$2,000 Fine for Speaking English?

There's a certain amount of anglo-bashing that one can expect when perusing fringe website sites such as vigile.net where every crackpot, racist, separatist, terrorist and language extremist can have his or her say.
It's part of the package that freedom of expression provides and something we've all learned to accept.

That being said, the mainstream press is supposed to be responsible. Editors monitor content to make sure that racism, sexism, hate material and all the other bad 'isms' stay where they belong.
Like porn, hate literature remains available if one wants it, but common convention and good sense keeps it out of the mainstream press.

So the fact that English and anglos get bashed rather cruelly in some web sites is of no never mind, but when it crosses over to regular television or the mainstream press, it's time to denounce these racist attacks in no uncertain terms.

I nearly fell out of my chair, watching an episode of conservative Mario Dumont's television show, where he interviewed fellow journalist Martin Pelletier, who decried the fact that there are too many anglos in Laval, a Montreal suburb and second largest city in Quebec.
Too many anglos in Laval. Oh my!

Mr Pelletier presented some statistics showing that the anglo population is growing at an 'alarming' rate and that soon it will 'threaten' the francophone majority.

Between 1996 and 2006, the city saw a 35% increase in anglophones, which he blamed largely on the anglicized Greek and Italian communities who have created 'ethnic' neighbourhoods, in the hitherto linguistically pure Laval.

As the interview progressed, his rage grew to a boil, as he recounted the story that in Carrefour Laval, a mega shopping center, English was being spoken quite openly and that merchants had the audacity to greet customers in English. Horrors!!!!

Disparaging the mall by calling it "Crossroads Laval,'  Mr. Pelletier was outraged that such a terrible catastrophe could happen. He then actually proposed that English be banned in the mall, as well as other retail establishments! 

You heard me, I'm not making this up, I couldn't, even if I tried.

Martin Pelletier called for a $2,000 fine for merchants who greet customers in English.

 Even Mario Dupont, conservative in every aspect, every aspect except language, that is, didn't think it appropriate or necessary to call him out. Shame!

I wonder if Mr. Pelletier was caught up in the moment or actually believes that in this country of Canada, of which as I last checked, Quebec remains a part of, one should be fined for speaking English!

I'm sure if you ask Mr. Pelletier if he is a racist, he will be insulted.
I'm sure he'll tell you that he has nothing against the English and is merely defending the French language and culture.
But racism is racism, no matter the motivation.

And so, the hysteria vis-a-vis English and Anglos has transcended the lunatic websites into mainstream television and media.

The above video is by no means an isolated event, it is the current vogue in anglo-bashing.

Discussing Anglos as if they are some sort of a problem, is too reminiscent of other historical racist attacks on minorities.

Think I'm exaggerating?

What if the word 'anglophone' would be interchanged with 'Black," "Jew" or "Native." Imagine a television graphic showing that the Black, Jewish or Native population had grown by 35% in a town or city.
Imagine a commentator sounding the alarm that too many Jews/Blacks/Natives is affecting the social 'balance!'

The sad part of it all, is that Quebeckers still perceive Western Canadians as rednecks.

Could you imagine a Saskatchewan television commentator, decrying the fact that too many natives are moving into Regina? Could you imagine a television producer allowing a graphic to appear on the screen denoting this rise in the numbers of this native community? ...I don't think so.

Led by noted anglo-basher Louis Prefontaine, whose moronic and self-serving anglo-bashing statistics are now quoted as a legitimate source of data in the mainstream media, the attack on Anglos continues unashamedly. LINK

The real question is where all this is going... I wonder.

The fear of an English Laval has spawned groups like the Mouvement Laval français, whose stated goal is to check and reverse the creeping English influence in city.

Groups like these always claim that they are not anti-English, just pro-French. They claim that they are defending a heritage in danger of being lost to Mongol hordes,  outside influences.

We've all heard these ethnic 'purity' arguments before, be it in Germany, Bosnia or Afghanistan.  I shall let readers draw their own analogies.

My question is this. How exactly are militants going to defend French? How is this modern Barbarian Invasion to be confronted?

Mr. Pelttier's answer to fine people for speaking English in public may be a start, but it won't do anything to keep the Greeks and the Italians out of Laval.

Perhaps a letter should go out to all property developers reminding them that it's their responsibility not to sell new homes to these  'undesirables'.

Perhaps Laval should change its welcoming road sign to read;

"Population 400,000 Quebecois,  60,000 Anglaises/Ethnies"

Presque tout les monde Bienvenu!

Perhaps the Mouvement Laval français  should advise real estate agents and those wishing to sell their homes of the Francophone 'first' policy.
Perhaps Catholic priests should be encouraged to advise their congregations against fraternization and above all, horrors of horrors, inter-marriage.
Perhaps the cable companies should be forced to remove English and ethnic channels from their grid and perhaps English newspapers and magazines should be banned.

Of course English schools would be banned, that's a no-brainer.

Perhaps those persons who show up to an emergency room describing their injury in English should be refused admission or fined $2,000.

Perhaps Mr. Pelltier or Mr. Prefontaine would suggest Laval, in order to maintain its francophone purity, open German style concentration camps for recalcitrant anglos or send those with
some hope of rehabilitation to Ho-Chi-Minh style re-education camps.

Perhaps Laval can set-up a Soviet-style Gulag for English refusniks on the grounds of the defunct  St-Vincent-de- Paul Penitentiary, where dangerous multi-cultural politicos can be safely ensconced so as not to infect the purity of the francophone majority.

Perhaps a clandestine group of francophone radicals can don white-hooded costumes and burn crosses in front of Laval synagogues and mosques, hoping to drive the impure back across the river to the heathen land of Montreal. 

Ridiculous?..damn right.

Almost every major city in North America has had to deal with the reality of immigration and the changing face of citizens.

Only in Quebec do people believe they can arrest reality and wind back the clock to a time of ethnic purity.

As for English in Carrefour Laval, too effing bad!