Weekend Update Volume 33

Quebec versus Florida- Vehicular Homicide 

Most Montrealers are familiar with the horrific hit and run incident that cost the life of a Laval teenager last September. 15-year-old Rona Mansourian was killed when an unlicensed scofflaw ran a red light while speeding, passed three cars, struck the girl and fled the scene. The teen was thrown into the path of a bus and died of internal injuries in hospital. Link

The 23 year old driver was a serial offender, driving without a valid license while awaiting trial on a fraud charge.
According to the placard held by a protester in the picture on the right, the driver, Robert Bélanger, just 23, has already had quite a few problems with the law.
You can imagine the surprise and fury of the family when the prosecutors recommended a five-year sentence (free in 1½ years?) Even the judge commented that it wasn't harsh enough..... Link 

Robert Bélanger, will be sentenced on SEPTEMBER 2.

Now lets compare this sad story to that of a Floridian (with no prior criminal record at all) who killed three Montrealers while driving drunk. Kenneth Jenkins, 28, drove the wrong way up highway I-95 in Florida and collided with a car full of vacationers.
At the trial, the judge was not amused and handed down a real sentence.
Guess how many years he got?  9 years, 18 years, 24 years or 33 years?
Read the story, it's interesting. LINK

Distracted bus driver "no big deal" according to union.  

Ah, those cell-phone cameras, they'll do it to you every time. As you can see in this video, a Gatineau bus driver was caught in 'flagrant delit' filling out paperwork while driving.

 

Now these type of incidents are certainly not isolated to Quebec. You can go on YouTube and find many idiot bus drivers driving while texting, talking on phones or what not.
What is interesting in this story is the reaction of the bus driver's union who took an unconventional avenue of defence.
Now all unions defend their members, it's to be expected. In this case I'd imagine the union would claim that the driver was  just having a bad day and made a mistake for which he shouldn't be crucified. If the driver had a good record it would be trotted out as an excuse for leniency.
But that's not the position the union took and that is what makes the story stand out.

A spokesman for the union claimed that the driving filling out paperwork isn't that big a deal, "After all, women drive while putting on makeup and teens send text messages while driving all the time.."
The union rep went on to say that the real culprit in all this was not the driver, but rather the passenger that filmed the incident. Claiming that the driver's privacy rights were violated, he went on to demand that the transport company ban anyone from filming on a bus.LINK{Fr} LINK

Hapless mayor reassures Montreal over falling  concrete.
How jittery are Montrealers over falling bridges and raining concrete? Very....
When a piece of concrete hit a car passing under a viaduct in northern Montreal, the mayor rushed to the scene to calm fears.

After a quick inspection engineers discovered that the grapefruit size piece of concrete didn't fall off the bridge. LINK
A beaming mayor assured cameras that citizens should feel safe that the bridges were intact. What he failed to warn citizens was what the police told him, that it was probably some nutbar who threw the concrete at the car driving below.

That's right! Nothing to worry about!

At any rate the mayor needn't have rushed to the scene, it was very unlikely that the bridge was falling apart.
You see the viaduct was built by Canadian Pacific, not the province or the city and as such is probably one of the safest bridges in the city......

Quebec Communist movement losing steam ?

For the past couple of years, The Quebec Communist Party (Yes it still exists) has been holding a summer 'training' session at the chalet of the Khadir family in the Eastern Townships. Once again, Amir's wealthy capitalist father, (a bit of a contradiction for a communist) opened his home this last weekend to a celebration of Communist and socialist values, with the traditional slagging of Canada, the United States and you know which other country.

According to the pictures posted on this year's affair it was a modest  attendance falling off dramatically from last year. In fact you can count the amount of participants using nothing but your ten fingers. Last year's event would have required toes as well.
Check out the story and picture gallery! HERE

Funny Quebec accent leads to vicious assault.

Quebeckers visiting France have long had the locals sneer and mock their Quebecois accent, but this is the first I ever heard of things turning violent.
A report from Dublin tells the sad story of a young French doctor on loan to a local hospital asking two Quebeckers for a cigarette in a local bar. An ensuing argument over the Quebecois' accent led to an altercation that sent the doctor to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
LINK 

Minister not amused by mystery shoppers.

Minister lectures language commissioner

"Heritage Minister James Moore doesn't agree with the federal language watchdog's decision to spy on Ottawa businesses. 

Moore, who oversees official languages, said his government believes it's important to protect and promote both English and French in Canada, but in this case, Official Languages commissioner Graham Fraser has overstepped his mandate.

“It is not the federal government's business to police the language in which private businesses communicate with their customers,” Read the story

Gilles Duceppe gets job with CBC, then gets fired

"With his party’s stunning defeat in the last federal election, which included losing his own seat, behind him, former Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe is poised to become a weekly commentator on Radio-Canada, the CBC’s French-language division." Link

"You are getting sleepy. You will hire me. You will give me money."

It seemed that Gilles Duceppe endless pursuit of the federal gravy train had struck paydirt as it was announced that he secured an on-air job at the CBC French division. This coupled with a $140K Parliamentary pension (indexed) for life would assure that Canadians across the country would continue to fund the propagation of separatist ideology over the public airways.
Radio-Canada's mandate has always been to foster Canadian unity by providing an Canadian optic on the news and entertainment. But for the last forty years, the public broadcaster has been a hotbed of separatist sentiment and while Canadians in the ROC shook their heads in disbelief at the announcement of the Duceppe job at Radio-Canada, here in Quebec it made perfect sense.
Then on Thursday, the shit must have hit the fan in the Ivory Tower of Radio-Canada offices in east-end Montreal with senior management reconsidering the decision. Duceppe was unceremoniously dumped citing blah, blah, blah, reasons. Perhaps mindful of the Conservative governments latest blast at the English CBC, when Minister Vic Toews publicly rebuked the public broadcaster for refusing to air a most-wanted terrorist list, with the un-stated threat that there would be funding consequences, the CBC also reconsidered that decision. Perhaps the CBC and Radio-Canada's journalistic independence is not as strong as we are led to believe, as they remain mindful of the old dictum, that it's unwise to bite the hand that feeds you. Read a rant in the National Post

Minister backs down over Arab immigration

Quebec Immigration minister, Kathleen Weil, did an about face and has announced that the government has abandoned the idea of restricting immigration from North Africa (a euphamism for Arab Muslims)
In April, during a presentation on the orientations of Quebec in immigration for period 2012-2015, Mrs Weil had said that she favoured more diversity as to the provenance of the immigrants.
This is in reaction to reports that Arab immigration to Quebec from North Africa had reached 37% of the total.
Mrs Weil noted on Wednesday that the plan to place limits based on 'geography' lacked "social acceptability" and public support for the plan was just not there. LINK{Fr} 

Vermont town proposes to accomodate Quebec tourists

The town of Burlington, Vermont announced a proposal in city council to encourage local business' to encourage Quebec tourists by offering some services in French.
The proposal is not binding, but asks everyone to try just a little bit to make the town a tourist destination for unilingual Quebeckers.
As you might guess, the francophone press in Quebec greeted the news with enthusiasm and likely approved of this 'reasonable accommodation." LINK{FR}

Not everyone in Vermont is pleased over the proposal. Read a humorous blog piece written by a local. Burlington City Council Proposal to Make BTV a Québec Colony

By the way, does anybody see the irony in this story?
The Quebec francophone press gushing over a language accommodation wherein they applaud the concept of merchants attempting to serve customers in the clients own language?