Why? Because "Weekend Update" was pretty much lame.....
Not all the stories will be about language but what the hey.......
Unilingual auditor general triggers furious language reaction
One has to wonder if Stephen Harper is deliberately baiting Quebec by continuing to make appointments of unilingual anglophones to senior government and political positions.
When he appointed Michael Moldaver, a unilingual anglophone to the Supreme Court, voices were raised in Quebec opposing his nomination based on his lack of French. Even the usually staid Quebec Bar Association waded into the debate condemning the principle of unilingual Supreme Court judges.
After Harper nominated another unilingual, Michael Ferguson, as Auditor General, a disturbing trend became apparent and a cause celebre was triggered in Quebec, which views the tradition of bilingualism at the top levels of the civil service, judiciary and political ranks an acquired right. The fear that this tradition is being reversed by Harper has resulted in a groundswell of opposition.
The decision to put talent before language doesn't sit well in Quebec, and launched a witch hunt to root out other unilinguals in the public service. Joseph L. Rotman, head of the Canada Council of Arts was outed as well by the Mouvement Québec français,"To the chagrin of many in Quebec, the Harper Tories have seemingly instituted a policy of putting one's qualifications ahead of their ability to speak French when it comes to government appointments.
On Tuesday, the NDP cried foul after they learned that Michael Ferguson, Stephen Harper's nominee for auditor general was unilingual." read the rest of the story
Here's a sample of reactions across Canada, both pro and con;
Unilingual auditor general a mistake - Edmonton Journal
NDP ran unilingual candidates but wants bilingual bureaucrats -National Post
Ferguson wouldn't quit AG job, even with comme ci, comme ca French - Vancouver Sun
French studying in English
An article in the Paris newspaper, LE MONDE despairs over the fact that of the 7,000 students from France studying in Quebec universities, a quarter of them choose to go to English universities, like McGill and Concordia.
This embarrassing situation flies in the face of a program set up years ago by the government of Quebec whereby francophone students from around the world are allowed to come to Quebec and study in university, paying the same low tuition as native Quebeckers.
The idea of the program is to foster a greater exchange within the francophone world and to increase Quebec's influence on the next generation.
The fact that students use the program to get an ENGLISH education is diametrically opposed to the program's goals, but it isn't clear what the government can do, short of banning the practice.
Michelle Courchesne, Quebec's education minister promises remedial action.
Another letter writer to LE DEVOIR was not untypical of the rage the practice of using the program to scam an English education."We must be fools to blissfully accept to finance the teaching of English in the name of friendship between France and Quebec! If we have to terminate the bilateral agreement dating back to 1970 to eliminate this scam, so be it" letter to Le Devoir
Ouch!And if you do not send them home out of pity for their cowardice and stupidity, at least have the good sense to triple their fees: a third more as foreign students and a third more as the price of their treachery and bullshit. Link
Spanish signs add insult to injury!
The hospital claimed that it was just trying to communicate with patients more effectively, but of course in Quebec, this is thoroughly beside the point.
The usual gang of language militants reacted with expected outrage.
According to Yves-François Blanchet, a PQ immigration critic;
"In Quebec, everything is supposed to be French. The solution is not to translate the information into other languages, but rather that the speakers of the other languages adopt the language that is common to all. "
"It goes completely against the spirit of Bill 101," protested Mario Beaulieu, president of the Mouvement Québec Francais. He said the sign sends the wrong signal to the people, in addition to creating complications.
"If there's a fire, does it mean we have to shout, " Feu!, Fire!, Fuego?" Link{FR}
Separatist Parade a gigantic bust
A
news report which obviously had been prepared in advance, had to be
edited hastily to reflect the reality that a separatist parade organized
by a coalition of 22 sovereigntist organizations and called for last
Friday in Montreal, was decidedly under attended.Too bad the copy editor forgot to make the correction in the caption under the photo which described 'thousands' of attendees while in the body of the story, not twelve words later, described the participants as 'hundreds'
Both the newspaper Le Devoir and the radio station 98.5 described the crowd as numbering about 200, an utter disappointment to organizers who wanted to demonstrate that separatists can still get out a crowd.
Considering that the night before, over 250 people demonstrated in the tiny town of Saint-Adolphe-d’Howard to protest the fact the town was losing it's only ATM machine, it's a bit of a humiliation.
More racism on vigile.net!
 |
| Democratic Reform Minister Tim Uppal |
Perhaps the the worst offender is the ever-nasty contributor, Jacques Noel, whose evil, racist posts are published on an ongoing basis.
His latest screed is a rather pitiful attempt to prove, using selective and upside down statistics, that Ontario and the other provinces didn't deserve the added seats in Parliament and that in reality, it was Quebec which was shortchanged......I kid you not.
Now I've long given up trying to rebut his childlike nonsense, but when his racist pronouncements are published, I feel encumbered to call him out.
Mr. Noel was upset that Democratic Reform Minister Tim Uppal, a Sikh delivered the news of the seat change, offending Mr. Noel because er.....he wears a funny hat?
"To add insult to the humiliation, it was a Sikh, proudly wearing his religious symbols in the House, who was the sponsor of the Bill. White Niggers of America. Pierre Vallieres must be turning in his grave! LINK{FR}
(Pour ajouter à l’insulte, pour ajouter à l’humiliation, c’est un Sigh, arborant fièrement ses symboles religieux en Chambre, qui parraine le projet de Loi. Nègres blancs d’Amérique. Pierre Vallières va se retourner dans sa tombe !)Thanks to TROY for pointing out the story.
Tiny dollar store start-up attacked over language
A small start-up 'Dollar' type store in Granby was taken to task for selling
Obviously the merchant didn't have the buying power of Dollarama and had to take what he could get.
That naturally, was no excuse for the language militants who demanded action from the OQLF for the outrageous insult.
"Asked to comment, the store owner, Daniel Tétreault, insisted that the problem is not a big deal."It's just a few products. We are a new company, I am a local resident from Granby, not a big multinational. Perhaps a few products went unnoticed, I cannot see everything. I'll make an effort and I will try to resolve the situation. But please give me a chance..."
He denounced the fact that his business is being attacked."I find it really unfortunate that some people are trying to destroy my business like that. I just invested a lot of money, I bought the building and I put a lot of people to work." LINK{FR}
Readers, please groan with me... .Arrrgggggh!!!!!
Accent plus!
An oddball story of government waste wouldn't have made this column if not for the photo accompanying the story.The piece recounted how the government was wasting over $50,000 to install a shower in the office of one of its branches of the license bureau.
That in and of itself is newsworthy for the utter overspending, but what caught my eye was the sign on the building which actually has an improperly used diacritical accent.
Both the letters 'E' in Société are supposed sport accent 'egus' (é) but the first 'E' in sign sports an accent 'grave' (è) instead.
Ha!Ha!
This on a government building.
For we anglos who are bilingual yet still have a problem with diacritical marks and male and female nouns, it is sweet confirmation that French is no easy language to master, even for natives speakers.
I still can't fathom why a female dog is considered a male noun.....
She wondered sarcastically if the OQLF might force the city to replace it..... Mebbe!
Sheesh...it must be really old.
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Come4News!
In researching stories for this post, I often type in the words 'langue francaise Quebec' into the standard Google news search engine, but sometimes I forget to add the word 'Quebec' and get results from France discussing the language situation over there.Here's a story lamenting the deterioration of French in the school yard and unfortunate influence of other languages on everyday French;
"But more than that, today the French language is in danger. In schools and colleges in France the language we hear in the schoolyard or the streets is far from having a relationship with the French that we expect to speak in class." LINK{FR}The whole story is rather uninteresting until I looked at the name of the website;
Annual Poppy fiasco
Each year an annual poppy fiasco plays out in some mall in Quebec where legionnaires are told that they cannot sell poppies for a variety of reasons.I'm not going to come down on the francophone managers of these malls for treating the legion the same way they treat other charities, obviously the education system doesn't stress the sacrifice and contribution of our military. More often than not, they know not what they are getting into and are genuinely shocked at the inevitable shit storm they bring down on themselves.
This year it was the Angrignon Shopping Centre in the Montreal suburb of LaSalle that told legionnaires to take a hike because they hadn't applied for a spot early enough. Yikes.. LINK
After the shit hit the fan via a television news report, it fell to the President of Westcliff management to go before cameras and grovel for forgiveness.
Last year it was the Dorval Gardens Shopping Centre an English suburb of Montreal, which went through the same fiasco.
Many years ago it was the Champlain mall in Dieppe, New Brunswick which did the same.
I was a bit surprised that anyone in New Brunswick would dare diss the Legion, but it turns out that the manager of the mall who made the decision was a newly transplanted Quebecker. Link
As Donald Trump is fond of saying "YOU'RE FIRED"
Odds'n Ends
"Liberal MP Justin Trudeau says he is upset and offended by a Tory MP who
publicly questioned his adherence to the Catholic faith and his
suitability to speak to students at a Catholic school." Read the rest of the story
"Anyone who has ever tried to come up with a zinger for The New Yorker’s
caption contest knows how challenging it is to seem effortlessly
clever. Quebecers, though, will be further frustrated should they come
up with a suitably droll caption for the magazine’s weekly back page
cartoon. It turns out they are barred from the exercise, which welcomes
“any resident of the U.S. or Canada (except Quebec) age eighteen or
over.” Read the rest of the story
"Remember Mouna Diab?
She is the arrogant Muslim agit-prop who led a group of Muselmaniacs to Herouxville in an intimidation campaign to straighten out the filthy kafirs who misunderstood her peaceful ‘religion’.
She is the arrogant Muslim agit-prop who led a group of Muselmaniacs to Herouxville in an intimidation campaign to straighten out the filthy kafirs who misunderstood her peaceful ‘religion’.
Now the Hezbo- bitch from Herouxville pops up in the news again : Quebec woman charged with trying to export assault rifle parts to Lebanon - Read the rest of the story
A political attache for the federal NDP is planning to run as a
candidate for a sovereigntist provincial party in an upcoming
byelection.
Patricia Chartier, a staffer for
Quebec MP Philip Toone, says she will be the Quebec Solidaire candidate
in the eastern Quebec riding of Bonaventure." Read the rest of the story
Readers, a gentle reminder....PLEASE BUY A POPPY AND WEAR IT PROUDLY!
Have a good weekend!
