Corruption This Week
Just to keep readers from out-of-town apprised, this week saw a member of the Board of directors of the Quebec Construction Commission suspended because, what else, alleged corruption. The commission is ironically charged with keeping Quebec construction industry honest. Donald Fortin was outed by the Journal de Montreal which alleged that he built his home with free labour and materials provided by contractors buying labour peace on their job-sites. Link Link{fr}Meanwhile, the Charbonneau Construction Commission (looking into corruption in Quebec's construction industry) hit a brick wall when the two key witnesses, the alleged ringleaders of the collusion ring at Montreal city hall, stonewalled commission lawyers who tried valiantly but unsuccessfully to break them down.
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| Ex-mayor Gerald Tremblay--"I see Nutink" |
Unlike the other previous witnesses who rushed to admit guilt because it meant receiving immunity, both these men are already indicted and to admit guilt here would destroy their chances at acquittal at trial.
The Commission knew this, the witnesses were non-cooperative and hostile, even refusing to be pre-interviewed. Alas the Commission proceeded anyways on the chance that the witnesses would crack.
Unfortunately, commission lawyers were badly outplayed and looked downright amateurish and desperate, reduced to asking the men to admit that they were crooks.
Questions as to whether anything more can be gained by prolonging the inquiry are starting to circulate.
It's time for the commission to get down to the question of political corruption at the provincial level and clearly, if they don't have squealers willing to spill the beans, then it's time to call it a day.
On Thursday, the former mayor of Montreal, Gerald Tremblay gave testimony before the commission, claiming that he 'knew nothing' and 'saw nothing' in regards to corruption at city hall, in fine tradition of Hogan's Heros- Sgt. Schultz!
Opposition leader Louise Harel denounced the mayor for not taking responsibility and remarked that he had to be aware about what was going on.
Harel's charge is a bit ironic, like the pot calling the kettle black, considering that she and her party were CONVICTED of election fraud in 2009! Link{fr}
In the meantime, a subsidiary of the pride of "Quebec INC,' SNC-Lavalin has been barred from bidding on World Bank projects for ten years, because of its alleged corrupt use of bribes to secure contracts. Link
The humiliating story has been roundly downplayed in the Quebec media, where an alleged corrupt official makes front page news, but where the SNC-Lavalin corruption story is relegated to secondary coverage.
But the scandal is starting to have wider repercussions, as the Canadian International Development Agency (a federal government aid agency) has joined the World Bank in banning SNC-Lavalin from bidding on any of its contracts over the company's alleged penchant for bribery. Link
By the way, a sixth arrest, Yohann Elbaz, has been made in the alleged MUHC fraud case that surrounds the ex-boss of the Montreal English super-hospital, Arthur Porter and the alleged briber, who else but SNC-Lavalin, of course. Link
CAQ will vote to send Bill 14 for further study
Read my editorial post - CAQ Drops Political Bomb on PQ and Its Language Law"Coalition Avenir Québec leader François Legault says his party will vote to send Bill 14 — the PQ government's contentious proposed legislation to toughen the French language charter — for further study.Flanked by the CAQ's critic responsible for the French language charter, Montarville MNA Nathalie Roy, Legault told reporters his party is giving the minority government a "last chance" to make changes to the bill." Read More
Quebec Human Rights Commission tells govt that living in French isn’t a human right.
"Is living and working in French a human right?
No, according to Quebec's Human Rights Commission.
On Wednesday, the commission appeared before a National Assembly committee tasked with the Parti Quebecois’ update to Quebec’s language law: Bill 14. The new law attempts to make French equal to other fundamental rights such as free speech and gender equality.
“The words they use are ‘Common values,’ actually les ‘Valeurs Quebecoises,’ but there's danger in trying to put these things as add-ons,” said Gaetan Cousineau, speaking for the commission.
The independent commission believes Bill 14 puts new rights and new obligations in the wrong places. It says it's fine to make French a right, but that right belongs in the French language charter, not the human rights charter. Watch a news report and read the rest of the story
Bill 14 would strip Anglos of rights: Quebec Bar
"The Quebec bar association says parts of bill 14 can not be justified in a free and democratic society.
At a National Asembly hearing today, the bar's legal experts calmly listed a dozen possible ways the bill could break human rights protections, both in Quebec and Canada, and under international law.
Parts of bill 14 "threaten to unduly affect the anglophones and allophone communities," the bar association said in its written brief. Read more
Quebec Retail Council objects to Bill 14
"You might say the familiar “Bonjour-Hi” expression used in Montreal shops and malls was on trial.
And it was the retailers association that took up the defence.
Arguing that offering service in the language of their customers is not only a matter for the Charter of the French Language but also a question of respect for the customer, the Retail Council of Canada presented dramatic testimony Tuesday to the commission examining Bill 14.
And it concluded there may not be as big a language problem in Montreal as some believe.
While the retail council says there is always room for improvement in French-language services in Montreal’s shops, the government would be wiser to find better ways to help new arrivals learn French and train language inspectors to apply the charter more intelligently and fairly.
Coming down on small retailers — studies show 96 per cent of retailers on the island are able to serve clients in French — with Bill 14 is not the way to proceed despite pressure from language hawks, the retail council says." Read more
"Couillard: Our opposition to Bill 14 – a question of principal"
"Quebecers, deeply attached to French, our common language, want to ensure that it continues to thrive in this corner of North America we have called home for some 400 years. A number of successive laws, leading up to the Charter of the French Language, have maintained the delicate balance between individual and collective rights. These initiatives have produced considerable, quantifiable results: French has become both the symbol and the reality of a prosperous, modern and confident Quebec that is open to the world. Read the rest of the opinion piece
"Quebec undergoing a Liberal revival, new poll finds, as PQ slump drags on"
"In an ever-expanding forest of positive polls for the Liberals, the latest CROP snapshot of Quebec public opinion stands out but not necessarily for the usual Justin Trudeau-related reasons.
Published on Wednesday in La Presse, the poll suggests that Quebec is undergoing a Liberal revival, with both the federal and provincial parties in first place in voting intentions at 38 per cent." Read more
"Écoeurer les Anglais" (Annoying the English)
Here is a translation of an excellent opinion piece written by Alain Dubuc for La Presse.Full credit to reader 'R.S.' for a crackerjack translation.
"The most amazing element of Bill 14, which proposes multiple changes to "strengthen" Bill 101, is the provision that would permit the removal of the status of bilingual municipalities where the proportion of English-speaking [sic; in fact it’s “English mother tongue”] residents dips below 50%.
This is not a big element of the bill, as are changes to the Charter of Rights or the idea of imposing the Bill 101 straightjacket to SMEs. But on the symbolic level, this measure, which is absolutely unnecessary and vexatious for anglophones, reflects a framework that is found throughout this bill that, directly or indirectly, implicitly or explicitly, attacking the legitimacy of living in English in Quebec.
Right from the beginning, we could have guessed that this bill is more political than it is linguistic; that it is meant to serve the Marois government in terms of identity politics rather than to find practical and effective solutions for specific problems that the French language may encounter. This downward spiral is fed by two specific lacks of understanding in the government's approach.
The first thing is the very analysis that would justify such urgent action, that which we foolishly call the decline of French in Montreal. What is this really all about? It’s about French-speaking Montrealers who move to the suburbs and the increasing number of immigrants, who speak their native language at home. These are not phenomena that indicate the strengthening of English but we mistakenly treat them as if it affected the balance of power between English and French.
The second is applying in the context of 2013 reflexes that we may have had in the 1960s, when the assertion of French-Quebecers meant fighting the privileges of an English-speaking minority, and where the battle for the French language had in part to do with battle against the English language.
But in 2013, the two major challenges, namely, the assertion of English as a lingua franca - the global language of commerce, tourism, mass culture, science - and the attraction that English has in an English-speaking continent, are not imposed by English Canada or by Quebec anglophones. And yet we continue to thump upon our anglophones who have nothing to do with this.
Removing the bilingual status from a few municipalities will not help the French language to progress whatsoever. However, it will affect the community life of anglophones and will reduce their collective living space. This measure has no purpose other than to annoy anglos. Along with a side message: in our efforts to strengthen the role of the French in the public space, we also wish to reduce that of anglophones. Behind which, let us not forget, are the ever present anglophobic and vengeful currents which, in the end, would prefer that anglos simply leave.
We have duties toward our linguistic minority. We too must preserve the quality of relationships with anglophones who have accepted the new rules of the game, who had sincerely believed that we had achieved a linguistic balance and who now wonder whether we really want them.
This risk of damaging our relationships with anglophones also affects our collective interests. Shattering linguistic peace is but another way of killing Montreal slowly. Montreal’s strength, what makes the city unique, it is not that it is multicultural - all major cities are - but that it is bilingual, the meeting place of two major linguistic communities. This meeting, with its difficulties and its creative tensions, also gives us an economic advantage and contributes to its soul and its cultural richness.
In order to avoid moving backward together, it is not simply a matter of eliminating some questionable items from Bill 14. It is the spirit and the overall logic of the project that must be challenged." Read the original article in French
"Private investment in Quebec has dropped 90% under PQ, says CAQ"
"Private investment in Quebec has plummeted by 90 percent since the Parti Quebecois has come to power, says François Legault's Coalition.
"Programs that have been put in place by the Parti Quebecois, they don't give results," says Legault.
The CAQ says it's tallied up the value of all the announcements made by the finance ministry and Investment Quebec for the past seven months. Then, it compared it to announcements made over the same time period the year before." Read more
You've got to be a shameless media hound to make reference to an insulting cartoon of yourself on your own website, but nobody ever accused Jean-Paul Perreault, of Imperatif-francais, of modesty. Link{fr}
Weekend reading....
French EU elite abandons ‘defensive’ stance on language"With the decline of French language in EU institutions now accepted by most as irreversible, French lawmakers and officials have started pushing a more assertive approach, based on the promotion of multilingualism and influence rather than language issues only." Read MoreShould English be the official language of the EU?
"In a keynote speech on the future of European integration in February, Joachim Gauck suggested English should become the EU's official language: "It is true to say that young people are growing up with English as the lingua franca. However, I feel that we should not simply let things take their course when it comes to linguistic integration." It was music to the ears of federalists and fiscal hawks: with English spoken in the corridors of Brussels, the EU would become more streamlined and more efficient." Read more
"Former CTV chief anchor Lloyd Robertson reacted strongly to the latest outburst of language debate nonsense during a visit at Kuper Academy in Kirkland on April 10. Robertson said a French-language lobby group's proposal to rid the province of English hospitals hearings was unbelievable."Read more"Merchant resists OQLF inspector: Strudelgate?"
"The Pointe Claire merchant who famously started selling "Pasta Salad Marois" in the days following "Pastagate" is again rebelling.
An OQLF inspector visited Swiss Vienna Pastry and Delicatessen and owner Harry Schick asked the man to leave.
The inspector pointed to several violations to Quebec's language law, Bill 101, and asked to take pictures. Schick refused. The inspector left and, according to Schick, said that he will be back. Read more
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| I snapped this picture of a woman walking in NDG! - Filed under -"I do what I want!" |
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| Following the Habs on the road..... |
There's nothing funny about last week's investigation into the Boston bombing...er....
Finally, some words of wisdom for the weekend;
