Weekend Update - Volume 32

Note to Readers
I've renamed the ever-popular (ahem?..) "French versus English " column, which will now go under the very un-original name of Weekend Update.
The column will become a regular feature, usually appearing on Friday and will include the usual French versus English type stories as in the past, as well as interesting tidbits that you may find of interest.

French-only sign offers English services.

A letter to the editor in the Montreal Gazette caught my attention for its unintentional irony.

" Re: "Health Care in English" (Your Views, July 22). These signs are on all wards at the Centre Hospitalier Régional du Grand-Portage in Rivière du Loup, where I work as a dépanneur-locum."- Jeffrey Brock, Baie D'Urfe

I won't bother directing you to the online version of this story, it doesn't attach the picture of the sign that is included in the print version of the Gazette. I had to use my camera to capture it, so the quality is a bit lacking.
For those without any French, the French-only sign tells English speakers that they can get service in English by just asking (in French?)

Do you need service in English? Better read French!

It reminds me of a highway sign along Highway 20 near Quebec city that informs motorists that they can tune into an English radio station for tourist information. The whole sign was in French!
INFORMATION TOURISTIQUE - ANGLAIS - RADIO 104.9...really.

Complaint smacks of  false concern

A letter on vigile.net from a member of the Reseau de resistance du Quebecois is a classic example of a concern troll, a contributor who pretends to be sympathetic, whilst actually trying to stir up trouble.

Read this bullshit....

"A sad situation persists for months in the riding of Sherbrooke, where the sign of Premier Jean Charest on King Street West, is in an extreme state of disrepair"...(blah...blah..blah) ....Sherbrooke residents deserve a little more respect from their MP, so we ask him to remedy this deeply deplorable situation." LINK{FR}

Sylvain Meunier -Reseau de resistance du Quebecois

Now I'm not making any accusations, but aren't those black stickers on the defaced sign a signature of the RRQ?
And who exactly is the likeliest culprit to have defaced the sign.

Methinks of the arsonist who pulls the fire alarm...

Air Canada - French Fine Breeds hate  

The French media was taken aback to reaction in the English community over Air Canada's fine for not having a bilingual employee available to serve a bilingual  francophone passenger in French.

An article in a French news site ran a story entitled "Air Canada triggers a stream of hate by Anglophones towards the French speakers" The article claimed that in light of the ruling that Air Canada pay $12,000, anglophones unleashed a stream of hate in the comments section under a story published online in the Globe and Mail. LINK{FR}

That ever trustworthy site Ameriquebec, translated some of the more salty missives for the benefit of their readers. LINK{FR}

By the way, the original complainer is none other than Michel Thibodeau, an Ottawa federal government employee who is a serial language complainer, who launched among other things,

"a complaint against OC Transpo public transit company, demanding that it enforce its policy of treating francophones and anglophones equally. That entails greeting passengers, calling out stops and making announcements in both languages, he said.

"So that francophones don't feel left out," he added."

I wonder if riders in Montreal feel left out when metro and bus announcements are made in French only?

The Law is the Law
Here is an interesting letter to the editor that I came across;

It was Thursday of last week, the day of my son's prom.... As we were invited to a pre-cocktail in the afternoon hosted by the parents of one of his friends, I stopped at the nearest branch of the SAQ, not to arrive empty-handed. My son asked me to buy him "something special" to drink late at night with friends after the prom. Dressed in his beautiful rented tuxedo and bow tie slightly askew, he accompanied me in the store and we agreed on a 10 oz bottle of dark rum - to share in the form of rum & coke - I laid it on the counter next to a bottle of Italian sparkling. The clerk immediately asked for an ID card for my son. I intervened by saying that I was his mother and was the one purchasing these products. "No, madame, the law is the law." which an austere supervisor confirmed. Taken aback, I first insisted that I approved this purchase and then that I loved the dark rum. Nothing worked: They just wouldn't let me purchase that bottle and I had to raise my voice for them to let me finally leave with the one destined for the cocktail party. I was shocked and insulted at seeing my right to grant a privilege to my son violated...

My son turns 18 in a few months, he finished high school with an average above 80 and is a quiet boy. Moreover, he does not have a driver's license and as he takes a taxi to return home when it's late and so I feel comfortable in allowing him to get pasted on prom night! Maybe a little alcohol in the blood will help him overcome his shyness and allow him to flirt with the girls. The corporation has decided to interfere in our family life, to absurdly treat me as a child, much as my boy. I could have gone alone to any branch and get a 40 oz bottle of gin for my son and there's nothing the nanny-state would have been able to do about it. However, in all innocence, I went with him to the SAQ, discussed drinking, put on limits and finally agreeing with him on a small plastic bottle. Ultimately, I was denied my parental authority. My maternal authority has been completely devalued in an episode of ridiculous political correctness. It is the drug dealers that are far more damaging, rubbing their hands in glee at the great ethical concern of the SAQ. What rigidity and most importantly, what hypocrisy! -Chantal Mantha .............Read the original letter in French

I'm sure many of us sympathize with the mother, but how many of us would write a letter to the editor, describing our attempt to flout the law?
And what kind of newspaper would print such a letter?

It's summer in Montreal = Flooding!

An underpass at L'Acadie boulevard remains Montreal's most dangerous spot to be when it rains hard.  The drainage system is unable to cope with copious amounts of water and floods rather badly, a couple of times a year.

We're used to seeing pictures like the one on the right and aren't particularly surprised anymore.

But even hardened Montrealers were taken aback by this flooding incident, which one would assume could only happen in a third world country.

After a summer downpour, a manhole cover exploded on Wolfe Street, between Ste-Catherine Street and René-Lévesque Boulevard. YIKES!

(Video submitted by Michael Vidde, Montreal.)

Here's an old one, but one of my favourite flooding stories;

Farmer needs fishing license to clear flooded farm

"SABREVOIS, Que. - Bureaucrats have added insult to injury for a corn farmer south of Montreal whose fields have been damaged by near-record flooding.

Martin Reid says he's been forced to buy a fishing licence to remove carp that are swimming in a metre of water on his flooded-out fields.

He says he bought the permit to avoid the problems he faced the last time he was forced to remove fish from his flooded farmland. In 1993, Reid was fined $1,000 for illegal fishing.

"My father and I ... were charged by Fisheries and Oceans Canada," Reid recalled. "We were jointly responsible for having caused the death of fish for reasons other than sport fishing."

Reid says the fine will jump to $100,000 if he's cited a second time."

More of the story in the TORONTO SUN

Quebec Emergency Room Wait times grow longer

Florida billboard- 15 minutes wait!

Emergency room wait times in Quebec hospitals grew half an hour longer, reaching an average of 17 hours and six minutes.
Average wait time in the USA is about four hours.
In Ontario wait times are much, much better, with the only problem being Toronto where the time wasted in the ER waiting room is up to 12 hours..
The longest wait times in the province were at the Gatineau campus of the Gatineau hospital, where the average wait time was 25 hours....yup more than one whole day!
Ontario has set a goal of eight hours while Quebec is setting a more modest target of 12 hours.
Good luck!
If you still think US health care stinks compared to our Medicare, read a comprehensive comparison by one of Quebec's best francophone bloggers. READ IT HERE
Even if you don't speak French most of the article is in English and the charts are easy to follow.
Very eye-opening!

Union opposes progress

Hydro-Quebec is advancing a plan to install intelligent meters that can be read at a distance, thus eliminating up to 800 meter readers. Clearly the union representing employees doesn't see it as progress.
Said a union spokesman "We are not against progress, but we find that spending $1 billion and with the resulting  loss of 1,000 jobs on a project based on a presumption, is unacceptable,."said the president of the Quebec wing of the union Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE-Quebec), Lucie Levasseur
Hydro has already promised to re-integrate a least 500 of these employees elsewhere in the company, but it's not good enough for the union which is demanding nothing less than a public inquiry.


Journalism 101..duh!

Metro Montreal- proves you get what you pay for (the newspaper is free)

Big Headline:     HEATWAVE CLAIMS TEN VICTIMS
Little Headline: Ten people died during the heatwave, but the causes of the deaths are unknown.

Gilles Proulx -Anglophobe

Gilles Proulx has spent a broadcast career flinging the most offensive and racist insults at any and all groups in Quebec that are not francophone. He has a particular hate-on for anglophones and Natives.
His latest missive is a rant against Bell Telephone who had the audicity to send him an English speaking installer who allegedly spoke no French.
These type of 'speak white' stories are prone to exageration, but we will for arguments sake take this blowhard at his word.
It seems that the demand for service on July 1 is very heavy due to Quebec's nonsensical policy of having all residential leases start and end on July1st.  It creates an unbelievable burden on movers, Bell, Hydro etc.
But a universal moving day seems to make sense in Quebec, especially when it is scheduled on Canada's national holiday, another sad attempt to denigrate Canada.

In the past, because of the heavy demand created by so many moves, you'd have to wait a couple of days to have a new phone connected, but recently Bell started bringing extra help from other provinces to cope with the craziness of Quebec's moving day.
Some of these extra workers don't speak French and I guess they are assigned to Montreal where most people are bilingual.
To Mr. Proulx, this of course is an outrageous insult and bitter betrayal. He ranted and raved in a newspaper column over the injustice.

The question remains, is it more important to have a Francophone installer a few days later or an Anglophone installer right now? Especially when one is bilingual.
Mr. Proulx went on to tell readers that when he retold his story on television, the crew were rolling their eyes at him, as if he were a "hysterical mental patient, obsolete."  LINK{FR}

Gilles Duceppe won't  go away

In an interview on RDI, June 21, Gilles Duceppe justified Quebec sovereignty in these terms:  

"If Quebeckers, within 15 years, will not move, they will inevitably be on the same slope as the Franco-Ontarians and the Acadians." It is a rapid assimilation, we should not hide from  the truth." 

 It seems that in order to remain relevant Mr Duceppe is upping the rhetoric, in a sad attempt to rekindle the separatist debate that has been firmly placed on the backburner by Quebec voters. The trouble for Mr. Duceppe is that he is yesterday's news, with little or no chance at a political comeback. He has come to symbolize failure and for a politician, it's the kiss of death.

You'd think he'd get a reaction after making the above statement and he did. It wasn't what he expected.

In an article in Le Devoi, Michel Paillé, took Mr. Duceppe to task. Using statistics, instead of emotion, the demgrapher showed that Mr. Duceepe's assertion is nothing but hot air.
According to him, in fifteen years there will be more French-speaking Quebeckers than there are now, hardly the road to assimilation.

Even if Quebec's proportion of Canada's population declines, Quebec's French society is still growing and is no danger of assimilation.  LINK{FR}

Quebec Anglo ex-pats remain loyal

McGill sweatshirt on House M.D

Over the years hundreds of thousands of anglophone Quebeckers made the trek to greener pastures to find opportunity or to escape the maddening language situation.
New York, Toronto, Calgary and Los Angeles have large communities of ex-Montrealers  who have made a new life for themselves not without certain pangs of regret for the old hometown.

Hollywood has a slew of Montrealers toiling in the movie and television industry and it is always nice when they slip a Montreal reference into a television show or movie, tip of the hat to their old hometown

Here's a scene of Thirty Rock;