Quebec's Most Shameful Month Ever

Humiliating revelations for Montreal police chief Philippe Pichet

October has not been kind to Quebec, with the province on a wild roller coaster ride, lurching from one crisis and humiliating revelation to another.

It's had to keep up with the players and events without a program and for most of us, the accusations of malfeasance, corruption, sexual assaults and all manner of criminality related to the police, politicians and show business personalities is perhaps too much to absorb, given the number of revelations landing one on top of another.

Yesterday the Sûreté du Québec, the provincial police, raided the headquarters of the Montreal police in a stunning, unprecedented and humiliating occurrence. At first, it was thought that it was in relation to an ongoing investigation of the Internal Affairs department, which has more or less been disbanded after an investigation was launched over allegations that the department manufactured evidence to drum out at least four department whistle blowers.

Costas Labos, suspended head of Internal Affairs

Those revelations led to the suspension of Costa Labos, the former head of the internal affairs department who is alleged to have run the department not to weed out crooked cops, but rather to protect them.  Labos had previously been accused of lying to a judge but kept his job anyways. Internal affairs files of the Montreal police are now being handled by the Sûreté du Québec, which means that the department is in fact under defacto trusteeship. Link
At any rate, this raid had nothing to do with that investigation and was conducted in relation to new allegations that the right-hand man of police chief Philippe Pichet is alleged to have illegally taken sums of overtime salary and bonus' that he was not eligible for. The allegations were made by senior whistle blowers within the Montreal police disgusted with the goings-on. Link

And talking about whistle-blowers, the raid happened one day after Guy Ouellette the Liberal Member of the National Assembly for Chomedey was arrested for allegedly leaking information about an investigation by UPAC, the special agency created to combat Quebec corruption. The leaked information was embarrassing to ex-Quebec Premier Jean Charest and chief Liberal party fundraiser and multi-millionaire Marc Bibeau which revealed that they were both actually tailed by UPAC investigators for a time in 2016. Bibeau is alleged to have demanded money on behalf of the party from businesses in a cash-for-access scheme as well as allegedly using his influence to get government agencies to rent offices in his real estate holdings.
The leak infuriated UPAC boss Robert Lafrenière, and he spent enormous UPAC resources tracking down what he termed "the bandit" who leaked the information.

Now this story is complicated, so bear with me.
The arrested MNA, Guy Ouellette and UPAC boss Robert Lafrenière are not friends and in fact, sworn enemies, to say the least. Ouellet has militated for Lafrenière's ouster. Ouellet is an ex-cop himself who has accused UPAC of dragging its feet in pursuing Bibeau and Charest. Apparently, other investigators in UPAC agreed and leaked damaging information, allegedly through Ouellet, in order to spur UPAC to hurry up its investigation.
The arrest of Ouellette comes after UPAC raided the home of one of its ex-investigators alleged to be the leaker. During the raid, the cell phone of the target of the raid, Richard Despatie, was confiscated and searched, revealing the MNA's phone number. In a cloak and dagger operation, UPAC then texted the MNA on Despatie's phone and told him to meet Despatie (which was a ruse) at a restaurant to receive more leaked info. When Ouellet showed up he was greeted by UPAC detectives and arrested.
Now the arrest is highly dubious, because of the way the MNA was entrapped. The police certainly had a right to search Despatie's phone for evidence in relation to the search, but probably didn't have the legal right to use Depatie's phone as an investigative weapon.
Perhaps for this reason, the MNA's name was never publicized by UPAC, who released the MNA without charges. On the surface, there is no legal case to be made, short of a confession, but the damage to the MNA's reputation is devastating even though it really isn't clear who is the bad guy in all this.
Is Lafrenière settling a political score with his political enemy?
What were the motives of the MNA's leak, which actually hurt his own Liberal party? Dunno????
At any rate, whistle-blowers are usually revered, but in this case dragged through the mud and treated like a lowly criminal. I want to stress that Guy Ouellette has a stellar reputation and even opposition MNAs are rallying to his defence. It is all very strange.

And before we leave the Montreal police, we recently learned that the always racist Montreal police issued a ticket to a man for singing in his car.
On Sept. 27, Taoufik Moalla (a visible ethnic) was on his way to buy a bottle of water, happily singing along to C+C Music Factory’s 1990 song “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)” when he says he heard a police siren blaring behind him.

“I was thinking they wanted to pass, but they called on the speaker, ‘Please go to the right side,’” Moalla told CTV Montreal. “I stopped and four police came, two on each side, and checked the inside of the car. Then they asked me if I screamed. I said, ‘No, I was just singing.’”

Four policemen?
Last time I got a ticket it was given to me by one cop, but then again I'm white. as they say,"Plus ça change"...... 

Speaking of racism, the Quebec government came to its senses and cancelled hearings into the entrenched racism enquiry it had foolishly scheduled in the wake of the Quebec city mosque murders, after realizing that the revelations and testimony would likely be devastating and humiliating. Better to cancel the whole thing and take just one day of flak for the about-face. Surprisingly or not surprisingly, that didn't happen with the news being greeted by a collective sigh of release. Link

Now on to the sex scandals that are rocking Quebec to its foundations. 
After the Weinstein affair, the floodgates have opened with women across North America emboldened to out their sexual assaulters.
Several high profile Quebecers have seen revelations destroy their professional and I daresay their personal lives.

Rozon & Salvail.. Birds of a Feather

First was Gilbert Rozon, the head of the Just for Laughs organization, outed as an alleged sexual predator by several high profile accusers including Julie Snyder (big time TV personality/producer,)  who is by the way, the ex-wife of Pierre-Karl Péladeau. A similar complaint was lodged by another TV show host, Penelope McQuaid. Link
Rozon was quite the big shot in Quebec media circles but following the accusations, he was quickly fed to the sharks with other media organizations announcing that he was being blacklisted, leading him to resign his position and him putting his shares up for sale.
Then another bombshell landed on another powerful Quebec TV personality who  was also revealed to have allegedly sexually-targeted women. 

“If Rozon is the Weinstein of comedy, assuming the allegations are true, Salvail could be called Quebec's Jian Ghomeshi – except that Salvail had a much bigger presence in his broadcast market, on both TV and radio. He had also parlayed his personal brand into a company that had 11 original programs in its production stable. Like Rozon, Salvail has greatly benefited from Quebec's robust star system, which can make household names of entertainment figures unknown outside the province. Salvail's shows, like several competing talk programs, were also engines of that home-grown star system, which has no equivalent in the rest of Canada. After reports were published last week of 11 mostly anonymous complaints against him, Salvail vanished from the airwaves and announced he was taking "a pause" from his public career.” Link

But the hits just kept coming as yet another Quebec personality is accused of sexual impropriety. This week a young Quebec author/journalist revealed that when she was just seventeen years old and working for her idol, she was sexually assaulted by her boss.
Léa Clermont-Dion accused Michel Venne of sexual misconduct when she was working for him one summer at the Institut du Nouveau Monde, a lefty type think tank. In a lengthy and thoroughly coherent piece on her Facebook page, Clermont-Dion accused the Quebec media star of shattering her illusions by sexually assaulting her.
She didn't report the assault but told friends about it and quickly rumours spread, outing the perpetrator.

Lise Payette..Pedo and Sex Abuser enabler

Then Lise Payette, a friend of Venne got in touch with Clermont-Dion and met her in an effort to get her to recant her story and the marathon two-hour meeting culminated with Payette applying pressure for her to sign a letter disavowing the incident, because as Payette described, it was hurting Venne and his family and was threatening his chances at becoming an editor at Le Devoir.
Clermont-Dion tells how her illusions about another one of her idols was shattered by the bullying of Payette.
You might recall Payette as the PQ feminist minister who accused Quebec women of being "Yvettes"  a reference for docile and obedient housewives who would meekly vote NO in the upcoming referendum. That ploy backfired rather badly as opponents proudly donned the label of 'Yvette'.
At any rate, Payette defended her actions in the affair by telling the media that she was acting in Clermont-Dion's best interests as any accusation against the powerful Venne would, according to Payette, result in a painful backlash against the accuser. ....Yah sure.
Payette's nose stretcher excuse didn't fly and she has been thoroughly roasted for her seemingly betrayal of victims of sexual assault. She was denounced in the Journal du Montreal as a "fake feminist' by Sophie Durocher who reminded readers that Payette had previously defended Claude Jutra, the famous film-maker and homosexual pedophile in a bizarre article entitled "Claude Jutra était mon ami" ('Claude Jutra was my friend') where she stated that she doubted the word of the victims.
Payette is 85 years old and there is a certain satisfaction in knowing  that she will go to her grave disgraced.

And let's not forget Michel Brulé renowned anglo hater who wrote a book with the theme that English was an ugly language who is also accused by several ex-employees of being a filthy sexual assaulter. Brulé has withdrawn his candidacy from the race for Plateau-Mont-Royal borough mayor even while denying it all.

Accurso looking glum

On the criminal front, the trial of the former construction czar Tony Accurso finally got underway in Laval, with turncoat witnesses lining up to testify about the entrenched system of corruption in the awarding of construction contracts. The testimony by the admitted co-conspirators, both politicians, players in the construction industry and within the corrupt engineering firms is still a little hard to take

“According to the Crown, Vaillancourt would decide which engineering firm would get a contract, then rig the bids accordingly before the call for tenders was issued. In exchange, Accurso and others would pay Vaillancourt a percentage in cash handed over in brown.” envelopes. Link

In another legal story that has me questioning whether it is really 2017 in Quebec. A judge humiliated a girl with comments out of the 1950's. It was during a case where a taxi driver was accused of a sexual assault;

"She's a young girl, 17. Maybe she's a little overweight but she has a pretty face, no?" the judge said in recordings first unearthed by the Journal de Montréal.

Speaking French, the judge went on to describe the young woman as a "fleur bleue" (sentimental or romantic.) "She was a bit flattered," the judge continued. "Maybe it was the first time he showed interest in her." Link

And let us not forget the disastrous start to the season by the Montreal Canadiens who appear to be on course for the worst season in Habs history, sporting a 2-7-1 won/lost/overtime win record, being outscored 38-10 in the process.
In a whistling in the dark eulogy, Marc Bergevin warned the players that there'd be no help from management vis-a-vis trades and that they'd have to suck it up.
Bergevin had been the incompetent author of the off-season loss of veteran blue-liner Andre Markov and the popular Alexander Radulov.
I don't think I'm alone in believing that the Bergevin death-watch is on, the only thing missing is a qualified francophone to replace him. It probably won't make a difference. Iacta ālea est.

In the business world, another disaster as Bombardier moved to save the furniture by handing over the C-Series project to Airbus for free. The company rightly concluded that a reduced ownership share of something successful is better than 100% ownership of a money-losing venture. The big loser in all this are the taxpayers who have collectively shelled out hundreds of millions in subsidies which Airbus will not reimburse.
And Ericsson, the telecom giant is closing its giant facility in Vaudreuil-Dorion less than a year after it opened. The company benefitted from a $30 million gift from the PQ when it pitched the facility to Quebec.

This month saw Quebec pass its controversial anti niqab and burqa law much to the consternation of Liberal politicians across Canada. Underlying the issue is the very real reality of coercion of Muslim women into wearing either a veil or scarf.

“A Quebec man has been charged with allegedly assaulting his teenage daughter over a year in what police are calling "honour-based" violence.  Gatineau police say the level of violence escalated once the man discovered the girl was removing her hijab when she was away from the family home. She decided to file a police complaint, which culminated in an arrest Wednesday.” Link

 
More.... 
Quebec fur company fined $22,500 for trafficking in polar bear skins

Quebec radiologists billing $3M annually for obsolete task 
 
71 puppies up for adoption after rescue from suspected Quebec puppy mill

And so, it's been quite an eventful month indeed and we've still got a few days to go!

Permit me readers to finish on a positive note.

With a grandson on the autism spectrum, I personally know too well how traumatic haircuts are.
Let me salute this Val D'Or barber who went the extra mile to make a difficult procedure  better.

 “A Quebec barber who got down on the floor to trim the hair of a young client with autism was applauded in Canada’s Senate chamber Wednesday, several weeks after a photo of him garnered worldwide attention.
Francis “Franz” Jacob was invited to Ottawa by Sen. Marie-Francoise Megie for the Senate’s autism awareness day.” Link

Have a great weekend!

Quebec Betrayed by Two Selfish Politicians

Looking at the final numbers it's plain to see that the Liberal's had a lot more strength than any of the pollsters gave them credit for, but that's generally always the case here in Quebec as the undecided usually vote massively Liberal come election day.
One pollster had the Liberals at just 25% support just three days before the election.

I daresay that with a sock puppet as leader of the party we'd be looking at a Liberal minority or majority.

There's no doubt that Jean Charest gambled with the future of this province by foolishly believing that he could pull another rabbit out of his hat.

What on Earth was he thinking?

Many blog pieces ago, I told you that Charest could not hold his riding, after all, he barely squeaked through the last two elections.

Yesterday's results showed Charest didn't lose by a little, it was over 3,000 votes, a sizable number.

Somewhere in his entourage somebody needed to deliver the bad news to the leader months ago, that as long as he stayed on, the party was doomed.

Instead of doing the honourable thing, resigning with dignity and turning the party over to somebody untainted by scandal, the Premier bet the house and farm and went 'all in' with a losing hand.

There would have remained over a year on the old mandate and a new leader as is always the case, would be met with enthusiasm by the public.

The ideal situation would have been for Charest to resign after Christmas and after a leadership convention which would have taken us into Spring, when the new Premier, fresh as a rose, could call an election that we now know would be eminently winnable.

Mr. Charest's decision was based on selfishness, I must sadly conclude.

Even those of us who voted Liberal had misgivings about Charest, there was just too much dirt and too much had stuck.

For me, the real undoing of the Liberal party was Tony Tomassi, forced to resign after being accused of handing off valuable daycare licenses to friends.
Up until then everything was containable.

But petty graft is something easy for the public to understand, like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
If the Liberals could stoop so low, there had to be graft higher above, or so the rationale.

By the way, word around the Charest entourage is that he will be leaving the political scene, sadly with his tail between his legs.
Don't feel too bad for him, he'll be collecting about a year's salary as an exit bonus and his100k plus federal pension kicks in starting June. Unfortunately, he'll have to wait until he turns sixty to collect another 100k plus pension from the Quebec government.

If there is another politician that deserves credit for the PQ victory, it is Prime Minister Harper who somehow forgot that he is Prime Minister of the whole country.
Sometimes he seemed to go out of his way to bait Quebecers with idiotic and divisive moves like adding the Queen back into the Canadian brand.
There was no call for the re-branding of the armed forces with the 'Royal' appellation and it was political suicide in Quebec.
Before all you Harperites say that the PM is just giving Quebec what it deserves, that's not what a Prime Minister is supposed to do, that is, punish those who didn't vote for him or his party.

I can say that for the first time in my life, has a Prime Minister acted in such a partisan and shameful manner, he seems to revel in his Quebec-bashing.

And yes, those who aspire to the top civil service jobs do need to speak French, just like you need an accounting or law degree in order to join the profession.
The naming of a unilingual anglophone to the post of the Auditor General was unpardonable, I don't care how many of you see it differently. (The Supreme Court is another matter)

Mr. Harper, Mr. Charest, from all Quebec federalists, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the betrayal.

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How to Ruin a Long Weekend

Will Pauline be smiling on Tuesday?

For many of us, it will be hard to enjoy this long weekend as we face down with grim acceptance the election coming up on Tuesday.

Usually Labour Day signifies the end of summer and perhaps it is prescient and symbolic that the glory days of summer are ending, morphing into Fall and onto the dreary days of Winter.

It's always sad when the summer ends, it's even sadder when political uncertainty becomes a certainty.

I don't know what a prisoner feels as he shuffles off to the gallows, but it must be emotions like these.
The palpable sense of doom, a stomach wrenching pit that is shared by most of us, making us feel as if we are that infernal 'Dead man walking.'

I shudder to think what five years of Pauline Marois will bring. Think of the idiots she brings along, like Drainville and Lisée, two fools who couldn't run a deppaneur.

Imagine these idiots trifling with your lives, it's enough to make one vomit.

The sad truth of the matter is that all the corruption in the world cannot hold a match to the financial disaster that awaits us as the unions, the students, and government workers run riot as Pauline empties the public purse to satisfy her constituency of takers.

One thing an election campaign provides, is a window where we can look in and see how extraordinarily stupid our politicians are, operating without the support of the real people who operate the government, the deputy ministers who wave their political bosses off one bonehead move from another.
The opposition doesn't even benefit from this sage advice and so, are ever more so prone to uttering political non sequiturs as demonstrated by Pauline, who delivered one stupidity after another.

And so it is always dangerous when politicians veer off from the neatly prepared text that their handlers work so diligently to prepare and ad lib their own thoughts, which more often than not,  shows them to be even more dimwitted than we thought.

Even Jean Charest, who I personally know to be highly intelligent with a fearsome memory is not immune to fits of fancy.

Every time a major politician speaks, there is a handler standing in the back, crossing his or her fingers that the candidate not speak their mind.

Mr Charest's desperate attempt to shore up support by proposing to apply Bill 101 to federal institutions was sadly transparent and Francois Legault has his moments of rank stupidity as well, just a few days ago, calling on doctors who leave the province to reimburse the government for the education that Quebecers paid for.
A wonderful idea if the government actually offered each of these doctors a job and I'm not talking about a job in Ungava Bay.
Most doctors leave BECAUSE THEY CANNOT GET A JOB!
It is sad that someone running for the top job does not know this.

And so we are faced with how to vote and for those off the island, voting for the CAQ may mean the difference between a PQ seat or CAQ seat.
On the island it doesn't make a difference as the Liberal puppets will be re-elected no matter what.

If federalist forces realize that the Liberal's goose is cooked, then a switch to the CAQ is merited, it may be the only strategy left.

Let us run down Tuesday's possibilities; 

SCENARIO #1 - A PQ MAJORITY
No doubt, the worst case scenario for us, but one where the Peekists will find in short order that while language issues got them elected, economic issues will be their undoing.
Once they get their oats off passing restrictive language legislation, the true disaster of Quebec's financial situation will bear down.
The elephant in the room is not only the debt, but the deficit.
While every political party based their budgetary program on the prediction that Quebec's economy would grow at about 2.5%, it isn't happening.
This year's predicted deficit of under two billion is close to being reached, this just four months into the year, as economic growth is actually in negative territory, something nobody will admit.
This means an additional two to three billion added to the deficit and if the PQ follows through with its election promises, another one or two billion would be added, bringing the total up to around six or seven billion, this year.

Like every incoming government before them, Pauline will take one look at the books and renege on the financial goodies package, claiming quite rightly that the Charest government lied about the finances and that the government cannot afford new spending.

As she seeks confrontation with Harper in the hope of riling up Quebecers and push them towards sovereignty, she will find  the PM to be polite, but non-committal and as the old saying goes, it takes two to tango.

The real test will come in 2013 when the Equaliztion program is up for renegotiation. If the feds scrap the program it would mean another five or six billion dollar loss to the budget, meaning that Quebec may very well be faced with running a ten billion deficit and no Pauline, even taxing the rich people at 100% of their income won't fill that gap.

How Montreal's real estate market will react remains to be seen, but over the near term I can see the condo market collapsing and I wouldn't want to be in the shoes of the developers bringing all those new buildings to market over the next two years.
If the PQ is elected your west island home will be worth 25% less on Wednesday.

It'll be worse than all this, but more another time.


SCENARIO #2 - A PQ MINORITY
Here things get interesting.
A PQ minority could easily be defeated by a CAQ /Liberal coalition, a more likely scenario than the CAQ supporting the PQ for very long. Under the CAQ/Liberal coalition, Legault would become the PM as he'd likely be the leader of the party that has the most seats between the two, notwithstanding the fact that Jean Charest may well be defeated in his own riding.

A CAQ/Liberal coalition would probably string the PQ government along for a few months before pulling the plug over a budget, so as to be seen as trying to work with the government and not to appear arrogantly setting aside a PQ government chosen by the people.
Defeating the government would not result in a new election as long as the coalition advises the Lieutenant-Governor that there is a coalition that is prepared to form a government and able to face the National Assembly.

SCENARIO #3 - A CAQ MINORITY
A CAQ minority government would be akin to a CAQ majority government with the Liberals having no other choice but to support the government at all costs and for many years.
This is the position that Michael Ignatieff and the federal Liberals found themselves in, before the last federal election, which they foolishly triggered themselves.
The lessons of that election and the utter decimation of the Liberals will be a sharp reminder to Charest or his successor not to trifle with elections when you are on a downward spiral.

If things pan out as predicted in the polls, the Liberals will remain with a dozen or so seats, half of them English/Allo.
If that happens, it would be natural that they defect to the CAQ, or form a splinter Anglo/Allo rights party, thus finishing off the Liberal party once and for all, something that is needed if we want to avoid electing a separatist government with 30% of the vote.

SCENARIO #4 - A LIBERAL MINORITY
The most unlikely of all the possibilities but one that may very well happen.
If so, The Liberals would need to seek a solid partnership with the CAQ in order to preserve any semblance of sustainability.
In the end, this government can't last that long, the ambitious CAQ has nowhere to go but up.


By the way, if the PQ wins a majority government it will certainly be because of the split federalist vote, but a special honourable mention must go to Prime Minister Harper who went out of his way these last few years to alienate Quebec and punish Mr. Charest.

There are many Quebecois soft nationalists who feel abandoned and pushed around  by Ottawa, discarded by Mr. Harper and it isn't just about money.
They may not want a referendum, but they do want someone to defend Quebec, something neither the Bloc or the Ndp were and are able to do.

If this view is shared by just 3-5 % of Quebec voters, it may be enough to give the PQ the victory.

Here's a ditty by Bowser and Blue, which has incorporated a couple of this blog's artwork.

I'm very proud; Please enjoy;

thanks to 'The Cat' for pointing the link out!

French versus English Volume 60

Dear Readers,

I've reversed the order of posts so that on Friday, I can offer an election wrap-up, for whatever it's worth.

Facebook Campaign to save English cegep goes viral 

Days after Pauline Marois announced her party would block access to English CEGEPs for most francophone and allophone high school students if elected, Tania Lefrançois sent the Parti Québécois leader a message via Facebook.

“I am proud to have done my studies in English at CEGEP St. Lawrence,” she wrote in French. “It’s one of the best decisions that I took for my professional future and for my openness to the world. I think that every Quebecer should be bilingual or at least understand English, because it’s our SECOND OFFICIAL LANGUAGE and because this language is necessary as soon as you put one foot outside of Quebec.”

Marois’s “so-called measures” to promote French, prove that voting for her is a big mistake, she wrote.
Lefrançois is apparently not the only person to share the sentiment. In the week since she posted it, her message had been “Liked” on Facebook 42,330 times as of Monday, and generated 5,400 comments, most of them supportive and most in French, much to Lefrançois’ amazement. Read More

Pauline tells another whopper 

It's a little disconcerting when the next potential Premier of Quebec makes statements that are patently false.
Pauline has given wings to the next great urban myth, that 25% of stores in downtown Montreal don't offer service in French.
Cobbling together and misinterpreting facts is the bane of separatists like Mario Beaulieu, the worst offender of the lot, mixing lies with twisted statistics, to misinform in an effort to fool the people.

Nowhere in the OLF report does it say how many stores refuse to offer French service, probably because the number is minuscule and limited to Ma and Pa operations when there is one clerk in the store.
Of the 25% of stores that 'violate' Bill 101, three-quarters of the offences are because their corporate name is English, something that remains a bone of contention.
According to Marois, if all of the thousands of signs, product labels, bills, etc., in the store are in complete agreement with the law, the store is still an offender because of its English name.

That is what this blueneck is telling us..

Trying to rehabilitate his name Michaud runs afoul of the law 

There was a bit of sweet karma this week as blowhard Yves Michaud continues his Don Quixotesque quest, a sad attempt to clear his name in regards to a unanimous 2000 National Assembly motion, that basically branded him as a racist. Read about the Michaud Affair.

Michaud reminds me of that sweet old cracker down in the deep south, who tells the family at the dinner table that he isn't a racist, it's just a fact that the 'darkies' are thick.

Michaud was cited for his remarks in a radio interview where he complained that the Jews voted against sovereignty en masse and intimated that they were bad citizens of Quebec for doing so. According to Michaud, if they were good citizens, a good number of them would have voted for sovereignty.

Nope, he's definitely not a racist...hmm.

At any rate he's been trying to get that motion overturned, without much success for over the last twelve years.
His latest gambit is to implore voters not to support the dozen or so members of the National Assembly, who voted for the motion and who are running in the current election

He placed an advertisement in Le Devoir encouraging voters not to vote for these 'enemies,' but along the way, he broke the election law by paying for a political ad outside the election rules.

It is an open and shut case and when he is found guilty and fined, he'll probably have as much success overturning his conviction as he has had in overturning the National Assembly censure! Link{Fr}

My advice; Do a Lance Armstrong...

French parents forced to speak English to their children

Parents in certain Ontario jurisdictions are being told to speak English while being supervised by government workers during custody visits.

Because the case workers don't speak French, they cannot monitor what is being said between parent and child, part of their mandate to make sure there is nothing untoward being said.
Some affected parents have offered to bring along an interpreter at their own expense but have been denied the right based of the principle that the interpreter might be in cahoots with the parent. Link{Fr}
The reporter who wrote the story refers to it as a case of 'Speak White,' a term I dislike but admit is appropriate in this case.

The view from Algeria 

You are not doubt familiar with the story of the Saguenay mayor who insulted a PQ candidate who opined that the crucifix in the National Assembly be removed. The good mayor fumed that the foreign born Djemila Benhabib with an unpronounceable name, had no business telling 'real' Quebecers how to live. Link

Well, the story was picked up across the world and was the subject of a story in a French language Algerian newspaper.

The story was run of mill, but the comments were rather amusing.

Here's my favourite;

"I lived in Montreal for nearly ten years (what a waste!)
Fellow citizens, understand that Canada/Quebec is a utopia where as soon as you put your foot down, you don't have long to wait to see the evidence that discrimination is palpable and no matter what your qualifications, there is no work for you. Work is reserved for the locals.
The Quebecois do not like immigrants, nor the English nor Americans, in short they like nobody. 
I heard the expression: "go home," often.
As soon as you arrive, you are fitted in to the process of becoming completely and totally dependent on the Quebec government, which provides a monthly check, just shabby enough not to die from hunger." Link{Fr}

Stephen Harper won't help Charest

Is Stephen Harper exacting a measure of political revenge at the expense of the Quebec Premier for past snubs, or is he exercising his keen political instinct in refusing to endorse the only true federalist leader in the Quebec provincial election?
Well, it probably is a little or rather a lot of both.

It's easy to see that in the face of a separatist Quebec government, Canadians would turn to somebody solid and rock hard to face off with a separatist Premier.
Nobody fits the bill better than Stephen Harper.

Would anybody really trust 'Uncle Tom' Mulcair to defend the interests of the ROC?
Harper must be whistling in the shower these days!

Charest does his own spinnerama

Much to the consternation of Anglos, Jean Charest, in a desperate bid to shore up support, told reporters that he planned to ask the federal government to apply Bill 101 to federally chartered companies as well as to federal government offices in Quebec. Link

Like the good Pauline who was forced to retract some foolish remarks she made concerning Quebec citizenship, Charest climbed down from that position, less than 48 hours later. Link

Ex-MP Marlene Jennings told Anglos that perhaps it was time to vote CAQ, something that caught Charest by surprise, as if Anglos don't read the French Press and were somehow unaware of the betrayal.
Yesterday he clarified things by saying he'd ask the Feds to increase the use of French, not to impose Bill 101.
Well, that made everything clear!

Odds'n Ends

Official Languages Commissioner Graham Fraser says his office will conduct more than 1,500 anonymous observations this fall at airports in Halifax, Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver, to check on bilingualism. Link

Pauline is upset that the next Supreme Court judge will be picked by Stephen Harper and that the committee helping him make the selection includes notorious separatist-bater Stephane Dion.
Madame Marois would like a veto over any such choice. Link{Fr}

Some Francophones are complaining that they are paying for the education of Anglophones because many Anglophones take their education and promptly quit the province, in other words doing what I have dubbed as a 'mistersauga'  Link{Fr}

Jacques Parizeau continues the fine tradition of PQ infighting:
"Former Parti Québécois premier Jacques Parizeau’s has publicly endorsed Jean-Martin Aussant, the Globe and Mail reports. Mr. Aussant is the leader of the Option Nationale, a newly-founded sovereigntist party that is challenging the PQ in a number of “blue” ridings, by snubbing Pauline and the PQ, supporting the Option Nationale. LINK

I really don't know what to make of the Quebec solidaire candidate Christian Bibeau, running in Sherbrooke, who pointed out that 5,000 people living in that city don't have Canadian citizenship and that 10% of them don't speak French.
Sherbrooke and vicinity has a population of around two-hundred thousand, making those who aren't 'Canadian' about 2½% of the population and those that can't speak French at .025% or about 500 out of the the 200,000 citizens.
Hardly a crisis, one would think.. Link{Fr}

Quebecers as lousy tippers?
According to ABC News, some restaurants in Burlington, Vt., are tacking on at least 18 per cent to the food bills of diners who speak a foreign language – and by foreign language, they mean French. As the broadcaster points out, the Vermont town is less than 160 kilometres from Montreal and attracts plenty of Canadian visitors each summer. And it appears we Canadians are considered lousy tippers.

English CEO makes waves
"Quebec’s language hawks are bearing down on the selection of a non-French speaker to lead SNC-Lavalin Inc., barely three days after he was named to the job.

American Robert Card, an engineering veteran with almost 40 years experience, was announced as SNC’s new chief executive after markets closed Friday. He starts on October 1.

French language rights group Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste denounced the selection, calling it “deplorable” that Mr. Card, an American who doesn’t speak French, was chosen to lead one of Quebec’s largest and most storied companies." Link

Here's an article that isn't about Quebec or Canada, but is extremely pertinent;
Can speaking a second language make you a better leader?



ATTENTION: If you read French please do the author the courtesy of reading the original work;
Détester l’anglais: l’obsession de la pureté linguistique

HATING ENGLISH by Joanne Marcotte

In his column: CEGEP? It’s urgent!, Bock-Côté once again demonstrates his deep aversion to English... as well as to anglophones. 

Oh yes. He is quite right when he stresses that some people "accuse others of practising anglophobia." And if such is the case, dear Mathieu, it is because we are reduced to this. No other justification can explain such hysterical comments.

According to Bock-Côté, extending Bill 101 to CEGEPs is a result of “Quebecers’ assertion of their identity."

Umm ... is “Quebecers’ identity” now defined as 'unilingual French?'

Sorry, but suppressing the freedom of young adults to attend English CEGEPs has nothing to do with "identity assertion". It has to do with typically tribal behaviour. It has to do with fear and especially with the contempt and the intrinsic lack of confidence towards allophones, who have already done all of their primary and secondary education in French, thanks to Bill 101.

According to Bock-Côté, "CEGEP is no longer simply an additional step in the schooling of youth. One does not simply select an occupation there. One selects a social environment there. "

Umm ... no....

In real life, last time I checked, when students choose a CEGEP and a study program, they are choosing an occupation. And if they happen to choose an English CEGEP, it's probably because they want to increase their chances of social mobility, to access better jobs.

Oh, I well know where this idea that CEGEP attendance constitutes a threat to French linguistic purity comes from (see here what I think of this supposed study). But coming from someone like Bock-Côté, who so loudly criticized the way the Ministry of Education technocrats have appropriated the educational system, one can only deplore that this same man now appropriates the powers of the state to convert the francophones and allophones of Quebec into unilingual francophones!

According to Bock-Côté, "this is a case of adapting Bill 101 to the demands of our times"!

Umm ... no. If we wanted to "adapt Bill 101 to the demands of our times", we should rather leave it alone. In the real world, especially that in which people work in private companies with customers outside Quebec, English is not only necessary but is absolutely required for the survival of the company.

Finally, for Bock-Côté, "hysterical anti-nationalism is back in fashion", “English threatens French” (as opposed to the poor quality of the teaching of French that is taught in our public schools ...), "the multicultural ideology discredits the Quebec identity", and brace yourselves, we are witnessing the "return of an old fad: Speak White, boy! And don’t you dare complain! "

HATING QUEBECERS
But what is most distressing in all of this, is the unfairness of this tightening of Bill 101, primarily towards the regions but also towards low-income families. Indeed, while opportunities to learn English may be greater in Montreal (which is debatable), in the regions, it is a whole other story.

And then, there is little doubt that parents with solid incomes will find a way around the new ban, perhaps by English immersion, for example.

"Born without a pot to piss in”, or the stoic acceptance of one's modest circumstances and the idea not to aspire above one's station in life is what we used to say once upon a time. Such is what linguistic obsessions are all about. Stifling Quebecers, making their lives harder than need be, harming their potential for social mobility ... that is what truly self-loathing Quebecers are all about!

"Sacrificing all for the country", as Bock-Côté states from his ivory tower.

HATING FREEDOM and HARMING ONE’S CAUSE 

Bock-Côté wrote a whole essay that demonstrates how separatists have hurt their own cause by associating themselves with the obsolete concept of social democracy. Well, I'll let him in on a little secret. There is another reason for this that is just as important and it is this obsession with linguistic purity that francophones have. It’s tedious ... honestly. And it certainly doesn’t give any confidence to those who are planning a new imaginary country for us.

Thank-you to 'THE CAT' for contributing this translation.

How about this ad from the fledgling Conservative party of Quebec?;

 

You gotta love the welfare bum!!!

Leader's Debate..Welcome to the Liar's Club

There's been a lot said and written this morning in the newspapers and on the radio and television, concerning last night's debate.
You could read or watch these reports and commentaries all day long and you still wouldn't be half-done.
But most stories were be boring and repetitive, nothing much happened in the debate and I doubt that voter perceptions were changed.
Perhaps tonight, in the one-on-one debate between Jean Charest and Pauline Marois, we will hear something more substantive.

As is my custom, I'll try to bring forward a few facts and opinions that you won't hear elsewhere.
Here is a short critique of the four Leaders.

FRANCOISE DAVID

If ever I move to Shangri-la or the Garden of Eden I would surely vote for Madame David.
She would make a perfect ruler of a world where we didn't need fossil fuels because everything ran on renewable, clean energy and where cars and airplanes would be a thing of the past.

It is a world where everyone over eighteen receives a guaranteed salary, just for existing and everything her government provides citizens is free, including medicare, education and housing for all who can't or won't provide for themselves.
All this would be paid for by taxing to death the few people in Quebec who earn more than a 100 million dollars a year and by increasing royalties on mining companies to 8000%.
If this is not enough , perhaps manna will shower down from Heaven, but probably not because nobody in this land believes in God.

It is a world of equality, where all the minorities would be allowed to wear their native garb while embracing the Quebecois culture of poutine and maple syrup. They would all happily sing "Alouette"and watch hockey, swigging down beer and pizza and smoking Export 'A.'

It would of course be an independent country, free of the constraints of Canada and those pesky economists .
There would be no debt and there would be no savings or bank accounts, the government would provide everything.
Banks would be outlawed and bosses and shareholders sent packing.

Citizens! All this can happen, just vote for Amir Khadir and Francoise David.

It amazes me that the Quebec Solidaire holds only 6% of the vote, according to pollsters.
I'da think that this type of program would appeal to the moron and idiot class which I always pegged at about 15% of the population.
Sheesh, Madame David can't even fool them!

JEAN CHAREST

Predictable. Same old same old.
Everyone knows he's a good debater and he has a knack for selective facts and figures that he trots out to defend himself and his government.
His attack on Marois over an alleged illegal campaign contribution fell flat and he never really got to pound away on the question of law and order.

One thing that seemed strange was the reaction shots of the Premier smiling like a Cheshire cat while being lambasted by Marois or Legault.


PAULINE MAROIS
Madame Marois is the most skillful of all leaders at not answering a question.
Ask her a YES or NO Question and she will launch into a long-winded response that has nothing to do with what was asked.
The television moderators were no match for her, unlike a radio commentator last week who stopped her mid-sentence and asked empathiclly if she would PLEASE ANSWER THE QUESTION.
Of course when she did say something substantive, it was utter nonsense.

As is her custom, she told one helluva whopper that nobody in any media outlet picked up on.

Let's deconstruct that statement, it is nonsense any way you look at it.

According to Marois her husband gave his doctor to his son because his didn't have one and the son had a newborn.

Marois didn't say her husband "GAVE UP' his doctor, she said that he gave the doctor to his son, perhaps like a Christmas present.
But it did sound like he gave up his doctor in favour of his son, something so utterly unbelievable that how anyone could accept such a nose stretcher is beyond belief.

Imagine, the upstanding, reputable and by the book Claude Blanchet being without a doctor because he gave his up in favour of his son.
This sacrifice from a guy who could waltz into the Westmount Clinic any day he wanted and receive all the treatment in the world as long as he paid.
Oh, but I forgot... He is too reputable and honourable for that, we all know that Mr. Blanchet has a reputation as a straight-shooter, never bending or breaking the rules and always following the letter and spirit of the law.

Readers, would you be interested in some swampland in Florida?


FRANCOIS LEGAULT
Francois Legault was a bit out of his league, but didn't lose any points or support, I imagine.

Anglos, were roundly ignored by all the leaders, except Mr. Legault, who took the time to do a little bashing.
Here he makes the claim that you can't get served in French in downtown Montreal and that Bill 101 is not being enforced with enough vigour.

Anglos, get in line to vote for him!!!!
.

 By the way, of all the issues that Radio-Canada brought up as discussion points, the provincial debt was never mentioned.
As I said in a previous post, there is no debt crisis in Quebec as long as all the politicians agree in advance to never discuss it!

Readers, I leave the last word to you in the comments section.

Separatist Radio-Canada Smears Jean Charest

"Yellow journalism, in short, is biased opinion masquerading as objective fact. Moreover, the practice of yellow journalism involved sensationalism, distorted stories, and misleading images...."

If longtime readers conclude that my least favourite group is politicians, they would be making a decision based on the many disparaging posts I write, directed at all politicians of all stripes, who I have characterized as largely self-serving, mostly incompetent and always selfishly looking after their own political interest.

But that conclusion would be faulty, because it is in fact dishonest and self-serving reporters that rankles my sensibilities far worse than politicians, who cannot always be blamed for their ineptitude because in most instances, they haven't got the smarts or skills to do their job effectively.

The Press however, and more specifically those reporters who cover the politicians, are generally smarter and better trained at their jobs than the politicians they cover (and they revel in that fact), but are generally more devious, cynical and just as dishonest.

Therein lies my utter disdain and disrespect.

Reporters are a smug, sanctimonious and self-important lot and because they have the power to build up or destroy, they develop a superior and haughty complex shared only with those occupying the benches of our courts.

And like judges they are generally impervious to attack, hiding behind cloak of confidentiality like a thirteen year-old pimply faced video game maven, using a 'Shield of Invulnerability,' picked up on level six.

It befalls editors to insure that reporters using anonymous sources do so ethically and honestly. Readers will note that the information that anonymous sources provide is almost always impossible to second source and the decision to print or air a story based on one anonymous source becomes a question of integrity, something sorely lacking in the competitive world of journalism.

A veteran editor once told me, that to a reporter, a scoop is like heroin to an addict, impossible to resist under even the most dubious circumstances.

One of the more sinister aspects to these anonymous-based stories, is when the reporter is given inside information to leak, in an underhanded manoeuvre to circulate a story (usually negative) that will give the source or his political party an advantage.
The reporter and editor must weigh whether being used by the leaker to further a political goal is less important than the public's right to know, and readers, you know where the decision will fall, clearly on the side of heroin.

The third and most ominous aspect to quoting an anonymous sources, is when a biased reporter uses the information to help or hinder a politician or political party.
While we demand that reporters act ethically and impartially, it is seldom the case.

Look at those reporters like Pierre Duchesne of Radio-Canada who magically transformed himself into a PQ separatist politician soon after he gave up the supposed impartial world of reporting.

And do not think this is exclusively a Radio-Canada/ Parti Quebecois phenomenon. 
Let us remember Senator Mike Duffy who jumped into his Conservative senate seat directly from his nationally televised, afternoon political interview show on CTV and Peter Kent another high profile English television news personality who went from a news anchor's chair straight into the cabinet.

These type of journalists are the ones I absolutely loathe, they feign impartiality, while subtlety influencing the stories they produce on air.

Which brings me to the hatchet job on Jean Charest unloaded last week by Radio-Canada journalist Alain Gravel.

It was a classic case of the third example I described above, of a reporter attempting to politically injure a politician, when it hurts the most, that is, during an election campaign.

Let me start with the story that Mr. Gravel and his flunky Marie-Maude Denis presented to the public.

Very briefly, it is a tale about an SQ investigation of a union leader they suspected of being corrupt.
The day after a televised report by that same Alain Gravel about alleged corruption of another union boss, the SQ decided to follow one of his colleagues, to see where he went and who he met with.
It was plain and simple a fishing expedition.
When it comes to crime detection it seems that the SQ is the last to know.

You can watch the Radio-Canada report HERE in French.

The undercover officers were following the suspect around town, when in the afternoon, he attended a political function in a hotel in Montreal where a gaggle of politicians both federal and provincial, were meeting with native leaders, including Jean Charest.
The target of the investigation was seen exchanging pleasantries with Mr Charest for between thirty seconds or two minutes (depending on who you believe) and minutes later the officer in charge of the operation terminated the surveillance abruptly.

That readers is the whole story.
Everything else that comes after is rank speculation by Mr. Gravel or the leakers, who were some of those police officers involved with the surveillance and who were peeved that the operation was called off.

In fact one of the officers speculated that the officer in charge called off the operation because he panicked seeing the subject meet Mr. Charest.

"The officer in charge of the operation simply panicked when he saw the suspect meet Mr. Charest and decided to call of the surveillance."

Now look at the Radio-Canada headline about the incident.

"Surveillance of an ex-directer of the FTQ Construction called off after a meeting with Mr. Charest"

That readers, is one of the most misleading headlines I've ever read in my life!

If you didn't go on to read the story, you would likely assume that Mr. Charest had ordered the surveillance to be called off in a meeting.
Accident or design?

"The gist of the radio-Canada report on the incident intimated that there was some sort of political interference that brought the investigation to a close, an allegation that a furious Charest denied.

"Premier Jean Charest found himself in denial mode Thursday after a Radio-Canada report suggested that he arranged for the plug to be pulled on a police investigation of a Liberal supporter named Eddy Brandone in 2009." Link

And so readers, that is how to run a textbook smear operation!

Touché and congratulations Mr. Gravel, mission accomplished!

Perhaps UQAM should offer Mr. Gravel a guest lectureship in yellow journalism in their communications program entitled  "How to destroy federalists through activist journalism."

Readers might ask themselves why these police officers waited until now, over three years after the incident occurred, to leak a story that happened in May, 2009.
Can anybody come to any conclusion other than it was to hurt Mr. Charest politically during an election campaign?

Did Mr. Gravel and his team not understand or care that they were being played or were they overjoyed to massage and distort a story to hurt the Premier during this critical period?

And by the way, the reason for halting the surveillance is easily explainable.
The officer in charge probably did panic, his unit was on a fishing expedition which paddled into some dangerous waters.
You don't spy on the Premier of Quebec without a damn good reason and one can easily see how prejudicial it would be if it got out that the SQ was watching the Premier surreptitiously.

Now Mr, Gravel should know what every one else in high places knows, that is, that the SQ isn't controlled by anyone, they are a force unto themselves.

The SQ may not be particularly competent, but it is incredibly powerful.
It is to my knowledge, the only state or provincial police force in North America that actually has veto power over which politician will be chosen by the Premier to be the Public Security Minister, the direct political minder of the SQ.

The SQ is fiercely independent and the idea that a Premier can call up the SQ boss and tell him to nix an investigation is complete and utter fantasy.

The SQ does on occasion act to protect the government or politicians, it is part of its mandate.

A couple of years ago, when the SQ became aware, through wiretaps, that the stripper daughter of the then Justice Minister Marc Bellemare was associating with alleged dope dealers, they informed the Minister in order that he head off trouble.

Was that a conflict or were they acting diligently?

Lost in all this is the fact that if we accept Mr. Gravel's intimation that Mr. Charest somehow influenced the SQ to curb a criminal investigation, then the SQ is a corrupt organization all the way down to officers controlling surveillance operations.

It's worse than trash journalism, it's activist journalism, meant to manipulate public perception in favour of separatists.

Promises, Promises... Separatist Politicians Ignore Reality

Henry Louis Mencken

"When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental — men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or be lost... All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum

Today readers, we will be discussing (I say we, not in the royal sense, but rather because you will have your part to say  in the comments forum) the unbelievable promises being bandied about in this current election campaign, mostly by the separatist leaders of the Parti Quebecois and Quebec solidaire.

Now the Liberals and the CAQ are making some promises of their own, but modest compared to the billions and billions being thrown out there by the PQ and QS and at least are making some provisions to pay for their them.
Francois Legault has put forward a couple of cost saving ideas, including getting rid of school boards, that layer of administration between the education department and the schools themselves, plus getting rid of the deadwood in Hydro Quebec and in the civil service.
Heaven knows there's enough of that!

As for Jean Charest, he's on record for increasing student tuition as well as the imposition of an additional health tax on families.
But all these measures, according to the Liberals and the CAQ will only serve to finance new spending.

All parties have forgotten to make mention of Quebec's ballooning debt, as if it wasn't there and that paying it down not a priority.
As an election issue, it appears to be taboo, as if speaking of debt reduction is the political kiss of death in Quebec.
It seems that voters aren't interested in being reminded that collectively our credit cards are overloaded and like an ostrich with its head buried in the sand, we live with the fantasy that if we don't talk about it, it may not be a problem. Sure....

It's the same policy adopted by Europe over the last two decades, refusing to deal with the elephant in the room, the national debt that had been piled up over decades of decadent over-spending.
Whether Quebec is in as bad a situation is debatable, but it is true that in terms of Canada, Quebec is in the worst financial position of all the provinces owing a collective debt of $250+ billion or about $39,000 per Quebecker or more than $60,000 per taxpayer.

The idea that this debt is but a trifle is the political philosophy of PQ star candidate, Jean-François Lisée, who actually believes and writes that Quebec really doesn't have a debt  problem at all.
Mr. Lisée reminds me of that seven-day a week, all-day tippler, the drunk who swears up and down that his drinking is no big deal and that he has it under control.

The rank stupidity and callous disregard for the truth by these separatists reminds of the famous quote by Henry Louis Menken, who I will quote and paraphrase extensively throughout this post;

"There's no underestimating the intelligence of the Quebec voter" 

As voters go, Quebecers are probably no smarter or dumber than your average North American, but that really isn't saying a lot, which brings me to my third quote from that witty journalist.

Demagogue: one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots"

Politicians who abuse the rank stupidity of the masses with unbelievable promises that attempt to bamboozle them into voting a certain way, are usually called to order by a vigilant Press, which is supposed to be the guardians of truth.

But somehow this element is lacking in Quebec.
When Madame Marois makes the most idiotic of proposals, there's nary a contrary peep anywhere, mostly because our journalists are decidedly separatist as well.
Even the English press misses the boat, as it collectively concentrates on the narrowest of issues, which is language and the collective angst of Anglos over having nobody to represent them.
 
And so we get the utterly ridiculous proposals put forward by the PQ and QS, proposals that are so patently stupid, it would prompt a thinking person to throw up one's hands in disgust.

As for Mr. Khadir and Francoise David, I can forgive them their excesses. They can promise the Moon, it is of not matter, even their own constituency recognizes that they are not serious.

The QS will likely elect no more than half the members it takes to host a bridge game and as such, they can say and promise anything they want.

Mr. Khadir's best line of the campaign is the one where he advises us to "sortir du fatalisme de l'austérité," that is, that we should give up the on idea of being obsessed with austerity.

Does Mr Khadir really believe that these last decades, the government of Quebec has been operating on a strict budget and sticking to an austerity program?
It's statements like this that should have the Press howling in derision.

He then goes on to propose an $8 billion social spending increase, without decreasing spending anywhere else. This 12% increase in the provincial budget would be paid for by a $5,000 tax increase on those making over $250,000, by buying generic drugs and cracking down on tax evasion.
Hmm....Perhaps someone can buy Mr. Khadir a calculator Link{Fr}

But as I said, I shall nor critique his proposals, as I said it is a fantasy and a dream.

As for Madame Marois I shall not be so generous, she is making promises that she cannot keep, and if she does, the provincial debt will spiral up even more.

First she has declared that she will eliminate the new health tax and roll back the tuition increases put in place by the Liberals.
Among her other promises:

• increase the amount of $7 a day daycare places
• Increase salaries to family doctors.
• Use the Caisse de dépôt's (our pension money) to fight off hostile takeovers of Quebec companies.
• High speed internet for all.
• Additional kindergarten starting at age four. 
• A $500 tax rebate to families that enroll their children in sports.

Aside from all this, Marois proposes a massive spending program in the  'regions' as she promised in her trip to the Gaspé.
All this in the first ten days of the election and I shudder to think what is coming.

To pay for this Marois proposes taxing the 'rich' families who make over $80,000 a year and an increase in royalties on minerals. (Oh if it were that easy!)

More spending, more taxes, this in the highest taxed province or state in North America and only in Quebec can a family with an income of $80,000 be considered 'rich.'

This is the type of responsible government that the separatists propose, one that ignores the fiscal reality and one which will paradoxically insure that their own independence project will remain unaffordable and unrealizable.

We are just in the beginning phase of the campaign and political parties save announcements of new spending projects, to be parcelled out as the campaign progresses, to keep interest alive.
So I imagine we can expect more, much more idiotic spending promises.

I close with some more sage political advice from the above-mentioned H. L. Menken;

To the Parti Quebecois;
"Economic independence is the foundation of the only sort of freedom worth a damn."

To Pauline Marois;

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. 

To the Quebec solidaire;
"An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup."

To Amir Khadir;
"The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man whose ideas are idiotic."

To the Liberal Party;
"People constantly speak of "the government" doing this or that, as they might speak of God doing it. But the government is really nothing but a group of men, and usually they are very inferior men. They may have some better man working for them, but they themselves are seldom worthy of any respect." 

To Jean Charest;

"The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office."

To the OQLF;
"No one ever heard of the truth being enforced by law. Whenever the secular arm is called in to sustain an idea, whether new or old, it is always a bad idea, and not infrequently it is downright idiotic."  

To French language militants;

"The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true."

To Jean-François Lisée;
"There is always a well-known solution to every human problem--neat, plausible, and wrong.

To voters everywhere;

"A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar"

To  all political parties;
"Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule--and both commonly succeed, and are right."

To readers of this blog;

"Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under."