French versus English Volume 64

PQ set to roll back English instruction and promote sovereignty in school

Marie Malavoy, the new Minister of Education wants to scale back the teaching of English in French primary schools.

First she wants to delay the implementation of the as yet not installed program of intensive English instruction in Grade six and also wants to stop the introduction of English in Grade one, because, according to her, she believes it to be to confusing to students who need to master French first.

In regards to English, which Malavoy now refers to as a 'foreign language,' she told reporters that it can be learned in 'other ways.'

“My party was very critical of the idea of ​​introducing a foreign language as you begin to master concepts, grammar, syntax and vocabulary of one's mother tongue,” says Malavoy.

“I will respect what is there this year, but I've asked the Ministry to follow the situation for now, and  that we talk about what is to be done next year,”  she said, proposing to push the teaching of that second language to the fourth or fifth grade.

Shades of the Taliban.

Another matter that needs to be reviewed, according to the PQ is the history taught in high school. In addition to increasing the number of hours devoted to it, Marie Malavoy believes the content to be changed.

“There are all kinds of schools of thought such as capitalism, feminism, and all of them are part of the curriculum. There is also a school of thought called nationalism. And I think we have to give a special place to the debate that has taken place here in Quebec over the last 50 years,” Ms. Malavoy said. ” Read more

“Education Minister Marie Malavoy angrily rejected accusations Thursday that she is politicizing the province’s education system with her proposals to abolish obligatory English classes in Grades 1 and 2, hold off on intensive English classes in Grade 6 and make sure the independence question is highlighted in the province’s high-school history courses.
Malavoy made the suggestions in an interview published Thursday by Le Soleil in Quebec City, headlined “Less English in school and more room for the sovereignty question in history courses.” Read the rest of the story

Madame Malavoy is a great fan of sovereignty, so much so that she  actually voted in the referendum without being a citizen of this country! Come to think of it she voted in provincial and federal elections while being a non-Canadian.
After that was exposed, she was forced out of the PQ cabinet of Jacques Parizeau in 1994 and left politics for eight years.
But all is forgiven, welcome aboard!!!

Hilarious Facebook exchange highlights Quebec Chasm

 I must say that after reexamining the exchange on Collossus' Facebook page (since deleted) about the "If ur not happy, go to Guzzo:)" exchange, I couldn't help but shake my head at how low we have sunk.

First was Celyne Lessard complaining about the fact that the newer screening rooms were being used for English movies, rather than the dubbed French versions. The complaint was rather polite, if I do say so myself.

The dismissive reply, from what had to be a low level employee was insulting, but absolutely hilarious.

But then language blowhard Louis Prefontaine steps in to demand a boycott.
Question: How does he arrive on the scene so fast? He must have some special sort of radar.
Of course he demands a BOYCOTT as usual, his go-to plan for every language slight, perceived or real.. As I recall some of his targets in the past were Air Transat and the Quebec summer music festival.

Then two kibitzers pipe in, the first complaining that when French people tell English people to move to Ontario, they get their head ripped off.

But, nothing beats the last comment by Philippe Laurent Secord, who offered this priceless bon mots that I will not translate, because I don't want to spoil it for French/bilingual readers.

You'll have to wait for someone in the comments section to explain.

French flee Montreal?

"In their more candid moments, nationalists admit that if indeed there is a “decline” of French on Montreal Island, it’s not because immigrants go to English-language CEGEPs.
Rather, it’s because French-speakers have been moving from the island to the mainland suburbs.
The reason most commonly offered for this migration is that young families are seeking housing that is both suitable and more affordable than that available on the island.
But an article by a well-known linguistic demographer published on the editorial page of Le Devoir on Tuesday suggests an additional, possible reason: a phenomenon similar to the “white flight” from American cities after the Second World War.
Simply put, the article by Michel Paillé suggests that some francophones are moving off Montreal Island to get away from immigrants.
Let’s call it “franco flight.”
Paillé quotes from a recent article in Le Devoir:
“Francophones are abandoning Montreal as a losing battle, unable as they have been to put their stamp on it after a half-century of Quiet Revolution.” Read the rest of the story

Vigile.watch

I came across this story because a newscrawler picked up mention of this blog on a story published on vigile.net where the author makes the suggestion that Richard Bain's alleged attempt on Pauline Marois Life is directly linked to comments on blogs like ours as well as other 'hateful' messages on mainstream media.

This author is the same person who once wrote to me complaining that my article ridiculing him was unfair because it is actually a fact that Jewish citizens in Montreal refuse to be served in restaurants by French Canadian waitresses.
He also complained that rich Jews in Montreal and Laval are persecuting francophones as well as controlling the world.
Rich Jews in Laval? Hmmm......Read my post.

He is one of the few contributors on vigile.net who actually had stories redacted by the editor because of racist content. Redactions

It's always rich when a racist and a linguicist attempts to call other people racist, especially when his screeds are so full of laughable mistakes and urban myths, errors that could only be created in the delusional mind of a fantasist.

To see what we are dealing with, we need look no farther than the headline to his latest story.

Lemme see.....
"A complaint by an allophone against a Quebecois who stands up for French."

Notice that the headline did not say:
"A complaint by an allophone against a francophone who stands up for  French."

 nor did it say;
"A complaint by a Quebecois against another Quebecois who stands up for French."

You see, to Mr. Barberis-Gervais an allophone could never in his wildest imagination be considered a Quebecois"

 CHECKMATE!

MQF  stages another 'massive' demonstration'

The Mouvement quebec francais held another tedious demonstration, this time about not enough French.....blah....blah....blah!
The newspaper article reported that about fifty demonstrators participated but the picture accompanying the story tells a different story Link{FR}

Two flags, five placards and about a dozen demonstrators.

Another smashing success CONGRATULATIONS.
As thy say in French... Loosers!!!


Now to be fair.....

A protest by an English group protesting that now infamous sign in the Villa Maria metro was just about as successful, a pitiful turnout I am forced to admit.

"Following last week’s incident in which a STM (Société des Transports de Montréal) employee placed a sign which read “Au Québec, c’est en Français que ça se passe” against the window of his ticket booth, it didn’t take long for the sign to make its way through the city’s social media before it finally made the evening news.
“You can think what you want in whatever language that pleases you,” said Sonya Mullins, “…but this is just too damn much.”
 Within hours after the story found its way through the internet, activists within Québec’s Office Québecois de la Langue Anglaise, a minority language rights organization, posted their own message in which they announced that they would be holding a demonstration outside the STM’s Villa Marie Metro Station where the sign incident occurred.
Several dozen people, including Mullins, showed up for last week’s rush-hour protest, but they were well received as many passing commuters stopped to have a chat and describe their own experience with rude and surly STM ticket agents who took exception to their language or even their accent. " Link

"Several dozen" Hmm......doesn't look like it?
Sorry Hugo.

 

Francophonie meets amid turmoil

The conference celebrating French language and culture is playing out this week in the Democratic Republic of Congo, under  surreal circumstances where many participants are decidedly uncomfortable holding such a 'prestigious' meeting in your basic run-of-the-mill banana republic, a country under extreme criticism by opposition forces for the litany of abuses all banana republics are known for....human rights abuses, fixed elections, unfair imprisonment, etc.etc.

Pauline Marois, eager to make her big international debut, decided that discretion was the better part of valour and refused to meet, be seen with or photographed with the host, Joseph Kabila.

"The Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie's decision to hold its 14th summit in Kinshasa raised eyebrows given the government's poor democratic credentials and human rights record.

French President Francois Hollande scolded his Congolese counterpart Joseph Kabila and could meet his opposition rival on the sidelines of the summit, setting a tense political backdrop for the three-day meeting." Link

"Prime Minister Stephen Harper is planning to raise Canada's concerns about human rights abuse and violence against women plaguing the Democratic Republic of Congo when he arrives there this week for an international summit, said his spokesman Tuesday." Link

In another blow the African nation of Gabon is set to make English an official language;

"The French-speaking African country of Gabon is moving on from the language of its former colonizers and introducing English across the nation.
Gabon's President Ali Bongo Odimba spent last week in Rwanda, where a similar move has proved a success.
Rwanda is now part of both the Francophonie (French-speaking) community and the Commonwealth.
President Bongo Odimba has made his move just ahead of the 14th summit of the Francophonie, which will see 56 countries' representatives descend on the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon's next-door neighbour." Link

Etc. Etc.

Talk about paranoia, there are some in the media wondering if the small earthquake that hit in the Monteregie region on Wednesday was caused by, you guessed it, shale gas test wells.
The quake was felt in Montreal, but didn't do any damage and most people slept through it.
But it goes to underscore how frightened ordinary Quebecers are in terms of shale gas exploration.
David McCormack of Resources Canada explained that it was impossible, the quake happened 27 miles beneath the surface.

In a province where many people oppose intelligent electrical meters because of the  'dangerous waves' it is to be expected. Link{FR}

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Here's a story that will stick in the craw of French language boosters.
It seems that Alex Kovalev unable to secure employment in the NHL will pursue his career in Switzerland where he told reporters that he will learn French in order to connect with the fans.
This after five years with the Montreal Canadiens in which time he never even learned to say 'Bonjour!" Link{Fr}

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"The NDP Member of Parliament for the Gaspé and Magdalene Islands, Philip Toone, said the lives of French-speaking mariners are at risk if the Maritime Rescue Sub-Centre in Quebec City closes.
The centre takes distress calls and helps manage search-and-rescue operations for mariners in Quebec.
The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans plans to close the centre next spring, saving an estimated $1 million per year by sending distress calls from Quebec waters to centres in Halifax, N.S. and Trenton, Ont.
Some people are worried the French-language skills of dispatchers in those centres won't be adequate, putting lives at risk." Read the rest of the story

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Watch the news report ...Bad Constable 728

Out of Control Police officer
Here's a late story that will be making quite a splash over the next little while. It seems that a female Montreal police officer with badge number 728, is one mean bad ass and was caught on video and in a recorded telephone conversation abusing citizens.
Stéphanie Trudeau  was already the subject of a complaint, backed up by video footage, of her gratuitously spraying people with pepper spray.

But what really got her in trouble was an altercation over a minor incident which exploded into a full-blown police beat down.
It seems that a musician in the Plateau district of Montreal went to the lobby of his apartment building to hold open the front door in order to assist his musician friends laden with equipment.
The unfortunate was holding a beer in his hand which set of Officer 728, who made a big deal about it to the point that four people were manhandled viciously and carted off to jail after a dozen police cars were called to the scene.
Much of it was filmed and Officer 728 was clearly shown to be choking one of the four rather dangerously.
To top it all off, Officer 728 confiscated the cellphones of the four while conducting them to the station, but unluckily for her, pocket-dialed someone who recorded her using abusive language towards the suspects and describing herunprofessional behaviour  to a supervisor.
It was all played on TV and as you can guess she was suspended immediately.
Great entertainment, if it isn't you being manhandled!

Yesterday afternoon, the Chief of Police threw her under the bus.
For the first time in my memory the head of the Montreal police apologized for the actions of one of his officers.

So long, sweetie...your police career is over!

Watch the YouTube video and a story in French about the violent incident YouTube

Read a great story and see the previous pepper spray story in English by Global Montreal 

You can listen to the pocket-dialed call, but you need really need good French to understand Link{fr}

Best TWITTER comment;

"EAT YOUR BROCCOLI, OR I'LL CALL OFFICER 728!"

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Weekend reading'

Opinion: Let Detroit's decline serve as a warning.  

by Kathryn Markwick

"MONTREAL — If our new premier, Pauline Marois, wants to do a road trip outside of Quebec, I suggest she visit my hometown, Detroit, Michigan.
She surely knows of Detroit, founded in 1701 by Antoine de la Mothe, sieur de Cadillac whose original home in Old Montreal now serves Big Macs.
Marois shouldn’t go to Europe; they’ve just started to fail there. Go see real failure; go see Detroit. It is one of the most jarring, jaw-dropping unimaginable sights in North America. In fact, she wouldn’t believe she’s still in North America. Once a great city, Detroit has experienced a complete economic and political meltdown. The media has begun to talk about Detroit’s renaissance, but their stories are overblown. At best, the recovery is only a sparrow rising from the ashes; it’s no phoenix.
Those who don’t know the whole story claim that Detroit’s woes are the consequence of having been a one-industry town. That’s far too pedantic. Destruction of this magnitude has been the confluence of many factors. Certainly, The Big Three automakers were major culprits, starting with Henry Ford. Although his assembly line transformed production, the fault was in his wage structure. He promised far too much into the future, so he wouldn’t have to pay more cash up front. This created the unsustainable, modern-day legacy costs that helped drive the industry into the tank.
Big Three design also became lazy, spitting out cars that few wanted, and opening the doors to foreign entry.
Then, we had the race riots of 1967, a shameful and dark mark on our city’s history, after which whites moved from the city to the suburbs, generally north of Eminem’s “8 Mile” divide. After that came Coleman Young, revered mayor of Detroit, who practised what I term Evangelical Politics. Evangelical Politics, to me, was about promising the world and delivering nothing, while preying on the passion and fervour of the constituency. Years later, many black brethren who were able to move said, “To hell with this. We have the poorest schools, bare-bones police and fire services, and dangerous streets. We’re getting out of here, too.”
Do you think that 50 years ago, Detroiters could have imagined the degree of devastation that lay ahead?
As I look at Montreal and Quebec today, do you think I say, ‘It can’t happen here?’ Read the rest of the story

Conrad Black: As Quebec decays, Toronto seizes greatness

The announcement this week of an effort spearheaded by art collector and impresario David Mirvish, international architect Frank Gehry and innovative developer Peter Kofman to provide Toronto with a novel vertical, arts-based downtown residential complex is potentially a big step in Toronto’s quest to vault itself into the front ranks of the world’s cities — where it has sometimes prematurely claimed to belong. Whether Canadians from other centres like it or not, Toronto is now and will remain the comparative metropolis of the country, having surged past Montreal after that city entered into a sustained suicide attempt based on separatist agitation and accompanying racial and cultural discrimination.

Behind the pretenses to egalitarianism that dress up confiscatory Quebec tax laws and repressive language laws, the real driving ambition has been to push the non-French out of Quebec, buy up the real assets they cannot physically take with them, especially their mansions and office buildings in Montreal, and eliminate up to half the emphatically federalist votes in the province. Montreal’s loss has proven to be Toronto’s gain.
Historically, almost all Quebec’s non-French (comprising about 20% of the provincial population) are anti-separatist; and about an equal number of Quebec federalists are authentic French-Canadians who have thrown in their lot with the pan-Canadian option, and are routinely reviled by their peppier Quebec nationalist compatriots as vendus, sell-outs. (In my recent debut as a co-host with Amanda Lang on her CBC news program, the only line of mine that was excised was to this effect — so squeamish does the CBC remain about calling Quebec nationalism what it is: outright racism, at least in the worst cases. Radio Canada, the French CBC, is a notorious infestation of separatists.)
The principal bulwark of federalism in Quebec, and therefore in Canada, has been the English-Canadians, who have habitually voted Liberal, and have been shamefully neglected by the Liberal Parties of Canada and Quebec (the first now eviscerated and reduced to the unimaginably dubious expedient of elevating a leader whose sole qualification for high public office was surviving childbirth, and the second defeated and discredited, and now about half English, despite all its ingratitude). But 50 years of nationalist pressure in Quebec, uncompetitively high tax-rates on upper income groups and the endless redefinition of the use of English as a “privilege” that can be whittled down and compromised, have driven over 500,000 people out of Quebec, most of them to the Toronto area.
These former Quebecers, and the comparative welcome that Toronto has given external immigration (unlike the Québécois, who are generally hostile to any non-French immigration and none too accommodating even to ostensibly francophone immigrants who don’t speak like Québécois and aren’t too preoccupied with Quebec nationalism), has made Toronto an unusually, almost uniquely multi-cultural city. In fact, Toronto is one of the few jurisdictions where multi-culturalism has not been a disaster. Read the rest of the story

Question of the weekend

As we head into the weekend I would propose the following discussion point;

As we read in two stories above, neither the English side or the French side seems to be able to muster much of a turnout for demonstrations in defence of language issues..

Why?

Is the whole issue just overblown?
Do we really not care?
Are we just too complacent or lazy?

Think about your answer and let us know your opinion in the comments section....


Have a good weekend!