Monday, November 22, 2010

Quebec Finally Starts Crackdown on Corruption....er.... Sort of!

It is with a sense of relief that Quebeckers greeted the news that police have finally made some arrests in the ongoing corruption scandal that is rocking the province.

Finally, finally, some action!

In an announcement worthy of a multi-million dollar cocaine bust, the Montreal police proudly announced that they had busted six doormen at the storied Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, for forcing cabbies to kick back a couple of bucks for every lucrative airport fare.  LINK

JUSTICE IS DONE !!!!

At least it's a nifty diversion from the scandalous tales of political corruption and the avalanche of organized crime stories washing across Quebec like the the Red Sea over Pharaoh's chariots.

Corruption and its impact on Quebec society has become  all-embracing and all-encompassing.

Jacques Duchesneau
This was sadly highlighted by the presentation this week, of a rogues gallery of political miscreants, published on the front page of the Journal de Montreal that even included the hitherto Mr. Clean, crime fighter Jacques Duchesneau, who was ironically hired to clean up the corruption mess and now stands accused of fudging the paperwork in relation to his mayoral campaign, twelve years ago. LINK 


In the face of all this corruption, it's hard to believe that many Quebeckers remain firmly planted in a rose-coloured fantasy world where all is not as bad as it seems.
A recent poll indicates that while 75% believe that Quebec is a corrupt place, only 22% believe the province is worse than the others and amazingly 6% believe that the other provinces are even more corrupt than Quebec! LINK 

This type of self-delusion is nothing new. We see it every day, where facts and figures are manipulated  and re-interpreted by nationalists to portray Quebec as what it is not.

It's been going on for decades, the only prerequisite, a public willing to accept any nonsense argument that satisfies a foregone conclusion.
So strong is the manipulation that there remains a goodly number of Quebeckers who firmly believe that Quebec is a net payer into Canada.  Truly....

But to those without their head in the sand, the unbelievable spectacle playing out before us, is a painful and eye-opening experience that can best be compared to a daily trip to the dentist.

Not only do we face a daily barrage of political corruption accusations, each morning we wake up to the news of yet another Montreal restaurant being firebombed overnight.
It's not even restricted to Montreal!
Pizza shops in the small town of Chambly are being blown up rather regularly, the concept of fierce competition taking on new meaning in modern Quebec. No two-for-one coupons here!

Throw in regular dose of unexplained Mafia murders and kidnappings and it's not surprising that Quebeckers are incredulous as to what is happening to their society as the clueless police offer shrugged shoulders and vacuous stares, in response. 

As the latest arson attack hits the ritzy Montreal neighbourhood of Westmount, we must sadly conclude nowhere is safe and that the entire province is engulfed in a sea of organized, disorganized and political crime that is beyond the ability of the forces of order to control.

Each Sunday night, when I sit down and watch HBO's Boardwalk Empire, the story of corrupt Atlantic city in the 1920's, I actually find myself asking if we are not actually in much worse shape.
At any rate, 'Nucky' and crew would fit right in, here in Montreal. We even have our very own sharpshooter hit man, just like the show!

It's been about  a year since all these revelations first came out and the promise by the government that we'd be better off leaving the cleanup to the police, is ringing false. Unfortunately, the only arrests made, have been the comical doormen at the Queen 'E.'
Quebeckers are fed up.

What big anti-crime measures has the government come up with to fight this corruption?

Let's see..er........ nothing!

No wait, I'm wrong!

The government has come up with a bold attack to bring into compliance those perfidious tax-evading  restaurateurs, who are robbing the government blind by accepting cash payments for your morning  nosh.
And so, from the biggest restaurant chain to the smallest coffee stand on the corner, cash registers connected to the government have been made mandatory. Any clerk who forgets to hand a bill to the client, even for a doughnut, subjects his owner to a $400 dollar fine.
The inspectors are already out in force and already a local Tim Horton's holds the dubious honour of being the first one pinched and fined for serving a Double/Double without the appropriate paperwork.

WELL-DONE! It's been what we've been waiting for. A real crackdown on corruption!

The next target.....

Mafia Bosses?

Construction kingpins?

Crooked Mayors?

Cheating civil servants?

Nope........ probably hairdressers and paperboys.

.....or maybe a Royal Commission into hotel doormen.

Tomorrow-  Has the public rage gone to far?

14 comments:

  1. Mississauga Guy said...

    Yeah, go after teen-aged paper boys for not reporting their quarter tips they get from cheapskate customers.

    Hairdressers and wait staff that work at tipping places are good places to pick on for tax recovery. I worked for the CRA in the early 1980s and when I was training, they talked about tip projects. In 1981, there was a G7 summit in Montebello, QC, about 30 miles from Ottawa. Hospitality staff made a s--tload of money in tips and after the various staff filed their 1981 tax returns a major audit was targeted just for the Château Montebello and other places involved in the Summit. It's easy to pick on the "little" guy, so naturally hotel doormen are the "little" shmucks they can target.

    Think the CRA and MRQ will pick on the politicians for their kickbacks? HAH!

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  2. Chénier dit: Oui, en plus la plus grande base électorale du PLQ reste les anglophones du Québec. On est tous dans le même panier à salade, arrêtez de dénigrer le Québec sans solution alternative.

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  3. the lack of knowledge towarss the ROC of people in this province is simply staggering. And the biggest problem in our mindset, is anytime someone points where the province is lacking, youy have a nationalist leftis moron, stepping up and stating that "oh yeah, it's way worse in x and y, so there" the issue is allways siodestepped, no one is ever held accountable, the issue is allways deflected by pointing out that someone else is way worse, thus we do nothing.
    Until people in this province start saying, who cares about x or y, lets clean up and fix it.
    And until the mdeia and politician are held acocuntable, one in backing up their neutrality towards a subject and not tryong to promote an agenda, and that politicians go to jail, for lets say corruption or fixing up ballots in a referendum. too much impunity in the political classes in quebec.

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  4. @chenier: au lieu de dire que l'on dénigre le Quebec, essai donc de voir l’éléphant qui est dans ton salon. merde on attaque MacCleans parce l'opinion viens de l’extérieur, sauf qu'avec un peu de recul il évident qu'il on raison.

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  5. Chénier, casse-toi dans ton petit coin noir et rêve de ton petit monde unilingue. Les yeux sont faits pour ceux qui veulent les utiliser, pas pour ceux qui choisissent de les fermer (toi et 90% des petits kébékuà).

    Editor, why do you allow posts like the ones written by people who live in a fantasy world and refuse seeing the reality? It's like allowing an arsonist to destroy a palace by justifying it in the name of the freedom of action...

    Allophone ++

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  6. For anonymous 11:10AM, the editor publishes those, to make us aware how many idiotic post he gets and to give us an idea on how deeply many of our fellow citizen are blind to what surrounds them.

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  7. To Allophone++@November 22, 2010 11:10 AM

    For every idiotic comment that I print there are 5 that I don't.
    I print a couple every now and then for flavour and to remind us that there's a certain attitude out there that persists.

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  8. À l'anonyme:'' Chénier, casse-toi dans ton petit coin noir et rêve de ton petit monde unilingue. Les yeux sont faits pour ceux qui veulent les utiliser, pas pour ceux qui choisissent de les fermer'' Restez dans votre petite prison dorée, pauvre type. Ton monde unilingue anglais. Vos yeux sont trop rivés sur votre nombril impérialiste. Je souhaite que les Québécois soient plurilingues mais cela ne veut pas dire que toutes les langues soient sur le même niveau. Les Québécois ont une langue majoritaire et malheureusement pour vous, ce n'est pas l'anglais. Cassez-vous si cela vous déplaît à ce point, le ROC vous attend à bras ouverts, sinon les États-Unis. Allez parler anglais aux Mexicains et fichez- nous la paix pauvre ''Zealot''.

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  9. Anon 12:51

    J'appuie a 100%.Ces zélés ne jurent que par une langue universelle:Le globish.Ils ne peuvent supporter que le Français est au moins 10x plus riche que la leur.Patience 12:51,ils vont très bientôt percuter le mur de notre nationalisme.

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  10. Lol bidonnant, vous devez sniffer la colle en quantité industrielle, notre bulle multi lingue est pas mal grande que la bulle de ton ti-village.

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  11. "Ils ne peuvent supporter que le Français est au moins 10x plus riche que la leur."

    The fact is that English has a much larger vocabulary than French or other romance languages. English has readily absorbed words from other languages and sources, unlike pig latin...er...I mean, French. This has helped make English the lingua franca of the modern world.

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  12. There are more words in English yes. In French it is a group of words which will convey the nuance, the meaning and the idea. Difficult and treaturous for the non Francophones. There are three differences among the categories of latin (by era) and there are a lot of influences from other languages. French derives from latin, English doesn't at all. It is situated in another branch on the Indo-European "Tree". French was the language of the Courts in the XVIIIth century. Yes a lot of foreign words passed to the English language as well.
    En fait les gens du Québec parlent une langue qu'ils ont le droit d'aimer sans toujours nous faire insulter par les autres, Français ou Anglophones. Nous sommes une nation qui n'avons pas besoin d'insulter les autres. Qu'arriverait-il si nous commencions à critiquer la langue anglaise ? Combien de mots se trouvent-ils en bas de trois lettres, de quatre ? Des phrases non finies, des vulgarités, des sigles sans en finer la ligne de l'infini.... A quoi bon, nous sommes toujours critiqués par pire que soi ! Nous sommes bien au dessus de tout cela et nous sommes supérieurs, en les laissant tomber.

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  13. @ 6:02 PM:

    "Nous sommes une nation qui n'avons pas besoin d'insulter les autres."

    But then you insult the English language later in the same paragraph. And you do far more than just insult English in Quebec. You place restrictions on its usage or ban it outright!

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  14. This is not an insult, it is a fact. Read Perret, linguistic works well acclaimed in Universities. We don't ban it outright, we do want coherence and lord at home, yes our home. We are OUR BOSS AT HOME !

    The English-speaking are the minority, they know it. (you don't like to hear that, do you Mr. English !!!) WEll,put this in your pipe and smoke it!!!!
    In fact, if you travel west in Montreal, you will barely hear French on the street, so take it easy Charlie, sit on your throne at home and read something educating.

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