Language is the Big Issue in Habs Coaching Choice

The news of Carbo's firing continues to reverberate around the city. A Google news search, undertaken the day after, indicates an amazing 645 articles about the firing!

As always, language play a big part in every decision in Quebec and the Canadiens are not immune. The big question asked of CKAC radio listeners on Tuesday was whether fans wanted;

A. The best coach available.
Or
B. The best coach available who also speaks French.

While some went for option A, the prevailing opinion was that the coach of the Canadiens has to speak French.

The radio host mentioned that if Option B is the case, there are precious few choices.

Bob Gainey is in a difficult position. An unilingual English coach is out of the question, but the Canadiens have burned through the major French talent in the coaching pool. Ever since Jacques Demers coached the team to the 1993 Stanley Cup, every subsequent coach has been a Francophone (Mario Trembly, Alain Vigneault, Michel Therrien, Claude Julien and Guy Carrbonneau) and none have lasted more than three years.

Though few are willing to admit it, the language issue has been hurting the Canadiens for the last fifteen years. A large proportion of players from the rest Canada and the United States just won't come here. While language is not the only issue, it certainly is the biggest. Look at Canadiens success rate in the free agent and trade market. It's so bad that even some Francophone stars don't want any part of the Canadiens (Vincent Lecavalier, Daniel Briere.)
It seems that the team is destined to be populated mostly by East Europeans.
This humiliating problem is largely swept under the carpet by French media although it's plainly admitted by commentators on English sports networks and writers.

Michael Farber of Sports Illustrated discusses the problem in a Tuesday article.

It seems the choice of a Francophone coach is made strictly to satisfy the media and fans. Behind the scene, the team operates in English regardless of the coach's mother tongue.

Back to the radio talk show.
The only name consistently mentioned by fans as a replacement was Bob Hartley, the Franco-Ontarian from Hawkesbury.

The issue of language threatens to explode if one is to believe what is going on over the radio talk shows, in print and on TV. It makes good press and good ratings.

If any of the radical language groups decide to make it a cause celebre (like the Plains of Abraham debate) it threatens to get ugly.

Time For RDS To Dump Anglo Insulting Alain Chantelois

Insulting your boss's family, religion, ethnicity or mother tongue, is never a good idea. Alain Chantelois is probably lucky that his bosses at CTV Globemedia, don't watch his antics on the 'L'ANTICHAMBRE.'

If they did, they'd probably fire his ass.

For some Quebeckers, it's great fun to trash Anglophones. They usually do it in private and are usually not stupid enough to make insulting linguistic remarks on television.

Alain Chantelois couldn't contain his disgust at the fact that the all four of the Canadiens' coaches, behind the bench during the Canadiens/Oilers game on Monday, were anglophones. His tirade on the talk show L'ANTICHAMBRE that followed the game was unacceptable.

Apparently the head honchos at the Reseau des Sports don't think the outburst was too offensive, the clip is still up on their website where you can watch it HERE. They should also think about their boss' reaction.
'You can see the unbridled disgust he vents towards the anglo coaches.

When you get to the page click on the video named "Premier Match de Gainey" and scroll to 3:00 minutes.


Although the instigator, he was not alone, ex-Nordiques coach Michel Bergeron joined in the fun and listening to these two, was like watching two old southern racists sitting on the porch dissing blacks.

Look up Alain Chantelois' name on Facebook and you'll find that there are two anti-Chantelois groups already.

....and here is one of my favourite comments on the Habsworld.net Blog

"Et je DÉ-TES-TE Michel Bergeron et le Baron Chantelois (quelle honte pour la télévision francophone ce gars là...)."

(I hate Michel Bergeron and Baron Chantelois (these guys are embarrassment for French television) my translation

IT'S HIGH TIME FOR THE ANGLO
BOSSES IN TORONTO TO ACT!!

Insulting Anti-Anglophone Rant on RDS TV

Last night night after the Canadiens beat Edmonton Oilers 4-3 in overtime, I happened to leave the TV on the RDS network (Reseau des Sports) to catch Bob Gainey's post game press conference. At any rate the "ANTICHAMBRE" is a hockey program consisting of several over the hill but colourful panelists who discuss the team and the game.
The topic of discussion was the fact that the Canadiens coaches were all anglophones. It was pretty nasty. It went on all night but here is little extract.

Baron: Bob(Gainey) didn't speak like a player, he's a very bad communicator, from one day to the next he changes. Now he doesn't change, he's the 'Big Boss'. Double B because he the big boss. (nastily) Because now we have to talk English because there are four anglophones behind the bench. THE MONTREAL CANADIENS HOCKEY CLUB!


Bergeron; It started out with three...

Baron: They brought him down from the press box

Bergeron; DON LEVER .

Baron :Lever 3000 is a soap!

Bergeron; The players on the bench asked "Where's Don?" and Don was in the hallway.

Baron : From Heaven... That's why they won. (sarcastic)

Every time they used an English word or phrase you could hear the resentment and anger in their voices

The whole exchange was extremely mean spirited and continued throughout the show.
They Trashed Saku for not learning French.
They complained that there are no French coaches on the farm team in Hamilton.
They even brought up the fact that Phillippe Alou (ex manager of the Expos) didn't speak French

The Reseau des Sports doesn't see anything offensive in these rants and has even posted the clips to it's website. To see more this crap go to RDS .

Charest's Masterful Manoeuvre

Quebec Premier Jean Charest says he won't testify at any parliamentary hearing into the $39 billion loss at the Caisse de depot et placement in 2008. The opposition is howling for a parliamentary inquiry, but the premier is holding out.

The facts in this matter are ugly but relatively simple.
The Caisse took much bigger risks with our investment money than they ought to have and when the market collapsed our investments were hurt badly.
For many years now, the government had adopted a hands off approach and investment decisions were made exclusively by the Caisse itself. The ex-boss of the Caisse, Henri-Paul Rousseau said that he hadn't heard from any politician the entire six years that he was there.
Now the story is disappointing, but not particularly compelling, so what else is there to clear up?

Plenty!.....and it has nothing to do with what happened at the Caisse, it has to do with what happened in the Premier's office.

The Premier is fighting tooth and nail not to testify at a public inquiry because if he does, his political career will be effectively over. He can start planning his next life.

The one question that hasn't been asked and the one that will destroy him, is this one.

"When did you first find out about the disastrous situation at the Caisse?"

If the Premier admits that he knew of the catastrophe at the Caisse before calling the election, the public will never forgive him for the cynical deception. They will rightfully assume that they were deceived and nobody but nobody, federalist or nationalist enjoys being played. It doesn't matter if it takes four years until the next election, the Premier will pay the price, just as the federal Liberals paid the price for the Adscam scandal.

I am surprised that the opposition is not making more political hay out of this, they seem to be blowing a golden opportunity to inflict a mortal wound. They don't even need an inquiry, they can fire away at the Premier during question period and through the press.

Notwithstanding, I don't think they should hold their breath for an answer. Our cagey Premier will not answer, no matter what, even if it is hugely embarrassing. He has no alternative but to brazen it out.

I'm sure that there are those in the Liberal party snickering behind the Premier's back at the situation he created.
They should not. Had the Premier not undertaken the deception, many of those Liberals would not have jobs today and perhaps Pauline Marois or Mario Dumont would be sitting in the Premier's office.

Politics is a tough business, Charest did what he had to do. Our Premier did nothing illegal although he certainly crossed ethical lines.

But when did ethics ever have anything to do with politics?

Henri-Paul Rousseau Absolves Himself

As predicted here in a post this last Friday, Henri-Paul Rousseau Rousseau takes no blame for the meltdown at the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ).

Read the article over on the LCN website entitled

"Henri-Paul Rousseau ne s'excuse pas."
Henri-Paul Rousseau doesn't excuse himself" (my translation)

You can read my Friday post HERE or just scroll down.
As the post predicts, Mr. Rousseau blames forces beyond his control for the problems.

On Friday I wrote;

"I don't know if it is a case of hubris or self-delusion, but I predict that he will take little responsibility for the fiasco. He will say many things, but nothing much.
Ultimately he will blame forces beyond his control or perhaps the infamous "Black Swan."

The only difference is that he referred to a "Perfect Storm"(an event where a combination of circumstances will aggravate a situation drastically) and I used the term Black Swan (A highly improbable event that has three attributes: rarity, extreme impact and retrospective predictability (meaning that, in retrospect, we think we can explain it).

My post went on to say;

"I hope someone in the media asks Mr. Rousseau to comment on his shameful and selfish exit."

I'm not the only one wondering. Yves Michaud, an investor rights guru, asked the same question on TV today. Here's the video and a rough translation below;

"The only question that he did not answer, because nobody asked was -"Why did you leave your position at the Caisse de dépôt months before the end of your mandate?
When you accept a position for five years you finish the term and then resign. He never answered the question".

The sad part of it was that Mr. Rousseau was applauded when he finished his explanation at the Montreal Board of Trade.