Regular readers know that I take great exception to the statistical drivel that pours out of the sovereignist camp, a dazzling array of fact, fiction, manipulation and outright lies meant to overwhelm readers and shift public opinion in the most dishonest of manner.
Just last week
Jacques Noël, the prolific statistical sleight of hand artist, who skillfully turns Quebec water into wine, used his powers of selective data to skewer an article printed in La Presse, "
Péréquation: plutôt 1200$ à chacun!" written by Pierre Simard, a professor at l'École nationale d'administration publique, in Quebec City.
LINK
"For the fiscal year of 2010-2011, the Government of Quebec will receive $8.5 billion in transfers in federal equalization payments, or 60% of the 14.4 billion paid to all 'have not' provinces. This amount represents 13% of the 65.5 billion projected revenues of the province of Quebec. A gift, considering that Quebec taxpayers contribute about 20% federal tax revenues. In sum, 80% of that Equalization cheque is funded by our friends in the Rest of Canada (ROC)......"
For fiscal year 2010-2011, each of us receive a cheque of about $1,200 or $4,800 for a family of four." LINK
I don't think that this is an earth-shattering revelation, but the impact on a family is quite eye-opening, especially to those of you in provinces paying the freight. Ahem..
But according to Mr. Noel's logic, the equalization payment to Quebec is not charity at all, it's well deserved, nothing more than make up payments for all the shortfalls Quebec is subjected to.
He provides a laundry list of federal programs where Quebec gets 'less' than its fair share, but conveniently forgets about those programs where it gets more.
Mr. Noel might well have been a contortionist in a previous life to come up with all the billions that Quebec is supposedly short-changed each year. It makes for amusing reading and is so patently absurd that only the most militant nationalists could take it seriously.
Unfortunately, disinformation, bad statistics and misinterpretation is a two way street.
It would be remiss of me not to pass judgment on those in the Anglophone community that sink to the same level.
While the number of anglophone journalists and experts that engage in such voodoo analysis pales in comparison to those on the nationalist side, it behooves me to call them out just the same.
Last summer Jack Jebwab of the Quebec Community Groups Network, came out with a study that asserted that Francophone Quebeckers make slightly more on average than anglophone Quebeckers. Immediately those numbers were challenged by Claude Castonguay, a retired mathematics professor and frequent contributor to sovereignist commentaries. He 'proved' Mr. Jedwab's numbers wrong and a war of statistics erupted in the press over methodology.
LINK fr.
A study to find out whether francophones make more money than anglophones, by it's very nature is suspect because it is agenda-driven. I wonder, if Mr. Jedwab's study had proved the opposite, that anglos make more than francophones, if he'd have published the results. Methinks, no.
It reminds me of the Journal de Montreal sending a reporter to downtown Montreal to see if she could get a job speaking only English.
These 'studies' are self-fulfilling and always prove what the author intends.
Interestingly both Mr. Jedwab and Mr. Castonguay both tried to prove that their own respective linguistic communities made less than the other, in order to better play the victim card.
It's these type of arguments between idiots that we should steer a wide berth around.
Last week Mr. Jebwad was at it again, touting a poll that indicated that francophone Quebeckers were much less open to Jews than English Canadians Americans, Spaniards and Germans.
"English
Canadians have some of the most open attitudes toward Jews and the
Holocaust, while French Canadians are among the least open, according
to a new public opinion poll of attitudes in four countries.....
The
poll, commissioned by the Association for Canadian Studies and
released exclusively to Postmedia News, found that only 34% of
French-speaking Canadians felt Jews shared their values compared to 73%
of English-speaking Canadians." LINK
The numbers were so staggeringly different that I immediately became suspicious. It painted francophones in a particularly bad light, so bad in fact that it made me wince.
I know a rogue poll when I see one, this was one of the worst examples of a loaded question, bound to elicit different responses from different groups.
First things first.
Had the question asked to francophones, substituted 'Anglophones' for 'Jews,' I am sure that the results would have been remarkably similar.
Culture means very different things to Francophone Quebeckers than Anglophone Canadians.
In Quebec, one can never get away from language. Francophones are married to the concept of language as an integral and founding element of their culture and values. It is how they define themselves.
A Jewish family may live next door to a Christian family or a Muslim family in Brampton, but they all speak the same language in the street, at school, at work and at play. They read the same English newspapers and magazines, watch the same television and listen to the same English radio.
The same goes for Jews in Spain who all speak Spanish, German for Jews in Germany and English for Jews in America.
It's for good reason that the saying "We speak the same language" means that we're on the same wavelength.
In Quebec Jews and Francophones share the same province but largely live in two different worlds, not because anybody is racist, but rather because they don't share the same language and to a very large extent, culture.
Ask a Quebec Jew, what a
FELIX is and he' might answer you, that it's fifty percent of the ODD COUPLE, instead of the Quebec music award similar to a JUNO.
There's quite a cultural divide.
Quebec Jews and Francophones don't read the same newspapers and magazines, don't watch the same television and go to the different schools.
Ask Quebec Jews if Francophone Quebeckers share their values and you may very well get the same percentage as answered by the francophones.
So what?
The poll casts a poor light on francophones and intimates that they are twice more unaccepting of Jews than English Canadians. Bah!
If you believe that than I suggest that you read Jacques Noel for more fantasy.
The very idea that Quebeckers are less accepting than Spaniards of Jews flies in the face of the many studies that indicate that Spain is the most antisemitic country in the western world. Strange considering that there are less than 12,000 Jews in the whole country, about the same amount found in the Montreal suburb of Dollard-des-Ormeaux!
"According to a recent study
published by the Pew Research Center, nearly half of all Spaniards have
negative views of Jews, a statistic that marks Spain as one of the most
anti-Semitic countries in Europe." LINK
Once again Mr Jedwab's research is shoddy.
He has gratuitously besmirched Francophone Quebeckers in their attitudes towards Jews.
Bad research. Bad methodology.
Shame...
