French versus English Volume 44

Official bilingualism costs $2.4 Billion a year: study
"The 10 provinces spend a total of $900-million annually on minority language services, with the bulk going toward French-language education outside Quebec and English-language education inside Quebec. Ontario spends the most, doling out $623-million — or $1,275 for each minority member. While Quebec ranks third in overall spending at $51-million annually, it spends the least per minority member — mostly anglophones — at just $85 a head."
By the way, the study was written by a University of Montreal professor, François Vaillancourt.    Link
Not surprising, French language militants have remained rather mute in reaction to the story.
Don Macpherson does a nice job destroying the hackneyed myth, repeated ad nauseum by French language militants, that Anglophones are the most pampered minority in the world.

Anglos in Quebec the ‘best-treated minority’? Think again"

Whenever we English-speaking Quebecers are so ungrateful as to complain about the anti-English policies of our provincial government, we’re told to shut up, because we’re “the best-treated minority in the world.”

Never mind that we’re being “treated” with our own money, since we shoulder our share of Quebec’s tax burden, among the heaviest in North America.

But by one important standard, a study published this week by the Fraser Institute suggests we’re not even treated the best among Canada’s official-language minorities.  

In fact, in terms of money spent by the provincial governments to provide additional public services in the minority languages – French in the other provinces and English here – we’re by far the worst-treated." Read the rest of the story in the Gazette    Alternate Link

Language Fail
You'd think newspapers would pride themselves on correct spelling, translation, syntax and otherwise all things grammatical.
After all, they're not lowly bloggers! n'est-ce pas??

But it cuts both ways, here an editorial cartoon in La Presse is trying to make the point that the Montreal Canadiens are going ENGLISH by displaying a workman in a cherry-picker changing the name of the arena from the 'Centre Bell'' to the 'Bell Center.' 
The joke falls flat when one realizes that when describing an arena in Canada, the word Centre is actually spelled the same way in both French and English, as in Toronto's Air Canada Centre, or the MTS Centre in Winnipeg.

Disastrous Unemployment spike bothers nobody
You'd think Quebec newspapers would be running front page banner headlines in relation to the catastrophic rise in the unemployment rate as Quebec has lost tens of thousand of jobs over the last six months.
But of course, Randy Cunneyworth's lack of French and a couple of unilingual bosses in high places is much, more important.

Check out this graph, which underscores the horrific result wherein the Quebec unemployment rate rose by a whopping 2%, while in the RoC the rate actually dropped marginally.
I guess the party is over, where Quebec was actually ahead of the country during the big bad days of the recession and has returned to its traditional position as chief basket case among Canada's big four provinces.
In a year of cross-Canada recovery, Quebec managed to lose over 51,000 jobs.
On Thursday Louis Harel finally woke up and complained about Air Canada shipping off 140 jobs to Toronto from Montreal. The story broke months ago and I wrote about it then, so I'm not sure why she's complaining now. 
With labor trouble at Rio Tinto and White Birch, plus research jobs disappearing, the ongoing disaster continues unabated.
The solution..... more money for the OQLF to harass businesses!

Anglos contribute to decline in English school enrollment

"It's parents like Stefan Gauthier who have been contributing to the diminishing enrollment in the English Montreal School Board.

Gauthier, an Anglophone, is legally allowed under Quebec's language law to send his daughter Emma to an English language public school but opted instead for French.

"For us it just seemed more natural to put the kids in French, at least to start, given that it's a bit of a tougher language," said Gauthier." Read the rest of the story

Boston Bruin fan mocks Montreal over language controversy.  from..25stanley.com
 

Huntington mayor remains defiant
"Even under the microscope of the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF), the Town of Huntington flatly refused to subject the municipal government to Bill 101, adopted in 1977 by the provincial government.
"We learned [Wednesday] that the OQLF launched an investigation following a complaint regarding the application of the Charter of the French language in our municipal affairs," said the mayor of Huntingdon, Stéphane Gendron, in a press release.
"I have already informed the francization officer of the OQLF by telephone, that Bill 101 - regarding municipal governance - had and would not apply in the territory of the City of Huntingdon, said the mayor. It is useless to squander public funds to enforce a law that does not work  for our administration. End of story. " Link{Fr}
 
He's quite a character, this Stéphane Gendron, remember, he's the guy who announced on his television show that Israel had no right to exist..

Ottawa cans language school teachers

"The federal government is getting out of the business of providing language training to its employees, throwing 190 teachers and instructors across Canada out of work.

The move - which started with downsizing in the 1990s, and intensified after a 2006 Treasury Board decision - marks the first time in decades that the government won't be directly offering French and English training to public servants to meet the language requirements of their jobs." Link

I SWEAR I'M NOT MAKING THIS UP!...
Interpreter, please s.v.p

The letter writer was upset about what he considered an intolerable situation in certain of Montreal's French schools which have a large body of immigrant students whose parents don't speak French, but some English.

He gave the example of the Filipino community whose members generally speak pretty good English along with their native Tagalog.

It seems that when these non-French speaking parents come in for the proverbial parent/teacher conferences, those teachers who are bilingual, (the majority) conduct the meeting with the parent in English.

This according to the letter writer is an outrage. No teacher in a French school should ever carry on a meeting in English.

His solution- an interpreter.

The school board should provide an interpreter who would  translate the parents English into French for the teacher and translate into English the teacher's French responses.  

This even if the teacher speaks fluent English. arggh!!!.... Link{Fr}

Students too dumb to learn English
When anyone starts a conversation with the proverbial "I'm not against this, but...." you can be darn sure that the opposite is true.
Forty Quebec City area teachers signed a letter to the Minister of Education, that started with that old bromide, "We're not against teaching English, but.." and then went on to explain why they think it's a bad idea to force grade six students into taking a semester completely in English.
For the teachers, the main problem is that three-quarters of the students are too dumb to handle it, as well as their parents who would be incapable of dealing the supervision of 'English' homework..... At least they're honest! Link

Every picture tells a story

Here is a wide shot of the anti-Cunneyworth demonstration at the Bell Centre, which ironically, I found it on a separatist website.
What's interesting, is that its possible to get a sense of how big the demonstration actually was, which was a lot smaller than reports would have us believe.
The picture confirms what I reported, that participants ranged between 90-150 people and in no way came close to the 500 people reported by some media outlets.

By the way, a shout-out to J.T Utah of 25Stanley.com for scooping everyone on a regular basis in relation to news about  the Montreal Canadiens and the NHL in general.
The website was the first to accurately report the amount of demonstrators at the above demonstration at 100, scooping everyone in the mainstream media!
The site was the only place that called out Cammalleri for his selfishness BEFORE he was traded.
Sports reporters are too gutless to report the truth about unrest on the teams they cover because they are in fact glorified jock-sniffers who's first order of business is to protect their job and retain access to the players and the dressing room.
Check out 25Stanley.com.

Mitt Romney mocked for speaking French
"Zut alors! Il parle francais! -Mitt Romney is being skewered in a new Gingrich attack ad for speaking French.According to the TV spot dubbed “The French Connection,” his bilingual ability puts him on par with the liberal flip-flopper who happens to share his home state: John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic candidate." Link

Short Stuff

Terry DiMonte is coming home
Four years in Calgary gave returning CHOM-FM morning man a new perspective on Montreal.

Montreal Gazette Alternate Link

Not enough students in French cegep
The west island of Montreal's only French language  cegep is in danger of closing because of a lack of students. The 1,100 student Gérald-Godin college is located in the predominantly English section of town. Link

Westmount honored by Parks Canada
"The federal government has named the city of Westmount, Que. one of Canada's "iconic neighborhoods" for its architecture.
The tiny enclave west of downtown Montreal is one of four places Parks Canada has added to the list of historically significant sites in Canada." Link

Hydro-Quebec to host  English-only conference in Montreal
Hydro-Quebec is coming under fire from the usual suspects for hosting an international scientific conference in Montreal that will be conducted exclusively in English.

For Louise Marchand of the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF), keeping French in the research world is a challenge. Even in France, the prestigious INRS has decided to publish its research papers in English only.

For the president of Impératif français, Jean-Paul Perreault, it is 'incredible' that a Quebec state company would host an English-only conference.

"It's a shame to see that this prejudice- English science, English as a world language - is multiplied to the detriment of other national languages ​​by organizations and individuals who should, with pride, say that on our territory, our language must prevail, " Link{Fr}

NDP's Mulcair will keep French citizenship

"NDP leadership hopeful Thomas Mulcair holds dual Canadian and French citizenship and vows to keep both even if he should one day become Canada's prime minister." Link

Your editor' humble opinion;
Mulcair is toast......The Ndp membership outside Quebec is already fearful of a party takeover by Quebec separatists and any illusions about Mulciar's loyalties, vis-a-vis Canada versus Quebec were shattered by the discovery that he's also a closet French citizen.

So Uncle Tom, ...turn out the lights and don't let the door hit you on your way out!

This landed in my email from a reader. Enjoy, but you need French....

 



Finally.....some semi-original artwork.