Dissent is Not Hatred

As a policy, I print all comments except for spam or stuff that is clearly racist. That being said, comments that blast others or even personal attacks that aren't racist, are okay by me.

From the level of passion that I read in the comments section I can only be satisfied that in some small way I am fostering some level of the language debate from an Anglo point of view. There aren't many of us doing it.
If people shout, scream and call each other names in their post, all the better. It's a passionate subject and people have every right to express themselves and calling each other names is part of the venting process. Others may disagree with me, but hey, I control what is printed and will continue to publish as much is possible.
While I would hope that personal attacks be limited, I can't and won't stop them. Attacks of that same nature on myself will continue to be published in the interest of fairness.

I usually don't answer comments, even if I have an opinion or response. I'm not ignoring anyone, but I believe the comment section is for commenters.

For the record;

• You can comment in English or You can comment in French
• You can complain about people commenting in English or people commenting in French. If you don't understand the post, I would suggest GOOGLE TRANSLATE. It's good enough for the RCMP!
• While I don't appreciate gratuitous swearing, judicious use of expletives is okay.
• You can call people names, but you can't make stuff up or tell nasty lies about them.
• I respectfully suggest you avoid sarcasm, it doesn't go over well in print, but hey, maybe you're a better writer than I.
• Try to work on your post, be creative. 
• I suggest you use a pseudonym. What good could possibly come of publishing your name?
• You can take a contrary view to mine or any other poster. There's no fun in having everyone agreeing. 
• Run your stuff through a spell checker. There are online versions that work right in your browser and highlight erros as you type. Get the FIREFOX  add-on here.
• I will not tolerate any post that uses ethnicity, religion or race as a pejorative.
• No advertising, but if you have a blog you can shill for it.

This week, there were quite a few comments that went after me rather, ahem... forcefully and that's okay, but I'd like to take this one post to make some observations.

Perhaps Tyme Machine was prophetic when he predicted that there would be a well storm of criticism directed towards Eric Duhaime over his articles on Amir Khadir and that the criticism would take the form of 'shooting the messenger.'

That prediction turned out to be quite true as the Communist Party of Quebec launched a furious counter attack against Duhaime with a least three senior members writing rebuttals which were nothing more than foul personal attacks.

I too, tasted in small measure the same medicine, being accused of 'defaming' Mr. Khadir' and of cowardice for publishing anonymously.

Ironically, those who accuse me of this crime, do so anonymously as well. Hmm.....

"This is a lot of nonsense spewed by a paranoid right-winger. It is full of the typical assumptions and leading one-liners used by gutter, red-neck writers. The accusations are ridiculous at the very least. Who wrote this crap? It is unsigned and, presumably, nobody would want to take credit for ranting and whining about nothing." -Anonymous comment

I'd like to offer a rebuttal, but there's isn't anything to rebut, it just a bunch of insults. I will say however, that I am not paranoid, even though I'm convinced people like this anonymous commenter are out to get me.
Finally, I 'd like to address the 'anonymous' issue, once and for all.

It's been over 165 years since a mob of English extremists attacked Parliament in old Montreal and burned it down. Since then, Anglos have generally preferred the pen, rather than the stick to further our opinions. The same cannot be said of a tiny minority of extremists who continue to this day to threaten violence against those with whom they disagree. RRQ, Jeunes Patriotes..etc.etc.

Now I know I'm going to get a bunch of comments about how Anglos violenced francophones throughout history, Acadians, General Amherst...blah...blah..blah.
But I'm talking about the here and now.

We are all familiar with the 'Galganov Effect" wherein the English rights proponent was literally driven out of the province by serious threats of violence.

I can assure those who are interested that I am not familiar to you politically or renowned in any manner. It doesn't matter who I am.

Without anonymity we'd never have benefited from 'Deep Throat,' the anonymous source who blew the cover off the Watergate Scandal in the Nixon era. More recently the importance of anonymous dissent is highlighted by the ongoing revelations about the war in Afghanistan by WikiLeaks. The Afghan War Diary is having the effect of profoundly changing the public's perception of the war.

If you don't like what I say, or what Eric Duhaime says, too bad for you. It's your prerogative to voice counter opinions and present facts that support an alternate view.

It's funny how Amir Khadir and company can argue for the right of Jaggi Singh to dissent, yet when we anglos do so, we are branded zealots and racists.

Enough. Let's lighten up!!!!

Just to prove that not all of we anglos are a blithering band of racists, let's enjoy this video prepared in response to the Anglo Society's campaign against the French language in New Brunswick.
Enjoy and Happy weekend!!
Bonne fin de semaine à tous!!!!!