Olympic Team a Tribute to Bilingualism and Respect

I cannot explain how much I loathe the thoroughly detestable bee-atch, that is Pauline Marois.

Over the years I've learned to despise her and her opportunistic husband, a two-bit promoter who made millions on the back of Quebec taxpayers whilst Pauline was sitting as a cabinet minister in a PQ government.
Alas I'm sure there's no connection to her position and him scoring a dream job running a government agency....ahem...

After running up almost 750 million dollars in deficits at the Société générale de financement (SGF) the government investment agency he was running, he was finally dumped asked to resign, but not before negotiating a sweetheart deal.

Incidentally, during his disastrous tenure at the SGF, it was typical for the Board of Directors to vote themselves up to a 50% bonus on their base salaries, all the while the corporation was posting losses amounting to hundreds of millions!

When he was finally pushed out the door, the loathsome Claude Blanchet cashed in a golden parachute that would make a Concordia rector blush in shame. It included close to $300,000 in severance and wait for it..... an $80,000 pension for life!
This after just a few short years of disastrous leadership.

"Blanchet settlement is way out of line ---  JOSEE LEGAULT
The Montréal Gazette Friday, May 30, 2003

..." The fact is that after days of discussions with the new government regarding the conditions of his departure that he had negotiated with the previous Parti Québécois government, the 56-year-old Blanchet left a very, very happy man. The night before Landry spoke out, Blanchet gave an interview to TQS. He was wearing a huge smile and said that he had no worries whatsoever about his future. And here's why.

Blanchet will be receiving one full year of salary: $257,500, plus an $18,000 bonus and an annual lifelong pension of $80,000 - that's $33,000 more a year than the previous government had agreed to. In exchange for this increase, he forewent $234,000 that combined his three-month notice and another generous bonus that went with the cancellation of his contract." 

Read the sordid details here (in French) or a previous post of mine, but prepared to be ill.
 
So when the sanctimonious Marois complains about government overpaying public servants or that Jean Charest was dishonest in accepting a supplemental salary from the Quebec Liberal Party, it's a bit hard to swallow the hypocrisy. She reminds me of that disgraced City of Montreal politician Benoit Labonté, who ran on a policy of sweeping corruption out of City Hall, only to be outed as a liar who accepted over $100,000 in under the table contributions from the infamous Tony Accurso. Link{Fr}

Marois is a your typical rich bitch, a cynical manipulator, who has not an ounce of respect for the hoi-polloi.
I remember her offering a televised guided tour of the rather modest country shack she bought in Charlevoix (from where she is elected) to support the fiction that she and her hubby are just common folk.

What a lie!
At the time, her real home was a Jed Clampett type mansion in Laval, acquired on government land through dubious shenanigans.
Check out the pictures of where she really lived.
What a two-faced manipulator!

So pardon me for my cynicism, when it comes to giving lessons to Jean Charest about honesty or anyone else for that matter, Marois has the moral authority of a televangelist à la Jim Baker.

At any rate, all this comes around to the fact that I never thought I could think less of this nasty hypocritical political opportunist until last week when she went out of her way to wish Quebec Olympic athletes good luck, while pointedly ignoring Canadians and even francophones from outside Quebec.

An ugly display of narrow-minded exclusionism and small-mindedness, which I expect, represents the basis of her personal political philosophy.

Perhaps it is easier to understand her enmity towards the Canadian Olympic team, when one puts into context the machinations of the separatist mind.

A right thinking analyst might imagine that separatists like Marois would maintain an elevated level of hate towards what they perceive as Anglophone rednecks, Quebec bashers and the Conservatives and Harper supporters that treat Quebec and the French language with what they characterize as disdain and disrespect.
But you'd be wrong.

Truth be told, these foils serve her purpose rather neatly, they are enemies that she and other separatists can rail against, giving rise to public dis-satisfaction with Canada and fomenting support for the sovereigntist cause.

It's been the hallmark of the sovereigntist movement to build whatever momentum they have, based on the 'unfair' and 'disrespectful' treatment of Quebec and francophones at the hands of the evil federalists in the ROC.
Pissing, moaning and wallowing in eternal collective self-pity of the put-upon victim is the most essential element in the sovereigntist tool kit. They've refined the drama for over forty years and anything that offers proof to the contrary, represents a dangerous threat to the narrative.

And so, it is perhaps easy to understand that Canada's Olympic team is everything that Pauline Marois and her political clan fear about Canada.

Canada's Olympic team is without a doubt, a paragon of righteousness, a team dedicated to the proposition of bilingualism and inclusion.

If bilingualism and biculturalism has largely failed across Canada, it hasn't failed on the Canadian Olympic team, which not only talks the talk, but walks the walk.

The Canadian Olympic Association has done an admirable job in making sure that all Canadian elements, especially Quebecers and francophones feel at home, respected and valued. The leadership of the organization is carefully crafted to include francophones and respect for the French language is a cornerstone of its credo.
Although athletes are chosen to the team based on merit alone, administrative and leadership roles are carefully balanced to reflect the Canadian realty.

It is this very scenario that scares the crap out of separatists like Marois.

For them, watching Quebec francophones proudly compete under the auspices of the red maple leaf, is as the old Ayatollah Khomeini said, "like drinking a cup of poison"

In fact, francophone Olympic athletes are the antithesis of separatists, they embrace excellence, personal responsibility, hard work, have a world view and understand the importance of learning and expressing themselves in English.
For Olympic athletes, who may be just about the most motivated people in the world, learning another language isn't a challenge, just another small hurdle to overcome.

Even Anglophone athletes, many who train in Montreal, make it their business to learn French, people like Clara Hughes and Jenifer Heil, even made Quebc their homes, unafraid of embracing a new culture and language.

Canada's first medalists, the beautifully bilingual Jenifer Abel and Émilie Heymans are typical of those francophones on the Olympic team who understood the importance of learning English.
Gushing in both English and French interviews, they instantly became heroes to all Canadians.

DING DING DING! Do I hear the endorsement caravan beating a path to their door? 

For winners like these, learning English or French isn't a bother, impediment or barrier, it is a necessity and more to the point a mark of pride.

No, I don't imagine there are many separatists on Canada's Olympic team, the athletes are too busy being successful, travelling the world representing our country, to worry about the pettiness of metro ticket takers refusing to service clients in English.

When our athletes marched into the Olympic stadium in those instantly recognizable Canadian uniforms, it didn't matter to us if they were francophone, anglophone, black, white, native or ethnic, nor was their respective religion of any consequence.
It was the scarlet uniform, emblazoned with the word CANADA across the chest that bound the athletes together, and bound them to us, no matter where we live and where they come from in this country.

But for some, like Pauline Marois, the Olympics is a sad reminder of reality.
For her and her frustrated militants, watching Quebecers march proudly as equal and valued teammates in the Canadian family mosaic, is a difficult pill to swallow.

When Quebecers win medals they proudly stand before the world under the Canadian flag and when on occasion, the Canadian anthem plays, the whole vigile.net community bite their lips and cower in rage.

Oh what sweet fun!