Friday, October 8, 2010

French versus English Volume 16

Education Department comes up with a novel approach to raise student success.
Under extreme pressure to reduce the appalling dropout rate in Francophone high schools in Quebec, the education department came up with a novel approach.
Count differently....
Yup, the education department announced that it is changing the formula it uses to calculate this dropout rate, with the resulting benefit of 'reducing' the number of students leaving high school without a diploma, by almost 6%.
One of the effects of this change is that it will no longer be possible to directly compare dropout rates with other provinces, an added bonus. LINK(French)

The  department has also been creative in making sure more high school students pass their final French matriculation exam. It changed the exam and the way the test results are evaluated by teachers last June. One teacher suspected that it was now too easy to pass. Benoît Paquin, a teacher in a Montreal suburban high school in Longueuil gave the test to students who were two grades down from the final year and most passed the test with a 72% average when the new marking criteria was used.
According to the teacher the changes were made to make sure that students who have gone through the "reform" or the new controversial education system are able to be as successful as students who learned under  the 'old' system.
How Clever! LINK(French)

Quebec Citizenship 
Michel Seymour, a philosophy professor at the Université de Montréal. has suggested an interesting solution to the Bill 103 'problem,' offering this pearl...
"Quebec citizenship should be established with French as the official language. To acquire this Quebec citizenship, one must exhibit an ability to speak French." LINK
Quebec citizenship?

'Bilingual' New Brunswick leaders debate in French -ugh!
You don't have to speak French to watch this painful butchering of the French language by the provincial party leaders in a pre-election debate. I have added some subtitles to the satirist 'Infoman's' commentary, who provided some well-deserved sarcasm.

 
Pierre Curzi gets Owned
Attending the legislative hearings in Quebec looking into Bill 103, the law that will replace Bill 104 (the language law overturned by the Supreme Court,) MNA Pierre Curzi, champion of the French language and enemy of Paul McCartney and the Montreal Canadiens, stumbled badly on camera. Obviously unprepared and un-attentive, he tried to challenge a representative from VISION schools, a private French primary and high school system that uses English in most of their courses.
Mr. Curzi seemed strangely lost and hemmed and hawed quite a lot. The pièce de résistance is his last question to the school administrator, asking if graduating from the Vision school offers a student a pathway into a private English high school.
Taken aback, the administrator sarcastically reminds Mr. Curzi that any student can attend an English private high school, any time, it doesn't require any credentials. Ha!
I've added subtitles.


Militant site rejoices in Claude Béchard's Death
I'm usually not a big fan of Richard Martineau, but the columnist exposed a rather nasty link between the radical Réseau de résistance du Québécois and it's website and a thoroughly disgusting comment board  LINK.
In talking about the recent cancer death of a 42 year-old Claude Béchard, a Quebec cabinet minister in the Liberal government who left behind a young family, a reader opined;
Louis Hebert wrote:
"Since when, should one not rejoice when one's enemy disappears,  for me, they can all die, these scavengers.  BRAVO!" Link
Claiming innocence Patrick Bourgouis, head off the quasi violent RRQ wrote back to Martineau that the chat room was unmoderated and was no longer associated with the RRQ.

That may be well and good, except it's not entirely true, according to Mr Martineau, 
The board can be reached via a link  on Mr. Bourgouis' website le Quebecois.

Moncton rejects forced bilingualism
"The City of Moncton will not be adopting a bilingual signage bylaw.
City staff presented a report on bilingual signage at yesterday's council meeting and the recommendation was that a bylaw was not the course of action the majority of Monctonians wanted to see.
"I think concern from businesses very clearly was that they really didn't want to be legislated," Catherine Dallaire, the City of Moncton's general manager of corporate services, said in presenting the report's findings. "Their point of view was a little different though with regard to their support for bilingual signage - they didn't disagree that in most cases bilingual signage was something they would support in the community."  By Cole Hobson, Times & Transcript
Air France in trouble over French
Yesterday, I wrote about Quebec language police forcing a Quebec school board to get rid of its English computer keyboards, an interesting story, based largely on its pettiness.
In France, where they have their own version of Bill 101, the Toubin Law, these same types of issues come up as well, but a recent case is not petty at all, with public safety at issue. LINK (French)

The national French airline has just lost a case in French court over the translation into French of technical documents concerning the operation of some airplanes. The documents in question are produced by the airline manufacturer (probably Boeing) in English only. As you may know English is the language of international air travel and pilots generally must communicate in English when flying internationally. As such, the manufacturer provides documents in English only.
The French court ruled that Air France must translate these documents into French for the benefit of pilots, who according to French law have the right to work in French.
Air France argued unsuccessfully, that it is not their obligation to translate safety documents produced by a third party as it may jeopardize safety and that the issue is moot as all their pilots are already obliged to speak and understand English.
The court was unimpressed by their argument and ordered the airline to comply.

Happy Thanksgiving! I'll be back on Tuesday......


24 comments:

  1. They're dumbing down the final French
    matriculation exam so French Canadians can
    pass. Protecting French language/culture?
    Can you imagine what the illiteracy rate will
    be in Quebec (currently over 53%) in 5 years?

    " quasi violent RRQ "

    There's nothing "quasi" about these separtist
    "brown shirts" and the PQ and BQ financialy
    support them.

    DD

    ReplyDelete
  2. If the is the case, then the House of Commons in Ottawa needs to bring up the issues of the Bloc Quebecois financially supporting violent groups.

    The same goes with the PQ. Not sure about Quebec Solidaire. What they have their hands in?

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  3. Poor Quebec, I really feel for you people (English speakers), but I just wonder if you realize that the same racist, bigoted language polices are spreading all across Canada. All in the name of “language equality” One big lie. Ontario and New Brunswick are nightmares where the french demand all services in french only, not bilingual. They want everything in French only, segregated French only hospitals, community centres, schools…all jobs...This is the main reason both provinces are heavily in debt.

    They have Quebec it’s the rest of the country these racist, francophony bigots want. Its all about jobs, money and French power.

    The simple facts are as more francophone’s get hired for all government positions less and less English speakers are working for their own governments across the country. Don’t believe me; Go check the stats for yourself. Francophone’s are over-represented in all levels of government including hospitals, law, policing...etc. No fairness, no representation by population. They call it bilingualism, yet the term is never defined on purpose and believe me it doesn’t mean fluency in 2 languages in Canada, at least to the French it doesn’t. No political party will speak for the English speaking majority in this province and country. Practical bilingualism, where numbers warrant… is never defined on purpose. In Ontario it now means segregation. The French are demanding French only facilities all over the province, not bilingual, French only.$ Bilingualism is really nothing more then a hiring quota for francophone’s and that is a fact…just ask yourself, why are francophone’s over-represented in all government jobs and how come more and more positions are being designated bilingual every day?

    So while Quebec bans the English language (bill 22, bill 178, bill 101…). While ethnic cleansing is going on in Quebec, the rest of the country is forced to fund whatever the French demand. This is going on in every province.

    One big phony bilingual scam.Liberl, Tory same old story.What a mess.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Don't think you can sanction a "party" for
    actions taken by individual mambers. QS is just
    as separtist as the PQ/BQ, same stink different
    packaging.

    DD

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  5. ‘Militant site rejoices in Claude Béchard's Death’

    Editor, it was good of you to call this out. People need to be reminded constantly of how sinister the Quebecois nationalist’s mindset really is. Few people recognize or admit the degree to which this war-like, adversarial attitude trickles through Quebec society and inures the ‘moderate’ Quebecois. Look at how the French media give their tacit support to these extremist groups by never failing to give them attention and a platform to spew their hate. My gut feeling is that most Quebecois have a soft spot for the radicals and see them as a credible, necessary evil in order to maintain their position of power. I think everyone is Canada needs to know that the Quebecois nationalist are indeed at war with us. We are their declared enemy, and they intend to harm, disable, and hamper us. They are prepared to do whatever it takes to ‘win the war’. If we let them abuse Canada and its citizens, we only have ourselves to blame.

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  6. I was watching some European news package that was being aired on the Mhz Network, and the story involved Belgium. And some of the complaints from the flemish part of the country seemed familiar. That french Belgium was basically trying to take over the entire country and force french onto the flemish. I sometimes wonder what all these Francophone members are actually doing? Are they conspiring against non-francophone communities. This flemish situation has to be looked into further in order to see if what french-canadians are doing in Canada resembles what the french Belgiums are doing in Belgium. It sounds as if the flemish have had enough. And I suspect English Canada will come to the same conclusion soon as well.

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  7. 40th PARLIAMENT, 2nd SESSION
    Friday, February 27, 2009

    STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

    "Mr. Daniel Petit (Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, CPC):
    Mr. Speaker, yesterday in this House, we were treated to an excellent performance of feigned indignation by the Bloc.


    Despite the ill-advised theatrics, the facts are overwhelming. For several years, many Bloc Québécois members have been funding Le Québécois, a newspaper published by Patrick Bourgeois, that unsavoury individual who has encouraged violence and public disorder.?"

    "Mrs. Shelly Glover (Saint Boniface, CPC):
    Mr. Speaker, the intolerance and violence advocated by the Réseau de résistance du Québec, Patrick Bourgeois and Pierre Falardeau and the massive financial backing provided—with public money—by the Bloc Québécois and Parti Québécois for their threats have left many Quebeckers confused and poorer. The losses associated with the re-enactment are estimated at $3 million for the Quebec City area.


    I suppose we should not be surprised, as this comes from a leader who lets his members march in a pro-Hezbollah demonstration and allows a member to send out pro-Hamas emails. What a great coalition. What a wonderful ideology of intolerance.


    Our government has put forward a motion condemning these extremists. I hope all my hon. colleagues in this House will support this motion so that it is adopted unanimously."

    link - http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=3704860&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=40&Ses=2

    DD

    ReplyDelete
  8. url for previous post was cut, s/b:

    http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=3704860&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=40&Ses=2#SOB-2625577

    ReplyDelete
  9. Reply to anon at 2:06 PM;

    The best thing for the Dutch-speakers in Belgium would be for Flanders to secede from the parasitic Walloons and become a separate state or join with the Netherlands. The Toronto guy.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Quebec is a blight on Canada. This province and the french have brought nothing but problems to what would be a great country if they would simply separate. Perhaps a limited nuclear strike would be of assistance, if we had any. It is certaine the "nation state" would utilize them against the anglo population of Canada, whom are their sworn enemies. After all, look at the cultural genocide going on in this despotic province at this time.. All the time receiving huge transfer payments from those they wish to destroy.

    Even a dog doesn't bite the hand that feeds it. Not so, however, for the Quebecois who are nothing more than a Cancer to the ROC. They continually infect the entire country with their sense of entitlement and arrogant, bigotted ways.

    Qui est nous, des bigottes au Quebec.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Mississauga Guy finally joined the fray and said...

    Boy, what a great day! None of those separatist fascist crash test dummy trolls joining the conversation! Then again, they ought to be embarrassed with what was pointed out above, and maybe figure it's better to think like a moron than open their mouths and prove it.

    I'll repeat, ad nauseam if it must be, that Canada needs a pro-English party serving all of Canada, including Quebec constituencies where the majority is not Francophone, like the westerh half of Montreal, St-Lambert/Greenfield Park and Chomedey in Laval. No candidates would be run in Quebec outside of where there is not ample Anglophone support. Perhaps the same would be true for parts of New Brunswick that contain overwhelmingly Francophone representation.

    It would make obtaining a party majority more difficult, but right now it's almost impossible for the Conservatives to win more than a dozen seats in Quebec, and the Liberals still could barely obtain a majority even with their support in Quebec since da Bloc became a political party. Even when Chrétien did win majorities, it was by having to give give and give Quebec more more and more. NO MORE! With an English first federal party, that would end. If Quebec wants to separate because of that, so be it.

    Quebec economically will DIE without federal gimme gimme gimme...DIE! For what Quebec extorted out of the federal system, including a Commission of Official Languages that to date has done ZERO to protect English in Quebec over the last 41 years, Quebec deserves to DIE economically, and when such a party educates the rest of Canada of the HALF A TRILLION dollars wasted over the decades on an arm of the government that could have been WAY BETTER SPENT ON HEALTH AND EDUCATION, it shouldn't be that hard to get support of the rest of Canada.

    ReplyDelete
  12. @Mississauga

    Notre Bloc Québécois demeurera puissant aussi longtemps que les libs et les cons ne donneront pas ce que les Québécois attendent d'eux.

    Le grand succès de Gilles repose sur la mauvaise volonté des autres partis a ne pas satisfaire nos aspirations.Quoique Jack devient de plus en plus notre ami.C'est dailleurs,a nos yeux, le plus sympathiques des feds.
    Aurait-il comprit ce que les deux autres refusent de comprendre? : Travaillez avec nous et le canada retrouvera son équilibre et une certaine harmonie.

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  13. "Aurait-il comprit ce que les deux autres refusent de comprendre? : Travaillez avec nous et le canada retrouvera son équilibre et une certaine harmonie."

    Jamais travaillez avec vous. Nous avons en travillons avec vous en le passe. Pourquoi. 8.5 Milliars pour an vous prendrez de nous.. Take you GD province, separate and rid us of the Cancer you are. Only then will there be any harmony and that would be for the other 9 provinces "sans Quebec".

    You need further translation?

    I didn't think so.

    Goodbye and good riddance. Now get down to the local PQ or BQ office and make a donation to your dispicable friend Gilles (f'k I can't stand to listen to his whining voice) or Pauline. Oh, I forgot Quebecois don't speak with their wallets as the BQ are funded by taxpayers. The Green Party had more donations that the BQ in the last election.

    Prendre la porte et nous serons un grande et forte payee sans vous.

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  14. "Notre Bloc Québécois demeurera puissant aussi longtemps que les libs et les cons ne donneront pas ce que les Québécois attendent d'eux."

    Excusemois...Je croire que 8.5 milliards dollaires est un bonne raison pour voter pour Harper. N'est pas.

    Idiot

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  15. Mississauga Guy to Anon @ 7:03PM:

    You want Jack Layton as your friend? YOU CAN HAVE HIM! It's not as if he's going to ever run the country (Canada, that is) because he talks out of both sides of his mouth and wants to try and be everything to everyone, and that backfires. Ontario voted for the NDP once---ONCE!

    Boob Rae led the Ontario NDP to victory in 1990, and a jerk like Mike Harris beat him five years later. Now Boob Rae is a federal liberal after being a federal NDP MP at one point. His own party cast him aside in favour of Michael Ignorant--Rae was usurped by his own top party people and Ignorant was handed the throne without a convention. How UN-democratic!

    Under Boob Rae, the Ontario tax rate hit 58%. Within his first mandate, Mike Harris brought it down to 39.5%!!

    What will Jack Layton do, double the federal taxes where they currently are and run $100 billion deficits? The NDP is a leftist party that robs from the middle class to give to the poor! Ontario hasn't forgotten its lessons from the early 1990s, so don't count on Ontario to support Jack!

    Right now we're working in getting rid of Mr. Tax-and-Spend McGuinty in Ontario, and his days are counting down to an election about a year from now!!!

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  16. Speaking about Claude Bechard...

    I am wondering if the Editor will make about Charest's decision in the matter of Montreal Metro's rolling stocks. In order to win Bechard's riding of Kamouraska-Temiscouata, Charest's administration is willing to sacrifice Quebec (and to some extent Canadian) reputation in the international world. By choosing Bombardier without a tender process, not only does he alienate Quebec from the European market, but also do disservice to the taxpayers by not choosing the best quality product at the most reasonable price.

    All of this is so that people in La Pocatiere elect PLC's candidate in the next by-election to replace Bechard.

    However, the Editor said before that he would never criticize Charest because of their personal relations. Therefore, I am not holding my breath for his comment for this blatant partisan and irresponsible act.

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  17. Que dire de plus ? Québec indépendant et ça presse ! Revenge of the living rednecks (ROC) ?

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  18. Paris Guy dit: À propos d'Octobre 70:'' Cette répression dont sont victimes les Québécois, dit Sartre, «n'est pas autre chose que la mise à la vue de tous de ce qui existe toujours». Plus loin, il ajoute que la Loi sur les mesures de guerre tendit à démontrer «que vous, les Québécois, vous n'appartenez pas au Canada, puisque vous êtes considérés comme des insurgés et des guerriers. [...] Alors c'est une manière de dire clairement [que] les Québécois sont colonisés. C'est une des choses qui m'apparaît la plus frappante». Pour le quarantième anniversaire d'Octobre, on préfère pourtant s'attarder encore à des points de détail de l'histoire ou à des conjectures plutôt que de se livrer à un examen de la nature profonde de ce système politique qui est bien toujours le nôtre et qu'Octobre 70 a contribué à mieux mettre en lumière...''

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  19. Respect for the city of Moncton for not adopting the signage regulation. Linguistic matters should be left to the discretion of service providers and consumers.

    From time to time, I hear about language law proposals in the ROC. They almost always involve the Francophone minority pushing for legislative imposition of their language on others. I really hope Canada as a whole will resist the concept of “language law”. This is not the way to go.

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  20. Hey Paris Guy - Enough with the bullshit
    revisionist garbage.

    War Measures Act was enacted at the request
    of the Government of Quebec (agreed by all
    parties in Quebec - even Camille Laurin/PQ).

    It was later that several spineless
    weasels sold out the new Quebec government
    by publishing a letter recommending negotiating
    with terrorists. Who were these yellow pukes?

    Levesque, Parizeau, Claude Ryan and others.

    A black chapter in Quebecs' history from witch
    it has never recovered.

    DD

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  21. "Patric Bourgouis"

    I know it's a tough name to write down but good old copy and paste is very efficient in that manner:

    It's Patrick Bourgeois.

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  22. Quebec is not poor, it is whealthy and French. So if you cannot accept it, this is not our problem. It is yours. Quebec is always on a one-way side of the street. If they want their way, after 400 years, enough of "les Miserables", they don't want to be like les Thénardiers from Victor Hugo. They are proud and they don't need the insults. APOLOGIZE !!!!!!!

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  23. Not everyone is English. If you are you don't have anything else to do than critize the others, instead of learning other languages, like they do in Europe. YOur laxism, your xenophobic attitude, your poverty of the mind, your racism will bring you back a lot of discomfort within Canada. Quebec doesn't care anymore, after 400 years of being mistreated ! they just want to live in peace WITHOUT YOU. (CANADA SHOULD BE BIG ENOUGH FOR YOUR PIG HEADED MIND)

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  24. In Europe they fight to keep tuiton fees "affordable" while here in America it is still affordable,nobody seems interested.

    A lot more Quebecois should attend University while fees are very low, especially girls. (It wasn't a tradition before to attend University for women).

    In Ontario while students, men are reading. After their degree they refuse to open a book the rest of their life, unlike women.It is noticed that computer sciences is not considered a proper University education, even if Universities have the monopoly of this skill. (Universities are businesses!) UofT is far from being the best one. Everybody gradutes !!!

    They don't renew contracts from people who are failing students. They fired a prof because he had spoken unfavourably of laboratories etc...
    They are many universities forming UofT. Smart logic, to avoid revolution.
    [They spend a lot of money! if students refuse projects (stadium to demolish) etc.. they wait 4 years and then they spend the money anyway.]
    Their Senate is made of old British and conservative elitits who are counting on honour and money...for their "efforts".

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