Monday, December 23, 2013

ET TU, MARIA?


"Et tu, Brute?"  [(et tooh brooh -tay)]

A Latin sentence meaning “Even you, Brutus?” from the play Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare. Caesar utters these words as he is being stabbed to death, having recognized his friend Brutus among the assassins. 
For we on the anglophone/federalist/anti side of the Charter of Values debate, the reaction of Maria Mourani in changing sides was a nice boost to the morale, a vindication of the principle that Ethnic Quebecers have nothing to gain and everything to lose from embracing the sovereignty movement or the Charter or Values, for that matter.

While not quite as miraculous as the Conversion of Paul the Apostle, who embraced Jesus after a life of persecuting Christians, the reversal of Mourani was a lot more significant than just one politician, jumping ship to embrace the enemy.

We've had a myriad of federalists who went sovereigntist and vice-versa, including Lucien Bouchard and the newest member of the National Assembly, David Heurtel, who won his seat as a Liberal.
"Heurtel, once an adviser to former Parti Québécois leader Bernard Landry, said his thinking has evolved. He said he opposes the PQ’s Bill 60, a secularism charter that would make a ban on the wearing of religious symbols a condition of employment for Quebec’s 600,000 public sector jobs." Link
But for many of the sovereigntist pur et dur the Mourani defection is a bitter pill to swallow, made all the more unpalatable by her contention that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms offers a greater protection to the Quebec heritage than does the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.

That contention is what has rendered hardliners livid, as if Stephen Harper suddenly embraced the Communist Manifesto.

For as long as the Canadian Charter has existed, it has for separatists, remained the ultimate symbol of Quebec's betrayal and humiliation at the hands of the devious and scheming Anglos.
The story of the Night of the long Knives has gone down in separatist lore as a turning point, as momentous as the hanging of Louis Real or the razor thin referendum loss in 1995, ascribed to federalist scheming and cheating.
"The new deal was signed by Trudeau and nine of the premiers that morning. Only Lévesque refused to endorse it. Lévesque didn't say anything. He just got up from his chair, spun around, and walked out.
"Behind his Oriental impassivity," Lévesque observed, "One could feel Trudeau literally rejoicing. He had put one over on us."
There are conflicting interpretations of what had happened. Trudeau supporters argued that Lévesque was committed to separation and would not have accepted any agreement to patriate the Constitution.
But Lévesque and his supporters saw the agreement as a betrayal, one in which English politicians had conspired against Quebec. Lévesque left the conference, denouncing the premiers and their role in what would be characterized as "The Night of the Long Knives.""
Link
As Jews repeat the story of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt each year on the celebration of their Passover holiday, so do Separatists keep alive the saga of their betrayal at the hands of the dastardly English, searing those events into the collective memory, lest that ultimate betrayal be forgotten, remain unresolved or un-avenged.

And so in this context, for Maria Mourani to embrace the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom is just too much to take and as such, just as I promised you, reactions in the separatists blogs and indeed the  mainstream press were dripping with rage.

My favourite reaction comes from Sol Zanetti, the newest leader of the hardline Option National political party, who wrote in the National Post that there should be rules for switching sides.
"Being deeply democratic is to accept this fact. (that people switch sides..ed.) However, this can be done in a noble manner and not so as to feed cynicism.....
.....One may no longer agree they want it (sovereignty..ed), but cannot begin actively fighting against it. A separatist member who changes his mind should have the decency to withdraw completely from partisan politics.... Link
How about a federalist politician who changes sides like Lucien Bouchard, should he too have withdrawn from politics, respecting the federalists he left behind?
Ha!.... that notion is just frustration talking and I must admit to a delicious case of schadenfreude, delighting in the palpable agony that has manifested itself in articles such as Mr. Zanetti's.

Here's a collection of rants and frustrated raves that makes it all more enjoyable.
"By any measure of loyalty, she should have warned me before sending this amalgam of lame and demagogic slander to Le Devoir." The Treason of Maria MAourani{fr}

"We are in mourning for our Bloc member, we mourn our dedicated, committed and intelligent member, Maria Mourani ."  Lettre à Maria Mourani{fr}.

She publicly crucified the draft charter in the most violent terms, got excluded from the Bloc Quebecois and then took time "reflecting on her future" and returned, stating that the Canadian Charter of Rights is better protection  than the Quebec Charter and at the same time is no longer an independentist, happily throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Link{fr}

"This is a childish betrayal, selfish, irrational and disgusting." Link{fr}

"So Maria Mourani, the new darling of the Federalists is treacherous, one who is willing to do anything to get re-elected." Link{fr}

"It therefore seems paradoxical and incongruous that the member for Ahuntsic quotes a French text from the national anthem in praise of the colonial order of  this anti-Bill 101, Canadian Charter of Rights, deliberately imposed upon Quebecers, together with the adoption of the 1982 Constitution without Quebec's consent - the worst colonialist insult in our recent history. Link{fr}

"She has demonstrated her incoherence and how little it is based on principles, which she changes as it suits her. " Gilles Duceppe{fr} 
Your arguments are worse than your gesture and contemptuous of Quebecers" Bernard Landry{fr}
The reaction by militants isn't surprising, Mourani's reversal is a rather heavy body blow, a warning to other Ethnics that flirting with sovereignty is a dead end, a fact not lost on the movement.

The militants would be advised to take a page from Pauline's playbook and move on quickly, letting the Maria Mourani affair pass into ignominious oblivion.
In other words, the less said about Mourani, the better, and feeding the news cycle, an act of self-humiliation.

Although it makes good political sense to let the matter of Maria Mourani drop, it will not happen.
The rage and sense of betrayal is too intense to be assuaged by time alone and so  the enemies of Mourani will continue to empower her, creating a monster, the very public symbol of the sovereignty movement's inherent rejection of ethnics.

The wishful thinking described by Sol Zanetti in hoping that Mourani would retire from the political scene is perhaps telling.
He understands the clear and present danger Mourani represents.

Mourani is certainly up to the task.
She brooks criticism with aplomb and is composed, unfazed and unbowed in the face of opposition. She is an excellent debater and has shown herself to be media savvy, a formidable political personality who would be a great addition to the Liberal or NDP party.

Indeed the PQ  and the Bloc have created a monster in Maria Mourani and like Dr. Frankenstein, will ultimately pay the price for building her up, when it would have been easier to put a little water in their wine and contain her, as did Quebec Liberal leader, Philippe Couillard, when a caucus member Fatima Houde-Pépin, came out on favour of the Charter publicly.

But the hardliners are enraged and like an angry bull, cannot be stopped, even if the course of action is unwise.


I hate to admit it, but it is fun to watch.

25 comments:

  1. http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/12/20/pq_has_lost_the_high_ground_with_its_charter_hbert.html

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  2. Very off topic, but a bit of good news for the little guy (I only bring it up because the editor mentioned the on going court case in November).

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/animator-claude-robinson-wins-plagiarism-battle-over-cinar-1.2474388

    Claude Robinson has finally won his court case against Cinar.

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  3. When this all went down, I knew this would be the exact outcome.

    Mourani betrayed Canada when she was admitted to the country, only to turn to the separatist camp, who in turn showed her that she was little more than a token, nothing more.

    I can't help but think of Return of the Jedi when Darth Vader's humanity returned to him and he hurled the embodiment of the separatist movement to his fiery doom.

    I still have no respect for Mourani. Though I'm no friend to seppies by any stretch, I can't help but agree with Jocelyn Desjardins that she's a classless opportunist. However, her flagrant self-promotion doesn't change the fact that she's an immigrant who got a hot serving of xenophobia and that she'll serve as an example to all other immigrants in Quebec:

    To embrace sovereignty is to embrace Stockholm Syndrome.

    Unless your name is Jean-Guy Lussier from St. Ange-Gabriel-Sur-Deux-Bieres-Beni-Par-Le-Pasteur-Du-Maudit-Crisse and your skin is white and you can pronounce the word "osite" without an accent, you just ain't part of the crew, and you never will be.

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  4. Lisee writes a letter, supposedly from all of us, bragging about Quebec: as if.

    http://www.economist.com/news/letters/21591830-trusting-government-quebec-economics-rugby-league-swedish-schools-america-santa-claus

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    1. That is such childish franco-supremacy right there.

      "We're better than everyone else in Canada. Never mind that we have the larges debt, that we're promoting was is easily the most racist, exclusionary charter in the country and that infrastructure is collapsing all around us...we know how to drink and not care about stuff...that's makes us cool!"

      Yeah, it does - if you're 13 fucking years old.

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    2. Lisée peut mange sa merde de la taureau lentement et avec soin!

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    3. You can never raise yourself up by putting another down. By trashing ROC the PQ only makes themselves look worse. They are obviously concerned with how the rest of the world views them, and this kind of behaviour does not improve their image.

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    4. Right U R, ems, but unfortunately, that shepherd has too many foolish sheep that will follow him into the abyss not even aware of what would be in store for them.

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  5. Ballot initiative to split California into 6 states.

    http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/23/yes-its-real-tim-draper-gives-details-on-ballot-initiative-to-make-silicon-valley-a-state/

    How many can we carve up Quebec into??

    Will be much easier for the little PQ Quebec to destroy itself without anyone getting in the way.

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    Replies
    1. Can't believe I missed that one. Thanks for the share cebeuq.

      I wonder why the seps don't take a page from another California-based entrepreneur: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/18/peter-thiel-seasteading_n_930595.html

      Oh yeah that's right - seps have NO money, NO vision and definitely NO Acumen.

      Independence will only ever work if the federal government is there to help. ;-)

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    2. So true...the province is broke, plain and simple...lolllllllllllll

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  6. Now the Separatists can turn their adulation to that other immigrant separatist politician, Amir Khadir.

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    1. Khadir fits in quite well with Quebec separatists who have a record of revering and rewarding separatist terrorists while denouncing terrorism in general, though Khadir supports terrorism in general as a form of political activism and is probably an anarchist at heart.

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  7. Marks & Spencer : une caissière voilée refuse de vendre du champagne

    http://www.lepoint.fr/societe/marks-spencer-une-caissiere-voilee-refuse-de-vendre-du-champagne-23-12-2013-1773706_23.php

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    Replies
    1. I remember living in the States and going to the grocery store to buy a 6-pack. If the cashier was under 21 he/she had to call someone else of at least 21 to grab the beer and put it in a bag. He/She was not allowed to come into contact any alcoholic beverage, even if inside of a sealed bottle inside of a paper carton.

      Sounded completely ridiculous at the time but I never saw any articles about it in the Boston Globe.

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  8. The loss of Mourani is a body blow that will shake the Separatist cause to its foundations. She WAS their immigrant poster child, an immigrant that not only bought their bullshit agenda but actively promoted it, a true rarity. The Separatists know that without Montreal, there is no Separation. They need the likes of Mourani to sell their vision of a partitioned Canada and a sovereign Quebec to the increasing numbers of newcomers that Canada has allowed into this country. Immigrants are no fools. They know who butters their bread and by in large, what their fate would be like in an independent Quebec. Less rights and freedoms, lower quality of life, they will be expected to do the heavy lifting and they and their children will be shut out of jobs and opportunities in the rest of Canada. Unless you're an ethno centric Nationalist, why would you hitch your wagon to such a cause? It's akin to asking someone to sell their vast resource rich ranch for a squalid 1 bedroom apartment with in a building with a shaky foundation and no money for repairs. No wonder support for separation in ethnic communities is virtually nonexistent.

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    1. During the Lévesque era, there was a minority of Anglophones who supported separation, about 6-8% of Anglophones. Imbeciles in my opinion, considering the full wrath of their true colours were brought to us by the current version of the PQ, and it's not as if the monster didn't raise its ugly head previously.

      With any luck, the current misadventures of the PQ will serve the current immigrants that they're not welcome within their xenophobic fabric and that there is no benefit in supporting an independent Quebec; besides, as stated previously in Reed Scowent's book, that the Quebec government doesn't see immigrants as having come to Canada, but as having come to Quebec.

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    2. First of all, readers, Happy holidays (Xmas to Christian readers). Being Jewish myself, this is a nice, quiet day to relax so I'm taking it in.

      JF, I stated this is how the Quebec government sees immigrants. I'm sure the immigrants know much better, but that doesn't mean the Quebec government doesn't make every possible effort to insidiously condition the immigrants that they have some sort of social contract with Quebec. A small number of them are stupid enough to listen and abide by the "contract" until they learn it's not necessary to do so. Some accept the rubbish and drivel of the separatists and join the fold. PQ leaders accepted these immigrants into their fabric with open arms because few did, but that's not to state that when they left their midst they weren't ridiculed as people of lesser beings.

      No PQ leaders, including Lévesque and P-M Johnson, were truly benevolent because they knew they led a stable of rabid racists and appointed them to cabinet positions. They also endorsed anti-English legislation. Nevertheless, the level of benevolence deteriorated with each passing leader, PQ or otherwise, to the point we see the Quebec of today. Like death and taxes, it was inevitable the slime at the bottom of the barrel would be reached, and here we are. Quebec is now mired in that gook the bottom of the barrel. Congratulations!

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  9. UN GARS BIEN SYMPATHIQUE DE FRANKFORTTuesday, December 24, 2013 at 12:01:00 PM EST

    #merrychristmas.
    To all separatists I wish you all a free & separate quebec for 2014. To anglos who hate quebec I wish you all financial success so you can move out of quebec. For me I dream of getting that promotion which can get me back to Calgary a year early:)

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  10. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/pq-produces-holiday-guide-to-defending-values-charter-1.2475907

    Desperate, but at least they're not spending 3 million tax payer dollars sending us garbage in the mail again.

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    1. The guide to the defense of the Charter affirming the values of State secularism and religious neutrality and the equality between women and men, and providing a framework for accommodation requests says:

      Enfin, de nombreux Québécois originaires de pays musulmans appuient le projet de charte...

      Why does it not just say as below? I am pretty sure it would be more impressive that way, particularly if it could provide actual names. I do not understand.

      Enfin, de nombreux Québécois musulmans appuient le projet de charte...

      Merry Christmas everybody. Have yourselves free and safe holidays.

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    2. I guess this is the prelude to their upcoming version of Mein Kampf.

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  11. FROM ED
    MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY.
    It's a gloriusly bright sunny Christmas morning. May the joy that Jesus brought to Earth live on in your hearts
    forever. That special Christian and Jewish thinking that was in the hearts of the men who founded and built our beautiful nation.
    Ed

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    1. Here in Mississauga it's snowing, the first white Christmas in the Toronto area in years, so for those who observe the day, the feeling is right. Merry Christmas to our Christian readers.

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