French versus English Volume 96

Jewish General Hospital and Quebec Daycare Association to PQ..... "UP YOURS!!"

JGH to PQ...."Non merci"

L'Association des garderies privées du Québec (Que. Assoc. of Private Day cares) has withdrawn its objection to the proposed Charter of Values, not because they are giving up the fight, but rather because they've decided  to ignore the law if passed, damn the consequences.
The daycare association boasts so many employees who wear the headscarf, that to comply with the proposed law, would bring down the network. The spokesman added that the network will continue to hire qualified teachers, even if they wear the veil.

"There is no study that shows that the wearing of  the headscarf affects the development of the child negatively, no cause and effect. I think  Minister Bernard Drainville is talking out of his hat, says Sylvain Lévesque. These are qualified and patient women, who have a vocation and are doing excellent work with children, " he added. Link{fr}

At the assembly of the Association in Montreal last week, members passed this resolution;

"No one will be excluded and dismissed for rules imposed by a state that promotes division, exclusion, strife and discord for ideological purposes. "  Link{fr}

In the meantime the Jewish General Hospital is making its displeasure known, hinting that they too will ignore the law, deeming it unconstitutional.
At the JGH, almost 30% of employees would violate the proposed law, including critical employees, like emergency room doctors. The hospital could not possibly replace these employees and is well aware that the government's assumption that most would remove their symbols is patently naive. Read: Jewish General may disobey secularism charter

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

Now all this talk of the Charter of Values has raised some ugly sentiments from militant secularists in relation to the Jewish General Hospital.

Hasidic Jew... side locks

As those who follow Quebec politics closely know, a PQ candidate running in a by-election in Montreal was caught up in a controversy when some comments she made on her Facebook page came to light.

Tania Longpré  is the sacrificial lamb running for the PQ in Viau in Montreal, an ethnic riding that will go Liberal no matter what.
In the political vernacular of Quebec politics, she is a "poteau," (pole) someone who puts up election posters on telephone poles to defend the party colours in hostile territory and runs only to satisfy the minority who support the party in the riding.
'POTEAUS'  have no expectation of winning and these candidates are positions usually filled by young party militants hoping for a political payoff should the party they represent win power.

Now Ms. Longpré is not politically discrete,  (Ne pas avoir la langue dans sa poche.) She is actually nothing more than an ignorant loudmouth, with intellect that matches her beauty. (yes..that was meant to be cruel)

When asked on Facebook if she agreed that the Jewish General hospital should drop the word 'Jewish' from its appellation and refrain from performing religious circumcisions, as well as barring Jewish employees of the hospital from wearing peyos, a tradition among ultra-religious Jews, none of whom, by the way, work in the public service, she enthusiastically answered.
"Against, against against."

When asked  by that same interlocutor to clearly and publicly answer whether the Charter of Values should include provisions to remove the word 'Jewish' from the JGH and whether circumcision be banned as well as the kippah and side locks from the public service, Ms. Longpré  answered. "I SAID yes!

 When confronted by reporters, Ms. Longpré backed away from her position claiming that what somebody says on Facebook shouldn't be considered definitive and that she was in fact, the target of a smear campaign. Link{fr}
Digging a little further, reporters found some other embarrassing public statements made by Longpré, including disparaging remarks about the PQ in general and Pauline Marois in particular. Link

By the way, for those rednecks who believe it is unreasonable in the modern age of Quebec secularism for a public institution like a hospital to have a religiously based name (like the 'Jewish General Hospital,' I offer this list of primary care hospitals in Quebec that violate that principle;

Centre hospitalier Hôtel-Dieu d'Amos
Hôpital de Notre-Dame-du-Lac
Centre hospitalier Saint-Francois
Centre hospitalier Notre-Dame du Chemin
Hôpital de l'Enfant-Jésus
Hôpital du Saint-Sacrement
Hôtel-Dieu de Québec
Saint-Francois d'Assise
Hôpital, CLSC et Centre d'hébergement Christ-Roi
Hôpital de Saint-Georges
Hôtel-Dieu de Lévis
Hôtel-Dieu de Sherbrooke (CHUS)
Hôpital Hôtel-Dieu de Gaspé
Hôpital de Sainte-Anne-des-Monts
Hôtel-Dieu de Sorel
Hôpital Notre-Dame du CHUM
Hôpital Sainte-Anne
Hôpital Saint-Luc du CHUM
Hôtel-Dieu du CHUM
Centre hospitalier de St. Mary
Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal
Hôpital Santa Cabrini

Hôpital Géneral Juif (Jewish General Hospital)........ unacceptable


The Charter debate has opened the door to some pretty  racist comments, snuck in under the guise of honest debate. If you think the comments on this blog are inflammatory, you haven't been reading the mainstream press lately.

Translation: Lucky the PQ is a good sport. If it was me, symbols would be allowed, but there wouldn't be any synagogues or mosques. Link{fr} 
 

Now I've read thousands of comments in the French press in relation to the Charter and have come to the unscientific conclusion that the readers of the decidedly low-brow Journal de Montreal are much more anti-charter than readers of Le Devoir.
I actually thought it would be the other way around, but then, the vast majority of Le Devoir readers are separatists, so I guess it makes sense.

Here's an exchange in the comments section of the JdeM that caught my attention. It appeared under the story of Tania Longpré 

Alain Mourani : She is representative of unbridled xenophobia, which once public, spreads unashamedly. It is for the benefit if the peanut gallery, the PQ understands that its chances of an election win in that riding is equal to zero. Muslims were, until now, the scapegoats, but now the Jews are back ... not to mention that in the Jewish hospital, anyone will be very well cared for, and in French, unlike the claims of the ignorant mass  of morons. It was created because of the opposition of good Catholic clergy Quebec and its political cronies ... to let the Jews practice as physicians ...Now Muslims, tomorrow others and that's the xenophobia in the Republic of the Quebec ... Kébecquistan 

 Morrisette Paul: You lied, it is in the Quebec Parliament where the first Jew in Canada was admitted.  It is in the University of Montreal where  the Jews refused in McGill, turned to. It was the English Prime Minister of Canada who claimed that Hitler was a great statesman, a man he admired. It was the Canadian government that refused a ship of Jewish refugees who were returned to be taken by the Germans and whose occupants perished in concentration camps

Alain Mourani: Well, I can also cite the example of Adrien Arcand, a pure Nazi... the question isn't there. The Jewish hospital exists because cathos refused Jewish doctors the right to practice in the cathos hospitals. Giving me some historical facts does not change the present situation. I have a collection of anti-Semitic posters from 1945 to 1955, in French, posters used by municipalities like St. Agathe, to complain about the invasion of the Jews, their refusal to integrate ... etc.. Just look at the current deleterious climate to understand that the latent xenophobia speaks now without restraint. Before we had a little discomfort in expressing it. ... Link{fr}

Read: An open letter to Tania Longpre from a surgeon in the Jewish General Hospital

Here's my solution to the impasse.....

Let the government take over the JGH and install a new secular administration, rename the hospital more appropriately, perhaps Hopital Abbé Lionel Groulx .
Get rid of all the Prots, Anglos, Jews, Muslims and pesky immigrants who work in the hospital and replace them with unilingual Francophones. Rename all the pavilions and buildings which up to now,  honour generous patrons and donors, with famous Montreal Canadiens hockey players.

....then pay back the almost 1 billion dollars that the Jewish community invested in the hospital via charitable donations over the decades.

That sounds fair, and readers I'm betting that there are many PQ politicians who would take the deal.

After all, it would be a question of raising Quebec's debt from $250 billion to $251 billion, a trifle and worth the money to get rid of the reminder of Anglo domination and the fact that as McGill University is Quebec's best institution of higher learning, so too is the JGH, in relation to the health field.
Just ask Jacques Parizeau and Pauline Marois, who chose to be treated at the JGH, rather than at any of the aforementioned hospitals on the list I've provided above.

PQ Election promises out the window

The two main planks of the PQ election campaign were the cancellation of the Health Tax, imposed on all citizens by Jean Charest's Liberal government and the promise of a balanced budget.
The PQ government admitted this week that it can deliver on neither due to deteriorating economic conditions and reduced revenues.

 It is no surprise to readers of this blog, I told you this would happen a while back.

"No matter how you slice it, Quebec is in big economic trouble, likely heading into a recession and towards a three or four billion budgetary deficit.
Long gone is the PQ election promise of a balanced budget, the realities of Quebec economics dictate that in the present and foreseeable future, it just ain't gonna happen.  Read: Quebec's perfect storm

Well it may even be worse than that;
When Quebec's finance minister presented his forecast for this fiscal year, he made some predictions in regard to revenue and expenditures, predictions which would allow him to balance the budget.
Well, how'd that work out?... not so well.
Marceau's numbers:

Government revenue to increase +5.2%... So far. +0.6%...an increase 88% less than predicted.
Government expenses to increase +1.9%... So far. +4%...an increase 102%  more than predicted.

Revenues from government enterprises including Hydro-Québec, Loto-Québec, the SAQ, etc., have posted diminishing returns on the order of -4,4% while the government anticipated a rise of 3.8%.

And so the government, just four months into the fiscal year  has built up a $2.3 billion deficit.
The way things are going, my prediction of a 3-4 billion dollar debt this year is looking realistic.

By the way, the last five months have been brutal, each posting a deficit and totalling 3 billion dollars in all, erasing some of the gains made at the beginning of the year.

But all this is no matter to Marois, who now maintains that a deficit isn't as bad as cutting expenses.

Marois steals Bank slogan..."Quebec is richer than you think!"

I cannot stop but marvel at the utter and complete bullshit that comes out of our Premier's mouth. Sorry to be crude, but never in my life have I seen a politician so brazenly attempt to lie, misconstrue and totally mislead.
Readers know me as a cynical sort, one who claims to have seen it all in regards to politicians. But Pauline takes the cake for evil manipulation and manifest dishonesty.
Watching a children's movie with my 4 year-old grandson, I'm inspired to nickname Pauline Marois as "Despicable She"
She has evolved to the point that almost nothing coming out of her mouth  can be trusted.
The definition of an inveterate liar is someone who lies, even when it makes more sense to tell the truth.

"Pauline Marois made the case for Quebec sovereignty on Sunday, arguing that Quebecers are richer now that they were in 1995, when they came close to choosing independence.
“Never has Quebec counted so few families without jobs or living on social assistance,” the premier said at the close of a two-day meeting in Montreal of about 500 Parti Québécois delegates and observers from across the province." Link

Is Marois intimating that Quebec's unemployment rate is at a historical low?....Nope, not at all.
Are we really richer because a couple of thousand less people are on welfare?

Marois maybe useless as a Premier, but she certainly could get a get a job selling real estate à la Glengarry Glencross.

Soon she'll be resorting to double negatives to fools us. ..."I want to assure you that no one in my government is not considering tax increases."

Quebec has accrued an additional $100 billion debt since 1995, so the question remains...are we really richer than then?

OQLF..en garde

After being badly embarrassed for over-zealousness a la Pastagate, the OQLF  is being decidedly more cautious.
After a complaint by a language vigilante in regards to a restaurant's signage which included  the word 'take out', the agency declined to proceed, based on the notion that the offence was trifling.

Have a great weekend !pub

Bon  fin de semaine!

FTQ Revelations Entertainment Worthy of a Soap Opera

Michel Arsenault, the president of the most powerful union in Quebec, has decided not to submit his name for re-election, amid swirling controversies and accusations.

It's an interesting story, but hard to follow, mainly because it has been playing out slowly over the months and involves a large cast of characters, the good, the bad and the decidedly ugly.

Now as is my want, I'm going to take the completely opposite view of what is described by the mainstream media, who are vilifying Arsenault and portraying him as some sort of crook.
It just isn't true.

Now I've no axe to grind and no personal stake or friendship here and the FTQ isn't my favourite organization, but fair is fair, Arsenault was railroaded out of a job and although I have no sympathy for him or the union, them's the facts.

Before I start story telling, let's cover some background.

The FTQ (Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec) is Quebec's largest union with over half a million members representing about 44% of Quebec's unionized workers. Its president for the last few years is Michel Arsenault, the subject of this piece.

The FTQ Construction is a component union of the FTQ and had as its president one Jocelyn Dupuis, (until he was ousted) who is one badass connected to the Mafia.

The third element that you need to know about is Ken Pereira, an organizer at the FTQ Construction who turned whistle-blower and got Dupuis dumped.

The last element is the Fonds de Solidarité, a fund created by the FTQ, ostensibly to make investments in Quebec with the express goal of fostering union jobs.
In fact very little of that happens, the bulk of its investments are similar to any other Canadian investment fund, but more on that later on.
The fund receives contributions from the public via RRSP contributions and represents (on the surface) an especially good deal because both the federal and provincial government grant an extra 15% deduction, for a total deduction of 30% more than what is given to a regular RRSP contribution at a bank or trust institution.

Let me take a moment to explain.
A taxpayer making $50,000 and who contributes 5,000 to an RRSP, is only taxed on the remaining $45,000, and so the $5,000 that goes into the RRSP account is tax-free.

A taxpayer making $50,000 and who contributes $5,000 to the Fonds de Solidarite RRSP, gets the same deduction plus an additional deduction of 15% from the federal government and 15% from the Quebec government and so is taxed not on the $45,000 as above, but $43,500. Detailed Explanation

It sounds like a good deal and many Quebecers have invested in the fund because of the additional tax saving with the belief that the money is being invested in Quebec, both assumptions proving false. The Fund has performed so poorly, they'd have been better off investing elsewhere, anywhere else, in fact.

Here is a chart prepared by DAVID over at antagonist.net where you can read more about the subject.(in French.)
The chart describes what $100 invested in the year 2,000 in the various investment funds, is worth today.
The comparison is quite shocking, the $100 invested in the Caisse de dépôt (Quebec's retirement fund) grew to about $165, while the money in the FTQ-Solidarity Fund grew to just $118, while the Ontario Municipal Employee fund grew to $200, the Canadian Pension Plan grew to $210 and the aggressive Teachers fund from Ontario grew to $240.

So to those thinking that the FTQ Solidarity Fund is worth the extra deduction...think again.

And by the way, the federal government pulled the plug on its portion of the tax deduction this year, claiming that the Fund doesn't really invest much in job creation and is really just another player in the RRSP game.

But the Solidarity Fund still has about $9.3 billion in assets and that certainly is no trifle.
The fund is managed by professionals, but the President of the FTQ is automatically placed on the Board of Directors.
And here plays out the drama.

While Jocelyn Dupuis was then FTQ-Construction boss, he partnered up with some serious Mafiosi and tried to get Arsenault to use his influence as a board member of the Solidarity Fund to lend these companies money.
Arsenault demurred, telling Dupuis that the reputations of the partners made it impossible to lend them anything and considering the repercussions of turning down the Mafia, I think he acquitted himself nicely.
No harm no foul, the Fund never gave Dupuis and his partners any money at all.

Ken Pereira  -whistle blower extraordinaire!

At any rate, Dupuis' actions in the union got the hackles up of Ken Pereira and he was determined to kick Dupuis out of the union, He was so determined to get dirt on Dupuis that he secretly broke into the office and stole financial records that showed Dupuis bilking the union by way of phony expense claims, restaurant bills for up to $5,000 a meal and incredibly, claiming the mobster partners as the guests!
Pereira took the proof to Arsenault and asked him to dump Dupuis, but Arsenault stalled, hoping to clean up the mess privately.
After all, he was dealing with a man connected to some very dangerous individuals. In fact one of them is now in jail awaiting his trial for murder.

And so it came to pass that somebody (wink,wink)  leaked the documents to a journalist and when the extent of the bilking became public, Dupuis was forced to resign and was subsequently arrested for theft by the police.
Along the way, we were promised some juicy wiretap evidence at the Charbonneau Commission,  concerning FTQ bosses discussing affairs, but truthfully they were less than impressive, when finally played. The recordings incriminated Dupuis, but not Arsenault.

Jocelyn Dupuis- masterful performance!

By the way, Dupuis just wrapped up testifying before the Charbonneau Commission and his testimony was absolutely delicious.
A consummate actor and raconteur extraordinaire, it was impressive to see what a force he is. Calm and confident, not in the least bit intimidated, he teased with the judge and prosecutor with grinning disdain.
When asked why he associated and partnered up with so many mobsters, he told the commission that he believed in giving criminals a chance to rehabilitate themselves. PRICELESS!!!
Read a story on his testimony

So not a pretty story. But as for Arsenault, I can't really find fault .
He never did anything crooked and his only failing was in not rooting out Dupuis and his mobster friends.
But I'd like to remind readers that these people are extremely violent and volatile and I myself would consider long and large before taking a heroic stand.

Now let's  go on to the second part of the FTQ story, this one is even more interesting.
It concerns Pauline Marois' controversial husband, Claude Blanchet.
Here's what I wrote about him back in 2011. 

Madame & Messier Pauline Marois

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

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

Would you lend this guy money?
It seems that the Solidarity Fund did just that, $3,00,000 $2,999,999, but more about that sum a little later.

Now for Arsenault the FTQ boss, it would just make business sense to cosy up to the husband of the then opposition leader, a good investment that would pay off, should she become Premier, which of course she did.
The loan was a trifling sum to a 9 billion fund and let's face it, Blanchet and Marois would be indebted whether the investment was successful or not.
Of course it was not.....

Now Marois met with Arsneault twice, once before the loan and once after, ostensibly to discuss public matters and maybe that part is true.

But that is not the point, the meeting cemented a relationship and that is what Arsenault wanted and got.
Who could blame him, it was just good business and there was no ethical lapse on his part at all, no more than offering NHL tickets to a purchasing agent.
To those of you who think that this is unethical, welcome to the real world.
AND during all this, Arsenault was subject to a police investigation which included wiretaps and surveillance!

But it was not Arsenault that broke the ethical bounds, rather Marois, who should never, never have taken such a meeting.
To highlight the power that Arsenault exercised over the PQ, when the crap hit the fan over the mob's attempt to get loans from the Solidarity Fund, the opposition demanded that Arsenault explain himself before a National assembly Committee.
Marois steadfastly refused, protecting Arsenault from testifying, but when Arsenault himself decided that he was better off appearing, the Premier reversed herself.

At any rate, it should never have happened, the Charbonneau Commission was looking into these things and this Parliamentary circus was nothing more than a distraction.

Now back to the loan..
It seems that the full board of Directors of the Solidarity fund is required to approve any loan of three million dollars plus and so that is why the loan to Blanchet's company was $2,999,999, a dollar short of the threshold.
Draw your own conclusion... 

One last thing.
During Dupuis' testimony, it came out that the FTQ-Construction union, the entity that Dupuis led, gave quite a bit of help to  André Boisclair and the PQ in the 2007 election.
Hundreds of FTQ-Construction workers put up signs, manned phone lines and provided security and babysitting services.
Now there's nothing illegal at all about that, as long as nobody was paid to do the work and Dupuis claimed that to be the case.

But what is interesting, is the fact that Dupuis admitted to sharing a few meals with Boisclair to discuss strategy.

Now the LCN news network dug up an old André Boisclair interview where he told the interviewer that the days of the PQ leader being a pal with union leaders is a thing of the past and that he would not be conducting business over liquid lunches, so to speak.

A direct contradiction of the facts.
In Boisclair's upcoming defamation lawsuit against Jacques Duchesneau, and Francis Legault,  I think the defence team should pay notice to the fact that Boisclair was untruthful.

As they say on the TV court room dramas...'goes to credibility, your honour!'

Immigrants-The Real Quebec-Bashing

My 90 year-old mother came to this country almost 65 years ago and still is haunted by the immigrant experience.
She never fails to remind me that immigrants need our compassion, generosity and support, because it is a hard road to go down, as she can attest to.

Were times tough on her and my dad?
Although my mother spoke six languages (including Latin), my father four, neither had any French or English, and so the first few months were particularly difficult, until they learned both  French and English.
Almost penniless when they arrived, they shared a seedy apartment with my aunt and uncle (also immigrants) and when winter rolled around, the two pregnant women had but one pair of winter boots between them, so alternated going out.
The small apartment was dingy and poorly maintained. My mother did the washing at a neighbour's house in return for baby-sitting, a washing machine, a luxury completely out of reach. Meals were sparse and clothing donated. The only entertainment, card games with other greenhorns. My mother told me the story of looking in on my older brother sleeping in the hand-me-down crib, right beside a rat.
Yep....
Of course my father took whatever work he could get, two jobs that paid less than a decent one, with the road to middle class, decades in the making.
Their's is the story of that particular immigrant generation, perhaps an experience similar to your parents or grandparents, be they Italian, Jewish, Greek, Portuguese or East European. In those days, if you didn't work, you didn't eat.

I imagine it's a bit easier today to be an immigrant but still, every time the television airs a news story of another Montreal slum lord and the condition of his apartment building, full of vermin, bedbugs, mould and cockroaches, there is almost always a poor immigrant family staring out from behind the door.
These living conditions shouldn't be tolerated in our society, but for many immigrants, there aren't any alternatives, nobody is putting them up at the Ritz.
I imagine it's still not easy to be an immigrant, especially now with all the wealth around us, unattainable to the newly arrived.

So how should we treat these newcomers?
With respect, compassion, generosity and inclusiveness, or should we do as the PQ instructs us to do....bash them mercilessly.

Coming to a new country is hard, but infinitely harder, when you are treated as a second class citizen and that dear readers, is exactly what the PQ wants us to do, bash the immigrants into submission, reminding them that what and who they are, is unacceptable, constantly hectoring them that their upbringing, their customs, their religion and orthodoxy is unwelcome in Quebec and that they must make themselves over, forgetting the old axiom that You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

There is something perverse about a society that invites foreigners to fill the void of a falling birth rate and then complains that these newly arrived immigrants are too 'foreign.'

Let us make no mistake about it, immigrants are doing us a favour, otherwise we would never allow them in, Quebecers generally loathe immigrants and consider them little more than a necessary evil.

Quebec takes in 50,000 immigrants a year because the province is desperate to fill the void of a falling birthrate.
Without immigration Quebec's population would fall by about 25% each generation. At the present pace of re-productivity, without immigration, Quebec's population would fall from 8 million to 4.5 million people in just fifty years and that doesn't even consider the negative inter-provincial outflow. (the difference between Canadians moving into Quebec, versus Quebecers moving to the ROC.)
Those are some pretty stark numbers, representing a harsh reality.

So it remains a choice between asking Quebec families to have about 1/2 a child more per family or inviting foreigners to make up the difference.
It remains a mystery why no Quebec politician, language militant or separatist, dares bring up the subject.
Probably, because Quebecers would scoff at the idea of making any real effort or sacrifice to save their own culture or language, it's much easier to put the onus on the backs of Anglos, Ethnics and immigrants.

How is it that not even the most militant and stringent separatists like Mario Bealieu or Jean-Paul Perreault, ever bring up the subject of re-productively and the very real solution that would preclude the loathsome immigrants?
It is probably because anyone asking Quebecers to have more children will be laughed out of the room. Quebecers want their culture preserved, but not at any personal sacrifice, that is the simple and irrefutable truth. 
And so it is much easier to bring in foreigners and bash them mercilessly for not acting like locals, with the smug undertone that Quebec is doing them a big favour by allowing them to settle among us.

Most immigrants come to this country for the sake of their children and toil for decades in poverty to give their children the possibility of a better life.
Those that are unemployed of their own volition are a testament to the failure of the selection process and again who is really to blame? The politic of language weighs heavy, with those doing the choosing, making the ability to speak French more important than anything else.

If you went into a bakery and purchased a frosted cake that turned out to taste pretty awful, would you go back and buy the exact same cake week after week, year after year, all the while bitching to the clerk that the cakes the bakery sells are crappy?
At a certain point, is it the bakery's fault for your bad experience, or your own idiotic decision to  return over and over again, expecting a different cake?
Do you really think that if you add some whipped cream or remove the crappy frosting, the cake will be acceptable?
There is an obvious problem here, and if you can't see it, welcome to the politics of Quebec immigration.

Quebec has a love/hate relationship with its immigrants, they love to hate them and the real definition of Quebec-bashing is the treatment of immigrants by Quebec society.

The banning of the Hijab is just the latest element in immigrant-bashing, where in Quebec those who look different, wear different clothes or speak with an accent are systematically discriminated against in the workforce at a level unparalleled in the ROC.
Quebec suffers from the worst assimilation record in Canada vis-a-vis immigrant employment and while unemployment rates for immigrants and native-born is just about the equal across Canada,  in Quebec, immigrants suffer double the unemployment rate of native-born Quebecers.
The discrimination exists across the board and even in government.
The perverse result is that immigrants are more accepted in the English milieu and so seek employment in Montreal where Anglo employers are more tolerant and where there is less workplace discrimination.
It's ironic that French language militants scream blue murder that the immigrants are working in English, at too high a proportion.
Again who is to blame... must be those nasty English for being so welcoming and yes, horrors of horrors... so accommodating.

This is the reality of Quebec immigration, the bubbling latent racism that has finally surfaced  courtesy of the PQ who are encouraging Quebecers to embrace the Dark Side of racism, à la Darth Vader.

Every time I hear a francophone militant or journalist claim that Quebec is a welcoming and tolerant society, I don't know whether to laugh or cry, the notion delusional at best and dangerous at the worst.

I don't like to cherry pick, but a recent story on TVA underscores the reality of attitudes, especially among older Quebecers, who never really had much contact with the outside world or foreigners for that matter.  The story details rampant racism in the CHSLDs, state run senior's homes, where most of the attendants are immigrants and where the residents, who are fossils, heap abuse upon their caregivers for being what they are.

"It hurts, that's for sure," said a forty year employee. A patient even hit and scratched me. "I am told: Don't touch me, I don't want to get dirty," told another clerk, who said that he often had to deal with racist behaviour. Link{fr}

And racism permeates Quebec's public service, where immigrants and minorities are badly under-represented, with defenders of the system claiming sanctimoniously that it is 95% white and francophone, because 'les autres'  don't have the language skills.
Read another story : Racism rocks PSAC
Here's another story of a city employee suing over racism Link{fr}

A couple of years ago, I detailed the story of an Arab who submitted his C/V complete with his Arabic name for a job with a para-government agency and who was refused an interview. When he re-submitted the exact same application using a francophone name, he was immediately contacted.
Of course, he didn't get the job when they got a look at his face in person.
He successfully sued over racism and received a lump sum payment, but no apology.
A judge recently handed down a judgment in favour of a City of Montreal employee who was systematically passed over for promotion because he was Black. Link{fr}
Louise Harel, the long time Vision Montreal leader (who lost her seat in the last election) complained in a policy statement  that the City of Montreal was consistently racist in relation to its hiring and promotion policies. Link{fr}
What is the point I trying to make?
...This is the government, which is supposed to set a good example!

Hundreds, if not thousands of professional immigrants are held back by provincial licensing boards who consistently bar them from entering their fields, choosing to call into question their qualifications, offering few programs to get them up to snuff and accredited.
And so immigrant doctors are forced to drive cabs and engineers must content themselves with menial labour.
Welcome to Quebec, we are open to immigrants.....but.

I cannot imagine what Muslim women who wear the veil out of conviction, must be feeling now.
Betrayal, shame, anger,  fear, humiliation?... I imagine some degree of it all.

Never mind the Jews and the kippah, they are a highly successful, resourceful and mature community. They will cope well, most of the children will leave the province, not because they wear the kippah, but because they are not welcome and have the skills to leave.
This after a 250 year history of contribution and good citizenship.
The Jewish community understands all too well that they are being thrown under the bus, collateral damage in Quebec's attempt to rein in what it considers Muslim extremism and that the banning of the Kippah, a necessary trade-off if the Hijab ban is to appear even-handed.
No matter, young Jews will this leave this province, taking away their McGill and Concordia degrees, paid for by Quebec taxpayers, to contribute as successful tax-paying adults in Toronto, Vancouver, New York, Calgary and Los Angeles.
And those communities will be better for it. 

But the Muslim immigrants don't have as many options because quite frankly, they are generally on the poor side of the economic scale and paradoxically those that the PQ is targeting the most, are the Maghrebiens from North Africa who only speak French.
These women have few options and leaving to parts unknown, an impossibility without English.

The Charter of Hate is a poison that will infect our entire society and as the government signals that the Hijad is unacceptable, common citizens will take up jihad to sanitize our society, even where the law doesn't apply. It is inevitable, something I told you would happen many months ago.

It doesn't take a genius to understand that the law will lead to confrontation and conflict and for Drainville and company to denounce incidents of immigrant-bashing, a hollow and meaningless gesture because they absolutely knew the consequences of enacting hate legislation.

To Muslim women, even those without a Hijab, I suggest carrying around a camera or smart phone and become familiar with how to take videos.
When next accosted by a 65 year-old pur-laine idiot with purple hair and a foul mouth, just press record. These people are cowards and most will run away but the idiots who continue their nasty civics lesson, a video record will serve to show the world how far our society has degenerated. 

To those who are passionate about removing these religious symbols in public, I ask the simple question;
What will all this hullabaloo accomplish?
Will the Muslim women who remove their Hijabs magically transform into different people, poutine and maple syrup loving separatists?  Is that the fantasy?
Or are these immigrants more likely to become embittered and angry.

How will it end...badly.

Quebecers remain naïvely deluded that there will be no consequences over a religious ban, in spite of the fact that they've already had their first taste of push back, a slap in the face by the international soccer community who told the provincial soccer association that if they wished to ban head wear on the pitch, they could play with themselves (and yes, the pun was intended.)

It is the same attitude that tells us that Bill 101 never affected Quebec's prosperity, another delusion impossible to dispel.

I hope the Charter of Hate is passed in the most violent form, it will hasten the judgment day and like an addict, nothing can get better until we hit rock bottom.

Charter of Values - PQ Remains on Script

Quebec Politicians Debate Charter of religious neutrality under the Crucifix in the National Assembly

The PQ finally deposited its Charter of Values in the National Assembly Thursday, having renamed it "Charter Affirming The Values Of Secularism And The Religious Neutrality Of The State, As Well As The Equality Of Men And Women, And The Framing Of Accommodation Requests" a dog's breakfast if I ever heard one.

You can read the entire law below;

Quebec's proposed Charter of Values

As you can read, or as I shall summarize, the PQ presented the bill in its harshest form, applying the law to everyone who remotely works for the government, paid directly or indirectly.

The bill would even apply to those outside workers who work for private companies, but on government projects or property, like plumbers, cleaning staff, construction workers or painters hired to work on a government buildings.

The one area where the law remains vague is on the sanction, nowhere does it say what will happen to a worker who is disobeys the law.

14. After a first failure by a personnel member of a public body to comply with the restriction on wearing a religious symbol, dialogue must be engaged in before any disciplinary measure is taken by the public body, in order to remind the person of their obligations and foster their compliance.

What a cop-out!
The clause clearly underscores the PQ's reluctance to define what will happen to those who disobey the law and who exactly will enforce it.

So are we to expect the creation of the 'OQL,' L'office Quebecois de la Laicité, complete with rat lines where people can squeal on scofflaws and where government inspectors may enter schools and hospitals in an effort to ferret out religious offenders.

At any rate, the PQ pretty much stuck to the script that I described in a blog piece I wrote last week; 
No Election? Don't be so sure... 

And so the PQ is playing the game exactly as I described, coming down hard and waiting to see how the polls react.

The CAQ cannot vote for the Bill as is and will be forced to side with the Liberals in defeating the government, knowing full well that will be decimated in the upcoming election.
But to let the bill pass as is, political suicide as well and would split the party to the point of internal destruction.
It will be a political Game of Chicken and test the nerve of both the PQ and the CAQ.

For the PQ, it is a case of poll-watching.
Should the numbers indicate they can win an election toeing the hard line, then they will remain firm.
But if things don't improve, they can always make enough compromises to satisfy the CAQ and remain in power.

All this will play out into the Spring of next year but I am reminded of the famous words of Bobby Burns

"The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft a-gley, [often go awry]"

The continued deterioration of the Quebec economy will catch up to the PQ come budget time and it will be a question of either raising taxes or presenting a several billion dollar deficit.

The real test will be job creation which the PQ is desperately trying to cover by spending billions to create jobs.

If the unemployment rate rises any further, while the rate in Canada plummets, the PQ will never survive to see the Charter of Many Words enacted.

For Francois Legault, it is clearly question of being between a rock and a hard place, leaving him with just one viable option.

Vote with the Liberals to defeat the PQ in exchange for a minor partnership in a coalition government.

My dad used to have a favourite saying;

If you can't get the whole loaf of bread, take what you can get.

For Legault, his dream of becoming Premier is dead and so it is decision time. Members of his own caucus already know the party is a lame duck.

And so the political nonsense over the Charter goes on, distracting the population from the very real economic problems that we are ignoring.

Panem et circenses.

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.
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It's the weekend and so let's finish on a humorous note.

My son, his lovely wife and my two grandchildren came in from Brooklyn for the weekend to introduce themselves to the newest member of our family...James, born to my daughter and her husband.

That's not the story....

My son picked up a Remembrance Day Poppy and wore it on his jacket back in the Brooklyn hospital where he works.

A patient asked him what the flower on his lapel represented, because he had seen it on television, on the breast of Mayor Rob Ford of Toronto, who is making news all over the world!

HaHa!!!!

Here's something that I couldn't resist putting together. 

To readers from Toronto or Ontario, don't be offended, as they say in Hollywood, the only bad publicity is no publicity.!!!!!

Crazy Eyes!..Chris Farley & Rob Ford! Separated at Birth?

Have a great weekend!

Bonne fin de semaine!

Can Coderre Save Montreal?

For those outside Quebec, you probably don't know that elections were held last Sunday for mayors and town councils across the entire province.
In Montreal, uber-federalist Denis Coderre won the job as mayor, but failed to elect enough councilors to form a majority.
I'm glad the way things worked out, most of those on Coderre's team were retreads from the defunct Union Montreal party that was racked by scandal and corruption.

I don't know Coderre personally but gather from media reports that he is a consummate politician, not too bright, but an expert self-promoter.
I wouldn't worry about his intelligence, in my experience, politicians with high IQ's are no more effective or successful than those on the lower end of the intelligence scale.

Let us remember that Paul Martin was an excellent finance minister who managed to run Canada's budget in the black. But as a Prime Minister, he destroyed the Liberal party by calling the Gomery Commission that looked into the Sponsorship Scandal.
He should have taken advice from Jean Chretien, who while no mental giant was one of Canada's great Prime-Ministers, dukeing it out with the separatists with any means at his disposal.
Chretien's sage advice was to sweep the entire sponsorship scandal under the carpet, even if it made for an awfully big bump. HA!

There were successful American presidents with high IQs, like Bill Clinton and then there were busts like Jimmy Carter, who supposedly has the highest IQ of any president ever!
So don't listen to the pundits snigger over Coderre's supposed lack of intelligence, it is actually inconsequential.
I hope he hires his mayoral rival, Marcel Coté who very definitely is smart, to fill the job as the new Inspector-General, a job that Coderre promised to create in order to get a handle on corruption and over-spending. Coté is a no-nonsense guy who is driven by the numbers. Good leaders need a qualified team to make them look good and I hope Coderre recognizes this.
This afternoon Jacques Duchesneau's name was floated for the job of Inspector-General and when asked if he was interested he immediately said yes.
I laughed at the response, it was to be expected. The Jacques Duchesneau I know has always had an eye on the next job.
Here's what I wrote three years ago about Duchesneau in a blog piece defending him, when his integrity was attacked.

"I knew him from the time he was chief of police of Montreal where I noticed right away that he didn't do much of the  mundane everyday work related to his job, preferring to let highly capable associates carry the ball.
It was his style of management to delegate everything, whilst he looked for a new challenge. Something his employees joked about. Ambition.  " Link

Don't get me wrong, I like and respect Jacques, but truth be told, he never had much Sitzfleisch.

By the way readers, telling some uncomfortable truths about friends, acquaintances or politicians who I generally like, is the most difficult part about blogging out in the open. It'll take some getting used to.
That being said, Duchesneau would also be a great choice for Inspector-General and he'd no doubt get the job done by getting his band back together.

So all I can say is good luck, Coderre will need it. Corruption and waste can't be rooted out overnight, but I do hope we have turned a page and embarked on a process, and believe it or not, I remain cautiously hopeful, because Coderre never deflected or flinched when it came to language or the Charter of Values and he has already gone on record promising that the City of Montreal will launch a legal challenge under his administration.

It will be interesting to see the relationship between the PQ and this staunch federalist, a situation that will likely drive Montreal farther apart from the rest of the province.
I'm crossing my fingers.

Oops... going back to the comments section, I appear to be parroting a comment penned by  'AnecTOTE';

"With Coderre being ushered in as new Mayor for Montreal, an individual not fond of the separatist cause apparently, it will be interesting to see how much head-butting there will be between him and popo...lol

That's OK.
I've told readers all along that I read the comments and form or change opinions as a result! When I borrow directly, I always credit.

Two other stories concerning Sunday's election caught my interest, the first about the new mayor of Laval Marc Demers, a retired detective who has promised a massive cleanup.

Before I tell you that story, I  want to tell about a poll that indicated that 38% of Lavalois would still have voted for Gilles Vaillancourt had he run for mayor. Is that not unbelievable?

At any rate Marc Demers' legitimacy is being challenged because some say he hasn't been a resident of Laval over the previous 12 months, as required by the election rules.
There is talk of a court challenge or a complaint to the Elections office by the losers.
But imagine the mess if a challenge occurred.
Demers is going to be installed as mayor now and should a challenge occur, it will take months and perhaps years with appeals. But at that future point, Demers would have lived long enough in the city and so kicking him out in favour of a new election seems rather silly.
In this case, the law is an ass. If he didn't qualify, he should have been disqualified before the election.

And finally my favourite election story was the race between Mindy Pollack a Hassidic 25-year old in Outremont and Pierre Lacerte, an anti-Hasid activist.
The large field split the votes, allowing the Hasid bloc vote to propel Ms. Pollack into city council as the first Hasid ever to gain election.

Outremont is home to Montreal's 10,000 strong Hasid community and relations haven't been easy between them and their neighbours. Link
It isn't a case of antisemitism, the Hasids are notorious scofflaws.

Mr. Lacerte runs a blog highlighting what he documents as Hasid abuse. It's a hilarious and comical battle to watch, but only if you live outside of Outremont, I imagine. Read the blog {fr}
Up to now the Hasids have claimed one victory after another, over the hapless Lacerte, who seems to be playing for the Washington Generals and seems to get clobbered by the Hasids, as often as Wile E. Coyote.

Pollack's election victory was not only a bitter pill for Lacerte, but also for Richard Martineau, the secular fundamentalist journalist who writes for Le Journal de Montreal. Martineau savaged Pollack in an article, telling readers that Pollack refuses to shake hands with men and regularly asks her rabbi for advice. THE HORROR! Link{fr}

That being said, I'm no fan of the Hasids, they are an annoying cult that flaunt the rules and act as if they own the place. Representing only about 10% of the Jewish community in Quebec, they are responsible for 99% of the bad press the Jews of Quebec receive.
It isn't about antisemitism ,because even in Israel, Hasids are roundly disliked by the general population.
Read a post I wrote about them: Hasid's Demands for Accommodations Hurt Image of Quebec Jews 

.........
I'd like to thank readers for the many kind messages and emails over the last days. I heard from people all over the world and without yours and their support, I wouldn't continue writing this blog.
While I told you in the past that many people knew who I was, I was surprised by how many readers, even within my family didn't know it was me writing this blog all the time!

I'd like to make an appeal to those who can further this blog along by offering tips or revelations about their experience as an Anglo or Ethnic in Quebec.

If you see something going on in your company, town or in the street that would interest readers, please let me report it.
If you have a good or bad language experience, share it with others through this blog.
I promise to safeguard your anonymity and as they used to say on Dragnet,  I will change the names to protect the innocent!

Meet the Editor.... Philip Berlach

Doing what I do best..talking!

I don't want this post to be a big deal, but it has been a long time in coming.

I told readers long ago that I wasn't a political personality or any name that they would recognize, I have long toiled in the background, both politically and obscurely in the business world, all my life.

And so revealing my identity is a bit anti-climatic.

There are those who oppose my positions who have screamed from the highest rafters of vigile.net that I am somehow illegitimate because my identity remained hidden.
Ask me if I care.

Actually I'm quite surprised, because friends, family and the many readers who I converse with, have known my identity for a long time and I always expected someone to leak, but amazingly, the hundreds of readers, journalists, friends and acquaintances never let on.
I remain truly impressed.

When I started this blog, I was the owner of a franchise chain with stores throughout Quebec. Previously I was co-owner of another retail chain which operated across Eastern Canada and that for over thirty years.
You can understand that for business purposes, I didn't want my blogging to affect others with which I had a business relationship, but having retired last year, the last barrier to declaring myself had passed.

It is a bit strange, because my anonymity allowed me the freedom to talk about people I know personally, friend and foe, with impunity, and that I shall miss.
But one of the drawbacks in remaining anonymous is that the media tends not to take you seriously. I've been offered dozens of interviews on radio and television but have until now demurred.

That will change Monday, when I'll do an interview on CJAD as myself with Barry Morgan at two o'clock.
I wanted readers to know beforehand, otherwise it would have been disloyal.

So let me tell you a little about myself since very few loyal readers know me personally.
I was born here in Quebec to immigrant parents and attended English school in the PSBGM, an acronym that only true Anglo Montrealers understand.

As a successful entrepreneur who co-owned and operated a retail chain across Eastern Canada, I was charged with running the 'field' and so I spent 30 years travelling the backwoods of Eastern Canada, each week flying and driving to every major (and minor town) from Toronto to Saint Jean, NB.

During those years, I developed an intimate knowledge of these regions and made many friends, anglophone and francophone and even natives.
I remember having dinner with Jacques Duchesneau and his then new girlfriend who told me she hailed from a tiny town up in the Abitibi, one that she was sure, I never heard of.
I asked her to allow me three guesses and on the second named LaSarre, to her astonishment and everyone at the table. I then described the town as best I could, because honestly there's not much that stands out.

So after a couple of decades visiting these places, I think I've developed a keen understanding of the mentality, the personality and the vibe and rhythm of each community.
I've actually lived two lives, one in English and one in French. After a couple of days in the Saguenay or Abitibi, my brain would switch over to French and yes, even in my nighttime dreams. Upon return to Montreal, the switch occurred again and I once more reverted to my Anglophone roots.

I've been labelled an 'angryphone' by my opponents, but nothing could be farther from the truth.
I choose to stay in Quebec because it has been and remains a wonderful home.
To those who believe I oppose Francophone's right to maintain their language and culture, nothing could be farther from the truth.
But I do disagree with the politics of language and believe militants use it as a wedge issue to drive Quebecers madly towards sovereignty.
Do I care if immigrants are forced into French schools? Not a whit.

But defending the French language shouldn't include persecuting Anglos with ridiculous and vindictive rules over signage.
The idea that the children of an American or British immigrant families must attend French school and that they will somehow adopt French as their culture is deluded fanaticism and fantasy that is disrespectful to the anglo community as well as good sense.
These rules are misguided at best and  vindictive at the worst.
Such is the pettiness and indeed the nastiness, of most language militants.

I can argue with those that demand English descriptors on stores with English words in their name, but cannot countenance those who object to names like Reitmans or Bentley.
It is not I, the dangerous angryphone, but rather these people, who are nothing but linguicists  ( not to be confused with linguists)

We are told over and over again by both Liberal and PQ governments that we are a founding nation and valued citizens, but actions deem us interlopers.

Few francophones understand the daily pounding Ethnics and Anglos suffer in the francophone media.
English and Anglophones are portrayed as an evil threat to the existence of francophones, as well as immigrants and ethnics and let's not even bring up the demonization of Quebec Muslims.

At any rate I've been involved with politics since the ripe young age of ten or twelve when I helped put up signs for the then NDP candidate, Charles Taylor, who was running for the NDP in St. Laurent.

Since then I've grown to become an organizer and fund-raiser  on the federal, provincial and municipal level.
I shall nor divulge who I've worked for other than the federal Conservatives and the provincial Liberals, the others never contracted for that.

Most of whom of I worked for, hired me on a consultation basis and are entitled to confidentiality. Anybody who wishes to announce my implication in their campaign is free to do so, I am unashamed of any of the political work that I did.

Along the way, and for many years, I served as a Consular representative for Liberia in Quebec and an honorary Boy Scout Commissioner.
I am past-president of the St. John Ambulance foundation, charged with raising money and safeguarding the nest egg of that honourable organization.
For a couple of years, I served on a committee supporting the Canadian Armed Forces, that was charged with encouraging employers to treat part-time reservist employees with the utmost respect, giving them time off without penalty, while serving our country.

I've known the richest and most powerful politicians in Canada, as well as the less than reputable.
There was a time where I would and could drive my car onto Parliament Hill and park at the front door.

Those days are gone, just ask Thomas Mulcair who was cited for blowing by a security checkpoint a while back.

 As for my family, I am married to my college sweetheart, this for forty years. We met in the very first year of the existence of Vanier college in Ville St. Laurent,  back in the year God knows when.

We've got two children, a daughter who married an Anglo here in Montreal and has just given birth to my third grandchild, James.
My son David, is one of those famous McGill doctor graduates who has fled Quebec (according to the militant narrative), but the truth be told, could not secure a job anywhere in Quebec.

He is safely ensconced in Brooklyn, New York, where his talent is appreciated, and readers he is not the only Quebec doctor forced to flee, he is part of a huge expat community.

He and his lovely wife have two children, our grandchildren, who are growing up away from us here in Montreal, a fate suffered by so many Anglo parents in Quebec, where contact is reduced to family reunions and holidays.

That's it!
I'm not going to dwell on personality and now that you know who I am, I'd like to get back to blogging about what affects us all.
I really want our relationship to remain the same. I hope you'll still refer to me as EDITOR, I've gotten used to the moniker.

And so let's go in....

I'll start with a scoop.
I have it on impeccable authority that Michael Applebaum (the ex-mayor of Montreal) is allegedly dead to rights.
I've been told that he  is going to jail and this from insiders, who are in the know.

Quebec Finance Minister Marceau...Now You See it, Now You Don't...

Abracadabra!

 It's always hilarious to see the various finance ministers put on a brave face and paint some pretty awful budget figures in the most favourable light that they can.

Of particular interest is the latest from Quebec finance minister Nicolas Marceau, whose description of Quebec's current financial situation borders between fantasy and prevarication.

You'll recall that when the Parti Quebecois came to power, they immediately announced that the finances of the province were in much worse condition than anticipated.
This is standard operating procedure for all newly elected governments, who get a free shot at the outgoing party, telling voters that they can't live up to election promises because of the undisclosed financial train wreck that the previous government left behind.

And so, the PQ was able to back off on the promise of abolishing the Liberal party imposed health tax which they campaigned against and also shrugging off the idea of freezing or rolling back tuition in Quebec universities with impunity.
Blame Charest!

All this was to be expected and had the Liberals overturned the PQ they would have done the same thing.
And so Nicolas Marceau told us that it would be impossible to balance the budget in the first year of the PQ mandate, but promised a zero deficit in the second year.

In November last, Mr. Marceau predicted a deficit of $1.5 billion and yesterday confirmed that the deficit would be just about hundred million more than the predicted, at $1.6 billion. He seemed very proud that his prediction was more or less on target!
But was it really?

Mr Marceau claimed that the government had done a masterful job of keeping the increase in budget spending to just 1.2% by controlling expenses. In the last year of the Charest government, the increase was 2.5%

J-de-M..Deficit smaller than Anticipated?...R U kidding me!

But what Marceau failed to mention is that spending was kept artificially low by cutting over $200 million in subventions to Quebec school boards, who then turned around and taxed back the money via school taxes.
A neat accounting trick!
It's a gambit called 'getting a dog off the books' and dishonest companies use the strategy to appear less in debt by creating a subsidiary and downloading it with company losses, losses which while remain the responsibility of the parent company, but which are removed from the parent company's balance sheet.

And let us not forget the $700 million, one-shot payment that Quebec received this year from Ottawa for harmonizing sales tax, which was never put in the calculations because it wasn't a sure thing.

Let us also remember the $1.9 Billion one-time charge that the government is taking in relation to the PQ's decision to close the Gentilly 2 nuclear plant, bringing the real deficit up to about $3.5 billion. Link

And things are going from bad to worse on the revenue front with sales tax and income tax bringing in almost $2 billion less than last year, with no respite in sight.

It isn't any shock that Mr. Marceau and the PQ have abandoned the zero-deficit promise they made during the election campaign, it is an impossibility given the fixed overhead and the catastrophic drop in revenue.

As I told you in the last post, Marceau is keeping his cards close to his vest, refusing to divulge what is really going on, vis-a-vis revenues and next year's budget. He has already announced that the health tax will not be repealed again, but other than talking about controlling expenses and expenditures, he isn't saying much about a balanced budget, because it is an impossibility.
And readers, let me remind you that I told you this was the future many months ago, not because I am prescient, but because I can do sums.

The opposition smells a rat and have been demanding the financial information for over a month, met by stoic silence and stonewalling by the minister.
They were so furious at being ignored that they sent a bailiff to Marceau's office and served him a subpoena to appear before a Parliamentary finance committee, where he will be forced to cough up the numbers!

With resource projects collapsing, Hydro revenue receding, consumer spending on the decline and the unemployment rate on the rise, it doesn't auger well for the financially strapped province.
The only private investments Quebec seems able to muster are those attached to large government subsidies and in reality they are in the grand scheme, but a pittance.

Without massive tax increases, the financial ship of state cannot be righted, because the shortfall in revenue is just too great and the growth of current economic activity has not kept pace with increasing government expenditures.
Until the government cuts back its expensive entitlement programs or increases revenue, deficits will pile up.
But increasing taxes isn't the panacea one would expect, because the amounts raised, are offset by decreases in consumer spending and decreased economic activity.
We are finally seeing the effects of hitting the "T" point on the Laffer curve. Explanation
As the government increases taxes, revenues actually decrease!

I am anxious to see if Marceau will reinstate the decrease in the exemption for capital gains income, (which he cancelled after the investment community rose in protest)  the effect which will have Quebecers taxed at a substantially higher rate for investment income than other Canadians.
Retirees (like myself) who live on their investments will just pack up and move, rather than see the taxes owing on investment income rise by up to 50%, only in Quebec.
Again, such a move will never raise the taxes contemplated. We are fast approaching a revenue wall, not because Quebecers don't have the ability to pay more and accept a reduced lifestyle, but rather because enough can just pick and leave. Companies, as well.

Alternate to increasing revenues through higher taxes, the government could try to improve the investment outlook for resource based companies, instead of threatening them with higher taxes and royalties.
Resources are the one area that Quebec badly under-exploits.
Until the PQ understands that they can't tax their way into solvency, we are bound for a Greek tragedy.

If you really want to understand the investment climate in Quebec, read this;

Investors ‘more comfortable’ putting money into gas projects in Iraq than Quebec: banker

And so the PQ has two choices, either cut expenses drastically or make Quebec more hospitable to resource development.

Which will it be?

I going with door Number #3....none of the above.

If you fundamentally don't understand or accept what the problem is, you can't really come up with a fix.

But wait a second...we actually are in a FIX, but not the good kind!

Charter of Values...The Day After

Every time I think that the province can't get any stupider and more self-destructive, I am surprised that a new level of dysfunction can be attained.
I thought the Pastagate affair plumbed the depths of lunacy and reached into as yet uncharted territory of insanity, a level one would think, hard to beat... and then came the Charter of Values, which makes Pastagate look like a trifle.

The attendant sound and fury attached to the current debate has me scratching my head, after all what does someone in Quebec City or Hérouxville have to get so excited about?
What is it about the hijab that has the entire province in atwitter?

The economic problems at hand seem to matter naught, while thousands of stories over the Charter continue to flood the newspapers and airwaves Ad nauseam.
This for months and months.
Yesterday  our illustrious Minister of Natural Resources, Martine Ouellet was forced to drop her mining reform bill, because the resource companies are cancelling Quebec projects like flies in anticipation of increased costs and a hostile business environment.

In the meantime our Premier, La Pauline is desperately announcing job creation projects, this week a meagre 90 jobs at Pratt and Whitney, which still cost Quebec a subsidy of $17 million.
Is that not pitiful?
Companies are mindful of the government's desperation and are jumping to get in on the subsidy gravy train, as underlined by ALCOA, which threatened to take its 3,300 well-paying aluminum jobs elsewhere unless the government maintained its bargain basement price for electricity which was scheduled to rise from 3¢ to 4.4¢  an increase that would cost the company about 100 million dollars. LINK
 La Pauline took less than 24 hours to cave and assured everyone that ALCOA is not going anywhere.

Quebec is bleeding jobs while employment figures in the ROC are rising.  The budget shortfall is getting so scary that the finance minister Nicolas Marceau,  ordered his department to stop supplying the auditor-general with financial data, lest the truth be known. He told employees that they can now provide information on methodology only, but not substance, which can only mean that we are headed for catastrophe and the PQ is sweeping the mess under the rug until the last possible moment.
You'd think Quebecers would be concerned, or concerned enough to push the Charter debate off the front page, but alas such is not the case.

In all of this, I wonder what supporters of the Charter of Values actually think they will accomplish, should the law be passed.
Will Quebec be more French, secular, equal, fair and will  there be a higher level of social peace and harmony due to the Charter?  Ya think?

This is the fantasy that is the Charter, the idea that in one fell swoop it will eliminate devoted Muslims, Jews and Sikhs from continuing to be pious and observant.

Let us pretend that the law is enacted and peek into the future.
And so those in the public service, schools and hospitals will be told to remove their head coverings and no doubt many will comply.
It won't change who they are and what they are, it will just hide the fact.
How is that an advantage?
The hijab, kippah and turban will quickly become the forbidden fruit and that usually means that more people will want to embrace them as a symbol of resistance. That is human nature.

But what about those that outright refuse and while they will be in a minority, each story of confrontation and resistance will splash across the media at home and reverberate around the world.
What school or day care or seniors home administrator will tell a someone to go home and leave their charges devoid of supervision.
Worse, what manner of hospital administrator will tell a doctor to leave the ER or a nurse to abandon her post or an orderly to stop cleaning the floor because of a religious symbol?

And so it will be up to the public and those who enjoy playing the bad cop, to enter into dangerous confrontations with the refusniks and while incidents are somewhat rare up to now, after the law is passed, we can expect a dangerous escalation of incidents, again all to be reported world-wide.

And what about boycotts?
Could the province stand the repercussion of a Jewish boycott in retaliation to the kippah ban?
Quebec will be in for some nasty push back from the ever-powerful Jewish lobby and a boycott by the sports and entertainment industry as well as the investment community.
What will happen when the NHL lets it be known that Quebec will never get a franchise or that Jewish artists and more importantly Jewish managers and agents will boycott the  Montreal Jazz or Comedy festival. What if the Jewish investment community decides to give Quebec a pass.

While defenders will pooh-pooh the idea of Quebec suffering a boycott in retaliation, let me remind them what happened with the turban in soccer.

While the supporters of the Charter, the PQ government included, encouraged the Quebec Soccer Federation to stand firm on the turban ban on the soccer pitch, the world had another idea and the Canadian Soccer federation quickly suspended Quebec over the issue.
All of a sudden the FSQ reversed itself on the issue, understanding that when push comes to shove,  you can't fight city hall!

So not only are international boycotts in relation to the Charter a possibility, they are a certainty.
To believe otherwise is to whistle past the graveyard.
Won't happen? Can't happen? It already has!

If you think I'm being an alarmist, think again.
When Jewish, Sikh and Muslim doctors, nurses, health professionals and teachers hold press conferences to resign en masse, it will rock Quebec from top to bottom and make waves across the world.
And what will be the effect of employees claiming harassment, or intimidation and who seek benefits because of burnout or stress related illness. Such are the rules that allow it.

And what about the thousands of lawsuits to be launched by employees deprived of work. There is a committee of lawyers, already forming, tasked to launch challenges against the law and take up the cause.
Should the law fail the test of constitutionality years down the road, the province could be open to billions in damages and back pay.  

And finally, what on Earth will happen if real Muslim extremists take exception and decide that action must be taken in order to stop the proliferation of such legislation in other jurisdictions?
I shudder to think.

Alarmist...I don't think so, but to Charter Supporters,  all I can say.......Are you willing to roll the dice?

As Dirty Harry said in the movies...."Go ahead... Make my day!"

No Election? Don't be so sure...

Watching the political theatre that surrounded the possible election this fall, I cannot help but have my political organizing skills, long dormant, kick back in.

Let me tell you what I think is happening or what should be happening.
As usual the mainstream press is be led around by the nose, nothing more than an unwitting pawn in the political chess game that is playing out before us.

Let us pretend for a moment that the Editor has been hired as a strategist for the  Marois government and let's listen in on the private conversations he has with La Pauline.

EDITOR: 
Madame Marois, it's best to proceed to an election as soon as possible, the economy is tanking and the province is bleeding jobs. If we are forced to table a budget with a huge deficit, we are sunk.
We'd have hoped that by this time the Charbonneau Commission would have exposed the Liberal party for the corrupt thieves that they are, but it is just taking too long.
The longer we wait, the worse for us. We're going to have to throw the dice at a certain point and earlier is better than later.

LA PAULINE:
But Editor, we don't seem to have the numbers. The last thing I want to happen is to lose power based on a premature election that I called, like that idiot Charest.

EDITOR: 
We're close, the polling numbers indicate a PQ or Liberal minority, so let's see where we can go with this. We just need  to boost up popularity a tiny bit, we only need a 2% swing.
My advice is to tell your key ministers to leak to their favourite reporters or journalists, the fact that we are likely going to an election. These not-for-attribution rumours will spread like wildfire, when reporters believe they have an inside track to a story they become as blind as a bat and as motivated as an addict given a free hit of heroin.
In the meantime, under NO circumstances should any Minister suggest in public that an election is in the offing.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES!

LA PAULINE:
To What end?

EDITOR: 
The journalists are idiots. They will report that an election is in the offing and this will be confirmed by other reporters who have also been so advised via 'reliable sources'.
We just sit back and watch the polling numbers. If our popularity goes up in reaction to the news, we proceed to an election.
If not, nobody here is guilty of anything. We didn't say an election is coming and we can climb down effortlessly, calling the speculation a flight of journalistic fancy.

LA PAULINE:
Are the journalists that dumb?

EDITOR: 
Even if the journalists know that they are being played, what can they do. If the journalist doesn't play ball, access will be cut off and a journalist without sources is not a journalist.

LA PAULINE:
What if we don't get the bump we need after the trial balloon?

EDITOR: 
Then we go to PLAN B, an election triggered, not by us but by the opposition.
If the polls indicate that the electors don't want an election, then put the election on the backs of the opposition and make it over the Charter of Values, an issue where we can win.

LA PAULINE:
How will that work?

EDITOR: 
Table the Charter of Values bill in a form that is so harsh and unacceptable to the opposition that even the CAQ won't accept it without losing all credibility.
Get rid of the Crucifix in the National Assembly as the only compromise and stand tough on everything else, including applying the law to health care workers.

LA PAULINE:
Why the Crucifix?

EDITOR: 
This plays to our own voters and will show them that we've compromised when in fact we haven't at all. For our base, it seems like a fair and equitable trade, the Crucifix for the Hijab, or so goes the logic. We satisfy a lot of fence-sitters with this idiotic compromise, but trust me, it'll work.
The CAQ and the Liberals will howl and scream that the law is too harsh, but we can point to the Crucifix that we've given up, a clever distraction that is bound to play to the base. In the meantime, we know the Liberals will vote against the law but when we offer the CAQ nothing, they too, reluctantly will vote against the law, to support it as is, would strip the party of any and all political legitimacy.

If the government falls under these circumstances, the opposition will be blamed and the one and only election issue will be the Charter, something we can actually win on.

Under these circumstances, I'm convinced we can win a majority, or the worst case scenario has us returning to power in a minority government.

LA PAULINE:
But what if the CAQ refuses to bite, they know that they'll be decimated in the next election and maybe they'll just hold their nose and vote with us?

EDITOR: 
An excellent outcome as well, it means that you can rule as if you have a majority. If they are too afraid to lose their jobs, you can safely ignore them because when push comes to shove, they're going to cave.
You can bring back Bill 14 and just about anything else on your political agenda. It all works out, no matter how the chips fall.

LA PAULINE:
Bravo, I like it.... Sounds like a plan! Editor, you are brilliant! (OK, I couldn't resist).

Don't believe our idiot journalists who first told us we were going to have an election and then told us we were not.
They have been played by the PQ from the beginning, traipsing around the floor like folk dancers obeying the caller's every command.

"No ideas and the ability to express them - that's a journalist"  -Karl Kraus.

Just because Pauline said she wouldn't call an election, doesn't mean we won't have one.
Know that the PQ is itching for an election based on a Charter of Values debate, so come hell or high water, the Charter, when presented, will be one piece of nasty...wait for it.