Thursday, June 23, 2011

Suggested Reading for the Fête St. Jean

 Here are some past post regarding the Fete Saint- celebration that you may find interesting;

Tuesday, June 23, 2009 

St. Jean Baptiste Day, Time To Get Out Of Town
The fact that the two anglophone acts, Bloodshot Bill and the band Lake of Stew were re-invited to perform in a Fete St-Jean show after being dis-invited should not be taken as a sign that the celebration is becoming more open towards minorities, nothing could be further from the truth.
The only reason for the re-integration of the anglos was the intolerable level of negative publicity.
After a couple of days of futilely defending the indefensible, organizers decided that it would be wiser to beat a tactical retreat...this time.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010


La Fête Nationale - 20% of Quebeckers Don't Count

The organizing committee of Montreal's  Fête St. Jean celebration held a news conference to announce it's plans for the big show in Maisonneuve Park and proudly and merrily let it be known that in no uncertain terms, English artists will be excluded.

There'll be no repeat of last year's fiasco where English artists were invited, dis-invited and then reinstated to perform at a local Fête Nationale celebration in a Montreal district.

To wild applause, the Comité de la Fête nationale de Montréal through it's spokesman Guy A. Lepage, proudly announced that the celebration in Maisonneuve park will be a French only affair.
"We have a panoply of artists this year, which I think, is very representative of the Quebec we know..."  Guy A. Lepage
Maybe Mr. Lepage doesn't know Quebec as well as he thinks. He ignores the fact that 20% of the population of Quebec is English or ethnic. Most of them live Montreal, pushing the percentage even higher in the city where this "French" only show will be held.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

René Levesque In A Skirt?
I finally got around to watching a recorded TV version of the Fete Saint Jean parade which was held on June 24th.
For most anglos, attending the parade is not high on the things-to-do-before-you-die list. The parade is so far out in the east end of Montreal that those of us who would wish to attend would need to pack a suitcase.
The short parade (1 hour) clearly suffers from a lack of sponsorship, it's plainly evident that there aren't too many companies keen to be identified with what is clearly a nationalist/sovereignist manifestation. The only sponsors I could make out (aside from the state monopolies) were Amaro water and Labatt's beer. It made for an amateurish and decidedly lame affair.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Fête St. Jean versus Fête Nationale -Which is it?
The recent brouhaha concerning the ousting and subsequent reinstatement of Anglo artists at Quebec's annual celebrations brings up an interesting question.
What exactly are we celebrating on June 24?

When I was young, there wasn't any doubt. The holiday was called 'La Fete St. Jean' and was a celebration of French Canadian culture. That was it, period.

36 comments:

  1. Tomorrow? A normal day like the others. I don't want to count, I don't give a fig if I don't count and I will never give a fig of it.
    Rain, rain, rain. Jupiter, make a big effort for tomorrow!

    WESTALLOPHONE++

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Most of them live Montreal"

    Ils sont physiquement a Montréal mais leur tête est ailleurs,au canada ou aux É-U.Détail non négligeable lorqu'il est temps de célébrer ce qui nous réunit.

    Westiti.Frogs really love rain.

    You're a frog,i'm a frog...Kiss me!And I'll turn into a prince...suddenly. -Robert Charlebois

    ReplyDelete
  3. Regarding franco - anglo relationship and the nationalist movements:

    I wrote a comment about 'Cap sur l'independence' movement and how they were trying to persuade anglophones and English allophones to support their cause. And this was despite all the vitriol that they kept on spewing.

    Now Imperatif francais is launching a campaign that on the surface seems to be friendly enough, asking anglos and allos to speak French in public spaces. But wait, when interviewed the reason why they were launching the campaign, the president of the movement simply could not help himself not to launch another insult the anglophones' way.

    http://www.imperatif-francais.org/bienvenu/articles/2011/etre-anglophone-et-vivre-au-quebec.html
    http://www.imperatif-francais.org/bienvenu/articles/2011/la-main-aux-anglophones.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. Press 9 said...

    "Most of them live Montreal"

    Ils sont physiquement a Montréal mais leur tête est ailleurs,au canada ou aux É-U.Détail non négligeable lorqu'il est temps de célébrer ce qui nous réunit.

    ________________________________________

    Mais justement, Pres 9, les anglophones ne se sentent pas comme s'ils ont droit de participer, et avec bonne raison..combien de fois ai-je entendue qu'un anglophone n'est pas un vrai Québécois?
    Pourquoi il y a tellement eu de débat quand 2 artistes anglophones étaient invités?
    Non....la St-Jean nous réunient pas, elle divise puisqu'elle est devenue une fête politique et non une fête pour le Québéc entier.

    Why would I want to participate when it's so unwelcoming to me as an anglophone?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Vous pouvez maintenant changer votre extension de votre domaine Internet pour une adresse .quebec ! 20% comme vous dites, ce n'est pas la majorité, si vous ne savez pas vous ouvrir aux gens qui forment la majorité, le problème vient plutôt de vous... De plus, le 20 % se compose de 10% de Québécois anglophones et de 10% de Néo-Québécois qui peut-être se sentent plus Québécois que les irréductibles du West Island qui n'est pas non plus la majorité de l'île de Montréal !

    ReplyDelete
  6. The July 7 2009 piece is pretty good. I couldn't stop laughing after playing the synchronized swimmers video. Also, the "géant" of Maurice Richard looked a little like Frankenstein, did he not?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous needs to study Sugar Sammy's work regarding ceux qui ont voté non. They (militant Anglophobe, separateux/nationaleux) are the minority within the majority that practice their ethno-nationalist politics of bigotry, territorial xenophobia - unfortunately the buggy code of this gang of street thugs, anglo-hate preachers through repetitive statements aimed at ethnically cleansing us from the province until WE assimilate and ‘know our place’ by the franco-fascists like MPQ head Serge Provost (who I had arrested, and will stand trial on August 29th). It would be so nice if the smart people stepped forward in QC and took leadership away from the Losership. Maybe Deltell could do this?
    I really like the MMF phrase: ‘une minorité anglophone particulièrement instruite et extrêmement mobile sur le plan professionnel’ - the reality, is that after all the propaganda that we are spoilt and mobile, even Judges use these 'let us make ourselves feel better about our discrimination` phrases to justify preventing the advancement of English speakers within the QC workplace, especially within the Civil service. Ultimately the Maitres-chez-nous crowd just want anglo-slaves who do not do their job and just cede to tyranny at any chance they can get away with, formerly using the false threat of separation to abuse their dominance with a province that is not losing its language, even after 400 years!
    Because the majority's sense of entitlement to exclude us from our own human right to express ourselves in our language on public holidays, the same is done within the govt workforce - hence we push for Minority Quotas (anglo-allo, etc) or ultimately a TAX refund for decades of completely disproportional representation in a govt we so dearly pay for and are discriminated against openly – in effect, institutionalised discrimination.

    ReplyDelete
  8. A good weekend to remind everyone that Montreal
    is still (in spite of racist morons) the third
    largest English community in Canada.

    Happy St. Johnny's Day all. Pity the
    sepperheads had to "screw it up", like every-
    thing else they touch.

    DD

    ReplyDelete
  9. Who would want to go to the SJBD to celebrate bigotry and discimination.

    ReplyDelete
  10. "A good weekend to remind everyone that Montreal
    is still (in spite of racist morons) the third
    largest English community in Canada."

    A good weekend to remind everyone that Ontario
    is still (in spite of racist morons) the second
    largest French community in Canada.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hugo, you post is spot on, and it reminded me of an article I read recently in the metro paper. The article was written by the Imperatif Francais guy (Perrault, I think), and its gist was that the IF is extending its hand to anglos and allos and is inviting them to live in French. The article was along the same lines as what you implied in your post - you're welcome to be with us, but only if you do as we say.

    The article has been posted to the IF website: http://www.imperatif-francais.org/bienvenu/articles/2011/la-main-aux-anglophones.html

    It ends with a rather funny line, except that Perrault didn't write this with irony, he meant it literally:

    Nous ne voulons d’ailleurs pas imposer le français dans la vie privée des gens, seulement dans l’espace public.

    ReplyDelete
  12. "...the "géant" of Maurice Richard looked a little like Frankenstein..."

    Effectivement,on dirait un polonais qui s'étouffe en avalant toute une saucisse XD!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Je me souviens d'être allé assister à un spectacle de Jean Leloup au Festival Franco-ontarien à Ottawa, il y a de ça plusieurs années. C'était un 24 juin, fête de la Saint-Jean-Baptiste, ceux qui avaient eu l'initiative de porter des éléments aux couleurs du Québec se faisaient insulter dans la rue par des personnes portant supposées être selon plusieurs blogueurs de No Dogs or Anglophones être très tolérants et ouverts d'esprit... J'espère que vous sentez le sarcasme ! Bonne fête nationale ! Bonne Saint-Jean !

    ReplyDelete
  14. "...you're welcome to be with us, but only if you do as we say..."

    Nous ne faisons qu'appliquer les mêmes règles que le ROC.Quelle langue parle un Québécois a toronto?
    Ceci-dit,vous pouvez parlez la langue que vous voulez a la maison et cela s'applique aussi a vote religion.Petit rappel aux anglos et allos: Le Québec est français et laic.

    ReplyDelete
  15. @Anonyme 4:19 pm

    Très vrai pour l'avoir vécu.Bonne fête national a toi aussi frère,ainsi qu'a tous les étrangers qui vivent parmi nous mais qui ont la tête ailleurs!

    Bonne St-Jean!

    ReplyDelete
  16. @ kiki et gogo

    La campagne d'Impératif Français met l'accent sur les jeunes,pas sur les plus vieux qui ont été mal oientés et qui ont prit de mauvais plis.

    Bonne St-Jean Baptiste!

    ReplyDelete
  17. ...to Hugo: "...a TAX refund for decades of completely disproportional representation in a govt we so dearly pay for and are discriminated against openly – in effect, institutionalised discrimination."

    Now that I have left the jurisdiction of my birth, this is why I'm pushing for a federal political party to MAKE Quebec pay for the grief they caused the Real Canada--including the city where you were born. Sadly, a tax refund is not in the cards; in fact, that's a pipedream and a joke.

    The Real Canada can give itself a payback by butchering transfer payments made to Quebec, once and for all. Quebec has lost its leverage as far as the "pay us or we'll leave" strategy goes. I have written before that I dare, double dare and triple dare Quebec to leave. Greece is about to meet its doom unless the IMF and World Bank are stupid enough to let more good money chase the bad. Ireland, the Iberian Peninsula countries will be next and before too long, Quebec will hit the wall when they can't float anymore bond issues, unless the feds are stupid enough to allow it. Maybe they can do it in American money so our dollar doesn't suffer.

    ReplyDelete
  18. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew:

    In due course John the Baptist appeared; he proclaimed this message in the desert of Judea,

    "Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is close at hand."

    This was the man spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said: A voice of one that cries in the desert, "Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths." This man John wore a garment made of camel-hair with a leather loin-cloth round his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.

    Then Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole Jordan district made their way to him, and as they were baptized by him in the river Jordan they confessed their sins.

    But when he saw a number of Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism he said to them, 'You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming retribution? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance,
    and do not presume to tell yourselves, "We have Jacques Cartier as our father. We are pure line Quebeckers," because, I tell you, God can raise pure line Quebeckers from these very stones."

    ReplyDelete
  19. I wish Press 9 and his fascist friends a thoroughly wet and rotten Johnny Baptist Day tomorrow! Hopefully lightning will strike their parade of fools!

    ReplyDelete
  20. I saw the 'Imperatif Français' commercial on CBC. How dare they!!! What a stupid hate group.

    "Pourquoi avez-vous choisi de cibler particulièrement les Québécois anglophones?

    >Nous déplorons l’arrogance des Anglo-Québécois qui imposent l’anglais partout."

    http://www.imperatif-francais.org/bienvenu/articles/2011/la-main-aux-anglophones.html

    ReplyDelete
  21. @Anonymous

    That's a really dangerous reasoning right there. Just because "the majority" does this or thinks that ...doesn't mean you should conform. What's wrong with West Islanders? I bet your West Island experience is limited to going to the airport.

    "si vous ne savez pas vous ouvrir aux gens qui forment la majorité, le problème vient plutôt de vous... "

    ReplyDelete
  22. "Nous ne voulons d’ailleurs pas imposer le français dans la vie privée des gens, seulement dans l’espace public."

    I am puzzled... does it mean that if I am at the market I have to address my husband in Fr??? Seriously?

    ReplyDelete
  23. "Mais justement, Pres 9, les anglophones ne se sentent pas comme s'ils ont droit de participer, et avec bonne raison..combien de fois ai-je entendue qu'un anglophone n'est pas un vrai Québécois?"

    Désolé de vous apprendre que j'ai quelques amis anglophones et qu'ils n'ont aucun problème a se mêler aux autres.Cela tient beaucoup plus a la personnalité qu'a la langue.Ce n'est pas tous les francophones qui aiment Paul Piché et pas tous les anglophones qui apprécient arcade fire.

    ReplyDelete
  24. "I am puzzled... does it mean that if I am at the market I have to address my husband in Fr??? Seriously?"

    C'est pourtant ce que ma conjointe et moi faisons lorsque nous sommes a Toronto ou aux
    É-U.Nous parlons entre-nous en français mais lorsque nous devons faires des transactions dans l'espace publique,nous communiquons en anglais.
    Qu'y a-t-il de sorcier a agir de cette façon?

    ReplyDelete
  25. Ok, so if I tell my husband that we forgot to pick up milk, should I do it in French? Isn't it a bit extreme? What if I want to speak in Klingon? do you people have a problem with that?

    .. and please don't give me that "What do you mean by you people?"

    ReplyDelete
  26. Press 9, nice try. Perrault was not this specific and he didn't elaborate, but it seems that he meant public space in general, which implies that even people who would prefer to communicate in English amongst themselves should do it in French.

    Your comparison to Toronto is pure bs (as in bullshit, not bien-être social). There is no way that there are as many people in TO who would be able and willing to communicate in French as there are people in MTL who can and want to communicate in English. So you have to use English in TO because the chance of running into someone who’d know French is close to none. In Montreal, the chances are very high.

    Let me ask you this: have you ever read a headline that said: "Toronto se fracise". Well, I read one that said: "Montreal s’anglicise" not so long ago.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Actuellement nous utilisons la méthode polie et nous vous demandons gentiment de respecter la langue officielle de la majorité.

    Le jour ou le Québec entrera dans une autre guerre linguistique provoqué par une poignée d'anglos récalcitrants (comme vous) de Montréal,votre minorité y laissera encore des plumes.Alors soyez raisonnables et évitez la confrontation qui pourrait troubler notre belle paix linguistique.

    De plus adski je ne vois pas beaucoup d'anglouilles (anglos réberbatifs) aux manifestations contre la loi 101.
    D'ailleurs ou étiez-vous cette journée-la?

    ReplyDelete
  28. "nous utilisons la méthode polie"

    Being loud and obnoxious is not a polite method.

    "nous vous demandons gentiment de respecter la langue officielle de la majorité."

    Get a life.

    ReplyDelete
  29. "Get a life."

    C'est vous qui ne vivez qu'a moitié.
    Un anglo qui refuse son environnement francophone.Moi ma vie se passe plutôt bien en français et en anglais lorsque je suis a l'extérieur de mon pays.

    Pauvre adski,Je sais très bien que l'utilisation de notre langue vous fait souffrir mais pourquoi avoir choisi délibèrément un milieu francophone?Aidez-moi a comprendre,quelqu'un.

    N'oubliez pas que nous sommes la pour faciliter votre intégration et celle de vos enfants avec nos 20 nouvelles écoles francophones près de chez vous.

    "loud and obnoxious"? Nous?

    Vous n'exagérez pas un peu adski?

    ReplyDelete
  30. "What if I want to speak in Klingon? do you people have a problem with that?"

    Non.Tout sauf l'anglais.

    ReplyDelete
  31. "What if I want to speak in Klingon? do you people have a problem with that?"

    "Non.Tout sauf l'anglais."

    The seppies are most hostile to English, but they are also opposed to the free expression of other languages. The OQLF (Quebec Gestapo) harassed storeowners in Montreal's Chinatown about the Chinese characters on their signs.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Really doesn't matter. French and especially the Joual comme les Quebecois is doomed to extinction. Not long until full assimilation

    Swimming upstream in the rapids is not all that wise. This, of curse, is the method of the language zealots in Quebec.

    Losing cause, french, with all the rules and total lack of precision, is losing the war. This is why the language zealots in Quebec are so pissed off. They are losing the war, even with draconian and discriminatory laws such as as 101. Even assisted and aided by government laws of discrimination and bigotry, French is dieing a slow death. Good!!!!

    Very hard to admit failure. Maintenaut, Vivre vos vies en anglaise et profitere. :) Laissez votre francais a la porte.

    ReplyDelete
  33. "Not long until full assimilation"

    Nous étions 15,000 il y a 400 ans et nous sommes aujourd'hui près de 8 millions au canaya et toujours pas assimilés.Je ne crois pas que l'assimilation soit pour demain...Désolé!

    En passant,comment vont vos cours de FLS.Français Langue Seconde?

    ReplyDelete
  34. "Je ne crois pas que l'assimilation soit pour demain...Désolé!"

    Finally an honest admission. So the next logical step is to admit that the so called "defense of language" is nothing but an excuse, a pretext for Quebec's language policy.

    ReplyDelete
  35. "Je ne crois pas que l'assimilation soit pour demain...Désolé!"


    Mais cela ne veut pas dire que la partie est gagnée pour autant et que nous devons baissée la garde,bien au contraire, surtout avec l'anglicisation accellérée de MTL ces dernières années.

    ReplyDelete
  36. "Mais cela ne veut pas dire que la partie est gagnée pour autant et que nous devons baissée la garde,bien au contraire, surtout avec l'anglicisation accellérée de MTL ces dernières années. "

    In other words, permanent never-ending struggle, with no end is sight. This is an old concept originated by Trotsky, and was later picked up by the neocons (many of who are former Trotskyists) in their permanent war scheme. Various movements, (e.g. feminists, labor unions) follow the same pattern. The latest instance of this is the so called gay rights movement.

    Ask a feminist about the purpose of her ideology, and her answer will be identical to the one given by Press 9: a lot has been done, by there is "a lot more" to do. The fact that most grievances brought forth by the original suffragettes have been fulfilled is irrelevant. What's relevant is the new issues invented on daily basis so as to keep the "movement" alive and kicking. A lot of people make a living off of it, so it's in their interest to keep it afloat. Personal interests under the guise of collective ones plus drummed up and exaggerated grievances. Quebec "separatism" is no different.

    ReplyDelete