Revenge of the Galganov!

Thank you Tym Machine for putting me onto Howard Galganov's rant reply to my post about his most recent pamphlet and campaign against forced bilingual signage in his township. I would have clearly missed it without your reference.

Mr. Galganov has come out with his light sabre blazing, an attack that begs some measure of reply. First let me say that I enjoy provoking a reaction, any reaction. It validates the unpaid effort that I make to put together pieces that people are interested in reading.
Here is a link to his post- Galganov Is Darth Vader – Go Figure

As Alex Kovalev, the ex-Montreal Canadien told a reporter in reply to a question about how he felt returning to the Bell Centre to a chorus of  boos;
"Cheers, Boos. It's all the same, as long as the fans acknowledge your presence!" (my son gave me that quote...)

So, Mr. Galganov, first let me thank you for your boos.

My very first observation is that you didn't provide your readers a link to my article about you, which is disappointing. I shall chalk it up to forgetfulness rather than poor manners or to the fear of having readers having access to the actual source and perhaps coming to their own conclusions.
(You see, we both can play with words, saying one thing and intimating something completely different!)

At any rate, Mr. Galganov accuses me of YELLOW JOURNALISM and of being a LEFTIST.
It was quite a surprise, as I have never before in my life been described as a journalist or a leftist. It is clear he hasn't read any of the other 500 or so posts on my blog.
Methinks it is a case of jumping to a conclusion. Lazy! Lazy! Lazy!
As a lifelong conservative, I take gentle exception to both the pejoratives.

I would have thought that Mr. Galganov would be well,,,..er... umm.... a little more cerebral and sophisticated in his analysis of my post. He accuses me of attacking his position against the bylaw of forced bilingual signage in stores, when Nothing could be farther from the truth. I defy him to quote one line that opposes his position.
In fact, I agree wholeheartedly that stores should do whatever the hell they want to do in terms of signage, obviously Mr. Galganov has a problem with reading comprehension.

I object to his methods, that's all.

You don't have to be a Liberal to object to a poster calling for a boycott of French owned stores.
It seems that Mr. Galganov lacks the ability to understand what he reads and projects his biases into the works of others, I will spell it out in little words that are not open to subjective interpretation..

AS A JEW,  MR. GALGANOV, YOU SHOULD BE PARTICULARLY SENSITIVE THAT CALLING FOR A BOYCOTT OF STORES BASED ON THE OWNERS ETHNICITY, SKIN COLOUR OR RELIGION, IS REPREHENSIBLE.

The Galganov device for creating a stir is to print up a provocative message that is rendered harmless by a tiny caveat.

DEPORT ALL JEWS

who enter into Canada illegally.

THEY SHOULD ALL BE FORCED TO LEAVE!

Think I'm exaggerating... Look at this pearl;

Mr. Galganov has a bloated sense of self-importance and believes that ordinary people aren't sophisticated enough to understand what he is doing.

"People who don’t know how to read, listen or watch BETWEEN THE LINES just don’t ever get to know the real truth until it is often too late."

I suggest that he takes his own advice, except for the part about "watch between the lines" which actually makes no sense at all......

"In this Darth Vader Blog Editorial that is making a bit of a sensation amongst French language Activists in Canada along with compliant Anglo elitists.....,"

Sensation! Where? When?? Whaaaa????
My piece is certainly not "making a bit of a sensation..."  
My blog's hit rate has remained remarkably level (sadly) and I haven't been reprinted or quoted in any other blog except for Mr. Galganov's. I use a tracking software called "Fairshare" that scours the Internet to find sites that either reprint or quotes my blog. The last time it reacted, was to a post about street hockey. No gentle readers, I don't think that I'll be reprinted on vigile.net any time soon.

Clearly Galganov is inventing dragons that he can slay.

Reading his piece, I'm reminded of the time I watched Michael More's movie about gun control, which I was really enjoying until the scene where Moore interviewed a bunch of people in Toronto who all agreed that it was unnecessary to lock one's front door.......Yup, with a straight face they all said that Toronto is so safe it isn't necessary to lock your front door!!!
From then on I knew Michael Moore to be an utter fraud.

Like so many self declared messiahs, Mr. Galganov broaches no criticism and resorts to name-calling and personal attacks when challenged.

He has characterized my post as support for bilingual signage because he is either very dumb or very smart.
Dumb if he can't understand what he reads, or smart to twist a condemnation of his methods into something else. Everyone can draw their own conclusion.

P.S. I fully understand why Mr. Galganov didn't like Mordechai Richler.

Mr. Richler didn't suffer fools easily.

Nationalists See Red Over Olympic Parade in Montreal

For the Saint Jean Baptiste Society,  the RRQ or any other nationalist/sovereignist organization, the parade held last Friday in Montreal to honour Canada's Canada's Olympic and Para-Olympic athletic success at the Vancouver Olympic games must have been quite a bitter pill to swallow.

The city's main drag- Ste. Catherine Street was bedecked in a sea of red and there were more maple leafs being waved, than at a Toronto hockey game.

For those Canadians who are ready to write off Quebec's Anglophones and Allophones as well as Francophone federalists, perhaps this video will serve as an eye-opener.

There are more federalists living in Quebec than in any other province except Ontario and BC. 

The parade and the huge Anglo and ethnic turnout puts paid to the nationalist notion that Montreal is exclusively a Francophone city. The truth is, that west of Park Avenue/Bleury and all the way out to St. Anne de Bellevue, Anglos and Allos are in the majority.
ENJOY!!

Maxime Bernier Burns His Bridges

Last week ex-cabinet minister Maxime Bernier emerged from political banishment and commenced a journey on the road to redemption by giving a bombshell speech about Quebec's addiction to federal largess.

As you remember, Bernier was dropped from the Harper cabinet two years ago after he left some semi-secret documents at the home of his girlfriend, who supposedly had some ties to bikers. The fate of the free world was never really in jeopardy and the the whole affair was stupidly overblown. The puritans in the Harper cabinet were mortified at Bernier's choice of girlfriend, her biker ties and her voluptuous breasts that she flaunted saucily at Mr. Bernier's cabinet investiture at Rideau Hall.
Since his departure from cabinet, Bernier has been patiently doing his penance in the back benches, but is now making a move to return to cabinet.

His speech before a partisan crowd in Mont St-Grégoire, south east of Montreal in the Montérégie region of Quebec, was nothing less than a full-frontal attack on the Quebec model of entitlement and was so brutal and humiliating that it drew almost universal condemnation by Quebec politicians, clear across party lines.

If you are inclined, here is an English translation of the complete speech, which I believe you'll find  quite interesting. "For a proud, responsible and autonomous Quebec"

If you're in a rush I'll give you the executive summary;

On sovereignty- "It’s a legitimate debate, but a debate that’s not going anywhere and will probably not go anywhere for a long time to come."  

Since 1970, Quebec has discussed political independence, but has developed an economic dependence on Canada. 

Quebec has one of the biggest and most interventionist governments in North America, and one of the heaviest fiscal burdens.  

Gilles Duceppe, who is fighting for Quebec independence wants Quebec to get more money from Ottawa, which will make Quebec, even more dependent!  

"..unbridled state interventionism does not lead to prosperity. If that were the case, Quebec would be the richest place in North America instead of being one of the poorest."  

"..the rest of Canada has nothing to do with the fact that we are poorer."  

"Let’s be frank: many people in the rest of the country perceive Quebecers as a bunch of spoilt children who are never satisfied and always ask for more. This perception has some basis in reality."  

Imagine if, instead of pointlessly debating the merits of political independence, we tried instead to live within our means and to get out of our economic dependence. 

There's not many politicians willing to deliver that type of a frank message, not even Prime Minister Harper. Instead of sparking a legitimate debate, Bernier's message was so devastating that both the PQ and Liberal politicians refused to rebut the speech on its merits and were reduced to ad hominem attacks and the hackneyed claim of "Quebec Bashing." Interestingly, Bernier, to my knowledge, is the first Francophone to be accused of this pejorative, hitherto largely reserved for Anglophone politicians from the west who complain about Quebec getting more than it deserves.

Of course, it was to be expected that Gilles Duceppe would rage at the impertinence of a Quebecker criticizing his province, but it was a bit surprising (perhaps not) that Thomas Mulcair, the NDP Anglo Kapo and nationalist apologist from Outremont, would also stoop to attacking the man instead of the argument.

The only person at all who offered some sort of defence was LE DEVOIR's Michel David, who countered weakly that while Quebec got the lion's share of equalization payments, proportionately other provinces got a higher percentage. Bravo!

Mr. Bernier is a rare breed, the antithesis of what politicians from Quebec look like. A fan of Ann Coulter and Ronald Reagan he openly challenged climate change hysteria, the only politician in Quebec unafraid to stare down climate-change gurus.  He remains the only federally elected member of Parliament from Quebec that espouses a true conservative philosophy.
If you're wondering how he manged to get elected in Quebec, it is because he represents La Beauce, a small region which while only about an hour and a half drive south of Quebec city, may as well be  light years away, politically.

The region has always been fiercely independent, proud, entrepreneurial and federalist. The birthplace of small independent factories industries, it was the center of the Quebec garment industry before jobs were shipped overseas. The region rebounded through its entrepreneurial skills and continues to march to a different political drum than the rest of the province.

The general sentiment, even among the media was that Bernier had crossed the line by humiliating Quebec by discussing its dirty little secret in public. The finance minister Raymond Bachand was so angry that he seemed to be frothing at the mouth, offering Bernier the sage advice that the Minister should be defending 'Quebec Values'.

There are some who see Bernier coming back to provincial politics à la Jean Charest, to lead some sort of a Quebec version of a Wild Rose Alliance, it will never happen.
The over-riding sense of betrayal that his speech seems to have engendered precludes that eventuality, there are just not enough Conservatives around.
That being said, he remains wildly popular in his riding and is in no danger of losing his federal seat, regardless of the political fortunes of the Conservatives in Quebec.

One thing that his opponents are saying about him, is true, he is becoming very popular in the rest of the country. His feisty attitude, his conservative views and his good looks are proving to be awfully hard to resist.

He seems ready to assume the same role Stephane Dion fulfilled while a cabinet minister in the Martin government, that is to become the principle foil for Gilles Duceppe and the Bloc Quebecois. He seems well-suited to the task. He is smart, feisty and fearless. He may well be on his way to becoming the most hated Francophone among nationalists.
Ottawa has been in desperate need of such a personality, a Francophone politician from Quebec who can engage the Bloc and say all the nasty things that need to be said.

He should return to Cabinet as soon as possible.

Montreal Mayor Off His Rocker

I'm starting to fear that Montrealers would have been better off electing separatist candidate Louis Harel than we are with Mayor Tremblay after getting a look at his project to demolish the TURCOT EXCHANGE and replace it with a greener version, one that would reduce traffic capacity and send truckers and motorists into an Al Gore induced version of Hell.

The project is estimated to cost between six and eight billion dollars and of course the Mayor expects someone else to pay for it, this time, the Provincial government.

Of course the PQ, after quickly realizing that the fanciful project was a no go, immediately supported it, hoping to cast the Liberal government in as bad a light as possible.

The elaborate plans were drawn up, as they say in the trade, on "spec," that is, without any specific assurance or commitment that it would be considered by the province. I don't know how many millions were spent on the plans, but Quebec shot down the project within twenty-four hours, which is equivalent to light-speed when it comes to provincial politics.

Less than a day after an elaborate news conference staged by the mayor, the minister in charge of transportation, Julie Boulet, could hardly contain her annoyance and told reporters that a more modest  project could be done for less than half price without the years of hellish disruptions that the Mayor's plan called for.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Turcot Exchange, it is a spaghetti patchwork of elevated hi-speed roadways that connect all the major highways on the southern end of the city. Regardless of the direction you are travelling you can link to any of the major high density espressways that bisect the city.

It ain't pretty but it works.
It was an ambitious and futuristic project back in the sixties when elevated roads were sprouting across North America. Forty years later, it is in need of major repairs, due to deteriorating concrete.

300,000 cars and trucks use the exchange every day and the idea of taking it down and replacing it with a granola network of boulevards, tram ways, bus lanes, forest and green spaces, makes one wonder if the good mayor has been put under a spell by dingbat conspiracy theorist advisor Richard Bergeron, who may very well be the nuttiest person to ever wield power at City Hall..

It seems that the good mayor has developed somewhat of a man-crush on his erstwhile political adversary, who now seems to be running the executive council, much to the chagrin of Mayor Tremblay's own party members, who see it as a perversion of the political process.  Mr. Bergeron ran for mayor against Mr. Tremblay in the last municipal election and placed third, behind Tremblay and runner-up Louise Harel. The mayor, in an effort to demonstrate his inclusiveness, shocked members of his own party by naming Bergeron to his executive council.

Alas, I think our good mayor has gone off the deep end.  Those watching city hall are concerned that his growing infatuation with Bergeron is a dangerous flight of fancy.

Concerning the redevelopment of the Turcot, I would ask Torontonians to imagine the city removing the DVP or New Yorkers, the FDR or the BQE and replacing them with an urban boulevard, complete with trolleys and gardens, a project that could handle less than half the volume of traffic. Ugh!....

When the particulars of the project were announced and news channels started quoting the six to eight billion dollar price tag and the fact that the province, not the city, was expected to pick up the tab, the hot lines lit up with protesters from outside the city demanding that they not be forced to pay for Montreal's folly.

On LCN, a French news channel a viewer commented that she didn't see why someone from Quebec City should pay for a fancy road in Montreal.

It's an interesting point of view, hitherto unheard of in Quebec, the idea that those who don't benefit shouldn't be asked to pay.  Touché!

Mayor Tremblay should realize that if he wants his pie-in-the-sky project to go forward, he'd better look to get his money elsewhere.
An increased real estate tax? Tolls on bridges? Higher user fees? No. No.. No......

Perhaps he can put the touch to Alberta for a handout, after all, they already have too much money and don't know what to do with it.

Another six billion dollar transfer to Quebec makes sense, because it's good for national unity and because...err...eerrr....errrr.. we're worth it!!!

Does the Bloc Quebecois Want to Succeed or Fail?

The Bloc Quebecois presence in Ottawa has always been a paradoxical affair. The party arrived in Ottawa twenty years ago, boldly proclaiming that it's stay would be brief, just long enough to protect Quebec's interests until the inevitable declaration of independence, surely not more than a few years off.

Alas, it hasn't worked out that way. The Bloc has already spent the equivalent of half the term that the biblical Israelites spent wandering in the desert, but unlike the fleers of Pharaoh, another twenty years of aimless obscurity in the backwaters of Ottawa's opposition benches, holds no guarantee that a trip to the promised land will be forthcoming.

While Gilles Duceppe beseeches the Canadian Parliament and all who will listen, to let his people go, unlike the slaves of Egypt, Quebeckers hardly seem ready, willing or able to take the plunge.

Each passing year takes the Bloc Quebecois farther and farther from its goal, and the window of opportunity where sovereignty remains even a remote option is fading rapidly.

What looked so inevitable twenty years ago,  is only a dream today, one that only the most fervent of Quebec nationalists hold onto.

Over 70% of Quebeckers, now believe that sovereignty will never happen.

What changed?...
Well, over the last twenty years, a period which ironically corresponds with the Bloc's tenure in Ottawa, two ongoing trends have in fact changed the rules of the games.

The first is Quebec's headlong rush to match Canada's immigration policy whereby an exorbitant amount of new immigrants are brought into the country each year.  Without a matching effort, Quebec cannot maintain its demographic weight in Canada, but paradoxically, in doing so, the Province is diminishing its "Frenchness," as well as adding a disproportionate number of NO voters in any future referendum.

If ever there was a classic case of  'Catch-22,' this is it. Damned if you do, dammed if you don't.

Over the last twenty years Quebec has welcomed over one million new immigrants to the province, who understandably tend to be overwhelmingly federalist and NO voters. This represents a swing of five full percentage points towards the NO side in any potential future referendum. Within another five years it will take close to 65% of Francophone voters to vote YES, for a referendum to succeed. Not likely.

The second circumstance is Quebec's growing addiction to Federal transfer payments, particularly those famous Equalization payments which now run close to nine billion dollars and represents almost fifteen percent of the Quebec governments annual budget. Although the Bloc has tried vainly to portray this money as illusory, voters are not so keen to put this windfall on the line.  A fix is a fix...

As the prospect of sovereignty dims, where does it leave the Bloc Quebecois? At what point do they give up the fiction that Quebec will one day be sovereign?

Up till now, the Bloc has been following a policy of "FAIL," a deliberately cynical formula that holds that if the Bloc is unsuccessful in securing Quebec's 'fair share,' it will be perceived back home as justification that federalism doesn't work for the province.
And so the Bloc has been happily on the losing end of almost every single piece of legislation. Any proposals or amendments that the party puts forward is shot down faster than a preacher's call for temperance at a Canada Day party. It is, according to the masterplan.

FAIL  = WIN! 

But things are changing and this last week may actually represent a turning point. Stephen Harper is delivering a stern lesson in realpolitik to Quebec by putting forward legislation adding thirty seats to Parliament, all outside Quebec.

The Bloc has been militating fiercely to somehow avert the unmitigated disaster that it sees in having Quebec's Parliamentary weight reduced. The whole province is demanding that the Bloc do something concrete to forestall the law, but again their efforts are failing dismally.

This time the people are not going to give the Bloc a pass, the old mantra that says Quebec must separate to safeguard it's future doesn't wash, because the sovereignty option is no longer viable and everybody knows it.
This time the Bloc may not be forgiven their failure. Critics have humorously mocked Gilles Duceppe's position that Quebec's weight in Parliament be maintained by pointing out that the Bloc's ultimate goal is to actually have no seats in the federal Parliament.

With no prospect of sovereignty in the future and no ability to defend Quebec's interests in Ottawa, just what is the point of the Bloc Quebecois? People are starting to ask.

There is a dawning realization by some, that if Quebec would have had another half dozen ministers in cabinet, this law would never have been enacted. With few seats to lose in Quebec and none to gain, Harper is free to seek support elsewhere. Politics is a game of leverage and Quebec has none.

Even for Quebec nationalists, the very raison d'etre of the Bloc Quebecois needs to be seriously re-evaluated. Continuing the policy of 'fail'  just means that Quebec gets less representation and influence.

Without the very real threat of sovereignty hanging over Ottawa, the Bloc is impotent and
Canadians don't care.

Gilles Duceppe learned this valuable lesson on his trans-Canada trip, one that played to empty halls.

Anglos see the Bloc as irrelevant, not even worthy of a conversation. It is sad and humiliating.

Perhaps it's time for the Bloc to admit they are a problem and not a solution and that the interests of Quebec can best be served if they just packed it in.

Howard Galganov- The Empire Strikes Back!

There's little doubt that if an evil Anglophone Empire seeking to assimilate and enslave Francophone Canadians actually exists, Howard Galganov would be the movement's Darth Vader.

Invoking his very name sends shudders down the spine of ardent Quebec nationalists and his unabashed and cruel attacks on Quebec and French language nationalism elicits waves of fear and hatred among his enemies.

Now that Mordechai Richler has passed, Galganov has assumed the title of the most hated Anglophone by French language nationalists and may outrank Lord Durham and General Amherst as the ultimate, all-time Anglophone rogue.

For those of you unfamiliar with Howard, he is the uber English activist who battled all forms of restrictions placed on English rights in Quebec. His mantra was so caustic and extreme that the majority of English members of the media and intelligentsia distanced themselves from him, lest they too, be perceived to be as virulently anti-French. Anglo voters have rejected him massively at the polls in both Ontario and Quebec when Galganov has run for office, perhaps underlining that Anglos are not the rednecks made out to be by the nationalists.

After years of fighting a losing battle and after countless death threats, he finally packed it in and moved out of Quebec to Eastern Ontario about ten years ago.

Today, Mr Galganov continues to militate for English language rights as well as conservative causes through his website.

His most recent undertaking, the production and distribution of an inflammatory pamphlet has sent French language militants flying into a fit of rage and may be just about the nastiest stunt he has ever pulled.

The issue concerns the small township of Russel in eastern Ontario that has a large population of Franco-Ontarians. The town passed a bylaw making bilingual signage compulsory, to which Galganov is deeply opposed.

His rationale for opposing the bylaw is that it violates the concept of free speech and the precept that people should be free to erect signs in the language of their choice, be it English, French or Swahili. LINK

His fight over the issue with Mayor Ken Hill has degenerated into a legal battle that is spiralling out of control, with neither the mayor nor Mr. Galganov willing to give an inch.


A resident wrote an open letter addressing Mr. Galganov, to a local newspaper- La Nouvelle;

"Discussing your pamphlet with friends, we came to the conclusion that one of the problems is due to the fact that Mr. Hill and you have, unfortunately, a lot in common. Both of you want to win at all costs without consideration of the incurring expenses that residents of Russell will bear, because of your stubbornness."  Link

Now the pamphlet itself is truly a clever work of art. If Mr. Galganov tried harder to inflame emotions, he couldn't have done a better job. Using his experience in the advertising business, he created a cover page that was sure to evoke the strongest of reaction.

He mischievously gives the impression that the pamphlet is a recipe book for the destruction of the culture of Franco Ontarians, but a closer look at the fine print placed between the much larger first and third phrase changes the meaning completely.

There's no doubt that his intention was to enrage French language militants and he has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.

The pamphlet posits that bilingualism is the first step to French assimilation and thus Francophones should also rally against the bilingual sign bylaw.

Where have we heard this argument before?

In Quebec, of course.
Mr. Galganov has cleverly borrowed an argument, right out of the handbook of French language zealots, who also advance the notion that  bilingual signs in Quebec are a force of assimilation.
Ironically, when the battleground shifts to Ontario,  these same militants argue in favour of bilingual signs because in Ontario, it is a force for the preservation of the French language.
No contradiction there, I guess?

At any rate the pamphlet had it's desired effect, with one of Quebec's leading language militants, Gilles Rhéaume of the La ligue québécoise contre la francophobie canadienne (Quebec league against Canadian Francophopia) planning to complain to no less an august body than the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)  Link

It is perhaps understandable that Francophones  remain touchy, Mr Galganov appears to have gone well over the edge these last two years, starting with the odious campaign to boycott French-owned stores. That campaign also got to Mr. Rhéaume and he also filed a complaint to the United Nations, but so far, received no response.

Its a bit sad to see Mr Galganov go off the rails so badly, the idea of a boycott based on language, race, religion or ethnicity should be even more objectionable to Mr. Galganov, considering that ancestors were subject to much the same treatment.

Like many of the leaders of the independence and French language  movement, Mr. Galganov is imbued with an exaggerated sense of  righteousness and self-importance and has no qualms about reeking havoc and pain in the name of an extremist cause.

Mr. Galganov has degenerated into a sad caricature, as ridiculous as Mr. Rhéame.

When I think about him, I'm reminded of that scene where a heroic old war veteran, revered by all, is interviewed by a reporter on his 100th birthday and lets loose a stream of racist invective, much to the humiliation of family members.

Perhaps Mr. Galganov was once relevant, today he's a dangerous humiliation.

HAPPY EARTH DAY!

Teachers Continue Exploiting Students in Job Dispute

Last week I wrote a post about a phony demonstration organized by unionized teachers in front of the Quebec cabinet minister Yolande James' Montreal office, where the teachers used their students to do their protesting for them. The spokesperson for the union cleverly intimated that the issue was about the preservation of the French language and not about the fact that the teacher's would be re-assigned or lose their jobs due to the government's decision to cancel certain French classes.
Of course the media took the bait, hook, line and sinker. Nobody was willing to point out the obvious, that the union was being unethical.

The campaign continues with a rather interesting letter published in LE DEVOIR  written by a "student" bemoaning the fact that the French classes were cancelled.

For those who read French here is the letter, for those who don't, you can take my word for it- no student wrote this letter;

Roxana Rivera Valle - Montréal, le 13 avril 2010  16 avril 2010  

Je me sens très triste et déçue. L'annonce, jeudi dernier, des coupes dans les cours de français a été très choquante pour moi et je ne pouvais pas pleurer devant de mes collègues, mais ils ont commencé à pleurer parce que tout le monde a eu un plan pour ces mois. Cette nouvelle de dernière minute a brisé nos coeurs, en plus de tout ce que j'ai fait pour étudier le français afin d'améliorer ma vie!

À mon avis, le ministère a un double discours: il nous dit qu'on doit parler français, mais en même temps, il nous coupe le cours de francisation. Je ne comprends pas pourquoi! Quand je suis arrivée chez moi, je me sentais déprimée. Tout à coup j'ai senti quelques larmes sur mon visage et j'ai pleuré d'impuissance et de colère.

Je m'appelle Roxana et je suis immigrante péruvienne et enseignante au niveau secondaire. Je suis arrivée à Montréal le 12 septembre 2009 après avoir réussi tous les tests que le gouvernement du Québec et l'ambassade du Canada m'ont demandés pendant trois longues années. Je suis arrivée pleine d'espoir de progresser dans cette belle nation ainsi que de contribuer avec mon expérience d'enseignante dans une école secondaire d'ici.

Je savais depuis de mon arrivée qu'il fallait que je suive le cours de français de niveau avancé que le ministère de l'Immigration offre à tous les nouveaux arrivants afin de nous intégrer à la société québécoise et au marché du travail mais, aujourd'hui, je me demande: si j'ai moi-même respecté tout ce que m'ont demandé les autorités avant de venir ici, pourquoi à la dernière minute, on m'informe que les cours sont coupés? Cette nouvelle a brisé mes rêves et les plans que j'avais déjà faits pour les mois suivants, et ceux, je crois, de plusieurs de mes collèges. À mon avis, ce n'est pas juste. Cette décision est difficile pour moi comme professionnelle immigrante qui veut s'intégrer à la société québécoise quand le français est l'outil de travail et surtout quand il est d'une exigence pour obtenir le permis d'enseignement.

J'espère que la ministre de l'Immigration va réfléchir et changer d'opinion et reconsidérer sa décision.

In fact, given the dismal state of written French in Quebec, it's doubtful that ten percent of native born Francophones could write such a succinct and grammatically correct letter. That a student studying French as a second language can produce such a work after just seven months in the country is laughable.
The letter was obviously penned by a teacher, who would likely argue that she was just 'helping' the student.
That the newspaper would publish such an obviously phony letter is a testament to its desire to run a story that fits neatly with its editorial position, regardless of its authenticity.

An online petition, complete with comments  has also been organized. Almost all the signatories claim to be students who have graduated from these courses and all have perfect syntax, construction and spelling, another obvious union project. While many of the signers may be real, it's obvious that the union is salting the petition. How many newly arrived immigrants can write a letter this good? Come to think of it, how many native born Francophones could write so well?

"Prendre la décision d'immigrer ce n'est pas du tout facile, mais moi personnellement j'aime le Québec et je ne veux pas le quitter, et de la même façon je suis sur que il y a beaucoup de monde à l'extérieur qui aimerait venir ici et s'intégrer a cette société. En ce sens, le principal obstacle à vaincre c'est la langue. C'est pour cela que les cours de francisation, tant à l'oral comme à l'écrit, sont indispensables : on se sent plus accueillis si on sait qu'on pourra profiter de cet avantage." Jorge Almarales, Montreal 

But there's also a bit of irony in the petition, as you can find in this comment;

Ces cours de français étaient indispensables pour mon integration.-Vera Sazonova, Ottawa 

YUP!.... Ottawa

In Hindsight, Charlottetown & Meech Looking Better and Better

There's a growing realization among many Francophone political commentators that Quebec's refusal many years ago to support the Charlottetown Accord may have been the biggest political blunder in it's history.

Stephen Harper's tabling of legislation last week, to add thirty seats to the Parliament, all outside Quebec may seem like justice to Anglo Canadians, but to Quebeckers it's confirmation that their star is eclipsing in Ottawa and that 'French Power', as they say in TV land, has "jumped the shark."
In 2008 Andre Pratte of LA PRESSE commented that;

"Rarely has there been as weak representation of Quebec around the federal cabinet table. Only 5 (14%) of the 37 ministers appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper are from Quebec.....We obviously can't blame the Prime Minister. It's the direct result of choices we made on October 14." (The last Federal election where most Quebec seats went to the Bloc Quebecois).

Worse, there's an uneasy realization that Quebec political forces are powerless to do anything about the decline and that the Province is at the mercy of western federalist forces, keen to reduce its power.

Its likely that if Ottawa offered a Charlottetown-like deal today to Quebec, even the Bloc Quebecois would be forced to accept it or face the wrath of the electorate.

Writing in Le Soleil, Raymond Giroux beseeches Gilles Duceppe:

"I suggest to Mr. Duceppe that he tries to bring back the constitutional package of 1992 (rejected by the referendum, one which I admit I voted against) and swap the 75 elected representation against a flat 25% of MPs in Quebec."

Sorry, Mr. Raymond. Sorry Mr. Duceppe, that ship has sailed... What seemed like such a bad deal back then, looks powerfully appealing today.
The rest of Canada is in no mood to hand out more power to Quebec, under any circumstances. Recent polls have indicated that about 15% of Canadians WANT Quebec to separate and given any threats from Quebec, that number would sky rocket.

The Charlottetown Accord (1992) was the second attempt in the modern era at constitutional reform. The first, undertaken ten years earlier, the "Meech Lake Accord," failed after the the deal unravelled when citizens across the country balked at a concept that a dozen senior federal and provincial leaders, negotiating behind closed doors, would set the country's destiny without public debate. It led to a backlash that led Newfoundland and Manitoba to balk at  ratifying the agreement within the prescribed delay.
Going back to the table, ten years later in 1992 and having learned a lesson, the Charlottetown Accord, which essentially provided the same changes, was to be decided upon in a national referendum.
In hindsight, the agreement seems rather a sweetheart deal for Quebec and today, a lot of insiders are wringing their hands, muttering "Coulda!, Shoulda!"
  
The accord's provisions were so favourable to the Provinces that Pierre-Elliot Trudeau, the former Prime Minister agitated vehemently against it's approval because of its devolution of Federal powers towards the provinces. His bitter and sarcastic speech at a Verdun restaurant, 'La Maison du Egg Roll,'  in  October 1992 has been credited with influencing many English Canadians to oppose the accord.
The major changes envisioned by the accord were similar to what was proposed at Meech Lake.;
from Wikipedia;

• Recognition of Quebec as a  "distinct society"
• Constitutional veto for Quebec.
• Increased provincial powers with respect to immigration.
• Extension and regulation of the right for a reasonable financial compensation to any province that chooses to opt out of any future federal programs. (read...Quebec)
• Input in appointing senators and Supreme Court judges.
• A Guarantee for Quebec of 25% of the seats in Parliament, regardless of future demographic shifts
• 3 Supreme Court judge positions guaranteed for Quebec.

Back in 1992, separatist forces agitated fiercely against accepting the deal, calling it woefully inadequate and labelling those Quebeckers in favour, 'sell-outs.' Realizing that a YES vote would be tantamount to acceptance of federalism, the war to defeat the motion degenerated into a do or die fight that sovereignists couldn't allow themselves to lose, not if they wanted to keep their dreams of an independent Quebec alive.
Given the hysteria and fear-mongering, it wasn't any surprise that Quebec rejected the accord by a margin of  57%- 43%. The pan Canadian total vote was extremely close, but the accord was defeated narrowly- 50.4%-49.6%. Had Quebec given the accord even the slightest of majority, it would have passed easily.
Quebec and Quebec alone, can shoulder the blame for its failure.

At the time separatists rejoiced, believing that the failure of the agreement would lead to a second referendum, this one successful. Alas it was not to be.

The subsequent years have not been kind to Quebec and particularly nationalists. A number of factors have contributed to a diminution of the Province's status and power and today Quebec finds itself in its weakest bargaining position since the first election of the Parti Quebecois back in 1972.

For the last thirty years, Quebec has been waging a losing demographic battle with English Canada because Ottawa, whether by accident or design, opened the doors to an unprecedented flood of  immigrants, a policy unparallelled in any developed western democracy.

Although Quebec has tried to match Canada's immigration rate, it has been unable to staunch the flow of immigrants who first come to Quebec and subsequently flee to English Canada. The effect of all this, is that Quebec's demographic weight in Canada has been reduced from  almost 26% to 22.5% over the last thirty years. The trend over the next decade is not encouraging and it's conceivable that within twenty years Quebec will represent less than 20% of Canada's population.

To make matters worse, the fifty thousand new immigrants welcomed to Quebec each year are overwhelming prone to be federalists.
Because of this growing immigrant population, who along with traditional Anglos, who would vote No in any potential sovereignty referendum, it would now take over 60% of Francophones to vote Yes, in a referendum, to achieve a win for sovereignty. Because of the continuing flood of immigrants, that number creeps up by another  ⅓  to ½ of a percentage point each and every year.

So the Bloc and the Parti Quebecois can huff and puff all they want, the cold harsh truth is that federalists cannot be blackmailed anymore into concessions with the threat of sovereignty hanging over their heads.  At any rate Canadians are no longer afraid to face a Canada without Quebec. Given the choice between Meech or Charlottetown-like concessions or sovereignty, the nation would likely opt to bid adieu to Quebec.

While Mr. Harper may have declared Quebec a 'distinct nation,' it's clear that because of the province's refusal to support his party, he has turned his back on the notion of rewarding Quebec with additional powers. Instead, he is delivering just the opposite, invoking policies that has the effect of morphing Quebec from a nation, to a province no different than the rest.

The only other avenue left to Quebec to defend itself, is to use the polarization between the Conservative west and Liberal Ontario to its advantage. Overwhelming support to either party would turn one of them into a majority government, one that would be dominated by Quebec members and be beholding to Quebec for its political life.
What has Quebec done?
By voting for the Bloc en masse, the Province has squandered the opportunity to shape its own destiny and has instead mired itself in political ignominy.

While some commentators are starting to sound the alarm, most Quebeckers remain sadly oblivious  that the Bloc Quebecois has been robbing Quebeckers of any influence at all and Mr. Harper is immune to promote his openly pro-western, anti-Quebec measure with impunity.

ThreeHundredEight.com

The most recent poll results indicate that if a federal election were to take place today the Bloc would win 52 seats while the Liberals would take 14 and the Conservatives would keep 7. The NDP would win 2.

And so,  Quebeckers can look forward to more of the same.

While the Bloc blusters on and Quebec voters continue to live the fantasy that the party is actually relevant,  I am reminded of poor Macbeth who realizes the futility of his situation;

".....full of sound and fury Signifying nothing." — Macbeth 

Quebec's "SPEAK WHITE" Fantasy

I read yet another tedious story by a blogger complaining that his mother was subjected to an unacceptable ENGLISH assault while lying dying in the Montreal General Hospital. To make matters worse, her medical records were in English! HORRORS!

Another complained that his doctor in a Dollard des Ormeaux clinic refused to speak to him in French as well. All these stories have a common thread running through them, one that portrays Anglo doctors as not only unable or unwilling to communicate in French, but acting arrogantly and rudely in the process. Its amazing how entrenched this urban myth has become.

The stories are all fit neatly into a fantasy created by language militants whose agenda is to cast Anglophones into that neatly preconceived notion of 'oppressors.' Most of them wish to recreate the good old days of English domination and continue to invoke the name of Lord Durham at every chance to characterize modern Anglophone attitudes.

The stories are of course impossible to prove or disprove, like the infamous story of sales clerks in the old Eaton's department store who abused Francophones by telling them to speak English. The poem "SPEAK WHITE"  entrenched the idea of English language oppression and has given birth to a whole genre of creative writing based on this dubious urban legend.

This has led to many cases of  French language crusaders 'looking' for fights by trolling through Anglo districts hoping to find that English only sign or that English speaking employee, so that they can ramp up their infernal complaint meter.

Years ago my wife was berated by a train ticket agent who informed her that there was no such place as "TWO MOUNTAINS" and told her to refer to the town by its proper name- "DEUX MONTAGNES."

Language lessons from a ticket agent? I bet he didn't finish high school. I wonder when he sells a ticket to Boston whether he refers to the country south of Montreal as the "ETATS UNIS" or  the "UNITED STATES." As they say in French "Deux poids, deux mesures" (a double standard.)

I take these "SPEAK WHITE" stories with a grain of salt. One of the most hilarious fabrications that I read this year was that of a man who confronted a Hasid (ultra-religious Jew) in Outremont over the former's  request for directions in English. According to the story, the Hasid launched into a verbal attack and even told the intrepid French language defender to "Fuck Off!" Anybody who has the slightest of knowledge of Hasids knows that the story could never have happened. A Hasid seeking a confrontation over language is just about the most ridiculous thing I've heard of. A Hasid seeking directions from a stranger? Never, that's what cell phones are for. A Hasid swearing, not a chance. But it's an entertaining story anyways.  LINK

One of our readers,"Mitch" sent me a Montreal Gazette article  entitled "French exam keeps doctor out of Pierrefonds clinic" detailing the story of a GP kept from practicing because he failed his mandatory French exam.
All members of professionals orders in Quebec are required by law to speak French before being licensed. Foreigners are required to pass a written and oral test. (Anglos who graduated high school in Quebec are not required to undergo testing, the assumption being that after eleven years of French classes, they are bilingual.)

Another story, this time in the McGill Tribune details the plight of a newly minted dentist, an American who graduated from McGill and wished to practice in Montreal. Because of another failed French exam, she was refused a permit and is forced to work in Plattsburgh, New York... Another win/win situation for Quebec.

A lot of doctors taking the test, complain that the written portion is completely unfair. One said that the test required him to write a business letter, terminating someone's employment in French, something completely unrelated to their profession. Given the average pass/rate fail in Quebec French universities for the written French exam is only 50%, is it any wonder that the doctors do so poorly?

Keeping doctors from practicing, especially desperately needed family doctors, is the height of folly.

Surely the government could find a compromise. I'd suggest that a doctor unable to pass the French test be given a provisionary license which would provide for mandatory weekly French classes. If after a year the doctor is still unable to pass, then perhaps he or she could be subject to a sliding deduction of salary with continuing classes mandatory.

Doctors are certainly not dumb. They have studied thousands of hours to get their diplomas and are high achievers. If they need a little time to learn French on the job they should be provided the opportunity without penalizing patients desperately seeking a family doctor.

Since the government cannot provide enough French speaking doctors, patients who have no family doctor should be afforded the option to choose between having a doctor who speaks French poorly or having no doctor at all.

Sometimes compromising your ideals is necessary to survive, but it seems that language militants prefer to have no doctor, rather than an English-speaking doctor.
After all principles are principles!

Michel Chartrand's Revisionist Image

I've never understood the convention of news reporting that holds that when reporting on the death of a public personality, the policy of speaking little or no ill of the dead be respected.

In private life we've all gone to funerals where the deceased is eulogized by a member of the clergy or by a family member and painted in the most positive and saintly light, only to have someone sitting near us mutter under his or her breath that the deceased was a right sonuvabitch, roundly despised by all. 

Perhaps it's OK in private life to fudge the truth, but when the media glosses over the bad and leave a distorted impression of the truth, it behoves others to set the record straight. That is perhaps the greatest contribution that independent bloggers can provide and no, I'm not talking about myself.

I just read one of the best pieces on the death of Quebec labour leader Michel Chartrand written by blogger Martin Masse entitled Michel Chartrand, vieux communiste, vieux fasciste (longtime communist, longtime fascist) on the libertarian site Quebecois Libre.
If you read French and are interested in an honest and not so flattering view of the life of Michel Chartrand, read the article.

Michel Chartrand, a longtime Quebec union leader died this week and has been cast in almost all editorials and obituaries as a kooky firebrand that stood up for the little guy and fought the good fight.
Even the Montreal Gazette, after quoting his virulent antisemitism;  "We don't want them(Jews) to pollute the atmosphere of this country, anymore" said;

"Extremes aside, however, Chartrand's passion for socialism and justice was genuine and unwavering." Montreal Gazette

"Extremes Aside"? Ugh!!!

Who can summarize a person's lifework, without considering his extreme views and pronouncements?

Chartrand was a rabid fascist in his youth who matured into a dogmatic left-wing Marxist communist, somebody who agitated for the overthrow of our democratic system.

"The capitalist system is based on violence and it leads inevitably to violence. Currently, the government creates more violence against the unemployed, welfare recipients, people living in slums, youth, then all the guys who plant bombs can do against the property of the bourgeoisie. " -Michel Chartrand

After spending a month in Castro's newly minted communist republic he waxed rhapsodic over what he described as paradise. He once gave a lecture in a Quebec City university extolling the virtues of Europe's most successful and desirable place to live- Albania.

He was an avid admirer of the terrorist FLQ and considered their methods justified;   

"We are going to win because there are more boys ready to shoot Members of Parliament than there are policemen." -Michel Chartrand

The only thing that remained constant in his life was his love for his wife, his devotion to the Catholic Church and his hatred of Jews and Anglos. He was married to his wife by Quebec's most famous anti-Semite Abbé Lionel Groulx and contributed articles to fascist publications. He was a member of the entourage of Canada's number one fascist, Adrien Arcand who advocated publicly to isolate all the Jews in Hudson's Bay and who advocated to model Canada under the precepts of National Socialism. (Nazism)

After giving up his fascist views, Chartrand did a 180 degree turn and became a virulent Marxist-communist, who along with other Quebec labour leaders made a serious attempt to usurp power from the elected authority in the late sixties and seventies.

He was jailed in relation to union activity during a strike in Abitibi and during the October Crisis in 1970 he was imprisoned under the provisions of the War Measures Act. He was likely one of the few jailed under the Act that actually met the criteria for internment, after a seditious speech at a rally supporting the FLQ.
He stayed in jail for a full four months, longer than any other of the internees, the government fearful that he would use the crisis to take a clear run at the elected authority.

As pointed out in the piece by Mr. Masse, these facts are conveniently left out of the puff pieces that present Mr Chartrand in a positive light and replace the truth with a convenient and revisionist version of history.

I'm sure that when the time to write Jacques Parizeau's obituary, nobody will forget to include his famous faux pas in blaming "Money and the ethnic vote" for the defeat of the sovereignty referendum. History has already judged Parizeau harshly for his isolated gaffe. Compared to Chartrand, Parizeau is a model democrat.

Mr. Chartrand is getting a free pass from the press and his place in history is being sculpted in the great tradition of Lionel Groulx.

Perhaps we'll have a Metro station named after him.

Fake Language Demonstration Really About Union Jobs

I've always been a "Doubting Thomas," forever sceptical of what is being presented in front of me, either in the print media or on television news reports.
I find myself often talking back to the television, correcting pronunciation or challenging the facts presented. I usually don't get much reaction, aside from my wife, who tells me to shut up more often than not.

It was with mouth ajar that I screened a YouTube video of a demonstration in front of Immigration Minister Yolande James' office in Montreal.
The media variously reported the crowd between several hundred and two thousand, but the reality was it numbered closer to 200.

The demonstration purported to be about the protection of the French language and the elimination of French classes for immigrants by the Ministry of Education. I'm not aware of the merits of the argument, but I assume that if French classes were cut, there was an excellent reason to do so.

The reality was that the demonstration had nothing to do with language, but rather about the thirty jobs or so, that were to be lost by the union, the Syndicat des professeurs de l'État du Québec.




Watching the video, it became evident that the whole affair was put up by teachers who recruited their students to demonstrate in their stead, under the guise of protecting the French language.

Nobody in the mainstream media pointed out the shameful pimping out of students by the teachers union.

I imagine that this type of extra-curricular activity leads to extra credit....

• At the 3:00 mark of the video a teacher is asked for a comment by a reporter and tells him she can't comment because she's a public employee, but she pushes a student in front of the microphone to speak for her.
• At 3:30 of the video, a Spanish accented student tells the camera that he came to the demonstration to speak French. His teacher, standing to one side, tells him to repeat what they practised in class!!

All the students interviewed spoke excellent French and exactly what they are doing in French language school is an open question.

The placards that the students held up were much too sophisticated for people learning French as a second language. Not many immigrants can successfully use the word 'PRECARITÉ,"(precarious) or can make a play on the two different meanings of the word "TOUR." (tower/turn)

I remember way back in Grade 10 in high school, one of my teachers spent half a period beseeching students to attend a demonstration in favour of teacher contract demands.

It was creepy and unethical then, as it is now.

The Curious Case Of Marc Bellemare

I must say I didn't know what to make of the behaviour of Marc Bellemare, who is the ex-Liberal Justice Minister in the Charest government, way back in 2004.
He's been doing the media rounds telling anyone who'll listen that the Liberal party took scads of money from construction industry types and that cabinet ministers were forced to produce donations to the tune of $100,000 in order to keep their jobs. After dropping the bombshell, Quebec's chief election officer demanded a meeting with him to go over the facts but Bellemare has been ducking the meeting claiming that there is a jurisdictional problem. This week he's been at it again, giving another television interview and adding more scandalous allegations against Premier Charest directly.

Now, I've no doubt that there must be elements of truth in what he says, but there's something about his comportment and timing that has me wondering about his motives.

I've been asking around about him, among those who know, to find out exactly what the story is and why he would besmirch the Liberals six years after leaving politics on his own, seemingly on good terms with the Premier and the party.

First the public record.
Marc Bellemare is a high profile lawyer who runs a practice defending clients who he believes were ill-treated by Quebec's SAAQ, the government agency that runs the no-fault insurance program for all Quebec drivers and which determines compensation to injured people in the case of injury as a result of a road accident.

Recruited as a  star candidate back in 2003, he accepted to run as a Liberal with the condition that he could push his pet project, a law that would allow individuals to legally pursue their rights in court without the constraints of the SAAQ limits on damages.

He won his seat handily and was given the Justice and Public Security ministry. His project to allow victims of automobile accidents the right to sue, hit a brick wall in Cabinet with almost nobody supporting his proposed law, leading to a frustrating personal situation for the Minister, who entered politics with the express motivation of seeing his pet project passed into law.

Then radio 'shock jock' Andre Arthur dropped the bombshell that Bellemare's oldest daughter, Lysanne Messier, was an exotic dancer in a Quebec city strip club that was a known as a Hell's Angel's hangout. At the time Quebec was in the process of dismantling the biker gang via a mega trial that was underway. Any contact between the daughter and the bikers would place the Minister in an impossible position.

Now I had assumed that cabinet ministers were thoroughly vetted before they were hired and I asked an insider how something like this was missed. He confirmed to me that Mr. Bellemare signed a disclosure document saying that there were no skeletons in his closet that could embarrass the government. However, he told me, that at the time, extensive security, financial and family background checks were not routinely undertaken. Hmmm....

Even though the daughter was estranged from her father at the time, the revelation and the publicity hurt Bellemare quite badly, more on a personal level than professional, or so it seemed. The daughter denied that she had anything to do with the Hell's Angels and the press, without any corroborating proof, decided to pass on further reporting on the story.

Premier Charest publicly supported his minister and the issued died. Months later, a disillusioned Bellemare resigned, claiming that the nature of politics didn't suit him.

The part of the story that is not publicly acknowledged, is that the daughter did indeed have contact with the bikers. She was overheard heard in a conversation with at least one biker in Sureté du Quebec wiretaps.
Arthur further reported that the daughter had been known to  carry large amounts of cash, both in American and Canadian denominations. LCN reported that in May 2005 she was involved in a car accident and was found by rescue workers in a confused state with white powder around her nostrils.

I have a reliable source that says the Premier was informed of the situation concerning her contact with bikers by the police and I suppose that Mr. Bellemare was either asked to leave quietly or chose to do so on his own, after an appropriate delay to keep up appearances.

It remains an open question as to where Mr. Arthur got his information about the stripper daughter, it either came from the police or within the Premier's office. Since the resulting brouhaha was damaging to the government, I can't see any body in Charest's office leaking that type of information to the press. That leaves the police as the likely culprit, their motives clearly to rid themselves of Bellemarre. This last part is just my idle speculation.

I was also assured that Bellemare left on very good terms with the Premier, but that doesn't seem right, because, Mr. Bellemare is definitely on a revenge kick. His revelations after six years of silence is payback for something. Whether it be about his daughter, his pet project, or being pushed from cabinet, only Mr. Bellemare knows.

His desire for revenge makes his pronouncements suspect, but I've no doubt that some of what he says is true. I am however reminded of Karlheinz Schreiber, who embellished his dirt on Mulroney for personal gain at the expense of others. Ultimately a lot of what he testified was unsubstantiated.

Something just isn't right with Mr. Bellemare.

Mr. Charest is plenty pissed off and first threatened a lawsuit, but now has called for a public inquiry, leading me to believe that Mr. Bellemare has no proof of his accusations.

FOR THE LATEST UPDATE SEE;

Marc Bellemare Going Down in Flames

Maple Leaf Fans Classier Than Their Sportswriters

I was rather astonished to hear that Toronto sportswriter Damien Cox as well as a CBC Hockey Night in Canada round table commentator  (I can't remember who) take Toronto Maple Leaf coach Ron Wilson to task for not pulling goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere in the final 90 seconds of a 3-3 tie against the Montreal Canadiens last  Saturday night. The rationale behind the move was to score the winning goal in an attempt to put the Canadiens out of the playoffs.

"That's awful by Ron Wilson," the Toronto Star's Damien Cox scolded on Twitter during the game's final minute when it became clear Giguère wasn't leaving his crease. "Essentially conceding the point that puts the Habs into the postseason. Makes Leafs look even more pathetic." Montreal Gazette

Of course the Maple Leaf coach scoffed at the idea, showing a lot more class then the two dim-wit commentators calling such a move "fooling around with the integrity of the game."

Nobody in Montreal expected the Leafs to roll over and die so that another Canadian team could make the playoffs, it would be unethical. But certainly nobody would expect the Leafs to sacrifice their integrity by pulling a goalie for the express reason of putting another Canadian team out of the playoffs. The idea is sad and juvenile and says a lot about the type of person the reporter is.

I've been to the Air Canada Centre this year and enjoyed the experience, especially the fans. The team boutique was actually selling Montreal Canadiens hockey shirts. The fans were extremely nice to us as we rooted for the Canadiens and I felt empathy for the frustration that they felt, pulling for a team so bereft of talent. I don't think most Maple Leaf fans would consider it a great achievement to pull a goalie in a lame effort to drag the Canadiens down. As for Damien Cox, he must be a miserable person, someone who the Germans best describe as suffering from a dose of "Schadenfreude."

Mr. Cox fools himself if he believes that there is anything left to the The Canadiens / Leafs rivalry, it has long since died, a victim of expansion and more importantly the lack of talent iced by both teams over the last fifteen years.  Long gone are the days of bated anticipation of  Eddie Shack / John Ferguson confrontations and the coaching duel between 'Punch' Imlach and 'Toe' Blake. Yes, gone are the glory days.
Even the nicknames were better in those days- "The Chief",  "The Flower, "Rocket," "Pocket Rocket," "The Big M," and the "The Entertainer"  aaahhh..the good old days..

I can't imagine Red Fisher, Rejean Tremblay or any other Montreal sportswriter, English or French saying something so stupid and mean-spirited. The Green-eyed monster of jealousy seems to be alive and well in the Maple Leaf press room.

I along with other Montreal Canadiens fans look forward to meeting the Leafs in the playoffs someday. Until then I root for all Canadian teams to make the playoffs as I expect most Canadians do.

The Leafs and the Canadiens both deserve better teams, but the Leafs deserve better sports commentators as well.

 Here' s a reminder of the good old days........

Voodoo Math in French Language Debate

Last week Pierre Curzi, PQ language critic did his best impression of "Chicken Little" telling all who would listen, that the 'sky is falling" on the French language in Montreal and that by 2016, the city is to become anglicized. All week he alluded to a report that his 'researchers' had prepared supporting his claim.

I didn't think the ridiculous assertion would be taken seriously by anyone other than the committed hard-liners, but I guess when it comes to the French language even reasonable people can be taken in by the hysteria mounted by a cadre of bullshit artists who weave a phony narrative based on voodoo mathematics.

The report finally landed on Friday and as I suspect, the data proves exactly the opposite of what Mr. Curzi is saying. If you read French and are interested, you can view it HERE.

The 80 pages can actually be summarized in just one table included in the report. Everything else is pure rubbish ;

False Conclusion # 1-- Montreal will be Anglicized by 2016
There it is, in blue and white, between 1996 and 2006 English language usage went down from 25.6% to 25.2%, so how on God's green Earth can English possibly be primed for a takeover. There is as much chance that the Island of Montreal will become anglicized by 2016, as is the chance that the world will be destroyed in 2012.

False Conclusion # 2-- English is 5 times more attractive to immigrants as is French
 Only 37% of immigrants adopt either English or French as their new chosen language, while 63% keep on speaking their native tongue at home.
Of those who change, 60% choose English, while 40% choose French. English is hardly five times more attractive than French. This statistic is based on 2006 numbers, I recently read that in 2009, French is now being adopted by more than 50% of people in this category. The assertion that English is five times more popular is based on a totally contrived and statistically dishonest interpretation of the fact that Quebec Francophones outnumber Anglos and Allophones by five to one and therefore by virtue of that fact would be expected to choose French five times as much as English. It's nonsense.

False Conclusion # 3-- French no longer dominates Montreal
The fact that only 49% of Montrealers claim French as their mother tongue does not lead to the conclusion that the French language is in the minority. 54% of Montrealers use French as their first language, while English lags behind at 25%. In 1996 the numbers were just about the same- 55% French, versus 25% English. That's a 1% point change in ten years, hardly a game changer.  French remains more than twice as dominant as English.

Last Thursday the Quebec Minister in charge of the the language debate, Christine St-Pierre, was asked to comment on Mr. Curzi's assertions. She wisely demanded to see the report before saying anything and wondered out loud, why he was doing a media blitz while holding back the report.

It's now clear why. Had he done the media rounds with the report already published, journalists would have been able to criticise its contents. It's obvious that he didn't want that to happen.

This week the story is already old news and the media is on to the next story. The fallacy that French is in danger is successfully re-enforced by virtue of his dishonesty.

My compliments to Mr. Curzi for a well played bluff. He is another French language nationalist who twists facts and figures to suit his purpose, knowing that few will actually run down the numbers. It was a masterful move to do the interviews before allowing the report to be seen. It is also a naked confirmation, that he himself knew, how full of baloney he really was.

It repeats and re-enforces the nationalist movements long history of distortion.

The decline of the French language over the last ten years has been slight. It is directly attributed to the fifty thousand new immigrants that make Montreal their new home in each year.

The only way to stop this ever so modest decline of French in the city is to reduce immigration.
Sorry, Mr. Curzi, it has nothing to do with Anglos or the English language.

Our Public Servants at 'Work'- Volume 1

I'm happy to announce that due to the many hilarious stories in the news concerning lazy, uncaring and wasteful public and para-public employees, I'm adding a new recurring piece describing the follies of those who abuse the public purse.

Blue collar Workers Asleep on the Job.

Office workers in old Montreal were surprised to find two City of Montreal employees fast asleep in their city owned vehicle. As passerby after passerby gawked and photographed the oblivious pair, it's disquieting to know that they are earning $40 an hour during their siesta. When asked to comment about the incident, a union representative claimed that the picture only proved that the employees had their eyes closed and not necessarily that they were sleeping. LINK(Fr)

Don't Call Us- Call the Police

A Montreal women complained to a TV commentator that when her corpulent mother fell down and couldn't get up, she called paramedics to help her lift up the heavy load. After three hours of waiting with no response she phoned back Urgences Santé to complain. The dispatcher explained that she'd have to wait even longer as the call was classified as non-emergency.
Frustrated, she asked what other options she had, to which the operator told her to call the police and tell them that she had 'pushed her mother down'.  The operator assured the caller that the police, the firemen and an ambulance would be there within minutes.

20 Grand for Yoga Classes

The day after the Quebec government's tax-raising budget, 300 civil servants, employees of the Centre jeunesse de la Mauricie et du Centre-du-Québec, took advantage of an organized paid day to enjoy a program of yoga, stretching, relaxation and conferences on food and physical activity. Meeting at the Hotel Dauphin in Drummondville the outing set back the government $20,000.


Workshop in 'Silence' costs $1,400
Fifteen Managers of the L'Agence de la santé et des services sociaux de la Mauricie et du Centre-du-Québec  enjoyed an "experience of silence"at the Auberge Les Jardins in Bromont, consisting of two days and one night of silence. They were told to think about what really matters to them at this time of their lives, said Remi Tremblay, who provided the training.
Cost of this weekend cost $1,404.37 per person.

In another story, five members of the Health Agency of Montreal paid a whopping $9,385 to attend an "e-Health 2009" conference in Quebec city to learn about (...sigh) cost overruns. How the group managed to spend so much money in just three days remains a mystery.


Town of Rawdon Blows Half a Million Suing Bloggers 
After some bloggers wrote some pretty nasty things about the mayor and city council members, enough seems to be enough for the town of Rawdon. The village of 10,000 inhabitants sought an injunction to close down the web site  rawdon-qc.net which was the home of the abuse.
The Quebec Court of Appeal overturned the injunction based on freedom of speech and the whole issue is spiralling upwards.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association commented that the issue ought to be addressed pursuant to new anti-SLAPP legislation in Quebec and not left to fester until a trial date sometime in the future.
At any rate the town has blown a whopping $500,000 or 5%, of its $10 million budget on the affair. LINK

$830 for Eyeglasses charged to Community Organization 
An employee of a community organization that helps people with alcohol addiction in the Montreal suburb of  Longueuil, La maison de l’Amitié Omer  was reimbursed $ 830 for a pair of glasses, contact lenses and an eye exam. The Chairman of the organization billed $ 9,278 in meals and gasoline without any receipts. 

Expense-Padding Director's mandate extended

You might remember Marielle Poirier, the directer of Cégep de l'Outaouais, a junior college near Hull who was outed in the Journal de Montreal for expense account padding. She is renowned for taking globe-trotting trips, to attend various dubious meetings,  all on "school" business. She once expensed a purchase in a museum gift shop as a meal reimbursement, only to be caught in the lie by a reporter who revealed that there was no restaurant in the museum in question. She also claimed as an expense a tourist trip to the Grand Canyon and regularly raids the hotel min-bar and enjoys three bottle of wine dinners, all on the arm of the CEGEP.

Was she punished for any of these excesses? No! The Board of Directors of the school unanimously renewed her mandate for another five years.

Image Maker Fired  in Quebec City

A international image-maker, of dubious reputation scored a $300,000+ contract to re-define Quebec City's image. When Clotaire Rapaille made his preliminary findings, that Quebec city residents were "totally neurotic,  sado-masochistic and that they loved being abused by Anglophones, the shit really hit the fan. Mayor Regis Lebeaume was not amused to say the least and cancelled the contract, not before paying the image consultant $125,000 for his bon mots. LINK