Drainville's Master Plan to Eliminate Religion
There's a lot being said and printed over the subject of the proposed ban on religious wear here in Quebec, across Canada and around the world.
There's not much I can add that you haven't heard before, but I do remain surprised that nobody picked up on an exchange between Bernard Drainville and a reporter during his news conference.
The reporter asked whether these changes could apply to private industry and Drainville responded that he hoped so.
He told the reporter that many businesses were telling him that they wanted this type of legislation to apply to their workers.
Surprisingly, or not surprisingly, Drainville suggested that companies form policies based on the new rules for government workers.
What the minister let slip, is that it is his belief that secularism includes both the public and private sectors, elevating the debate to a whole new level.
Quebec Makes news around the world
Quebec Calls for Ban on Wearing Symbols of Faith New York Times
Quebec mulls religious head wear ban for public workers BBC (UK)
Jai.TV
Quebec: Ban Religious Headwear in Government Jobs ABC (US)
Quebec Government Proposes Ban on Religious Symbols Wall Street Journal
Quebec seeks to ban public workers from wearing religious symbols Reuters
Quebec Muslims slam proposed ban on religious headwear Al Jazeera (US)
Quebec quiere proscribir los signos religiosos en el sector público camineo.info (It)
Quebec prohibirá uso de símbolos religiosos en vida pública HispanTV
קוויבק אומרת "לא" לכיפה ולחיג'אב (Quebec says "no" kippa and hijab) Israel
Kanadyjski Quebec chce zakazać noszenia symboli religijnych Poland
Québec: un projet de loi pour interdire les signes religieux Tunisia
كيبيك الكندية تقترب من حظر النقاب BBC ArabicThere are stories all over the world concerning the religious ban, but this one from Poland was perhaps the strangest ;
Québec wil geen tulband of keppel zien Netherlands
Канада: Квебек готов запретить религиозные символы Russia
Zakaz noszenia krzyży zasłoną dymną dla eutanazji?
(Ban on wearing crosses a smokescreen for euthanasia?)
Charter debate claims first victim
"The debate is open now. People have the right to express themselves.... But I hope the debate will be done as serenely as possible.-Pauline Marois
Really? Perhaps Marois should reach for inspiration from Frank Costanza of Seinfeld fame, in repeating the mantra "Serenity Now"
Maria Mourani, an African-born Montrealer of Lebanese descent who wears a crucifix, had blasted Premier Pauline Marois' plans to bar all Quebec public servants from wearing religious symbols.
Mourani said the measure would divide Quebecers, as well as the sovereignty movement. Read the rest of the story
By the way, the comments under the story of her removal in the Journal de Montreal are very telling.
90% were furious about it, even those in favour of the legislation.
"I do not agree with Ms. Mourani, because I support the charter of secularism. But this lady is entitled to her opinion. Even within a political party, a member should be able to issue a dissenting opinion without being deported, it's called democracy.
Party member tweets his reaction to exclusion.
The Bloc leader is acting as an Iman forcing their members to practice the doctrine: "Do this and you will live"
Now we clearly see the drastic methods of the PQ that will come after a referendum and how they will reign when they have their own country, a dictatorship of oppressive laws over freedom of speech or religious belief, becoming a worse banana republic than Cuba ....Mr. Paillé, head of the Bloc Quebecois is going to get roasted by the press and even his own supporters. It's always fun to see a major political blunder up close and personal and I wouldn't be surprised that once the gravity of the error sets in, he'll be eating a double portion of humble pie, begging Mourani to return to the fold.
The worst part of this story is that she did not speak against her own party but rather against the PQ project!
Is the Bloc under the command of Her Majesty the PM?
Lily-white Public service backs Charter
I guess it's no big surprise that the 42,000 strong union representing public employees leapt to the defense of the proposed charter.The incestuousness relationship between the union and the PQ is a case of one hand washing the other.
"The SFPQ union, which has 42,000 members, applauds the government for "finally" tabling a policy that would ensure the religious neutrality of government offices.But the union must be one of the most ethnically pure in the world, with less than 2% visible minorities and the rest white Catholic francophones.
The PQ plan would forbid Quebec's public employees from wearing more visible religious symbols -- including hijabs, turbans, yarmulkes and larger-than-average crucifixes.
"We're obliged to keep our political opinions to ourselves," union president Lucie Martineau said Wednesday.
"We want that extended to our religious opinions."
Other unions have said they plan to consult members before taking a public position." Link
I guess the union wants to keep it that way.
So how many hijab-wearing members actually work for the union? Forget about kippahs and turbans, I'd venture there are none of those.
When asked how many members wear the hijab, the union leaders were stumped.
So let's take a stab at it for giggles.
42,000 union members divided by 1.8 % who are visible minorities= 738
738 members multiplied by 60% (eliminating the men) = 442
442 divided by those visible minorities who are not Muslim (66%) = 176
Percentage of Muslim union members who wear a hijab (10%) = 17
Now the numbers above are guess work, but you can you see that not many SFPQ union members wear the hijab.
This is what all the fuss is about.
Perhaps Quebecers should better consider this well documented fact;
“In 1980, recent immigrant men who had some employment income earned 85 cents for each dollar received by Canadian-born men. By 2005, the ratio had dropped to 63 cents. The corresponding numbers for recent immigrant women were 85 cents and 56 cents, respectively.” Link
Animal Cruelty piece generates accusations of Quebec-bashing
I received a few emails about the blog piece entitled Is Animal Cruelty Part of Quebec Values?accusing me of Quebec bashing.
I don't usually respond but I did leave out a few things in that piece that I should have mentioned.
All this is in response to a woman who started an online petition asking Kijiji to stop advertising pet sales because many unscrupulous puppy mills were using the service.
The petition has already garnered over 50,000 signatures
Read the story
Sign the petition
In my defense of calling animal abuse a particular Quebec value, I am going to excerpt an article by Gilles Proulx, in which he actually goes farther than me.
"There is a value that the vast majority of "Anglos" would be happy to see included on the docket of the Quebec Parliament when it resumes sitting. I want to talk about respect for animals and the need to end impunity for torturers of animals that Quebec does almost nothing about, dishing out punishment not worthy of the name. My brave Golden, Romeo and I will be attending the March 4 legs organized by the SPCA on Sunday, September 8 , on Mount Royal, to remind the Deputy Prime Minister François Gendron it is time to put the love of animals on the agenda. We should be ashamed and live up to the example of the neighboring provinces in the treatment of animals because we Quebecers are always the last in the class. Even within Quebec, an inordinate proportion of Anglophones stand above us and sometimes volunteer at their own expense in charitable organizations for our animals....
.....In recent months, Quebec has further illustrated itself as a dunce in the treatment of animals. Many horrific crimes or negligence have blackened the pages of this Journal. Remember those patients who drowned their pit bull by placing weights around its neck. Not to mention that maniac who probably thought himself manly for strafing nails into the skull of another poor animal. In October, there was the case of Black Jack, a horse pulling a carriage in the Old Port which fell down due to dehydration and exhaustion because he was kept at work for twelve hours a day. Rescued by good Samaritans, Black Jack will end his days in a rural landscape of Lac Saint-Jean. Fortunately, the story was about him. As for the exploiter who almost killed this noble animal, don't worry: The justice system is not going to take notice. This is Quebec." Read the entire story in FrenchWho's Quebec-bashing now?
Is Mr. Proulx perhaps mellowing?
FULL DISCLOSURE.
I bought my puppy through Kijiji, a special non-shedding Jack Russell Terrier which was hard to find.
I drove to St-Hyacinthe and met the young couple who bred dogs as a family income supplement.
There was so much love for the dogs in their home and such happy and bouncy dogs, we immediately fell in love with the runt of the litter.
Before the couple turned the puppy over to us, they asked us a million questions about our background, the conditions that the dog would face and our record as dog owners.
We made a deal and Brody has been with us for six years, a delightful companion, rakishly handsome and intelligent and loving. He hasn't a mean bone in his body and has never bitten or snarled.
Had conditions been less than acceptable at the breeders, we would have fled.
But not everybody on Kijiji is a scam artist....just saying.
McGill University sinking like a lead balloon.
....McGill — long considered the Harvard of the north — has been slipping in some recent rankings, such as the World Reputation Rankings and the 2012 Times Higher Education world rankings.
.....Danny Byrne, editor of topuniversities.com, which publishes the QS rankings, said when they asked 62,000 academics around the world which universities are leaders in research, U of T “did brilliantly,” ranking 13th compared to 31st for McGill"
Hate to say it.....but told you so....
EI contribution freeze, a political move meant to freeze Quebec out
"Employers and workers will get a small break over the next three years as the Conservative government freezes employment insurance premiums at the current level.
Planned rate increases are no longer necessary because the separate account through which the government manages the fund is looking healthier than it did a few years ago, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Monday.
Finance Department staff estimated the freeze will save businesses and workers $660 million next year, something that Flaherty believes will give employers the flexibility to hire more staff. Link
The news behind the story is that the Conservatives are applying more political pressure on Quebec which has been making noises about repatriating the Employment Insurance fund to its own jurisdiction. The idea is utterly ridiculous and a complete nonstarter, because Quebecers take almost twice as much out of the fund as they put in.
Now in the past, when the fund piled up a huge surplus, the federal government just scooped it up and transferred it to the general fund.
Harper is not going to let this happen as Quebec will scream about the surplus being 'robbed' from the fund, instead of paying lazy Gaspesians.
....and in another installment of 'Payback's a bitch '
"Quebec business and labour groups have flooded the Finance Department with demands to save a tax credit the Harper government plans to kill.Game, set and match, Mr. Harper
The spring budget announced the pending demise of a 15 per cent tax credit for investments in Labour Sponsored Venture Capital Corporations.....
The union-backed mutual funds are focused on helping small and medium-size firms create jobs.
The program, costing the federal treasury about $140 million a year, is wildly popular in Quebec where about 88 per cent of the tax credit is claimed.
....It’s a success story, especially in Quebec,” New Democrat labour critic Alexandre Boulerice said in an interview, adding the funds have supported 600,000 jobs in the province while helping people save for retirement.
“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”
But the federal government says the funds are not working, with poor investment returns, weak accountability and dubious ability to raise fresh venture capital. Read the whole story
Odds'n Ends
Cruising the vigile.net website I clicked on a link to Louis Prefontaine's www.louisprefontaine.comNow Louis hasn't been blogging for a while but I think he should have coughed up the $8 a year to keep his domain from lapsing.
It seems that a Japanese hair removal seller has scooped up the domain, although why, I cannot fathom.
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Here's two rather contradictory headlines that I saw on the same day.
"Pipeline would bring $ 6.3 billion to Quebec's GDP " Journal de Montreal {fr}
"Enbridge project unprofitable and highly damaging" La Presse {fr}
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A constant source of amusement here in Quebec are Google translation gaffes.
Even the RCMP has committed the faux pas of using the utterly unreliable, but free translation service.
So it's no wonder that cheapskate Walmart got caught with a doozy, when it translated dumbbell (weightlifting equipment) as 'imbecile' Link
Ha! Ha!
Idiot PQ quote of the Week
"Off the top, Health Minister Réjean Hébert was asked whether he fears nurses or medical personnel could be lost or might quit over new rules prohibiting them from wearing conspicuous religious items.
Hébert dismissed the idea as fear mongering.
“We saw the same reaction in the debate leading up to Bill 101,” Hébert said on his way into a meeting of the cabinet. “And the anticipated exodus did not happen. So I am not worried.” Link
Interesting letter to the editor
I've translated this letter to the editor that I found in the Journal du Quebec.
If you read French, do the author the courtesy of reading it HERE
"As to the Quebec Charter of values, and to a lesser degree, questions about the teaching of history to young Quebecers, I am still amazed that the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in 1759 is still perceived today as the decisive moment of the British victory over the French.
In early 1758, William Pitt convinced the British government to invest large sums of money to finance the armada that appeared before Quebec in June 1759 with the very objective to expel the French from North America. Meanwhile, in France, by the middle of 1758, the loss of New France was already a foregone conclusion.
Some people like to raise the specter of Lord Durham assimilation after the French conquest. However, the fact to retain is that the British gave to the French who decided to stay in Quebec, freedom of religion, Catholicism, and the French language .
If, by some miracle, the French had resisted the British invaders in 1759, it is unlikely that the miracle would be repeated during the attempted invasion by the Americans at Quebec in 1775. The attack was repulsed by the British, supported by the remaining French Canadians. New France had long been forgotten by its motherland by 1812, when the British scored a victory against the Americans in the Niagara region.
Quebec today is largely French today thanks to the British.
François Vézina
Ontario Hospital set to poach medical staff
"A hospital in Ontario is trying to appeal to medical students in Quebec with an attention-grabbing new recruitment ad.
Lakeridge Health Oshawa’s new campaign, to be featured next week in The McGill Daily
school newspaper, is already a social media success.It depicts a woman
wearing a pink hijab, lab coat and stethoscope with the slogan, “We
don’t care what’s on your head, we care what’s in it.”" Link
