Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Is There a Sovereigntist in the House?


"So long...suckers!"
First, let me gloat a little bit over a prediction I made when Jean-Martin Aussant quit politics, telling everyone that it was time for him to take care of his family.
What he didn't say then, is what is obvious today, he already had a job lined up and the fiction that he was starting a job search, political malarkey.
Read: Founder of Quebec independence party moves to England

I've told readers before, when a politician leaves a cushy job, especially a young family man, it is because he's got something lined up.
When you hear a politician tell you that he or she is quitting a political position mid-term, to 'explore other possibilities,' your baloney detector should go off.

I remember laughing at the absurd news conference given by Frank Zampino, who quit his job as deputy mayor of Montreal to 'explore other opportunities.' Hah!
He already had a job lined up with the infamous Tony Accurso and was leaving the city job because of the impending investigation into his corruption.
Not one reporter called him out on the obvious lie, I wish I was there to put the question to him.

The same for Jean-Martin Aussant
And so I'll remind readers of what I said in June, when Aussant announced his retirement;
"Does a committed father of twins really leave a secure job just like that without having something lined up?
Look for a well deserved summer vacation for a month or two, followed by the announcement that to nobody's surprise, Aussant has 'found' a new position.
Care to bet a two/four?"
Link
By the way, all this BS about not being able to find a job in Quebec is just a red herring, a story put out by Aussant to mislead us over his decision to dump Option Nationale, which was going nowhere. And so he reached out to his old friends in London and asked for or was offered a job, before he quit.

There was no summer job search, all was settled beforehand. It's perfectly logical.
But sovereigntists are weaving the fiction that he was blackballed in Quebec for his sovereigntist views, all this without a shred of evidence. Link {fr}

I'll repeat what I said before, a family man does not abandon a good and secure job on the 'if-come.'

While in the gloating mood, I'd like to remind readers that I was THREE years ahead of the Montreal Gazette in exposing the fact that the McGill University medical school was abandoning anglos in search of political safety.

Last week the Montreal Gazette published a good story about the situation and in fact the writer reached out to me for background.

I'm glad this story finally hit the main street press as Montreal Gazette journalist Karen Seidman reported;
"MONTREAL - With only about 10 per cent of all applicants getting into medical schools across the country, the dream of becoming a doctor is one filled with lots of heartache for even some of the brightest students.
And the dream seems to be a castle in the air for more and more anglophone students in Montreal who are competing to get into the one English medicine program in the province, at McGill University, where an increasing emphasis on diversity has many urban anglophones grumbling that they aren’t the cohort McGill is courting these days.
A growing list of anglophone students rejected from medicine at McGill — many with GPAs ranging from 3.95 to 4.0 who didn’t even get interviews — are wondering if they are too English, too urban and too affluent to get one of the 185 or so highly coveted spots in the program. Read the rest of the story in the Montreal Gazette
Three years ago, I wrote this;
McGill Caves in to Language Pressure- Affirmative action Arrives  -August 4, 2010 
"In one fell swoop McGill has destroyed its reputation. It is in the process of turning itself from an elite program into a run of the mill secondary medical school......
.....Shockingly, in an announcement last week, McGill said that it is dropping the MCAT, much to the derision of the traditional medical community.
.....The decision is one of the most blatant cases of caving in to language militants, an  abrogation of responsibility to maintain high standards that shames the school and will likely lead to the school losing its status as the best medical school in Canada. Read more.
Last year, I wrote this; 
McGill University Medical School Decline was Inevitable  -July 4, 2012
Sadly my prediction has come true, McGill's medical school's world ranking has plummeted and it likely has to do with that dreadful decision to cave in to language extremists.  Read More
I liked the story written by Ms. Seidman, except for the fact that McGill honchos failed to tell her truth, the real reason for which they decided to lower standards.
For that answer, go back and read the above two posts.

At any rate, with John-Martin Ossant off to merry old England where his children, whose welfare he so dearly professes to protect, can become truly anglicized, it begs the question....

Is there a real sovereigntist leader left in Quebec?

With Pauline and her crew fully committed to sovereignty sometime in the distant future, in a galaxy far, far away, and with Option Nationale about to collapse, there doesn't seem to be many options left, unless you call Amir Khadir a serious contender.

By the way, Khadir seems to be a little burned out, his family legal problems perhaps too much of a distraction. He is keeping a decidedly low profile these days.

And so who will take up the torch of the sovereignty NOW movement, or is it all over.

Does the capitulation of Jean Martin Aussant mark a tipping point where the sovereignty movement goes from the possible to the impossible, where everybody, even the sovereigntists realize in their heart of hearts, that the dream is over?

There is gentle readers, a silent and profound humiliation in the sovereignty movement today over the Aussant defection. It isn't being articulated because it is just too painful and so, better not to discuss it in public.
That malaise was clear to Aussant, who felt compelled to write an article in the Journal de Montreal defending his decision.  Read: Au fait, je ne mangerai pas de bébés{fr}

I'm pretty sure that Aussant's defection to England will be a lot more devastating than sovereigntists comprehend today, he will forever be remembered as the symbol of the broken sovereignty dream.

After all, if Quebec's most dedicated and militant sovereigntist leader can give up, what hope is there for everyone else?

58 comments:

  1. I've said it here so many times over...sovereignty is DEAD and Aussant leaving Quebec for the Anglo heartland is the truest
    testament to this fact.

    I really don't think he'll ever be back...this is a burned bridge that
    can never be rebuilt.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Seeing a no-hope sovereignist moving back to perfidious Albion, his supposed “colonial oppressor”, in order to provide for his family is simply too delicious for words.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. R.S,

      Are you kind enough to provide your excellent translation of Aussant's blog in Journal de Montreal?

      Delete
    2. Sure… but couldn’t you have done it yourself? By the way, just in case some don’t know, perfidious Albion is a pejorative phrase that refers to those naughty, self-interested Brits, used by its detractors.

      FROM JEAN-MARTIN AUSSANT’S BLOG (in French):
      IN FACT, I WON’T BE EATING BABIES
      Jean-Martin Aussant – August 13th, 2013

      Since I announced yesterday that I would be going back to work for the MSCI firm in London, there has been an onslaught of judgements based on false information. I think it would be appropriate to rectify some of these.

      First of all, would I have said no to a local employment offer had one presented itself? Absolutely not. The aim was not to go live in London as such, much as I love that city, but rather it was to not become a premature, 43-year-old retiree. It is obvious that I will be working for several more years of my life and the fact that job offers all came from abroad was not my fault.

      Next, MSCI is not Morgan Stanley. It is a publicly-traded company that is listed quite separately from Morgan Stanley, its former owner. And the functions that I will be taking care of have nothing to do with certain activities that have received bad press in recent years for the banking sector, such as toxic financial products, speculation or transactions that appear inhuman or unethical.

      What I will be doing, rather, concerns risk management mathematical models and fund manager portfolio optimization, including workers pension funds, university endowment funds and almost all of the largest public pension systems in the world, among others. Those, incidentally, are for the pensions of those who need them upon retirement. So, my leftie friends, can we calm down with the conspiracy theories, please?

      If the news of my return to London has astounded some people, I myself have been rather surprised to see some commentators, former leaders and other pundits give into the disinformation with great joy, even though they are usually quite well informed and bother to do some fact-checking before commenting. Anyway, I hope that it is clearer now that I will not be eating babies or trying to trigger the next world war. That would be too easy.

      As for those who continue to question the family reasons for my departure from politics, well, you can keep on questioning, what can I do about it. The private life of a public figure, regardless of one’s degree of notoriety, fully belongs to them once they leave public life. One comment that slew me came from someone who never stops admiring his father, always showing his photos with him, remembering him, being proud of him. So when I see him criticizing my decision to be a father to my own children, I think there may have been a lack of reflection in his criticism, along with some disinformation about the nature of the new job thrown in for good measure… everything that makes up a great editorial, in other words.

      As far as I’m concerned, creating a country for children who would have missed their parents is not the idea of the century. All we are, we will have enough time during an active life in which our children will have become more independent and will allow us to give body and soul to a cause. I have been part of this in recent years and I will be so once again when the time comes. One can set aside personal involvement in an on-going collective project and then come back to it later. One cannot do so for children who are not yet six years old and who do not ask for anything collective in a strong parental relationship.

      The days when it was normal for the father to not see his children grow up are long gone, and so much the better. Those who have children will understand this. Those who do not, well, make some and then we’ll chat again.

      Delete
    3. R.S,

      I defer to your competence in doing so. Kudos.

      Delete
    4. The following is stated tongue-in-cheek, mostly for regular contributor, Ed's consumption: This Aussant thing is just like when a Catholic marries a Jew and pretty much abandons Catholicism...that is, until it`s approaching time for the Catholic to meet his/her maker and asks for the rosary beads.

      Delete
  3. I love how seppies love referring to the likes of Jean Chretien and the like as traitors, but they never were seppies to begin with. Does anyone have the balls to call Aussant a traitor for leaving both the sovereignist movement and Quebec in favor of the Anglo heartland?

    I've often said the sovereignist movement is dead, but now, with this massive slap in the face from one of its key members, the body is decomposing fast.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Calling for the relaxation or repeal of a racist hate law like Bill 101 hardly qualifies someone as an "extremist."

      Delete
    2. Yannick,

      I am glad I catch you here. I left a note requesting your comment on the previous piece, the one about Katie Nelson. Just in case you do not go there anymore, could you please check my note out and respond to it? You can put your response here if you want. Thank you in advance.

      Delete
    3. The term may be harsh, but some Anglo Liberal MNA's are referred to as Quislings because they do little or nothing to defend the best interests of their community.

      Delete
  4. Hmm. So Doctor Saleem Razack is in charge of the "Office of Admissions, Equity and Diversity" at McGill's Medical School. And white anglophone Quebec students (evidently including Jewish students) now find that even with a 4.0 GPA, they are not even being called in for an interview. Surely, this would have nothing to do with the fact that Dr. Razack's sister is the esteemed Professor Sherene Razack, Director of the "Centre for Integrative and Anti-Racism Studies" at the University of Toronto's Ontario Institute of Studies in Education. The same Professor Razack who, back in 2002, got into a heap of trouble when she used her O.I.S.E letterhead and email address to solicit fellow professors across Canada to condemn Israel's crimes against humanity. Surely, one would have nothing to do with the other.
    See: http://www.inminds.com/boycott-news-0345.html

    ReplyDelete
  5. STEVE GOLD LEADER PARTI PROVINCE DE L'ETE

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qClEjmv6dw#at=145

    J'utilise mon anglais aujourd'hui : WTF!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And in English:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxpUUIuorWs
      A new provincial party for quebec which wants to make this province bilingual. Some headway here?

      For once SR is contributing something to our community? - lol

      Delete
    2. Uh-huh, and you`ll notice the English version of this fat yutz`s speech was constantly interrupted by squawking seagulls (in French, no less!), sirens and people speaking in the vicinity? USELESS!

      Mr. Gold: Give it up! The only thing left is to de-bilingualize Canada, bring Quebec to the precipice and tell Quebec to either jump or join. I`m completely fed up with pussyfooting around with Quebec.

      Sink or swim!

      Case closed.

      Delete
  6. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/founder-of-quebec-independence-party-moves-to-england/article13711212/comments/

    J Kerr
    4:23 PM on August 12, 2013

    Now let me get this straight. He expects Quebecers to sacrifice so they can live in a French dominated society, but doesn't apply the same rules to himself. There must be some sort of job he could have found in Quebec. Like everyone else he had to leave the Province to find a job in finance, whereas in my youth Montreal was the capital of Canadian Finance. I still like Montreal but it has reverted to a provincial backwater in comparison to what it was. Living and working in French is much easier for the masses but the elite make sure their kids can speak English so the masses are left behind. In that respect nothing has changed from my childhood.

    By the way, the required language at Renault/Nissan is English. They are a global company and that is the price.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Funny what money and power can do to these people - the "cause" somehow gets lost when it comes to selfishness right SR? I would also point that out to "student" but the little rat hasn't been around for awhile and he's not missed in the least!

      Delete
    2. adski,

      I am more interested in this comment, which of course Michel Patrice will say that it is false.

      MarkTwain'sGhost
      1:50 PM on August 12, 2013

      Maybe there are no high quality finance jobs in Quebec because the banks moved out when the French language laws moved in? It doesn't pay to make the biggest customers the enemy.

      Delete
    3. Irony is written all over this one. Here's a Quebec nationalist going to work in the former Empire that "enslaved" Quebec, an ex-leader of a left-wing party going to work in the world of fiance capitalism, a job seeker that has to go to work abroad because the policies he peddled as a politician drive away this kind of jobs, etc...

      And it is really hard to respect Quebec masses for allowing themselves to be duped by these Anglo-wannabe elites pretending to be pro-French warriors. Levesque, Laurin, Parizeau, Bouchard, Bouclair, Aussant...Someone did a study before the 2012 election and found out that more of the PQ leadership was educated outside Quebec and the PLQ leadership, i.e. more top pequistes got their higher education outside Quebec (you can guess in what language) than top liberals.

      This goes beyond selling out. This is a pattern of hypocrisy and deceit.

      Delete
    4. You think their followers will catch on to the racket adski or is it going to take even more of them to leave and betray the cause before it finally sinks in? Really have to wonder about the mentality of these sheep - at least I do. It's like a mass hysteria or hypnosis or something - they just can't seem to see how deceived they have all been over the past 40 years by a group that took advantage of them and their wallets.

      Delete
    5. adski,

      That is why nowadays I do not have sympathy for the separatist or Quebecois supremacy movement anymore. What they do is just simply unlevel the playing field. As Quebec is their market, they try to protect their market for their own benefit, nothing more. It is evident that they are actually prepared to go to other, better market. Once that attempt fails, they can always fall back to Quebec and enjoy exclusivity.

      Compare this with RoC politicians. As much as I dislike him, take Stephen Harper for example. He was a Toronto man. He went to Calgary looking for better opportunity. Should he failed, Ontario would not be substantially better than him since there is no exclusivity in Ontario compared to Alberta.

      A Quebecois can go out to look for opportunity. If he fails, he can fall back to Quebec and claim exclusivity so that he has more job security within Quebec than those not like him.

      Delete
    6. Troy: "It is evident that they are actually prepared to go to other, better market. Once that attempt fails, they can always fall back to Quebec and enjoy exclusivity."

      There are really 2 groups which support supremacy. The ones you're talking about are the English-speaking and mostly educated people who have no difficulty working in English and taking advantage of the more or less even playing field they enjoy in the RoC, the US, UK, etc... After all, they are white English-speaking westerners, so they don't feel any discrimination on these job markets vis a vis Americans, Canadians, or Brits whom they compete against. And back in Quebec they totally take advantage of the uneven field and support the measures that protect their market for their own benefit. So their motives for supporting supremacist groups are mostly economic.

      The second group are the masses, i.e. people who did not have the privilege to get proper English education or any education at all, and they throw in their lot with people like Aussant, not because they just want to take advantage of the uneven field but because they need the field to be uneven in order to survive.

      For the first group, I have an utmost contempt. These are basically opportunistic types who sometimes go by the name of "nationalists-federalists", i.e. the support the scam that keeps QC is Canada and allows QC professionals and educated classes a certain advantage both in QC as well as in Ottawa, and does not hinder them in the anglo-sphere, because Canada is too afraid to apply reciprocity to QC, and the US and UK don't even have QC on their radar screens so they are unaware of what goes on here.

      For the second group, I have sympathy, but I am having a harder and harder time maintaining the sympathy. I mean, how many more top pequistes will have to end up at the London School of Economics, Boston University, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, financial institutions at the (London) City, or working for an oil consortium in Alberta (Bouchard, Boisclair), that these common folks will realize that the self-proclaimed defenders of the French language are not the kind of people who have the French language at heart and that these "leaders" are really closet Anglophiles. Also notice that these leaders are not the kind of people who had exposure to the English-speaking world and came back home to build an alternative, because they so easily flow back to that English-speaking world once their "mission" in Quebec is over. So we're not talking about people who got "disillusioned" and came back, we're talking about people who float back and forth effortlessly between the two worlds, spinning a different story in each of these worlds.

      Delete
    7. Well explained and right on the mark adski. The patience for the second group is also what is really starting to grate on my nerves because these people have shown their true colours over and over again and group 2 just don't seem to catch on to the manipulation but keep supporting it (as I was saying in my 1200 hr post above).

      Delete
    8. adski,

      Good post. I have two points to add, though. First is that the second group is there since they are 'duped' by the first group anyway. So it is the first group that creates the sentiment. Second, the benefits that we are discussing here is not only in monetary sense but also political ones.

      Delete
    9. By AnecTOTE


      The real irony is that, of all the places Aussant could have gone for a job, he went to England. There is perhaps more than meets the eye. Don’t get me wrong, this is a gift really, Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner…all in one sitting, for anyone outside the seppie movement. But one has to wonder, why England? And why NOW? I don’t buy that someone like him couldn’t get a job here in Quebec. So despite all the win wins I’m sure he considered for accepting to go back to jolly ‘ole England….I think he was motivated by Spite. What better way to stick it to those he was counting on for getting him elected and give him a job in Quebec City alongside all the other seppies. They failed to provide a job in Quebec’s National Assembly so he’s flippin’em the bird,….giving ‘em a black eye, now that’s something to remember him by!

      I’m sure I speak for most, when I say..Good Riddens !!


      Delete
    10. "By the way, the required language at Renault/Nissan is English. They are a global company and that is the price."

      Isn't Renault a French automobile company? Don't they have offices in France?

      Delete
    11. As stated all along Troy - group one is in for the money and power and really don't care that group two is taken advantage of because of them. Typical politicians that like the limelight and the power to make decisions that can affects millions without really having to adhere to those decisions themselves such as budget tightening. Look at good old Miss Piggy just wasting 400,000 on re-doing her office with nothing but the best. She has millions and doesn't care about downloading the pharmacy charges, the larger school taxes, the 200.00 hospital tax on her voters - doesn't affect her and the rest of us can go suck rocks. Group 2 must have some intelligent people in it and we have to hope that they start seeing the light.

      Delete
    12. To the London School of Economics, Boston University, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, London City, and Alberta oil, I should add another Anglo institution: Concordia University. This is where Bernard Landry chose to lecture after his stint as the prime minister of Quebec.

      Delete
    13. @Edward J. Cunningham
      Yes, indeed… this was the whole point of the post.

      A French company, Renault, headquartered in Boulogne (in western Paris), is in a strategic partnership with Nissan, based in Yokohama (west of Tokyo), which owns a Romanian manufacturer, Dacia as well as a Korean manufacturer, Samsung, while also having formed partnerships with Germany’s Daimler, China’s Dongfeng Motor and Russia’s AvtoVAZ. Meanwhile, Renault Trucks is itself part of Sweden’s Volvo Group, which includes part of Chrysler/Peugeot/Citroën and has a significant stake in Mack Trucks as well.

      The point is that it is inconveivable that the common language between all of these entities should be anything other than English.

      Delete
    14. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    15. R.S,

      [sarcastic]

      Do you really mean that Renault employees communicate among themselves in English too? They can not do that! Regardless what language they use with their partners globally, when they hang the telephone up they need to revert back to French. As such, all incoming documents need to be translated to French before they are read. Outgoing documents need to be written in French also and only be translated when they are about to be sent off.

      [/sarcastic]

      Delete
    16. "I think he was motivated by Spite. What better way to stick it to those he was counting on for getting him elected and give him a job in Quebec City alongside all the other seppies."

      I'm leaning towards other reasons. One is money. Another is a chance of working in London City, which with Wall Street is the hub of world finance, so for a finance guy to work there is like for an engineer to work for NASA.

      There is also a fact that living in a city like London has other perks, like culture, history, arts, etc...

      Delete
    17. I hope the social elite in London freeze him out of their circle after learning exactly what these people are all about and how they preach "hate" against the British for being their "oppressors". Would serve him right and perhaps teach him some manners about fighting a war for 200 years.

      Delete
  7. Lord Dorchester

    Bravo Editor, you called it! This treacherous Jerk was nothing but another Snake Oil salesman for the Separatist lost-cause. I'm frankly quite surprised an international firm would hire him, his economic reasonings for separating Quebec were pie in the sky and his stand on Quebec's accumulated debt was laughable. Good riddance to him and I hope his joke of a party dies a quick death.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Replies
    1. Have to give credit for SR finding this out although he posted the french version of the video rather than the english one. Sorry SR - credit where credit is due!

      Delete
  9. Another incident of an employee quitting his job after being told not to speak to his co-workers in English. He is filing a complaint with the Human Rights Commission. Good on him! Pick up the video at 16:30 of the tape.
    http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/Canada/Montreal/ID/2400680285/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So no more shopping at Latina… besides, Les Cinq Saisons is a better alternative, plus it doesn’t blatantly discriminate against anglophones.

      Delete
  10. «On est réapparu sur l’écran radar»

    http://www.lecourriersud.com/Actualit%C3%A9s/Politique/2013-08-14/article-3349666/On-est-reapparu-sur-lecran-radar/1

    Le Bloc Québécois est de retour....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey S.R, how about Quebec just loses 30000 jobs in July. You seem to be remarkably silent on this. Oh, I forgot, for you guys it doesn't matter since most of you are welfare rats anyway. LOL.

      Delete
    2. Not much difference between Mulcair and the Bloc so again, who cares. Both are incompetent and out to line their own pockets - don't forget Mulcair used to pretend he was federalist. You people will never learn anything obviously.

      Delete
    3. As a side note it's no wonder people don't bother to vote when this is what we have going on every time we go to the polls. We vote out of self defense instead of real interest. What a democracy especially in quebec.

      Delete
  11. In a professional capacity, do you think he will advise people to invest in Quebec?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Probably - he sounds like he's not very competent anyway trying to take a bankrupt province and make it into a bankrupt country. I wouldn't place any investments with him, that's for sure.

      Delete
  12. Course à la chefferie : Option nationale aura un nouveau chef dès le mois d’octobre

    http://www.optionnationale.org/actualites/course-a-la-chefferie-option-nationale-aura-un-nouveau-chef-des-le-mois-d-octobre


    À voir aussi : La culture des jeunes canayens (très drôle)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8umLleFGZXM

    ReplyDelete
  13. Des dizaines de vidéos anti-francophones

    http://www.latetedanslaune.ca/2013/08/des-dizaines-de-vid%C3%A9os-anti-francophones.html

    Connaissez-vous cet individu louche?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. His videos are right on the mark. There is active discrimination against the anglophones in quebec. You just don't like that he points it out. His videos are not anti-francophone - they are against the discrimination practiced by the PQ government and people like yourself. Good on him. I hope more people do the same thing.

      Delete
    2. Il ne devrait pas publier sa photo.

      Delete
    3. www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRj5dFjisZI&t=2m46s

      "I don't think forcing the French language onto the people is a good idea because it's actually going to deter them. I don't even want to speak French anymore to anybody but my girlfriend and her family, whereas I'm actually interested in learning other languages, for example Italian. The less forcing that happens, the more I want to learn."



      Delete
  14. Democratic rights rally in N.B.
    www.facebook.com/events/336244836510673/

    ReplyDelete
  15. http://www.cjad.com/CJADLocalNews/entry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10578234&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook
    more on discrimination in Quebec.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. http://www.montrealgazette.com/opinion/editorials/Editorial+Quebecers+leave+about+economy/8788030/story.html

      Delete
    2. At least you guys that live in Montreal will know who not to vote for:
      http://www.cjad.com/CJADLocalNews/entry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10578384&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook
      He makes his bigotry quite obvious.

      Delete
  16. The McGill med school story is nothing but sour grapes from those who thought they were good enough and have turned out not to be. In the article Joe Schwarcz says as much, that there is very little difference in grades between the top 500 candidates.

    Med school is changing across the country, and the days when they looked for someone who could memorize everything and puke it back out for exams are gone -- because it turns out those people are not very good doctors.

    Especially in today's world, where every doctor's office has an internet connection to PubMed -- training doctors to memorize every single bizarre symptom is pointless.

    You only need to look at the interview process McGill ran people through, which ran them through a a whole bunch of roleplaying scenarios to see how people would act in the real world when dealing with real people.

    It's not enough to be a brilliant bookworm. You need to be a brilliant well-rounded bookworm, and the bar is that much higher.

    In other words: real life is a bitch suckers. My wife got in and you did not :P



    -Kevin

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The article actually quotes people who argue the contrary, that in the past connections were valued and that now they are not -- and specifically points to a doctor whose child has been rejected twice.
      -Kevin

      Delete
  17. I agree Yannick..it doesnt say anything about favouring francophones over anglophones. It sounds like they are taking a more balanced approach. As Kevin pointed out the marks of the top several hundred are likely very close..there is more to being a good doctor then having a gap 0.05 above another student. Many doctors lack basic human skills..ie they are poor at dealing with people. And in my experience thats a huge factor..I have dealt with so many arrogant, rude, and condascending doctors in my life who seem to think because they have a dr in front of their name that they are gods gift to humanity. And it bothers me greatly to think that 70 percent of medical school graduates are from upper class families and thats here in supposedly socialist Canada.
    Do you really think only rich kids make good doctors?? In fact I would argue the opposite..the only reason a lot of these rich kids are there is because of their money and influence.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Separatists will, of course, succumb to their knee-jerk reaction and instantly call this “Quebec-bashing”, all the while remaining being unable to intelligently dispute one single fact that is presented here…

    Dan Delmar: Bursting the sovereigntists’ economic bubble
    Dan Delmar | 13/08/15
    http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/08/15/dan-delmar-bursting-the-sovereigntists-economic-bubble/

    The man who just months ago dreamed of being the first to lead an independent, prosperous Quebec gave up and took a job with the colonial oppressors in England.

    Quebec’s sovereignty movement can be a parody of itself. Its leaders are firmly entrenched in a place where optimism and delusion meet. They seem happy to embrace English and the Anglophone business world personally, while ensuring their constituents are denied access to those same opportunities.

    During the last election campaign, the startup Option Nationale (ON) party received only about 2% of the vote. But it did succeed in creating a buzz with leader Jean-Martin Aussant’s brand of sovereignty, which seemed at first to be more inclusive. It focused on education, rather than repression and division, a hallmark of the Parti Québécois’ (PQ) platform. ON even released pro-sovereignty ads in English and Spanish.

    The election results, however, saw ON lose its only seat — Aussant’s own (he’d defected from the PQ). In June, he resigned as leader, and this week, made another startling announcement: The man who just months ago dreamed of being the first to lead an independent, prosperous Quebec gave up and took a job with the colonial oppressors in England. He’s return to London to work in finance, which many Quebec sovereignists will view as a textbook case of “selling out.”

    Aussant, a sharp and tolerant man, has every right to pursue opportunities abroad. But his decision to relocate is a classic example of a problem the sovereigntists prefer to deny exists. “I’ve had discussions in the past few weeks with various organizations,” Aussant wrote in his blog for Urbania magazine. “However … no substantial offers came from Montreal or Quebec City.” All the jobs were abroad.

    Aussant, 43, is hardly alone; virtually all educated, young Quebecers have considered leaving for greener pastures. There is a glass ceiling for professionals; a ceiling with significantly lower clearance for Anglophones. If the leader of a credible political party, less than two years after that party was created, has trouble finding suitable employment in Quebec, what hope is there for others without the profile and prestige that comes with holding public office?

    On his blog, Aussant wondered if his lack of prospects in Quebec had anything to do with his “strong identification with sovereignty.” Being a vocal sovereignist can hurt one’s chances of employment, particularly in finance, where the ability to perform basic arithmetic (like subtracting federal transfer payments from provincial revenues) can prove to be a useful skill. Even with the stigma of sovereignty in the business world, it’s still worrisome that Aussant couldn’t manage to find the right job here.

    Under the PQ’s watch so far in 2013, 40,000 jobs have been lost in Quebec, while 80,000 were gained in all of Canada. Quebec was responsible for 75% of the job losses nationally last month. Since the PQ came to power less than one year ago, Quebec has created a mere 800 jobs. Jonathan Wener, CEO of developer Canderel, recently told the Montreal Gazette that, because of PQ policies, “the market has definitely gotten softer and a lot of people are putting major decisions on hold.”

    Aussant’s brand of sovereignty may have been more economically viable than the PQ’s. But there’s no denying that the prospect of leaving Canada is bad for business. The numbers just don’t add up. According to a recent column by the Journal de Montréal’s Michel Girard, without federal transfer payments, an independent Quebec would be $19-billion in the red annually.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Quebec is over-regulated, over-bureaucratized and fosters a climate that is not only unwelcoming to international business, but on occasion, downright hostile. Major retailers have been forced to take the Quebec government to court over the right to their brand names. A 17-year-old entrepreneur — the very type of person an independent Quebec would desperately need — was told by the language police that his company’s name was too English-sounding. Such examples of state-sanctioned xenophobia are hardly the exception.

      No wonder Aussant couldn’t find a good job in Quebec; few want to do business here. Aussant’s decision to move tacitly acknowledges that the very notion of independence he promulgated is not realistic. An independent Quebec would retain all the political dysfunction but lose the Canadian safety net.

      And the province’s economic self-sabotage is only worsening under the PQ. I hope Aussant finds in London the prosperity and peace of mind that’s increasingly hard to find here.

      Dan Delmar is the co-founder of Provocateur Communications and the co-host of Delmar & Dwivedi on CJAD 800 Montreal.

      Delete