L'Autre St. Jean-The Non-Event

After the huge kerfuffle surrounding the anglophone artists playing at the Fete St. Jean celebration in Parc Pelican, in Rosemount, you'd think that there'd be more of a turnout, but the culmination of ten days of intense media debate turned out rather anti-climatic.

When bluegrass band Lake of Stew took to the stage to open the celebration at 6:00PM there were less than 100 people in the audience.
Yup, less than 100. Argh....

There were only about 20 protesters from radical group, the Reseau de Resistance du Quebecois which tried to disrupt the set by making noise with drums, fog horns and by shouting. They were closely monitored by the police who outnumbered the protesters by about three to one.
The best part of it all were the beautiful horses that the police rode as a measure of crowd control.

The protesters were poorly received by the hostile crowd, and finally put down their placards.

About 2 hours later, when the audience had swelled considerably, the radicals had long given up the ghost. They stayed to enjoy the rest of the show and when Bloodshot Bill began his rockabilly set, some of the radicals, (feeling no pain...er... at this point) danced to his music.. (sigh...)

After all the point was made and a party is a party. It's still a holiday!

Molsons First Priority?- Fire Upper Managment

Now that the Molsons are the new owners of the Montreal Canadiens, it's time to complete the 'menage' and oust GM Bob Gainey and team president Pierre Boivin.

Gainey's ill-considered firing of Carbo was a desperate attempt to shift blame and to save his own career. His firings this week of Don Lever and Doug Jarvis are more of the same, another sad attempt to cover up his own poor performance as the coach and general manager who led the team to another post season disaster.

You'll recall that Gainey parachuted Don Lever in from the Hamilton farm club to help stabilize the team, after he fired Carbo and went back behind the bench himself. It was advanced by some media types that had Donny-boy some French, he'd likely be the next Habs' coach. Alas it was not to be. What smelled so good in Hamiltion, apparently stunk in Montreal. Now Lever is toast, fired cruelly over the phone.
So much for Gainey's keen eye for talent.

The Canadiens under Gainey are lurching badly, his serene and studious disposition has become grating, considering the desperate situation. The free agent exit from the team has already started with Komisarek's announcement that he's gone and with more to come, it 's time to panic.

Pierre Boivin deserves to be fired as well, firstly, for backing Gainey and going along with the bi-annual ritual of the forced walking of the plank by decent, competent and hard working coaches.

His reaction last spring to the media and talk show pressure that demanded that the team hire a francophone coach, was to cave faster than a Vichy politician. Speaking at a luncheon in the midst of the firestorm, he didn't just promise that the new coach would speak French, he promised a bona fide 'francophone'. Not only was that outright discriminatory and illegal, it was bad management to so limit the field of applicants.

As long as this attitude of appeasement remains in the office of the president, the Canadiens are doomed. Letting the fans and the media dictate team policy is a shameful abdication of responsibility. It's time to get somebody with the balls pucks to do the job right.

Maybe the team can go back into time.

In the 1935-36 NHL season the Canadiens had the worst record in the league. Distressed by such a crappy performance, the NHL gave the Canadiens the draft rights to all the French Canadian players for the next two years.

Now wouldn't that be loverly?

St. Jean Baptiste Day, Time To Get Out Of Town

The fact that the two anglophone acts, Bloodshot Bill and the band Lake of Stew were re-invited to perform in a Fete St-Jean show after being dis-invited should not be taken as a sign that the celebration is becoming more open towards minorities, nothing could be further from the truth.

The only reason for the re-integration of the anglos was the intolerable level of negative publicity.
After a couple of days of futilely defending the indefensible, organisers decided that it would be wiser to beat a tactical retreat...this time.

It is widely held by the nationalist media that the organisers were badly outplayed with some fuming that the movement continues to shoot itself in the foot. Look for novice Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste president, Mario Beaulieu, to learn from his mistake.

The vast majority sovereignists are sophisticated, liberal and dedicated to fairness. They will react, when their sense of fairness is assaulted and Mr. Bealiueu learned a cruel lesson that his version of Quebec nationalism is not shared by most in the sovereignty camp.

That being said, don't look for any changes to the Fete National program next year. What happened this year, vis-a-vis the anglo performers, was a one-off mistake that will not be repeated, not as long as the sovereignist St-Jean-Baptiste Society runs the show. You can be assured that they've learned their lesson and that a 'special' committee will surely be organised to vet the 'bona fides' of next year's performers.

In fact, this year's controversy may well serve as a cautionary tale for nationalists, one that reminds radicals that without vigilance English will make insidious advances. To the barricades!

Guy A. Lepage , the wildly popular television personality and ardent sovereignist, who will be hosting this year's annual St. Jean Baptiste Day holiday show in Maisonneuve park, re-launched the controversy as to what the holiday represents when he stated that the show wasn't just a celebration of Quebec culture, but rather a political holiday that clearly promotes sovereignty. Richard Martineau, in his blog complains that the sovereignty movement has hijacked the holiday which he posits is supposed to be an all-encompassing celebration of Quebec society.

"Does this mean that the federalists are not welcome? There is already the Patriots' Day ... do we need another day to support the cause? Is it a good idea to "politicize"Saint-Jean Baptiste Day, a holiday that is supposed to be inclusive?"

Est-ce à dire que les fédéralistes ... ne sont pas bienvenue?
Il y a déjà la Journée des patriotes... Faut-il une autre journée appuyant La Cause?
Est-ce une bonne idée de "politiser" la Saint-Jean, une fête qui est censée être rassembleuse"? "

For Anglophones, there never really was a question as to what the holiday represented. Thirty years ago it was a common sight for Canadian flags to be burned by drunken merry-makers. It was an opportunity to bash Canada and anglophones alike. The francophone artistic community, who are overwhelmingly sovereignist, use the stage to salute and promote the movement. The government and the organizing committee are quick to remind us each year that the holiday is inclusive, but the reality is different.

As long as the government sub-contracts the organization of the celebrations to radical sovereignist groups instead of taking on the job itself, it will remain a holiday for separatists.

For Anglophones and Allophones, June 23-24, is a good time to get out of town, to the cottage or on vacation.

Molson's Purchase of the Canadiens Confounds the Experts

In the months leading up to this week's sale, not one of our professional sports newsmen came remotely close to naming the Molsons as a potential purchaser of the Montreal Canadiens. Why were they so badly off the mark?

They bandied about plenty of names and wrote long articles speculating on the final buyer's identity. The list was long and included some names who had zero means and no desire to purchase the team.

The Bronfmans, Celine and René, Joey Saputo, Jean Coutu, Jim Basillie (Blackberry), Pierre Peladeau (Quebecor), BCE, Serge Savard, André Demarais (Power Corp), Guy Laliberté (Cirque du Soleil), Graeme Roustan (Nike), to name just a few.

In fact not until May 27, when the Molsons outed themselves as potential buyers, did the press finally cotton to the most likely purchaser.
It doesn't speak well of our press corps to be so sadly uninformed.
The next time these experts speak, remind yourself that experts built the Titanic.


At any rate it is extremely satisfying to have the Molson family back as owners of the team. Those of us old enough to remember the comforting vision of the dignified and confident Hartland Molson sitting behind the Canadiens bench at every home game, can take comfort that the family has always treated the team as a prize and a legacy.

It's fair to say that the announcement led to a giant sigh of relief in both the Francophone and Anglophone hockey community. The biggest fear was that the home grown business shark, Pierre Peladeau would get his claws into the team and squeeze as hard as he could.

There were some of course who demanded that the team be acquired by real Quebeckers (read:francophones) and they even started an online petition.
This from their website:

INVITATION
"Devenez membre du Groupe Facebouc « Rapatrier le CH au Québec »"

By the way, does anyone out there know what "Facebouc" is?

While George Gillett was a admirable owner, his son's meddling with certain players was certainly not helpful and ultimately led to the downfall of Carbo. We can be assured that the Molson's have too much class and experience to believe that it is they who should run the team.

Gillett is lucky to realize a $300 million dollar profit on his small investment. If he runs true to form, he'll blow it anyway. Read about his checkered business career.
The Montreal Canadiens are better for having him gone. Owners in financial trouble always spell disaster for the teams they own.

Remember the Edmonton Oilers' owner Peter Pocklington, another car dealer turned entrepreneur, who ran into financial trouble while owning the NHL franchise. His solution...trade Wayne Gretzky to L.A for $15 million. argh.......

Weekly Anglo Quebec News June 13-19

Want to Keep up with Quebec News in just 5 minutes?

Perfect for Ex-pats or those in a rush!
Every Saturday read a short, subjective weekly review of Quebec news with a Anglophone POV.

Separtists hold big annual meeting in Riviere du Loup where they patted each other on the back and fashioned their forty-millionth new plan for sovereignty.
One party bigwig proudly proclaimed that that Quebec will definitely achieve sovereignty in this century! WOW!
Why did the party move it's meeting to this picturesque town located halfway between Quebec City and Gaspé. It seems that there's a by-election coming up to fill Mario Dumont's old seat and a big PQ conflab might just be the boost the local candidate can use.
Although the Liberals are running a strong candidate, he's taking some heat for a DUI last year.
In the meantime, the Liberal party complained (to no avail) to the election office that the cost of the meetings should figure into the election spending of the PQ candidate running for the local seat.

Montreal North riots again. - The district, which is home to many poor immigrants underprivileged new Canadians, erupted into confrontation again as youths and police battled it out. Nine people were arrested after a night of rioting. The district is fast becoming Canada's most dangerous neighbourhood. Last year police shot at a group of youths who were swarming them, killing one and injuring a few. That signalled the beginning of the war between district youths and police. Crime in the area is through the roof. Last month a Vietnamese grandmother was beaten by three teens in a purse-snatching incident that resulted in her death. Last week a 40-year-old man Montreal North man was arrested and charged with killing his 11-month-old son.

Montreal's gift to Morocco -Swine Flu - While the theory that Gaëtan Dugas (an Air Canada steward in the 70's) was patient zero in the AIDS epidemic has largely been debunked, there's no doubt about who is H1N1 virus 'patient zero' in Morocco. A 18 year student travelling home from Montreal took an internal flight to Fez after flying to Casablanca from Montreal. Exiting the plane, she looked ill, and was scanned by a thermal reader which indicated no fever. She was told to contact authorities if she developed symptoms, which she did the next day. Tests confirmed she was the first person in Morocco with the virus. Since then another passenger on that first plane has become sick. Swine Flu, WELCOME TO MOROCCO! Link
The 32nd case of swine flu in Singapore is a 28-year-old man who returned to Singapore from Montreal via New York and Tokyo on Japan Airlines JL711 on June 11. That's a lot of plane trips. Think how many people this guy infected along the way...

Man admits rape, judge acquits- Syl­vain Pa­pa­tie of Lac Simeon was acquitted of rape and assault after pleading guilty to the offence months before. Last October he plead guilty to two out of the three charges laid against him.
It seems that while awaiting sentencing, he had a change of heart and requested through his lawyer that his plea be annulled because he was in bad mental frame of mind when he copped to the crimes and didn't understand the consequences.
The judge allowed him to change the plea and proceeded to set a trial date. The crown prosecutor, who also attended the meeting, then admitted that he hadn't really prepared for a trial and that there was not really enough evidence to convict. The judge dismissed the charges! Link in French

Anglophone Performers tossed then re-integrated -Blooshot Bill and the band 'Lake of Stew' from the Mile End district of Montreal were invited, then disinvited to play at the inaugural "L'Autre St-Jean", an alternative celebration of Quebec's 'national' holiday. Organizers said sponsors worried that hearing English would cause the audience to riot or worse still, turn the Francophone attendees into Anglophones. Link Link
After 'la caca' hit the fan, organisers reversed their decision.

Operation 'BORAX" continues to round up suspects in Montreal's Vietnamese community which has been rocked by the sheer number of arrests in relation to a hydroponic marijuana grow-op that operated in hundreds homes. Police are seeking to arrest an additional 100 people in addition to the 100+ already in 'da klink'. Link

Photo radar will not be the cash cow predicted-Up to now only warnings have been issued by Quebec's new photo radar program. Next month real tickets will be issued, but surprisingly fewer than predicted.
In it's first 26 days of operation the 15 cameras have generated 2550 warnings, an average of 100 per day. If that holds up, the annual amount of tickets issued will be about 36,000 and with a $200 dollars average fine, it will only bring in about $7.2 million. Considering that the program costs several million dollars to run annually and the fact that the equipment cost over six million to acquire, it probably won't to be the cash cow predicted. In fact the numbers are remarkably low compared to other cities. There's one red light camera in San Diego that generates up to 5,000 tickets per year, all by itself!
Incidentally, one phenomenon of red light cameras is the increase in rear-end collisions as drivers slam on their brakes to avoid getting nabbed by the camera. Link
If officials ever decide to place photo radar on one of the overpasses that cross Decarie Boulevard and monitor the speeds on the expressway below, it wouldn't take more than a couple of months to eliminate the deficit!

An amazing 81% of electorate would vote for mayor again--No, not the mayor of Montreal, the mayor of Quebec City!
Regis Lebaume is likely the most popular mayor of any large city in Canada. 91% of those surveyed also said that they were satisfied with city services.

Big speeders targeted. Last year the government passed a law that imposed harsher punishment for scofflaws who travel at dangerously high speeds.
In the first 12 months the police across the province gave out an average of over 20 tickets every single day and levied over $5 million in fines.
What's is classified as dangerous speeding?

95 kph(59 mph) in a 50 kph(31 mph) zone = $528 and 6 demerit points
145 kph(90 mph) in a 90kph zone(55 mph) = $718 and 10 demerit points
180kph(112 mph) in a 100 kph zone(62 mph) = $1255 and 14 demerit points
Plus in all cases - 7 days immediate license suspension.
That's gotta hurt!

The biggest offender of the year? A car travelling 226 kph(140mph) in a 70kph(43mph) zone! Must have been the Batmobile!
BTW, it takes 15 points over a 2 year span to get your license suspended in Quebec.

Fraudster to get day parole. Vincent Lacroix, Quebec's very own Bernie Madoff will be getting day parole after serving just about a year of the original 12 year sentence. A judge reduced his sentence on appeal to just 42 months and so voila, he getting out of jail! Lacroix ruined the lives of thousands of mostly francophone Quebec investors by stealing over $110 million. Lacroix never said what he did with the money and for all we know, there's relaxing Caribbean retirement in his future, to be lived in the lap of luxury! Let me ask you honestly. 1 year in jail=$110 million. Any takers? .....take a number! Hmmm...
If he committed the same crime in the USA he'd probably get 50 years (with parole after two thirds.) The differences in sentences between the US and Canada.

Montreal, 4th greenest city? In a article in entitled 5 of the Greenest Cities in the World to Visit on the website Treehugger, Montreal came in fourth. The article made me think of another one that I scanned a couple of weeks ago entitled 48 jours de smog sur Montréal au cours de l'hiver which said that Montreal had a record 48 days of smog last winter, eclipsing the 2005 record of 19. That's what I call progress. Most of the damage is attributed to Montrealer's affinity to out-dated wood burning heating systems that creates clouds of pollution. Thank you Treehugger for the shout-out!

Hell's Angels Organization Decapitated. Montreal police are keeping up their torrid pace of arrests targeting organized crime. They busted a ring of drug dealers operating downtown Montreal and arrested 40. On Wednesday, police on the south shore arrested 11 more Hell's Angels member for various drug related crimes. On Thursday they confiscated $10 million worth of booty bought with drug money. Operation 'SharQc' has put 128 members of the biker gang behind bars.

Bits'n Pieces

In a radio interview Gilles Duceppe, leader of the Bloq Quebois lamented that there are too many unemployed people (chomeurs) who don't even have enough money to go on vacation because their benefits ran out. That's a good one! A reader left a comment reminding the dear leader that you can't be away on vacation while collecting UI.

Sister Judith Pinard was Quebec's oldest person(110 years old) when she died last Saturday in Trois-Rivières. She was a month away from turning 111. Bet you'd like to know who's the oldest Quebecker now. Dunno....but a 113-year-old British World War I veteran, Henry Allingham is now the world’s oldest man.

An accused drunk driver, Guy Gagnon has successfully postponed his sentencing 32 times! Four years ago he ran down a child while under the influence. He's now demanding a new trial because the crown prosecutor who won his conviction has been appointed a judge. He's been out on bail all this time.

For the first time in seven months, the number of Montreal home sales sold, has jumped by 7%. Bucking the North American trend Montreal house values actually increased by 2.9% this year! An average condo in Montreal goes for $225K and that sector of the housing market has risen by 7% this year.

The unmitigated disaster that was the Turkish Grand Prix has opened the door for the return of Formula One car racing to Montreal. François Dumontier has been asked by Bernie Ecclestone to organize a race and the Quebec minister (in charge of car racing) says chances are good for a 2010 return. Our mayor should be careful before signing any contract, it seems that Ferrarri is revolting and leading a bunch of teams to form a breakaway series.

On Thursday, the price of gas jumped to about C$1.15 a litre in the Montreal area. Compared to the average price in the USA of C$0.70 a litre, it means that gas is 65% more expensive here. If you want to do your own comparisons, here's a handy website.

The government of Quebec announced it will be enacting laws to control excesses by cell phone companies (surprise fees, automatic renewals) in relation to contracts with consumers.

The long-anticipated Mont Tremblant Casino in the upper Laurentians ski resort will open June 24.

Ex-Montreal Canadiens superstar Guy Lafleur is given a suspended sentence after his perjury conviction.

One out of every four Quebec adults has a Facebook page. 70% of those between 18 and 24 have a page as compared to 3% of those over 65. Only 54% of them have actually met all their 'friends' in person.

A 'swingers' club in Montreal caught fire Thursday sending patrons fleeing into the streets in various states of undress dress. Newsworthy?-Not really but the media thought it important enough to cover. The club 'Auberge 1082' operates legally ever since the big Supreme Court victory in 2005. BTW, the French word for 'swinger' is 'echangiste', somehow more elegant, don't you think.

The CRA, the new name for Revenue Canada launched the most moronic contest ever. They invited Canadiens to submit videos about the illegal tax-avoiding underground econony. Here's an example. Ugh...

Guy Laliberte, the publicity hound founder and head honcho of Cirque de Soleil has been all over the news lately. First it's the ongoing saga of his salacious divorce, then the announcement of a trip as a space tourist to the International Space station. On Friday it was announced that he'd be getting a star on Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame.
Now a tell all book by Ian Halperin that dishes all the dirt on him has been flying off the bookstore shelves. A lawsuit has been threatened. Read an excerpt of the book in Maclean's magazine.