French Versus English Volume 40

Flag Controversy Spins out of control

"A resident of the municipality of St-Denis-de-Brompton, in the Eastern Townships, has lodged a complaint to the Quebec Provincial Police after he was bullied for flying the Canadian flag.

Jean Sanson saw his Canadian flag ripped down from his flagpole and hung upside down on his fence. Above the maple leaf, vandals scrawled the word "traitor," with the name of the victim in the middle of the emblem.

The incident comes just one week after a hundred citizens presented a demand to elected officials to return the flag in the Council Chambers.

"I think it's cowardly to come here and damage my property , said Sanson, who said it is his right to display the flag. We are in a democratic system here. "

Readers will recall that the elected officials of the town, led by the separatist mayor,  decided in the wake of municipal elections in 2009 to remove the flag and fly only the provincial Fleur de Lys.

In a meeting in a closed session Thursday night, elected officials voted for the reinstatement of the Canadian flag in the council.

Earlier today, the mayor of the municipality and PQ member, Claude Boucher, condemned the vandalism, even if he himself had supported the decision to remove the Canadian flag.

"We received so many hate messages from English Canada, I understand the frustration of people, he said. Except that this is unacceptable. In a democracy, we speak and we try to understand." he had stated.  LINK {FR}

Partial language victory for Montreal family

That family from Mexico whose children lost their eligibility for English school have won a partial victory. One of the children will be able to return to the English sector. Read the rest of the story

Language issue on backburner?

A prominently placed opinion piece in Quebec City's LE SOLEIL had me scratching my head over the shear absurdity of it all. LINK{FR}

First the author informs us that the language issue must be returned to the front burner...
I'm not kidding, according to him, in Quebec, language is on the back burner!

Then he claims that statistically, immigrants find English nine time more attractive then French.
His reasoning is that while French outnumber English eight to one provincially, immigrants choose to assimilate to the English side of the language equation half the time.

Ergo, English is nine times more attractive. (seems to me, even by his reasoning it should be 8/1)

But of course when you start with bad assumptions, you get the proverbial garbage in/garbage out scenario.

The author uses the total population of the Quebec demographic as a base, but immigrants don't live in the Rest of Quebec, over 90% settle in the western side of Montreal where the language dynamic (in spite of what French language militants tell us) is closer to 50% French and 50% English.
By falsely expanding the base to include francophones in regions where immigrants don't live, the results are easily manipulated.
By the way, if I were to expand the base to include all of Canada, where the English outnumber French by about four to one, I could deduce for immigrants in Quebec, French has a language attraction four times as large as English.

Ah Statistics!......Bouncy, bouncy bouncy....

Then, in complaining about immigrants that don't speak French, the author launches this pearl;

"Quebec is one of the few countries where you can settle and even become a citizen without knowing a word of the national language..."....

"...A dozen European countries require candidates seeking permanent resident status to take language tests"

Hmm readers, as they say in French,  trouver l'erreur
 

Compulsory French during recess

"Conversations in English or Arabic could be banned from school grounds and school cafeterias. The  Commission scolaire de Montréal (CSDM) is considering requiring students to speak French in all school spaces.
It would be a way to improve the success of the French at school, believes the CSDM, which also receives the approval of parents, a survey reveals that the press has obtained." LINK{FR}

The article goes on to say that over 70% of parents agree with this initiative, leading us to believe that it is widely popular.
But once again dear readers, I must call out another instance of 'bouncy' statistics.
Although not as an egregious misuse of numbers as the statistical gobbledygook that I highlighted in the story above, there remains a  basic problem with the 70% approval rating.
The survey included francophone parents whose children speak French in the schoolyard as well as parents of those students who speak English or Arabic.
Obviously all the French parents are in favour of this French only initiative, hence the high approval rating. If we consider only parents of the non-French speaking children, it's a different story and interestingly the story offered the data necessary to figure it out.

It seems that when you poll only the parents of these non-French speakers, that is, only those affected  by the initiative, only 44% are in favour, quite a difference!
That being said, even at that much lower approval rating, I'm surprised at how high that percentage is as well. Go figger.....

Aside from all that, can the state actually dictate the language of a private conversation, even that of a child under its jurisdiction?
Methinks it cannot.....

More fun from vigile.net?

It's good to see that the falling popularity of sovereignty hasn't affected two of vigile.net's most devoted separatists, Frick and Frack, whose prolific articles drip with the tears of the agonized suffering of the frustrated.
Their bitterness and exasperation perk me up every time I read another of their done-me-wrong screeds.

The always entertaining  Jacques Noël has created a separatist ENEMIES LIST, just like Richard Nixon. 
Read his piece entitled  L’adversaire HERE {FR}.  It's a jewel!!!
Here it is;

1.   The government of Canada and Prime Minister Stephen Harper

2.   The Quebec Liberal government and Premier Jean Charest

3.   The Supreme Court

4.   The Federal Liberal Party

5.   The United States Government

6.   Quebec's English minority

7.   Quebec's Immigrants

8.   Quebec's Jews

9.   Quebec's Natives

10. Gesca (Paul Demarais' media empire which he considers federalist)

11. The Montreal Gazette

12. Big Money

13. Mayors of the Province of Quebec (who he claims are all federalists)

Then there is the Frack, the insufferable Réjean Labrie, from Quebec's National Capitale who has ripped a page out of the book of old southern racists who kept Black voter registration down by means of literary tests. Link {FR}
Mr. Labrie suggest that in any future referendum only the pure at heart should be allowed to vote.
He suggests that every voter be subjected to a purity test, that will determine a person's eligibility.

1. A minimum number of years of residency (10, 15 or 20 years)

2. An examination to see if the potential voter uses the  French language in public and at home

3. A written test (given in French only, because language proficiency is essential to demonstrate membership in a society) to determine if the potential voter has sufficient knowledge of the social, historical, cultural, political reality of Quebec

4. A review to ascertain a potential voter's successful integration into Quebec society (insuring that he/she is not practising communalism or self-ghettoization) (in other words, Jews living in Cote Saint Luc, Chinese who live in Chinatown or Brossard, Greeks who live around Park avenue, Hasids anywhere, Blacks who like reggae music, Haitians who listen to Creole radio, those who shop at Adonis, anyone who wears a Sari, turban, yarmake, hijab and of course the hated niqab! -editor) 

WONDERFUL STUFF!!! For Mr. Labrie's benefit that, here is an example of a literacy test imposed upon Alabama voters back in the early sixties. Translate the document into French and make some minor modifications to make it more Quebecois and it's off to the races. SEE THE TEST HERE

By the way I think 75% of potential voters would flunk the third hurdle, including francophones.

GENTLEMEN, KEEP UP THE ENTERTAINMENT!!!

Quebec mayor complains about English signs in Paris?

Visiting Paris, Quebec City's mayor  Regis Lebeaume was shocked by the amount of English signage in the City of Lights.
Unable to contain himself, the mayor unloaded at a press conference for a meeting of mayors

"We'll have to become concerned that at some point. It is astonishing to see the ads here," he said Tuesday at a press briefing at the end of a series of meetings on the International Association of Francophone Mayors (AIMF).....
"We can not have a healthy Francophonie if we do not decide to think about it. French politicians I talk to, whisper in my ear that I'm right, but it's a taboo subject...." 
 Asked about the growing use of English in his city, the mayor of Paris expressed concern about the phenomenon Tuesday.
"Sometimes when I listen to the radio or watch TV, I don't understand certain words," acknowledged Bertrand Delanoe after  a meeting with Regis Labeaume. "Particularly for new technologies that bring new words, a kind of language that is being created," he said. calling for vigilance, too.
"Language is something very precious...​​." LINK{FR}

Briefly... Quebec launches $100 fund to export its culture LINK{FR}
Mouvement Montréal français  calls for a boycott of stores that don't respect Bill 101  LINK{FR}
Official-languages czar scolds Tories for unilingual appointments LINK

Lastly... I'm thankful to a faithful reader who sent in a link to some recently uploaded photos of Montreal circa late fifties to seventies.

The colour pictures are especially outstanding and once again put paid to the lie that Montreal was always a "French" city.

The realty is that during my childhood and up until the Parti Quebecois was elected in the early seventies, the city operated bilingually and English signs were as prevalent as French.

I've included a couple of pictures to whet your appetite and even if you are not of a certain age to relive a precious era, you'll appreciate the beautifully English/French character of the city that was massacred by French language militants eager to re-write history.

Here is a link to the URBAN PHOTO website that first described the story of Alfred Bohn, the photographer. 

Here is a link to the photographer's 162 pictures of retro Montreal on flickr.

Here are two of the pictures that touched me personally.

The Van Horne shopping centre in the late fifties, looking East towards Victoria Avenue. 

My Dad took me shopping in the DUSKES HARDWARE store partly visible on the left. Aside from the stores which have all changed, the shopping centre looks remarkably unchanged.

If you're over 50 years old and lived in Montreal in the sixties, you've had to have eaten at the Woolworth's counter. I used to take my little sister out for lunch and we each had a hot-dog, French fries and Coke for 90¢ plus a 10¢ tip!

Can you get more bilingual than that!

Please visit the links above, even if you are young, some of the pictures are just outstanding! 

Have a great weekend!