French versus English Volume 49

Fear of 'English jobs' leads to decline in English vocational funding.

“....Someone who is very highly placed in the world of Quebec education told me at the Quebec Federation of Home and School Associations annual meeting last fall in Beaconsfield that English school boards are having a terrible time getting Quebec to approve new student spaces in English vocational education.

“The problem,” the person told me, “is that the ministry has started to say to us, ‘You’re trying to get us to create English jobs,’ but we’re not. Vocational training is part of the education system, but the government has started to decouple the two.” Read the rest of the story

Furious demand shrinks access to English cegep.

“...The other day I was talking to a colleague who told me she's been hearing anglophone parents of high-school students expressing hope that Bill 101 is toughened to keep francophones and immigrants out of English-language CEGEPs.

Normally, language crackdowns aren't something anglophones like to see in Quebec. But competition for limited spots in English CEGEPs, which are not bound by Bill 101, has become more intense as applications have risen through the ongoing economic sluggishness.

The access quandary is politically amplified by the fact that old attitudes toward English in Quebec are breaking down. Bright, ambitious young francophones and children of immigrants increasingly see English CEGEPs as stepping stones out into the wider world. Read the rest of the story

Don Cherry complains about lack of "Ontario" players on Maple Leafs

Many readers are of the opposite opinion of mine when I say that there are not enough Francophone hockey players on the Montreal Canadiens.

It remains my position that a NHL hockey team is a business and as such, must serve its clients as best it can.
Listening to what customers want and delivering a product in tune with those desires, is what makes businesses SUCCE$$FUL.
There remains those who believe that language or national origin should have no place in any decision to hire one player over the other.......Fair enough, we've each got a right to our opinion.

 But those who complain that it's only Quebecers who complain about such issues are wrong. I bet most teams would love to have local talent.
Here's the proof that Quebec is not alone in this desire.

Listen to Don Cherry complain about a lack of Ontario players on the Toronto Maple Leafs and listen to Brian Burke's (the Leafs' general manager) defend himself from allegation that he is anti-Ontario.  HERE

By the way, I had lunch this week with a former coach of the Canadiens, (I won't drop his name because it was a private conversation.)  He told me, as we were discussing the French/English issue,  that French players do try harder when wearing a Habs jersey. He said some players who had a bad game were too scared to go out and face the public. Oh Boy!
No need to motivate them!!!

Gilles Duceppe wins Waste award

"Former Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe received a lifetime achievement accolades in the 14th annual Teddy Waste Award ceremony, put on by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation to highlight what it deems to be wasteful government spending.

At 2:50 Montreal is skewered for it snowplows plowing bare sidewalks
At 9:10 Gilles Duceppe receives a lifetime achievement award

Read  the story

Small Quebec town  to challenge Bill 101

"The city of Huntingdon is vowing to keep serving its citizens in the “two official languages” after the Office québécois de la langue française asked it to transmit its communications to residents in French only.

In an email to the municipality in January, the OQLF noted it had received a complaint against the city.

It was a written, bilingual publication from the city that sparked the complaint, although Huntingdon Mayor Stéphane Gendron said that’s all they know. The city’s communication with citizens is always bilingual, Gendron said.

By transmitting bilingual communications to its residents, the city of Huntingdon gives the impression of being a bilingual city and, as a result, “doesn’t fully play the exemplary role expected of a public administration body” in terms of the French-language Charter, the OQLF’s email said. It also noted a publication can be transmitted in another language afterward to people who make the request.

“I don’t understand. Does it hurt someone to receive a bilingual publication,” Gendron asked? Link

Remaining adamant, the mayor, Stéphane Gendron hasn't backed down in the face of a furious backlash. He has however said he's going to step down early as mayor to concentrate on a media career.

Protest over Bilingual Hospital continues

"Ryan Alguire is a student at St. Lawrence College who wants to work as a water technician for the city but he's been told that he needs to be bilingual. "It's frustrating to have to pay money to go to school here, pay taxes and everything and live here my entire life, but not actually work in the province that I love," he says.
 St. Lawrence College nursing student Colleen Rudowski came to voice her opinion even though she says a lot of students are afraid to speak up. "I find a lot of students or people in general are just apprehensive to speak up about it for the fear of not getting hired at the hospital in Cornwall, not finding employment or somebody holding a grudge against them. I'm already planning on leaving because I can't speak French fluently," she says. " Read the rest of the story

Quebecer asks Queen to 'fire' Harper

“.. Somebody wrote to the Queen asking her to fire Stephen Harper as Prime Minister Link{Fr}

Quebec versus Alberta

"Three years after global energy prices tanked, Alberta’s oilsands are booming once again.

But industry players say they’re already bracing for what they fear lies ahead: chronic labour shortages and soaring cost pressures, two factors that caused so much havoc during the last boom.

As 2012 began, the number of workers employed in the province was already five per cent above its pre-recession high, the Conference Board of Canada says, handily outstripping the national growth rate.

Over the next two years, the board predicts Alberta will create 132,900 net new jobs — or about 40,000 more people than the entire population of Red Deer — cutting the province’s unemployment rate to 4.5 per cent by 2013. That’s just one per cent above the pre-recession lows of 2007." Link

Sounds like good news?

Not if you are  Françoise David, co-president of socialist Quebec Solidaire.

In an interview she showed concern that Quebec's  'Plan Nord will be too successful and thus depopulate areas south of the St. Lawrence river, its workers tempted by high wages in the North.

"Young people might be tempted to leave school to go north. What will they eventually become without formal training?" Ms. David wonders. 
Madame David also expressed concern for families who will be separated because of the far-away jobs. Link{Fr}

By the way, Quebec's unemployment rate..... 8.4%

Here's another interesting comparison, this time between Quebec and North Dakota over at antagonist.net

It is comprised of two videos, one showing the benefits of shale gas production in North Dakota followed by a video by Quebec 'zartistes' demanding a moratorium on any development.
SEE IT HERE

Radio-Canada now working for the OQLF?

It seems that the French CBC has undertaken an investigative report concerning the existence of stores that allegedly contravene Bill 101's provision that an English store name must have a French modifier.
Horror of horrors, 26% of the stores were found delinquent.
The funniest part of the story was when the interviewer asked a passerby what he thought of the situation. The man replied that he was from Paris and all the store names there were in English!!!!
 
The report was so anti-English, you'd think Mario Beaulieu was the editor.
Your federal tax dollars at work! LINK{Fr}      Watch the news report{Fr}

Montreal film director camps it up in 'GOON.'

Montrealer Jay Baruchel, co-writer, producer and star of Goon, had his tongue firmly in cheek when offered this scene of a hockey arena in Quebec.

The scene flashed by, almost unnoticed, but not to this eagle-eye.

"I swear I'm not making this up!

Just when you thought government waste couldn't get any sillier, here is a story that will have you shaking your head in disbelief.

The Journal de Montreal ran a story last week detailing the wasteful spending habits of Quebec's school commissions charged with running the provinces education system up until the end of high school.
Detailing a litany of dubious spending practices where expense reimbursement is out of control, including golf tournaments galore, or hiring a separate service to water plants in offices, the horrors go on and on.
But one last item caught my eye.
The Commission scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys pays employees 44¢ per kilometer when they use their vehicle to attend meetings outside the office.
Now here's the kicker...
If at the same time, they give a lift to another employee, THAT EMPLOYEE receives10¢ per kilometer as a gesture of good will for ride-sharing! LINK{Fr}



The school commissioners who are elected,  have a pretty good gig controlling a $9 billion budget.
By the way the turnout in recent school elections of 2007 was 7.9% and 67% of Commissioners (879 of 1305) were elected by acclamation.

  In Monday's Wednesday's post we continue our discussion of Partition;

'Does Partition Make Sense for Sovereigntists?'

Monday's Post- 
'Huntingdon Mayor Humiliates Gutless Anglos'

Further reading:

French versus English Volume 48

 Have a great weekend!