Thursday, October 28, 2010

Radio-Canada Fans the Flames of Language Hysteria

The Journal de Montreal, the French language newspaper, will certainly never be compared to the New York Times. In fact, it's more like the New York Post, a sensationalist rag that plays to the lunch pail crowd. There's nothing wrong with that, I don't want to be accused of snobbism, my point being that journalistic integrity is not high on the list and catchy headlines are more important than the stories behind them.

While on the subject of the New York Post, I cannot resist adding a picture of my very favourite trash headlines here, highlighted by perhaps the greatest and most notorious headline ever written.
"Headless Body in a Topless Bar." PRICELESS!
Let's be honest, who could resist buying a copy of that newspaper?

And so the headline on this particular issue of the Journal de Montreal pictured below, is in the best tradition of this type of attention grabbing reporting.

Last year, the newspaper did an 'investigative' article decrying the fact that in downtown Montreal the percentage of clerks unable to speak French was alarmingly high.

Of course the journalistic portion of the story left a lot to be desired since it was painfully short on details and never quite explained its methodology.

In this type of reporting the facts are never the most important element, but hey, we expect that when we buy these type of newspapers.
A Quebec humorist INFOMAN did an excellent and hilarious send-up of the newspaper and the story. Watch it here. (with English subs)
 
Radio-Canada, on the other hand, is not anything like the Journal de Montreal. Supposedly it strives for journalistic excellence.

The French version of the CBC, is the dominant television choice for French Canadians.

As such it has a bigger per capita annual budget (about twice as large as that of its English counterpart, the CBC) and has a much bigger relative viewership than the CBC. It  plays a greater role in influencing opinion in French Canada than any other media source.

And so, it's a bit ironic that of all the big media organizations in Canada, this federally funded institution is the most virulently sovereignist and nationalistic.

In spite of that, I still expect a certain  level of journalistic excellence, especially on its nightly national newscast.
Unfortunately, last week, the broadcaster chose to go down the Yellow Journalism path,  by doing an exact rip-off of the Journal de Montreal story, this time in Anglophone districts of the city.
A reporter was sent to different stores where he encountered immigrants with difficulty speaking French.

Now throughout the story the reporter reminded us that these scenes were completely atypical and that good service in French, in Anglo districts is the norm, not the exception.

If that was true, what was the point of the story, other than to enrage French language hawks?

 
I've added subtitles to the piece, which is only about two minute long. 
As the old saying goes, one picture is worth a thousand words. The sight of immigrant after immigrant unable to speak French fans leaves the impression that this situation is the norm. Reminding viewers in a voice-over that this is not the case is a device worthy of a cheap defence lawyer.

Why? Why?
Why run a story depicting immigrants unable to serve customers and then tell the audience that it's a rare exception, unless it is meant to pump up the volume in relation to language hysteria?

While it may be acceptable reporting for the Journal de Montreal, it's shameful for a serious national news organization.

By the way. Did you notice that not one Anglo could be found who didn't speak French?
Nary a soul!.....Now that speaks volumes!

I'm curious to know how many stores they visited to come up with this atrocious piece of journalism.
This whole report was a manufactured piece of crap.

Shame on Radio-Canada.

34 comments:

  1. It is known now for a while that Radio-Poubelle is a safe haven for this kind of mentality. Did you see what happened to Nancy Wood last year by the way (?)- it is mark of Pia Marquard's stellar leadership. My post, and registered letters did nothing to dissuade this woman from breaking provincial psychological harassment laws publicly: https://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/hugo/archive/2010/03/24/getting-stubborn-chief-executive-officers-to-listen-speak-their-language.aspx

    This is all harassment for not being part of the 'clan' - Mon dieu j'ai honte d'être Québécois des fois, c'est du journalisme 'jaune' sans cesse. Voir notre point numéro 16, en fait ma traduction du texte de Philippe Allard (candidat Laurier-Ste-Marie, circ. de Gilles ‘perdant’ Duceppe) :
    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/hugo/archive/2010/09/30/when-the-bloc-qu-233-b-233-cois-is-a-nuisance-for-quebeckers-interests-the-top-20-countdown.aspx

    Keep up the good posts man.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nasty, snooty, racist, out-of-touch-with-the-reality, mischievous rubbish made by petits kébékuà. As an allophone, willing to speak French (the real one from France, of course, not that dialect for underdeveloped unilingual petits kébékuà), I will not watch Radio-Poubelle (thanks Hugo!!) anymore.

    Allophone ++

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  3. My taxe money pays for these guys salaries too, right?
    ...

    ReplyDelete
  4. "...the real one from France..."

    Do you speak THE real english from England?
    Or globish dialect (approximately 1500 words)?
    Il n'y a pas de "vrai" Français comme il n'existe pas de "vrai" anglais.Une langue possède une multitude de variantes selon le pays et selon la région ou elle est utilisée.

    Un conseil pour les Québécois qui fréquentent ces commerces: Faites comme plusieurs d'entre-nous lorsqu'on vous accueil en globish,faites demi-tour et allez chez le compétiteur qui vous servira en Français.L'argent est le seul moyen de persuasion efficace,surtout chez les allos.

    Et vlan!Little canayen.

    ReplyDelete
  5. "(candidat Laurier-Ste-Marie, circ. de Gilles ‘perdant’ Duceppe)"

    Qu'est-ce que j'ai hâte aux prochaines élections fédérales (provinciales aussi).C'est la que nous séparerons les vrais "winners" des vrais
    "losers".

    Continuez votre bashing!Vigile.net a défoncé ses coffres (106%).D'ici Noel,ils auront atteint le 200%.Merci!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Assurément, The Gazette & The Globe and mail ne se compare pas au journal Le Devoir, Le Monde et le New York Times !

    ReplyDelete
  7. Chénier dit : Tout à d'accord avec le commentaire de 9:03 AM !

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  8. Ok, j'ouvre une boutique ou je sers uniquement en français à Toronto, question de voir si j'aurai beaucoup de clientèle ? Si vous n'êtes pas capable de communiquer dans la langue de la majorité (je souligne), peut-être que votre place n'est pas derrière le comptoir ! Moi, me faire parler uniquement en anglais, je tourne les talons de bord.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Mississauga Guy said...

    The whole trouble with Quebec (French) journalism is this "yellow" moniker. Howard Galganov was tripped up by this type of journalism that he stopped talking to the French media. They would cut words from his interviews or voice over other things out of context. He really wanted to convey his views on the French media, but that was made insurmountably difficult.

    As for the SRC, they never play O Canada at sign-off, and I've picked up biases in the few broadcasts I watch. Now that La Soirée du Hockey is off the SRC airwaves, I see even less of their broadcasting. TV shows with an audience of 7 million people maximum don't have the budget that even English Canadian TV shows have. Most English shows aren't that good either.

    Too, why is it that old beliefs never die in Quebec. The collective perception amongst the Francophones is Anglophones earn more on average than they do, and their living belief in the fictitious "speak white" cliché. Bill 101 made every effort to assure Francos are at the front of the job preference line (esp. in the civil service). It's unilingual workers who suffer, but even Franco uni workers do better than Anglo uni workers on average.

    People see what they WANT to see, hear what they WANT to hear, and believe what they WANT to believe. That, for good or bad, is human nature.

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  10. Its just pathetic that our tax dollars fund this propaganda and hatred from radio Canada. The language Nazis and everywhere and not just in Quebec. It’s a nightmare outside Quebec as well where even Queens park now has a language Nazis department, yes indeed folks Queens park in TO. We fund all of this BS, all of this discrimination, anti-English language bigotry, phony bilingual (French) BS, like it or not. Liberal, Tory same old story. . Its been like this for years. The CBC is just as bad. Just a daily dose of spin, lies, propaganda…a complete disgrace. That’s why most of us don’t watch or listen to any of this crap.

    The real question is what can we do about it? How can we stop this? These pro French, anti-English language bigots/Nazis are everywhere, in every party, in every department…they have an agenda and will stop.

    Poor Kebec, poor Canada, what a mess. Thanks Turdeau.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Continuez votre bashing!Vigile.net a défoncé ses coffres (106%).D'ici Noel,ils auront atteint le 200%.Merci!

    If you view legitimate, reasoned criticism as ‘bashing’ then you can count on it continuing. With any luck, the bile you and your Vigil.net bigots churn out will sufficiently infect the Quebecois mind set enough to compel them to finally vote YES. Stop lying to us. Stop abusing our values. Stop ridiculing us. Stop robbing us. Enough is enough. Have some honor and please F off once and for all. Go your own way and leave Canadians alone.

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  12. For Anonymous at 09:54:

    Indeed you CAN open a unilingual French store in Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver. Nobody will come to you to tell you that you must serve your customers in English. Nobody. Can one open a unilingual English store in Trois-Rivieres?

    And indeed, if you do not like a store because they do not understand you, just walk away. Indeed, you are the customer and customers are king. The very fact that there are stores in Montreal manned by those who do not speak French, and those stores survive, speaks a lot about the appeal of the French language, does it not?

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  13. I don’t think anyone on this board would have a problem with this: “Faites comme plusieurs d'entre-nous lorsqu'on vous accueil en globish,faites demi-tour et allez chez le compétiteur qui vous servira en Français”. Or this: “j'ouvre une boutique ou je sers uniquement en français à Toronto”. If you can survive with a French-only store in Toronto, then great, congratulations. And if you have a problem with places with too little French in Montreal, then don’t shop there. Case closed. Do what you have to do, let the market take its course and sort it all out. But don’t dispatch language cops, issue fines, and interfere with people’s business. That’s stepping over the line.

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  14. "...and those stores survive, speaks a lot about the appeal of the French language, does it not?"

    Dommage qu'ils soient obligés d'afficher leurs produits dans la langue du colon.Je crois que Montréal est dûe pour un autre petit nettoyage.
    Un conseil:Provitez-en durant que J.J.charest est encore en poste parcequ'avec le travail conjoint du Parti et du Bloc Québécois bientôt de retour au pouvoir, il y a de fortes chances qu'il y est de petits ajustements linguistiques.

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  15. "...Go your own way and leave Canadians alone."

    Comptez sur nous mais la prochaine fois dites a vos amis et familles de laisser leurs voeux d'affection dans le placard.De cette façon nos vieilles tantes au coeur sensibles risquent de voter dans la bonne direction et ainsi faire basculer le vote du coté des vrais Québécois.

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  16. Comptez sur nous mais la prochaine fois dites a vos amis et familles de laisser leurs voeux d'affection dans le placard.De cette façon nos vieilles tantes au coeur sensibles risquent de voter dans la bonne direction et ainsi faire basculer le vote du coté des vrais Québécois.

    The next time, Canadians probably will stay home with their sentiments. Many of us have since realized that the ‘affection’ only runs one way. You and your kind have laid bare your hatred for the North American Anglosphere. In the end, you will get the ethnocentric fascist state you want. In the end, there will be no love lost. In the end, the Anglosphere will absorb you, digest you, and shit you out. The ‘real’ Quebec you speak of does not exist outside of you disturbed minds. You are nothing in North America without us.

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  17. To Anonymous/Dartagnan:

    "Je crois que Montréal est dûe pour un autre petit nettoyage."

    We've heard this from you many times before.
    With each new comment you make, it becomes even more clear that you are nothing more than a fascist.

    You make many easily distinguishable comments on every thread of this blog. Obviously you don't have a life. You are probably just another welfare bum in Quebec who is being supported by transfer payments from other provinces.

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  18. Anonymous at 12:52:

    "Dommage qu'ils soient obligés d'afficher leurs produits dans la langue du colon."

    But why? Why MUST they show the language of the majority? If the majority does not like the business, why enters at all? Go to the Chinatown in Vancouver and San Francisco. Plenty of stores do not even have alphabet there. See how insecure French Quebecers are?

    "Provitez-en durant que J.J.charest est encore en poste parcequ'avec le travail conjoint du Parti et du Bloc Québécois bientôt de retour au pouvoir, il y a de fortes chances qu'il y est de petits ajustements linguistiques."

    Wow, you really are good in reading the political wind, are you not? If you think that PQ will be back in power the next election, you are kidding yourself. There are currently two movements for right-leaning parties. None of them have independence in their agenda. And poll after poll suggest that PQ is not going to be the one in power. As for BQ, if you ever think that BQ will have enough power to do anything significant, I would like to smoke what you are smoking because it must be a good stuff.

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  19. "Ok, j'ouvre une boutique ou je sers uniquement en français à Toronto, question de voir si j'aurai beaucoup de clientèle ?"

    The point is, nobody will prevent you from doing this. You will not be fined for not speaking English and you will not be forced to lose your establishment. If you've been born and raised in North America and still can't communicate in English (as is the case with a great majority of Quebecers outside of Montreal), why would you expect a new immigrant to this country to be trilingual upon arrival?
    And just what do you expect these people to do? Not work? Starve? Leave Quebec?
    As long as this place is part of Canada, immigrants should be allowed the opportunity to work and live without racist scumbags like the cockroaches that maintain the linguistic status quo here, impeding their chances at a decent life. As it stands, employers are fearful of hiring non Francophones leaving them few to no no options in making a living. By extension, they're not even given the chance to integrate.
    It's insidious racism that masquerades as linguistic protectionism in this province. I gather Quebecers would've been shoe-ins as Vichy government supporters, a particular brand of Nazi lights.

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  20. "You and your kind have laid bare your hatred for the North American Anglosphere."

    TssTss!Vous dérapez mon ami.Vous confondez Américains et canayens.

    "The next time, Canadians probably will stay home with their sentiments."

    We hope so!

    "The ‘real’ Quebec you speak of does not exist outside of you disturbed minds. You are nothing in North America without us."

    Ho my god wtf are you talking about?

    Pouvez-vous me définir ce qu'est un canadien? sinon un anglo du Nord qui parasite la culture de son voisin du Sud.Bref un canadien est un américain dont on soustrait le dynamisme,la créativité et la culture avec laquelle il pourrait se démarquer.Notre esprit est peut-être perturbé mais il s'agit de notre esprit,pas celui du voisin.

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  21. Anon 3:10PM : “TssTss!Vous dérapez mon ami.Vous confondez Américains et canayens.”

    I was going to say something on this after Anon 9:45AM wrote: “Assurément, The Gazette & The Globe and mail ne se compare pas au journal Le Devoir, Le Monde et le New York Times !”

    (Anon 9:45AM is probably the same guy as Anon 3:10PM)

    New York Times? American press cited next to Quebec/French press? English Canadian press vilified while English American press put on a pedestal?

    Don’t confuse Americans with Canadians? Would Americans be any better for the Quebecois than the Canadians? Anon, what are you on? Just because Americans don’t get involved in our matters only means that they don’t care, not that they’re impartial. Their indifference does not mean neutrality. Clever Duceppe went to Washington on a mission to secure American neutrality knowing damn well that they don’t give a shit, as he cleverly conflated their apathy with impartiality. Big “victory” for Gilles.

    If the Americans had no choice but to deal with you Quebecois on daily basis the way English Canada has to, you’d be hearing about it every day in their press. And you wouldn’t have your Bill 101. And there would not be any OLA pushing “bilingualism” from Anchorage Alaska to Key West, Fl. You would all be required to learn English or suffer the consequences. Nobody would be learning French to accommodate you.

    If you had to deal with Americans instead of Canadians, you would have been assimilated a long time ago. Just like your frères in Louisiana and New England. There would not be any French Americans as there are French Canadians.

    Donc, t’as raison, frère. Ne confondons pas Américains et canayens. The Americans would be far worse for you. They wouldn’t dick around like Canadians do. They’d put you in your place real quick.

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  22. "The Americans would be far worse for you. They wouldn’t dick around like Canadians do. They’d put you in your place real quick."

    Nous traitons déja des milliards de $ avec les amerlocs depuis un bon moment adski.Nous les réchauffons l'hiver et les refroidissons l'été.Sans nous il seraient dans l'obcurité totale.Sans nous la graisse de quelques gros Newyorkais fonderait a vu d'oeil durant la canicule.

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  23. "sinon un anglo du Nord qui parasite la culture de son voisin du Sud."

    And what is so unique about Quebeckian culture? The fact that you speak French...er...I mean, Joual? Maple syrup and rotten teeth?

    "Sans nous il seraient dans l'obcurité totale."

    If Quebec tried to cut power to the United States, the Americans would invade immediately. Then Quebec will receive the treatment it deserves.

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  24. Too, why is it that old beliefs never die in Quebec. The collective perception amongst the Francophones is Anglophones earn more on average than they do,

    And that collective perception as it turns out is entirely accurate, unlike yours and unlike your illiterate gloss of Josée Legault's blog entry.

    The average income from employment for Québec anglophones according to the 2006 census was 36 857$ versus an average income of 32 824$ for Québec francophones, a difference of over 10%.

    Male allophone immigrants who assimilate only to English earn 29% more than male immigrants who assimilate only to French. (source : CD Howe Institute (not Mario Beaulieu, or Jacques Parizeau, or Jacques Lanctôt, etc))

    So their collective perception remains accurate, notwithstanding the efforts of condescending, sanctimonious, taxpayer-funded fraudster Jack Jedwab to spin the contrary.

    http://lautjournal.info/default.aspx?page=3&NewsId=2349

    http://lautjournal.info/default.aspx?page=3&NewsId=2484

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  25. Chénier dit: Cher Adski, ''You would all be required to learn English or suffer the consequences. Nobody would be learning French to accommodate you. '' Ou est votre ouverture d'esprit légendaire ? Learn english (with small ''e'' please!)or suffer the consequences ? Ça ressemble beaucoup à un SPEAK WHITE ? On apprend l'anglais pour faire des affaires à l'étranger, pas sur notre territoire à grande majorité francophone espèce de pignouf !

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  26. Typo du Sénégal dit: '' About the independentist movement:''While the movement was steadily making headway-and perhaps because of that- the rest of Canada, and Quebec federalists, were scrambling to provide answers. Never a decent word could be hear about separatism, and more often than not, political leaders would rival in their injurious hyperbole.'' Trudeau's darkest hour ( Baraka books)

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  27. Merci Jacques et merci à celui qui a parlé de «pignouf» c'est littéralement hilarant.

    Ce qui m'étonne, c'est que le blogueur considère le travail de radio-can comme une forme de journalisme de bas-étage, alors qu'ils ont simplement montré très rapidement qu'il est possible pour un commerce de ne pas servir en Français à Montréal, ce qui est justement symptomatique que le français est en perte de vitesse.

    Une fois cette chose établie, on a besoin d'un renforcement politique, car on ne peut se fier à la démographie ou au marché, l'avantage étant à l'anglais, puisque les anglais ont justement veiller, depuis Durham, à construire cette avantage en privilégiant l'assimilation lente des francophones.

    Je vois pas pourquoi on ne ferait pas nous non plus de politique? Il en va de notre survie et non d'une forme d'impérialisme.

    Est-ce que c'est si dur, chers Canadiens de nous considérer comme une minorité et de nous laisser le droit justement de définir que nos droits collectifs sont la défenses de nos droits individuels?

    Si nous étions une majorité, nous n'aurions pas ces problèmes, comme vous le savez constituer une majorité, dans une province, ça ne veut rien dire, la cour suprême étant constamment à défaire ce que l'on veut même à l'unanimité.

    J'aimerais tellement que tous mes compatriotes vous lisent et aient conscience de ce que nous vivons à Montréal.

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  28. So that coward who refers to l´épuration ethnique (Anglo Exodus, which in fact drove away many progressive Francos too from the province) with his phrase 'Je crois que Montréal est dûe pour un autre petit nettoyage.' For our readers here, this is why we set up the Public Voice page regarding Ethnic Cleansing in QC, referring to the second part of the definition by the UN (thankfully not the first, physical one): http://www.publicvoice.tv/profiles/blogs/please-help-us-end-ethnic (notice how the Gazette links do not work anymore, more of the Francophone managers and editors trying to 'hide' what has been happening, I have seen over 10 articles in the past two years disappear this way and ironically, Vigile.net keeps them :)

    Lay off Trudeau, whoever that was - bilingualism is a way to enrich oneself, just as long as it is not forced upon anyone. Justin will be a PM one day, and I will do all I can to get him there.

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  29. Jacques, old buddy, old pal... You did not provide a link to the CD Howe Institute findings. Was the study conducted by 3 Francophones by any chance? And no, I’m not saying that Francophones can’t be credible, I’m saying that some may be, even if they work out of Toronto. Besides that, you’ve got Legault and L’Aut Journal…heavy guns brought out to combat the fraudster JJ, I see…

    And in the end, the point you’re trying to make makes me wonder who cares. If Anglophones do in fact make more money in Montreal, as you claim, then it’s more endorsement for English. If you were to reverse the trend (which might not even be true) and make French a better paid language (which may or may not be the case now, depending on which source you trust), you are still stuck in North America. Anyway you cut it, French is just an addition to English, not an alternative.

    If you want French to become “respected” (read: revered), I’m afraid you have to jump into a time machine and go back several hundred years ago, to the times when New France stretched from Quebec all the way to Louisiana, and while there, convince the king of France to put up more of a fight to keep his possessions. But today, all you can content yourself with are petty and vindictive laws designed to make life difficult for non-francophones in the small, cold, isolated, and irrelevant corner of North America where Francophones still wield political power. But it won’t go much above pettiness, and it won’t bring any substantial change, as evidenced in the failure of 101 to achieve anything substantial for the French language.

    It seems to be that you’ve reduced yourself to nit picking on details in order to insult some posters who might not be as stats-obsessed as you (and separatists in general) are. But you’re doing nothing beyond that. And you make us all wonder who the hell cares...because if you prove the other poster wrong, I will just yawn and say: the more reason to stick with English. If on the other the other poster is right...I will stick with English nonetheless...

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  30. Adski,

    I believe it was Henri Bourassa who said that the defeat of the French Forces by the British on the Plains of Abraham was actually a good thing for present-day French Quebecers. The reason is that the British let Quebec and its population to retain their language, legal systems and religion. Should the French won and New France prevailed, several centuries later Napoleon would sell the territory to the American or the highest bidder to finance his war with - who else - the British. That what was happened with Louisiana Purchase. Henri Bourassa's words, not mine.

    As to go back in time to get French to be more revered, one should also go to France in WWI and WWII and tell the French leaders not to lose to the German and not to cry for help from the British, American, Canadian and Australian.

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  31. Adski, mon cher, mon vieux, mon camarade,

    Perhaps you've never been familiarized with the concept of primary and secondary sources.

    You see, it isn't L'aut'journal who operates the census, it's an agency of the federal govt. That's whose data was summarized and referenced in those articles and that's whose data refutes Mississauga Guy's insinuation that francophones are wrong to "perceive" that they make less on average. And that's whose data proves Jedwab's a fourflusher. A fourflusher who's built an entire career on morally demoting francophones. Which he gets loads of taxpayer dough to do, in contrast to habitués of this blog like yourself who do it pro bono.

    The C.D. Howe study was used to make an additional though related point. That's why I threw it in. Its data is summarized here:

    http://www.lautjournal.info/default.aspx?page=3&NewsId=487

    remember adski: primary sources, and secondary sources. Put a little sticky note to that effect on your cpu why dontcha?

    So mon vieux, if anglophones make more money than francophones and "that's just an endorsement for English", does that mean that when whites make a lot more money than blacks in the U.S. that's just an endorsement for being white? Should blacks, instead of bellyaching and nursing "ancient" injustices, just adopt the "if you can't beat 'em join 'em" idea of yours and do whatever they can to lighten up and intermarry with whites? I believe that was the roadmap to social advancement in the plantation systems. Maybe you could even do a youtube vid about it.

    I'll bet all those incredibly progressive writers you list chez vous like Ramsey and Noam and Chris Hedges would love that idea. My advice would be to try it with Hitchens first though.

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  32. Hitchens is an interesting character. Someone who would have been my hero 20 years ago (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slrdvTUJNVk) , now sides with neocon douchebags, not to mention his crazed anti-religion stance in which he is as fanatical as the worst religious fanatics.

    Anyways…

    Primary source, secondary source, Francophones making more than Anglophones versus Francophones making less than Anglophones, Mississauga Guy (allegedly) being off on some details…what is your point in the end? That because of some technicality where one poster (allegedly) erred on some detail, the credibility of the blog and everyone on it goes down the drain? Is this the point? Yes or No?

    It’s a pretty common tactic of separatists, I noticed – sidetrack, focus on an irrelevant detail, and harp away at it. The fact that I’m not even digging any deeper into it is not because I refuse to believe that Mississauga Guy is wrong, or because I agree with you that he is wrong. I don’t do it because I don’t want to steer this discussion off the rails and go off on some irrelevant tangent. We’ve exchanged a couple of posts on the issue of relative income and we brought the difference in income to 4K (according to you). 4 bloody K. And only you seem to find this relevant. Noone else is jumping in.

    Your second last paragraph is the only thing in your last post worth tackling on merit. I’m glad you bring up the African American civil rights movement so we can put this issue to rest, just like we’ve already put to rest the ridiculous claim that Francophones are “colonized people” (on this blog, only Natives can make that claim). In comparing Francophones to Blacks, you forget that Francophones descend from colonialists who came here to pillage and rape (unless you buy into the ridiculous "French were good colonialists" story, with good colonialist being an obvious oxymoron), while the Blacks were brought here on ships as slaves. After losing the colonial war, the Francophones have been stripped of power, but they have never endured the same humiliation and hardships as the Blacks ever did in the US. That’s in relative terms. In absolute terms, I’ll grant you that Quebec Francophones did suffer injustices (especially in the workforce) prior to the 1960’s, and I will grant you that they were treated kind of like second class citizens back then. However, I’ll repeat what I said a few weeks ago: with the language bills and the petty vindictive behavior that was widespread in this province after the Quiet Revolution, the Francophones have COMPLETELY forfeited the sympathy defense. And there is no turning back.

    So there goes your hurt feelings trick. It might have worked in the 1950’s, but it won’t work in 2010.

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  33. @annoymous 9:54.

    you can open your boutique in Toronto in French only and if you serve the small minority of french speakers maybe 2 to maximum of 4% and you have a good location that attracts them and the non french speakers that may think it is cool to go for something French (not quebecois, but French) you might do good. You probably are better off trying that though in Welland, Ottawa or even Sudbury. Comparing Montreal that has a 33% and growing English speaking population to Toronto is very nationalist Quebecois, so I am not suprised by the lack of logic to it. Anyway hopefully by the next 2 censuses the population of Montreal Island is 66% English speaking, as well as west of Montreal to the Ontario border. Once that corridor to ontario is there thats where the nationalist will start getting threats of separation of Montreal.

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  34. Notice how even the most die hard separatists can't explain clearly what an independent Quebec would really be like? That is, what is it that they would accomplish, what are their true goals? I say this because they would have done so already, if so.

    To separatists: Don't repeat all that vague gibberish about 'controlling your destiny'. Tell us how living in an independent Quebec really be like, especially compared to now. Perhaps you could convince me to stay, instead of leave, if ever there's a third referendum and the 'yes' side wins. Perhaps you could even get people to want to move to an independent Quebec that aren't just from France, French Belgium, or French Switzerland.

    I dare you to describe properly the society you're dreaming about for an independent French country. All the stuff that would make you calm down and be happy for once in your lives, instead of lashing out with insults and threats all the time.

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