Monday, September 19, 2011

HEC Blackface Underscores Racist Undercurrent


One of the recurring themes in Quebec media is the complaint by French language militants that not enough immigrants assimilate into Quebec francophone culture and that their unwillingness to become 'good' Quebecers represents a betrayal of the implied contract that they made in immigrating to Quebec.

These militants continue to feed the stereotype of immigrants as lazy welfare bums, who congregate in ghettos, speak and dress as they did back in their homeland and live off the hard work of others. (read: francophone Quebecers)

It's a neat story that reminds Quebecers that the very identity of Quebec francophone society is at stake and unless immigrants are brought to heal, society will be overrun.
It's a story that places whatever blame there is to apportion over this non-assimilation on the backs of the immigrants and neatly absolves Quebeckers themselves of any responsibility.

And so bigots like Gilles Proulx continue to rail against immigrants, reminding viewers and readers at every opportunity that the pure, innocent, open and inclusive Quebeckers are being overrun by immigrant parasites without any real rebuttal or public outrage.  Here's Mr. Proulx's latest screed

The pages of Vigile.net are replete with complaints that blacks are over-represented in the National Assembly or that there are too many ethnics on television. Type in the word  'Immigrants' into the website's search engine and you'll get close to 900 stories, the vast majority negative, many racist.

Bathed in self-pity, these militants portray themselves as innocent victims of English language and English cultural oppression and justify their discrimination against immigrants as legitimate pushback.

And so sentimental tripe as this poem/song is typical of the persecution complex that stokes the fires of intolerance and confrontation;


Last week during Frosh week a group of students from the l'École des hautes études commerciales (HÉC), the elite business school which is part of the  l'Université de Montréal dressed up in blackface as some sort of salute to Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.

While the students were Shouting "Ya Mon!'  and 'Smoke More Weed!' a passing McGill university student (who is black) took offence and filmed the students briefly.


I won't characterize the students as racist, but if ever there was an incident that screamed for sensitivity training, this certainly is it.
Had this incident taken place in Rimouski or Chicoutimi, where a Black person on the street is as rare as a Chinese person in a Chinese restaurant, I might have understood the insensitivity, but one would think that elite students, in a city that is 25% ethnic would understand that their actions would cause offence.
I can't imagine an incident of this type occurring in any English university in Canada without engendering a physical confrontation with other students and without disciplinary consequences by the university afterwards.

Such is the state of affairs in Quebec where all is forgiven because, tut, tut, the students 'meant no harm.'
In fact the over-riding consensus in Quebec is that the incident is being overblown.

Put on blackface as a joke in any western country and you can pretty much expect to draw criticism:

KKK and blackface costumes shut down Ontario Legion
Blackface Obama billboard sparks outrage
Northwestern Students In Blackface Spark Outrage 

The ho-hum reaction to the incident underscores rather neatly a depressing social gap that exists in Quebec and so while the story is no big deal here, it certainly is elsewhere, where a report of the incident was deemed newsworthy as far away as Britain's Daily Mail

I can't really blame the students, they probably saw no harm in what they did, but therein lies the problem.

Every day, Quebec Francophone media portrays immigrants in the most negative and stereotypical manner, concentrating on differences instead of similarities. Read: When racism goes mainstream


Although Quebecers are inherently no more racist than other Canadians, the unrelenting attacks on immigrants and incessant ethnic-bashing has a cumulative effect.

So who's fault is it that immigrants have such a hard time assimilating into Francophone society?

If you believe the language militants, it's the immigrants and the English that bear all the responsibility.
Francophones remain, as the narrative goes, innocent as always, open and welcoming to those immigrants who embrace French.

It is,  as they say in Quebec, utter 'bullsheet,
The myth that Quebec is a welcoming society is the great lie of the immigration debate.

If Quebec immigrants have a staggeringly high unemployment rate, much higher than in other provinces, it must be because Quebec immigrants are somehow lazier than those who immigrate to Ontario or British Columbia! Such is the conventional wisdom offered by French militants and the fact that immigrants are consistently shut out of jobs, on an ongoing and institutional basis, plays no role in this reality.

As I've pointed out before, anecdotal stories are always dangerous, but so many exist about the abuse of immigrants, that it's hard to ignore the fact that they are systematically discriminated against in Quebec, especially in the workplace.

Read this story about an immigrant who was refused an interview 19 times until he submitted a resume with a 'Quebecois' sounding name. Resumé being ignored? Try a name change. 

Here's an article from France instructing Frenchmen how to apply for a job in Quebec, which apparantly isn't that easy because as the article says;
"Let's face it, there are still some prejudices against the French." (from France-ed.)
So even the French from France complain that they are discriminated against in the Quebec job market!

If Quebec militants tell us they  are welcoming of immigrants, as long as they speak French, read this; Racism rocks PSAC Montreal office 

Attitudes in Quebec are shaped by language and as long as immigrants are portrayed as a threat to Quebec culture and the French language, they will suffer discrimination. The unrelenting negative portrayal of immigrants has  the effect of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Sadly it is this discrimination that chases many over to the English side of the language equation where they are more comfortable and so we get the proverbial 'vicious circle.'

As  for blackface, HEC students should be reminded that the era of the genre is long-gone and I gotta tell you, watching this ancient clip of Al Jolson makes me a tad uncomfortable!


89 comments:

  1. Quebecois people (not all mind you) are as racist as they come. Having lived here my entire life and having to listen to and witness their racist "jokes" and antics I came to that conclusion while I was still in grade school. They seriously believe they are Gods as compared to other people from different backgrounds and expect to be treated as such yet they are, by in large, a self-centered and an uneducated, ignorant lot that live in this bubble that is Quebec. Your blog hit the nail on the head. The HEC incident will be sloughed off as a silly frosh week stunt by the Quebecois media but it points to a serious lack of understanding by these asshole students of Black history and the struggles they had to deal with and still do! This is not acceptable and they need to know why.ng lived here my entire life and having to listen to and witness their racist "jokes" and antics I came to that conclusion while I was still in grade school. They seriously believe they are Gods as compared to other people from different backgrounds and expect to be treated as such yet they are, by in large, a self-centered and an uneducated, ignorant lot that live in this bubble that is Quebec. Your blog hit the nail on the head. The HEC incident will be sloughed off as a silly frosh week stunt by the Quebecois media but it points to a serious lack of understanding by these asshole students of Black history and the struggles they had to deal with and still do! This is not acceptable and they need to know why.

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  2. It's simple. The reason why immigrants don't assimilate is that there aren't enough native French speakers to assimilate them. French Quebeckers do not have enough kids and their population does not allow them to assimilate immigrants. It's simple. If you only speak French on a formal basis as part of a job or for a request for government services, and you don't speak French to your family, friends, neighbours etc as part of your daily life, you will not assimilate. And neither will your children. This is what happens in Montreal. Don't blame the immigrants. Blame the policy that relies on immigration as a solution to demographic problems. You can welcome immigrants for a number of valid reasons, but you can't hope to preserve language and culture on the one hand and then allow large numbers of immigrants on the other. They do not know the language and culture and they don't have the vested interest in preserving it. This is not blaming them, it's simply stating reality.The job of increasing the population and preserving culture belongs squarely on the shoulders of those who have been here for a couple of generations at least, not on new arrivals.

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  3. Uh, Suzanne: Quebec is 80% French speaking! What percentage do you have in mind? With 4 out of 5 Quebeckers speaking French, that doesn't sound like a shortage to me.

    Besides, the Roman Catholic church is mostly to blame for the problems of today, coupled with the politicians who allowed and encouraged the Church to preach their false doctrine.

    Mordechai Richler was right whether you want to believe it or not! «Pur laine» women absolutely, 100% were the sows he recited in his New Yorker magazine piece and his subsequent book, "Oh Canada! Oh Quebec!" They cranked out babies like manufactured goods on assembly lines! The Church encouraged uncontrolled procreation! It was called «La revanche des berceaux» or Revenge of the Cradles; furthermore, the Church advocated their being the "small bread" of society, i.e., the underclass proletariat, and this went unchallenged for 200 years!

    Wow! It only took 8-10 generations to see the Church fed them a very false doctrine. Finally, finally, finally, the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s came. On the plus side, they stopped making families of 5, 10, and 20 children...or more. Georges Vézina, a star goalie during hockey's infancy in the 1920s had 22 freakin' children, and he died a young man! 22 children! Too, hockey players didn't amass the salaries they do today...far from it! Many of them had second jobs during the off-season.

    By the 1980s, Quebec's birthrate dropped second lowest only to the West Germans in the Western Hemisphere. Quebec therefore had two choices: Either let their population shrink without taking on immigrants, or take on immigrants to maintain the status quo.

    Obviously, the latter alternative was chosen, but with conditions. They had to speak French. Despite the large number of English schools that existed in the mid-1970s, the immigrants could not make use of them, and the same went for French speaking Quebeckers. These schools bent over backwards, strenuously making every effort to condition these kids to speak French all the time and look upon the English speaking population as the mortal enemy that could mark the end of French in Quebec.

    In the meantime, it was the minorities who built up Quebec as they didn't buy into the Church's doctrine of an unbridled birthrate and proletarianism. The Protestant Work Ethic is work hard and prosper. They also had smaller, more manageable sized families. They went into higher education and many became professionals and captains of industry. They PROVIDED those proletarian jobs for the poor slobs who couldn't keep their two dozen sized families properly fed.

    While there were some French speakers who did get good educations and thrive with it, they were the small minority, and sadly, some of that few figured they could forget past history à la Gilles Proulx, tell the minorities where to go, and resurrect their «pur laine» kind to unattainable heights. Ain't happening, ain't gonna happen!

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  4. ...to Editor: Whaddaya mean "Had this incident taken place in Rimouski or Chicoutimi, where a Black person on the street is as rare as a Chinese person in a Chinese restaurant, I might have understood the insensitivity..."

    That sounds as if you're pardoning these country bumpkins! We now live in a world where communication in any part of it, densely or sparsely populated, is instantaneous and plentiful. Those backwoods are no longer as isolated as they were as recently as 50 years ago!

    No! This behaviour is not acceptable anywhere, but successive Quebec governments have encouraged racist rhetoric since the PQ came into power some 35 years ago. It's wrong in the Greater Montreal Area, Ungava Bay, Anticosti Island, and everywhere else!

    What is especially disturbing is we're talking about potential leaders of the future in Quebec society behaving far beneath their level of education and experiences of living in a multicultural city. Sadly, though, when you have an elite of Rhodes scholars and others supposedly in that sphere blaming money and the ethnic vote for usurping their one shot at ruling a kingdom...well...you just can't expect much; nevertheless, it's still NOT acceptable under any circumstances at any level!

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  5. @Suzanne

    Supporting Mr Sauga's arguments and adding a few: a large family in these days is not hard to "feed" it's also extremely hard to educate. And let's not forgot the most important fact: within the first years of life, PARENTS educate the children then school ( and parents of course ) and so on. When you have let's say more than 4, you are w/o doubt overwhelmed.

    So you have lots of children to preserve the french ... whatever ( please stop with the culture, it's soooo fake and old...very old ), but you cannot educate them, so they will grow with a poor mindset and they eventually will do a bad thing to Quebec's society.

    What's the use of having an army if the soldiers are stupid and they don't know how to fight ? There will always be ONE enemy smarter and well prepared who will beat the shit out of your army...

    On the other hand, from what i have seen so far, les quebecois pur laine are soooo f.. pretentious when it comes to work. I have soooo many ex. that it would be impossible to mention them here... And or a company that cares about profit and growth the mission it's simple: hire an immigrant, pay him a less than a quebecker but enough to keep him happy and you will have a model employee that will help you.
    Why hire a lazy bum that will unionize ?

    Let's be honest: your cause is a lost cause in the 21st century.

    NM

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  6. Very well said Suzanne

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  7. Good article, Editor.

    The "mommy, daddy" piece is embarrassingly manipulative. I don't know who these "artists" are, but they've hit rock bottom with this.

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  8. Very good article editor, it's a shame that discrimination based on race, language or religion are completely acceptable in this province.

    It's really not a taboo subject or anything either, the separatists and french extremists have no issues with discussing or displaying their racism in public. It's entirely normal for them to apply rules to certain groups only based on race or language.

    You could probably propose public segregation between the french and "other dirty languages", and I'm certain you'd get a very positive response from the francophones. Oh wait, we already have Loi 101...

    English people to the back of the bus!!

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  9. @Sauga While it is true that the Church preached unlimited procreation, I suggest that people aren't that stupid. If they had so many kids, it's because on a certain level, they were wanted and needed. Rural societies dependent on subsistence farming tend to have big families because it provides for cheap labour. I'm not saying no woman ever had an undesired baby, but I suggest that laying everything at the foot of the Church as if the common people had no payoff in having large families is somewhat naive. I also think that the age of 20 children was mostly over by the post-WWII era. More women had a smaller (though substantial) numbers of children and with advances in medicine, more of these children survived, fuelling the baby boom.

    The idea is not that every woman should have eight kids. Right now Quebeckers have 1 or 2 children, with only ten per cent having 3 or more. Instead of having 1 or 2 kids, it would require most Quebeckers having 2 or 3 kids. A birth rate of 2.1 or marginally more does not require the majority of women having dozens of children. It also does not preclude spacing children. You can have kids every 2 or 3 or 4 years instead of every year, so you don't end up with more than 2 kids under the age of 6.

    You say that Quebec had two choices when its birthrate dropped. That is a false dichotomy. Quebeckers could have chosen to have more children. They chose not to. That is fine. But here's what I'm driving at:

    You're not entitled to the opportunity costs of your choices. If you choose vanilla instead of chocolate, you're not entitled to chocolate. If you choose to not have children, you're not entitled to the benefits of having kids.

    If you choose to rely on immigrants to increase your population, then the opportunity cost is that that population will become more numerous and will alter the language and culture. This is not rocket science. It's not immigrant blaming. Immigrants will be who they are. It's simply stating the reality. You can't make pure laine Quebeckers out of immigrants unless there is a sufficient number of people surrounding them to make that change obligatory, i.e. assimilate them. Otherwise immigrants will take the path of least resistance. They will not adapt to the majority culture, they'll adapt to meet their immediate circumstances.

    I'm not saying this because I blame immigrants. I'm saying this so we don't waste time with BS.

    As for schools, assimilation only works if the number of native French speakers far outnumbers the immigrants. And in many schools in Montreal, that is not the case. The percentage of immigrants has to be very small, on the order of 5%. When you get to 10 or 20 per cent, there is less of an incentive to speak French; French is the social language. It's the language you learn to pass a test or get a job. You don't internalize the culture the same way.

    English was never really stamped out of these immigrant populations because immigrants never wanted it stamped out. The nationalists could scream all they want, they can pass all the laws they want, people will speak whatever language they want, and English is the language most immigrants want to speak.

    Instead of blaming immigrants for the demise of French, nationalists should look to themselves and their choices. They didn't want to have more kids? Fine. They reap the results of their choices.

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  10. And apologies, my response above was also to Anonymous after Sauga.

    And I am not a separatist or a nationalist. I am a staunch Canadian. I simply state the truth when it comes to Quebec nationalism and demographics. People have been feeding themselves a bunch of BS. Immigrants do not solve demographic problems.

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  11. @Adski

    Un peu de culture Acadienne pour vous adski,
    observez le "non-racisme" des anglos canadiens:

    http://www.onf.ca/film/Acadie_Acadie/

    Le film date un peu mais la situation ne semble pas avoir évoluée:

    http://www.asnb.ca/

    Bonne écoute et bonne lecture adski!

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  12. "People have been feeding themselves a bunch of BS. Immigrants do not solve demographic problems."

    THANK YOU

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  13. Well said.

    "Immigrants do not solve demographic problems"

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  14. Having recently left that dump of a province, for good, I feel the need to disagree with you Mr.Editor. I personally do believe that the Quebecois are more racist than the rest of Canada. See, Mr.Editor, I went to English school in Quebec, am an ethnic, and worked in Finance. For 7 years I plugged away at rubbish jobs, all the while applying for other jobs hoping to get a call back, and you know how many job interviews, in 7 years, I was able to procure from our French friends? Maybe 3?

    So, I leave to jolly old England with my EU citizenship in hand. I land in June, with nary a place to stay or a source of income. I send out CV's on day 1, and within 24 hours I am able to land schedule 3 interviews. Within a week, I found a job (better than in Montreal), and to this day my phone rings off the hook with job offers.

    How is it that in a less-sophisticated Financial market my CV is not worthy of an interview but, in the most sophisticated of Financial markets I am beating off interviewers with a stick? Truly, I cannot think of any other reason than the "R" word.

    I'll leave you with a little anecdote. The wife of a very good friend of mine works for a decent sized (and growing) asset manager in Montreal. My friends wife is a Kweebecker. A little before I left I recounted to her my frustration at not being able to land a decent job in Montreal. She regaled me with a story on how she gave a CV of a very qualified English speaking candidate who was turned down by a VP because "Il est anglophone? Jette son CV dans la poubelle."

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  15. Thanks for sharing that Marcos!
    And you know what, even if you get past all the discrimination and land yourself a job, as soon as you try and fix anything that is wrong, they`ll boot you and and say how easy it is to kick out the English (I am Canadian, the EN living in England, last geography course I took): canlii.org/fr/qc/qccrt/doc/2010/2010qccrt419/2010qccrt419.html (see point 87, the judge fully describes this horrible event, yet does NOTHING to denounce the institutionalised discrimination within the QC Govt!)

    And Editor, thanks for bring up the article that the Gazoo has wiped: http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Racism+rocks+PSAC+Montreal+office/4376037/story.html
    It is shocking the level of denial that even EN newspapers are coerced to take down senstitive articles.

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  16. Mr.Marco, good move. I have a EU passport myself, and I was considering England for a while (they have the Premiership too), but my personal situation keeps me in Quebec.

    To add to your anecdote, my spouse is half Anglo (father from BC), half Franco (mother from Saguenay), so she's a quintessential Canadian - Franco-Anglo, which must have been Trudeau's wet dream. Her first language is French (she didn't learn English until she was 8 years old). Alas, her last name is English, and ever since she learned English, her French accent changed from Quebecois to more European French, also because she lived in Brussels when she was younger (she no longer sounds pure laine like she did when she was a kid). When looking for jobs, she puts her mother's francophone maiden name on her CV. She's been doing it for years. With her Anglo last name, she gets no replies. With her mother's maiden name, she gets replies, but her accent then gets in the way at the interviews.

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  17. "Il est anglophone? Jette son CV dans la poubelle."

    Beaucoup de CV se retrouvent dans les poubelles,pas juste ceux des "si précieux" anglos.
    L'important c'est que vous ayez enfin trouvé un milieu prêt a vous acceuillir malgré votre manque flagrant de savoir-vivre.

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  18. I love it, more racism, bigotry, intolerance in Kebec. So what’s new?

    This is the mindset of the metis (Quebecois- mixed race) and had been for decades.

    Go read what they teach the children all over Kebec, just disgusting, filled with hatred, bigotry…The Kebec way.

    http://quebecexposed.tripod.com/fleurdelise.pdf

    Yes see they are taught at a young age to hate. So do what most of us already do, boycott the racist province until bill 101 is repealed.

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  19. In typical Quebec fashion this story will be downplayed by bringing up instances of similar events from the ROC. The lamentation are the same: "we can't be racist 'cause everyone else does it!!"

    BTW, Ed. tack on an "S" after "Gille"..should be Gilles (4th paragraph, "And so bigots like..."

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  20. I have always prized my French name and my not-too-bad accent. But eventually people do figure out I'm Anglo. I'm not of the body, to quote a Star Trek episode.

    @Mr. Marco, in fairness, the job situation is much better in some places. There are probably more people competing for the same job in Quebec than elsewhere.

    But I've often noticed that Quebeckers are very sensitive to the mistakes you make in French, especially outside of Montreal. It's not that you make mistakes, it's the kind of mistakes that you make. The wrong kind of mistake points you out to be not of the body. I just don't see that in other parts of Canada re: English. Accent and the occasional mistake doesn't matter.

    That being said, many Anglos expect a lot given their lack of proficiency in French *don flamesuit*. Anglos should be clamouring for more French-- and better French in school. Really, it should be French first language in all schools, regardless of institutional language. I learned to write a decent French because I went to a French university. I learned all the stuff I should have learned in high school. But there were forces that prevented us from receiving a top quality French language education in English schools. Namely, the principal.

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  21. @adski
    "With her Anglo last name, she gets no replies."

    Funny how every single time I heard this, an Anglo was involved in the story so it might have something to do with the person's native language and accent and not their Anglo-sounding name. Lots of Québécois have Irish/Scottish/English/etc surnames, in all regions (yes even the Saguenay), and I have never heard of a single one who was a victim of discrimination. Maybe some really are but probably by only a minority of people. It would be well-known among Francophone society if it was common. There has been intermarrying with Anglophones for centuries in case you didn't know and the regions used to have more Anglos in the past. Assimilation doesn't only happen in English Canada.

    I grew up in a region that is virtually totally French-speaking (same one as comedian Peter MacLeod who is well-known in Quebec - even his first name is English! though he is not an Anglophone) and, for example, at school, every single year there were some students with non-French names but with French as their native language and I've never heard anything intolerant.

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  22. Also, you would be surprised how many Francophone kids these days have English first names... does this mean they will all be discriminated against? I doubt it... even those with a non-French last name.

    You go ahead and call it hypocritical but doesn't English Canada do the same? French last names are okay as long as the person speaks English natively?

    Poor Anne-Marie Withenshaw... she will never get a job on TV because of her name... it's even worse than that... she is natively bilingual...

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  23. @Anon 4:22PM

    "Lots of Québécois have Irish/Scottish/English/etc surnames, in all regions (yes even the Saguenay), and I have never heard of a single one who was a victim of discrimination."

    Yes, that is very true. But once you have someone's resume, you get a bunch of clues as to how Anglophone or Francophone people are. If you are a Blackburn with a Saguenay address and a UQChicoutimi degree, chances are you are Francophone. If you are a MacLeod from Beaconsfield with a Concordia degree, probably not...

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  24. > Poor Anne-Marie Withenshaw... she will never get a job on TV because of her name... it's even worse than that... she is natively bilingual...

    Um... she HAS gotten jobs on radio as well as done several different shows on TV and showcases her impeccable bilingualism brilliantly. Our province and country need more media personalities with fluency like hers in both languages.

    And at the risk of sounding repetitive, the existence of such individuals is not a freakish anomaly. We DO exist, and indeed can be found in many walks of life; pretending we don't does a great disservice to the work we personally do to promote interlinguistic communication and harmony.

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  25. Sarcasme, Apparatchik ;)
    Évidemment qu'elle a une job... et une certaine Shirley Bishop aussi en a une... elle travaille pour Pauline !
    http://fr.canoe.ca/infos/quebeccanada/politiqueprovinciale/archives/2011/08/20110824-162624.html

    Ah les méchants séparatistes anti-tout-ce-qui-est-anglais... comme le député péquiste Scott McKay... son CV a pas été rejeté malgré non seulement son nom mais son prénom...

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  26. "it might have something to do with the person's native language and accent and not their Anglo-sounding name"

    No mate, it has to do precisely with the name. When she sends out a cv, they don't know what accent she has.

    Your select examples, sure they're true. But they don't make the experiences of other people any less true.

    (It always made me laugh how Kotto, Barbot, Facal, Curzi are used as "proof" that Quebec public life is open to all. I guess as there are token Ethnics, there are also token Anglos - we have MacLeod, McKay, and someone called Whithenshaw)

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  27. "Had this incident taken place in Rimouski or Chicoutimi, where a Black person on the street is as rare as a Chinese person in a Chinese restaurant"

    Oh please, not this again. This isn't the first time you do this, editor:
    http://nodogsoranglophones.blogspot.com/2011/02/quebec-politicans-take-immigrant.html
    "I don't think the Nazi's, in their wildest dream ever thought they could hit that level of racial purity"
    (notice how STEVEN BLANEY was elected there... yet you spoke of racial purity...)

    So basically people living in regions with little diversity are somehow guilty of something and should feel bad. It's not like in the past there were many people of different races and then they were discriminated against and moved away. What are people supposed to do? Go get immigrants and force them to live there? You compared them to Nazis! They never killed anyone. Have you ever lived there? I have and never witnessed racism towards minorities and yes they do exist. They often even say they find the locals quite welcoming.

    How can people be guilty of not living around many immigrants? Are immigrants intolerant for not choosing to settle in those regions? Are Francophones intolerant of Allophones and Anglophones or are non-Francophones intolerant for not wanting to live in a French-speaking environment?
    Of course, only the majority can be racist... it never happens the other way around according to some... even though in real life it does.

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  28. To me it seems the only intolerance in this case is not tolerating the fact that a French-speaking society has been existing in North America for centuries.
    To some, it seems Francophones are only okay as long as they live in a diverse city or else they must be guilty of something... as if it used to be diverse and ethnic cleansing happened or something... which is not the case at all. At least be consistent and pick on other provinces too. Many towns in English Canada are pretty much totally white and English-speaking. Some can also be found in the US but when it's the same situation but in French, that's just wrong, of course. Sounds like intolerance of anything not English.
    What about Europe? Most of Europe is still quite white outside of the big cities. Maybe it's quite normal after all when you consider history...

    As for Chinese people and restaurants, you make it sound like people want Chinese food without Chinese people without any proof but in fact it's simply because few Chinese people want to live there though some do settle there. Are they afraid of racism (even without having tried living there) or are they not interested in living in French or is it something else? Who knows.

    By the way, there are so many adopted Chinese girls here these days.
    "Although Quebec is home to only 23.9% of the population of Canada, the number of international adoptions in Quebec is the highest of all provinces of Canada. In 2001, 42% of international adoptions in Canada were carried out in Quebec."
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Quebec

    That doesn't sound like a very racist province...
    Why doesn't English Canada adopt more children in need? Perhaps some want white children only?

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  29. "Although Quebec is home to only 23.9% of the population of Canada, the number of international adoptions in Quebec is the highest of all provinces of Canada. In 2001, 42% of international adoptions in Canada were carried out in Quebec."

    BANG!Bravo pour votre recherche.Excellent commentaires.(8:08 PM et 8:10 PM)

    Merci!

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  30. @ Anon. at 8:08 PM and 8:10 PM:

    I own a summer cottage near a small Quebecois town in the Outaouais region. When a French speaking family of Middle-eastern descent bought one of the depanneurs/convenience stores in the town, the local people boycotted the place because they were "foreigners."

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  31. @adski
    "there are also token Anglos - we have MacLeod, McKay, and someone called Whithenshaw"

    Peter MacLeod's not a token Anglo. He's not even an Anglo. If there really was widespread name-discrimination (how silly), why would his parents, in the Beauce region, name him Peter? And he's far from being the only one but of course a French first name would be less ambiguous.

    Many Francophones have English first names. Many have non-French last names. Some even have both. Deal with it.
    Of course, this is the same adski who said
    "Marie-Noëlle Smith, or Marie-Noëlle Tremblay Tremblay?"
    from http://nodogsoranglophones.blogspot.com/2011/03/french-versus-english-volume-23.html
    He probably couldn't accept the fact that someone named Smith speaks French and only French natively.
    This isn't new. It's been like this for centuries. We are not as intolerant and inbred ("Tremblay-Tremblay") as you think. There has been a lot of mixing going on yet we are always accused of wanting to preserve racial purity.

    ReplyDelete
  32. I was going to list a lot of famous Québécois (of course you don't know about them if you avoid the French media) with Anglo-sounding last names but then I figured you would just say they're tokens. Maybe there are token Anglos and token Blacks but token Francophones-with-Anglo-names? Doesn't make sense. Of course they are a minority but that's only because they are a minority in the general population. They are accepted as Francophones by the majority and they consider themselves Francophones obviously seeing as they only have French as their mother tongue and most of their ancestors were French.
    Let's just say that I don't think singers Ariane Moffatt and André Watters feel they don't fit in. Or actress Mariloup Wolfe... with a name like that... Wolfe...

    Daniel Johnson and his sons, three Quebec premiers named Johnson. Think about it. Can't get a job if your name is not French? Not really... A name is just a name. It's about the language(s) a person speaks, not their name. Yes some people might be intolerant of English-speakers but then again the other way around happens even more often.

    ReplyDelete
  33. @Press 9 & Anon@7:49 &8:08
    Re: Foreign Adoptions;
    In 2008, 1,908 children from abroad found adoptive homes in Canada, of which 397 in Quebec, or about 21%
    Adoption Helper

    BTW Steven Blaney is as francophone as they come.

    ReplyDelete
  34. "When a French speaking family of Middle-eastern descent"

    Well that's the reason. They are of Middle-eastern descent. It has nothing to do with the French language. No Anglophone would ever call an English-speaking Pakistani a foreigner? It is race-related (and perhaps even religion-related) but it's not language-related except maybe if they spoke with a different accent.

    If you speak Quebec French natively, are white and can trace at least some of your ancestors back to New France, you will be accepted by the majority therefore no need to worry about having an English surname. You can even have a Polish name, adski! Some people are part French-Canadian, part Polish and totally accepted.
    Some people are racist but they don't reject white French-speaking people just like English Canadians often accept all white English-speaking people but not ALL English-speaking people. Same for Americans.

    Some people make it sound like you have to be 100% French to be accepted even though we are in fact quite mixed so how could we be obsessed with purity? I've often heard this myth about anybody with a non-French name suffering from discrimination but it's not the reality at all. My point is that it's language-related.
    An Anglophone with a French name would still be considered English. In English Canada, he would be accepted would he not? But if he still had a French name but didn't speak English natively would he be accepted? Most would see him as not one of their own, would they not?
    I'm not saying it's okay but look at yourselves in the mirror before saying people here are all anti-English.

    ReplyDelete
  35. @Editor

    Yes I wasn't sure about the figure I posted because the Wikipedia article didn't have a source but judging from everyday life, there are many adopted children that are not white, not just Chinese. Haitians were common even before the whole earthquake thing.

    "BTW Steven Blaney is as francophone as they come."
    I know that. I should have made myself more clear: he is the living proof that having an English name is not a handicap for a successful career in "anti-English-anything-even-just-a-name" Quebec. Looks like he didn't have to change his name on his resume...

    ReplyDelete
  36. "he is the living proof that having an English name is not a handicap for a successful career in "anti-English-anything-even-just-a-name" Quebec"

    Vous avez oubliez mes préférés...Mike Ward et Ken Scott le scénariste.

    ReplyDelete
  37. adski: is her given name French or English?
    Because if it's the former then that would be quite unbelievable.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Since the previous federal election the Conservative Gouv. never fulfilled his promise of connecting to internet all citizens from a majority of Canada’s regions not well serve already by the private industries.

    Miss_Understood

    ReplyDelete
  39. http://www.familyhelper.net/news/090106stats07.html

    Quebec adopted almost the same number of Chinese as Ontario despite Ontario having millions more people.
    Way more Haitians than Ontarians did.
    More Vietnamese. As many Koreans as Ontario.
    More Colombians. Etc...
    On the other hand, Ontario adopted more WHITE Russians and Ukrainians.

    Is Quebec really racist?
    Wasn't there a news story involving a KKK costume some time ago in Ontario? And some cross-burning incident in Nova Scotia?
    What do we have in Quebec? A bunch of young people who probably don't know much about the history of blackface in America (because of linguistic and cultural reasons) and how offensive it is to Blacks. What did the students do? They showed their love (not hatred) for a Black athlete by dressing up as him and they were glad to see a real Black person. They didn't tell him to fuck off. They didn't call him a nigger.

    Is it really worse than a guy in a KKK costume burning a cross in your front yard?

    ReplyDelete
  40. Quelques autres :

    Pénélope McQuade,Normand Brathwaite,Scott Price le musicien,Normand Lester,Julie Snyder,James Hyndman le comédien,Lynda Johnson la comédienne...

    ReplyDelete
  41. "A bunch of young people who probably don't know much about the history of blackface in America (because of linguistic and cultural reasons)"

    What kind of education could that university be giving if the students have NO CLUE that what they are doing is unacceptable and inappropriate?

    They must be isolated and living in the dark ages....

    ReplyDelete
  42. The job situation in Canada is much better than the job situation in the UK. It's not that I got a job so fast that tilts me towards Quebeckers being racist, it's the fact that in Quebec I couldn't get my foot in the door; I was shut out for being a mechant anglais. For the record, the English are a racist lot but, they seem to care more about getting the job and will hire anyone, so long as he or she gets the job done. On top of that, they're willing to pay for talent. In Kweebec, the job is only well done when its done in French, by a Quebecker 'sti and talent only exists when you come from Trois-Rivieres tabarnac.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Averythings listed here make be beleived that the best treatment to *Racisme Québecois* could be to get their own country. When you finaly find your home for good then you can relax man.

    ReplyDelete
  44. "In Kweebec"

    J'ai l'impression que que vous méprisez le Québec et je crois que les employeurs ont du flair.

    Finalement,c'est vous le raciste Monsieur ;)

    ReplyDelete
  45. "Of course, this is the same adski who said
    "Marie-Noëlle Smith, or Marie-Noëlle Tremblay Tremblay? He probably couldn't accept the fact that someone named Smith speaks French and only French natively."

    If you click the Le Devoir link that comes with that piece, you'll know why I said it. Editor said Marie-Noëlle Smith, but in the article, she figures under Marie-Noëlle Tremblay.

    As for English last names, Anon September 19, 2011 6:29 PM summarized it very well.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Wow... what a waste of time and effort... Think about what this place could be if we didn't waste all our time on crap hang-ups like this and just moved forward...

    Winter is around the corner, got to go winterize the house and store the BBQ in my "Cabano"!!!

    ReplyDelete
  47. Funny thing is the seppies are shooting everyone in the foot...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfRfwZw-zjQ

    ReplyDelete
  48. "Winter is around the corner, got to go winterize the house and store the BBQ in my "Cabano"!!!"

    Bonne idée!Moi je dois,en plus du BBQ,ranger 6 cordes de bois dans la cave de ma vieille maison ...Écossaise(1870).

    ReplyDelete
  49. @Jason

    Attention a ce genre de montage amateur car si on commence a jouer a ce petit jeux...

    Car je suis un professionnel dans le domaine de la post production et des effets spéciaux.Voici ce que je peux réaliser en 1 heure.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IZ9iueFsjI

    ReplyDelete
  50. Some people make it sound like you have to be 100% French to be accepted even though we are in fact quite mixed so how could we be obsessed with purity? I've often heard this myth about anybody with a non-French name suffering from discrimination but it's not the reality at all.

    Actually, it is the reality.

    No matter how "Québécois" you are, you will be considered an outsider if:

    - You live anywhere in the 514 or 450 area codes
    - You know a second language.
    - You have a higher education level than grade 9 (sorry Press9, I mean Secondaire 3)
    - You make more than 100k$ from a NON-UNION job.
    - You are someone's boss

    Just to keep this quick and simple:

    - Knowledge and education are considered bad Quebec. It makes you harder to control by propaganda. (Since the Duplessis era, still true today) Also it makes you seem better than Jean-Guy on his farm.

    - Quebec has laws to limit your education (language laws) and a "unique" education system to make it more difficult for people to leave the province

    - The french canadian people are the laziest in north america (Unions, BS, federal gov. demands...) They would much rather wait for handouts than work to get what they want.

    - Successful people are persecuted in this province. Since most are lazy, it's not normal to see someone succeed. They think successful people should share their entire fortune with everyone (Péladeau anyone?) You are evil if you are successful, no matter how hard you worked.

    Despite all this, the french people are not retarded, and they realize that the english language means being able to communicate with the entire world. It means opening themselves up to other cultures (god forbid), and it also means they could go work and be successful elsewhere (who would want to leave the farm?).

    This sense of inferiority is the root of all French Quebecois racism towards other races and cultures, especially towards the english.

    ReplyDelete
  51. "Despite all this, the french people are not retarded..."

    Merci

    Vous êtes très gentil.Je vous ferez remarquer que beaucoup d'anglos vivent aussi sur des fermes et que sans eux,votre lunch de ce midi serait bien mince.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Press9:

    Je n'ai rien contre les fermiers, c'est un travail que je ne serais surement pas capable de faire moi-même.

    Mais à vous écouter (les séparatistes), il faut se demander si vous ne préférez pas que tous les Québécois y retournent.

    ReplyDelete
  53. "Mais à vous écouter (les séparatistes)..."

    Mais à vous écouter (les fédéralistes),il faudrait que tous les Québécois parlent 3 langues et aient un diplôme de McGill et aillent se bouffer entre-eux a Wall street.

    Je prèfère manger mes propres légumes et regarder mes vaches batiffoler dans le champs :)

    ReplyDelete
  54. Je ne suis pas fédéraliste.

    Je n'adhère simplement pas au mouvement souverainiste, qui est devenu un mouvement raciste basé sur la haine des autres langues et cultures (surtout l'anglais).

    Les Jacques Parizeau, Pierre Curzi, Gérald Larose, Falardeau, etc... Non merci à la gang de racistes.

    ReplyDelete
  55. "Les Jacques Parizeau, Pierre Curzi, Gérald Larose, Falardeau, etc..."

    Et rené Lévesque,Camille Laurin...Etc.

    Sans ces racistes(sic),nous serions envieux des conditions des Acadiens aujourd'hui!

    ReplyDelete
  56. Quel manque de respect, que de comparer René Lévesque avec ce groupe de racistes...
    René Lévesque n'était pas raciste, il avait une excellente vision pour le futur du Québec.

    Malheureusement, des gens racistes et xénophobes se sont appropriés de ses idées et de son mouvement et les ont transformés pour servir leurs intérêts.

    ReplyDelete
  57. I would like to THANKX the FREE EXPRESSION LIBERTY of this BLOG!. None of the comments I made so far were rejected, I'm so happy !

    I Love you Webmaster for FREE EXPRESSION :o)

    But, *All Anonymous said:* something without signature are again an other story.... not my favorite.


    Miss_Understood

    ReplyDelete
  58. "What do we have in Quebec? A bunch of young people who probably don't know much about the history of blackface in America (because of linguistic and cultural reasons) and how offensive it is to Blacks. What did the students do? They showed their love (not hatred) for a Black athlete by dressing up as him..."

    What about the large stuffed monkey the students were passing around? What does that have to do with a black athlete? Some of the worst bigots refer to blacks as apes or monkeys. Is that what they were implying?

    This story just made it onto CNN, so now it's receiving full international attention. It's good that people worldwide are seeing the kind of bigots that we have here in Quebec.

    ReplyDelete
  59. WOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUHAAAAAAAAAAAAA !

    By the way Webmaster why you sometime remove some comments?

    What do you accept others? and Don't anymore accept some on your website as commentaries?

    What are your rules of life?

    What are your rules of life?

    Are you fed up, with the reality?

    Or you are still a dreamer like I am for a better future for humanity on this earth? Or you believed in a certain supremacy and never your mind will be setup again?


    THX

    Miss_Understood still looking for true Love between men, women and flowers.

    ReplyDelete
  60. "Miss_Understood still looking for true Love between men, women and flowers"

    Ho Boy!Ça dérape solide.Mdr!

    ReplyDelete
  61. Come on Press 9, you're laughing at me? don't you?

    That is a good sing....


    Miss_Understood

    ReplyDelete
  62. Oupss.

    sing = sign

    Miss-Understood

    ReplyDelete
  63. What a dummy can never do? Change his mind ;o)

    ReplyDelete
  64. "Come on Press 9, you're laughing at me? don't you?"

    Non,non,pas du tout,je m'en vais de ce pas fumer un gros bat et...Je reviens :)

    En attendant...Peace bro!

    ReplyDelete
  65. TO Anon @ 4:14 re; Unpublished comments

    HUMBLE APOLOGIES!!!

    I forgot to check the SPAM folder for a couple of days and lo & behold there were a dozen comments caught in the net!
    Apologies to Suzanne, GhostOfAnthonyGriffin, Apparatchik, Press 9 and Mr. Sauga, plus several Anons!

    I have published them all, but unfortunately they'll be placed in chronological order among other comments and will probably missed.
    SO SORRY!

    I never censure anything that isn't threatening, commercial or clearly the work of a crackpot or racist.

    IF EVER A COMMENT OF YOURS IS NOT PUBLISHED;
    Give me a poke via email and I'll check the Spam folder;
    anglomontrea@gmail.com

    I DON'T CENSURE....again, so sorry..

    ReplyDelete
  66. If anyone wants a link to the video of this incident as shown on CNN's Newsroom, here it is:

    http://newsroom.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/20/canadian-freshmen-in-blackface/

    ReplyDelete
  67. ...to Anon @ Monday, September 19 @ 8:08PM: Probably the Chinese who settle in the backwoods of Quebec are there to set up a Chinese restaurant that serves anything and everything in a sweet brown or red sauce...or plum sauce. Elbow macaroni with celery and a few other cheap mixed veggies---MERDE! Lafleur 'ot dog avec sauce brun sucré--SUPERMERDE! Pineapple chicken balls, or a deep-fried soaking oily chicken breast (a.k.a. chicken soo guy) with that sickeningly sweet red sauce--ULTRAMERDE! I once went to a buffet called Kieren in the Montreal area that also served that stuff made with a whole plantation of sugar and a mountain of MSG. Most Québécois wouldn't know good Chinese food if it kicked them in the gonads and bit them in the ass!!

    ReplyDelete
  68. Jan Wong-isms are rampant here. You take the acts of group of people, and you immediately state the entire population of french-speaking quebecois are racist.

    Never mind the above comment that stated "french-canadians are the most lazy people in North America." And you can talk about racism? (Oh yeah, sorry, quebecois are an "ethnicity" (though not a nation!), lest I get the semantics lesson from a blowhard). Forget actual productivity numbers, they must be lazy because they "like government programs." Fallacy much?

    I would never in a 1000 years claim that there aren't racist quebecois. But there are certainly as many racist Albertans, a province I suspect many of the people commenting on this board would have a hard-on for.

    Equally, I'm sure, this blog overlooks many blatantly anti-french or quebecois sentiments or actions, or would simply apologize for them as understandable given the "state of Quebec society" or some nonsense.

    Though I'm sure this on-line bitch-fest has a response to that as well.

    ReplyDelete
  69. @ St. Freddy,

    "You take the acts of group of people, and you immediately state the entire population of french-speaking quebecois are racist"

    Like bill 101? which restricts language of education and commercial signage. Not biased.. A law by the government, elected by the people.

    "Forget actual productivity numbers, they must be lazy because they "like government programs." Fallacy much?"

    Fallacy you say..55th worst GDP/capita of the 60 states and provinces in North America. This reported by Marois herself and also in a Mcleans article a couple of years ago (see Frere, can you spare a dime) Of course McLeans must be wrong ehhhhh, just like their recent article on corruption in Quebec. Just sayin.

    "a province I suspect many of the people commenting on this board would have a hard-on for."

    No doubt. As Albertans pay for a great deal of the programs in other provinces via equalization payments of which "Notre chere gens aux Quebec" , recieve over 60% of the pot. Say it isn't so.

    Suggest you go down to the lower bar in Halifax and have another drink or better yet another joint. Might aid in elevating your lucidity.

    ReplyDelete
  70. To: St Ferdinand d'Halifax

    I guess you are right, there is only negative discussion subjects on this Blog. Where are the positive contributions to the socity on this site?

    still searching subjects + + +

    I might be wasting my time here........ ?/!%$ but not sure....

    Suggestion: Why we don't have any *TV reality shows* in Montréal on interesting matters?

    I know because it's not politically correct to show both sides of the realm, we must hide the truth because it's our weapon since 1952.

    Good Night

    Miss-_Understood

    ReplyDelete
  71. "state of Quebec society" or some nonsense.


    What is the state of Quebec society?

    Mafia infested construction companies.

    funding

    Political corruption at all levels.

    Discrimination against language (aka bill 101, OQLF etc etc)

    Provincial debt approaching that of bankrupt countries in Europe.

    Crumbling infrastructure.

    Highest divorce rate in Canada.

    etc etc etc.

    ReplyDelete
  72. "Where are the positive contributions to the socity on this site?"

    Are there any positive attributes in Quebec?

    ReplyDelete
  73. L'Oratoire Saint-Joseph is a very nice place to visit, plus sometime can do Miracle.

    M_U

    ReplyDelete
  74. We also have The Devil Montain in Les Hautes Laurentides

    http://www.montagnedudiable.com/

    The english version is coming soon :o)

    M_U

    ReplyDelete
  75. The Most Positive thing we have in Québec is John James Charest.

    Any province looking for a new chief? We got one with very expensive taste ready to give away for FREE.

    A real Deal Man Don't miss the Chance,

    only 3 paiments by credit card and it's all your ;O)

    ReplyDelete
  76. ...to Anon @ 1:16AM: We have an election here in Ontario in two weeks. We'll have new fertilizer (or the same old s--t). John James "Goldilocks" Charest is more fodder we just don't need. He's yours to fill a pothole big enough to trap a man (and they're out there), fill a missing chunk of fallen concrete at the Big Owe, or a void on any of your friendly neighbourhood South Shore bridges...and ones to Laval, too!

    ReplyDelete
  77. Correction: What about the Olympic Stadium, must be big enough but there is no cover. Shit. Any suggestion?

    ReplyDelete
  78. @St Ferdinand d'Halifax:

    Yes you're right, my comments were filled with generalizations. Perhaps I should have been more specific about it, however I do stand by what I said.

    I've lived in an english community in quebec for many years, and now I live in an entirely french community, and trust me, there is a HUGE difference between the anglophone and francophone work ethics. Now of course, this doesn't apply to everyone.. there are plenty of lazy english people and hard working french people.
    But generally, from what I've seen, the english people believe that "If you work hard and well, you shall receive." For the french, it's more like "If you complain enough, the union will give you what you need" or "don't do more than your co-workers".

    I would never in a 1000 years claim that there aren't racist quebecois. But there are certainly as many racist Albertans, a province I suspect many of the people commenting on this board would have a hard-on for.

    Well I've always lived in Quebec, and my comments were based on that. And I'm sure there are racists everywhere, however the Alberta government hasn't made any racist laws which limit the languages their own citizens can learn and use.
    Or actually they could have, I'd have no clue :P

    However racism in this province is institutionalized. Elected politicians explain how ethnic people and anglophones are destroying the province in their speeches, and a large percentage (still a minority) of the population supports that.

    - Quebeker of Tree Stump.

    ReplyDelete
  79. "Equally, I'm sure, this blog overlooks many blatantly anti-french or quebecois sentiments or actions, or would simply apologize for them as understandable given the "state of Quebec society" or some nonsense."

    I wouldn't apologize for them. I do think though that it's no justification - i.e. there are racists over there, so it's all good.

    Second, I have to agree with a friend of mine who moved to ON from Europe, and then had to move in QC after living in ON for several years (job relocation). He said the following: there are racists everywhere, and you would be surprised how many rednecks I've run into in ON, but one crucial difference is that in ON this racism is not institutionalized or state-sanctioned. There, racism stays on the margins, whereas here it seems to be in the mainstream. And the sensitivity seems to be at a different level too. Acts likely to be condemned in ON (in the press and by regular folks), in QC are likely to pass unnoticed or would meet with immediate apologia.

    So the difference is not as much in the existence of racists, but how the racists and the people who oppose this racism are perceived by the mainstream. (i.e. would an Ontarian version of P.Falardeau, if one exists, be invited to the most popular ON talk show, and allowed to spew his venom uninterrupted for 15 minutes, to the applause of the audience?)

    ---

    "And you can talk about racism? (Oh yeah, sorry, Quebecois are an "ethnicity" (though not a nation!), lest I get the semantics lesson from a blowhard). "

    So let's deal with the semantics. Is it racism to disparage on Francophones, or isn't it? I don't mind it either way, as long as we have some consistency.

    So if railing against Francophones is racism, then so is railing against the speakers of other languages. However if railing against the speakers of other languages is not racism ("because English is not a race, it's a language"), then speaking about Francophones is not racism either.

    As for you being a "nation", sure, whatever. A nation within a nation, distinct people, and special culture, maybe semantics are so messed up on this because Quebec is so starved for accolades that so many terms are floating around, and all originate in QC.

    But whatever floats your boat and strokes your ego. You got it. You (people) are special and you (personally) are special by association.

    ReplyDelete
  80. "then speaking about Francophones is not racism either"

    Ben oui,plus de 80% des Québécois sont francophones...Quel tordu ce adski!

    ReplyDelete
  81. You know what, I think it feel good to be racist.

    So I'm against Anti-Racist.

    ReplyDelete
  82. Umm... its simple here,
    law 101 exists because it there to protect a language that needs help in the face of 300 million english speakers on this continent.

    But you say that if French needs help to survive, it should "go the way of the dodo..." Sounds like Social Darwinism to me... umm kinda like where the Nazis got a lot of their ideas. So besides being really really stubborn, you're also morally bankrupt. To claim your not free in Quebec is stupid, when there are people in China and Malaysia who can be arrested for having a religion that doesn't conform to state regulations. Why would you try put your moralism on a people that have been colonized? Its kind of expecting black people not to have racism or racial insecurity themselves. Yeah its wrong strictly-speaking, but you have to consider the historical context.. Though I know you like using human-rights language to reinforce your points. However strict equality of right has never been easy in places where there is a collective goal to protect language or culture. But what you're doing, really, is tilting at windmills.

    ReplyDelete
  83. oh and there is an ON version of P.Falardeau. His name is Don Cherry, though he isn't as smart or talented. P. Falardeau was a good artist, he just would let his pride and hate get in the way of his film-making. Otherwise he could've been the best film-maker Quebec (or Canada) has ever seen.

    ReplyDelete
  84. BTW is it your contention since Quebec gets a lot of equalization it gives them the right to be racist? (or whatever terms suits your fancy)

    So i guess being colonized doesn't give a pass, though paying a lot of money (incidently because are able to since create half the CO2 of all the economy of the U.S) does. (snap) Gotcha. Moral Bankrupcy again.

    ReplyDelete
  85. "As for you being a "nation", sure, whatever. A nation within a nation, distinct people, and special culture, maybe semantics are so messed up on this because Quebec is so starved for accolades that so many terms are floating around, and all originate in QC"

    puts us in good company as Catalans and various other "nations" have recognition in the constitution of their countries (as oppposed to a non-binding motion passed in Parliment to make our PM look good for 15 minutes). I guess they are also starved for accolades. But if they don't give themselves accolades, who would? It wasn't like General Franco was going to before 1975.

    ReplyDelete
  86. "Fallacy you say..55th worst GDP/capita of the 60 states and provinces in North America. This reported by Marois herself and also in a Mcleans article a couple of years ago (see Frere, can you spare a dime) Of course McLeans must be wrong ehhhhh, just like their recent article on corruption in Quebec. Just sayin."


    Suppose it is the 55th worst place in N. America for GDP. Why do you again single french out as lazy? Because of anecdotal evidence? French people I have known (from France) worked harder than Germans did (!) in the school I attended in Europe. But does this person experience over-ride any other "personal truth" someone else may have? What Stephen Colbert (sorry a french name... ehhh...) calls "truthiness."

    Again, calling them lazy is the same essentially as putting on a black face. You are creating or perpetuating a stereotype. One which can be proven wrong logically. Again, a fallacy. Your entire blog is replete with them. But most propaganda is.

    Ultimately, however, I think believe what you believe this because you want to - somehow its makes feel better. You rail against Falardeau, but really you are the flip side of the same coin.

    ReplyDelete
  87. law 101 exists because it there to protect a language that needs help in the face of 300 million english speakers on this continent.

    I'm sure people came up with all sorts of reasons to justify segregation in the united states also, back when it was considered normal.

    You don't protect a language by limiting the rights of anyone who uses anything else. You protect a language by making a people proud of their culture and language, and they will protect it themselves.

    And anyways, you want the government to intervene because english is too popular? Too easy to learn? Too easy to use?

    I will never understand the people who want to prevent natural change at any price...

    Do you think we should make laws against the internet, because it's affecting the forest/paper industries negatively? They need help in the face of the 300 million news sites on the internet!!

    - Quebecker of Tree Stump

    ReplyDelete
  88. I think it's unfair to characterize French people as lazy.

    But as far as cultural expectations are concerned, in English Ontario, outisde of Toronto and other bastions of liberalism, the more prevalent *ambient* expectation is that you should pull yourself up by your own bootstraps and you will get by. The work ethic is stronger.

    In Quebec, the ambient expectation is to complain to the union or the government for a handout.

    I don't wish to suggest that Quebeckers are all like this, because they're not and there are tons of Quebeckers who are fed up with this mentality. But let's say the attitude is very institutionalized, making it difficult to escape.

    There are significant socio-political differences between Ontario and Quebec as far as values are concerned. The predominant views aren't always the expression of the majority. There are plenty of lazy liberals in Ontario who think the taxpayer owes them something.

    ReplyDelete
  89. @ Ferdinand,

    "law 101 exists because it there to protect a language that needs help in the face of 300 million english speakers on this continent."

    The languages of First Nations people in North America are infinitely more threatened than French/Joual. Why haven't the Natives passed language regulations on their reserves or territories? And don't give me the BS that they can't do so. If any native tribe passed measures to "protect" their language on their reserve, it's unlikely the government would intervene.

    --------------------------------

    "Why would you try put your moralism on a people that have been colonized?"

    The Quebecois are invaders and colonizers themselves. They are not the indigenous people of the area currently called Quebec.

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    "To claim your not free in Quebec is stupid, when there are people in China and Malaysia who can be arrested for having a religion that doesn't conform to state regulations."

    Anglophones in Quebec can be fined repeatedly - even to the point that they go bankrupt - if they fail to put French on a sign, or if they post English letters that are too large. That doesn't sound like freedom to me; it certainly isn't freedom of choice.

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    "oh and there is an ON version of P.Falardeau. His name is Don Cherry, though he isn't as smart or talented."

    You're seriously comparing Don Cherry to a flaming bigot like P. Falardeau, who called David Suzuki a "bearded Jap." All Don Cherry said was that "French guys and Europeans wear visors." That generalization doesn't sound very racist to me.

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