French versus English Volume 78

This week in corruption

Rosaire Sauriol- White collar criminal extraordinaire

I guess it wasn't a shocker to hear testimony at the Charbonneau construction crime inquiry that Montreal's south shore suburb of Longueil has joined the list of crooked city halls where payoffs were made by construction/engineering firms to secure contracts.
The commission heard from a Rosaire Sauriol, of Dessau, one of Quebec's most important consulting/engineering firms. He admitted that his company made illegal campaign contributions and payoffs to politicians in Montréal, Longueuil, Laval, Blainville, Châteauguay, Saint-Jérôme, Chambly, Quebec City and Levis and even, as it was confirmed later, to the federal Conservative party.

He also admitted to what so many other witnesses testified to, that is, that the godfather in all this was ex-chairman of Montreal's executive committee, Frank Zampino, who just last week made a court appearance in relation to a corruption charges over the giving away selling of a piece of land to a developer friend at a fraction of its value. 
Sauriol also confirmed that ex-mayor Gerald Tremblay was a hapless sap, unaware of what was going on under his nose. Link

The decision by Jean Charest to call a premature provincial election last August was likely based on fear that damaging information would be forthcoming in this crime commission.
Surprisingly, here we are eight months later and nothing particularly damaging to the Liberal party has emerged.
In fact, it took until this week to hear about any illegal campaign contributions to provincial political parties, but the kicker is that the testimony implicates the PQ, the ADQ, as well as the Liberals.
So much for Pauline's claim that when it came to ethics, her party was holier than the Pope!

"Pauline Marois says her party had no knowledge of any disguised illegal donations allegedly passed to the PQ over the course of 12 years. Three witnesses from engineering firms have testified over the past several days to giving thousands in illegal financing to the PQ, Liberals and ADQ.
"Our party wasn't aware. Our party didn't want that," says Marois. "Our party asked those who contributed to the Parti Quebecois to sign personal cheques that were their own personal donations."
So far, executives from SNC-Lavalin, Genivar, and BPR have testified to handing her party more than $700 thousand from 1998 to 2010. That includes two years in which Pauline Marois was at the head of the party.
The Liberals are also alleged to have gathered a similar amount - nearly $900 thousand.

Language intolerance in BC

"Two women who believe the lack of English on storefront signs in Richmond is “way out of proportion” will present a petition to council Monday, asking for a signage policy.
Kerry Starchuk and Ann Merdinyan have spent the past eight months researching the issue, taking photos and gathering signatures for a 1,000-strong petition.
“We’re not saying there shouldn’t be Chinese language on signs,” Starchuk told the Richmond News.
“I’ve lived in Richmond all my life and I enjoy having so many different cultures in the city.
“But this isn’t right and it’s all the way through Richmond, not just the city centre, and the lack of English is way out of proportion.”
Starchuk said that if some body, such as city council, doesn’t “get a handle on it” soon, there may come a time when there’ll be no English to be seen.
“If this is our Canadian identity, then it’s not very inclusive, is it?” she said, adding she won’t drive up the north end of No. 3 Road anymore because of the predominantly Chinese signage. Read the rest of the story

I was asked for my opinion about this story in an email by a reader and can answer with a phrase that I recall using as a kid.
You can like it or lump it, which sums up my feelings rather succinctly and my advice to the women offended by the Chinese only signs with another phrase from my childhood...tough noogies.

All this story shows is that language intolerance is not exclusive to Quebec.

McGill's academic slide continues

Earlier this year I wrote about the inevitable slide that McGill's medical school faced in the face of deteriorating standards implemented to make the medical school more francophone friendly.
Today the school looks more to its demographic makeup than talent, with anglophones kept to the barest of majority at about 51% .
In order to counter the unrelenting criticism by French language militants that McGill doctors leave the province, McGill decided to raise the percentage of francophones by making it easier to get in. The vaunted MCAT entrance exam, the gold standard used by medical schools across North America  was dropped because it isn't available in French.
I wrote back then that it could only lead to McGill's med school losing its position  as Canada's best medical school, which of course has come to pass.

Now McGill has lost its position to the University of  Toronto as Canada's best all-around university another predictable outcome of under-financing and pandering.

"A new ranking of reputations by school has McGill University dropping from its once-proud peak as the top Canadian institution in the wrold to slightly better than a middling also-ran.

According to Times Higher Education’s reputation ranking, McGill's ranking fell from 25th in the world last year to a tie for 31st in 2013.

Meantime, the University of Toronto held fast at 16th this year, cementing its position as the Canadian institution with the strongest international status." Link

The university recently appointed a francophone to head the university, a nakedly oblique attempt to silence the language debate surrounding the school.

"McGill University has chosen Suzanne Fortier to be its next principal, turning to a French speaker to help navigate the political turmoil that has engulfed the province’s university system over the last year." Link

Below is the type of onslaught McGill faces by jealous and petty french language militants.

"How can we solve the problem of access to education while blocking once and for all, the anglicization of Quebec?
Easy!
The principal of McGill University, Heather Munroe-Blum, someone Michel David greatly admires, believes that an increase in tuition of 82% is not enough? So let's give our English the means to satisfy their brazen individualism: Privatization. 

Completely, and as quickly as possible, the entire English education system, from primary to university! Let them pursue their deranged mentality.  

Deliver them the goods which we had intended. With all the freed up money, we can provide free education for the entire French school system.Let them impose tuition increases up to 820% if they wish, but  for us, it will be free.  
Immigrants will mostly send their children to the free public system,  OF THEIR OWN FREE WILL ... and several English families will do the same! Result: no need to talk about the need for Bill 101 in schools!  
It will end the debate about  Bill 101 in CEGEPs. Money will be the constraint.

Institutions such as McGill will then become satellites separated from the rest of society, but still tolerable. And the cost savings!Is there something illegal here? Absolutely not!  
We speak their language, the language of privatization. If it's good for us, first try it out on them to see what happens!  
From the day we implement this, we will have to wait just 20 years to see our culture completely regenerated.......
....I have participated in at least 25 student demonstrations in February 2012 and the only English students I've seen in all these demonstrations were anti-demonstrators. People who showed their contempt and disgust for our cause. People who marched counter-current  calling us 'loosers.' For them, education and housing are paid for by "daddy." They come to study here because it is cheaper than in their home country, Canada, and they leave to work outside Quebec, their education paid for, courtesy of taxpayers and the Quebec Ministry of Education! It is outrageous and it has been like that since the beginning! 
Blah.....blah...blahh.- Dominique Frappier 

And so McGill has embarked on it's inevitable and precipitous decline, sadly reminding me of the old ditty;

"Oh, the old gray mare, she ain't what she used to be,

Ain't what she used to be, ain't what she used to be.

The old gray mare, she ain't what she used to be,

Many long years ago.

Marois falls into constitutional trap

The newly-minted Quebec Liberal party leader, Philippe Couillard,  has said that he would hope to reopen constitutional talks with Ottawa with an eye to getting Quebec on-board as a signatory, a gaping hole in Quebec/Ottawa relations that has served separatists well ever since Rene Levesque was stabbed in the back on the infamous "The Night of Long Knives", back in 1982 where a constitutional deal was hammered out by the provinces without Quebec's participation or approval.

When asked to comment, the hapless Pauline fell into the trap and described her terms of signing on, instead of just saying that Quebec wasn't interested on any level. Link{fr}

Her supporters were furious at her stupidity in being drawn into the debate and in an interesting article Sylvain Racine writes that Pauline is actually preparing those famous 'winning conditions' for a referendum, but on the federalist side!

And what if the Liberal party decides to hold a referendum with the  YES side led by Couillard-Trudeau proposing that Quebecers end the squabble with Ottawa and ratify the Constitution in order to be fully part of Canada? In this case, the Liberals could easily reach the 50% + 1.

With Legault also repeating that Quebecers do not want a country, with Amir Khadir who voted NDP in the last federal election, it begins in earnest to resemble the winning conditions for the federalist camp.
I wouldn't want to see Marois-Maltais  defending the NO side, that is the side that would militate against the ratification of the Constitution, a Liberal referendum that could even legitimize  Dion's clarity Act." Link

Bill 14 showdown set. Who will blink?

One of the provisions of Bill 14 was to eliminate an exemption for military families at the Valcartier base in Quebec whereby children were allowed to attend English schools, even if they didn't qualify under 101.The issue is contentious with the mayor of Quebec city coming down firmly on the side of the military families. 

"Quebec city's mayor Regis Labeaume is launching a scathing attack against a section of the PQ's language bill.

"They're going to laugh at us," says Labeaume, adding that the section of the bill that will  ban Francophone military families from attending English school will taint Quebec's image." Link

Since military families move quite often, most parents at the base opt for an English education in order that their children be able to enroll in any school across Canada with ease. But Education Minister Diane De Courcy stood firm on Thursday, trotting out a report that showed that most of these children remain in Quebec for their entire education and that the exemption was unfair. Link
But an angry Francois Legault , leader of the CAQ reacted harshly, saying that if the provision is not removed, his party will vote to defeat it, placing the Liberals in the untenable position where they'd have to do likewise.

For the PQ, it's time for another volte-face.

Harper government continues de-emphasing French

Using budget cuts to advance policy is one of the oldest tricks politicians use to underhandedly achieve political goals.
Ronald Reagan was the champion of cutting of funds to agencies and programs that didn't fit in with his conservative optic.

Now it seems that the Harper government budget cuts has translation services being curtailed as a cost cutting measure as federal departments just don't have the budget to translate documents and so French civil servants are being asked to write their reports in English.

Apparently budget constraints precludes Coast Guard ships patrolling the St. Lawrence river from fielding at least one member of the crew who can communicate in French with locals.

When apprised of the situation Harper tut-tutted the whole affair.

Quebecer proves myth about Work ethic false

Who says Quebecers are lazy?
If anybody proves that myth wrong,  it is Gaétan Couture of Sherbrooke, who after being paroled in September for various crimes of theft, went right back to work assiduously.
He has been re-arrested just two months later and is facing  no less than 150 charges.

103 Thefts

13 Break-ins

21 Stolen vehicles

5 Receiving stolen goods

6 Stolen credit cards

1  Evasion from police.

All this in about 70 days and this is just what the police know about! Link{fr}

And how about Canada's greatest slumlord /scofflaw;

"Notorious Montreal landlord Claudio Di Giambattista was absent for his trial in municipal court today, but that didn't stop the judge from declaring him guilty on all counts of safety and health violations.
Judge Stéphane Brière decided to let the trial go ahead without the landlord present. After he and the crown went through almost two hours of evidence including a pile of photos, he found Di Giambattista guilty of 86 health and safety violations in connection with his two apartment buildings on Ball and Outremont in Park Extension. Link

Too bad  the judge didn't sentence him to live in one of his maggot, cockroach, bed bug filled apartments, just like in that movie starring Joe Pesci. (I can't remember the name)
Actually, one judge did do exactly that. Youtube
Could you imagine if they turned it into a realty show and we got to watch?
Ahhh...perchance to dream.

Odds'n Ends

I've used Google Reader as my news aggregator for as long as I've written this bog. It allows me to scan selected websites for news articles that interest me and also allows me to save those articles for future use.
Alas, Google has announced that it will discontinue the service and so I have migrated to another service, but have not been able to migrate my starred items.
I'm going through them slowly and will take the opportunity over the next few Fridays to publish a couple of the things I've saved, most are good for a laugh.

Here's a Montreal Anglo, Leslie Peretz , making a hilaroius point.

Here's a sign that a frustrated merchant put up in regards to the student demonstrations against tuition increases.

Translation: TO DEMONSTRATORS:

Please stop using merchants and residents as hostages.

Demonstrate over at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

To our elected officials.--Grow a pair.

P.S.  Free tuition is impossible right now.

Quebec is bankrupt. - ELVIS

 Here's a riddle:

What is more powerful than God?
Nastier than the devil,
The underprivileged have it,
The wealthy need it,
And if you eat it, you’ll die?

 Have a great weekend!
Bonne fin de Semaine!