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| Geoff Molson skates effortlessly around language issue. |
For those who don't follow hockey in general or the Habs in particular Geoff Molson fired the General-manager of the team Marc Bergevin, a long-overdue sacking made urgent by the Montreal Canadiens disastrous on-ice results this season.
Quite simply, Molson hired an anglo Jeff Gorton, a unilingual American, to replace Bergervin but re-defined his title as senior vice president, while committing to hiring a new French-speaking general manager. The two will work together but in reality, the new general manager will be a de facto assistant general manager with a general manager title.
A clever workaround.
The new 'general manager' who will work under Gorton will be the face of the team, dealing with the media while the real boss will be quietly squirrelled away in his ivory tower, making all the real decisions.
It's a solution that is painfully transparent and I was interested if the French hockey media would go along with the charade.
After watching Molson's press conference where he breathlessly confessed that the job of leading the team is more than a one-man job in Montreal and where the necessity of working in two languages made the hiring a duo necessary, I wondered if the charade would pass muster.
It certainly did.
The commentators attending the news conference played along because that's what hockey journalists do. Not one dared ask Molson the obvious question about his hiring of the unilingual Gorton and nobody asked why Gorton did not attend the news conference.I predict Mr. Gorton will be extremely camera-shy, understandable in the circumstances.
Bravo! Well-done.
Mr. Molson serves us with a useful lesson in that as long as the language issue is somehow addressed, even though fakery, the public and media will go along with any charade.
But alas not everyone will accept the misdirection and already language fanatics are crying murder most foul.
It didn't take long for the anglophobes to come out of the woodwork as the insufferable Rejean Tremblay in Journal de Montreal
"Gorton, an American, doesn't speak a word of French, but is now the vice-president of hockey, which is in fact, the real general manager of the Canadiens.
He's another Michael Rousseau, the president of Air Canada who doesn't speak a word of French.
What a sinister insult! And what cowardice.So They're going to hire a 'frog' lap-dog to talk to the public and also to make the job easy.
But we all understood that Gorton will have the final say when the discussions get tough"
The question is who would want such a job, a marionette required to repeat in French what is already decided in English??
Answer: Lots of people.
As fpr Air Canada, they need to hire a new French-speaking CEO while simultaneously promoting unlingual Michael Rousseau to the newly-created position of SUPER-CEO.
In Quebec, that'll work....
Quebec is turning into the Belgium on North America.
ReplyDeleteI always wondered if a businesses just opened up in the Quebec Ontario border areas in places like Glengarry and had their employees either commute from Montreal and/or do Telework. I wonder how Bill 101 even apply.
ReplyDeleteJ.P.: I have a hypothesis. I was working at a company decades ago where I conducted audits all over Canada, including Quebec. My French was proficient for the job, and the H.O. was situated in Rexdale, ON. When we did Quebec audits, instead of submitting our reports to the Region Managers situated in Quebec, we circumvented the Great Fascist Language Law by submitting the reports to the V.P. of Business Operations, i.e., the boss of the Region Managers, but only in Quebec. We'd cc the reports written in «la langue étrangère»* to the Quebec RMs because we did not address them directly. For the real Canada, we addressed the RMs directly and cc'd the V.P. Easy peasy!
Delete*It was ex-péquiste and Minister of Education, Diane DeCorcy who referred to English as a foreign language". Another yutz.
"if a businesses just opened up in the Quebec Ontario border areas in places like Glengarry and had their employees either commute from Montreal and/or do Telework. I wonder how Bill 101 even apply."
DeleteThat wouldn't violate the letter of 101 but it would probably violate its "spirit". If the business in question was small enough, they'd probably leave it alone, but if a larger company/corporation did this, the province would probably unleash the hordes of Quebecor presstitutes.
The standard operating procedure is that if the letter of the law does not apply and the government cannot act directly, they may deploy forces affiliated with the government to combat the violation of the spirit of the law - by putting out articles in the press, stories in television news, picketing where rent-a-mobs are bussed to the company's doorstep, petty harassment of owners, managers, employees, or even clients, etc...Again, it would probably depend on how large and prominent the business is.
Yo, adski: Circumventing the law, especially a vitriolically racist law, is part of life. Always has been, always will be.
DeleteA lying, bigoted and zealous French language press in Quebec is part of life. Always has been, always will be. If people like the product or service well enough, they'll buy it.
I was surprised at the reach of the Quebec govt in the rest of Canada. A family member from Montreal wanted to open a bank account at a foreign banks' branch in Toronto.
DeleteThe family member was not able to open the account on his own and had to open a joint bank account with someone residing outside of Quebec.
The bank manager explained, that as the foreign bank did not provide French services and despite being outside Quebec. There was a law preventing Quebecers from opening bank accounts in such banks in the rest of Canada.
J.P.: That story is B.S.! Not the family member, but the bank manager's response. Bank services in ALL of Canada must be offered bilingually. Banks are under federal charter and regulation hence the necessity to offer services in English AND French. I know. I worked 19 years for one of our major chartered banks, speaking both languages to clients and staff. Yes, I was living in the GTA at the time.
DeleteHi Mr Sauga,
DeleteIt possibly is BS. The Bank branch is a Canadian branch of a foreign bank. Much of the back end transactions and/or higher end administrational functions are actually done by one of the big 5 Canadian banks. The only bilingual service that my relative could see, was on their ATM machine menu.
Philip, you wrote: "Mr. Molson serves us with a useful lesson in that as long as the language issue is somehow addressed, even though fakery, the public and media will go along with any charade."
ReplyDeleteRight you are, Mr. Berlach, and it just goes to prove how shallow Quebec really is; on the other hand, I believe it was ex-Hab Steve Shutt who once said "They love their Canadiens in Montreal, win or tie." Goes to show winning really does come first, but unlike back in the 50s-70s era where losing was not acceptable, the newer generations are finally learning what the Habs are about.
We all know where Réjean Tremblay can get off already. You're right, he is insufferable, much like Major Frank Burns on M*A*S*H! At least Larry Linville was acting whereas that yutz is the real thing, but we all know Quebec is full of those (who are full of IT!)