Friday, June 18, 2010

English School Boards Defend Promoting Quebec Nationalism

Making a collective gaffe is something that no organization is immune from, but when it happens, it's generally a shock to the upper management. Sometimes defending the indefensible seems like a better option than admitting the mistake quite publicly and working towards repairing the damage. 

Every single organization is vulnerable to the big gaffe, it's bound to happen even with the best intentions. But how an organization deals with adversity, is what separates the good from the bad and today, our Quebec English school boards are demonstrating,  how very, very, bad they are.

You might  remember the disastrous launch of "New Coke" back in 1985, when the company replaced the old familiar taste of Americas favourite drink with a newer and  supposedly 'younger' edition.  As marketing strategies go, it couldn't have been a bigger fiasco. The public was so outraged that the company fiddled with a familiar friend that the pressure to return to the old product was unbearable.

The company had staked its future on the new product  and had invested heavily. Initially trying to  ride out the storm, the company finally realized that they'd have to do the unthinkable. Abandon ship.

On July 11, Coca-Cola withdrew New Coke from stores. “We did not understand the deep emotions of so many of our customers for Coca-Cola,” said company President Donald R. Keough.

A Montreal Gazette editorial on June 12, revealed that Grade ten students in English school boards were subjected to exam questions that would make the hair crawl on any bone fide Anglo Quebecker.

Of the four questions to be answered, the first question required the student to write a paragraph and to "make an observation about some vision as Quebec as a nation."
 The second asks the student to "formulate three questions about some vision of Quebec as a nation."
The third question has a diagram that is to be completed by listing four examples of;
a) "What makes Quebec distinct?" and
b) "How can Quebec protect its distinct status?"
The exam's final issue is "Justify your opinion on protecting Quebec's distinct society," and requires the student to produce a two-page essay on: "Will the recognition of Quebec as a nation help protect Quebec's distinct society?"

Yikes!!!!!
If you are assuming that these questions were rammed down the throat of school boards by the government, you'd be wrong.
The questions were formulated by the English school boards themselves, if you can believe it.
There was a shit storm of controversy on the English language radio talk shows with parents and students themselves howling at the inappropriateness of the question.

On June 16th in a letter to the Montreal Gazette, a parent wondered;
"Will students fail the exam because they have the intelligence to answer the question logically? Will all English students who failed the exam be forced to attend summer school because they did not answer the questions according to the doctrine of the Quebec government? LINK

How did the school boards react? By circling the wagons and defending the indefensible. Yup, they are trying to ride out the controversy, instead of admitting the blunder.

One official offered that the questions were based on the Prime Minster's recognition that Quebec is a distinct society.

An angry caller pointed out that the Prime Minister did nothing of the sort. He reminded listeners that the Prime Minister recognized Quebeckers as a distinct society, not the Province of Quebec.

Much fury on the radio hot lines ensued.

One mother was torn between telling her son to suck it up and just give the politically correct answer that will get him into  Cegep,  or to defy the authority by rejecting the very premises of the questions.
Tough call.
The school  boards aren't making it easy by stupidly defending their indefensible position. It's no wonder our English school boards have a reputation for dysfunction.

Perhaps it's time for board members to to be reminded of the story of  New Coke..

34 comments:

  1. There is something seriously wrong in Quebec society, when our children’s minds have become mules malleable to governmental social engineering through controlled mandatory school courses obsessed with the Quebec nationalistic propaganda void of the Canadian content, where children may be exposed to the values to have pride as Canadian citizens. The Nationalistic obsession of the Quebec educational content is fixated endlessly in the early years of our children’s childhood to CEGEP education. The tyranny of oppression in the guise of education is Quebec’s mind manipulation of our children to reinforce their duty to protect the distinctness of Quebec’s cultural heritage. It is repetitive propaganda Ad nauseam; inherently biased political persuasion of the vulnerable children to a destructive ideology which divides their cultural identity and relationship to their own country, Canada. This type of political propaganda profusion of the innocent is abusive and prejudices our children to reject their own significance as Canadians to embrace a grandiose elusive Quebec ideology, ethnocentric, mono-cultural distinctness creating separateness, a mental indifference of our children’s relation to Canada, negating a part of their own cultural identity as Canadian citizens. There should be ethical guidelines required for our educators to relay the complex culturally sensitive awareness of our children’s place in the world to become responsible citizens of society, to be productive members of a collaborative, communicative culture and cohesive society; proud to be Quebecers and proud to be Canadian within a global network.

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  2. Anonymous said... "..."

    Well said! As for why? A quisling minority is
    easier to manage.

    When my kids were in school 15 years ago, they
    brought home a test. One question had a series
    of faces in one column and a series of "labels"
    you were to match with the faces.

    These "labels" were obviously meant to divide
    the society into easily identifiable groups. My
    son was instructed to cross out the labels (the
    now familiar anlgo/franco/allo/auto phone) with
    Canadian.

    Why do they teach French Canadian children to
    fear (loss of language/culture/identity)?

    "When one provokes in a child a fear of the
    dark, one awakens in him a feeling of atavistic
    dread. Thus this child will be ruled all his
    life by this dread, whereas another child, who
    has been intelligently brought up, will be free
    of it." Adolf Hitler

    Makes the majority easier to manage. Note the
    two groups have something in common:

    They are being "managed" by their government.

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  3. This illustrates perfectly a point brought up in the earlier blog post about Louise Beaudoin: that there is a prevailing mentality that the citizen exists to serve the state and not the other way around.

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  4. There is something seriously wrong in Canadian society, they all accept the difference of everybody but not the fact that Québec is a distinct society that have right to decide for himself ! The Nationalistic obsession of Canada is be whatever nationality but SPEAK ENGLISH (or white) ! It's abnormal that we see flags of anywhere except here, Québec flag ! All an integration !! You can flaunt your belonging to Québec but you'll be welcome by scorn ! And it's true in our suppose United Canada ! Just let us leave next time ! Don't make another demonstration of LOVE like you did in 1995 ! Just after that you crush the Québec by isolate. Un nouveau pays pour le monde: Québec ! Qu'on étende la loi 101 aux Cégeps publics, financés par les contribuables québécois !

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  5. ''There is something seriously wrong in Quebec society'' Yes, it's true, it's the fact that the little minority of anglophones wants to rule the Québec like it was at the begginning of the 20th century. When all was in english ! Dream's finished sorry ! Un nouveau pays pour le monde: Québec ! Vive la loi 101 ! Quelle s'applique aux cégeps financés par les fonds publics ! Pour un société française en Amérique du nord !

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  6. This is what happens to a community that remains unorganized, politically impotent and blindly votes for the Liberals who take them for granted. The Toronto guy.

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  7. Anonymous said...
    "it's the fact that the little minority of anglophones wants to rule the Québec like it was at the begginning of the 20th century"

    Spoken like a member of the best treated
    minority in the world - The French Canadian.

    What they want is called equal rights - look
    it up since you don't understand the concept.

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  8. Anonymous 3:29AM: “There is something seriously wrong in Quebec society, when our children’s minds have become mules malleable to governmental social engineering through controlled mandatory school courses obsessed with the Quebec nationalistic propaganda void of the Canadian content,”

    This is exactly why the PQ pushes for the extension of 101 to Cegeps. Bernard Landry admitted it in one of his rare moments of honesty - the point of this, he said, is political, because it’s at the Cegep age that kids pick up their political inclinations. Also, he said that Dawson or Vanier will never treat people like Rene Levesque or Camille Laurin the same way as French Cegeps.

    So the point of this is to put these kids through 2 more years of extra brainwashing. With a hope that it will work.

    My guess is that it won’t work. All these kids will end up in English universities anyways. In fact, some parents might send their kids to Ontario universities so they can bypass the 2 years of useless Cegep. I think Ontario universities will be willing to accommodate Quebec high school graduates, by adding an extra year to the 1-year freshman curriculum, or something.

    ------------

    Anonymous 3:29AM: “destructive ideology which divides their cultural identity and relationship to their own country, Canada”

    Destructive it is. It’s poison. It wants to close us in and insists that we ignore the reality of our city, our region, our country, our continent, and the world.

    There were good points made about Denmark in a few recent posts. A country of 6 million, fully bilingual, open to the world...and not afraid of assimilation.

    Quebec, on the other hand, is insecure, and its politicians take advantage of this insecurity to play their games.

    I feel bad for those Francophones from the regions who see through the charade of their governments. Their only choice is to move to Montreal or leave Quebec. It’s the only way they’ll pick up English and open themselves up to other cultures and world views.

    And I wish Montreal separated from Quebec and became an independent city affiliated with Canada. It’s ridiculous that we have to be subjected to decisions made in this ridiculous place called the national assembly.

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  9. Anonymous 12:12
    No protestations of LOVE from this quarter. It's pretty hard to drum up much in the way of affection for a chronically whining group of neo-fascist racists of which you're undoubtably a card-carrying member. The irony is that the Nationalists want to be a country, but they are easily the most embarassingly provincial group in the country.

    ReplyDelete
  10. ''Spoken like a member of the best treated
    minority in the world - The French Canadian.'' It depend of the point of view in mine, in Québec, anglophones are the minority !:)

    ReplyDelete
  11. ''What they want is called equal rights - look
    it up since you don't understand the concept. '' Are you sure that you want the same rights than francophones in the other province-except New-Brunswick ?

    ReplyDelete
  12. "It depend of the point of view in mine, in Québec, anglophones are the minority !:) "

    True, but a young French Canadian can aspire to
    one day being Prime Minister of Canada. An
    English Quebecer -Premier of Quebec? Don't
    hold your breath.

    "Are you sure that you want the same rights than francophones in the other province-except New-Brunswick ? "

    Lets be clear - the only place in Canada that
    restricts freedoms (French and English) is
    Quebec!

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  13. Are francophone youths becoming even more nationalistic as a result of the Canada black-out in their schools?

    ReplyDelete
  14. ''And I wish Montreal separated from Quebec and became an independent city affiliated with Canada. It’s ridiculous that we have to be subjected to decisions made in this ridiculous place called the national assembly. '' Et si moi je veux me séparer du terrain de mon voisin à Baie-d'Urfé et faire partie du nouveau pays, le Québec ? Soyez sérieux, la partition c'est de la foutaise, lisez un peu sur la question...:)

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  15. You partition Canada, we will partition Quebec. Regardless of the decision made by a committee of FIVE who deliberated ONCE in 1992 on Bourassa's payroll. We’ll get our committee that will rule our way. And then we’ll take the Indian Reserves and most Montreal boroughs that want to go. You’ll be left with Montreal Est and the regions for your “nouveaux pays” of 3 million farmers. I can't wait...:)

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  16. Dear adski, you know nothing about partition, read a little bit on the subject ! Québec is part of a FEDERATION (Canada)that contain somme part of territory autonomous on their fiels of competence. Québec have it's own territory ? Do you know how to read a map ? Montréal don't have his own parliament ! You sound like those losers that want the freedom for everybody except here !Pour moi, le comble du colon, c'est deux Québécois francophones qui se parlent en anglais ! Malheureusement, ça se passe de plus en plus ! Pauvres types qui pensent que la seule chose pour réussir dans la vie s'est de parler anglais !Parler plusieurs langues c'est utile par contre, ça ne remplace pas la matière grise (toujours faut-il la faire travailler !) ! Pour votre information, l'Est de Montréal est beaucoup plus populeux que le West Island, qu'avez-vous contre les fermiers ? Ce sont eux qui vous mettent le pain dans la bouche, pauvre type ! Bel exemple de démocratie, si vous vous séparez, on se sépare !! Mon père est plus fort que le tien, et vlan !

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  17. I work for the EMSB. Every school has its resident Francophone seperatist teachers. I still can't understand how or why these individuals are hired especially since they make their political views known in their classrooms and pin up the entire place with nationalistic propaganda. The gaffe is that we hire them to indoctrinate our children with their ethnic hating poison. If we're to be absent from the political spectrum of Quebec and relegated to secondary status, then we should at least reserve these jobs for people from within our own community.

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  18. Here is a link to the original article on June 12: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Grade+exam+smells+like+propaganda/3145045/story.html

    There are already 15 comments here. Re Adolf Hitler and fear: Fear is one of the most valuable tools in promoting ethnocentric propaganda and "justifying" ethnic cleansing.

    To another comment, I previously presented a link proposing Montreal as a city/state: http://www.montrealcitystate.ca/index_en.html In additon, an on-line book hypothesizing Quebec sovereignty in part through a city/state of Montreal is available at http://www.whycanadamustend.com/about_the_author.htm

    While in some areas the minority situation has improved (in Montreal anyway), then you have these extremist fascists the likes of Pierre Curzi and Louise Beaudoin. Add to that the mayor of Saguenay (written about recently on this blog), the country bumpkins of Hérouxville and just about every other isolated small community, it's small wonder the poison of totalitarian fascism is catching the eye of politicians of that slant.

    This is why I keep stating it's high time a party catering to the rest of Canada be formed to reduce Quebec's lion share of much federal funding back to its proportional share of the population, promote proportional bilingualism in the public service (too much demand for bilingualism now) and reassert English rights in Quebec by abolishing a biased Official Languages Commission. Quebec regularly thumbs its nose at the Commission, so why should the rest of Canada comply?

    It's obviously not a case of a big government caving in to a small elite of extreme fascists, it's the way it is because enough of the French speaking population WANTS it that way. It's not as if the fanatic vote counts and nobody else, or Premier Goldilocks is THAT much of a Quisling...then again...

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  19. Anon, 12:47pm: How in hell do French separatists get into the English school system? Are they French teachers? Seven years of French teaching specialists, I had just one Québécoise from Gaspésie, and she spoke fabulous, beautiful French! Hard to believe she was Québécoise, and didn't show any separatist teeth (dentures). All my other French teachers weren't even from Canada! Québécois French teachers today not only corrupt the language, they corrupt the students!

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  20. ''entire place with nationalistic propaganda'' What are you doing of the Canadian nation building when the francophone fact is totally denied ! If you read the survey, Montréal got a really low rate of racist crimes if we compare to the other metropolitain area of Canada !

    http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/Montreal/2010/06/14/004-crimes-haineux-montreal.shtml

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  21. ''Après le massacre du collège Dawson, en 2006, une journaliste torontoise idiote et d'une mauvaise foi répugnante avait expliqué le geste de Kimveer Gill en affirmant que c'était la xénophobie des Québécois qui avait poussé ce psychopathe à commetre son méfait.

    Cette journaliste n'a cependant jamais cherché du côté du racisme pour expliquer les nombreuses tueries et fusillades qui surviennent chaque année dans les quartiers chauds de Toronto.

    Le Québec et les Québécois sont depuis longtemps perçus avec mépris et condescendance par le reste du Canada. Nos taux de crimes violents, de criminalité juvénile et de méfaits sont constamment plus faibles qu'ailleurs, mais nous sommes sans cesse présentés comme une province délurée, voire immorale.

    Les statistiques publiées aujourd'hui démontrent -- encore une fois -- l'importance de nous accrocher à notre mode de vie. ''

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  22. Anonymous said...

    "Le Québec et les Québécois sont depuis longtemps perçus avec mépris et condescendance par le reste du Canada."

    That's why Quebecers keep getting elected Prime
    Minister of Canada, right?

    You want to see people treated with contempt?
    Quebec the "state" vs any who disagrees with
    it's (sorry can't help myself) "Master Plan" -
    you remember, the whole "lobsters in a pot bit".

    You'd think Quebecers would have clued in by
    now that the "state" is running the old US vs
    THEM game on them to perpetuate it's own power
    (instead of governing) but....

    Hang on, some are http://www.montrealcitystate.ca

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  23. En reponse a:
    "Cette journaliste n'a cependant jamais cherché du côté du racisme pour expliquer les nombreuses tueries et fusillades qui surviennent chaque année dans les quartiers chauds de Toronto."

    Wow tu est tellement selective dans tes choix de tes stats. Le crime a montreal est elever, les quartier chaud il y en va de meme ici, je ne sais pas sur quelle planete tu vie mais le ciel doit etre rose chez toi.
    Je sais de fait que les policier de montreal pousse activement les victime de crime de ne pas declarer le criome car cela ne donne a rien, en realite il ne veule pas que les stats de leur secteur monte negativement. Ceci c'est produit 3 fois depuis les 5 dernieres année. alors ne te bombe pas le torse trop vite, tes stats sont manipuler, et je eput te dire que les policiers en ontario sont teteux en ta, et t'encourage a porter plainte. Nous accrocher a note mode de vie? quel style? celui de corruption?

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  24. ''Hard to believe she was Québécoise'' To Anonymous june 19,5h02 pm: Vous connaissez bien mal le Québec, c'est comme partout ailleurs, il y a des gens qui parlent mal et d'autres qui s'expriment très bien ! Les Britanniques pensent la même chose des Canadiens anglais ! Vos petites remarques marquées de condescendance, vous pouvez les garder pour votre cercle restreint de fanatiques.

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  25. To the French writing commentator of 6:18PM yesterday:

    Maybe there was rabid racism hurled his way. Heaven knows years ago while visiting Montreal, I stopped at a Dunkin' Doughnuts shop on Pie IX near the CN R/R trestle and two East Indian women in their saris placed an order in English to the two low-class hot dog eating employees (women). I was behind them waiting to be served. After the two ladies obtained their order and started making their exit, don't you think I heard the ignorant racist cracks those two country bumpkins were stating to each other in French?

    If my French was more proficient, I would have torn strips off those two ignorant, racist hicks! I don't think that Toronto journalist was necessarily that far off. I'm sure Mr. Gill's problems went far beyond xenophobic Québécois racist cracks, but what's to say it was not an essential ingredient in what caused Mr. Gill to snap the way he did?

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  26. Monsieur Aujourd'hui @ 11:30AM: Having been born, raised and educated in Quebec, and having left for the real Canada the day after my university convocation, walking over the border out of Quebec---FOREVER, I know BEAUCOUP, BEAUCOUP about Quebec.

    Somehow, though, your «pur laine» kind, assisted by unyielding rhetoric promoted shamelessly by ton Gouvernement du Québec, don't see us as «Québécois» on the same plane as you. Somehow this French teacher of mine got herself a hell of an education and I consider her the best damn French teacher I ever had--bar none!

    This was back in the mid-70s, and politics was NEVER discussed in French class--EV-VER! The closest we ever got to that point was reading Hier les Enfants Dansaient by Gratien Gélinas, a compulsory play in our curriculum that year.

    I read Michel Gratton's book, "French Canadians", and the awful ridicule he endured as a Franco Ontarian studying in a Quebec seminary school by his fellow students AND by many of the teachers! I spoke with another Franco Ontarian from North Bay who had constant fistfights with YOUR fellow citizens from the other side of the Ottawa River who called him something less than the «pur laine» they claimed they were. People who carry themselves to me are «pur m--de»!

    Bet half the «pur laine» half wits in your precious province...er...jurisdiction wouldn't even know enough that there is an apostrophe in «aujourd'hui». A fellow I know WHO studied translation gave up because, to simplify the French you simpletons can't properly learn, the plural for cheval is now chevals---IT'S CHEVAUX!

    French on paper is the official language of Quebec, but in reality, it's joual, much like Afrikaans in South Africa is like Dutch to Holland!

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  27. RE: EMSB June 19, 2010 12:47 PM

    Education begins at the mother’s knee with every spoken word for gradual formation of our children’s character to prepare for their life journey. We entrust our children to the educators to open our children’s mind to be receptive to the changing world of today’s reality of global communication. We do not give our educators permission to bombard our children with unhealthy propaganda fixated on promoting Quebec nationalism. The fact that the English school board defends promoting nationalism reveals dysfunction of the entire Province of Quebec, from the self-serving school boards and politicians to the apathy of a cynical population to the futility of the perpetual Quebec DRAMA. The buck needs to stop here and now with our children, enough of the insanity. We need to educate our children to be tolerant of others, receptive to new ideas and opinions of others. We need to figure out a way to live together in this world. It needs to start with our children to have an eye on the future, instead of their nose in their navel. As parents, we need to demand that our educators are serving the best interests of our children’s future and not their self serving political grandstand. Parents need to start speaking up and every educator needs to confront the Nationalist narrow-minded prejudice as intolerable in the Education system.

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  28. June 21 @ 12:45am: Very succinctly and eloquently stated, but the parents too often are busy doing other things, or it becomes the case of the ignorant leading the less learned.

    It's the old story: People see what they WANT to see, hear what they WANT to hear, and believe what they WANT to believe. At times I just want to call French Quebec a cauldron of simple, small-minded ignoramuses, but that's not completely reasonable and it's too simplistic.

    Trouble is, for 200 years, the majority was led astray by bad leadership, mostly by the Roman Catholic church, at times coupled by politicians who latched on and took advantage of the ignorance and fear as well (think Maurice Duplessis).

    In a sense, the death of Duplessis ended the 200 year tyranny of the Church, but then again, a new evil was born: Nationalism and the fascist element attached thereto. This malady, this evil has been festering for the last half century, and like most fascists, a scapegoat needs to be found and blamed for all that goes and has gone wrong in achieving its ultimate goal: its own fascist state.

    Language legislation has replaced the Holy Bible as its central scripture. Trouble is, language cleverly disguises the true ulterior motive: Distinguishing "our" kind [a multigenerational, somewhat homogeneous race that is white, Roman Catholic and French speaking] as opposed to "their" kind [tous les autres].

    So what is manifesting here? The majority wants to SEE a French visage: French-only or at least French predominating signs. The majority wants to HEAR the language spoken by the majority, and no others where possible. The majority wants to BELIEVE THEY can have their own country where THEY prosper, but «les autres» don't have anywhere near the opportunities THEY have.

    This is where the Quebec of today is looking to head, and I don't see anything intervening to change that direction...

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  29. Quebec has been socially re-engineered and re-calibrated. It's too late to change the state of affairs in Quebec. The separatist's hateful fear-based dogma has been taught in the schools for decades and has infected all of Quebec society. In today's Quebec, it is now socially acceptable to make openly racist and hateful (even violent) remarks about 'the others'. It's perfectly acceptable to treat linguistic minorities as second class citezens without the same rights as all other Canadians. If you are not Francophone you are not Quebecois. If you are not Quebecois you are not welcome. If you are not welcome, you will never be equal or entitled to same rights.

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  30. Makes me think of a question I saw in a booklet in a French Ontario school that asked students to say why socialism was a positive thing.

    What if you're not a socialist and more of a free market capitalist...

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  31. "If you are not Francophone you are not
    Quebecois."

    That's not enough to qualify. You MUST agree
    with the state and cannot be a French Canadian
    who has married an English Canadian and (sin
    upon sin) educated that child in English.

    You'd be called traitor - by a separtist! It'd
    be funny it it weren't true.

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  32. why do i live in Montreal again?

    beautiful city and best culture in Canada - but this nonsense is why i'm getting tired of this French-English bullshit - as much as I'd hate moving to (yikes) Toronto, i think it may be inevitable.

    but hey, screw it - lets just keep destroying what was once a great city with incompetent french babies and corruption

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  33. Come on folks, we deserve it. What did anyone do when our schools were shut down? Sit ins at the playground on a Saturday? Come on?!! If we want something to change then the situation needs serious national attention. Block the Decarie or the Met every weekday until we are accorded equality and freedom of choice in education.

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  34. '' Et si moi je veux me séparer du terrain de mon voisin à Baie-d'Urfé et faire partie du nouveau pays, le Québec ? Soyez sérieux, la partition c'est de la foutaise, lisez un peu sur la question...:)

    the nouveau pays you are reffering to,you will find it elswhere, not here in canada and espacially not here in the province of quebec.

    so, having said that, if you wish to leave this country, may I suggest you to go buy yourself a one way plain ticket in order to access to a one way flight out of this country...

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