French versus English Volume 92

First reaction... Maka is looking very svelte!

Minister advises immigrants to leave native dress behind

"Minister Maka Kotto asked immigrants to act like him and to "adopt" the values ​​of the host society.

"If I was going to play the mystical, I could walk with a panther skull on my chest, because it is my family emblem. But I do not do it because I agree to adopt the values of the host society, "commented the Minister of Culture and Communications. Link

Dunno....I think it'd be kind of cool to give an interview in a native outfit!

 

PQ's hilarious flip-flop on school taxes

The Bobbsy twins!

In order to balance the budget, the PQ did an interesting sleight of hand, cutting tens of millions of dollars in financing from Quebec's school boards, with the advice that they should make up the difference by dipping into reserve funds, cutting expenses or increasing school taxes, (which they can do.)  The school boards opted to impose tax increases and the public hit the roof. Link

Here is a translation on a French article over at Antagoniste.net. If you read 'French, do the author the courtesy of reading the story HERE.

Here's what was said Feb 13, 1013
"The Minister of Education, Marie Malavoy encourages school boards to raise taxes to mitigate the impact of the cuts she imposed upon them.... Ms. Malavoy believes that school boards therefore have a "flexibility" and invites them to use the power of taxation."

Here's what was said Aug 4 2013: 

The Minister of Education, Marie Malavoy, refuses to criticize the decision of several school boards to increase school taxes on their territory. Responding to widespread criticism denouncing these increases, Ms. Malavoy argued that she did not want to judge the school boards in relation to the government cuts in aid.. She reported that in some areas, although the increase was 40 percent, it amounted to an increase of only twenty dollars. Ms. Malavoy believes that school boards have nevertheless remained within the reasonable bounds and have not imposed ​​excessive increases.

Here's what was said  Sept 11 2013:
According to Ms. Malavoy, the government wants the school boards to freeze their taxes where they are unable to reduce their spending, increase revenue other than by taxing or dipping into their surplus. "We, especially in August, made a detailed analysis of the situation of school boards, and indeed there are many who have not taken their responsibilities as they were invited to do so," she said.

Here's what was said  September 16 2013:
The increase in school taxes  for many homeowners shall not be allowed. The Premier Pauline Marois therefore is requiring school boards to redo their calculations within 15 days. Eventually, the homeowners who paid may be able to receive a credit, rather than direct payments. The government, which met with the school board Monday, believes that they have abused their power of taxation.


Another flip-flopper is PQ Minister Jean-François Lisée, who upon his return from pressing government business in Africa rushed into the Charter debate.

"A Parti Quebecois minister says his party is willing to change or replace some institutions' ability to opt-out of the Quebec charter of values.
When the proposal was first unveiled, the Marois government said hospitals, universities, CEGEPs and municipalities would be able to withdraw for a renewable five-year period.
Now, minister Jean-François Lisée says this mechanism is up for discussion, adding that it would not be scrapped entirely.
"The opting-out clause has been debated. Is it the right tool? Is it correctly fine-tuned? Are there other ways we could manage the transition?' he says.
The entire island of Montreal has said it would pull-out of a charter that would ban its employees from wearing religious headgear.
But, Lisée says Montreal can't be allowed to run indefinitely under a different set of rules." Link

PQ = Incoherence

Montreal unites against Charter of Quebec values

"MONTREAL—The municipalities that make up the island of Montreal have united against the Quebec government’s proposed charter of values and intend to opt out of the divisive program if the minority Parti Québécois government ever succeeds in passing it into law.

The rebuke comes from a group of 15 suburban mayors and the main candidates currently running to become the next mayor of the City of Montreal. It pits the representatives of more than 1.8-million Quebecers — more than one-fifth of the province’s population — against a contentious proposal from Premier Pauline Marois’ party to ban the wearing of religious symbols like hijabs, turbans, kippas and large crucifixes by public-sector employees.

Phillipe Roy, the mayor of the town of Mount Royal and the representative of the Association of Suburban Municipalities, said their 15-city organization intends to opt out en masse. “The Marois government needs to go back and do its homework,” Roy told La Presse. “They never consulted with us Montrealers.”" Link

Both McGill University and the Université de Montréal, have both announced that given the option they will opt out of the Charter. Link{fr}

And so the PQ falls victim to its very own 'Notwithstanding Clause'

You say 'Tow-may-toe,' I say 'Ta-mah-toe'

It seems that Quebec politicians can't even agree over facts. In a farcical article in a Montreal French language newspaper, the leaders disagreed about the job situation in a debate in the National Assembly.

Francois Legault was reduced to holding up a big chart indicating that Quebec has lost a considerable amount of jobs in the last year of the PQ reign.

Nonesense retorted Marois, the province actually  gained jobs! Link{fr}

So according to who you believe, Quebec either gained 15,000 jobs(PQ), lost 4,000 jobs(CAQ) or lost 45,000 jobs(Lib).

Denial is not a River in Egypt

Charter apologists are working overtime in defending the good name of Quebecers over several instances of intolerance in regards to Muslims being targeted by bigoted Quebecers.

Some of the incidents can't be explained away, like this video of a Hijab clad woman being berated by a francophone intellectual on a Montreal bus.

There seems to be a recurring theme that these incidents are really phoney and created by anti-charter forces bent on humiliating Quebecers over the Charter.
Here's a picture of  'a person of interest' who may or may not be the person who  delivered that manifesto sent to a radio station concerning the pig's blood incident at a mosque in Chicoutimi.

Hmmm....doesn't look like a Muslim to me!!!

In the comments section of this very blog we've heard the same refrain over and over again.
IT'S A PLOT!!!
 
Here's a video produced by Montreal's blue collar workers protesting the corruption surrounding the construction industry.

Xxxx

When the blue collars were accused of casting aspersions on the Italian community, the union asked... Whatever gave that impression?

Two other incidents are being shrugged off as the work of anti-charter forces.

This next one is particularly strange because the Church isn't Greek, the congregation is composed of mostly  Blacks from the Islands. Link

Curiouser and curiouser....

Now here is a special treat for those who understand French. It is a radio interview with a woman who accuses a veiled Muslim woman of reverse discrimination. The radio interviewer agrees, failing to see the fly in the ointment.

It seems that the woman witnessed an incident wherein a passerby stopped two Muslim shoppers and asked politely why they were wearing a veil.

It seems the two Muslims took exception (I daresay it happens often enough) and unleashed a nasty verbal assault on their interlocutor, at which point the witness to the story intervened and told the Muslims that it was just an innocent question that deserved a fair response.

The scene degenerated, into name-calling,  proof positive that the confrontation was the fault of the Muslims!

Give a listen Radio EGO

Open letter to Pauline from a Montreal expat

"Allow me to begin by apologizing for writing in English. I know that you speak and read English very well and though I am a fluent speaker of French, I have lost some of my fluency in the written language after spending eight years in an entirely English-speaking professional and academic environment. I write to you in English because I can best express myself on the subject of an extremely complex issue in my first language. Please feel free to respond in French.
I am un Québécois errant. I left Québec in 2005 to pursue my doctorate in history, and I am now teaching at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Like Québécois scholars who have trod this path before me, such as Daniel Turp and Jacques Parizeau, I feel a constant and deep longing for ma patrie. It is my greatest desire to someday return home.
My family has deep roots in Québec. My grandfather arrived as an immigrant from Central Europe in 1912. In his early days in Montréal, he worked clearing snow from the street of Sainte-Cunegonde Ward in Saint-Henri. Later, he moved his family to the old Jewish neighbourhood in the Plateau Mont-Royal, where he worked in the garment industry and managed a shop for many years. Read the rest of the letter

In passing

Click to view video

I laughed out loud when I read a story in a Montreal newspaper that the city of Montreal is going to spend another $1.2 million on a new feasibility study about connecting the southern portion of Cavendish Boulevard in Cote-St. Luc with the northern  portion in Ville St. Laurent. Link{fr}

This project has been kicking around for over forty years and I'm sure that the city already has countless studies up the wazoo.

Call it a Montreal's version of New York city's  2nd avenue subway project which has been planned since 1929 and is still not complete.
Here's a hilarious video sendup of the project in AMC's Mad Men, a television series based in the sixties.
Remember, the project is still nor completed.
(Shout out to R/W/B for the subway story)

It's been 50 years since the FLQ launched its first bomb. Link{fr}

Of all the images published in relation to the concerning  Charter of Values debate, this one caught my eye.
Why? ....Dunno...maybe you can explain it.

Talk about thin skin, the  Mouvement Québec français is complaining about this soup can label;

It seems the organization is perplexed by the connotation of "French Canadian Pea Soup" while in French, the label says just Pea Soup. Link{fr}

Allow me to help.
French Canadian Pea soup is off-white in colour as opposed to green pea soup. I guess, it's a question of the beans....

By the way, here's another anomaly. Here in Canada we do not refer to back bacon as;

Here's a complete shocker:
"Half of Quebec adults lack sufficient literacy skills to function easily in everyday life, a new study by the province’s Conseil supérieur de l’éducation says" Link

I've held off publishing this comparison of the heroic mayor of Lac Megantic out of respect for the dead.

I often watch the news in split screen and was shocked to see the difference in appearance of the mayor as portrayed on two French language news stations.

I swear I haven't retouched these images and can now understand that lighting technicians can make a huge difference!!!
YIKES!

Have a great weekend!

Bonne fin de semaine!