French Language Zealots Cave in Anglo Artists Dispute.

What a difference a day makes.
Less than 24 hours after defending the decision to bar anglophone groups from the St. Jean Baptiste celebration L'Autre St-Jean, l'association culterelle louise-Hebert" the funding organisation closely allied with Mario Beaulieu and the St. Jean Baptisite Society, has caved.
The English acts are will perform.

The almost universal condemnation from Quebeckers af all political ilks left organisers with little choice. For radicals, it was a bitter pill to swallow.
When Pierre Curzi (a PQ stalwart) signaled that the organisers needed to back peddle, it was clear that there'd be no support anywhere for the exclusion.

Doing it's best to weasel out of responsibility for it's decision, the l'association culterelle louise-Hebert contradicted it's own spokesman Mathieu Bouthillier, who said that the groups English performance was the problem. Today, in a contradictory statement itself, they first said that the decision had never been approved by the executive council and then went on to say that the decision was made for security reasons (after some threats from it's sister organization, the radical SSJB) and not because the acts sang in English. Ha! Ha!

Facing his first major setback since assuming the reins of the SSJB, Mario Beaulieu remained understandably silent today.
The incident represents a major humiliation for radical French language zealots and it neatly squares the defeat federalist side suffered by the cancellation of the Plains of Abraham re-enactment.

With Friends Like this Who Needs Enemies

To say that Mario Beaulieu and the St. Jean Baptisite Society's decision to use it's muscle to oust English performers at a secondary celebration of Quebec's national holiday backfired, would be one of the largest understatements of the year.

The story which broke over the weekend and is now rapidly spreading across the web is going to humiliate Quebeckers big time.
Bullying is bulling and as headlines go, you can't get one much worse than this.

"St. Jean festivities: anglos not welcome"

The story is just too good to pass up and there's no putting this genie back in the bottle. I can't wait for the political cartoons.

Quebeckers are keenly aware and protective of their collective image as a progressive, liberal and open society. Regardless of political affiliation, they recognize bad P.R when they see it.
Even over at PQ headquarters, there must be some serious moaning and groaning. What will Pauline say? If ever there was a no win situation this is it.

In a hilarious interview on Radio Canada Mr. Bealieu makes a hash of defending himself and his organization. First he declares as defamatory the notion that he rejects anglos-"it's the language." Then he denies that it is he and his organisation that pulled the plug on the artists, but rather the organizing committee L’Association culturelle Louis-Hébert de Rosemont et Saint-Michel. He does however admit that it was his organization that contacted the organisers (who didn't even know about that anglos were scheduled) and put pressure to dump them.
The interviewer, Simon Durivage then challenges Mr. Beaulieu that the committee is really independent as they share the same address as the Saint Jean Baptiste society.
"Aren't you one and the same?" "You didn't have to phone them, just walk over to an adjacent office!"
"Yes we are close" Mr. Beaulieu finally admits.
Another beaut- "They should sing in Westmount.' Ha Ha Ha.....

Nobody but the most rabid of language zealots will defend Mr. Bealieu, but it will be interesting to see who does and how the SSJB will handle the coming flak.
I hope suspect they'll brazen it out and make the situation even worse for them.

Does the nationalist/sovereignty movement benefit from it's asociation with this ethnocentric collection of yahoos. Not any more.
Is it time for the government to break off official ties. Yes

Who benefits from this nasty gaff-Premier Jean Charest and the Liberals who are going to make intolerence the theme of the week.
Who else;



The Anglo performers- Bloodshot Bill and the group Lake of Stew, who'll be fielding more offers they can handle;

Anglophone Performers Pulled from Fete Celebration

Two Montreal English bands may be dropped from a St-Jean-Baptiste concert after one of the backers threatened to pull out over language issues.

The about-face comes days after the concert's producers announced the show, billing it as an indie band alternative to the huge official musical bash featuring French-Canadian superstars, as well as a celebration of the Quebec's cultural diversity.

But the idea of a bilingual concert celebrating Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, a public holiday in Quebec dedicated to the province's French-Canadian culture, proved too much for one of the organizers.

The event - dubbed L'Autre St-Jean - was to be held on June 23 in the up-and-coming and majority French Rosemont neighbourhood.

But in an email sent to organizers on Thursday, the production company says one partner informed them they disagreed with the show's "philosophy" and that, because the French-language is under constant threat in Quebec, they refused to endorse the programming and may block its financing.

Further, the partner threatened to protest to the event.

Read more of the original CP article

Nowhere on the web site of the L'Autre St-Jean event is it mentioned that the St-Jean-Baptiste Society, (an ethnocentric French language supremacy lobby group) is an organizer.

It name is suspiciously absent from the list of partners

Yet it seems that it's president Mario Beaulieu is the one pulling the strings. He advised the English artists that they aren't welcome and that they should sing in English neighborhoods and that if they performed they'd be subject to a protest.

According to the article the SJBS is a principle backer of "l'association culterelle louise-Hebert"

The next time that these type of sovereignists tell you that the movement is inclusive, ask them exactly what they are inclusive of.

How do you spell these type of sovereignists;

R-A-C-I-S-T-S

Weekly Anglo Quebec News June 6-13

Want to Keep up with Quebec News in just 5 minutes?
Perfect for Ex-pats or those in a rush!

Here's a short, subjective weekly review of Quebec news from the Anglophone POV.

Montrealer astronaut Julie Payette was scheduled to blast off into space aboard the space shuttle 'Endeavour on Saturday, making her second trip into space, but the mission was delayed due to a hydrogen leak. When she does take off, she'll be joining fellow Canadian, Bob Thirsk aboard the International space Station and for the first time 2 Canadiens will be in space at the same time. Both Payette and Thirsk (even though he's from BC) are McGill University grads. Payette speaks 5 languages, plays the piano and has sung on stage. Oh yes, if you haven't noticed - shes a hottie!....


Crowds gathered at overpasses to honour 20 year old Private Alexandre Péloquin, aged 20, of the Royal 22e Regiment, based at CFB Valcartier near Quebec City, the latest Canadian casualty of the war in Afghanistan. Ever since the highway which is the route used to repatriate war dead from Trenton air base to Toronto was renamed the 'Highway of Heroes', Ontarians have manned overpasses along the highway to express gratitude for the soldier' ultimate sacrifice, when the sad procession passes by. Peloquin became the 119th soldier to die in the Afghan theater. Sadly, Quebeckers have not shown the same level of dedication.

Months ago, Foxnews in the US ran a story on the satirical show 'Red Eye' that mocked Canada and it's military. If you have a strong stomach watch it here.
Give the network credit. After the show aired, somebody in the executive office was royally pissed and the show was cancelled and most of it's participants fired.


This week saw the publication of a poll indicating that most Quebeckers don't think sovereignty will happen. The findings were a bitter disappointment for those seeking Quebec independence. Asked directly if 'Quebec should be a separate country from Canada' 54% said 'NO' and 34% said 'YES'.
Factoring in the undecided, the numbers are even more telling- 61% -NO versus 39% YES.
A whopping 74 % felt sovereignty was very unlikely or not at all likely to ever occur. See the details of the poll

Pauline Marois, leader of the Separatist Parti Quebeois opposition party, announced a plan to lead Quebeckers (when her party forms a government) to independence by taking jurisdiction in areas of federal responsibility, including tax collection, language and cultural matters. The idea behind the plan is to show Quebeckers that they need more power in order to control their own destiny. Should Ottawa refuse to cede these powers it would likely lead to conflict, which according to sovereignist ex-Premier Jacques Parizeau would be a good thing. In a speech to a sovereignist group Parizeau is quoted as saying, "One of my former assistants said, 'to make sovereignty, there needs to be a crisis."and later said, "In fact, maybe we'll have to create the crisis,Read the story.
Two sovereignists from the past supported Parizeau's view. Ex-Premier Bernard Landry and disgraced party militant Yves Michaud both came out in support of the statement, which of course did Marois more harm than good. She quickly went in to damage control mode and rejected the idea of provoking crisis to help Quebec gain sovereignty. read the story
Quebec Premier Jean Charest almost fell over himself laughing at the idea and even the blogs had a cynical take on the plan. On Thursday the Premier accused Marois of completely losing control of the her party.
Pierre Cloutier created a hilarious sendup entitled "Pauline wants her Cake and to Eat it too" (translation-ed) an imaginary meeting between Marois and the potential new Prime Minister Ignatieff, next year. Read it


Louise Harel who announced she's making a run at the mayor's job at Montreal city hall this fall has anglophones apoplectic at the idea of a separatist who can't speak English, running the city. Harel was the architect of the law that folded all the island towns into Montreal when she was a Minister in the PQ government in 2002, something that anglos will never forgive her for, notwithstanding that the English towns demerged out of city, a couple of years later as a result of a referendum granted by Liberal Premier Charest. Minorities are also wary of the ex-PQ hardliner after she made some injudicious remarks about the city's minorities. Read my Post.
An anglo reporter started a firestorm of controversy when in response a question, Harel made a hash of her English answer. From there, newspapers both English and French started a lively debate as to the suitability of a unilingual mayor. Nationalist and separatist groups launched a furious defense and staked out a position that English is irrelevant and unnecessary for Quebec politicians.


The French media was also furious in relation to an editorial piece in the Montreal Gazette that commented on the popularity of Louis Harel among anglos;

"Among public figures, perhaps only Mom Boucher could make Tremblay look so good in comparison."

Mom Boucher is a notorious Quebec gangster who was head of the Quebec division of the Hell's Angels and is now serving a life sentence for two murders. The French papers quickly took the unfounded position that the Gazette was comparing Harel to Boucher. Read a blistering counter attack to the editorial(in French)

A man who was allowed to produce pot for medical reasons went a bit too far. Yvan Ferland, 50, faced cannabis production and possession charges after police discovered a whopping 45 kilograms (100 pounds) of pot at his home in December 2007. Read the Story

Guy Bertrand is offering a $170,000 reward to find Cedrika Provencher. The family of the missing Trois-Rivieres girl has enlisted the help of the flamboyant defense lawyer to help crack the case. The family and the lawyer are being criticized because of the 'no questions asked' provision of the reward. Read the story. We often hear about abducted children but here's a web site makes that makes it uncomfortably personal.

Lise Thibault, the former lieutenant governor (constitutional representative of the Queen) of Quebec still hasn't been charged with a crime, 2 years after a probe reported on her alleged overspending, double dipping and inappropriate expense claims. We're not talking peanuts, it's $700K. It seems that crown prosecutors are sitting on their hands as nobody wants to be the one to put the 70 year old wheelchair bound cripple, who's in poor health, in jail. Read about her outrageous expense claims here, and here


It's coming down to the nitty-gritty, the Montreal Canadiens will soon be sold. If the $500-$600 million price tag bandied about in the media is true, George Gillett stands to make about $300 million on a team which he bought for $10 million of his own money (the rest was borrowed.) Not a bad return, eh!

Montreal and Quebec police have been red hot of late in fighting organized crime. This week 'Operation Borax' took down a marijuana grow op run by members of the city's Vietnamese community. The 100 or so people arrested were growing weed in their homes, providing equipment or reselling the product. Thursday police broke up a drug gang operating downtown. In the last 4 months, no less than 13 major operations have taken down over 500 suspects related to organized crime. Guards at Montreal remand centres report they are operating at over-capacity. Defence lawyers are also working overtime to handle the load.

Unfortunately, Montreal police haven't been so successful in tracking down a robber who committed his 43rd holdup! He targets small business' without video surveillance where single women are working.

The Shriners announced that it's putting it's planned hospital on hold, due to flagging income from it's investment portfolio due to the market meltdown. It was to be built along side the new McGill super hospital. Now both projects look like they are in deep trouble.


Quebec's liquor monopoly the SAQ reported a 6% increase in profits. The state run company made a $807 million profit on $2.2 billion in sales.


The Quebec government is suing four parents of two drunk students who started a fire in their high school. The Province is seeking a whopping $16 million in damages and a guilty verdict will certainly bankrupt all of them. The province is standing on principle that parents are responsible for acts committed by minor children. Link in French

......FAST NEWS LINKS..
Montreal restaurant O'Noir is staffed by blind servers. Opening soon in Toronto
Montreal MP Sheila Finestone dies at 82
Former Selwyn House teacher pleads guilty to child porn
Quebec pedophile priest found guilty-30 years after the crime (in French)
Montreal baby's heart cures itself miraculously

Quebec Language Wars- Vol. 2

Concordia launches English-Speaking Communities Research

NetworkNews Release; MONTREAL, April 15 /CNW Telbec/ -
Concordia University and its School of Extended Learning are pleased to invite you to the official launch of the Quebec English-Speaking Communities Research Network (QUESCREN) in the presence of Mr. Graham Fraser Commissioner of Official Languages.

I wasn't thrilled to read about Concordia's plan to study Quebec's Anglo community.
It sounded like a project aimed at some endangered indigenous tribe in Papua New-Guinea, one bordering on extinction. Hmmm... that might be right!

Université de Sherbrooke not French Enough
The school was taken to task by a French language crusader for using improper French.
In a letter to the Sherbrooke daily 'La Tribune' a certain Jean-Marie Dubois, professor emiritus and winner of the ultra-prestigious 'Prix 2009 du Mouvement estrien pour le français', fulminates against the choice of 'Parc Innovation' (which sounds too English) instead of "Parc de l'Innovation", which according to the letter writer is the correct form.
Apparently the excuse that 'Parc Innovation' sounds better, just doesn't wash.

Letter Writer Knows what Ails the Habs - Language
A recurring theme among many fans and even sportswriters is that the problem with the Montreal Canadiens can be fixed by hiring more francophone players. Link

"Until we don't reinforce the Québécoise identity, the team can never accede to the path of glory"

Radical Group Proselytize in CEGEPS
The radical Mouvement Montreal Francais has been granted access to a number of Montreal CEGEPS to proselytize students over the importance of Bil 101(the law restricting English use). At the same time, the group solicited students and faculty to sign their petition in favor of adding harsher language measures to the law. They also invited students to attend the organization's annual meeting.

I wonder if a federalists groups would be offered such unfettered access?

Letter Writer denounces vulgar "Garage Sales'
In a letter written to Sherbrooke's daily newspaper 'La Tribune' a reader is thrilled with the birth of a new French term for 'garage sale'. The writer decries the term 'garage sale' as a vulgar anglicism and much prefers the more eloquent term of 'vente-débarras' (Getting rid of-sale) Link

Satirical letter is Bang on
Faced with a depressing poll which shows support for sovereignty at a new lows, Pauline Marois has decided that instead of calling for a referendum, she and her party will concentrate on pushing Ottawa to cede more power to the Quebec provincial government.

In response to that ridiculous notion here is a hilarious piece by Pierre Cloutier.

Instead of just providing the direct link for the piece I've reprinted it here with some annotations for those of you without French.

La scène se passe à Ottawa en 2013. Pauline Marois, la nouvelle et première première ministre vient rencontrer le premier ministre du Canada, M. Michael Ignatieff.
(The scene takes place in Ottawa in 2013. Pauline Marois,the new Premier of Quebec meets the Prime Minister of Canada, M. Michael Ignatieff.)

MI - Hi Pauline, how are you ?

PM - Je vais fine merci.

MI - What can I do for you, dear Pauline ?

PM - I come here to have plus de pouvoirs(political powers) for Quebec.

MI - You want more powers for Quebec

PM - Yes

MI - And what kind of powers you need, dear Pauline ?

PM - I have a liste here in my sacoche(purse)


MI - Ok, lets' have a look. Your list is very long. It look like a grocery list.

PM - Not exactement. You see, my peuple(people) want his souveraineté(sovereignty).

MI - I see. You want more powers for Quebec to get out of the Confederation

PM - Not exactement. My peuple want its souveraineté et en attendant(until then) we need more pouvoirs(political powers).

MI - In others words, you want the cake and eat it too.

PM. Non, not the cake, juste le beurre et l'argent du beurre.(just the butter and the butter money.(a French version of the cake reference-ed.))

MI - I see. I will discuss that with M. Coderre. Can you give me a phone call, let see, say....next year at the same date and time.

PM. Ok d'abord, I will retourne(go back) to Gatineau just l'autre bord du(on the other side of the) bridge. I am not pressée(in a hurry). I have all my temps(time in the world). Les souverainistes are very sick... je veux dire(I mean) patients Like patients(sic..patience) in the hôpital.(hospital)

MI - OK, OK. I understand what you are talking about. And what you will do if I say NO.

PM. I will make one referendum pour each pouvoir you refuse me.

MI - I see. So goddbye, dear Pauline. I will see you next year, ok ?

PM. Ok, I will revenir(be back).

author - Pierre Cloutier