Making your voice heard
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In response to reader requests I am opening up a resource where we can find email addresses where we can send messages.
I don't just want this to be a repository of American media outlets, I'd like to include government and quasi-government agencies, like Montreal's infamous STM, even businesses that ignore English completely.
The resource is yours to build, I'm not going to shoulder the burden.
Please email me HERE to add a pertinent link. I hope we can build a decent database together.
Now I'd like to again broach a subject that I've brought up before and that is the language of comments.
I understand that rage is legitimate and if you want a place to rant go ahead, but....
As I've said before, this blog reaches out across the world, it is read in consulates and embassies and within our own and foreign governments.
NoDogs is indexed as a resource site on three widely-used news resource aggregators and I get emails from around the world asking for interviews and commentary.
Because of this blog I have been asked to give closed door briefings in places that I cannot reveal.
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| SEPTEMBER figures according to GOOGLE ANALYTICS |
I am not saying any of this to brag, but rather so that you the contributors are mindful of the impact of your comments.
I firmly believe that if you want people to take you seriously, that you need to avoid histrionics, bad language and nasty name-calling.
For those who come here to form an opinion, it is an automatic turn off.
Well-written and well-thought out comments are what make a real difference.
Please remember that those who oppose us follow closely what we say looking for bones to pick at any opportunity. One nasty and racist comment can have a negative effect on what we are trying to accomplish.
Also a reminder that I am not a professional and I work with limited resources and a staff of 1 volunteer, my wife.
I try desperately hard to get my facts straight, but remain mindful mistakes find their way in my blog pieces. I promise to make all corrective changes as soon as I can.
As well, the comments section is again unmoderated, which means that comments are immediately published without pre-screening.
I made an appeal last month for an end to anonymous posting and that supplication has largely been followed.
As for banning people with opposing views, it will not happen.
As for trolls, a lot has to do with optics.
I have and will continue to remove gratuitous personal insults, but it plays both ways.
I defy anyone to tell me that there are not offenders on our side as well as S.R and others. It isn't mature demand censorship.
The two eyes in your head and your fingers are controlled by you.
Don't read and don't respond to what offends you, that is all I can say.
A sterile one-sided discussion is the last thing we need.
I know many don't agree, but such is life.
In the meantime your comments ARE vitally important.
More people follow this blog for the comments, rather than the main post and the success or failure of this blog is entirely in your hands.
I have learned a lot from the comments section, first that even though we are a community, we share different ideas about partition, language, rights and Quebec's place or non-place in Canada.
This blogs remains about us and our experience.
If those who dislike us come here to mock us, so be it, it is the price we pay for freedom and underscores to those on the other side who block negative or English comments on their blogs automatically, how much they need to learn about freedom of speech.
It is the very essential difference between us and the French language militants who propose a society where ideas, position and principles are only okay, if they fall with within their narrowly defined view of the world.
Informative post, as usual. Can you explain why the "Delete" post option has disappeared, however?
ReplyDeleteDunno....
ReplyDeleteThank you for all the good information Editor - It's appreciated by Canadians in this backward province.
ReplyDeleteFROM ED BROWN
ReplyDeleteEDITOR Again it's me that's out of line. I will not apologize to complicated because I know he does these things on purpose to rile people. However I will say that before I let this happen again I will drop out. My Father would say, "If you have a sore on your ass don't sit down. If you told complicated that every english man had to kiss 100 french men every day he would say "you were probably stepping on their toes while you were doing it." If he's not a seppie troll trying to disguise himself as english he needs to learn that you can't go through life saying, "I'm O.K.
it's the rest of the world that's wrong." Ed
Ed just ignore complicated. He or she is just your stereorypical apologist anglo of the younger generation. These people think they are complex and open minded when they are really just pathetic Uncle Toms and apologists for racist behaviour. Sadly a lot of them exist in our media.
DeleteEd - Stop acting like a child. You may not like what I say and may totally disagree with it but dont start whining to the editor about dropping out. There are many things you have said that I totally disagree with it and there are actually even a few things I agree with..there are many things SR says that I totally disagree with and a few I agree with. But in the end we are all big boys and there is still something called free speech..lets not try to censor other people because they differ in opinion to our own.
DeleteJamesJohn - Thats rich coming from you. You are the one that uses more vulgar language than anyone else on this forum and you paint yourself as the wise old one. You and Ed are the typical people who view everything in black and white. You are either with us or against us..there are no shades of grey..only one side is at fault. Of course the anglos are perfect and have zero responsibility concerning the problems in this province. If being an apologist means having an open mind, accepting some responsibility for the anglo side and being pragmatic then I guess I am the biggest apologist out there. You on the other hand represent the closed minded, tunnel visioned, my way or the highway mentality which will get us exactly nowhere..
Oh my, the more information I read on that Imperatif Francais site the more frightening these people become. Some of their ideas are so bizarre that I find it hard to believe any intelligent person in the world would take note of them. We are really in big problems in this province if they were to have any influence in a new Quebec when it's partitioned. It's really scary that these separatists actually believe some of this stuff!
ReplyDeleteEditor, in your comment "Because of this blog I have been asked to give closed door briefings in places that I cannot reveal." That blatantly makes you sound like you're a spy! How do we readers to know you aren't being coerced to, or perhaps voluntarily, giving up your sources?
ReplyDeleteAre you joking?
DeleteA spy?
I've been asked to offer an alternate view of the political situation by a number of news organizations, reporters and yes in some cases friendly foreign governments who are trying to make sense of Quebec.
I've never been asked, nor offered anything remotely secret or confidential.
If any respectable agency would want to know who are the contributors to this blog, they would not have any issue finding out without any help.
DeleteJust as an aside, I want readers to know that I cannot see IP addresses and in no way can identify readers.
DeleteEditor, this is where e-mail and texting are weak. There is no real dialogue, so no tête-à-tête exchange to ensure things aren't taken the wrong way so easily. Nevertheless, I'm not sorry I brought it up so I and your other readers could assure the question was put out there.
DeleteIn any case, I'm sure the feds and Quebec political parties are gauging this blog and the comments. This is as close a means possible to micro gauge the market. Polls are for macro gauging, and the pollsters ask specific questions.
Again Mr Editor,
DeleteWhile it may seem like a$$ kissing, I do appreciate where you have taken your blog. Before no dogs and anglophones, I thought I was one of the only ones that thought the way I did about what was wrong with bill 101 and the way Quebec treats its minorities. Some stress from the political situation in Quebec that effects us in our day to day lives does get released into our posts and does help us in small ways.
Many of the so called representatives of the minority communities of Quebec sugar coated what the minorities were really feeling about Quebec. For you to have gotten closed door meetings with world media, local and foreign governments is a big achievement.
Maybe editor can even get the ball rolling in the mainstream media for a the creation of a New bilingual province including, most of Montreal island, parts of the off island suburbs, southern eastern townships, the pontiac, ungava, parts of the chateauguay valley, and Francophone heavy parts of eastern and Northeastern Ontario. the lower north shore can join New Brunswick. The Quebec francophones will get their province 2nd most populous in Canada with 6 million, which would be as French as Ontario is English, most of the minorities would get a province they would be linguistically alot freer, franco ontarions would get more options and services, and Canada would be better off with our a anchor on economic growth in the Montreal area.
Again, worth repeating, if it is all done within the Laws of Canada, we could have the 75 electoral districts decide their own fate with separate referendums in each area, clear question, clear majority and then each district would decide it's own fate. Those of us that wish to remain within Canada could become a separate bilingual province or join Ontario and/or New Brunswick. I don't know why we have to wait for their winning conditions - we can have our own winning conditions and sign the Canadian Constitution (and if this were to happen we could even still have the notwithstanding clause)for the benefit of each province that remains in Canada. The separatists will have their own area to control and tax and become what they may while the rest of us can belong to a growing financially stable country. ON WITH A PARTITION PARTY!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteYou are biting the hand that feeds you....
DeleteSorry Editor
DeleteNot "Desolé"?
DeleteRight you are, Edward! An apology in correct English for the Editor. Whoa!
DeleteIt's good to know he's improving his English by spending so much time reading this blog.
DeleteTank you veri mutch RS,anglish is not a easy langage too anderstand for a litle french brein like mine.
DeleteS.R,
DeleteEcrire en francais? Vous est au Quebec! Ce n'est pas le temps de s'agenouiller. Vous aurez suffisament le temps de le faire apres que Quebec se separera.
40 years ago I believed some of the responsibility for the separatist movement was taking place because of the anglophones in the province of Quebec so, for that reason, many of us did not take part in the strong objections to Bill 101. Apologies for whatever we thought had happened had taken place and apologies were made to the francophone community by our acceptance of that bill. Most of us accepted it to help the francophones maintain their language. THAT WAS 40 YEARS AGO - NOW WE MUST MOVE ON AND STOP TAKING AWAY THE RIGHTS OF CANADIANS IN THIS PROVINCE. IF THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE TO THE SEPARATIST COMMUNITY, THEN WE MUST TAKE ACTION TO PARTITION THIS PROVINCE AND LET THOSE GO THAT WANT TO GO. THE PAST IS THE PAST AND WE MUST MOVE ON. THOSE THAT DON'T WANT TO MOVE TO THE FUTURE MUST BE LEFT BEHIND! WE NEED A PARTITION PARTY TO MOVE THE REST OF US FORWARD AND OUT OF THIS SOCIALIST SOCIETY THAT QUEBEC HAS CREATED. CAPITALISM IS THE ONLY WAY TO MOVE FORWARD AS RUSSIA AND OTHER COMMUNIST SOCIETIES HAVE LEARNED OVER THE PAST 40 YEARS.
ReplyDeleteJust to get an idea how some of these separatists think: imperatif-francais.org/bienvenu/a-vous-la-parole/2012/la-presse-assassine.html and read more on the website of the Organization of Quebecers - Bernard Desgagne - who takes the part of Iran over Israel for one - very enlightening reading if you get the chance. Hold on for the first nuclear bomb coming from Iran to annihilate Israel but don't worry, Iran never gives anyone trouble! (Sarcasm)
ReplyDeleteFROM ED BROWN
ReplyDeleteJames John, You're right , I am taking your advice. As soon as I see the name complicated I don't look at it. I just roll past like I do with SR. Ed
My first comment here was a suggestion to the Editor to try and stop Anonymous comments, only because it was challenging to follow separate trains of thoughts from a dozen Anonymous handles. I have been thinking lately how I should now compliment the Editor; he mentioned hearing the same thought before, and I have to say, it's far, far, far easier to track the conversation(s) now.
ReplyDeleteSome people find it challenging to step into another's shoes. I certainly can't step into everyone's shoes. Still, as an offering towards reconciliation, I suggest that maybe some anglophone commenters from Montréal react to, say, Complicated's posts and ideas as if it were a personal attack on their personal treatment of francophones, their personal feelings towards francophones, or their family or friends' attitudes towards francophones.
Often, francophones have gotten the short end of the stick in Canada.
That's not a comment on any person's treatment of their francophone neighbors or colleagues. It's a comment on the federal government. If French had been treated equally in the past, Manitoba would have a far larger French population.
French hasn't been allowed to spread out over the continent in a way commensurately equal to English's spread. That's to everyone's present-day detriment.
Today, French is equal in rights to English. I'm pleased to see the change and transformation. The separatists are stuck in the past; that's their problem. Still, English Canada can recognize that the past has seen errors, often springing out of Orange Protestant Ontario, and make French Canada feel more accepted and embraced today.
Huh, JBG? What? Often, francophones have gotten the short end of the stick in Canada. Care to explain this? Either you're a Francophone, or an apologist.
DeleteCutie: It was NEVER the fault of the Anglophones - NEVER! Try the Roman Catholic Church and politicians like the tyrannous Maurice Duplessis who fed off the ignorance promoted by the Church. The minorities didn't plug into the ignorance, coersion and perpetual babymaking the Church promoted. They had smaller families and worked hard to improve their lots in life, not support the Church with the very little they had to support the Church after barely providing their families enough to eat and stay warm.
Mr. Sauga = I said 40 years ago I felt that way - now I know that I'm extremely tired of listening to the garbage that these separatists throw about concerning what was really going on = You're right = the church and the politicians kept their own people in ignorance and that's why I want this to end. The myths spread by the separatists are still keeping people in the dark and this is where they will stay by the looks of it. I want the true Canadians to get out of the province of Quebec and form our own bilingual province within Canada. Let those that want to stay within a new Quebec do so and live in their mythical world that they have created. PARTITION THIS PROVINCE AND START ON A NEW LIFE WITHIN CANADA = THAT'S OUR ONLY WAY OUT OF THIS MESS OF NON-BELIEVERS AND SOCIALISTS.
DeleteAnd by the way, when I was 9 or so, the priest from our neighbourhood church came to our hovel of a home to bless it, and I watched my father give him a $10.00 bill and we had no groceries in the house to eat. The priest, meanwhile, was driving a brand new 1957 Lincoln and he knew my father well and that there were 4 kids for him to support and a wife that had just passed away at the grand old age of 34. He thought not a thing about it and put the $10.00 in his pocket and left without a second glance. When I asked my dad about it, he said "it's OK baby, we'll find something to eat". How nice = I never again attended church except when I had to and feel that same way today.
Delete4
4
Cutie, I was brought up in a Jewish home with a grandmother who constantly clamored "every Jewish boy should go to synagogue"*. I think that did more to turn me off the "institutionalized" aspects of Judaism than anything else. The kosher food industry is a racket run by religious self-proclaimed demagogues who play God deciding who gets certification to be kosher or not, i.e., it's a racket.
DeleteMy parents chose to keep kosher at home, but ate in non-kosher restaurants away from home. Kosher inside, non-kosher outside. I found the whole thing very hypocritical, just like Quebec's Bill 86 with its inside/outside sign laws, i.e., French-only outside, English tolerated inside along with French written in lettering twice the size, or twice the number of signs. Nevertheless, they were loving parents. They observed the dietary laws their way, I don't observe them my way. Similarly, I don't comply with language laws because in Ontario, I don't have to. Thankfully in the Township of Russell, about a half hour drive across the Quebec-Ontario border, the current mayor reversed a by-law voted upon by the previous administration to allow businesses to post outdoor signs in any language they wished. Good-bye to obligatory legislation where signs had to be bilingual, in English and French. That is now an option, not a law.
To quote the words on New Hampshire license plates: LIVE FREE OR DIE
Forgot to explain the asterisk: *Synagogue is the Jewish term for a house of worship, i.e., Christians go to church, Muslims go to mosque, Jews go to synagogue.
DeleteMr Sauga,
DeleteThere were some historical injustices. Manitoba was suppose to be constitutional bilingual as the Metis were majority of when it became a province. Bilingualism was dropped once there was a WASP majority, at that time there wasn't even a notwithstanding clause. The minorities went through the same thing in Quebec for almost 40 years.
French hasn't been allowed to spread out over the continent in a way commensurately equal to English's spread.
ReplyDeleteYou’ve got to be kidding. Do enlighten us who and when it was that prevented French from spreading out commensurately. Could it possibly have anything to do with France having abandoned its East Coast colony and not having settled the Pacific Coast? Or with Louis Riel allowing the execution of Thomas Scott during the Red River Rebellion, which essentially halted expansion by métis francophones themselves west of Manitoba?
English Canada can recognize that the past has seen errors
For just how many more decades do you expect “English Canada” to do this? Until infinity? Has it accomplished anything so far in the past 40 years? Other than encouraging even more draconian anti-English measures, that is. What in the world are you talking about? That English-Canadians should get down on their knees and weep and cry and beg forgiveness (boo hoo hoo) for the remainder of time? You think this is going to make the booboo better?
So true. How much longer are we going to have to apologize for stuff that wasn‘t even our ancestor‘s doing? When they say “language tensions“ or “idiots on both sides“ I don‘t get it. Its not the english who get mad when they hear french in public. Its not the english who want to micromanage which language employees converse in. Its not the english who worship bill 101 like it is an all knowing powerful God. Its not the english who forced the french to adhere to the teachings of the oppressive Roman Catholic church for all those years.
DeleteCulture is evolutionary. You should not pass laws to freeze something in place. Overtime, it just ends up marginalising and hurting the people you aim to protect. As they say, laws passed with the best of intentions end up having the worst effects.
ReplyDeleteIn Quebec, so many people speak so little English that it’s no surprise they feel threatened by it. When we do not understand them and do not have the ability to understand them, we’re all scared of things that seem big, powerful and important.
In Quebec, laws aim to impede people from adequately learning English, if not outrun prevent it. So of course, whenever francophones see English, they’ll be frightened.
Add in all the reinforcement of fear and threats of english by politicians and the press, and it’s only normal francophones are frightented.
Because of that and many other reasons, I fundamentally disagree that people who have lived in Quebec for generations are forbidden from choosing the language of education of their children.
Culture is not something that should be decided by the government and forced upon the people below. Culture comes from below. Culture is also not static. It’s in constant evolution.
I agree Quebec should do something to encourage new arrivals try to integrate into the French culture, so bill 101’s education clauses can apply to all people whose family has less than two generations of education in Quebec (and some exceptions for companies trying to recruit talent to work for their companies). But apart from that, people should get to choose in which language and to what schools they send their kids.
If this means that French fades, which it certainly will to some extent, although not as much as most people think, then it is because the population wants that.
And let’s be clear - essentially, my suggestion would allow pure-laine French to choose the language of education of their kids. These are supposedly the people whose culture these laws are trying to “protect”. There is no need to “protect” them. They should be the ones deciding their own culture. Let them choose it.
If nationalists do not believe that pure-laine french should be allowed to choose the language of education of their own kids – then how can you claim to be protecting culture ? THEY are the culture you are trying to “protect”.
It amazes me how nationalists have so little faith in their own culture. To hear them talk of the appeal of English, they must feel English is just so sexy and appealing that all French people, if given half the chance, would opt for English in a heart-beat.
This is nonsense. My wife is pure-laine French (and was nationalist until she came to understand the level of racism that permeates French culture) and she wants our kids perfectly bilingual because she feels it gives them the best chance for a good life, yet she absolutely wants their primary culture to be French, and at home, french is the main language.
My wife is lucky. She can choose how to educate our kids because of me. But many of my colleagues, who are primarily French, do not have that choice and many are envious that my kids can go to a bilingual school, while theirs have to go through a French system and are destined to have a poor level of English in this ever-more connected world whose lingua franca is English.
But my colleagues would aim for the same thing as us – bilingual, while maintaining French as the primary source of identity and culture. It’s not true all would abandon their culture.
And learning a second language does not mean you abandon the first. The culture would just evolve, as it does everywhere.
And before some nationalist points to the rest of Canada or the US of how French would disappear, I would suggest you assess the context. In Quebec, French is the primary language by far. That was never the case anywhere else on this continent. The context is very different, so comparisons of that sort are simplistic and not valid.
Kudos to the Editor on keeping this blog going, its a great resource and the Comments are always refreshing to hear. I have friends around the World that are expat Montrealers that routinely read your blog and its having an effect. I have an old classmate that was about to relocate his successful tech company to Montreal but opted to stay in the Nation's capital instead. I also have a relative (an avid reader) who's a high ranking civil servant based in Asia-Pacific that routinely advises corporations of whats going on here in Quebec, needless to say not many have time to waste with the tribal aspirations of les Quebecois and invest elsewhere. Keep up the good work Editor!
ReplyDelete@Lord Dorchester
DeleteThank you for the kind words.
When I tell readers their comments are read around the world, I know I sound a bit like a puffin, but it is really to get them to up their game in the comments section.
We've had some really good, well-thought out and well-written comments today, in fact some are TOO GOOD!
I'm working on a piece about how Anglos are wrongly blamed for perceived past transgressions.
The trouble is that a lot of what I wanted to say has already been said in the comments section and so I am faced with a lengthy re-write!!!
FROM ED BROWN
ReplyDeleteI remember a family up the street from us in Verdun. An elderly mother and father with five boys from teen to 30 yrs. None of them worked. The house was an old wooden shack with a stable out back and chickens living in the crawl space under the floor. I was talking about them with my friend today. Ron is 76 same as me and was raised on the same street. We were talking about the time one of the brothers got a ticket for speeding. The brothers and two uncles got together and went to the Verdun courthouse. They beat up the single cop on duty and wrecked the room and furnishings. The elderly father dug ditches for the city and my father hired him to help dig our basement. In one summer they dug down four feet in wet mud (there was a swamp under the house)and I ran the filled wheel barrows to the vacant lot next door to dump them. Mr. B. could not speak any english nor my dad any french but they worked together like a team. In the few short moments it took me to empty a barrow they had another one waiting. They chatted in a language which I could not decipher but apparently they both could. My father and three other men carved a garden out of the bush in the forested part of the city.
They grew mountains of potatoes turnip, onions etc., Crops that would pass the winter in cold storage. My father passed potatoes, etc. to all the families with children and the B.'s was always high on the list. I found it strange that they had no respect for the law, the court or anyone official (which was all french) but they had the same respect for their neighbours as we showed them.
FROM ED BROWN
ReplyDeleteEDITOR, I'm free tomorrow. I will write up a piece
that I'm sure would help. It will be ready to morrow around suppertime. I will send it to anglomontreal@yahoo.com and you can use what you want of it. Ed
FROM ED BROWN
ReplyDeleteSTEVE, Actually they say 80% of anglos now speak french. perhaps the reason you hear so much english is because people choose to speak it. I notice here on my street, my neighbours who are a mixture of Chinese Japanese, Italian Islamic and one from S.A. and francophone Quebecers all communicate with each other in English. It seems to be the common language as it is in the rest of the world. Ed
ED !!!!!!
ReplyDeleteTHAT IS NOT MY EMAiL!!
My email address is anglomontreal@gmail.com
FROM ED BROWN
ReplyDeleteEnglish is predominant all over the world. It began with King James of England having the Christian Bible translated into English. Many of the religious sects that developed in Scotland and England took advantage of this. Unitarian and Weslian to name a couple. The puritans brought English and religion to America and English speakers from Canada, England and the U.s spread it to other countries during the world wars. A friend of mine stationed in Iceland for six years said when he arrived none of the population could speak French or English. He was with the van Doos. He said when he left both languages were everywhere. Asia is rife with English due to the Korean and Vietnam wars. Most of Vietnam was French when the Americans arrived. They brought french translators with them. (Vietnam was originally called French Indo China) In a few years they became fluent in English.
The point is people pick up languages naturally because they find one convenient and comfortable. You can no more force a language than you can force people to change religions or eating habits. Ed
FROM ED BROWN
ReplyDeleteCNN tells me that in future I should use this link
www.cnn.com/caffertyfile for a better way in. Ed