it because it give advantages when you get the power ! And it' funny when you talk of the election of Mr. Tremblay, I think it must be something to think about, when people prefer to vote for A corrupted rather that someone that been a Péquiste minister ! I think that being mayor of Montréal is not really a point in the debate of the political status of Québec. But it's a point of view ! Finally, maybe some people are just indoctrinate and that finish by causing real hurts to our city !
"people prefer to vote for A corrupted rather that someone that been a Péquiste minister !"
ReplyDeleteThe choice is not always between good and bad, but quite often in life it is between bad and worse. In the last municipal election Montrealers were asked to choose between and non-ideologically driven public administrator embroiled in a massive corruption scandal, and a devout pequiste ideologue. They made their choice and chose the lesser evil. For most of us, it was a bitter sweet victory, but a victory nonetheless.
What about Projet Montreal? Wouldn't they be the lesser evil?
ReplyDeleteI stayed out of this election, but people must have had their reasons for rejecting the third alternative. It might have had something to do with Bergeron’s separatist leanings and his belief in 9/11 conspiracy theories, amongst other things.
ReplyDeleteHere’s a good article:
http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/706
"people prefer to vote for A corrupted rather that someone that been a Péquiste minister !"
ReplyDeleteThere were claims of corruption in Louise Harel's party too. As for the crackpot Bergeron, he didn't think the Americans ever landed on the moon either.
I don't think it's suprising that Parizeau checked in at the Jewish Hospital... HIs children are potentially Jews, since his former wife was a Polish Jew. Also, if his attack was sudden, I don't think he had the luxury to be picky about where the ambulance would take him.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link adski
ReplyDeleteFor your information. It don't exist a English hospital in Québec because, they all receive money from the entire population and the MAJORITY IS FRENCH SPEAKING ! The French give money like other one at the Jewish hospital. It' s only normal to be served in the language of the MAJORITY. There's really a big problem of understanding !
ReplyDeleteTo adski: ''the lesser evil''
ReplyDeleteMaybe, you can go for a cure somewhere, if you see evil in political option, maybe you can go see a doctor ! I though the time of seeing evil in other opinion was from an other time but maybe you listen too much American or Stephen Harper speaches ! It looks like G.W. Bush ''against the evil'' What a dangerous guy you look like !?" :)
@anonymous 1:07pm
ReplyDeleteIt is highly unlikely that Parizeau checked into the Jewish on account of his sons being Jewish through matrilineal descent. It probably had no bearing whatsoever on his decision. When you’re sick, you pick a place that can treat you best. I’m a (lapsed) Catholic but it doesn’t mean that I would run to St.Mary’s every time I needed to see a doctor. I bet Parizeau thought he could get the best care at the Jewish, so he put his political animosities aside, and checked into that hospital.
What’s more interesting in regards to Parizeau’s ex-wife is how can a man marry a Jewish woman, spend a big chunk of his life with her, father the children with her, and then get up on the stage and rant about “le vote ethnique” and incite tensions (on the same night, B.Landry, possibly incited by the good old Jacques, lashed out at a Hispanic doorman in a downtown hotel, yelling something to the effect of “we lost because of the likes of you”). How do you reconcile living with a member of a minority group and at the same time being active in a populist, ethnocentric movement? I wonder how his ex-wife would have reacted to his 1995 speech had she been alive. It’d be very interesting to see.
"they all receive money from the entire population and the MAJORITY IS FRENCH SPEAKING"
ReplyDeleteWell by that rationale, since the economic centre of the province is in Montreal where a large portion of the taxed population is NOT Francophone, and since the majority of big business that employ the Francophones in this province are in the hands of ethnic, anglo and out of province groups, maybe the majority should stfu and learn to speak a second language. Not to mention that since billions are filtered into Quebec every year by the rest of Canada, maybe you're not French at all but exactly the same as the ones who pay for your 'distinct society'.
''... in Montreal where a large portion of the taxed population is NOT Francophone'' But they live on a territory where the OFFICIAL (and it's the only) language is French. Sorry for that but Montréal is A CITY and it's under ''The Charte de la Ville de Montréal (Charter of the Ville de Montréal. Québec is a province that share powers with the Federal government, like the 9 other ones and the 3 territories. Maybe i should teach you a little bit how your country work ? Sincerely yours ! :)
ReplyDelete“they live on a territory where the OFFICIAL (and it's the only) language is French”
ReplyDeleteWhat's "official" is often arbitrary. And it doesn't necessarily get followed, especially if it has little or no reflection in reality. Quebec language laws are the best example. 30 years have passed since 101 saw the light of day, and…Montreal se toujours anglicize…as in the early 70s…nothing changed…let’s extend 101 to Cegeps…maybe that will work (it won’t)
You leverage your argument for French with 3 million Francophones north of Montreal and the decisions made in l’assemble nationale using these people’s support, but we cannot leverage our argument for English with 30 million English speakers just to the west of us, 2 million just to the east, and over 300 million just south of us. Not to mention over a million people in our city, Anglo, Allo, and Franco, who live their daily lives in English. That’s 350 million English speakers in the immediate vicinity that we are to treat like ghosts while 3 million French speaking farmers up north are to be treated as real and tangible. Why? Because we are under “Quebec’s jurisdiction”, the “official” primacy of one language over another, Charter of Ville de Montreal, basically some garbage that has been written on a piece of paper and dangled in our faces. But nothing apart from that. Certainly nothing substantial.
You can teach us about “how our country works” by waving “official” decisions made in the “national” assembly, but the reality is that in the time of globalization, administrative boundaries yield ground to economic partnerships and mobility of professional labour. So someone living in Quebec “jurisdiction” is still surrounded by English and will surely need it. And maybe even live in it. Such is the reality that your “official” regulations choose to ignore.
If I tell you that I don’t give a damn about what’s “official”, and tell you that I will continue living my life by paying attention only to what’s real, are you going to stop repeating the word “official”? By now it has become the most overused word in Quebec, next to the word “language”. How much longer are we to be bored with this thing?
''but the reality is that in the time of globalization, administrative boundaries yield ground to economic partnerships and mobility of professional labour.''
ReplyDeleteIs that official what you saying ? :)
You can believe that God created the world, but it exist an OFFICIAL SCIENTIFIC explanation ? Keep your imperialistic speach for someone else mister ! Sincerely yours !:)
ReplyDelete"Keep your imperialistic speach for someone else mister ! "
ReplyDeleteHere we go again. The indigenous Francophone argument again. I know our grass is good in Quebec but I didn't think it was good enough to convert the French into a First Nations people.
"You can believe that God created the world, but it exist an OFFICIAL SCIENTIFIC explanation ?"
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't seem to make any sense, or to have any relation whosoever to this discussion. If I can extrapolate anything from this to our discussion is that Quebec language laws are like religious laws (based more on faith than fact), and the "scientific explanation" is the reality on the ground, which these laws do not reflect.
You are confusing the “official scientific explanation” with “official political explanation”. The former is based in meticulous and solid research (not always flawless, but generally trustworthy), whereas the latter is often based on personal agendas and political lust for power.
''OFFICIAL'' Maybe you should read the ''Official texts''. It's not me that say that French is the ONLY OFFICIAL language IN QUÉBEC ! Voted by a parliament ? It means something ? Democracy, the majority ? :)
ReplyDelete"Democracy, the majority ? :)"
ReplyDeleteWhich majority are you refering to? The country as a whole or the province only? I suspect it's the latter. In that case, if majority is to be determined by the narrow-minded regionalism that Quebecers favour then the same principle can be applied to smaller sectors were a majority in that area can exercise its democratic rights. So pack up your French signs and get off the island of Montreal because the majority here rejects 101 and the xenophobic nationalism that supports it.
Then again, we all know that when a supporter of 101 refers to democracy, it's only as it pertains to Francophones.
To anonymous 15 april, 2010, 6:42 am ''So pack up your French signs and get off the island of Montreal because the majority here rejects 101 and the xenophobic nationalism that supports it''
ReplyDeleteSo if I see that you understand why we want our own country ! For the same reason than you ! Xenophobic Canadian nationalism- We should be folkloric and speak white in your narrow minded ! And for your information Montréal statistics were at last census in 2006 ''Montréal (RMR) Québec
Total Sexe masculin Sexe féminin Total Sexe masculin Sexe féminin
Population totale32 3 588 520 1 744 525 1 843 990 7 435 905 3 645 975 3 789 925
Anglais seulement 425 635 208 600 217 035 575 555 282 845 292 710
Français seulement 2 328 400 1 123 670 1 204 735 5 877 660 2 875 665 3 001 990
Anglais et français 26 855 12 780 14 075 43 335 21 135 22 200
Autre(s) langue(s)33 807 630 399 480 408 145 939 350 466 330 473 020
http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/prof/92-591/details/page.cfm?Lang=F&Geo1=CMA&Code1=462__&Geo2=PR&Code2=24&Data=Count&SearchText=montr%E9al&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=01&B1=All&Custom=
French is by far the language the more talk in La région métropolitaine de Montréal. Sorry, i think your attacks are free and just xenophobic !:)
''So pack up your French signs and get off the island of Montreal because the majority here rejects 101 and the xenophobic nationalism that supports it"
ReplyDeleteMaybe go to Toronto to tell to the English speaking that We will replace the English signs by other language too !
"So if I see that you understand why we want our own country "
ReplyDeleteLike I said, if this sort of regionalism is to be applied then Montrealers have an equal right to decide their political future by referendum. They have voted NO twice. One more vote to tie them to Ontario, less taxes and non-restrictive linguistic bullshit.
"We should be folkloric and speak white "
I don't know what you mean by folkloric but I assume it relates to the imaginative fables that make up the nationalist world view. Also, you ARE white. And guess what??? You are the same kind of white that colonized the First Nations, African nations, Indochina, brought slaves to the Americas and built an empire on the resources and labour of non-white peoples. You are also representing a social and political system that forcibly assimilates immigrants and polices them to make sure they speak the language of your choice. There isn't a single western nation that employs such tactics. Quebec is a throwback to 19th century colonialism and the racism inherent in a system that viewed its own cultural values as superior to those with whom it came into contact. Essentially, you are exactly what you're trying to get away from and in desperate need of intense political therapy.
"Maybe go to Toronto to tell to the English speaking that We will replace the English signs by other language too "
It wouldn't surprise me if you did. Quebecers have had the audacity to make the same demands in Florida as well as in parts of Ontario.
"Quebec is a throwback to 19th century colonialism and the racism inherent in a system that viewed its own cultural values as superior to those with whom it came into contact."
ReplyDeleteQuebec nationalism is a throwback to 19th century colonialism. The common thread here is to use whatever powers you have to subjugate the "others". To dominate. To rule. To control. The only difference between now and then is that they can't use force these days, so they resort to lies, distortion of facts, and whatever political power they have thanks to the federal framework that gives a lot of autonomy to each province.
“if majority is to be determined by the narrow-minded regionalism that Quebecers favour”
Why can they use 3 million farmers in the regions to make their case for French majority, and we can't use 350 million English speakers from Quebec, Canada and the US to make a case for English majority?
Because.
Why can't we look at Montreal only in deciding what the majority wants, but have to keep taking into account the farmers from the regions (who we have nothing to do with)?
Because.
Why are the Anglos "colonialists meprisants" but the Francos aren't?
Because.
Why should the province of Quebec be the only point of reference, but Montreal and the rest of Canada or North America can’t?
Because.
“It means something ? Democracy, the majority ?”
A “majority” this minute, a “threatened minority” the next. Whatever is convenient to make a case in a given moment.
And you are no majority. A real majority does not need language laws. It does not need a language police. It does not need to outlaw signs in other languages. It does not need to force immigrants into its schools, for they will choose these schools themselves.
And even if you were a real majority, you still wouldn’t be able to tell people which language to speak. That is decided on per need basis, not by some ridiculous laws.
My God,,,will Quebec separate already,,do you not get tired of this bullshit ? ! ? ! I am, go,, the sooner the better. I'm curious to hear what you will piss, moan and whine about then, although you have a lifetime of experience playing the victim,
ReplyDeleteI doubt you can change...:-)