No Dogs or Anglophones

Sunday Housekeeping- Trolls

2012-01-29T00:00:00.000-05:00

As regular readers might have noticed, I've unfortunately had to crack down on one-line insults that bring nothing to this blog

It serves no purpose to go through 200 comments where 50-75 are pure trash, with no redeeming value. I'd rather have 10-15 well thought out contributions, than 200 idiotic and insulting posts.

By the way, I have the ability to delete comments without leaving a trace, but as of now will continue to show readers where and which comments are blocked.

I do not moderate comments on an hourly basis so it's possible something obnoxious is up for a while, try not to respond, I'll take it down ASAP.
If you see something that should be taken down, let me know, but do not quote the offensive material, just provide the date and time. There's no use propagating trash by repeating it.

As for Trolls, I will not take down your comment just because they are meant to incite, as long as they don't violate decency standards. Please try to be witty, if you are trying to provoke.

What is offensive?
You're all literate and can pretty much can guess what will be taken down or not.

English or French, federalist or sovereigntist, the rules are the same and everyone will be treated respectfully and equally, but please don't test my patience with trash talk.

I repeat that I will not suppress contradictory views to mine or those of most readers, healthy discourse is an integral part of this community, but to those tho just want to disrupt our conversations with banal insults, please go away.

Here is something important;
You can always delete your own comment by clicking on delete. Obviously, you can't delete other people's comments.

If you change your mind about what you've written either because you were tired, drunk or made some embarrassing typos, here what you should do;
Delete the original post and write a new one.
In your new post use the word REWRITE on a separate line, at the beginning or the end of the post and I'll completely remove any trace of the original.

Finally, you might notice that the time stamp on your comment is three hours early and unfortunately, I can't do anything about it as it is a BLOGGER problem that they are supposedly working on (although I cannot fathom how they haven't corrected this so far.)

Thank yo for your support and your contributions.

This January has been our busiest month ever with almost 50,000 page views and 12,000 different visitors.

Most of the success of NDOA lies in reader contributions and I pledge to police the comment section more assiduously, making for a better read and a better debate.

Best regards....

French versus English Volume 45

2012-01-27T00:00:00.000-05:00

Political science prize judge quits over French flap

"Judging from the 18-year record of a prestigious prize for Canadian writing on political theory, French-Canadians are not the finest political theorists.

Since its creation in 1994, the C.B. Macpherson Prize awarded by the Canadian Political Science Association (CPSA) has always gone to a work in English, even though it celebrates “the best book published in English or in French.”

But a judge for the 2012 prize has resigned this week, alleging the award is so stacked against francophone writers that most do not bother submitting their work any more." Read the rest of the story

NDP leadership candidates vow support for Quebec rights
"Seven of the eight NDP federal leadership candidates came to Montreal Sunday to express their unqualified support for the party’s declaration of French rights.

Among other things, the Sherbrooke Declaration on Quebec recognizes French as the “language of work” and the “common public language.” It also supports Quebec’s right to secede from Canada on a simple majority referendum vote.

...The only candidate to trigger a “bravo” from the audience was Cullen. The MP for Skeena-Bulkley Valley in B.C. apologized for the NDP’s support of the nomination of justice Michael J. Moldaver to the Supreme Court of Canada. Moldaver does not speak French. Read the rest of the story

(Editorial comment- Nathan Cullen MP for Skeena Pukey Valley- There's 'obsequious' and then there's, "Thank you for shitting in my hat."
You are now on my official list of politicians I hate..)

Newt Gingrich's French connection

"In a press conference today, Newt Gingrich admitted that he spoke French "once upon a time," and joked to a French reporter who asked him whether he spoke the language "Do you know John Kerry?" Barely a week ago, Gingrich released this ad which compared Romney to the 2004 Democratic nominee — in part because of his fluency in French." Watch the attack ad

Ex-Hab slams Montreal-"It's a big mess"

"In an interview, former Hab Jaroslav Spacek sounds off on Montreal, the Habs and the language debate. Have a listen.

Yikes!
Quebecer up for Academy Award
Quebec's own Philippe Falardeau's 'Monsieur Lazhar' has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best foreign film. I haven't seen the film but from all accounts it's a poignant story about an Algerian immigrant, who is hired to replace an elementary school teacher who committed suicide. While the class goes through a long healing process, nobody in the school is aware of Bachir's painful former life. Montreal Gazette Alternate Link
I did see one of his other movies La Moitié gauche du frigo (The left-hand side of the fridge,) which I actually liked a lot, a story about the trials of an unemployed fellow who shares an apartment with a room-mate. By the way, if you're wondering about the title, it has to do with sharing the apartment refrigerator.

The interesting thing is that Mr. Falardeau, a thirty-something Francophone from Montreal has outstanding English. In a television report from the Sundance festival, he related how busy his life has been promoting the film, from lecturing audiences and giving interview after interview to the American media. When he goes to the Academy Awards, his mastery of English will no doubt help raise his profile and propel his career.
To all the idiots who remind Quebecers that they don't really need English to succeed, meet another successful example of why it's just not true.

Important Conservative fed up with Harper's Quebec snub

“Peter White is about as conservative (and Conservative) as they come. He worked at Brian Mulroney’s side throughout the former prime minister’s nine-year tenure. In 2001, he turned his frustration with Jean Chrétien’s seemingly perpetual hold on power into a book, Gritlock, perhaps best described as a blueprint of how to neuter the then-powerful Liberal brand. In his free time, the former Hollinger Inc. executive has relentlessly pushed the Conservative brand in his native Quebec, both as a riding president and party organizer. And he’s sick of trying.

In a scathing open letter addressed to Canadians in general and the Conservative party in particular, White roundly criticizes the Conservative Party of Canada for ignoring Francophones in general and Quebec in particular. “Today the voice of Quebec is virtually absent in Ottawa’s halls of power, or if present, it is a voice grown mighty small, and mighty easy to ignore,” White writes in the letter dated Jan. 12. “Since the election of May 2, 2011, many Quebec observers have concluded that Mr. Harper has consciously decided to ignore Quebec, now that he has convincingly demonstrated that he can win a majority without it.” Read the rest of the story in Maclean's & see the letter

Patrick Roy advises Canadiens to tank season
I wonder if Patrick Roy scuttled any chance of becoming head coach of the Montreal Canadiens by going public with his idea of tanking this lost season and aiming to finish as low as possible in order to secure a premier draft choice.
It is a concept that everybody thinks about, but nobody in a position of responsibility would ever dare say it out loud.
After all, losing a game on purpose is about the biggest crime one can commit in sports. Any coach or general manager who admits to doing so would certainly face a long suspension by the league if not an outright ban.
Is Patrick really that stupid? Link{Fr}

Conservatives rise in Quebec poll
These last months we've heard nothing but pissing and moaning from Quebec politicians and the entire French media over the fact that Stephen Harper is ignoring Quebec and shortchanging the province in every department.
You'd figure that the Conservatives polling numbers would take a dive, even from the horrific 16% level that they garnered in the last federal election.

But take a look at the latest numbers, which I pulled off of Mario Dumont's news magazine show, last night.

WOW!
The Conservatives have increased their popularity by over 50% since last May!!!
My only explanation..........TOUGH LOVE!

Hydro-Quebec backs down on English
Last week I told you about an international scientific conference that Hydro-Quebec was hosting in Montreal that was to be held in English (as are all these scientific conferences.) After intense pressure from the usual suspects, the utility has now agreed to pay for simultaneous translation, which absolutely nobody will use. Original story{Fr}

In a letter to Le Devoir Professor Robert Emery Prud'homme, a chemistry professor at the University of Montreal, sets the record straight about science and French .

"Without making a thorough investigation, I can say at least 95% - and probably 99% - of scientific articles published by Quebec researchers working in francophone institutions in chemistry, physics and engineering, are in English. It's the same in France and Belgium.

...the question of the use of English in science and in scientific conferences, even in Quebec, has been settled for several years, scientists have de facto chosen English.".

If you read French, this article about the subject of French and English in science, is extremely interesting Link{Fr}

PQ updating independence plans
The Parti Quebecois has announced that it is updating 148 studies concerning the subject of sovereignty and independence. I'm not kidding.

Here's a hilarious quote from the article in La Presse. Link{Fr}

"When the PQ was in power in 2001, the government gave a mandate to Claude Corbo, at that time professor at the University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM), to review these studies, sort and update them as needed.

"For Pauline Marois, the PQ leader, the purpose of the new "Committee to Study Sovereignty" is to support arguments in favor of sovereignty.

However, if we rely on the previous studies by Corbo, there is no indication that the data collected along the way will go in that direction at all.

This is why the party reserves the right to publish or not to publish the results of the work." Yikes!

At any rate, it's like thinking about what you'd do if you won the Lotto...
It's fun to daydream.... a yacht?.....a mansion?... sovereignty?

Leading up to next MONDAY'S POST entitled-'The Ignominious End of Gilles Duceppe,' here's a quick primer of the Gilles Duceppe scandal and it's possible outcome, meant for the reading impaired and those with a distinctly low attention span.

Further reading;

French versus English Volume 44

Downfall of the PQ Painful to Watch

2012-01-25T00:00:00.000-05:00

Even for federalists, watching the PQ go through its agonizing death throes is a bit much to take. Like a cancer patient ravaged with the disease, but who fights the inevitable conclusion tooth and nail, even those who care, must ask would it not be better if the patient was put out of its misery sooner than later.

Ever since last May's federal election that drove the Bloc out of Ottawa, die-hard sovereigntists held onto the belief that the meltdown was a hiccup, an obstacle like so many others, with the project of Quebec independence remaining intact and inviolate.

Alas for them, circumstances dictate an alternate reality, one where Quebecers have given up on their forty year flirtation with sovereignty, where even those still willing to support the independence option admit that the project is no longer doable.

And so quite simply, the CAQ of Francois Legault is rising to replace the PQ as the natural alternative to the Quebec Liberal Party. It's a party that preaches nationalism without any threat of an actual referendum, something that is striking a chord with many Quebecers who wish to maintain a strong nationalistic front against Ottawa without any of the painful drama promised by hard-liner sovereigntists.

And so, many separatists, including defecting members of the PQ caucus, are moving over to the CAQ, something that Premier Charest is trying to exploit as an issue, calling the CAQ a separatist party in sheep's clothing.

The truth is rather the opposite, those separatists moving over to the CAQ are going to the safest place where they can go to give up their sovereigntist dream without sacrificing their pride.
In order to assuage the guilty consciences of these fallen sovereigntists, Mr. Legault has said that in the future, perhaps ten years, they might review the independence option, a convenient lie meant to make the painful transition more palatable.

What remains are the hard-liners in the PQ and their supporters who live in a fantasy world where they believe, that they can turn things around by pushing the sovereignty and referendum option even harder.
Its like a store raising its prices, in reaction to a market survey that indicates that consumers have rejected the company's products because they are already too expensive. Talk about disconnect...

The reality is that the PQ is out of leaders and out of options.

As the end approaches, we are treated to a frightening view of the real personality of the members of the Parti Quebecois, the selfish, cruel and incompetent fools who are clawing and fighting each other like pigs in a trough.

The opening salvo in the PQ war of independence was fired by the betrayers, the old guard who quit the party to sit as independents because the party leader couldn't produce a successful independence strategy, where quite frankly, none exists.

Led by the ugly duo of Louise Beaudoin and Louise Lapointe (Jacques Parizeau's wife) and supported by the very simple Pierre Curzi, the betrayal triggered an undisciplined food fight, with Marois served up as the main course.

Then, more betrayers and more defectors, tearful interviews and hand-wringing, the birth of the CAQ, all leading to the inevitable conclusion that the Parti Quebecois is circling the drain.

But reality is hard to accept.
Everybody within and everyone outside the party have suggestions as to how to right the sinking ship, the pages of vigile.net chock full of ideas that smack of flightful fantasy or desperation extraordinaire.

The final straw for the party is the now failed Duceppe gambit.

This desperate belief that if only Gilles Duceppe would take over from Marois, perhaps all could be saved, with party faithfuls telling each other that we federalsits would be quaking in our boots at the threat of so formidable an opponent.

This is of course, that very same Gilles Duceppe who just eight months ago led the separatists to their greatest electoral debacle ever. What galling fantasy to believe we'd be afraid.

And so in the fine tradition of the PQ, the knives were unsheathed by Marois supporters and Duceppe was gutted like a fish by a monger. Et tu, Pauline?

At least this time it was the hardliners feeling the hard edge of the blade.

The political tragicomedy continues to run unchecked with today's chapter, a blueprint published in the form of an open letter by the insufferable, Bernard Landry, the ex leader of the PQ.
Here he provides us with his valuable insight, a road map to lead Quebec out of the desert and on towards the promised land.
The solution- a quick referendum. Arghh...

The overwhelming reacting of Quebecers to his open letter? -Indifference....

While hardline PQers and their diminishing band of supporters piss and moan in public, their audience is gone.
The PQ isn't destroyed over infighting as we are led to believe.
The PQ is destroyed because sovereignty is no longer relevant.

It's over...

Ladies and gentlemen of the sovereignty movement, turn out the lights on your way out and please, don't let the door hit you in the ass as you leave.

Pauline Marois Destroys Gilles Duceppe

2012-01-23T00:00:00.000-05:00

My least favorite politician in Canada is the thoroughly dislikeable Gilles Duceppe, a weasel of a politician and a poster boy representing everything we Anglos hate about separatists who look to cynically fleece Canada, while plotting its destruction.

Whoever invented the word "smarmy,' must have been thinking of Gilles Duceppe, it describes his character perfectly;
(smarmy- sleazy, self-centered and insincere. One who has his own agenda which conflicts with the interests of others. Very fake and/or two-faced.)

One of the worst things I hate about Mr Duceppe is his manifest glee in fleecing Canadians for his own personal and political benefit, seeing no contradiction in collecting a $140,000, while working to destroy the country that pays it.

Would he have become leader of the PQ and get elected to the National Assembly, I've no doubt that he would have continued collecting his pension, with no compunction or embarrassment over the double dipping, as long as it is the federal government was paying for it.

As of late Mr. Duceppe has embarked upon a behind the scene campaign to destabilize the leadership of Pauline Marois, all the while smiling before the cameras and professing his love and support for the separatist leader.

A few months ago, Duceppe was very public in his support of Pauline, but recent events, especially the continued defections from the PQ ranks, has moved him to go after the Marois' job, once and for all.

Mr. Duceppe is not one to do the dirty work himself and so has delegated responsibility to his minions (Pierre-Paul Roy, Bob Dufour and François Leblanc) to organize and carry out a back room putsch against Madame Marois.
It's the nature of the rat that he is, to let others do for him, what he is not prepared to do openly.

Madame Marois called on him to take responsibility for his actions and demanded point blank that he declare his intentions and whether he would respect his word given months ago, not to destabilize her leadership.
In response Mr. Duceppe made a wishy-washy statement when interviewed on the radio.;
"I trust that the PQ leader and members will make the right decisions .."

For Marois it was the last straw.

"NO I DIDN'T" "YES YOU DID!!"

And so, on Friday, La Presse published an extremely damaging ethics story about Duceppe, which is being widely quoted by newspapers across the country.

But here's an important fact that nobody has yet to report.

An ultra reliable source has told me that it was the Marois camp that leaked the information to La Presse, in an effort to harm Duceppe and check his advance on her leadership.
It makes sense if you think about it, especially the timing.
It seems that the information had been held in reserve by Marois just in case Duceppe went back on his word (which he did) and so she decided that she had no other option but to unload on him with any or all pretenses of separatist solidarity tossed aside.

It's a story that really came as no surprise to me, a further account of Duceppe's dishonest and cavalier abuse of public money for personal and political benefit. Read the original article in French
Read the National Post recapitulation

"The former leader of the Bloc Quebecois, Gilles Duceppe paid the salary of the Chief of his party, Gilbert Gardner, for seven years from the budget provided by the House of Commons for the operation of his office in Ottawa, La Presse has learned.

This practice violates the rules of the House of Commons since the funds provided elected officials must be used to finance the activities of Parliament and not partisan activities. The other parties have confirmed to the press that their CEO is paid by the respective funds of the party, not money received from the House of Commons.

Mr. Gardner, who worked at the headquarters of the Bloc in Montreal and occupied himself with the management and organization of the party, was hired in 2004 by Mr. Duceppe. He pocketed a salary that exceeded $ 100, 000 in the last years of his term......
La Presse has also learned that Marie-France Charbonneau, the significant other of his chief of staff, François LeBlanc, was paid by the Bloc leader's office as a consultant while she was pursuing a master's degree. She was also paid during the time she was writing a book on the 20th anniversary of the Bloc Quebecois with Professor Guy Lachapelle, Concordia University.
Although Marie-France Charbonneau was officially a councilor to Gilles Duceppe, she rarely set her feet down in the House of Commons. "We did not know what she was doing apart from writing this book," said the Bloc Quebecois. Ms. Charbonneau received an annual salary of more than $ 90,000, according to our information

The article elicited comments from Maxime Bernier of the Conservatives and Marc Garneau of the Liberals who both blasted the former Bloc leader as a hypocrite for wrongfully spending Parliamentary money on partisan politics, while complaining about the ethics of others.

When Duceppe lost his seat, all the aforementioned 'employees' lost their jobs as well, but all were eligible for six months severance pay, courtesy of Canadian taxpayers.
All three were immediately rehired by the Bloc Quebcois office in Montreal at essentially the same salaries, something that caused a certain uneasiness among Bloc members.

When Daniel Paillé, the new Bloc leader assumed his position in December, the first order of business was to fire them all, so clearly there were forces in the Bloc that were unhappy with Duceppe's arrangements.
Someone within the Bloc, an enemy of Duceppe, leaked the story about the wrongful use of Parliamentary funds, to Marois.

As to the issue of paying those salaries with taxpayer money, Mr. Duceppe doesn't deny the facts, but dismisses the complaint about the spending as a partisan political attack, nothing else.

It remains to be seen what will happen.
Those who wanted to see Mr. Duceppe succeed Pauline Marois as leader of the PQ worked overtime to spin the story as nothing but politics, rather than ethics.

Le Devoir, a nationalist newspaper, reported on the La Presse story rather dryly, but what is more interesting are the comments under the story where about eight out of ten readers supported Mr. Duceppe and proposed that the so-called scandal was a hatchet job cooked up by federalists. See the comments here.
But one reader remained unconvinced of Duceppe's innocence.

"Typical PQ reaction...
When a newspaper exposes a scandal against the Quebec Liberal Party, they applaud wildly.
When the same newspaper denounces the mismanagement of the PQ or Bloc, they talk about propaganda, revenge, political operation, etc ...
And they believe themselves to be credible?"

So readers, I'm not so sure those defending Duceppe will be entirely successful.
The fact that he paid his chief of staff's girlfriend out of taxpayer money will be not be easily forgiven by the public.

Voters may be simple and not understand the intricacies over whether Duceppe did something wrong in using House of Commons money to pay the salaries of those involved in partisan politics, but providing someone a 'No-show job' is something even the uninitiated understand to be graft.

Look for the lovely Marie-France Charbonneau to come under a fierce attack by journalists sensing a juicy scandal.
I look forward to hear her denials. I'm not sure that the Bloc, which has already cleaned house of all these Duceppe cronies is ready to defend her.
Who knows, she could be thrown under the bus. It could be interesting.

It also remains to be seen what the legal opinion ordered by Joe Comartin (Ndp), chair of the Parliamentary committee responsible for overseeing these expenditures, will reveal.
In a worst case scenario the Bloc would have to refund up to a million dollars to the government.
It's also been reported that other Bloc members are also being investigated for similar abuses.

Daniel Paillé, the current leader of the Bloc, refused comment, distancing himself from the story by saying that the affair predated his leadership.

We could be in for a scandal on a par with the Sponsorship affair that destroyed the Liberals.

And so the battle between Marois and Duceppe has exploded into open warfare, a drag'em out brawl that ended with a devastating second round knockout counterpunch by Marois.

Yesterday Duceppe admitted defeat and announced that he was withdrawing from politics.

Well played Madame Marois. Game....Set......Match...

For federalists, it's also Christmas in January!

Keep on truckin', Pauline, the longer you remain at the helm, the happier we federalists remain!

Stay tuned....

***************UPDATE***************

In a television report, late last night, Jean Lapierre (an Liberal ex-politician and star pundit) reported that every MP is furnished with a manual explaining the rules and that if they misspent money, they, not the party are personally responsible for reimbursement.
He also intimated that Duceppe is clearly guilty of violating the rules, which according to him, are pretty clear.

SWEET!

French versus English Volume 44

2012-01-20T00:00:00.000-05:00

Official bilingualism costs $2.4 Billion a year: study
"The 10 provinces spend a total of $900-million annually on minority language services, with the bulk going toward French-language education outside Quebec and English-language education inside Quebec. Ontario spends the most, doling out $623-million — or $1,275 for each minority member. While Quebec ranks third in overall spending at $51-million annually, it spends the least per minority member — mostly anglophones — at just $85 a head."
By the way, the study was written by a University of Montreal professor, François Vaillancourt. Link
Not surprising, French language militants have remained rather mute in reaction to the story.
Don Macpherson does a nice job destroying the hackneyed myth, repeated ad nauseum by French language militants, that Anglophones are the most pampered minority in the world.

Anglos in Quebec the ‘best-treated minority’? Think again"
Whenever we English-speaking Quebecers are so ungrateful as to complain about the anti-English policies of our provincial government, we’re told to shut up, because we’re “the best-treated minority in the world.”
Never mind that we’re being “treated” with our own money, since we shoulder our share of Quebec’s tax burden, among the heaviest in North America.
But by one important standard, a study published this week by the Fraser Institute suggests we’re not even treated the best among Canada’s official-language minorities.
In fact, in terms of money spent by the provincial governments to provide additional public services in the minority languages – French in the other provinces and English here – we’re by far the worst-treated." Read the rest of the story in the Gazette Alternate Link

Language Fail
You'd think newspapers would pride themselves on correct spelling, translation, syntax and otherwise all things grammatical.
After all, they're not lowly bloggers! n'est-ce pas??

But it cuts both ways, here an editorial cartoon in La Presse is trying to make the point that the Montreal Canadiens are going ENGLISH by displaying a workman in a cherry-picker changing the name of the arena from the 'Centre Bell'' to the 'Bell Center.'
The joke falls flat when one realizes that when describing an arena in Canada, the word Centre is actually spelled the same way in both French and English, as in Toronto's Air Canada Centre, or the MTS Centre in Winnipeg.

Disastrous Unemployment spike bothers nobody
You'd think Quebec newspapers would be running front page banner headlines in relation to the catastrophic rise in the unemployment rate as Quebec has lost tens of thousand of jobs over the last six months.
But of course, Randy Cunneyworth's lack of French and a couple of unilingual bosses in high places is much, more important.

Check out this graph, which underscores the horrific result wherein the Quebec unemployment rate rose by a whopping 2%, while in the RoC the rate actually dropped marginally.
I guess the party is over, where Quebec was actually ahead of the country during the big bad days of the recession and has returned to its traditional position as chief basket case among Canada's big four provinces.
In a year of cross-Canada recovery, Quebec managed to lose over 51,000 jobs.
On Thursday Louis Harel finally woke up and complained about Air Canada shipping off 140 jobs to Toronto from Montreal. The story broke months ago and I wrote about it then, so I'm not sure why she's complaining now.
With labor trouble at Rio Tinto and White Birch, plus research jobs disappearing, the ongoing disaster continues unabated.
The solution..... more money for the OQLF to harass businesses!

Anglos contribute to decline in English school enrollment

"It's parents like Stefan Gauthier who have been contributing to the diminishing enrollment in the English Montreal School Board.

Gauthier, an Anglophone, is legally allowed under Quebec's language law to send his daughter Emma to an English language public school but opted instead for French.

"For us it just seemed more natural to put the kids in French, at least to start, given that it's a bit of a tougher language," said Gauthier." Read the rest of the story

Boston Bruin fan mocks Montreal over language controversy. from..25stanley.com

Huntington mayor remains defiant
"Even under the microscope of the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF), the Town of Huntington flatly refused to subject the municipal government to Bill 101, adopted in 1977 by the provincial government.
"We learned [Wednesday] that the OQLF launched an investigation following a complaint regarding the application of the Charter of the French language in our municipal affairs," said the mayor of Huntingdon, Stéphane Gendron, in a press release.
"I have already informed the francization officer of the OQLF by telephone, that Bill 101 - regarding municipal governance - had and would not apply in the territory of the City of Huntingdon, said the mayor. It is useless to squander public funds to enforce a law that does not work for our administration. End of story. " Link{Fr}

He's quite a character, this Stéphane Gendron, remember, he's the guy who announced on his television show that Israel had no right to exist..

Ottawa cans language school teachers

"The federal government is getting out of the business of providing language training to its employees, throwing 190 teachers and instructors across Canada out of work.

The move - which started with downsizing in the 1990s, and intensified after a 2006 Treasury Board decision - marks the first time in decades that the government won't be directly offering French and English training to public servants to meet the language requirements of their jobs." Link

I SWEAR I'M NOT MAKING THIS UP!...
Interpreter, ~~please~~ s.v.p

The letter writer was upset about what he considered an intolerable situation in certain of Montreal's French schools which have a large body of immigrant students whose parents don't speak French, but some English.

He gave the example of the Filipino community whose members generally speak pretty good English along with their native Tagalog.

It seems that when these non-French speaking parents come in for the proverbial parent/teacher conferences, those teachers who are bilingual, (the majority) conduct the meeting with the parent in English.

This according to the letter writer is an outrage. No teacher in a French school should ever carry on a meeting in English.

His solution- an interpreter.

The school board should provide an interpreter who would translate the parents English into French for the teacher and translate into English the teacher's French responses.

This even if the teacher speaks fluent English. arggh!!!.... Link{Fr}

Students too dumb to learn English
When anyone starts a conversation with the proverbial "I'm not against this, but...." you can be darn sure that the opposite is true.
Forty Quebec City area teachers signed a letter to the Minister of Education, that started with that old bromide, "We're not against teaching English, but.." and then went on to explain why they think it's a bad idea to force grade six students into taking a semester completely in English.
For the teachers, the main problem is that three-quarters of the students are too dumb to handle it, as well as their parents who would be incapable of dealing the supervision of 'English' homework..... At least they're honest! Link

Every picture tells a story

Here is a wide shot of the anti-Cunneyworth demonstration at the Bell Centre, which ironically, I found it on a separatist website.
What's interesting, is that its possible to get a sense of how big the demonstration actually was, which was a lot smaller than reports would have us believe.
The picture confirms what I reported, that participants ranged between 90-150 people and in no way came close to the 500 people reported by some media outlets.

By the way, a shout-out to J.T Utah of 25Stanley.com for scooping everyone on a regular basis in relation to news about the Montreal Canadiens and the NHL in general.
The website was the first to accurately report the amount of demonstrators at the above demonstration at 100, scooping everyone in the mainstream media!
The site was the only place that called out Cammalleri for his selfishness BEFORE he was traded.
Sports reporters are too gutless to report the truth about unrest on the teams they cover because they are in fact glorified jock-sniffers who's first order of business is to protect their job and retain access to the players and the dressing room.
Check out 25Stanley.com.

Mitt Romney mocked for speaking French
"Zut alors! Il parle francais! -Mitt Romney is being skewered in a new Gingrich attack ad for speaking French.According to the TV spot dubbed “The French Connection,” his bilingual ability puts him on par with the liberal flip-flopper who happens to share his home state: John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic candidate." Link

Short Stuff

Terry DiMonte is coming home
Four years in Calgary gave returning CHOM-FM morning man a new perspective on Montreal.

Montreal Gazette Alternate Link

Not enough students in French cegep
The west island of Montreal's only French language cegep is in danger of closing because of a lack of students. The 1,100 student Gérald-Godin college is located in the predominantly English section of town. Link

Westmount honored by Parks Canada
"The federal government has named the city of Westmount, Que. one of Canada's "iconic neighborhoods" for its architecture.
The tiny enclave west of downtown Montreal is one of four places Parks Canada has added to the list of historically significant sites in Canada." Link

Hydro-Quebec to host English-only conference in Montreal
Hydro-Quebec is coming under fire from the usual suspects for hosting an international scientific conference in Montreal that will be conducted exclusively in English.

For Louise Marchand of the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF), keeping French in the research world is a challenge. Even in France, the prestigious INRS has decided to publish its research papers in English only.

For the president of Impératif français, Jean-Paul Perreault, it is 'incredible' that a Quebec state company would host an English-only conference.

"It's a shame to see that this prejudice- English science, English as a world language - is multiplied to the detriment of other national languages by organizations and individuals who should, with pride, say that on our territory, our language must prevail, " Link{Fr}

NDP's Mulcair will keep French citizenship

"NDP leadership hopeful Thomas Mulcair holds dual Canadian and French citizenship and vows to keep both even if he should one day become Canada's prime minister." Link

Your editor' humble opinion;
Mulcair is toast......The Ndp membership outside Quebec is already fearful of a party takeover by Quebec separatists and any illusions about Mulciar's loyalties, vis-a-vis Canada versus Quebec were shattered by the discovery that he's also a closet French citizen.

So Uncle Tom, ...turn out the lights and don't let the door hit you on your way out!

This landed in my email from a reader. Enjoy, but you need French....

Finally.....some semi-original artwork.

Anglophones with Red Hats

2012-01-18T00:00:00.000-05:00

Watching the ongoing Quebec language debate over these last years, I remain sorely disappointed how easily the issue has been manipulated by French language militants into a public discussion based on a series of false premises that twist reality, resulting in public discussions over unreality.

One of the most blatantly false premises concocted by French language militants, is that of the calculation of Quebec English-speakers versus that of French-speakers.

Readers know my position on statistics and how they can be manipulated to more or less support any position one might want to promote or attack.

In this endeavor, French-language militants are expert in parsing, twisting or interpreting facts and statistics to suit their own purposes and it is our own fault and that of the Press that we give these conclusions any weight or credence.

In Fridays post one of our readers made the point that French students are clearly superior to English students because in a certain study among fifteen year-olds, French students scored higher than their English counterparts in reading by a score of 522 to 520, a statistical difference of about one-third of one percentage point.
Of course the alarming dropout rate in high school or the shameful performance in university graduation rates as compared to English speakers is of course conveniently omitted by the commenter, typical of the dishonest tactics regularly utilized by French language promoters, in the statistical war waged on the English.

But more importantly, there is another practice going on in the language debate that is more dangerous and insidious. That is the promulgation of a dishonest debate based on a false premise.

Consider two teams asked to debate whether the flat end of the Earth culminates in a cliff or a waterfall.
Participating in such a debate which starts off with such a decidedly false premise is absolutely pointless and so, the resulting 'winner' of said debate, is really of no consequence!

Believe it or not, we are engaged in that very same type of debate here in Quebec, over the issue of anglophones, Francophones, Ethnics and language.

Here French language militants have cleverly manipulated the basic premise of the debate between the relative weight of the French and English languages in Quebec by making a fundamental and dishonest leap.

I like to call that slight of hand 'Anglos with Red Hats.'
The simple issue of how many people use English rather than French in Quebec is manipulated and twisted by subjecting the rather simple question into a discussion about the number of Anglophones, versus Francophones, versus Ethnics with the resulting false premise adopted, that only 'pure-bred' Anglophones should be counted as English-speakers. It's nonsense.

By dividing English speakers by ethnicity, history or parentage and only counting a portion thereof, French language militants have been able to reduce the number of Quebec English-speakers from the very accurate count of 13.1% made by Statistics Canada, to that of 8%, or 5% or even 3% as I heard make mention.

Every time I hear the phrase "Historical Anglophones" or some other nonsensical qualifier used by militants, I think of 'Anglos with Red Hats,' a device whereby the numbers are reduced by dividing English speakers in sub-groups and then using just one of the sub-groups as a debating point.

Now as I mentioned in an earlier piece, I have a friend whose mother immigrated from Italy over forty years ago and believe it or not, doesn't speak a word of English or French.
She is as you would probably agree, quite an anomaly, not representative at all of the immigrant experience, but it is this type of 'ethnic' that Quebec language militants would have us believe is the norm, rather than the exception, and so can be counted as neither French-speaking or English-speaking, thus removed from the debate. Very convenient...

The reality is that almost every immigrant, their children and their descendants adopt either English or French as the language they use in public, regardless of what they speak around the dinner table.
Even there, the adopted language, either English or French soon becomes the lingua franca of the family and in fact, the children and grand children of immigrants usually lose the 'old' language as assimilation into the host society runs its course.

There are few Quebec Jews who speak the Yiddish that their grandparents came over with from Europe and that holds true among Italian, Greek and other immigrant families where the children and grand children lose fluency in the old tongue rather quickly.
It takes but one or two generations for the descendants of immigrants to become solidly entrenched in the English or French side of Quebec life, language included.

And so, regardless of mother tongue, ethnics adopt either English or French, take your pick.

It is this all important choice that Bill 101 tries to influence, so the government does acknowledge what French militants won't, that Ethnics will by choice become part of the French or English community.

So why all the different classifications?
Why do French-language militants insist on discussing Anglophones, Ethnics or Historical Anglophones versus Francophones, when in fact all we should be looking at is English-speakers versus French-speakers, period.

Obviously it is not convenient, especially with Ethnics, where the division of into English-speakers and French-speakers is asymmetrical and benefits the English side immensely.
More ethnics become English-speakers than French-speakers, so when debating the issue, its always more convenient for French language militants to return to the Anglophone versus Francophone debate while ignoring those pesky ethnics who assimilate to the English side in too high numbers.

Every time you hear or see a French-language militant use the terms Anglophones, Ethnics and Francophones in relation to language, remember that they are using a device to avoid talking about the real issue, English-speakers versus French-speakers.

Instead of comparing Apples to Oranges, they attempt to pull the wool over the shoulders of Quebecers by comparing 'Granny Smith Apples' to Oranges, (omitting the rest of the apples) a rather neat trick......

In Quebec's language debate, the amount of Anglophones, Ethnics or Francophones, is in fact, irrelevant.
All that counts is the number of English-speakers versus the number French-speakers, a fact that militants try hard to repress.

And so any discussion of history, ethnicity or mother tongue is just a case of counting"Anglos with red hats."

Fans Lose Faith in the Habs

2012-01-16T00:00:00.000-05:00

A lot of players have turned their backs on the Canadiens.

The latest sad turn of events surrounding the trading of Michael Cammallerie in the middle of a game was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back, with Canadiens fans collectively throwing in the towel on the season and giving up on the team they so dearly love.

When Cammallerie called the team a bunch of 'losers' or as they say in French, 'loosers,' it set the stage for another desperate move by management dealing him off to Calgary without even bothering to poll other general mangers for a possible better offer.
It was a sad confirmation that the noble Canadiens organization had gone off the rails.

When my son, as loyal and dedicated supporter as can be, gives up on the team, it tells me that the Habs have lost the respect of its most loyal fans, a group that would forgive practically anything (even an English coach,) but not losing like this and not a sad sack management team that acts like a bunch of bumbling clowns.

I have never in my life seen fans so down on the Habs as now. It's shocking.

Talk shows, newspapers and coffee cooler conversations are largely in agreement that the Habs are toast and that it's time to blow up the team and look for a lottery pick.

Over the ~~years~~ decades, hockey and the Canadiens have given me more pleasure and enjoyment than I can describe, so I don't want to pile on and be negative, there's plenty of that going around.

I choose today to relive my top Montreal Canadiens memories;

10. Earliest Memories
Going to the old Montreal Forum on Sunday afternoon to watch the Junior Canadiens play. 50¢ got you into the door and bought a standing room place behind the barrier on an aisle that separated the arena midway up the stands. I must have been 13 or 14 years old. It was a pretty good view. I watched the likes of future Habs stars like Yvan Cournoyer, Serge Savard, Jacques Laperrière, Guy Lapointe, Jacques Lemaire start their careers. The 1969 team was perhaps the greatest junior team ever assembled, with at least a dozen future NHLers.

09. My first slap shot.
They say that Bernie 'Boom Boom' Geoffrion was the inventor of the slap shot, but the first time I saw one live at a game, was in 1964 (I think) in a match between the Habs and the Chicago Black Hawks. Stepping over the blue line, the legendary Bobby Hull 'The Golden Jet' unloaded a cannon that whizzed by the seemingly stunned Lorne 'Gumper' Worsley.
By the way, how come players in those days all had great nicknames?

08. Best game watched on TV.
In a 1993 playoff game against the L.A Kings, the Canadiens were already down in the series 2-0 and about to lose again when coach Jacques Demers asks the referee to measure Marty McSorley's hockey stick for an illegal curve. On the ensuing powerplay Eric Desjardins scored to tie it up and then scored in overtime to turn the series around.
I remember this game like it was yesterday because I was forced to watch on a tiny twelve television in a motel room in Chicoutimi, all by lonesome.
By the way, is that the recently retired Kerry Fraser doing the measuring?

7. Best playoff run 1993
The recording-breaking ten overtime wins on the road to the Stanley cup was easily the best playoff run ever.

6. My Uncles first Hockey Game
My uncle had come over from the old country for a visit and hearing that I had season tickets asked to attend a hockey game. His closest experience to hockey was soccer, which he knew pretty well and so he had a pretty easy time understanding the game on the ice, even the offsides.
What he didn't understand was the hoopla at the end of the game and why the fans weren't leaving, considering that the Canadiens had lost the game.
You see, I explained him, they were about to award the Calgary Flames the Stanley Cup.....

5. Best comeback
The 2008 Rangers game where the Canadiens overcame a 5-0 lead. Watch highlights on YouTube

Ken Dryden's legendary pose

4. All time Favorites players
Most gentlemanly player - Jean Beliveau, plus he was my favorite captain.
Best fighting matchup - John Fergusan versus Toronto's Eddie Shack
Best nickname- Yvan Cournoyer -"The Roadrunner'
Most exciting player- Guy Lafleur
Favorite goalie- Gump Worsley (style wise- the Tim Thomas of his day)
Favorite tough guy- Chris 'Knuckles' Nilan- Worst enforcer- Georges Laraque.
Favorite coach- Scotty Bowman
Best play-by-play broadcast team- Danny Gallivan and Dick Irvin. Worst-Bob Cole plus anyone
Best French announcer- René Lecavalier
Best Brother team- Frank and Pete Mahovolich (I was too young to recall the 'Rocket' Richard, but I do remember his younger brother, Henri, the 'Pocket Rocket')
Favorite quirks -Serge Savard's 'Spinerama' move. J.C Tremblay's lobs from center ice that bounced three feet in front of the goalie, scaring the crap out of them and actually scoring a couple of times.

03 Biggest disappointment
The 1967 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Stanley Cup final. The Canadiens were a better team and favored (at least in Montreal.)

03. Best Hockey food
The everlasting Forum hotdog (even in the Bell Centre), perfectly cooked with a grilled bun, with a slap of mustard.
Cheap & simple perfection. Still love it.

02. Most drama
Patrick Roy telling general manger Ronald Cory that he'd played his last game in Montreal after being pulled by Mario Tremblay after a humiliating performance,

01.Greatest Habs memory
This is a no-brainer. It was the seventh game semi-final against the Bruins in the old Forum in 1979 overtime. Trailing by two goals in the third period, the Canadians mounted a comeback and when the Bruins took a too-many men penalty, Don Cherry jumped up on the bench and mocked the crowd, intimating that it is they that influenced the referee. That sequence is memorialized each week on Coach's Corner.
After Lafleur sent the game into overtime, late in the game with a blistering slapshot from just inside the blue line, Yvan Lambert scored the winner in overtime, eliminating the Bruins. It was the most dramatic game I ever witnessed.
I met Lambert twenty years later and kidded him that he had kicked the puck in the net. (I swear he did, I had a pretty good view) and he got furious at the accusation. I met him again last year in the old-timers VIP lounge in the Bell Centre when I was talking with Jean Perron and he interrupted our conversation to remind me once again that he didn't kick the puck in the net. Ha, I guess he's still sensitive about it!

Well I feel better just thinking about all those Habs memories and I bet you've got some fond memories of your own as well.
Let's hear it in the comment section, What is your GREATEST Habs memory!

At any rate, having the Habs perform so poorly this year really sucks.
Its a bit depressing in the frigid dog days of January, looking on at even less hospitable February, where all we sports fans want nothing more than to hunker down in front of the TV set in anticipation of another Habs win (0r at least a competitive game) with hockey players who we can be proud to cheer for.

Alas it is not to be....

Maybe next year......

By the way, if I'm wrong on some facts or figures, so be it. I wrote all this from memory, so gimme a break......

Sunday Housekeeping Again

2012-01-15T13:30:00.000-05:00

Dear Readers,

I want to take a moment to discuss the new threaded Comments Section, which when sprung upon me and you without warning by BLOGGER, seemed like a great addition.
Perhaps it is, but to be honest, I'm having a hard time getting used to it.

I've tried to help by installing a 'Recent comment list' in the right margin of the Blog and I hope it helps until we all get used to the new system, which I'm sure we will.

The first effect of the change is that we're likely to see more comments as readers reply individually to each comment instead of making batch replies.

So be it.
I am unable to change threaded comments, even if I wanted to, the option not afforded to EDITORS by the ubiquitous BLOGGER.

At any rate, I'm glad to report that this week our blog saw over 15,000 page views, a new record. I will always refer to NDOA as 'our' blog, because reader comments are as, or more important than my contribution.

Fridays post received over 160 comments and over 12,000 words in response.
I'm very pleased that I've provided a forum for discussions that are sorely lacking by the politically correct English media.

As for TROLLS.
Bless you all, you're part of the debate.
I won't restrict access, as I've said before. I will not become a censurer, unless you cross a line.
Please try to be droll or sarcastic in your denunciations. I do so enjoy a witty or sarcastic put down, even directed at myself!

I would also ask Trolls to adopt a screen name, it won't kill you or affect your anonymity. It will allow others reply directly.

As for comments that are suppressed, I'll repeat my policy;
Anything overtly racist or insulting, without any redeeming value will be axed.
Mindless quotes from public personalities- Karl Marx, Pierre Falardeau, Rene Levesque et als, meant to be 'in your face' insults, won't be tolerated.

Thank you all for your contributions!

French Versus English Volume 43

2012-01-13T00:00:00.000-05:00

Hilarious language video goes viral

Link to see video

On Wednesday I wrote that the demonstration in front of the Bell Centre by French language militants, protesting the hiring of a unilingual anglophone as coach of the Montreal Canadiens, would probably result in many free agents striking Montreal from the list of possibilities.
There is however another negative development, which I could not have predicted.
It's a hilarious video, a send up of demonstrators that is all the rage on YouTube.
When I first posted the video, there were less than 400 clicks, but since then, it has gone viral.

At the time of writing this post, there have been over 70,000 views.
Now I know that humor transcends the language barrier with great difficulty and many Francophones, even bilingual ones will have trouble 'getting' the video.
Trust me when I say that the video is extremely insulting and portrays the demonstrators as hopelessly sad ideologues.
The seriousness of those interviewed belied the fact that they were being mocked rather shamefully by Abdul, who is admittedly quite the deadpan comedian.

What kind of impact will the video have?

Nothing flattering, that's for damn sure. Think back to "Star Wars Kid'

The video just may be the worst nightmare possible for French language militants, becoming a meme, portraying them as buffoons across the Internet.

Regulator worried about companies avoiding public stock offerings in Quebec

The AMF, Quebec's regulatory agency for stock markets, brokers, etc. has publicly noted that some companies having their headquarters outside Quebec avoid making a public offering in the province, because of Bill 101.

"As stipulated by the law, companies are required to write their prospectus in French. The prospectus is a document to be published by any company planning to raise funds on financial markets.
According to the AMF, nearly 54% of companies avoid public offerings in Quebec due to language requirements imposed on them.
To justify their decision not to raise funds from Québec investors, the businesses claimed it is a question of costs related to the translation of texts.

"Companies are saying, 'We'll go somewhere else to raise money and we will exclude Quebec from our efforts.' So it's a situation, in fact, that is a concern to us and something on which we will have to consider, "said Sylvain Théberge, spokesman for the AMF. Link{Fr}

Quebec workplaces least diversive
"...Seventy-three per cent of Canadians describe their workplace or school as diverse, compared to 70 per cent of Americans, 68 per cent of Britons and 67 per cent of French respondents.
Sixty per cent of Quebecers work in a multicultural environment, the lowest proportion of any province.
Fewer Quebecers work and study in multicultural environments because most of the province’s immigrants are concentrated in Montreal, and because the city attracts fewer immigrants than Toronto or Vancouver, Jedwab said. Also, Quebec has a lower proportion of cultural minorities in government jobs than other provinces, he said.Fifty-seven per cent of francophones in Canada describe their workplace as diverse, compared to 74 per cent of anglophones and 83 per cent of people who speak a language other than English or French.." Link

Does Premier Charest want a Francophone coach for the future NHL team in Quebec?
The headline in La Presse announced that the Premier of Quebec wants a francophone as a coach of the future Quebec city franchise;
"Charest favorable à un entraîneur francophone pour les Nordiques" Link{Fr}
but the headline in English media said something a little different;

Future Quebec City NHL coach must speak French: Premier Charest Link

The difference in the above two headlines isn't just splitting hairs, one headline indicates that the Premier wants a French coach, the other says that he wants a French-speaking coach. The discrepancy is not lost on we English who are interested to know if a French-speaking anglo is acceptable or not.

Over the course of the Cunneyworth debate of late, most of the language militants who complained publicly over the issue, made sure to use the term 'unilingual anglophone' when describing the issue. But every now and then they forget the word 'unlingual and complained about an 'anglophone' as coach of the team. Freudian Slip?
I think so.
Under all of this pseudo talk of unilingualism, there lies an undertone of racism, where the idea of an anglo running the team is offensive, bilingual or not.
So what exactly did Premier Charest say, Francophone or bilingual?
Actually both...
In the article, the Premier told reporters that a future coach of the Nordiques would have to speak French 'as a minimum,' but later on, mentioned in joking that if ever the Nordiques couldn't find a qualified Francophone, they could hire Quebec City mayor Regis Lebaume. Link{Fr}

More English schools closing

"Things might be looking up for several schools at the English Montreal School Board on the cusp of a crucial vote on school closings.

In a surprise move on Monday, the EMSB announced that its long-range planning committee now recommends closing three schools instead of six. The committee has also backed off several proposals to relocate schools and programs.

No final decisions have been made yet. Commissioners will vote on the proposals on Wednesday."

Montreal Gazette Alternate Link

Quebec Unemployment numbers explode
For over two years Quebec nationalists have been crowing that the unemployment rate in Quebec was lower than in Ontario, something that rarely happened before.
Of course it was only a matter of time before Ontario pulled itself out of the recession and restored itself to more traditional numbers After a disastrous month of job losses Quebec's unemployment rate ballooned to 8.7% as opposed to Ontario's number which declined to 7.7%;

"You never have to look far to count the ways in which Quebec breaks with the rest of the country.

Quebecers watch more television than Canadians in any other province, due to a thriving French-language broadcasting industry that regularly draws more than a million viewers for its top shows. They’re the least-stressed, play hooky from work the most, and traditionally have the lowest rate of home ownership.

But Statistics Canada's numbers released Friday show Quebec is also splitting from other provinces on job creation, registering another employment decline in December while the rest of the country was either up or flat. Quebec’s jobless rate stands at 8.7%, higher than that of the United States."LINK

A call for a French Archdiocese in Ottawa.
Citing the example of French Catholic school boards and French secular school boards which were created in the late eighties to better serve the Francophone community, particularly in the Ottawa area, an opinion piece in Le Devoir by Pierre Allard is calling fro the Catholic church to split the Archdiocese of Ottawa along linguistic lines.

"Of the estimated 400,000 faithful of the Archdiocese of Ottawa...some 40% are francophone, with the majority English. In a context where the religious institution remains an important factor for the Franco-Ontarian minority who built the parishes and churches in their own image, ever since the nineteenth century, is it not time to question the linguistic structure of the church and give back to the French, collectively, the direction of their parishes? Is it not time to split Dioceses along language lines? Why not?" LINK

Anglos outlive Francophones.
A report in the European Journal of Epidemiology indicates that the life expectancy for Quebec Francophone men is 76.5 years, which is 2.3 years less than for Anglophone men. For Francophone women life expectancy is 81.8, or 1.4 years less than their Anglophone counterparts. The difference is particularly marked among men in major cities other than Montreal, like Quebec City, Sherbrooke and Gatineau, where the difference is 5.1 years.
Higher smoking rates and higher alcohol consumption among francophones are signaled as the major contributing factor to the gap, Link

Mohawk Doctor in peril of losing her license over French

A doctor practicing in the Montreal suburb of Chateauguay, (which has a large Anglo community) is in jeopardy of losing her license because she cannot pass a French exam.
Brought up in the nearby native reserve of Kahnawake Mohawk territory, Dr. Ojistoh Horn is the first female Mohawk medical doctor from Kahnawake. She is the daughter of Kahentinetha Horn, an important native activist.

"Roxann Karonhiarok selected (for an Indigenous person award..ed.) Kahentinetha Horn, publisher of Mohawk Nation News, and her daughter, Dr. Ojistoh Horn, the first female Mohawk medical doctor from Kahnawake. Roxann described the mother and daughter as, “An amazing duet and strong women."
Roxann said, “I nominated Ojistoh because she delivers our babies. Being a matrilineal society she is responsible and takes a hands on role in the delivery of the mothers of our nation." She added, "That woman does not sleep. She does house calls and even looks after people during family events on her time off! I love that beautiful woman. She’s an inspiration and deserves it!” LINK

Unfortunately she apparently doesn't have a satisfactory command of French, according to the licensing board which has as a requirement that every doctor be capable of passing a French exam.

Readers should understand that Native bands in Quebec are closely associated with either the English language or the French language, but not both. Mohawks, along with the Cree in the North, speak English along with their native tongue. French on these 'English-leaning' reserves is practically non-existent.
Dr. Horn is to be given one last chance to pass the French test, before being suspended. Link{Fr}

Radio personality complains that restaurant brawlers spoke too much English.

For those of you who haven't seen the video of a New Year's eve brawl in a Montreal Chinatown eatery, the New Dynasty, watch it here;

But as amusing as it is, it was a brawl between two English parties, one Asian and the other Black, so why does this story make the French versus English page?

It's hard to believe but blowhard radio whiner Benoît Dutrizac, actually complained on the radio that the two fighting groups spoke only English.
I'm not making this up.
While interviewing fellow language supremacist Mario Beaulieu on his radio show, he decried the fact that everyone involved spoke English, as well as the waiters.
Why?
Dunno....perhaps if one group spoke French, he'd of had someone to stick up for.
Listen here, the fun starts at 2:50 LINK{Fr}

Controversial mayor

For Huntington mayor Stéphane Gendron it's been quite a turbulent couple of days. First he was assailed by Jewish groups for remarks he made on his television news magazine where;

"On the December 27 edition of his Face a Face talk show on the V Television Network, he called Israel an "apartheid state" that "does not deserve to exist." Link

Suffice to say that Mr. Gendron is not a fan of the Jewish state. He also is not afraid to take on other sacred cows and has in the past criticized the Office québécois de la langue française, and openly mocked Mario Beaulieu in an interview, calling him intolerant.
Perhaps it was to deflect the overwhelming condemnation over his Israel remarks, Gendron again lashed out at the OQLF, telling them that his Eastern township town (40% English) would not comply with regulations making French predominate. Link{Fr}

First baby of 2012
Once again Quebec's first baby of 2011 left French language militants wringing their hands.
Tyler Stephen Wilson was the first baby born in Quebec in 2012, at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, weighing 3 kilograms.

Mom Teresa Howick Wilson and husband are ecstatic.

Here's a picture of the happy English couple and readers can draw conclusions as to why the Jacques Noels of the province were none to pleased.

*************************

FINALLY LET'S FINISH WITH SOMETHING A LITTLE MORE POSITIVE!
If you've got some time this weekend, watch this food/travel show which will illustrate why we all love to live in Canada's most imperfect, yet most exciting big city...

"Without Montreal, Canada would be hopeless, it's where the cool kids hang ....-Chef Anthony Bordain;

Threaded Comments...Enfin!

2012-01-11T23:40:00.001-05:00

Threaded comments.....Yes, readers, it was as big a surprise to me, as to you!
Blogger finally sprung a useful update.
Friends, I think it's a great improvement.

Tomorrow, F versus E #43....don't miss it, it's a good'un...

Media Responsible for Raising Language Tension

2012-01-11T00:00:00.000-05:00

At first, I was going to call this blog piece "Media Complicit in Raising Language Tension" but, in the end, changed the word 'Complicit' to 'Responsible' because upon reflection, conclude that in fact, it's the media, more than the small cadre of language militants, that is responsible for much of the language tension in Quebec.

There's no doubt that the media plays a pivotal role in shaping our view of the world, by the very act of choosing what stories we will or will not be exposed to, as well as the amount of coverage afforded to these stories.

As way of illustration let us consider a mythical story about a poor family who has been ripped off by a scam artist and finds itself destitute at Christmastime.
Invariably, after the story is aired by the media, the public reacts and money pours in to help the family out, while all the other people with hard-luck stories, just as worthy, are ignored because of a lack of media coverage.

Media shapes our opinion and forges our reactions by what they choose to report. It's as simple as that.

In science, the term observer effect means that the act of observing will influence the phenomenon being observed. Nothing can be truer than this when it comes to the reporting of news or political events.

As we all know last Saturday, French language militants held a demonstration at the Bell Centre to protest the hiring of an English coach by the Montreal Canadiens.

How do we all know this?
Because the story blanketed the television and radio airwaves for at least a week before the demonstration and for days afterward.
Before the event, Mario Beaulieu, the chief organizer was afforded dozens of opportunities to plug his demonstration through a series of interviews on television and radio in which he repeated his message, that the hiring of a unilingual anglophone coach by the Canadiens was, as he termed it,- "la goutte d'eau qui fait déborder le vase," the English equivalent being "The straw that broke the camel's back."
As the week preceding the demonstration wore on and Beaulieu continued repeating his spiel like a yoga master repeating his mantra, some reporters picked up on his tag line and started using it themselves to describe the Cunneyworth situation, an egregious act of journalistic un-professionalism.

The media reported the number of demonstrators taking part in the event at between 200 and 500 people, but the most accurate count was made by a Centre Bell security guard who actually counted each person involved and reached the unimpressive total of between 100 and 150.

100-150 people... That's it.

Over a month ago I made mention of a demonstration of over 250 people in a small Laurention community who gathered to complain about, of all things, the closure of the town's last ATM machine.
On Sunday last, over 450 people attended the funeral of a six-year old Maxime Dion, who died tragically in a river drowning.
In November hundreds of parents and students marched on the EMSB demanding that a school be saved.
The media reported all these stories, but the coverage devoted to those stories paled in comparison to the media resources devoted to the demonstration at the Bell Centre of a paltry 150 French language militants.

If Justin Bieber held an autograph session in front of the Bell Centre, I daresay 5,000 screaming fans would have showed up and the media would have devoted about 100th of the coverage that the Cunneyworth demonstration merited.

100-150 people. That's it..

Aside from the over-reported amount of demonstrators, the media also failed to tell the truth about the protest, likely because it did not fit in with the narrative that they had been selling all week.

It was plainly evident that the protesters were actually hard-core anglophobes whose signs and placards betrayed their utter hatred of all things English. Those who came were French-language fanatics, not fans who gave a hoot about the Canadiens coach.

Real Canadiens fans arriving to the game largely ignored the demonstrators and those interviewed showed a marked indifference, more excited to get into the Bell Centre than to waste time with demonstrators.
The promised action whereby fans within the Bell Centre, would wave small Quebec flags (which were distributed by the demonstrators) as some sort of protest, fizzled badly, as well. The flags were almost invisible during the game.

As a commenter mentioned on 25Stanley.com:

"100 personnes ? Pfff! C'est 4x moins que le Fan Club de Petteri Nokelainen. Pas trop grave."

Ha! I don't even have to translate that !!!

In a city of 2 million, all that could be mustered was 150 persons, which leads me to conclude that the language file is not as important as Mr. Beaulieu and this radical cohorts would have us believe. The Montreal Chapter of the SSJB has more than 3,000 members, and so it seems that Mr. Beaulieu couldn't even turn out his own hardliners.

If people were as concerned over the 'so-called' decline of the French language, as Mr. Beaulieu tells us they are, there'd be thousands upon thousands drawn to these types of demonstrations, but none of these 'language' demonstrations ever garner more than two hundred people, regardless of the media hype before and after.
With the widespread publicity that Beaulieu benefited from in the run-up to the demonstration, one would conclude that the 150 demonstrators represented a complete catastrophe, but you'd never hear that from the media!

Nowhere and never is the paltry size of these protests ever considered or the relevance thereof debated by journalists. Never.
Nobody ever calls Mario Beaulieu out on the utter failure of his movement to fire popular support.

Without the overblown support of a media driven by its own agenda, the movement would remain a coffeehouse phenomenon.
To be fair, let us remember the dismal turnout to the anti-Bill 101 protests as well.

And so I have to conclude that the language debate is a lot less important to Quebecers than we are led to believe and that the media is responsible for over-hyping these supposed tensions.

If the media afforded the language issue the weight the story actually merits, we'd hardly ever hear of it. But because it is an attractive issue, especially on 24 news channels that have hours and hours of programming to fill, we are subject to an overdose of language nonsense.

Quebecers, on both sides of the debate, by their non-action, testify to the weight they place on language issues.

Or can it be that Quebecers are just lazy and not interested in demonstrating, even on issues which are near and dear to their heart?
I don't think so, remember that demonstration in favour of a NHL team for Quebec City.
50,000 people showed up for it.....yep....50,000.

It isn't laziness that leads Quebecers to skip language demonstrations, it's just a lack of interest, the issue being far less pressing and urgent than portrayed.

It seems that English, French and Ethnics have pretty much made up their mind to accept the language status quo, as is. While none are perfectly happy, few except radicals seem to be overly upset, as we can conclude by the pitiful turnout for all language demonstrations, both English and French.

Perhaps this theory will upset some readers on both sides of the language debate, but it iss worth discussing.......

Here's the only piece that made any sense of the situation. The link to it was posted in the Comments section on Monday.

In this YouTube piece, a bilingual Anglo, absolutely slays in this sarcastic take on the demonstration.

It's half English/half French (like Montreal) so watch it even if you don't speak French, but unfortunately, you'll miss a lot, he is devastating in French!

&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

And so readers finally, a brave soul who is ready to tell us that this emperor hath no clothes, that the whole thing is a sad farce, a movement which has no popular support.

BTW, I think this guy is hilarious....I hope he posts more on the language situation, we all could use a good laugh, otherwise we'll just cry.....

Off subject but, here's another funny video by Abdul Butt on Occupy Montreal. ENJOY!

Language Flap Damages Canadiens Brand

2012-01-09T00:00:00.000-05:00

When we were all little kids, one of the first lessons we were taught is that we can't always get what we want.

For me, that realization came early.
I remember as a toddler seated in the grocery cart, being pushed up and down the food-laden aisles in Steinberg's grocery store and pointing to all the things on the shelf that I wanted.
My demands, punctuated by tantrums and fits of tears, were met by a steely "NO" from my mother, who remained stoically unimpressed by my animated exhortations.
She didn't even explain why not. It was just the way it was.

As we grow older and mature, we learn that there will always be things that we want, which we cannot have, obstacles and circumstances that we cannot overcome or change, and that we must accept these things as they are, or else be doomed to grow up bitter, frustrated and unfulfilled.

As they say in Alcoholics Anonymous,

...Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change...

There are unfortunately, too many language militants in Quebec who never understood this principle and have never come to accept the world-wide dominance of English, resulting in growing up, a frustrated and bitter bunch, doomed to see their dreams of glory, dashed over and over and over again.

And so they never accept the fact that there is nothing they can do to change the enduring fact that English dominates and that Quebec will never be immune from that effect. Never.

French language supremacists, continue to believe in a fantasy where everything and everybody cross an imaginary language curtain at the Quebec border, where all is magically transformed from English into French and from French to English upon leaving.

It is a childlike fantasy, as underscored by journalist Jean-François Lisée, who told a television audience recently that a Quebec based company, operating a powerful international conglomerate which uses English as the common corporate language around the world, can successfully manage its empire operating its head-office in French.

It's wishful thinking that plays to the innocent and naive, an unreality where French language militants believe that others will act not in their own selfish interests, but rather for the betterment of Quebec and the preservation and promotion of the French language.

They naively believe that legislation can cure the language defect, as if a law ordaining that summer be extended by three months can actually have an effect, based solely on the force of legislative will.

When faced with the cruel reality that such is not the case, there is nothing left but bitterness and rancour.

So let me pop another bubble.
Not even sovereignty can turn an English NHL team into a French or even bilingual NHL team, it just isn't in the cards.
If the Nordiques return to Quebec City and hire a French general manger and coach, the team will still operate in English, on the ice and in the dressing room, the use of French, an illusory veneer.

The other reality that sports writers and fans fail to understand or accept, is that hockey players have no interest in learning French whatsoever and few or none who come to play for the Canadiens will ever bother with anything more than a 'Merci-Bonjour.'
For most of these players, not from the highly educated class, its a struggle to learn English, but do so because it is critical to their success.

The idea that players toiling for the Canadiens will learn a third language, a language that they will almost never use, is nothing more than a fanciful pipe dream.

Rejean Tremblay the insufferable Francophone sportswriter, who brings language into practically every sports column he writes, is the poster boy of the indignant whiners, unable to understand or accept that for hockey players, learning French or becoming part of the French community is a non-starter.

Mr. Tremblay has in the past castigated Saku Koivu for having the audacity to remain captain of the beloved Habs for ten years without learning French as well as berating Andre Markov for his lack of French, on the occasion of him earning Canadian citizenship.

Each time I pass the Saku Koivu Cancer Centre in the Montreal General Hospital, I am reminded that the blowhard Tremblay has branded Koivu disrespectful and an enemy of the Quebec people.

So why the ferocious reaction by French language militants to an English coach or two unilingual bosses at the Caisse de dépôt or one English boss at the National Bank?
The reaction seems a little disproportionate.
Why so much rage and bluster?

It is in fact, a bigger, much bigger deal than we Anglos can fathom.

The existence of these unilinguals in Quebec puts paid to the myth pedalled by language supremacists that Quebecers need not learn English because the language curtain surrounding Quebec is inviolable.

It breaks the promise that everything entering Quebec will be translated and that every artist, athlete, boss or politician who sets foot in Quebec will learn and use French to communicate with employees, fans, friends and colleagues.

It makes mockery of the theory that Quebecers need not learn a second language because hockey players will learn a third.
And most importantly, it destroys the French language supremacy movement's most hallowed tenet, that Quebec can exist without English.

It is a big deal...a very big deal.

It is why little language issues are blown out of proportion.

Like in North Korea, Quebecers are indoctrinated with a fantastical bill of goods. They are told that English is irrelevant and unnecessary, while the rest of the world believes the opposite.
Like in North Korea, any real or perceived breech of this fantasy is met by a ferocious reaction by language protectors, doing their darnedest to hide the truth by obliterating reality.

And so Quebec has it's very own twenty-first version of the Bamboo or Iron Curtain, where language militants carefully attempt to stage society in their own Utopian image, to hide the reality of the outside world.

Zealots like Mario Beaulieu and Jean-François Lisée continue to discourage Quebecers from learning English by promising that they need not do so because the world will speak French to Quebec.
In this context, it is easy to understand the exaggerated reaction to English names on stores, English signs and yes, even English Quebecers, themselves.
Our very presence is a disturbance.

As long as we Anglos and Ethnics exist in Montreal, living our lives in English or bilingually, Quebecers are exposed to an alternate view of the universe, something French language militants cannot abide by.
The venomous attacks on bilingualism, remain a required element, if the myth of Quebec as a French-only society is to be preserved.
Let us remember, it is not only we Anglos and Ethnics who are targeted, but those francophones who refuse to drink the Cool-Aid and pursue bilingualism on there own. In the eyes of language supremacists, they are the the ultimate betrayers.

But there are devastating consequences to this manic pursuit of a non-existent French Shangrila.

Failure to accept the linguistic reality of the world, is a cancerous tumor on Quebec society, sapping the province of its strength and vitality.

The rally on Saturday night in front of the Bell Centre by about 150 French language militants was just another desperate attempt to alter realty.

Beaulieu framed by "Down with Molson the Traitor" sign

RACISTS MESSAGES OF HATE
The mantra of the militant leaders that their movement is not about the hatred of English, but rather about the promotion of French, is a lie that signs like these ones attest to.
What if Albertans had a demonstration and wore T-Shirts saying that there were too many Francophones in the federal government?
I'm sure Mr, Beaulieu and company would be screaming 'Francophobia' at the top of their lungs!

So what can we expect as a result of this demonstration and the messages of hate towards English in the Montreal Canadiens organization?

Loudly demanding that the Montreal Canadiens tilt towards French, has no other effect but to thin the ranks of those willing to try a career in Montreal, especially those elusive free agents who are presented with 29 less bothersome destinations to choose from.

"Mr. Molson-There's too many Anglos on your Boat"

(By the way, this realty of talented people refusing to come to Quebec over language is repeated in industry after industry)

And so the Montreal Canadiens brand will forever be diminished by the language brouhaha surrounding Randy Cunneyworth's unilingualism.
When he is ultimately sacrificed on the language altar, it will serve as a cautionary lesson to the entire NHL community.

Skip Montreal, it is a hateful place where English people who don't speak French are unwelcome.

If nice guys like Cunneyworth, Koivu and Markov are to be vilified ...well count me out.

Call it the 'Lindros Effect' or whatever.
Agents of star players will cross off Montreal from the list of acceptable destinations and so the Canadiens will choose from has-beens, also-rans and aging veterans closing out their career. Its already happened, but no one will admit it.

"Montreal Is Under English Occupation"

This coupled with the strange fact that francophone stars eschew Montreal as well, ensures that the team is on a downward spiral, sucked into a linguistic black hole, never to escape.

There is a price to pay for the foolish preoccupation of battling a language enemy that cannot be defeated.
Quebecers to this day have never realized what this preoccupation has cost them, shielded by successive governments which immunized them from the consequences through deficit spending and indulgent transfer payments from English Canada.

Quebec is on its way to a rendezvous with destiny.

When the province hits its fast approaching debt ceiling and the Rest of Canada decides to no longer support the current equalization program, it will be time to face the music.

Sadly, that swan song will be English.

***************************************************************

POSTCRIPT;

Having just completed the last episode of HBO's stunning hockey documentary, 24/7-Road to the Winter Classic, I am struck by the level of skill, toughness and dedication that professional hockey demands from every single one of its participants, on every single level.

Unsuitable for the Canadiens?

Thinking back to the nonsense published by Quebec language supremacists that somehow francophones are discriminated against in the NHL and that teams deliberately play or draft lesser-talented non-Francophone players is so ridiculous that it remains nothing less than a sad fantasy woven by the self-deluded, tilting at windmills.

Imagine Flyers general manager Paul Holgren telling coach Peter Laviolette that a certain talented French player won't be playing in the Winter Classic because it's important that the English language be preserved as the dominant force in the NHL.
I daresay that the Flyers would have played a unilingual-Swahili-speaking-Black-half-Jewish/Muslim-dwarf, if they thought it could help them beat the Rangers.

Watching the virtuosic performances of both Peter Laviolette and John Tortorella behind the bench and in the dressing room, was nothing short of enthralling.
It was to say the least, an exceptional experience, one that made me feel as if I was spying secretly through a keyhole, a rare opportunity to observe two maestros at work in their natural element, akin to a National Geographic special observing wild animals in their natural habitat.

Masterfully combining toughness, sympathy with single-mindedness, both these gentlemen showed viewers what a top-notch NHL coach is made of.
It's hard to comprehend that should either of these men become available to coach the Canadiens, he would be automatically rejected over language. Bah!!!

One last thought...
Both Laviolette and Torts were pretty consistent, carrying the passion and animation displayed inside the dressing room out to behind the bench. What you saw inside you saw on the outside.

It got me thinking about that the deadpan expressionless, demeanour of the recently fired coach of the Canadiens, Jacques Martin.
If what we saw behind the bench, that aloof, dispassionate and unemotional attitude, carried into the Habs dressing room, well.....it was high time he was fired.

It takes a hell of a lot of talent to be an elite NHL coach and when French language supremacists tell us that they are a dime a dozen, I'll just beg to differ.

At any rate, it's like saying that rejecting a Placido Domingo, Yehudi Menuhin, Stephen Hawking or Lady GaGa over their lack of French is just fine, because there are plenty of capable Quebec francophones that can replace them.

Sorry....t'aint so!

Read:

How to Make the Monteal Canadiens More French (Humor)

Read:
Heaven Help the Montreal Canadiens!

French Versus English Volume 42

2012-01-06T00:00:00.003-05:00

French militants to demonstrate at Bell Centre before game.

"The grumbling continued Thursday over the Montreal Canadiens’ appointment of a unilingual anglophone coach.
The latest to denounce coach Randy Cunneyworth was the Mouvement Quebec Francais (Movement of French Montreal), which issued a statement that a peaceful demonstration would be held before the Canadiens’ next home game, Jan. 7." Link

Montreal Bars advertize New Years party in English only

An article in Le Journal de Montreal took several Montreal bars to task for advertising their New Years Eve bash in English only.

The newspaper produced a list of fifteen bars that had posted English-only advertisements touting the celebrations.

When questioned by reporters about the slight, bar owners insisted that they were just targeting tourists who made up over 90% of their clientele. Hmm.....

Bars have always been 'selective' on who they let in, using doormen to cull potential clients and admit those that fit in with the 'image' that the club wants to project.

Although never admitted, most clubs attempt to control what type of clients enter their premises based on dress, sexual preference, colour, race and now apparently language.

While nobody may be refused or admitted exclusively on the basis of these criteria, it happens every day and patrons understand where and where they are welcome.

And so it seems, that these bars are promoting an 'English-only' affair, something that upsets French-language militants.

The ever-indignant Mario Beaulieu misses the point entirely, thinking that the bars are trying to attract francophones by using 'cool' English.

"It's deplorable. I don't know why, but it seems that people think they must speak English to appear cool with younger people," he denounced, "It's something to be changed. Otherwise, French will be in real danger in Montreal."

Mr. Beaulieu fails to understand the message being sent.

It's an English only party, so don't expect Loco Locass to be played or French commentary from the deejay. Link{Fr}

Bombardier union frightened by language attacks on company

I guess someone is worried about attacks over English at Bombardier and the spectre of losing jobs. The union representing employees is painfully aware of the international nature of the company and the tenuous grasp each division holds on its jobs. It moved the union to make an official statement supporting the company;

"The progress of French at Bombardier Aerospace may be imperfect, but it has grown steadily over the last two years, said union representative , Eric Rancourt..."We cannot be said to be in favour of the agreement (a waiver to allow English..ed.,)but we are far from being against it, because that provision affects new development programs at Bombardier like the CSeries that create jobs," he said.. Link{Fr}

Wow.... Talk about doublespeak!

Health agency to stop serving immigrants in French

"Quebec's medicare agency is taking steps to reduce the dependence of immigrants on the English language, according to The Canadian Press.
Starting January 30, 2012, the Regie de l'assurance maladie du Quebec (RAMQ) will impose a one-year limit on communicating in English with immigrants, even if their knowledge of the French language is weak." Read the rest of the story

Quotes of the week

Anne Lagacé Dowson, the insufferable leftist bore (recently sacked from the radio station CJAD) told a French language television panel that;
"Bill 101 saved Canada"
When Tasha Kheiriddin complained that many Canadians object that unilingual anglophones be excluded from consideration for top governments jobs, the host of the debate, Céline Galipeau told her that;
"There are plenty of bilingual francophones who can replace these people." Link{Fr}

English bonus legal

"After offering a bilingual bonus to 40 of its employees, the City of Sherbrooke was the target of a lot criticism from certain politicians and organizations fighting for the protection of the French language. Three months later after the story broke, the Office québécois de la langue française(OQLF) confirms that the premium remains perfectly legal.... "From a legal point of view, it is not forbidden," ruled a spokesman for the OQLF, Martin Bergeron." Link{Fr}

This ruling has infuriated the French supremacist group Impératif français which in a news release fumed that;
"Quebec is a nation occupied by the English language. Even the Office québécois de la langue française contributes to this influence!...
Although it was created to defend and promote French in Quebec, this agency has declared "legal" the discriminatory practice of offering a bonus to some employees who speak English in Quebec" Link{Fr}

Phoenix versus Phénix
The continuing controversy over the name selected for a new QMJLH hockey franchise in Sherbrooke continues to brew.
But an article concerning this debate intrigued me for another reason, the last paragraph particularly where the journalist claimed that there is opposition to an Anglophone head coach.
"By appointing an English coach,the Phoenix organization has become the target of much criticism. Fans are demanding a francophone coach and propose the appointment of Patrick Roy, who is willing to listen to an offer by the Phoenix, even if he is already the head coach and general manager of the Quebec Remparts.

I guess it doesn't matter if the Anglophone speaks French or not . The fact that the fans demand a francophone, no matter what, doesn't seem to be that big a deal to the the journalist.....Hmmm.... Link{Fr}

Too much English at Montreal city hall
Vision Montreal councillor Elsie Lefebvre complained in public that French was being disrespected in City Hall by the overuse of English.
The mayor, Gerald Tremblay dismissed her claims saying that such ideas were in her DNA, being a former Peekist.

"Tremblay's remarks follow Lefebvre's decision to rise on a question of privilege during a meeting of city council on Tuesday to contend her rights as a city councillor were being belittled "because this municipal council becomes more anglicized month after month, week after week." LINK{Fr}

This follows a complaint that a bilingual flyer was sent to homes around the Park avenue area encouraging people to shop on the street during a bothersome construction project.
The OQLF deemed the flyer legal, but chastised the city for setting a bad example. Link{Fr}

Vigel.net continues strong support for murdering Assad's Syrian regime
In its pursuit of a policy of opposing everything that Canada, America or Israel supports, regardless of any moral imperative, vigel.net continues publishing stories favourable to the Syrian regime.
In a series of articles, some of them outright fantasy, the radical website attempts to explain why killing unarmed civilian protesters is legitimate.

vigile.net touts Assad

"As you recall, the decision to attack Syria was taken at a meeting at Camp David, September 15, 2001, just after the attacks in New York and Washington....

....President Bashar al-Assad is not like his father. He is not an autocrat. He governs with a team. The strategy of his government is on the one hand to preserve civil peace and deal with attempts to destabilize and sectarian division, and also to strengthen its alliances, especially with Iran, Russia and China." Link{Fr}

Why the urgency by the international community, to announce new sanctions without being concerned about who are the real perpetrators of this violence. We know that states, grouped behind the United States, decided from the very beginning of this story, that President Bashar Al-Assad is solely responsible. Witnesses and analysts who argue along the lines of another explanation are ignored." Link{Fr}

Also featured on the website is a video showing Assad being wildly cheered by adoring crowds. The video entitled 'Syria Loves Bashar' can be seen on vigle.net or YouTube

Two standards for bilingual websites
Le Devoir ran a story entitled "No French for Baird and his collegues" in which English ministers were called out for running English only personal websites. John Baird, Tony Clement, Jason Kenney, Joe Oliver, Jim Flaherty, Peter MacKay and Diane Finley were all mentioned in the story as the guilty parties.
The article did however mention that two ministers ran French-only websites, but this wasn't reflected in the headline and the story which highlighted the linguistic faux-pas of the Anglos only.

'Quebec Delegate General in New York communicates in English only...
(NDOA exclusive story)

While the Quebec government tut-tuts the use of English at the Caisse du Depot, its very own Director General in New York, responsible for relations with eight States across the eastern seaboard communicates with Quebeckers in English only.
John Parisella, who acts as Quebec's 'ambassador,' to the United States, has been serving in the job since September 2009. He has been writing an official blog (in English only) about his activities for almost two years. Quebecnewyorkblog.org.

Says Mr Parisella on his front page in English only;

"I  intend to use this space to keep you informed on my work and to update  you on my government’s actions in the Mid-Atlantic and beyond."

He also has a FaceBook page and Tweets regularly on behalf of the office, all in English only, as well.

In fact the Twitter account associated with the blog, @QuebecNewYork, follows 101 other Tweeters, all English, except one! (Radio Canada Info)

This from an official Quebec government representative.

'Short stuff
After a few months of operation, the Quebec based site modeled after WikiLeaks has quietly gone on hiatus. Problem- nobody sent in anything to leak ..Link{Fr}

A veteran separatist and self-proclaimed 'intellectual' Gilbert Paquette complained that his Federal MP has dared to send a bilingual pamphlet to his home.
"I hope your future mailings will respect the French fact in Quebec until such time that we can remove the control of Quebec by the Parliament of Canada." Link{Fr}

Another unilingual Anglo has been publicly outed and denounced, this time a coach for the University of Montreal football team. Link{Fr}

In a fantasy too often repeated, a letter writer in La Presse, tells readers that in business, its more important to learn Mandarin, Spanish or Portuguese than English.... Portuguese. REALLY? Link{Fr}

Blame Canadiens Language Fiasco on Geoff Molson

2012-01-04T00:00:00.000-05:00

For those of us Anglos who live in Quebec, even those stridently pro-English, the decision by the Montreal Canadiens to hire a unilingually English coach seems not only ill-conceived, but extraordinary foolhardy.

It's hard to understand the utter disconnection that exists between the management of the team and the political reality of the day.
Let us for the moment put the politics of language aside and consider that the Montreal Canadiens are a business, more importantly an entertainment business.
If I were to run an independent movie theatre in south shore Brossard (a town with many Chinese residents), I'd certainly consider bringing Chinese movies and having a staff (or some significant portion thereof) that could talk to an important part of the client base in their own language.
Same goes for a bookstore in Chicoutimi, where I'd likely concentrate on French books.
It isn't rocket science.

The most basic rules in commerce is recognizing what customers want and successfully delivering it. Companies spend billions on market research trying to figure out exactly what that is and relentlessly pursue this mission as if on a quest for the Holy Grail.
Whether or not it was the right hockey decision, let's be honest, only an idiot would hire an English unilingual head coach in today's Quebec.

Enter Geoff Molson.

When Geoff Molson bought the team and made the decision to dump the eminantly experienced Pierre Boivin as president, he took on the ultimate responsibility of top banana, a job he is clearly not up to.

It doesn't surprise me, children born of the silver spoon seldom achieve much on their own and Quebec's rich kids are no different.
There are notable exceptions, one that comes to mind is Pierre-Karl Péladeau, who after a rocky start at the helm of Quebecor has since found his rhythm and become a force to be reckoned with, a rough sort who actually has blossomed into a bigger and nastier SOB than his father.
Take that last description of PKP as a compliment.
Nobody can deny that his success in turning around the faltering dynasty that his father left him is based largely on the force of his personality, where his willingness to play rough is coupled with a keen single-mindedness and an amazing ability to manipulate.

But make no mistake, PKP is the exception.

Most children of billionaires and hundred-millionaires are not cut from the same cloth.
Most are coupon-clippers, who recognize their limitations and keep out of the public eye, content to occupy themselves with trivial pursuits while leading the life of genteel aristocrats. Most are uncomfortable dealing with the great unwashed and live in constant fear of being outed as unworthy and unsuccessful.

How do I know?
Well for many years I was the president of an important charitable foundation and as such trolled for dollars among the gazillionaire class.
Of course, most of the board of directors of foundations where I solicited donations were stuffed with a lot of these children of the rich and over the years, I grew to actually feel sorry for many of them who were bullied, belittled and marginalized by their parents and as adults grew into badly-adjusted and complexed human beings.

Many of them were in their forties and fifties, never really having done anything worth a lick in their entire lives and who resented their parents and their own wealth, but trapped by their own lack of skills.
I'm not going to mention names of those rich kids who choose wisely not to get involved in public life. They deserve their privacy.
I'm also going on record now as saying, that Geoff Molson was not one that I knew or dealt with, but alas he shows the classic signs of a rich boy underachiever.

From his less than stellar academic record, to a bunch of gimme jobs at Molson, he hasn't exactly set the world afire.
Here he is, looking like a clown, in a really bad television commercial.

This is the owner of the Canadiens?

Here's a video of him sucking up to Michel Arsenault the controversial and sometimes nasty leader of the Quebec Labour Union, the FTQ Link

Now when underachievers get their hands on the throttle of real power, the results can be disastrous as is underscored by Montreal's Bronfman family.
Like all billionaire dynastic families, succession remains problematic and hotly contested. The reigns of power of the business empire of the late Samuel Bronfman had been successfully transferred to Edgar Bronfman, who in turn, when the time came to retire, made the disastrous decision to hand his son, Edgar Bronfman Jr. the top job.
Suffice to say that the Bronfmans remain a rich family with a small fortune.
Problem is that when Edgar Jr. took over the company, they had a large fortune!

One bad decision after another saw the Bronfman fortune fritter away and today the family fortune is just a pale reminder of what it once was.
Reading the history of the collapse of the family fortune is a sad reminder that a storied family name does not a businessman make. Read Fortune's Fool

They say that most commercial airline crashes are the result of more than one error, a confluence of unlikely circumstances coupled with poor decisions. In reaction to a deteriorating and unsafe flying situation, a pilot makes a tragic miscalculation that the co-pilot does not pick up on.

It sounds like a good description of what happened to the Canadiens and their decision to hire Randy Cunneyworth.

Bad judgement times two.

Clearly both Geoff and the hapless Pierre Gauthier underestimated the public's reaction to a unilingual coach.
The decision remains stunningly stupid, because you, I and the panhandler on the street could have told them both, that hiring a unilingual Anglo wasn't the brightest idea.

You might ask how a francophone like Gauthier could be so disconnected from reality that he did not see the impending public relations disaster that was to result in his decision to hire Cunneyworth.
But Gauthier is a francophone in name only, his long career in the NHL has always been conducted in English and when he got the job with the Habs, he decided to remain in the USA by setting up his family in Burlington, Vermont, where his kids attend an alternate school. Gauthier and his anglophone family lead an alternate lifestyle and eschew the big city life in Montreal.
Unfortunately his time away and his choice to live in the USA has insulated him from the realities of Quebec, especially the explosive language issue. At any rate, how on Earth as a General Manager can he convince a free agent to move to Montreal, if he himself won't live there?

He is to say the least, the worst fit possible for Molson, who needs a francophone well-rooted in Quebec culture and an ex-member of the hockey world, either as a coach or player.

Molson's biggest failure is his inability to see Gauthier's firing of Jacques Martin for what it is, a panicked decision made in haste without a clear and cogent plan, an attempt to transfer blame for the on-ice fiasco from himself to Martin.

Jacques Martin may not have been the greatest coach, but the Canadiens problems could clearly be laid at the doorstep of Gauthier, who since taking over from Bob Gainey has made one bad personnel decision after another.

But more importantly, the person that Molson replaced, Pierre Boivin, would never have allowed what happened to happen.
Here' what he told a reporter;

"Although he believes that his team is disadvantaged by its desire to hire someone who speaks French to address the fans and media during the regular season, the businessman also believes that the Canadiens have a role to play in this regard and it is his duty to hire a local coach.

"It's almost an obligation that the next coach will be able to speak to supporters and media in their language, but we are but one team among 30 who is concerned with this and it limits us in our selection process, "
"I think our team deserves to finally have a coach of experience, we have to stop looking in junior or the AHL. We'll cross our fingers for there to be some French experience available, "he added. Link{Fr}

And there it is, as honest an assessment as can be made.

Boivin brought the right balance of business and hockey to the job. I've always admired how professional and cool he remained in a very tough job. His personal life, so full of tragedy, perhaps steeled himself from making rash decisions.

For Geoff Molson, his immediate and panicked reaction was to throw Randy Cunneyworth under the bus, promising fans that he'd be gone at the end of the year.
For Cunneyworth, it's an unfair betrayal, the same fate that befell the unfortunate Don Lever last season, sacrificed over language.
A little better planning could have avoided all this.
Canadiens are going nowhere this year and if they had to wait until the off season for a suitable candidate for coach to present itself, then that's what they should have done.

Hockey fans in Quebec are emotional but not stupid. Everybody knows that it was Gauthier that should have been fired before Martin.

Everybody it seems, except Geoff Molson.

Anglo Quiz Revisited...

2012-01-03T18:35:00.000-05:00

I hope you enjoyed the New Year's Day quiz and almost all the questions were answered correctly.

A couple of comments;

Question 4.
Name two of Montreal's most famous steak houses?
Although correctly answered I thought someone would mention 'Gibby's'

Question 12.
Name one borough that is home to a large part of Montreal's Haitian community.
Montreal North?

Question 13.
Why is there a flower stall installed on Place Jacques Cartier in Old Montreal?
This was without a doubt the toughest question.
There is a flower stall because the site was donated to the city and was to remain a public market forever. Without fresh produce being sold on the site, the property would revert to the heirs.

Question 30.
What do Morris Fish (Supreme Court Justice), Irving Layton, David Lewis (former leader of the Ndp) William Shatner and Mordechai Richler all have in common?
Yes, Baron Bing High School.

Question 35.
What two famous historical adversaries have back-to-back street named after them?

Yes, Wolfe & Montcalm Streets.

Question 53.
Where is Montreal's version of Moncton's 'Magnetic Hill?'
Surpised nobody got this. The hill is the little hump that connects Cedar avenue to Cote de Neiges. Drive to the bottom of the hill, place your gear in neutral and your car will seemingly drive back up the hill.

By the way, Montreal police are used to people stopping their cars and giving the hill a whirl. If there's no traffic or its late a night , they won't complain.

Question 57.
What famous Montreal fast-food joint will celebrate it's 100th birthday next year.
Although Mr. Sauga identified the joint as 'St. Lawrence Pool Hall' (I gave him credit for a correct answer), it is indeed the 'Montreal Pool Room' which hasn't had pool table in decades, but serves legendary steamed hot dogs.

Question 68
In addition to Chinatown and Little Italy, what is Montreal's third and newest ethnically named neighbourhood?
Yup. as correctly answered, it is 'La Petit Mahgreb,' located around Jean Talon and named for the Arab community from North Africa.

Question 77

From this old photograph, can you identify the street you are looking down?

Look close, you can identify the big SNOWDON theatre sign that still exists on Decarie Blvd.

Question 83
What is Montreal's most famous strip bar?

While I accept SUPER SEXE as a correct answer, I always thought CHEZ PAREE was Montreal's most famous strip bar.

Question 96
What are Montreal's two most-preferred public suicide sites?

Before the Jacques Cartier Bridge erected anti-suicide barriers, it was in the world's TOP TEN most popular suicide sites. The other popular suicide site is the Montreal Metro, where about 25 people throw themselves in front of oncoming trains each year.

By the way, the Montreal press does not report suicides or attempts for obvious reasons.

Tomorrow:
Blame Canadiens Language Fiasco on Geoff Molson

Quebec's Extraodinary Public Servants

2011-12-23T00:00:00.000-05:00

As a foodie, I do have a weakness for cooking shows, especially those that are realistic and provide useful information to part-time hobby cooks like myself.

The only French language show in the food genre that I watch regularly is Radio Canada's l'Epicerie, which is a show about food, rather than cooking and includes background on how and where our food is produced with an accent on Quebec and Canadian products.

A couple of weeks ago I was lounging on the couch and decided to run an episode which I had recorded earlier, certainly not looking for content for this blog!
The first story was about meal preparation at some of Quebec's public senior citizens homes, which I have to admit, I didn't have much interest in watching.

When I think of these institutions, visions of dreary and grim establishments manifest in my mind. Prison-like institutions built for seniors who cannot afford private placement and where warehousing these seniors is done as cheaply as possible. Places where elder abuse would not be surprising and where 'inmates' would be fed a cheap diet of Kraft Dinner, Jello and processed cheese sandwiches, then and trundled off to their unkempt rooms as early as possible.

Why did these visions run through my head?
Dunno, but we see so many grim stories of elder abuse at senior homes that I'd assume that if it were to take place, a public institution with uncaring and bored state employees would be the first place where it would happen.

My hopes weren't lifted when the hosts told viewers that the daily budget for food, three meals and two snacks was a paltry $6.00 per resident.
Six bucks! Considering that a large coffee at Starbucks goes for around four bucks, I could only imagine the crap residents were fed.

That gentle reader is when my eyes were opened, to a world I never imagined existed!

A world where industrious government employees work hard and efficiently.
A world where innovative government employees work smartly!
A world where caring government employees consult and listen to those they serve!
A world where dedicated government employees take pride in their work!

Yes readers, this world does exist!
In Quebec you might ask?..........Yes.

The television story went on to chronicle the inner workings of the meal delivery system in several senior citizen homes in Quebec and viewing the story of these dedicated public employees doing a superb job brought tears to my eyes.

First correction.
The institutions aren't dreary, neglected or unsanitary. Not by a long shot.
Residents seem to be happy and living fulfilled and interesting lives. The caring staff are attentive and hard at work placing the welfare of residents first.

As the story rolled on, I felt a little embarrassed for making so many wrong-headed assumptions.

The management of these public senior homes have bandied together to purchase food in bulk and save up to 60% from what we pay in the supermarket. The food budget is fixed, so they spend what they have and no more. The government isn't going to underwrite deficits, so close attention is paid to spend so much and no more. How refreshing!

Nutritionists prepare monthly menus in consequence to what can be bought, whether it be fresh vegetables when cheaply available in the summer or frozen during the expensive winter months. Stretching a budget is raised to an art form, something generally unheard of in government.

The menus provided are outstanding and positively impressive. Nutritious and healthy, they include meat, fowl, and fish and are tailored to the preferences of seniors, most of whom were born in the thirties.

Dedicated chefs prepare meals for hundreds of residents as if it was for their own family. Special attention by administrators is made to listen to residents through regularly scheduled meetings that discuss preferences.
More tomato soup. "Yes we can do it!"

I don't want to go overboard, but I was duly impressed by the evident pride shown by all of those interviewed for the story interviewed.
I don't think administrators of these homes provided a budget for yoga or hotel stays for their employees, nor do I think there's money available to send a team to the Bahamas or Hawaii to study how things are done there.
When I think back to the English Montreal School Board defending expensive trips abroad, I shudder.

Things can get better. I don't know what type of leadership exists in these institutions but it should be bottled and sent around to every government department.
I'm sure things aren't perfect, but what goes on here is so much higher above the bar of your average government department, that if replicated, it would likely save taxpayers billions of dollars.

Alas to dream.....

And so readers, while I promised to remain positive until the New Year, alas, I have to tell you another story at the other end of the kindness spectrum.

Each year local newspapers bring us a bunch of hard luck stories in an effort to drive donations to local ~~Christmas~~ holiday charities, be it the Salvation Army or what not.
I'm usually immune to these tales of woe, which I find overly exploitive, but it does not stop me from donating anyway.

Here is perhaps the nastiest and cruelest story that I've read all year. If you don't want to feel sad, skip past it.

Marisol Turcious is a 39 year old mother who is dying of cancer. Thirty-nine years old!
She is already in the latter stages of the disease and in palliative care, she doesn't have long to live.
Friends and family have contributed around six or seven thousand dollars for funeral expenses and a lap top computer that she uses to record messages for her four children, aged three to eighteen.

Marisol records these messages during periods of lucidity, the strong painkillers affecting her mental abilities, most of the time.
Two weeks ago her children were given permission to spend the night with her in the hospital.
That night someone broke into the modest apartment and robbed it of everything, the laptop, the money and anything else of value.
Marisol is devastated!

As I read the story, an unbelievable rage built within me. Really, WTF!

Readers, I don't know what to say...I think you'll agree that this is one ~~SAD~~ SICK story...

The crime remains unsolved, what else is new?
Our police are too busy giving out tickets to be concerned.

Read the story in English. Read the story in French

Here is a picture I clipped sometime this year. It says alot.

Translation- THIEF- We're immigrants, We don't have riches

Kinda makes the hulabaloo over Randy Cunneyworth's lack of French a case much ado about nothing.

Let's think about that as Christmas approaches.

******************************

Before I go for the year, let me remind you of a typically Quebec news story. One that will provide a smile and a grimace.

A Châteauguay couple, whose home was burgled found their camera, part of the stolen loot, in a local pawn shop.
After calling the police, they were informed that it would be quite an ordeal to prove ownership and as such the police wouldn't bother seizing the property.

So what did the police advise them to do instead?
Buy back the camera, cops told them, after all, the pawn shop was only asking 50 bucks! Link{fr}
Arghhh.....

******************************

Loyal readers, I'll be off for a while, but I've prepared a very interesting post for New Year's Day.

It's an offbeat quiz geared towards Anglo Quebecker or expats and as you nurse your hangover, you might find it a spot of fun.

By the way, a special thanks to all those who make this blog interesting by participating in the comments section.
I've been told by friends, it is the most interesting part of the blog and I heartily agree.
Whether you support my position or are a strident opponent, conversation, arguments and vehement online disagrements are always better than violence.

People continue to ask me to censor insulting posts, but as a libertarian, it's not something I'm keen to undertake.
For or against.... speaking out is a democratic imperative and yes, insults do serve their purpose and contribute to an understanding of what people are actually thinking and feeling.
To me, the important thing is to provide a different type, a forum for all.

Sometimes it's hard for anglos to tolerate those harsh sentiments offered by French language militants who post here, but more often than not, it's the other way around.

Thanks to all who participate in the comments sections, it is you all who make for an interesting read.

Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noël!

Happy New Year! Bonne Année!

Dangerous Language Rhetoric Fails to Convince

2011-12-21T00:00:00.000-05:00

Chateau Marois

In order for a language or culture to be threatened, it obviously takes another language or culture to threaten. Whether true or not, French language militants have been shouting loud and long that it is the English language and culture that is menacing the survival of French in Quebec.

The unfortunate extension of this argument is that, if English culture is threatening, it's Quebec's English citizens, who are to blame, in some major or minor way.

So inured are Quebecers to anti-English rhetoric from radicals that they no longer recognize attacks on English citizens as good old fashioned racism, which it is.
If one were to point this out, as I am doing now, shock would likely be the reaction by the francophone majority.
Quebecers as Racists?.....Never!

A couple of days ago, Pauline Marois' aide told reporters that she was about to close a sale on her famous mansion on Ile Bizard;

"The sale of the property was not conditional on the buyer being a fluent French speaker, Marie Barrette, Marois's press attaché told the Journal de Québec.
"There were no sale conditions related to the origins of the person, but even better if it is a francophone. It's nice. That makes one more in Quebec," Barrette told the paper." Montreal Gazette Alternate Link

I almost fell over reading the statement and was inclined to paraphrase the Bible, 'Forgive them Lord, for they know not what they say!'
The spokesperson actually made it a point to tell reporters that Madame Marois did not include a clause excluding potential purchasers based on their origins which, as any high school student could tell you is not only racist but quite illegal!
So congratulations to Madame Marois for her courage in not excluding any potential buyer, based on race, creed or colour!

Imagine dear reader if you met with your local Century 21 agent, say in Montreal West, and made it a point to tell her that you wouldn't insist on a clause barring French Canadians from buying your house.
She'd probably think you a nutbar and racist extraordinaire. She'd be right.

But these type of racist public statements go unchallenged in Quebec every day.

And so it has unfortunately become commonplace in the media and among separatist politicians to disparage Anglos and allophones as less than desirable, a negative disturbance in the force, citizens to be tolerated, but never accepted as equals.

"We must work to develop policies to keep Montreal francophones from leaving the island and create conditions for more francophones to return." Pierre Curzi - PQ

What does this statement say about how Anglophones and Allophones are perceived by separatist politicians?

I daresay that if one were to ask Mr. Curzi if he viewed Anglophones and Allophones as less worthy or desirable citizens than francophones, he would bristle with indignation.

But Mr. Curzi's view that there are too few francophones on the island of Montreal is just a polite way of saying that there are too many Anglophones and Ethnics.
If one were to point out that calling on francophones to settle in Montreal as a patriotic duty is nothing but naked ethnocentrism and racism, he would reject the notion because, as he would tell us, French is the 'natural state' of Quebec that must be preserved.

So I wonder how Mr. Curzi would view a City of Ottawa politician calling on Anglophones to reoccupy Vanier, a district that has developed a large francophone population. What if that politician complained that anglophones were losing their historic hold on the city?
Or how about an Israeli politician asking Israeli Jews to move to Jerusalem to alter the balance with Muslims?
Burlesque comparisons?.....readers will judge.

In Laval, alarms have been sounded that too many anglos (especially Greeks) are invading the landscape. Militant French language groups have demanded that countervailing measures be taken to re-establish the primacy of French, but nothing concrete is proposed. Link{Fr}
So what exactly do they propose to reverse the undesirable Anglo/Greek invasion?

I've written about the problem of those militants wishing to protect the French language crossing over the line into ethnocentric territory before.
$2,000 Fine for Speaking English
Revisiting Hérouxville

Latent Racism in Quebec a Sad Reality

Everyday the likes of Gilles Proulx, Mario Beaulieu and Pauline Marois bombard the media with messages of hate and disrespect towards Quebec's minorities, warning francophones of the dire and diabolical threat that we represent towards the preservation of the Francophone culture in Quebec.
They speak openly about English as inherently evil and dangerous and somehow fail to understand that they are talking about fellow citizens!
It's dangerous and evil talk, meant to drive Quebecers towards hate and animosity, a wedge meant to tilt enough towards the promised land of sovereignty, through fear and hate.

But while some people bite, the thirty year campaign of vilification has largely failed.

Incredibly, most francophones ignore the hyperbolic forecasts of gloom and doom and the nasty representations of Anglos and Ethnics, this to the utter consternation of the radical mouthpieces, who keep on yelling FIRE!, without much response or panic from the public.

Thankfully, Quebec francophones are imbued with a healthy disrespect for authority and don't particularly enjoy being manipulated or told what to think or do.
Perhaps it is in response to centuries of domination by the Church where an entire province was instructed how to conduct their personal lives, even how many children to have.

For Quebecers who live in these dangerously 'at risk' communities, anglos and ethnics don't seem to be the problem that the language supremacists insist that we are.
The campaign to trigger troublesome language confrontations remains unsupported by the overwhelming majority of those francophones who reside or work directly on the linguistic firing line.

Despite decades of harping on the English and ethnics, it seems that the only place where the campaign has any traction at all, is in the hinterland, where there are hardly any anglos or ethnics at all!
Call it 'fear of the unknown'

Again, much to the consternation of radicals, Anglos, Allos and Francophones get along rather nicely where they actually co-exist and in fact almost one third of anglos choose a Francophone life partner and over two thirds of them end up sending their offspring to French schools.
The intermarriage rate between francophones and allophones is equally impressive.

Given the level of disrespect and hate spewed by French language supremacists, it's a wonder that the atmosphere between francophones and anglophones remains so positive.

Readers, I travelled this province from one end to another professionally for over thirty years, during which time, I have never been disrespected for being an Anglophone and that hasn't changed a whit over the years.
People recognize my very strong French as sometimes imperfect, but it hasn't mattered at all, my effort to conduct business in French appreciated.
Back in 1995, during the referendum campaign, a business trip took me up through Saguenay-Lac St-Jean region and just to see what kind of reaction I'd get, I wore a big NON button.
I thought I'd be accosted or at the least given a tongue lashing by one or the other, but it never happened.
Some people asked if I was an organizer and a few people came up to me to tell me in whispers that they'd be voting No.

Despite all the harsh rhetoric by radicals, Quebecers remain a kind and gentle people, of that I'm convinced and I remain happy to live in the most exciting and stimulating city in Canada.

Of course I bitch and moan the whole year long, largely because I'd like this province to be better, but like most Anglophones who live here, Quebec remains MY home and native land.

You may agree or not agree, but on this point my opinion cannot be swayed...

.....And so readers, positive is where I'd like to finish up the year.

As Christmas approaches, the majority of Canadians are feeling good about themselves, their family and the society they live in and this happy atmosphere is contagious, as most non-Christians will readily admit.

In this spirit, I'm going to do no bashing, complaining or harping until the New Year, at least.

On Friday, I'll tell you a marvellous story of Quebec public workers doing their job superbly....I'm not kidding.

Habs Hit Panic Button

2011-12-19T00:00:00.000-05:00

Randy Cunneyworth - Sacrifical lamb?

You probably have to live in hockey mad Quebec to understand the enormity of something so mundane as the firing of a coach of a local sports team.
The newspapers, radio and television are talking of nothing else and for once, reflect accurately what Quebecers want to talk about.

As is always the case, language rules and the first topic of discussion is new coach Randy Cunneyworth's lack of French.
Lost in the discussion is the fact that he wasn't given a real mandate, just the opportunity to finish out the year with the elusive promise of 'we'll see what happens.'

The decision to replace Jacques Martin was perhaps no surprise, but the promotion of Cunneyworth was. It signals a certain level of panic by general manager Pierre Gauthier who now appears to be working to save his own job.

Gauthier admitted that he's been mulling over the change for a couple of weeks, so he had plenty of time to look around for a French-speaking coach, something even he, in the Ivory Tower of the executive offices of the Bell Centre understands is necessary.

But as I mentioned in a post last week, when it comes to francophone coaches, at the moment, the pickings are slim, the most talented already having been used up and spewed out by the impatient Habs or otherwise gainfully employed and under contract by other teams.

A bunch of former francophone coaches are working for the RDS network (the French version of TSN) and on a post-game show on Saturday night, recounted the circumstances of their firings and the residual bitterness that they still harbour.

Since 1985 the Habs have had twelve coaches averaging just two years, a shameful display of panic and immaturity that reflects not on the coaches, but management. The average amount of games coached by these gentlemen is less than 200 each.

Having grown up watching the legendary Toe Blake and Scotty Bowman coach for a combined 23 years behind the bench, it's a bit depressing to watch the panic and fear that rules upper management's decisions vis-a-vis coaches this last quarter century.

In the 39 years between 1940 to 1979, the Canadiens had but four coaches and won sixteen Stanley Cups and by the way, of the 23 Stanley Cups won by the Canadiens, 19 were teams led by Anglophone coaches.

And so it seems that the Canadiens have given up on the year, a shame because the fans haven't quite been ready to throw in the towel just yet.
No doubt Cunneyworth understands his position as caretaker, holding the fort until a francophone can be found.

It appears that last year's wonder boy, Tampa Bay Lightening coach Guy Boucher has gone from hero to zero with the team wallowing in last place and might be available sooner than later.
The same goes for Bob Hartley who is having a dreadful time over in Switzerland and is likely to be canned soon.

These two, in my mind, are the most likely candidates to take over in the off season.

By the way, the Canadiens never considered Patrick Roy, who admitted that his phone hasn't rung.

As for Cunneyworth's lack of French, the reaction was mostly subdued with most commentators warning that if he turns around the team, he might be tolerated, but if things remain the same or deteriorate, he will be mercilessly hounded out of the job.

Perhaps he can turn the season around, the 2011 version of the Canadiens have been hopeless under-performers, with player after player turning in sub-par performances, so far.

Was that Martin's fault?.... It remains to be seen.

Of course injuries haven't helped, but blaming the Markov fiasco, wherein the 5 million dollar plus man hasn't played a single game this year, is no excuse. Other teams such as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia have shown how good they can be despite injuries that make the Canadiens look healthy.

But the long term looks grim for the team, francophone or anglophone coach aside. The team has tied up millions of dollars on long-term contracts for players who are notorious for their lack of production or absence through injury.

Perhaps the saddest of all player moves was the acquisition of ex-Maple Leaf castoff, the overpaid Thomas Kaberle.
There was a time that the Leafs were manned by Montreal Canadiens rejects and sadly, that seems to have reversed.

As for language, get ready for some interesting times as the Press spoils to crucify the Habs new Anglophone coach.
After the 5-3 loss to the Devils in Cunnyworth's first game, he was already criticized for running the same old game plan as Martin.
After one game!

For that matter, there will be no honeymoon with the fans either. In the third period with the hometown Habs trailing the Devils, the new coach was serenaded by the boo-birds, something not heard in the Bell Centre for quite a while.

As the Habs melt down, one of the last vestiges of Quebec pride is fading to black.
At least the fans and the Press can content themselves with blaming the fiasco on an Anglo coach.

Pipe Dreams & Fantasies..French in Multinationals

2011-12-16T00:00:00.000-05:00

French in Multinationals -Fantasy Island?

Over a year ago I wrote a piece about Rejean Tremblay, the dean of Quebec sportscasters who demanded in a published piece that the Montreal Canadiens francize the team by hiring more francophones to better reflect its fan base. Le CH abuse des Québécois {Fr}

In that article, he suggested that the Habs General manager implement the so-called 'Savard doctrine'(if ever it really existed,) whereby given a choice between two equal players, the team always hired the francophone.
Ironically, in another article, Mr. Tremblay complains that English NHL teams are guilty of discriminating against francophones by hiring English players before francophones. Hmm.....

At any rate, it's a neat concept that sounds attractive if you're ready to suspend your belief in statistical probability. Unfortunately, among Mr. Tremblay's readers, there's plenty of those.

Only a dreamer or an idiot could conceive of a unique situation that repeats itself often enough, wherein two equally talented players are made available at the same time, both the same age, playing the same position and making the same salary, one being French, the other speaking English or Globish.
In the real world, that situation presents itself less often than a Henri Richard birthday.

But the idea is a narrative that sells rather neatly to those who dream of Christmas past and the reincarnation of the Flying Frenchman. Ah, perchance to dream!

Alas for Mr. Tremblay, it is a pipe dream, and I suspect he knows it. His missive was actually a call to choose French players first, regardless of talent, but in the modern era of globalization, the only way to francize a team, is to take a qualitative hit.
Considering that the Canadiens aren't a very good team and haven't been for a decade, perhaps it doesn't matter and for Mr. Tremblay, if your going to stink, you may as well stink in French!

While on the subject of French or the Canadiens, is there any coach in the NHL who more deserves to be fired this year then the hapless Jacques Martin, for his ceaseless ability to get the worst out of his players?
It is very likely that his job remains safe only as long as there isn't a viable francophone out there ready to replace him, as the case appears to be, right now.
If Pierre Gauthier, the general manager (another horrible underachiever,) dared hire an anglophone to replace Martin, he'd be ridden out of town on a rail.
And so Mr. Tremblay seems to have gotten his way....underachieving francophones kept on because more talented anglophones are not an option. Bon Chance!

What does any of this have to do with French in the Head offices of Montreal's leading multinational companies?
A lot.

This week, in a televised debate on the subject of French in head offices, I heard another fanciful suggestion of the same sort, described by the insufferable Jean-François Lisée.Watch the debate in French

Mr. Lisee admitted that companies who operate on a world-wide basis must deal with their branch offices and customers in English, but demanded that once the telephone is hung up, the employees revert to French among themselves. Any employee or executive promoted to the head office from the field would be forced to go to the Sagenauy for six months to learn French. Bon voyage!
And so everything coming into the office would have to be translated into French and then everything leaving the office would have to be translated into English.

Sounds like a plan....for idiots.
I don't know if Mr. Lisée knows how ridiculous he sounds, but it's a good story for language militants, always willing and able to jump through hoops to make an argument for French.

Looking at the suggestion dispassionately, even Mr. Lisée would have to admit that in a situation like this, French is completely superfluous, an unnecessary layer of expense and bother.
If that's the price of locating in Quebec, what company president could justify staying?

Unfortunately for Mr. Lisée and French language supremacists, most CEOs don't give a tinker's cuss about French or English, the only language that counts, is money.

A few days ago I described how the exodus of English head-offices started soon after Sun Life made a very public exit from Montreal, much to the consternation of the then PQ government.
Hundreds of other companies followed suit, but they did so without a splash and as the old saying goes- 'Out of sight, out of mind.'

The problem of head offices leaving or choosing not to locate in Quebec was largely swept under the carpet, the companies involved relieved not to discuss the matter and the government conveniently forgetting to own up to the economic impact of French language restrictions.

To Mr. Lisée and other French language supremacists, the loss of head offices unwilling to put up with this nonsense is a reasonable price to pay for the preservation of French in the workplace.
But no politician or French language hardliner will admit as such in public and Quebecers have been largely shielded from the truth, but not the economic impact.

I came across this devastating article in the Montreal Gazette's business section, which lays bare the economic reality of these policies;

"The small city of Cornwall, Ont., 120 kilometres southwest of Montreal, has been on a growth spurt for more than a decade as retailers open new distribution centres there.
The facilities are being built to serve the Quebec market yet they're located just beyond the border rather than in Quebec itself.....
....The unsaid thing in the industry is that people just don't want unions in their distribution centres," Wulfraat said. "When you talk to the leaders of these companies, that's their foremost concern."
Added to that is the extra cost and effort required to operate in French, which can be avoided in a place like Cornwall.
"Quebec, in my opinion, has some fundamental disadvantages working against it," he said.

Read the rest of the story and then come back....Montreal Gazette Alternate Link

To be sure, language is not the only reason that these distribution centres are placed outside Quebec, perhaps the biggest concern, unmentioned in the article, is Quebec's anti-scab law that forbids replacement workers.
In Quebec, in the event of a strike, the company cannot hire workers to replace strikers, while in Ontario such is not the case.
It's a massive concern to management, because a striking distribution centre can bring down the entire retail operation, leaving the union with unprecedented power to cripple the company.

But language as an issue, remains a huge concern, though company officials don't like to talk about it. A Quebec based distribution centre would be obligated to operate in French, an anomaly in a company that operated dozens of similar facilities throughout North America.
Let's face it, Target or Wal-Mart isn't that interested in sending a transferee to Chicoutimi for six months to learn French and they aren't interested in the added expense and bother of operating in French, not if they don't have to.
Unfortunately for Mr. Lisée and his supporters, they don't have to.

I know these facts are unpleasant to those wishing to see Quebec thrive as a French society, but as they say, 'Them's the breaks.'

Recently it was revealed that the OQLF gave Bombardier dispensation from the requirement to operate in French at its head office, a tacit admission that the company could not or would not comply with the law.
Of course the agreement wasn't widely publicized and for good reason. It demonstrated an admission that in some cases, the rules of Bill 101 and French in the head office, leaves companies with no choice but to exit the province.
Secondly, the publication of the special dispensation might very well trigger an avalanche of requests by other companies for the same treatment, undermining the holy tenet of French in the workplace.
For the OQLF it's a lose/lose situation.

Where to go and what to do to preserve and promote French in the workplace is a sticky wicket. For language militants, the solution is cut and dried, French at all times and damn the jobs.

For a responsible government, preserving French in the workplace must be tempered with another obligation, the obligation to create a society where companies can flourish and prosper and where decent paying jobs are preserved.

By opening up the debate about language Mr. Lisée and friends do Quebecers a service, although they may come to rue their decision to open Pandora's box.

Preserving French in the office can no longer be characterized as zero-sum or free, that much is now clear.
What will happen when a company like Bombardier says no to the OQLF and threatens to leave?
Will we have a repeat Sun Life and will some Quebecers have to confront the reality of working in English or collecting unemployment in French?

French militants like Mr. Lisée have opened a debate that should have been held three decades ago -
French at what cost?

Mr. Lisée and friends, can weave their pipe dreams and fantasies which make good print and television, but in the real world, the cold hard reality of English is a fact of life that Quebecers must confront and unfortunately, not on their own terms.

Defending Quebec Values?

2011-12-14T00:00:00.000-05:00

Jean-Marc Fournier...begging Conservatives for changes.

Recently the Quebec justice minister, Jean-Marc Fournier went to Ottawa on no less than two occasions to ~~demand~~ beg that Ottawa soften the Conservatives new crime bill, C-10, to reflect the values of Quebec society.

Mr. Fournier has the backing of the Quebec corrections industry, the experts and the media, who almost all universally opposes the government's plan to get tougher on crime.

But despite the almost blanket condemnation of the crime bill in the Quebec Press, the question whether Mr. Fournier's position actually reflects "Quebec Values" remains open.
Do the majority of Quebecers really support Quebec's kid glove approach to criminals or does the public support the get tough on crime proposals of the Conservatives?

While Mr. Fournier has a brief to speak for the Quebec government, he is also telling all who'd listen, that the Quebec government's position, vis-a-vis crime and punishment is backed by most Quebecers. Hmm....

Quebec’s Justice Minister left a meeting in disappointment and anger after his federal counterpart again rejected his demands for changes to Ottawa’s crime bill on Tuesday, saying: “I don’t recognize myself in this Canada.”
Jean-Marc Fournier said his province and the federal government have two visions of justice after Rob Nicholson refused during a meeting in Ottawa on Tuesday to change provisions of Bill C-10 that deal with young offenders....Mr. Fournier said Quebec’s values of leniency and rehabilitation for young offenders were being shunted aside in favour of tougher sentences. Link

Of course the following reaction from separatists was to be expected;

In Quebec's national assembly Tuesday, the Parti Quebecois argued that the province's pro-Canada premier, Jean Charest and his justice minister get no respect from Ottawa.
"It's clear: the values of Quebec and of Canada are different," said PQ Leader Pauline Marois.
"But the Canadian Constitution — which we never signed — is clear: criminal law is federal, and is created by a Parliament in which Quebec will become an ever-smaller minority." LINK

Réjean Pelletier, a professor of political science at Laval University in Quebec City, said that Quebec and Ottawa are likely to continue disagreeing on crime matters, especially the treatment of young offenders.
“Ottawa’s strategy on justice issues just doesn’t fly in Quebec,” Link

Running point for Ottawa's attempt to get tough on crime is Quebec Senator Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu who was appointed to the Senate almost two years ago by Harper with a mandate to spearhead efforts to get tougher on criminals.
The mild mannered senator is an-ex Quebec civil servant whose comfortable and ordered life was shattered by the brutal murder of his daughter Julie, who was kidnapped and murdered after being held captive for a 12-hour session of brutality and rape.
Hugo Bernier, who murdered Julie had been convicted of rape two years earlier, but was paroled just three months into his sentence and murdered Julie while on probation.

One of the key spokesmen for the Conservatives’ tough-justice agenda is Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu, a retired senior Quebec civil servant. Named to the Senate last January, the 62-year-old Boisvenu founded the Murdered or Missing Persons' Families' Association after the 2002 kidnap/rape/murder of his daughter Julie. In 2005, after he and his wife Diane lost their only other daughter in a traffic accident, Boisvenu wrote Survivre la innommable (Surviving the unnameable). In it, he wrote of the lack of support for the families of victims of crime. The book has become a touchstone for thousands of Quebeckers facing similar losses. He has been relentless in his criticism of lax police work and the judicial system’s lack of consideration for victims of crime and their families. Since becoming a senator, Boisvenu has been touring Canada to explain why the system punishes victims and their families — and how the Harper government is proposing to change it with a series of bills that end early parole and further limit judicial discretion. Link

Mr. Boisvenu represents the other side of the argument, the opinion that doesn't get much play or support on television or in the Press in Quebec. It's the opinion that believes that coddling criminals is the wrong thing to do and it actually reflects the attitude of most Quebecers who fall into line with what most ordinary Canadians also believe.

From his website;

“The problem isn’t crime, but recidivism. I’ve toured federal penitentiaries and provincial jails across the country...60 percent of the inmates are serving a second or subsequent term — that’s what’s costing us. As in education, it’s not success that costs us, but dropouts. Criminals returning a second, third, fourth time — they cost us because we’ve failed.

I have three terms in my vocabulary when I talk about the Canadian prison system:

Tough justice -Let’s not confuse laxity with tolerance.
Responsibility - The criminal is responsible for his rehabilitation, not the state. All the privileges the prison system currently offers — television, the trailer (conjugal visits), retraining programs — must be earned. The criminal must merit these privileges as a function of his rehabilitation.
Imputability - No payroll without participation, without effort. No unmerited automatic parole. Everything must be earned. We have a prison system more or less managed by committees of criminals. We’re buying the peace. That’s what’s costing us.
We must re-establish a set of conditions in our prison system so that these individuals have no desire to return. The first priority of the prison system should be the protection of the population, followed by the rehabilitation of the criminal. We’ve got it backwards!

To counter Mr. Boisvenu's position, his opponent's have made some pretty bizarre claims and stooped pretty low with some nasty personal attacks.
He has been berated publicly by some in the Press as having no legitimacy in the debate because he is unelected. This ironically from an unelected Press who usually complain that senators are lazy and do nothing to earn their salary.
He has also been cruelly accused of being vengeful because of his personal tragedy, and overly biased as a result.

But almost 80% of Quebecers say that they want a tougher approach on crime. Link{Fr}
So it appears that when it comes to values pertaining to crime and punishment, Quebecers fall neatly in line with other Canadians who also want harsher treatment of criminals by the same wide margin.
It seems that the only people out of line with these 'values' are those in the Quebec government and in the press who mislead the public by falsely claiming that Quebecers back their soft on crime approach.

Finally there's been some pushback. Marc-Bellemare, the ex-Liberal justice minister who accused the Charest government of political interference in the selction of judges, came out sharply in favour of the crime bill.

"The Conservatives' Bill C-10 will enhance the credibility of the judiciary in Quebec, where the fight against crime is the last priority of the Charest government." Link

He went on to counter the arguments made by opponents of the Bill;

Minimum sentences- "Is there one Quebecer who is against a minimum sentence of a year for a coach or a summer camp instructor who sexually abuses a minor? I would like to meet him"

Publically identifying a teenaged criminal "The court has to approve this. I have five children and I'd like to know if there's a 17 year old bum who killed two people, at risk of recidivism, living three blocks from my home. "

Adult sentences to minors -"It's not automatic, as Minister Fournier suggests. It's for cases of extreme violence. The Crown must apply and the judge must agree... "

Reduced discretion for judges- "For 30 years, Ottawa has increased the maximum penalties for a host of offences, but it isn't reflected in the severity of sentences. In reality, judges can choose between one and 14 years in prison. That's overly discretionary. "

Quebec values- "Minister Fournier did not speak on behalf of all Quebecers in Ottawa. I think Quebec values are consistent with this bill."

Senator Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu- "I agree with him when he said that Quebec is soft on criminals."

The 'defense lobby'- "Where was the lobby when I heard Guy Cloutier tell the parole board that he never was attracted to children and then released after serving 29 of the 42-month prison for which he was convicted? " LINK{Fr} .

Finally on Mario Dumont's nightly conservative talk show, Eric Duhaime did a nice job debunking the theory that Quebec's soft approach on crime and punishment is somehow more successful than elsewhere in Canada.
It isn't..

The idea that Quebec 'values' as pertaining to crime are different from Canadians is another great lie being shopped by a media that tries to sell their opinion as fact.

The Press and the politicians would have us believe that Quebecers are happy with revolving door prisons, just like they try to convince us that we should be afraid of bilingualism and that English store names should offend us.

As the old song goes; 'Tain't so, Honey, 'Tain't So!

Anglophobia a Cautionary Tale for Head Offices

2011-12-12T00:00:00.000-05:00

Bank of Montreal, Head office in Toronto

Way back when I was a high school student, I remember a particularly brutal food fight in the cafeteria that ended up causing several thousands of dollars in damage. As food whizzed around the room, it didn't take long for the mayhem to degenerate and soon trays and chairs were being tossed around with reckless abandon.
I recall thinking at the time that everyone had simply lost their mind.
Caught up in the hysteria, we see normally rational people doing the stupidest of things just because everyone else is doing it.

We saw this mob mentality take over during the Vancouver hockey riots after the Canucks were eliminated last year and here in Montreal....well, we've had too many similar mindless riots to single any one out.

Watching the language debate spiral up to dizzying heights over the fact that just two highly placed employees of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, are unilingually English, I cannot help being overcome with the same feeling.
....Has everyone lost their mind?

Last year I thought the government insane for proposing a law to ban niqabs, considering that less than two dozen women actually wear them in public, but now a law is being proposed, triggered by just two language 'offenders' and calls into question the rationality of language supremacists, begging the question as to whether the language debate has spun dangerously and ridiculously out of control.

The recent witch hunt aimed at rooting out English in Head offices and government agencies reached new heights of folly with the Parti Quebecois actually proposing a law to eradicate the scourge of English in ~~crown~~ government corporations. Link{Fr}

All this over two employees!

Adding to the charged climate, a PQ loudmouth, François Rebello, a sitting member of the National Assembly, has demanded that the government boycott the National Bank, all because the bank president decided to keep a unilingual English IT department in Montreal, rather than ship the jobs off to Toronto! Link{Fr}

I wonder if the 80% of the bank's employees, who work in Quebec(some 14,000 people,) appreciate a Quebec politician calling on the public to boycott the bank and put their jobs at risk!
Could you imagine the outrage if a federal MP asked Canadians to boycott Quebec dairy products because there are too many separatists in Quebec!

Truly we have lost all sense of proportion and like during that food fight forty years ago I feel inclined to jump up on a chair and shout "STOP THE INSANITY!"

Hysteria... there's really no other way to describe the language pogrom that is sweeping the offices of Quebec's largest and most successful companies, where disaffected and passed over employees get to denounce their company like Nazi collaborators. They do so, encouraged by an eager Press, ready, willing and able to whip up a frenzy of controversy that will no doubt have the effect of killing the golden goose.

While the Caisse de dépôt has no choice but to knuckle under, other companies are able to exercise free will and the chilling damper on reason will no doubt affect decisions whether to locate in Quebec or elsewhere.
A couple of years ago the city of London, Ontario tried to convince Montreal's Shriner's Hospital to relocate to Ontario, with an incredibly generous financial offer, which Quebec was forced to better. Had the offer come from Toronto, the hospital would likely have moved, London being too out of the way, travel-wise, for the Shriners' clients.

While that tug-of-war played out favourably for Quebec, it was a rare and costly win, hundreds of other competitions for head offices, factories and companies occurs each day, with Quebec losing out, most of the time.

Today Montreal enjoys a booming video game industry, cultivated by long years of government subsidies and tax breaks.
This industry utilizes the highest level of information technology as well as the creative talent of superstar programmers and game conceptors, drawn from all over the world. It runs in English.
The video games produced, although translated into French and many other languages, are the creation of an English culture.
Conduct a language witch hunt and order this industry to operate in French and we can anticipate a lineup of cities begging to relocate the industry with a package of incentives that will more than make up the cost of moving.
It would be devastating.

Quebec would be well advised to recognize the unseen hand that renders legislation subservient to market forces. Losing a head office that never came because of language issues is just as painful as having one snatched away.

In our last French vs. English piece I told you that Air Canada was moving 160 jobs to Toronto, all without publicity, so as not to create another controversy.
Last Thursday, the union head, representing head office employees hit the panic button and fretted publicly that this move may just be the beginning of a total migration of Air Canada's head office to Toronto. Between language laws and market realities, it's probably just a matter of time.

So how important is it for Quebec to nurture those companies that do choose to keep their head offices in Montreal?
If one cares about economic prosperity I imagine it's of paramount importance.

By refusing to allow companies that operate internationally or in industries where English is de rigueur, the right to have run even the smallest of departments in English, the government has cleared the way for them to either pack up and move and worse still never even consider Montreal in the first place.

Well done!

On Thursday, as the witch hunt proceeded, La Presse revealed that Bombardier was given a special dispensation to operate part of its aviation business in English in Montreal. Link{Fr}
A francophone employee complained to the newspaper that;

"These are people of exceptional talent, but who have no interest in learning our language. Never a 'Bonjour' or a 'Merci.' "

I guess 13,000 jobs makes a difference, even to the OQLF. (if not language supremacists)
But the question remains....what is the threshold.

Over at CGI, another technology giant based in Montreal, no such dispensation exists. Some employees are calling reporters to complain about English usage in the Head office. The company has 31,000 employees and 125 offices in 20 countries. Link{Fr}
Hellooooo Toronto?

Of course language militants don't care and in the name of linguistic purity are willing to forgo the benefits of tens of thousand of well-paying jobs.
I daresay that if an international company approached the government about locating a thousand employees in a new Montreal office with the proviso that 100 of the jobs would be English only, the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Impératif français and all the other language supremicists would scream at the top of their lungs to reject the offer.

Sometimes I get the feeling that the separatists are trying to blow up the province economically, so that people suffer financially and unemployment rises, more will be attracted to the separatist pipe dream.
This is Quebec..

I remain in favour of Quebecers maintaining the right to work in French. Gone are the days of the master and slave.
But a law making French the language of work universal in all cases is counter-productive.

In an inter-connected world, the glue that binds is English. It's a realty that Quebec must face realistically and come to terms with the problem of jobs versus pride.

The answer to reasonable people is clear, it isn't exactly Sophie's Choice.

French versus English Volume 41

2011-12-09T00:00:00.000-05:00

More English schools to close
At the same time that French-language militants ratchet up the hysterics, proclaiming that the sky is falling in on the French language, the English Montreal School Board started hearings on Monday at its head office to determine which schools it will close or merge in the coming years. Because of the effects of Bill101 and Bill 103 enrolment is down 20% in the last ten years.

"Starting Monday night, the English Montreal School Board (EMSB) will hear from school communities as it decides whether to close, relocate, or merge them.
Seven schools are facing closure or merger and a handful more could be relocated.
The EMSB has said it must close several schools because of declining enrolment, which has dropped by 20 per cent in the last decade. "
Read the rest of the story

Here's the sad list of prospective closure and relocations.

Monday, Dec. 5
Nesbitt School (closure)
Perspectives II High School (relocation)
St. Brendan School (closure)
St. Pius X Adult Education Centre (relocation)
Vincent Massey Collegiate (relocation)

Tuesday, Dec. 6
Carlyle School (closure)
Marymount Adult Education Centre (relocation)
Royal Vale School (relocation)
St. Raphaël School (relocation)

Wednesday, Dec. 7
James Lyng High School (closure)
Programme Mile-End High School (relocation)
St. Gabriel/St. John Bosco School (closure)
Vezina High School (relocation)

Thursday, Dec. 8
Advisory Committee on Special Education Services
Central Parents' Committee
Fraser Academy (closure)
Westmount Park district boundary

All this week, the scene at the EMSB headquarters was incredibly sad, with parent and teachers making presentations as to why their school shouldn't close, competing with other parents from other schools trying to do the same..

New assault on Christmas
The province of Quebec continues its assault on religion across the board and despite the Conservative government in Ottawa ordering SERVICE CANADA to rescind an order to ban Christmas decorations, the writing seems to be on the wall. A senior member of Montreal's ruling party, proclaimed that decorations would be limited to 'generic' types of displays and so while the Christmas tree is out, the identical 'Holiday' tree is permissible Ugh!
The Montreal suburb of Town of Mont-Royal decided to pull it's Christmas and Hanukkah decorations in front of city hall after it received a complaint by a Muslim. The town should have called his bluff and offered to display a likeness of Mohamed (which actually is strictly verboten under Islamic law.) In fact, the Islamic faith has a ban on all physical representations of faith and so actually nothing can be displayed! Ha!

"The tree in front of City Hall will remain decorated. "We make a distinction between religious symbols and Christmas decorations, says Philippe Roy(the mayor). Christmas is religious for some, but for others it's cultural. There are non-Christians who have a Christmas tree. " Really, is he kidding? Link{FR}

Decor ban reversed for Service Canada in Quebec

TMR latest to refrain from religious decorations

Too much English at Urgences Santé
The union is complaining that too much English is being used in the transmission of information between paramedics and dispatchers. A new protocol insists that if a patient calls the ambulance service and complains of 'chest pains,' that the paramedic be informed by the dispatcher that the condition is 'Chest pains' and not "douleur thoracique," a French translation. The rationale is to avoid translation errors.
Anybody see a problem here?

The l'Office québécois de la langue française, is looking to put and end to this practice.

Interestingly the article denotes that over one third of calls received by the ambulance service in Montreal and Laval are made IN ENGLISH. Link{Fr}
The head of the union of ambulance attendants told a CTV reporter that almost HALF the calls made in this region are in ENGLISH!

Strangely, this may be the most definitive proof that the percentage of English speakers in Montreal and Laval is really much, much higher than we are led to believe!

It backs up what I've always maintained, that if you count the territory west of Saint Lawrence Boulevard in Montreal, English is the majority language and this includes the downtown core!

Short stuff

A mob of language militants demonstrated in front of a government office complaining that too many services were being offered in English to companies, contrary to Bill 101.
As most government agencies are withdrawing English services and removing their bilingual websites, one agency stubbornly refuses.... the Tax department.
Readers, can anyone venture a reason why?

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In a story interestingly similar to that of KIF KIF IMPORT, a new Sherbrooke junior hockey team has been named the "PHOENIX " which immediately brought down the wrath French language supremacists who demanded the team be called the "PHENIX"
While the word "Phoenix" does appear in the French dictionary, according to the militants, it doesn't refer to the mythical bird and so they accused the team of choosing an English name.

**************

Franz Schuller, artistic director of the record company and a member of Indica Grimskunk, rock legend independent Quebec, is launching a division, whose mandate is to promote young French rock bands with a young audience. In conducting an informal survey of the musical tastes of high school students he became aware of the gap between them and the French-speaking artists.
When asked to list their favourite 10 francophone artists, they often mentioned only one name, the popular singer Marie-Mai. Sometimes the name 'Les Trois Accords' made the list, but most of the time, eight or nine of the ten boxes remained empty. Ouch!
Readers....do I hear government subsidy?

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At a forum discussing the financing of this year's annual Fête nationale celebrations in Quebec city, the president of the organization that is in charge of putting on the show, Chantale Trottier of the Mouvement national des Québécois, reminded everyone that Anglophone artists would be welcome.....as long as they sang in French and addressed the audience in French. Link{Fr}

**************

Here's some insightful reporting from the Montreal Gazette's Pat Hickey;
Headline December 2- Montreal Canadiens' Markov's comeback imminent
Headline December 3- Markov's return delayed

**************

I don't know if Jean-Marc Fournier, the Quebec justice minister, is reacting to his not so successful visit to Ottawa to plead for changes in the Conservatives new crime bill, but his chief of staff, Helene Menard, confirmed yesterday that he will cease to give bilingual press conferences and answer questions only in French from here on in. Link

**************

"Two prominent Montreal politicians are defending their French language skills after a popular radio host said their level of French is insulting.
On his radio show and on Twitter, Benoît Dutrizac took aim at Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce mayor Michael Applebaum and city councillor Marvin Rotrund. Link

**************

New Brunswick drunk aquitted because cop didn't speak French

"The New Brunswick Court of Appeal has ruled that police officers must follow the province's Official Languages Act when they arrest people. The three-judge panel unanimously upheld a decision by a Court of Queen's Bench judge confirming the acquittal of Serge Alain Losier on two drunk driving charges because the arresting officer did not speak French.

Losier was arrested Sept. 4, 2008, by a Fredericton police officer after being stopped at a checkpoint. The arresting officer did not speak French, and Losier's English skills were poor." Read the rest of the story

vigile.net supports Syrian repression

It's always useful to hear opinions differing from what mainstream society generally accepts, it's an essential elementary that makes democracy work.

Good to see that vigile.net is upholding this principle and is promoting the murdering Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad

Here are a bunch of stories appearing om vigile.net in the past month, all are written in French.

Readers, I haven't cherry-picked just stories supporting the Assad regime, you can see a Google search of all stories concerning Syria on vigile.net Here..

...or view vigile.net's own collection of mostly pro-Syrian regime stories Here including these pearls;

Syrie : le génocide de l’OTAN approche (NATO genocide approaching)

Mensonges et vérités sur la Syrie (Lies and truth about Syria )

Les disciples de Goebbels à l’œuvre contre la Syrie (Disciples of Goebbels at work against Syria)

Menacer l’Iran et préparer l’invasion de la Syrie (Threaten Iran and prepare to invade Syria)
La Syrie, Terre d’asile et de culture (Syria, land of asylum and culture)

Well Done!!

How about some support for Kim Jong-il?
Quote of the Week

"....But when I saw and heard the commercial for Les Habits St-Eustache on the V televison network, it was the straw that broke the camel's back. (because of English background music-ed.) This shop is located opposite the church, where our patriots were brutally killed by the English, now part of global conspiracy by Canadians and others whose mission is to make us disappear. I will never buy clothes in this store. -Daniel Roy C.A.

Weekend Viewing & Reading

For those who speak French here are three special treats.
Read a fantastic piece that is causing a stir; Doléances pour un Québec dépassé
Read a fantastic rant inspired by the first; J’aimerais être fier de ma nation

Here's an interview of Mario Beaulieu getting pulverized on a French language television show, Face a Face, by hosts Caroline Proulx and Stéphane Gendron. It's a jewel!
I found the link to the interview on the separtist website Mouvement Québec français, but can't for the life of me understand why they would link to such a humiliation.

Click to watch video

Here's a wonderful documentary in three parts on Anglos who left Montreal, which I found cruising the website of Michel Patrice.
Check it out, it's worth the visit.

"This first part is seen through the eyes of 6 friends who left Montreal in the 70's, after the separatist Parti Quebecois first came to power in the province, and the threat of separation for them became very real. They talk about the October crisis, feeling alienated and as they saw it, the limited opportunities for English speakers in Montreal." Phil Carpenter

Moving On; A Documentary in 3 Parts. Pt1: The First Wave from Phil Carpenter on Vimeo.

"This second part is seen through the eyes of 3 professionals including well-know radio personality Terry DiMonte, who left Montreal in the 90's, and later after the second provincial referendum on Quebec's place in Canada. They talk about feeling alienated and as they saw it, the limited opportunities for English speakers in Montreal." Phil Carpenter

Moving On; A Documentary in 3 Parts. Pt2: The Second Wave from Phil Carpenter on Vimeo.

"This final part tells how people who left, feel about Montreal and Quebec since the last provincial referendum on Quebec's place in Canada. They talk about how the politics has changed, and how the desire for separation among young people in 2008 might not be as strong as it was in previous years."- Phil Carpenter

Moving On; A Documentary in 3 Parts: Montreal Reborn from Phil Carpenter on Vimeo.

Some Goood News!

Listen to the perfect voice of the very talented Marc Martel a bilingual Anglo, who hit the jackpot, scoring a gig as the "Freddy Mercury" lead in the Queen tribute band tour next year!

"Montreal-born vocalist Marc Martel, Quebec City bass player François Olivier Doyon and Toronto guitarist Tristan Avakian are among the winners announced Thursday in the Queen Extravaganza contest.
They auditioned via video before flying to Los Angeles earlier this week for a live audition in front of Queen drummer/songwriter Roger Taylor. The winners will tour next year in a Queen tribute band, recreating the Queen arena experience with songs such as Bohemian Rhapsody and We are the Champions."

Watch and enjoy!

BRAVO!!!! Want more: Marc Martel does Bohemian Rhapsody

Monday's post;

Quebec Anglophobia, a Cautionary Tale for Head Offices...

What Makes Pauline Marois Tick?

2011-12-07T00:00:00.000-05:00

Over these last years of blogging, I've refrained from writing much about Pauline Marois largely because I didn't believe I could bring much insight. Aside from crossing her in the hall a couple of times, she, like other peekists remain largely a mystery to me.

But events surrounding her these last months have been nothing short of extraordinary and even as an uniformed observer I'd like to make some general observations.
At least it will allow readers a platform to sound off in the comments section.

First things first.
If you are a federalist like myself, you cannot help but hope Madame Marois hangs on as long as she can. The destructive forces surrounding her leadership serve to discredit the entire sovereignty movement and realistically, as long as she is leader, the PQ isn't going to win any elections.

The utter lack of faith in her within her own caucus and the very public displays of disrespect, is an unheralded situation that leaves the electorate convinced that the party is unfit to govern, sovereignty or federalism aside.
Could you imagine how you'd feel if the door to the cockpit of a plane you've just boarded was left open and you heard the pilot and co-pilot screaming at each other before takeoff? LEMME OFF!!

Readers, I'd like you to consider the situation in the Quebec Liberal party, where scandal after scandal has ripped through the party, yet Premier Charest endures, untouched by insurrection among the party faithful.
Solidarity is just about the only thing the Liberals have left and perhaps the PQ could take a lesson, but as I said, as a federalist, I hope not!
Every political party in Canada understands that without solidarity and loyalty towards the leader, a party cannot expect to win the confidence of the people. Everybody except the Peekists, that is and so it is no surprise they are paying the price in the opinion polls.

One thing I've discovered about Pauline of late is that she's made of sterner stuff than her predecessors, the PQ leaders before her, who abandoned the job rather abruptly, either pushed or in a fit of pique.

The PQ caucus has always been a hotbed of discontent, with every member seeming to have leadership aspirations which they hope to enhance by backstabbing the leader.

And so, it's been a PQ tradition to dump their leaders rather unceremoniously and without much respect.
The fact that Levesque, Parizeau, Boisclair, Bouchard and Landry went so quietly and without a fuss belied the fact that the PQ is a political party steeped in the tradition of patricide and perhaps soon to be, matricide.

But Marois' fall from grace has little to do with her leadership skills as is claimed by the backstabbers. She is, simply put, the fall girl for the political fortunes of sovereignty, which seems to have fallen out of favour with Quebecers, who cringe at the thought of another losing referendum.

Like a cellar dwelling hockey team, it's the coach who gets the blame and subsequently the axe for poor performance.
For the PQ, blaming Pauline is just about the only choice they can make, the other option is to admit that the party platform which is based on sovereignty just doesn't resonate with Quebecers any more. That scenario is unthinkable and so Pauline must be the problem.

But Marois isn't going quietly, something PQ veterans seem to be astounded at.

By sticking around in the face of so much adversity and hostility Madame Marois displays an utter 'sang froid,' and stubbornness that I never knew she had. Her capacity to soldier on in the face of so much back-stabbing, is simply amazing.

Madame et Messier PaulineMarois

Madame Marois has always been an expert political 'operator' cut from the same cloth as Jean Charest. She has survived her own scandals with barely a scratch.
Her detestable husband, Claude Blanchet, is wealthy in his own right. While Marois was a cabinet minister in the PQ government of Jacques Parizeau, her husband was appointed, as director of a new Quebec government investment agency, the Société générale de financement du Québec but was eventually forced out over charges of gross incompetence. During his five year tenure at the helm of the agency, it lost over $800 million, during which time, he and senior management paid themselves generous bonuses, year after losing year!' When he was finally ousted, he negotiated himself an $80,000 pension for life, as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in severance!
I've been told off the record, by businessmen who know him professionally, that he's the type of guy that you count your fingers after shaking hands with him.

The power couple live in a controversial eight million mansion on Île Bizard, which was the subject of considerable controversy at one point. It was alleged in the Montreal Gazette that the couple paid off someone in order to legitimize a zoning change for the property. Read: How estate was built on public, farm lands.
See breathtaking pictures of the chateau Here
The couple sued the Gazette for $2 million over the article, but when the controversy petered out as expected, they settled out of court with the newspaper. The Gazette in the strangest of settlements, admitted that the story could have caused the couple harm, but was in fact true...Huh? Link{Fr}

So Madame Marois is not any stranger to being attacked over personal ethics and like Premier Charest is an expert at the political game of shuck and jive.

Like the Energizer bunny, Madame Marois just keeps going and going, but at this point it's fair to ask, why she is trying so hard to maintain her position, which by all counts appears untenable.

What on earth is a girl to do?

While I hope she stays, the Christmas recess might give Pauline the quiet time necessary to decide that it might be time to give up the ghost.

The loss of the by-election on Monday, in Bonaventure, while expected(it's a Liberal stronghold,) is still frustrating for Peekists. Watching the hated Premier Charest hold a riding while being so unpopular must be galling and even though PQ support actually rose, it remains little consolation to hardliners in the caucus, a third of whom need another term in the National assembly to become eligible for a pension.
Now with polls indicating that the PQ can do better with Gilles Duceppe at the helm, perhaps even winning, the pressure on Marois to leave is enormous.

If she does leave, I hope she blows up the party as a parting gift.
How?
She could either give a speech wherein she buries the sovereignty option or worse still stay on long enough to put a referendum back on the front burner.

If she publicly commits to a referendum within six months of taking power, come Hell or high water, it would satisfy the militants, but destroy any chance of electoral success at the polls.

As Christmas approaches, I can't think of a better present for federalists.
Ah....to dream!

Living in Montreal Unilingualy

2011-12-05T00:00:00.000-05:00

One of the most annoying Francophone columnists I know is the insufferable Jean-François Lisée, whose stock in trade are articles bashing anglos or articles defending or in fact extolling the virtues of the Quebec 'model'

Mr. Lisée is the favourite target of conservative bloggers who regularly rip apart his voodoo calculations or cherry-picked statistics.

In one of his most memorable pieces, he quotes a study that concludes that Quebecers don't really pay a heavy price for their very generous social services.
The study calculates the federal and provincial taxes paid by Quebecers in addition to payroll charges and levies and compares that to the value of the social services received in return.
Sounds great, until you realize that the study fails to include federal and provincial sales taxes, gas tax, school taxes, liquor tax etc.etc.
Hilariously the study actually puts a PST and GST credit in the benefits column without ever applying the actual PST and GST taxes in the taxes paid column! See the chart Here
Read the wonderful rebuttal to his nonsense entitled, Les temps sont durs pour Jean-François Lisée

Another one of my preferred bloggers, is the always entertaining 'DAVID" over on antagonist.net who regularly skewers Mr. Lisée in articles like "Arguing with Idiots"

In one particular piece DAVID critiques a piece wherein Mr. Lisée disparages the United States over the inequities of income distribution.
In that piece, Mr. Lisée tells us (quite rightly) that between 1979 and 2007, income for the top 20% of American earners went up 95%, while income for the bottom 20% went up only 16%, quite a disparity!

Our industrious blogger David, added in some data comparing Quebec to the United States and found that during this same period, income for the top 20% of Quebecers earners went up an anemic 10%, while income for the bottom 20% went up only 4%.

In fact, DAVID points out, income for the poorest Americans went up four times faster than in Quebec. Ha!

When not offering a rosy economic picture of Quebec, Mr. Lisée is busy bashing Anglo Quebecers or Canadians in general.

In a recent blog piece Mr. Lisée complains that there are too many Anglophone Montrealers who refuse to learn French.
It all started with a radio interview on the Montreal CBC's Daybreak show where the subject was just that- unilingual Montreal Anglos who don't learn French.
The moderator Mike Finnerty, talked with Sherwin Tjia, an artist who moved here from Toronto a decade ago and never learned French. Worse still he remains unapologetic. Listen to the Interview

“I’ve been to parties and met Francophones and they say, “You don’t speak French? How long have you been here?” They ask that question with an agenda. They aren’t really interested in how long I’ve been here. [...] the agenda isn’t subtle – they want to be able to come to some kind of conclusion about you, and by extension, tell you how you should be.
In their mind, there’s some kind of Language Statute of Limitations. If I’ve been in Quebec longer than like, two years, and don’t know French – that’s too long. In their opinion, everyone in Quebec should be bilingual, or working towards it. At these parties, they say to me, “You should learn,” almost like a threat.”- Sherwin Tjia

Of course, the interview brought down a storm of criticism, tinged with rage, by the usual suspects of French language supremacists.

"This hostile indifference to our culture is the consequence of the undermining in recent years of the French language in Quebec, as was noted by columnist Jean-François Lisée in an article entitled "Is the Unilingue anglais back" which appeared on his blog. Alas! All this is only too true. For my part I would add that the least assimilable immigrants, the most arrogant, often come from the Commonwealth and serve as a spearhead for the eternal red necks, that ever since our conquest, refuse to accept that French is a language spoken in Montreal."- Read more of this rant by Gilles Proulx Link{Fr}

Read a subsequent interview with Mr. Tjia over the furious reaction his radio appearance engendered in the Francophone press. LINK

Mr Proulx and Mr Lisée both make their assertion that Anglos must learn French to be good citizens, based on a false premise which holds that Quebec is an independent country, not a province in a majorly English country.
The idea that all public discourse in Montreal must be in French, is based on this fruit of a poisonous premise.

I have maintained all along that Montreal is not a French city, but rather a bilingual city. Perhaps it's time to reassess that appraisal and admit that Montreal is actually three cities, a bilingual one, a French one and an English one.
There are those who live bilingually in Montreal while others live unilingually, either in French or English.
That's the way it is.
For Mr. Proulx and Mr. Lisée to pretend that Montreal is a French city because 79% of the province of Quebec is French is just another case of cherry-picked statistics.
There is a block of English speakers, over 500,000, that make Montreal their home. Putting a finer point on it, almost all of these Anglos live west of St. Lawrence boulevard(which neatly divides the city in two), wherein they likely form the majority!

Insufferable anglophobes like Proulx and Lisée continue to propagate the myth that Montreal is French because the province is 79% francophone.
And they continue to believe that the English live in Quebec by the benevolent good grace of the francophone majority and that furthermore, Anglos should be thankful and respectful for being tolerated.

It is an indisputable fact that one can get along quite nicely in Montreal without French, something that outrages the Proulxs, the Lisées and other French language supremacists.
And so it also follows, that in Montreal, there are people who speak only English, just as it is natural that in Pointe-aux-Trembles there are people who speak only French.

Living in English in Montreal...YESSIR!

Let's see.
My wife has a friend who came to this province many decades ago and married an Anglo Montrealer.
She settled in one of those English town that boasts more than 70% English residents. Everyone on the street where she lived was English. She raised a family, sent her kids to English school and shopped in stores where the clerks were all English, including downtown Montreal.
Television, newspapers, entertainment and dining out....all in English.
Even the repairman who came to fix her washer or stove spoke English, even if he was French.

In forty odd years she hasn't learnt one word of French and still doesn't speak anything but English.
She couldn't tell you who Beau Dommage is or VLB or what Loft Story or Occupation Double represents. She couldn't recognize a picture of Ginette Reno or Roch Voisine.
Ironically she does know who Celine Dion is....
She never in life turned her television onto a French channel or listened to the likes of Gilles Proulx on the radio. As far a she is concerned La Presse may as well be written in Greek, it is of no import to her.
As for missing out on French culture, she along with 330 million north Americans get on quite nicely without it, she isn't really deprived.

Unlike what Mr. Lisée and Mr Proulx would have us believe, she committed no great crime, no bigger than a unilingual francophone who spent her whole life in Montreal speaking only French.

Years ago I made a road trip with a francophone employee, a senior member of management, who astonished me by asking me the name of the musical group playing on the radio. When I told him it was the Barenaked Ladies, he shrugged his shoulders and admitted he never heard of them.
When I forced a lunch stop (I was the boss) at Smoked Meat Pete's out in Pincourt, he asked for mayonnaise for his smoked meat sandwich and ordered a glass of milk. Eccch.....
Not a word of English, not a clue about smoked meat and he lived in Montreal all his life. Egad!

So what....

Yes, you can live in Montreal never speaking a word of French, just as you can live in Montreal never speaking a word of English. You can safely ignore the 'other culture' if you so choose and get along quite well, thank you very much.

To each his own.... Speak French, speak English, speak both. It's your choice.
Absorb the culture of others or don't, it's your choice.

In the world of Proulx and Lisee 'choice' is not an option, it is in fact, a dirty word.

These two dinosaurs remain what they are, arrogant language supremacists and Anglophobes extrodinaire.

Do I support being unilingual in a society of two languages?
No, I've made my choice to speak French and am happy with that decision.
But I will not choose for others or force my opinion on them, either. No.

And so my advice to Sherwin Tjia is that you've got nothing to apologize for.
To those who dislike the fact that you live in the Mile End and speak only English, tell them what they've been telling us Anglos for years;

'If you don't like it, move away.'