French versus English Volume 107

Khadirs' Sad Parental Legacy

Yalda Machouf- Khadir...never had a chance..

Last Tuesday Amir Khadir's daughter Yalda, finally faced justice in a Montreal court for the many charges she was looking at in relation to rioting and destruction of property during the student uprising.
Yalda Machouf-Khadir quite literally had her fingerprints lifted at one crime scene as well as having her face caught on tape at another. She was in modern parlance, caught dead to rights  and had little choice but to admit to her crimes.
Looking for leniency, she pleaded guilty, but prosecutors refused to agree to a slap on the wrist as they did with the majority of those charged along side her.
It seems that prosecutors definitely wanted her blood.

"Yalda Machouf-Khadir, 20, pleaded guilty to one count of mischief in relation to a protest at the CEGEP du Vieux Montréal on Feb. 16, 2012 during which she and two other people pushed over a soft drink machine to try to block an entrance with it. She also admitted to conspiring to commit mischief, wearing a disguise while committing a criminal act and break and entry when students forcibly occupied and damaged the main pavilion of the Université de Montréal on April 12 and the office of then-education minister Line Beauchamp on April 13.

“We feel these are serious crimes, and there was a certain continuity,” said Crown prosecutor Martin Chalifour. “A lot of students accused of crimes during the student protests had participated in only one event. Those were isolated actions. For Mr. Marotte and Mme. Khadir there were several events, so that has an impact on the sentencing arguments.” Link

Parents of the year......

In addition to the many charges against her, she is being sued for $100,000 in relation to her participation in a destructive rampage that destroyed university property.

Now this post is not meant to single out, castigate or dump on Yalda for her extreme activism, she is a product of her upbringing and for that I am sad for her, being brought up in the Khadir family, she never had a chance.
Here's what I wrote a while back in a post on Amir Khadir entitled: Amir Khadir Has a Lot to Hide

"Amir learned dissent early, his parents being radicals themselves. He first met his future wife Nima Machouf as a child at the various radical demonstrations that both their parents dragged them to, on a regular basis. 

His father is an aging communist, who reminds me of the over the hill stoner comedian 'Cheech," living in a 1970's fantasy and regurgitating dogma, woefully out of date.  Jafar Khadir is a sad character living in the past, who parrots ideas that have long since been discredited, even in Russia and China.  He was a long-time member of the executive council of the Quebec Communist Party and still keeps actively involved.
Jafar has militated on a variety of radical causes and back in 2002 was stopped at the US border, where he was held for eight hours and ultimately refused entry with the warning not to come back.

I'm one of those who cringe at parents who radicalize their children at an early age as did Amir Khadir and his wife Nina Machouf, shlepping their children to communist demonstrations at an early age and turning them against the very country that welcomed them with open arms and gave them safe haven from the madness of their homeland in Iran.

Amir himself is also the product of parental radicalization, his father a died in the wool communist named Jafar, a millionaire communist, who for many years helped finance the Communist Party of Quebec.
Read my previous posts'
Khadirs-Three Generations of Nutters
Communists Frolic at Khadir Chalet
Amir Khadir Has a Lot to Hide 

And so poor Yalda will likely get some sort of jail sentence, while not long, devastating just the same. While most student radicals grow out of their activism with maturity, I'm not sure that Yalda will, to judge by her parents.
At any rate, her criminal record will follow her around pretty much the rest of her life, condemning her to a life in Quebec, where these things aren't held against you, as compared to the rest of the world.

Every time I see a demonstration that includes little children, whether it be Pro-Life, Pro-Choice, or pro or con anything whatever, I'm sad to think that parents believe that children are to be used as tools.
Canada's most famous radicalized child-soldier, Omar Khadar has spent most of his life in jail having been convicted by an American military court for murdering a US soldier at age fifteen. He was radicalized by his proud terrorist father.
"A 2008 biography written by al Qaeda praises the elder Khadr for "tossing his little child in the furnace of the battle" Wikipedia

It's hard to be sympathetic, but then again, its hard not to be sympathetic.

School Board Taxes...How soon we forget.

Liberal Education minister Yves Bolduc  "You see, it's like this..."

In Quebec, public schools up to college, are run by 72 different school boards, some English, but mostly French. They are funded in part by the government and in addition by money raised by school boards themselves, through taxes levied directly on homeowners.
Last year, in a desperate attempt to cut expenses the PQ government cut the subsidy to the school boards by some $200 million, arrogantly telling the school boards to cut expenses, as if it were that easy.

Instead the school boards raised the tax rate on homeowners to make up the difference and lo and behold, some taxpayers saw their school tax bill rise by over 30%!
The then PQ education minister Marie Malavoy supported those tax increases, calling them within the bounds of the law, but when the public rose in a furious protest, the PQ government reacted by scolding the school boards for their greed and actually ordered them to pay back the money via rebates over the next few years. Malavoy was made the scapegoat and asked not to run again in the last election.
But the PQ was defeated and the school boards soon forgot about their obligation to return the money, it was never officially memorialized.

Enter the new Liberal government which announced that not only wouldn't the money be returned, but that school taxes would be going up again this year, but modestly to reflect inflation.

Hilariously, the PQ is hammering the Liberals for not forcing the school boards to return the $200 million to taxpayers, with the PQ leader Stéphane Bédard  saying that because the Liberals are in a majority, they could force the school to refund the money, something the PQ couldn't do because it was in a minority government.
I wonder if these politicians listen to themselves talk?

And that readers, is how governments operate in Quebec. It isn't what is right, it isn't what is fair...it's what you can get away with.
And so taxpayers aren't beefing about the small increase that the Liberals imposed, because the whopping increase by the PQ is already digested.
I guess it's like the price of gas that jumps by 12 cents a litre one day, only to fall back by two or three  cents in the coming days, giving us the sense of a bargain.

My my, what suckers we are!

Is Mulroney just a Péladeau beard?

The Globe and Mail is reporting that Brian Mulroney will take over as chairman of Quebecor as the company looks to soften its association with separatist owner Pierre-Karl Péladeau.
The newspaper is reporting that PKP, contrary to his pledge, has been involved in the management of the company of which he is majority shareholder, but in which he holds no position.
This while he sits as a provincial MP with leadership aspirations.

His alleged behind the scene string-pulling at Quebecor is said to have irked Robert Dépatie, the ex-chairman of Quebecor who resigned last month.

"A source close to the company said Mr. Péladeau remained actively involved in the operations despite no longer holding an executive position. This “blurred the lines of authority” within Quebecor and contributed to Mr. Dépatie’s recent departure." Link

And so Brian lives up to his own famous dictum that reminds us that 'there's no whore, like an old whore' and suffers no ethical dilemma in serving and doing the bidding of his separatist master.

"Quebec's most influential separatist doesn't seem like a betrayal of Canada or federalism.
It’s unclear whether Pierre Karl Péladeau realized how big of an impact his move into sovereigntist politics would have on Quebecor’s future business prospects. But Brian Mulroney sure did. The former prime minister’s move into the chairman’s seat at the media conglomerate is implicitly aimed at repairing the damage Mr. Péladeau’s infamous fist pump did to the company’s brand.  Link

No doubt Mulroney, who is 75, is but a figurehead, a beard, called forward to keep up appearances in order to convince Canadians, more importantly federal regulators that Quebecor  is just a good ole' boy, not a separatist driven media conglomerate.

I wonder how the rest of Canada is reacting to Mulroney's duplicitous pussyfooting with separatists.

Incredibly, new Liberal government backs wasteful wind and mini-electricity generation projects

It was Yogi Berra, the venerable manger of the new York Yankees who coined the memorable phrase "It's deja vu, all over again!"
It was like listening to a recording of the old PQ government when the Liberals rose in defence of the wind and co-generation projects that produce un-needed electricity at three times the price of idled power plants.

"Premier Philippe Couillard agreed that these mini-centrales electricity purchases would have a "minimal impact of 0.2%" on Hydro-Québec's rates charged to consumers. "We will resume the  mini-plant program. We will realize the benefit of communities, "promised Mr. Couillard.

For his part, the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Pierre Arcand argued that wind power generates 5,000 jobs in Quebec. "We must make the choice to keep these jobs," said Arcand. As for the surplus energy that continues to accumulate in the Hydro-Québec reservoirs, Pierre Arcand argues that this is then a comparative advantage which may be of interest to investors to settle in Quebec."

All this in response to CAQ questions in the National Assembly claiming that each of the jobs created by these programs actually costs the government $200,000. Link{fr}

Never mind Yogi Berra, the French have a saying all their own.
"Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose"  (The more it changes, the more it stays the same) 
 

King of the depanneur blasts Quebec welfare

It's too bad that the English media didn't cover a speech given by depanneur king Alan Bouchard, CEO of Alimentation Couche-Tard, who had some choice words for Quebecers and their government in a speech before the Montreal Board of Trade.

Bouchard is truly a self-made success, building a chain of convenience stores into a $3 billion company that includes over 9,000 convenience stores across North America and Europe.

He didn't mince words, talking about  Quebecers he asked;

"Do you like being on Canadian welfare, it makes no godamn sense to accept that we Quebecers, who are so creative and able to build,  tolerate being on welfare. I find it completely ridiculous.

His words didn't go down well with the new Liberal finance minister Carlos Leitao and CAQ veteran Amir Khadir both of whom disparaged the comments, without offering any real rebuttal.

Montreal Transit Authority admits Drainville type of deception on legal opinion on English.

"The transit authority has long flip-flopped on whether it had a legal opinion and interpretation on the French language charter, which would require some employees to speak English.

But days ahead of an access request hearing involving lawyers from The Gazette and the STM, the transit authority reportedly provided a signed affidavit that said “no legal opinion from internal or external lawyers could be identified related to Article 46 of the Charter of the French Language.”

Anglo community's very own Kapo, Marvin Rotrand

The Gazette reported it was looking for clarification on the STM’s position on employees speaking both English and French.
The Metropolitan Transit Authority, the AMT, requires all employees who have contact with the public be able to speak both languages.
STM Vice President Marvin Rotrand has told CJAD News in past interviews it has a legal opinion. Link

 I wrote about this over a year and a half ago;

" Montreal bus company spokesman, Marvin Rotrand, the token anglo fart-catcher, has once again defended the company from offering English services, claiming that the company's hands are tied by the law, a misrepresentation according to constitutional lawyer Julius Grey.. 
Rotrand said the corporation consulted with its legal department and agreed that the language laws apply directly to the transit authority.
"We have a huge volume of jurisprudence as to what our obligations are under Bill 101," he said.
Constitutional lawyer Julius Grey says Quebec's language laws do not prevent the STM from serving customers in English Read the post

Mr. Rotrand wins this weeks DRAINVILLE AWARD FOR MISREPRESENTATION

'Chuck E. Cheese' solution to child abduction threat.

As you may have heard, some nutty woman kidnapped a new born baby in Trois-Rivières, walking out of the hospital disguised as a nurse.
The baby was safely returned hours later thanks to social media and a group of kids who recognized the woman and went to her home calling the police in the meantime.

All's well that ends well.



These things happen occasionally, that's what Amber Alerts are all about and there's always going to be a nutter around who wants a baby of her own and thinks it's a good idea to kidnap one from a hospital.

The day after the incident I heard Quebec's new Health Minister on the radio demanding that hospitals beef up security and he told the interviewer that he asked health authorities to think up a solution.

Really?
For a one in a million shot problem?

So let me offer the  low-cost Chuck E. Cheese, anti-kidnapping solution.
For those who don't know,  Chuck E. Cheese is  an American chain that is a giant video game and play center for the under six crowd. Parents and (mostly single parents) bring their kids for some indoor fun and food in a highly safe and secure facility.
Secure I say, you betcha, pay attention Mr. Health Minister, they have a foolproof way of making sure nobody walks out with the wrong kid. It is a big concern in the world of parental abduction. 

By the way readers, if you've never been to Chuck E.Cheese, you've missed nothing, trust me.

 

Picture of the Week

Here's a picture snapped by a surprised passerby of a Montreal police officer doing the nasty in a back alley in downtown Montreal. Link
It seems his partner was likewise engaged in the back seat.

An embarrassed department first claimed that the picture was Photoshopped but it turns out not only is it real, but his partner was in the back seat with another girl.

Now the department has said that the officers may find themselves with a stiff suspension of a couple of days, but I would rather see them outed as is the case with Johns.

At any rate, can you caption the picture?
Here's the best one I've heard so far.
"Put your hands up where I can feel them!"

Impératif français is at it again, complaining about this advertisement from a Quebec fast food chain.

 

"As good in French as it is in English"

I can't really say I get the advertisement, I wouldn't call smoked meat a particularly English style dish, but rather having roots in Jewish Deli.

I know there's a running battle with language purists wanting the greasy and unhealthy tasty dish to be referred to as 'VIANDE FUMÉ, but just like that other tasty Quebec guilty pleasure, the irresistible "OT CHIKEN", most francophones prefer to use the term 'SMOKE MEAT'.
Things are what things are, would you really want to call a 'POUTINE' by any other name?

Further reading

Newly-released old-thyme Montreal newsreel items

Great pictures of Cirque Éloize hamming it up in the Montreal Metro

Quebec's youth gang paradox

Rick Blue: Quebec musicians face U.S. Sanctions

40 Struggles Only A Montrealer Will Understand

20 Montreal Mind Blowing Facts You Never Knew About

Have a great weekend 

Bonne fin de semaine.

The Rehabilitation of Paul Rose

It's always tempting, especially with the passage of time to rehabilitate those who acted barbarously in a cause that we otherwise support.

And so on the pages of vigile.net and  l'Autrejournal the memory of Paul Rose is being raised to that of a romantic patriotic warrior, whose involvement in a murder is mostly beside the point.

There is little doubt that the FLQ would be branded a terrorist organization would it exist in present-day Quebec, but there is a reluctance in Quebec's media to use the term, because many in the media share the ideals of the FLQ, if not the methods.

Look at the headlines in Quebec francophone media including Radio-Canada and the reluctance to use the " T " word.

Le felquiste Paul Rose est mort

Exit le felquiste Paul Rose, complice malgré lui de Trudeau et de ...

La mort de Paul Rose, celle d'un doux guerrier

Le militant nationaliste québecois Paul Rose est mort

L'ancien felquiste Paul Rose est mort

I didn't cull the above headlines, they were the first that appeared in a search on Google News in French .

Now look on the English side;
FLQ terrorist Paul Rose, key player in 1970 October Crisis, dies at 69

A convicted murderer and an unrepentant terrorist, pockets of ...

It seems that in Quebec, as in many, many parts of the world, one man's terrorist is another man's liberator.

And so the death of  Paul Rose has awoken all those purs et durs who view Rose as a hero, including Quebec solidaire's Amir Khadir who proposed honoring Rose with a motion in the National Assembly.

"Amir Khadir, one of two members of the pro-sovereignty Quebec solidaire, promises to table a motion for him in the national assembly next week.
“This is someone who is significant to the independence movement,” Khadir told The Canadian Press when asked about Rose’s passing.
“You can share the reservations he had about his past in the FLQ, but no one can question his sincerity, his devotion, his integrity, his intellectual honesty.”" Link

It's too bad that after some reflection and a sea of bad Press, Khadir backed off the idea.  It would have been delicious to see such a motion presented and defeated with but one vote in favour and perhaps a few members, Rose sympathizers, fleeing the Assembly in face of the vote!

To Khadir, like many other hard-line separatists, Rose's contribution to the independence movement far outweighs the insignificant and pesky murder of Pierre Laporte and like Quebec's most revered writer, Victor-Lévy Beaulieu, the Laporte murder was just a bit of collateral damage;

VLB.... Laporte responsible for his own kidnapping

"In kidnapping Minister Pierre Laporte, the Chénier cell which included Paul Rose, highlighted something we forget all too easily today: Pierre Laporte was in bed with organized crime, as was the Liberal Party in which he was a minister, and that the members of the Chenier cell wanted him to confess to that fact." -Victor-Lévy Beaulieu Link{fr}

It seems that Mr. Beaulieu is one of the more literate and erudite proponents of violence in favour of Quebec independence.

"I've always thought that Quebec independence could be achieved much more easily by adopting the methods of Gandhi....
But in the late 1960s and early 1970s  we witnessed "liberators" favouring terrorism over civil disobedience. Quebec, acting similarly, had only to participate in the liberation struggle as practiced in the West."-Victor-Lévy Beaulieu Link{fr}

Like Victor-Lévy Beaulieu, there remains a dedicated cadre of separatists to whom Rose will always remain a hero and labeling him a terrorist or murderer is nothing more than a question of perspective.

"We note that the term "terrorist" is relative.
Paul Rose, committed terrorist acts, he was tried and convicted. He served his sentence and history has judged. But to call him a  "terrorist" within the bloody meaning of the term without considering the historical, political and philosophical context of October '70, it is intellectually dishonest. -Serge Charbonneau" Link{fr}

Defenders of Paul Rose put great stock in the fact that he wasn't actually present when the murderous deed was done, something that Rose himself refused to acknowledge, preferring to accept the collective guilt for the murder as an act of solidarity with his co-conspirators. Others proclaim that Laporte was killed by 'accident' a sad and convenient attempt to avoid culpability. Link
To Paul Rose, those defenders needn't have bothered massaging his reputation, he was never remorseful in the least and went to his death at ease with his actions.

At any rate, it makes no nevermind in the eyes of the law. The rule of felony murder which is upheld in Canada makes no distinction as to who is the actual murderer when a group participates in an organized crime.

"The rule of felony murder is a legal doctrine in some common law jurisdictions that broadens the crime of murder in two ways. First, when an offender kills accidentally or without specific intent to kill in the commission of a felony, the offender can be charged with murder. Second, it makes any participant in such a felony criminally liable for any deaths that occur during or in furtherance of that felony. While there is debate about the original scope of the rule, modern interpretations typically require that the felony be an inherently dangerous one, or one committed in an obviously dangerous manner. For this reason, the felony murder rule is often justified by its supporters as a means of deterring dangerous felonies." Wikipedia

To put it simply, a gang robs a bank during which one of the robbers shoots and kills a bank guard. The other members committing the crime, including the driver of the getaway car sitting outside the bank, are guilty of murder as well as the shooter and so in the case of Paul Rose, the argument of whether he was present or not is actually moot.

The other argument that Laporte was killed by accident, equally moot.

It's always romantic to view these murders as something other than what they are. To the families of those killed and injured by the likes of FLQ members, the differentiation is quite irrelevant.

To blowhards like those who defend Rose and other FLQ members, I wonder if their tune would change had a member of their own family been killed or crippled in the crossfire.

And so it's hard to accept that the murder of innocents in the name of a 'great cause' is acceptable and thankfully the vast majority of Quebecers are reviled by the characterization of Paul Rose as a hero.

How about Richard Bain's evil murder of an innocent bystander in his attempt at political assassination in favour of Anglo rights in Quebec?

Could anybody imagine a public figure, an esteemed writer or politician defending his actions as just some insignificant collateral damage in the heroic defense of Anglo rights?

Defend Paul Rose and you are justifying Richard Bain's action, it is that simple and there's no getting around it.

...After all, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

French versus English Volume 68

Vapid PQ budget exposes ineptitude

I promised a piece on the Quebec budget handed down by the PQ earlier this week, but honestly I couldn't find 1500 words that would keep readers interested.
The 'balanced' budget is achieved by reducing spending on infrastructure, the PQ confident that fixing Quebec's dilapidated roads and bridges is something that is can be put off until they are safely out of power.
It's like balancing your personal finances by putting off paying your home mortgage for a couple of years. How's that going to work?

Not wishing to offend anybody and risk the wrath of opposition parties, the PQ decided to tweak a couple of tax programs here and there, raising consumption taxes on booze and of course the most hapless of all taxpayers, the smokers, who will be driven, no doubt, in greater numbers to native smoke shacks, where taxes are but a figment of the Quebec government's imagination.
Forgotten in the budget was the ill-conceived idea of reducing the capital gains exemption by 50% or getting rid of the 'Health Tax" as promised in the PQ election campaign.
Most interesting in the budget is the proposal to get rid of  2,000 workers at Hydro-Quebec, some 10% of its workforce.
Layoffs of this magnitude in the private sector are normal, a reaction to changing market conditions or demand, but in a monopoly that produces and sells electricity, where the market doesn't really change, it is a frank admission of gross incompetence. Among the large utility companies in North America, Hydro-Quebec retains its position as the most bloated and inefficient.
 Of course the PQ made sure to continue the freeze on student tuition fees, the last thing that they need is to alienate their base.
All in all, it was a budget that remains true to the tax and spend, big government reputation that all Quebec governments for the last forty years maintained.
For taxpayers, there was nothing so drastic as to get people marching in the streets, but the budget and those budgets presented by governments before, are the very definition of a 'death by a thousand cuts.'

The only problem with this whole budget charade is that the proposed tax increases won't produce the predicted revenues and that the slowdown in growth will automatically reduce government receipts over the course of the budget.
The promise of a balanced budget in 2014 is about as likely as a the PQ holding a winning referendum.
Smoke and mirrors, or as the French are fond of saying. 'de la poudre aux yeux'

Antisemitic radio rant

Here is one antisemitic rant that should never have been allowed to be aired on the radio and the fact that the interviewer allowed a caller to proceed was just plain disgusting.

In a radio interview on 98.5 FM, home of anglo-basher Benoit Dutrizac, another radio host Jacques Fabi, allowed a listener to present a four and a half minute screed, refusing to cut her off, even after this exchange, right at the beginning of the interview .

Caller: "Do you know Hitler?
Fabi:     "Not personally"
Caller: "Do you know of the Holocaust?
Fabi:     "A little"
Caller: "It was the massacre of the Jews"
Fabi:     "Yes, exactly"
Caller: "For me it was the most beautiful thing that ever happened in history."

Mr. Fabi reminded the listener it was dangerous to say these thing on the air because of the powerful Jewish lobby, which he himself found bothersome.
If you speak French give a listen  Link{fr}
(Sorry readers, the station has wisely decided to remove the interview from its website
But you can hear it below;

*

The interview was also later denounced on another radio station by Dominic Maurais. Link{Fr}

Now before readers denounce this as another example of Quebec antisemitism, I will stand up and remind them that the offensive interview was roundly denounced in the French media before the English or Jewish population was even aware of what happened.

In fact, I'm pretty sure that this blog is the first English outlet to report the story, but I'm confident that the incident will now grow legs. 

This story won't end here and I'm sure that Mr. Fabi is in for a rough ride.......

New French-language coalition demands Bill 101 boost

"A new coalition of French-language groups is calling on the Quebec government to strengthen the province’s language law, Bill 101.
Partenaires pour un Québec Français (PQF) said it wants the province’s language watchdog, the Office Québécois de la Langue Française (OQLF), to have more power and resources to protect French.
Mario Beaulieu, spokesman for the coalition, said Bill 101 was weakened to respect the presence of the "historic anglophone community."
"Gradually, with the weakening of Bill 101, we came back to full bilingualism. This means someone can live in English in Montreal without having to use French," said Beaulieu.
He added that with weak language laws, the province would not be able to force people to learn French.
Louise Mercier, spokeswoman for the Quebec Labour Federation, said encouraging new Quebeckers to speak French at work is crucial in fighting assimilation.
“One day, we will lose our language,” said Mercier." Read the rest of the story

Rinse, repeat....

Retailers make first court appearance in fight with Quebec language police

Several multi-national companies willing to take the Quebec government to court may not have to go that far to keep their names the same.
Lawyers representing some of North America's biggest brands, including Walmart, Best Buy, and Costco, are negotiating with the Office Quebecoise de la Langue Francaise. The OQLF wants the companies to alter their names to include some indication in French of what they sell.
The changes are outlined on a website run by the language agency that gives businesses options on how to change their names. For example, Walmart, a household name on the retail scene that doesn't really have a French equivalent, could change its signs to "Le Magasin Walmart."
But retailers say the language laws have not formally been changed and they will ask the courts to decide whether the language office has the right to make new demands.
Lawyers representing the coalition of retailers said negotiations to work out an agreement were going well, but they still planned to file their lawsuit on Thursday in Quebec Superior Court.
They expect the case will go before a judge -- if needed -- in the spring. Read the rest of the story

 Readers, I think you'll find Monday's blog concerning this issue rather interesting.
In that piece I will tell you why, in my opinion, regardless whether the retailers win or lose, Quebec militants will come out on the decidedly short end of the stick.

Several multi-national companies willing to take the Quebec government to court may not have to go that far to keep their names the same.
Lawyers representing some of North America's biggest brands, inluding Walmart, Best Buy, and Costco, are negotiating with the Office Quebecoise de la Langue Francaise. The OQLF wants the companies to alter their names to include some indication in French of what they sell.
The changes are outlined on a website run by the language agency that gives businesses options on how to change their names. For example, Walmart, a household name on the retail scene that doesn't really have a French equivalent, could change its signs to "Le Magasin Walmart."

Photos

Walmart, Old Navy, The Gap and other companies are fighting to keep their logos unchanged.

Related Stories

• Marois confirms revamped Bill 101 by Christmas
• Fewer one-language families in Quebec: Census
• Postscript: Strangers in our own land
• PQ ministers collide, confusion over Bill 101 in daycare

But retailers say the language laws have not formally been changed and they will ask the courts to decide whether the language office


Read more: http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/walmart-old-navy-and-others-taking-quebec-government-to-court-over-language-laws-1.1049032#ixzz2CxvrldcI

Pathetic Flag debate demonstrates PQ pettiness

".....Yves-Francois Blanchet, the PQ MLA who first asked the legislative Speaker to remove the flag, told QMI Agency Wednesday that the Maple Leaf shouldn't be in the legislature as a question of jurisdiction and history.
He said the flag was introduced to Quebec's parliament in 1985 - the Maple Leaf only dates back to 1965 - and was removed for the first time by former PQ leader Jacques Parizeau in 1994, only to be reinstated in 2003 when the Liberals regained power.
"The principle is that the only people who have jurisdiction in Quebec's legislature are those who are elected," Blanchet said. "It's about the exclusivity of the Quebec flag."
Liberal MLA Laurent Lessard wrote to the Speaker of Quebec's legislature last week and argued that the Canadian flag "is not an accessory."
"It's a symbol of belonging to our federation and a symbol of Canadian identity," he wrote. "As long as Quebec is part of the Canadian federation, it would be unacceptable to remove it from the legislative chamber."
The PQ caused controversy when it removed the Canadian flag in September from the legislature's upper chamber, also known as the "red room." The upper chamber most often serves as a backdrop for ceremonies.
The lower chamber, or "blue room," is the legislative assembly......

But the Canadian flag will stay in Quebec's legislature.
The leader of Quebec's third party announced Wednesday afternoon that his MLAs will vote with the Liberals to keep the flag where it is.
The separatist Parti Quebecois had asked the Speaker of the legislature last week to remove the flag.
The Liberals were steadfast against it.
The motion to remove the flag was set to be voted on in a week's time. The vote would have been the first of its kind in Quebec history.
On Wednesday, Coalition Avenir Quebec Leader Francois Legault - who himself once championed sovereignty - told QMI Agency that his 19 MLAs will vote with the Liberals next week.
The PQ's minority government doesn't have enough votes by itself to remove the Maple Leaf." Link .

Anglos' accented French an outrage to French linguicists

Last week, popular Montreal radio host Benoît Dutrizac mocked Mr. Rotrand and another anglophone councillor, Michael Applebaum, after deciding their French was unacceptable. He ran a spoof ad suggesting the pair need a miracle “Instant French” product for people who get flustered when they have to speak French. On Twitter, he complained that the two councillors spoke “gibberish” French and were an insult to francophone Montrealers.
By Mr. Dutrizac’s standards of linguistic purity, it is not enough to speak French — it must be free of an accent that betrays one’s origins. He is not alone. Writing in the Journal de Montréal on the weekend, Université du Québec à Montréal sociologist Mathieu Bock-Côté complained about being greeted with an accented “buuuunjourr” when he goes into a shop in Montreal.  Read the rest of the story .

The complaints about accent, particularly that of new Montreal mayor Michael Applebaum, an anglophone with decent but heavily accented French, belies the true motives behind the attacks.

For many French language militants, Anglophones or Ethnics participating as elected officials in any capacity where they can influence public policy is dangerous.
For these linguicists, English or Ethnics in high places is a threat.

Quebec sait faire

One of my favourite time-wasting web sites is Fail.Qc.com a lighthearted, tongue in cheek look at the errors, gaffes and generally stupid things that are captured by the public, a testament to participatory journalism.
Every single province should have its own website of a similar nature, where, no doubt, there is a wealth of material.
If you know of a similar site, please let us know in the comments section.

I don't know if the story about this particular utility pole went viral because of the appearance of this picture on the failqc.com website, but I suspect it did.

Once the picture went mainstream (read: out of province), reaction by authorities was lightning quick and whatever department that was responsible, reacted with uncharacteristic haste to correct the embarrassment.

Here's another ill-placed utility pole, which doesn't seem to bother anyone in Valleyfield.

Read the story about it  in French. Link{Fr}

Here's another from that website;

For those outside Quebec, an orange speed limit sign is added to reduce speed during construction...ahem!

Don't forget to visit the website!

By the way, here's another photo which I received over Twitter from Mathieu Boivin, a street in Quebec City. Yikes!!

In another story of dubious planning and achievement, the new ambulances put into service recently by Urgences-santé in Montreal and Laval offer unlucky patients a decidedly rough ride.

It seems that the suspension of the new vehicles are so stiff that patients and their litter are regularly tossed into the air when the vehicle hits a bump.
Oh well... Link{FR}

Reaction to Gaza War

I told you that I wouldn't write about the recent Gaza blowup other than to comment as to how it pertains to Quebec, where last week, there was a demonstration in support of Gazans held in Montreal.
The demonstration wasn't particularly big, but was still the largest in Canada, where support for the Palestinian side was somewhat muted.

I have absolutely no objection to people demonstrating peacefully in favour of their constituency, be it Jews in support of Israel or Muslims in support of Palestine/Gaza, regardless who is right or wrong.

But this being Quebec, it wasn't much of a surprise to see the various left-wing groups, led by Quebec solidaire and Amir Khadir come out to give Israel another public bashing, again something that is their absolute right.
Amir Khadir and company are quick to point out that criticism of Israel is not antisemitism, but it is a little hard to believe given that the only two countries in the world that these people regularly march against, is Israel and the United States.

Over the course of the battle that raged between the potent Israeli military machine and the crude but highly effective missile brigade of Hamas, about 160 people died tragically over the course of the eight days, an average of about twenty sad deaths per day.
But let us consider that on every single day over the last 22 months of fighting in Syria, an average of  about 65 people died (a ghastly 40,000 deaths) with this carnage continuing unabated.
Somehow the media, Amir Khadir and assorted lefties are obsessed with dead babies in Gaza, but not in Aleppo....
Without supporting Israel, I can only say that the hypocrisy is galling and I defy anyone to explain why Jews killing Arabs is more newsworthy than Arabs killing Arabs.
Today, tomorrow, another 50-60 people will be killed in Syria. Where will Radio-Canada, Anderson Cooper and all the European networks be reporting from?
I wish readers to understand that the above comment is in no way a commentary about who is right or who is wrong between Israelis and Palestinians, it is only about fair reporting which is admittedly, a subjective matter.
 
While the Canadian press (as well as the Canadian government ) were largely pro-Israel in their coverage, in Quebec, Radio-Canada took the opposite tack, reporting rather favourably on the Gazan side of things.
A Journal de Montreal journalist took Radio-Canada and its reporter Agnes Gruda to task over what she perceived as shamefully biased reporting. Link{Fr}

So I guess it comes as no surprise that a Jewish professor had his office vandalized over at UQAM, a hotbed of leftist and anti-Israel support (along with Concordia university.)
I suppose it serves the good professor right, who showed more guts than good sense in publicly supporting Israel on the campus of UQAM!  Link

Bits'n pieces

Now since this is Friday, I will allow myself to go off topic to present a video related to the Gaza conflict that is mind-blowing.

First a little background;
In some cases, before bombing the residence of Hamas leaders, the Israeli military phone or text those at home, warning them to get out of the building, which seems a bit counter-productive if the goal is to kill the militant. Obviously the bombing of the home is meant to render the lives of Hamas leaders and their families miserable.

Now we are all familiar with those grainy black and white videos shot from the cockpit of warplanes delivering a devastating payload upon a target, culminating with a big puff of smoke. Truthfully, if you've seen one, you've seen them all.

Here's what it looks like from the ground, an incredible sight.
It seems that after receiving the call from the IDF to get out of the house, someone got the idea to set up a camera and film the whole thing up close.
I don't know if it goes to the confidence that the filmmaker had in the marksmanship of the Israeli air force pilot, or whether it was a case of foolhardiness or sang-froid, but to set up a camera and remain on-site, no farther than a hundred or so metres from the target, is rather amazing.
I'll bet you've never seen this, up close and personal!

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

Back on topic, here's a video, a Western Canada rant against Quebec that many readers may or may not agree with.

I look forward to your comments, don't be shy.

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Now that students have successfully had their tuition fees frozen, some of the more radical are launching a new initiative, demanding free tuition.
According to the most radical student association, ASSE,  60,000 students stayed away from classes on Thursday to protest.

Whatever is Pauline to do? Link

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Here's an interesting article by Alberta conservative and Sun TV personality Ezra Levant;

English-speaking oil: Separatists get it entirely wrong in pipeline protest 

It’s tough being the newly elected separatist government in Quebec.
They only won 31.95% of the vote, compared to 31.20% for the Liberals and 27.05% for the CAQ. And with just 54 out of 125 seats in the legislature, it’s a minority government that is doomed to accomplish very little.
But solving real problems — like unemployment and corruption — has never been a forte of the Parti Quebecois.
So the new government is doing what it does best — showboating, trying to pick symbolic fights with anglos.
This time the PQ has done something really weird. They have decided to demonize — get this — English-speaking oil. Read the rest of the story

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 Here's another opinion piece that you may find interesting;

Opinion: What happened to my city?
Returning to Montreal after 37 years in Toronto, I found that much had changed — not for the better

Marlene and I were both born and raised in Montreal, but we moved to Toronto to pursue business opportunities in 1975. It was a successful experience, but after 37 years it was time to come home. It was time to reconnect with our families and friends and our grown-up nieces and nephews. Time to reacquaint ourselves with “steamies” and smoked-meat sandwiches and all the other delicacies that Montreal was famous for. It was time to relive and enjoy the bilingual culture of the great city of Montreal.
Wow — what a glorious time it promised to be, going back home. We shed a few tears as we got into the car and headed east on the 401, full of anticipation and excitement.
Oh my goodness — what happened to Montreal? Are we in the right city? Are you sure this is Montreal?  Read the rest of the story: Link    Alternate Link

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What's up with these new stealthy Montreal  police cars?; Link

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!
BONNE FIN DE SEMAINE!

Disinformation Campaign Used to Camouflage Quebec Economic Disaster

I'm reminded of that upbeat television commercial from the Bank of Nova Scotia reminding Canadians that "You're Richer than You Think!"
No matter how you cut it, it certainly doesn't apply Quebecers who are actually much poorer than we think.

In the war of statistics, one can convince anyone of anything as long as the recipient is attuned to the message being flogged, regardless of it's veracity or accuracy.

In this respect Quebec nationalists have raised the disinformation campaign to an art form with consummate con-artists like Jean-François Lisée telling Quebecers that all is well and that reports of economic disaster are federalist plots to discredit Quebec.
It is a message that resonates with most Quebecers and why not, who really wants to hear the bad news?

And so Quebec militants have created a potent disinformation machine, complete with spokesmen who dazzle us with selective, faulty and downright dishonesty, coupled with phony-baloney pseudo-reputable organizations that cloak themselves in an outward appearance of legitimacy, when in fact they are nothing but dishonest facades, whose sole mission is to cloud the debate with the help of a complicit media that never questions their credentials.

"Such is the case of the insufferable Institut de recherche sur le français en Amérique (IRFA) an organization that uses the word "Institute" to give itself a false and bloated appearance of something which it is not. Aside from its minuscule size, it mimics the work of the SSJB, Mouvement Quebec Francais and Imperatif Francais in promoting the French language and the cause of sovereignty.

THE IFRA is a tiny French language lobby group, run by a university student consisting of a website, post-office box and a personal cellular telephone number.
The website shows a couple of academic separatists forming a 'scientific committee' which includes Marc Termote, a demographer and renowned language militant, and employee of the OQLF."  Link

Other separatist propaganda organs like organization  Institut de recherche en économie contemporaine (IREC), 'Institut de Recherche et d’Informations Socio-économiques' grind out statistical nonsense that the French media eat up, giving Quebecers a false economic sense of security.

Here'a an example of the type of slanted and bogus reporting that Quebecers are treated to on an ongoing basis.
A recent Journal de Montreal article focused on the fact that 65% of 4,499 students entering kindergarten and who couldn't speak French, were born in Quebec. Link{Fr}.

They even included a table which was more interesting for what it did not say.

The table shows the six principle countries of birth for these students.
Here  is the problem, there are two.
The article's first line says this;

"In 2007-2008, 65% of 4499 children who needed support for learning French (SAF) on entry to the school were born in Quebec.

As you can see in the table presented above, it lists a different percentage for the Quebec born, that of 37.3%. What gives??

But even if it is a typo or I am getting it wrong, and the real number of these students born in Quebec, but unable to speak French when entering French kindergarten, is as the article indicates,  65% of 4,499 or 2,900, in all.
What number does this represent as a percentage of all students entering French kindergarten?
It is the essential point that the article never addresses and herein lies the disinformation.

Is it a crisis or not? How do we know, if we don't know what percentage the 2,900 represent in relation to the total number of students entering kindergarten.

I did a little checking of my own and have found out that about of 75,000 student enter French kindergarten each years, making the problem students involved at around 4%. Link

Quite a different story, and let's be honest, did they really expect English children forced into French schools (which represents 20% of the total) to be proficient in French?


This is just the latest example of  what I like to call, 'separatist statistics', disinformation, half-truths and outright lies, numbers and facts that never stand up to scrutiny.

The greatest economic fiction sold by these organizations is that Quebec is not really poorer than the rest of Canada, the argument being that the lower disposable income available to Quebec families is based on the collective decision to pay higher taxes in order to fund richer entitlements.

It's a good line, but hardly true.

In fact almost all the so-called Quebec entitlements, including $7 a day child care, extended parental leave, free prescription drugs and low tuition fees can be attributed to the $8 billion subsidy Quebec receives from Ottawa in the way of transfer payments.

Quebec can argue that  it is entitled to this money, but the reality is that in the present federal economic model,  Quebec has its social programs paid for by Ottawa while Alberta does not, that is a fact.

Yet despite the evening-up subsidy, Quebecers remain poorer than Canada's other big provinces, something that no statistical sleight of hand can mask.

Here is  a simple table based on the average family income that I defy separatists to discredit. It is based on Statistics Canada data and an online tax calculator.

 
But even the disparity in the above table doesn't tell the whole story, although Quebec families have 17% less disposable income (after taxes) than Ontario families and 30% less than Alberta families, the situation is aggravated because disposable income in Quebec doesn't go as far.

Almost everything except housing costs and electricity costs more in Quebec, a lot more, further reducing family buying power.
But even the historically higher housing cost for homes in Ontario and Alberta has been offset with rising prices, and while Albertan and Ontarian families paid more for their homes over the years, the rise in value more than offset the investment.

Just about the only place Quebecers save is in electricity where the average family pays about $500 less than Albertans and $600 leas than Ontarians. Link
But all this is wiped out by the differences in sales tax and gasoline prices which cost the average car-owner in Quebecers about $350 more than Albertans and about $200 more than Ontarians. You can double those costs for two-car families.

Provincial Sales Tax
QUE- 9.5%......ONTARIO.. 8%......ALBERTA 0%

Gasoline
QUE- $1.38......ONTARIO..$1.20......ALBERTA $1.04 

There is a simple truth that the apologists won't admit.
Quebec families are poorer than those in Ontario, B.C and Alberta because they collectively don't produce as much wealth, and the wealth that is produced is taxed at a higher rate, this despite having the vaunted social programs paid for by other Canadians.

When militants tell us that we are poorer than other provinces because we are richer in social spending, it is like everything else they tell us, an ounce of truth and a pound of malarkey.

Social programs contribute to Quebec's bloated spending, but are by no mean the entire story.
Aside from the bloated and wildly expensive government itself, Quebec lavishes subsidizes to provincial businesses to the tune of 6 billion dollars a year, three times what Ontario spends despite being almost double our size.
In effect Quebec is forced to 'buy' jobs for its citizens through subsidies because Quebec industry is not competitive. The best example of this is the half a billion dollars the government pours into the pork industry each year, despite the industry operating at a loss. Link{fr}

Percentage of  revenue use to pay debt  from  Antagoniste.net

Don't forget the double-whammy of agricultural subsidies coupled with higher food prices, propped up by cartel-like marketing boards that fleece Quebec consumers.

And let us remember that Quebec pays the highest percentage of any provincial budget towards debt repayment.

But Quebec apologists have steered the conversation away from reality, convincing Quebecers that their lower standard of living is an honourable thing.
Like the Church of old that told Quebecers that the meek shall inherit the Earth, Quebecers are fed the line that their reduced wealth is an admirable sacrifice for the betterment of society in general.

It is a less than half-truth, it is a lie.

As long as the media discusses the merits of a descriptor in front of the name of Canadian Tire, the problems of wealth creation, productivity, exploitation of natural resources and government overspending are ignored, as Quebecers continue their economic decline.
As long as Pauline remains obsessed with symbols like the Canadian flag in the National Assembly  rather than attacking the economic challenges that face us, we are doomed to sink lower in the Canadian pecking order of wealth and when the Maritimes pass us, we will have truly crossed the Rubicon.

In Quebec, as the old saying goes, the more things change, the more things stay the same.

The priest of yore who told Quebecers not to complain and accept their humble lot in life are today replaced by a new cadre of economic gurus, who are telling Quebecers the exact same thing.


A SPECIAL NOTE:
This blog is not about Israel or Gaza, but nobody can be insensitive to what is going on in the Middle East. I'm not going to comment other to say that our problems here in Quebec seem so remarkably petty compared to what is going on over there.

Imagine the terror that all civilians feel on both sides of the Gaza/Israeli border when rockets and bombs rain down.

I'd like to ask readers to take a moment to imagine a rocket or a bomb landing on your street or neighbourhood.

These people have real problems, ours in Quebec and Canada,  are manufactured nonsense.

Francophones, Anglophones and Ethnics, we are blessed to live where we do. 

Imagine that we have energy, time and the inclination to discuss a flag in the National Assembly as if it has the slightest importance or meaning.

Again, I'm not going to write a blog piece about what is going on over there, but readers are welcome to comment.

The only thing that I will offer an opinion on, is Amir Khadir, someone who we've heard nothing from ever since the beginning of the conflict in Syria which has taken the lives of 29,000 civilians as well as 10,000 combatants.
Mr. Khadir took part in an anti-Israel protest in Montreal yesterday and while he tried to make impartial comments, his presence spoke volumes.

That Mr. Khadir is an Israel basher is fine, there are many.
It is his hypocrisy that is just so galling. Link