Friday, July 16, 2010

Quebec Militants Complain over Lack Of French at Toronto Protest

Some Quebec Francophones who demonstrated at the G8 Summit in Toronto are complaining  they were unjustly targeted by police and when arrested were harshly treated.  As well, some of those who were arrested, complained that they weren't 'treated' in French.

In an article by a student demonstrator in LE DEVOIR, Arnaud Montreuil complained that ordinary Quebeckers were unsympathetic to the plight of those Quebeckers arrested in Toronto;
"...the protesters from Quebec were particularly battered by the police. First, they were arrested in a targeted,  discriminatory manner, based on their home province. Then, in prison, many were insulted and told to leave the country if they were not happy, as we would say to a second class citizen.

And what is the reaction at home? According to an Angus Reid poll, 71% of Quebec respondents said the actions of police against demonstrators were
justified .
It's likely that Toronto police overstepped their mandate and perhaps exceeded their authority by casting their net a bit too wide, but it's amusing to see anarchists complaining that the police weren't playing by the rules.

Now I know many of you will say that most of those arrested were not anarchists, just innocent protesters, availing themselves of their constitutional right to assemble and demonstrate, but it's hard to feel sympathy for them, given the fact that they knew exactly what they were getting into.

When I was kid, my mother didn't let me go to rock festivals because, as she said, "That's where the drugs are!"

Everybody knew exactly what was to happen in Toronto, there is a history of violence by protesters and  history of over-reaction by the forces of order, at these type of summits.

So I'll brook no crocodile tears or woeful lamentations from those who complain that they were shocked by events and the harsh treatment they received. I'm sure that most who went to demonstrate were well prepared to be arrested and perhaps found the experience more than they bargained for.

As for targeting Francophones, I've no doubt it's true. There were complaints that cars with Quebec license plates were arbitrarily pulled over for inspection and that those speaking French on the street were stopped.
It seems that police made it a policy to stop any 'suspicious' person and Quebecers stood out like a sore thumb.

The CBC posted a ridiculously biased article on its website with the inflammatory headline;

The story told by a Montreal law student, who first claimed to be an innocent observer but then admitted that he was a demonstrator himself. He claimed officers admitted they were targeting Quebeckers by virtue of their license plates or by overhearing people speaking French on the street. One Francophone complained that she was unfairly arrested when she was found in possession of an anarchist manual!

In spite of the one-sided reporting, the public remains solidly behind the police which is frustrating the hell out of those demanding an inquiry.

My favourite story is told by Emilie Guimond-Bélanger, a member of Québec Solidaire, a separatist political party more radical than the Parti Quebecois. In a YouTube video she recounts a tearful tale of woe at the hands of the evil Ontario authorities. Flanked by the intrepid Amar Khadir, she claims to have gone to Toronto for the sole purpose of demonstrating in favour of abortion rights, but was scooped up by police and placed in detention.

Among her biggest complaint was the lack of French among the warders of the detention centre and she told the unlikeliest story about a co-prisoner, who according to Ms. Guimond-Bélanger, was borderline psychotic and spoke no English. She tried to tell jailers that she needed her medication, but to no avail, because nobody spoke French. Eventually she had a breakdown, started climbing the walls and was rushed to hospital, a sad state of affairs all due to the lack of French by the jailers.
Now I've heard bullshit stories in my life, but that one's a beauty. My advice to this lady is that in the future she wear a Medic-Alert bracelet with the word PSYCHO emblazoned upon it and travel with an English-speaking companion!
By the way, the sweet and innocent, Ms. Guimond-Bélanger is one of the few demonstrators that was actually charged with a crime. Hmmm..

I screened a bunch of videos and the level of arrogance demonstrated by Quebec demonstrators astounded me. In one particular video two Francophones approach a line of heavily armoured officers and carry on a mocking conversion at very close quarters. I'm sure the officer had no idea what they were saying and it must of made him quite nervous. If I was him, I'd bop one of these smart asses on the head just for sport.

At any rate, here is my favourite video of a dedicated G20 demonstrator.
Watch it. If you haven't seen it, I guarantee it'll bring a smile to your face!

19 comments:

  1. The retail rage youtube was shown in the poorest of taste. There are many people living on the fringe of the downtown area who are mentally ill (there is a facility located near that area). This guy may have been one of them, or he's just another middle-aged fat guy who has gone sour on life. That kind are a dime a dozen! Maybe he just broke up with a girlfriend, who knows.

    As for the protests themselves, sorry but no. The police don't have carte blanche doing what they did. They tended to give the "Black Bloc" carte blanche one day to torch police cars and both vandalize and steal private property. The "Black Bloc" and their kind are just shit disturbers, nothing more and nothing less. They were there for no other reason than to incite violence.

    The next day the police suddenly changed gears arresting anyone and everyone. I don't know who was there for peaceful protest and who was among the likes of the "Black Bloc", but the peaceful protesters had every right to be there. They were exercising their civil and democratic rights.

    This whole exercise was done with the greatest of reckless spending, disorganization and simple stupidity. The displacement cost private enterprise big-time. The feds impose themselves in the downtown area of our nation's biggest and busiest city, but take zero responsibility for the vandalism and looting.

    As for the frenchies who came to Toronto for no reason other than to start trouble, they got what they deserved. I'm sure they were uttering French profanities and innuendos at the police figuring the ignorant police would think it's idle conversation, but the tone of their voices to be sure made themselves crystal clear. If they were dealt with severely, ask me if I give a rat's ass! Serves them right!

    In Montreal, there is no shortage of tensions between their police and the non-white population, and other minorities as well, and it's been that way forever. As you wrote several weeks ago, Montreal is the riot capital of North America, so don't export your hot heads to MY city (yet I was born, raised and educated in Montreal). Toronto is now MY city, Montreal and Quebec altogether blowing its chance.

    If the frenchies felt they were treated second class, looks good on them! Heaven knows they're treating their minorities in like fashion.

    If the people of that ilk feel there isn't enough French outside Quebec, they should check their belongings and persons at the border, and not leave Quebec. Le cas est fermé!

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  2. To Anonymous July 16, 2010 12:47 AM ''If the frenchies felt they were treated second class, looks good on them! Heaven knows they're treating their minorities in like fashion.'' Pauvre type, sortez le redneck de vous ! YOUR city is a boring one like you seem to be ! A perfect match !:)Les arrestations et les procédures judiciaires doivent être fournies dans les deux langues officielles, c'est une obligation constitutionnelle under your loved and Supreme ''Canadian charter of rights and freedoms ! Elle ne sert pas seulement à défendre la communauté anglophone du Québec contre l'ignoble Loi 101 (je rigole bien sûr) !

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  3. @ Anonymous at 8:10 AM:

    Funny you should mention the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Bill 101 and other language laws in Quebec violate both the Canadian and Quebec charters of rights and freedoms.

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  4. We have discovered a new complex: the FRANCOPHONE PERSECUTION COMPLEX... Freud, Lacan and so on would be so proud of this new discovery.
    By the way, do Francophones know they are the most hated among all in Canada?

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  5. To Anon. at 8:10 AM,

    "Les arrestations et les procédures judiciaires doivent être fournies dans les deux langues officielles"

    It never fails to astound me that Quebec nationalists cry "official bilingualism" when it concerns language affairs in the rest of Canada, but ignore this policy completely where Quebec is concerned. What a bunch of hypocrites!

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  6. Round and round we go, where the madness stops no one knows. What a bunch of sanctimonious bull crap these Quebecois spew. Anyway, I love the internet more and more, because now the world is getting the true picture of what is really happening in Quebec. The Quebecois are becoming well known for their insanely inconsistent and hypocritical values, which say treat us Quebecois with the utmost respect and courtesy while we treat you Anglos like unwanted vermin. It’s time to go Quebec; get the "F" out. I'm so sick of this never ending cycle of Quebecois gross entitlement combined with their manufactured persecution complex. Hell I live in Quebec and I would still love to see Canada reject this place all together. All along the Quebecois plan has been to ask for more and more and more until the will of Canadians breaks. I can’t wait until the day when Canadians are fed up enough to call the Quebecois on their con job, and say enough is enough; go your own way and leave us alone.

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  7. Hey 8:10AM, 12:47AM here! Your neck is no less red than mine! FYI, the "frenchie" moniker is my vindictive way of addressing your kind for addressing the likes of Howard Galganov in widely-read French publications as the «anglo-juif».

    Jacques Parasite, when he bitterly addressed his referendum loss in 1995 ensured it was "Money and the ethnic vote" that robbed him of his line to the French Quebec throne; furthermore, his loss as a one-trick pony enabled Lucien Bouchard to usurp the mantle of power by pulling the rug under Parasite's feet. A few weeks later on a political junket in Calgary, Parasite specifically blamed his loss on the Jews, Greeks and Italians.

    But I digress as I often do. 8:10AM, Montreal WAS my city, but I left because I knew I'd fight for every job with discrimination like a monkey on my back. Oh, and that parking ticket I once got in Laval (j'ai plaidé non coupable) contained ZERO English. So much for MY language rights being respected. It has been four years and I never got summoned to court. Take a lesson folks: if you're from outside Quebec, mail back your not guilty plea, but DO NOT put your return address on the envelope.

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  8. As for business owners, they all should have had metallic screens to protect their windows from being shattered.

    What I blame for the police is that they did not react soon enough.

    And how come some stupid bozo can take over an abandonned police car, can someone explain that one to me?

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  9. Hi Tym_Machine! The speculation proposed by one local newscast in Toronto was letting the hooligans get it out of their system on inanimate objects (cars with tens of thousands of dollars of equipment) rather than expending their energies on other people, namely the attending world leaders let alone the "ordinary" folks in their path.

    In the end, what irked me the most is they let these shit disturbers of the greatest proportion get away with everything and the next day they let peaceful protesters get away with nothing. The police overcompensated by punishing too many of the people who least deserved to be punished. I'm hoping they did nab some of the hooligans who fully deserved to be nailed to the fullest extent of the law, but I somehow doubt it.

    Tym, hindsight is 20/20. Rare is the time there is a need for metallic screens; besides, they're ugly, and there are some neighbourhoods in Toronto that have them--pawn shops having the lion's share of them. They're really ugly and reflect on bad neighbourhoods. Granted, they are a necessity in certain places, but the hope is they are rarely needed, esp. in better places.

    Hey 8:10AM, where are you? No rebuttal to those who responded to you?

    Typical «pur laine»! Big talk, no action! This is why I state with French Quebec having 22% of the population, they should get no more than 22% of federal money. If that's not good enough, let 'em separate--I DARE THEM TO!

    Yes, they'll scream their smoke-infested lungs and Bière Laurentide beer bellies off, but they STILL won't separate! Their debtload and reckless social spending habits would render their new currency worth less than a Greek drachma. Actually, Greece is probably lucky they're on the Euro now because if they weren't, it would take a barrel full of drachmas to buy a piece of pita! Think Deutchmarks of the 1920s!

    Québécois think like the Greeks! Endless unearned entitlements for little effort, i.e. something for nothing. Their system is corrupt, and so is French Quebec's! Notice how many mafiosos and their nearest and dearest are being knocked off? Quel surprise! They OWN French Quebec! What we're seeing now is their greed in action as they jockey for their new kingpin, this is how it goes, and innocents in their way will likely get killed. If French Quebec doesn't want to accept being an equal partner instead of breaking the rest of Canada's back for more and more and more, then Reed Scowen is right: It's time to say good-bye, and good riddance!

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  10. To anonymous July 16, 2010 9:50 AM : ''We know that French is the most hated group in Canada !'' Qu'est-ce que c'est ça ? Une affirmation gratuite de gamin trop gâté !? We know that anglophones got a baddest opinion of the francophones than the opposite ! What we can say about that except there's a bunch of zealots and cowboys mentality in ROC ! And to Ano July 16, 2010 10:05 AM : Arrêtez de me faire pleurer avec vos conditions de vie digne des goulags ! One of the problem in Québec is that anglophones speak and understand french don't want to make the effort to use it ! Maybe a old reflex of colonization ! By the way ! Vive le français et surtout vive le Québec libre ! Détaché de toute cette haine putride !

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  11. Anonymous said... @July 17, 2010 9:25 AM

    "We know that anglophones got a baddest opinion of the francophones than the opposite !"

    Might have something to do with REPRESSING THEIR
    RIGHTS, something they don't do to you.

    "One of the problem in Québec is that anglophones speak and understand french don't want to make the effort to use it !"

    The problem in Quebec is that it doesn't
    matter whether or not one speaks French, you
    have to BE Quebecois. To be Quebecois, one
    MUST AGREE with the state. My wifes' family
    has been here since 1642 but she isn't
    considered one of NOUS. Pure facist bull -
    think like the state or you're not one of us.

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  12. Let's look past ALL the bullshit and see the bottomline:

    The province of Quebec, and Montreal in particular, have been single handily DESTROYED, DECIMATED AND RUN INTO THE GROUND by the French Quebecois!

    They are racists, xenophobes, and for the most part, an unfriendly hateful bunch. They have no tolerance for anyone but their own kind. Since 1976 all energy--AND I MEAN ALL ENGRY--has been put into language restrictions and trying to separate themselves from the rest of North America. They remind me of rednecks from the South who fly Confederate flags.

    Look at Montreal! Just look at it, it is STAGNANT AND DEAD. Where are all the construct cranes? No where! Almost nothing has been built here since the late 70's. They've driven a huge chunk of the population and business out. Everything here is in decay, everything is corrupt, everything is dirty, broken, failing.

    Congratulations morons, you've turned a former utopia (the city of Montreal) into a literal shit hole.

    Guess what? It's over, finished, the damage is too great to repair now. The only solution is to leave. God, I hate Quebec, no joke.

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  13. July 18, 5:34PM: There are times I feel your pain, and feel contempt towards Quebec. When I was younger I called it hatred, but hate makes war and war senselessly kills and destroys. Montreal is a shadow if its former self....unfortunately. I don't know if it was a utopia, but it was a nicer place. Having been born in the late 50s myself, I saw the tail end of the "good times", only to be replaced by language zealots and fascist monsters.

    What I'm most tired of is Quebec's threats to leave if they don't get their way and an increasing share of federal transfers intended for ALL the provinces and territories. I'm equally fed up with the lack of political will on the part of the feds allowing successive Quebec governments, separatist and so-called "federalist" to alienate the English speaking minority in peril of alienating Francophone voters. To me, the self-proclaimed "federalist" PLQ is anything but federalist.

    All provinces are equal in Canada. They're either with us, or against us. You can guess which side I think Quebec falls on.

    Quebec has 22% of the population, 22% of the vote, but 33% of the Supreme Kangaroo Court and well over 22% of federal revenues--in some cases being allocated over 70% of federal funds depending on the federal government envelope.

    Roll it back to 22% across the board. If that's not good enough, good-bye, good luck and good riddance. To maintain its colossally expensive social programs, Quebec can keep the federal portion of the taxes they now pay and run MUCH bigger deficits. Let's see what would then happen to their currency. I'll bet it would go the way of the Zimbabwe dollar! $100 billion Zimbabwe dollars to buy three eggs! See the following: http://www.ledfrog.com/2010/04/hyper-inflation/

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  14. You guys really don't need to go that far. If they're whining like this, it's all a matter of PR: normally, this gets you a lot of sympathy in the nationalist media and the fabricated public opinion.

    This time, they have failed. Common sense 1 Nationalist Bullshit 0

    This is what you guys should applause. Not start a long diatribe on how you wish we'd disappear.

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  15. To Anonymous JULY 17, 2010 9:25 AM
    First of all, "baddest" does not exist in really good-spoken English: that's what probably Québécois learn in their indoctrinating one-way nationalist schools.

    Second, in English there is no space between the last word of the sentence and the exclamation mark. Please, learn English: we are in 2010!

    Yes, je suis d'accord avec toi : aidons TON Québec à se séparer de NOUS Canadiens ! J'aimerais que ça passât bientôt !

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  16. Sorry for the mistake:

    J'aimerais que ça SE passât bientôt !

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  17. Not one of your better posts. Sounds as hysterically ranty as the separatist group.

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  18. Dear Christian,

    In Germany we say people like you "haben Matsch in der Birne".

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