Montreal's Le Journal de Montreal, published a story yesterday sensationalizing the fact that senior executives of the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (destined to become Quebec's largest and most important 'Super' hospital) shared over a million dollars in bonus money.
The story complained that these executives were getting bonus' of up to forty thousand dollars over and above their salaries which ranged up to $170,000, with the inference that they didn't deserve the money.
The story was full of contradictions and was meant to feed upon the public's perception that senior employees of government agencies are living high off the hog at public expense.
Recent revelations about golden parachutes for incompetent managers (Henri-Paul Rouseau, Jean-Guy Chaput) has the public sensitive to these type of allegations.
The story was quite overblown, but contained a stunning revelation that was treated as an aside by the reporter.
A spokesman for the hospital, Lucie Dufresne, defended the payments by saying that senior management were forced into working long hours because of staff shortages and deserved the bonus' for the overtime that they put in.
She went on to say that some of these senior members of management worked up to 59 hours a week despite a contract that called for a 35 hour work week.
WHAAAT!!!!!
A 35 hour work week for the boss of Quebec's most important hospital!
Are they insane!
Who wrote the contract???
If this is par for the course in government (and it is), it's no wonder productivity in Quebec is so low.
I can assure you, that there aren't many private companies that offer a 35 hour work week to their CEO or senior employees.
Now I understand why our hospitals don't work- the employees don't have to!
When my son, a newly minted doctor went to work as a resident in a Montreal area hospital, I was shocked to hear that as a rookie, he was able to take off up to seven weeks a year in personal time. He told me that if he availed himself of all the time off that he was entitled to, he wouldn't be eligible to work in the U.S., as his credentials wouldn't be accepted. Imagine that!
Comparing productivity with the other provinces and US states, Quebec ranks 47th out of 60. Alberta rates 1st out of 60.
Small and medium-sized firms based in Quebec are 23 per cent less productive than those based in Ontario, 35 per cent less productive than comparable American firms.) Arghhh!!
Here's an excellent article about the problem entitled Work vs. Joie de Vivre, the Painful truth in Quebec.
Choosing the good life over hard work is a lifestyle choice that can be justified if one accepts the trade-off of a reduced standard of living.
Less work=Less money.
It's something that the Quebec government has imposed on us all.
I wonder if there was ever a legitimate debate about it?
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Xenophobia Creeping Into Montreal Language Debate
Last week Pierre Curzi, the PQ member of the National Assembly and language critic wrote a piece in the Le Devoir, a Montreal daily newspaper, complaining that immigrants are taking over the island of Montreal.
Entitled "Protect French, move back to the island"("Protégez le français, revenez sur votre île!"), he frets that ethnics are taking over the island and blames white francophones 'de souche' (native Quebeckers) for moving to the suburbs.
He concludes that the immigrants will ultimately turn into Anglophones and thus contribute to anglicization of Montreal, which will ultimately threaten the very existence of the French language in the Province of Quebec. It's a bit of a stretch, to say the least. Despite all the immigration over the last 30 years, the proportion of Anglos has remained remarkably steady.
It's fair to ask if the issue is actually about language or rather about his fear that immigrants (whether they speak French or English) will outnumber pure-bred Quebeckers on the island of Montreal and so affect it's very essence and complexion.
In an even more disturbing article written in La Presse entitled "Francophones not answering the bell"("Les francophones manquent à l'appel"), writer Marie Allard takes the question of the quality of the 'Frenchness' of Montrealers to a disturbing new level.
She complains that the number of allophone students entering school in Montreal outnumber the Francophones 'de souche' and complains about their mother tongue or the mother tongue of the parents of those students.
Sounds disturbingly like a quote worthy of a participant of the Wansee Conference whereby the Nazis discussed how to define Jews.
The fact that these students are all attending French school seems to be completely beside the point. Where the students come from and what language their parents speak at home, seems to be the major issue.
The question is why? If they are attending French school, what's the difference?
René Levesque must be rolling in his grave!
Anyone who says the French language debate has nothing to do with ethnocentrism is deluding themselves.
The debate highlights a much larger issue, the absolute dread that francophone Quebeckers have that Montreal will turn into a ethnically diverse 'zoo', one that resembles Toronto or Vancouver, instead of looking like Quebec City, the pristine, picture perfect example of what Quebec nationalists perceive as ideal.
The only problem for those who dream of an ethnically pure Quebec, is that it is not sustainable.
Between 1987 and 2007, Québec welcomed about 750,000 immigrants, over 600,000 who settled in the greater Montreal region (83%).
Quebec City averages just 2,000 immigrants per year and the numbers for the other regions of Quebec are even more pitiful. It's no wonder that these regions are suffering a declining population. The Gaspé region attracted just 20 immigrants in 2007!
You can see other statistics at Demographymatters.blogspot.com.
As Montreal becomes more and more ethnically diverse, a battle looms on the horizon and it isn't going to be between the English and French, it'll be between immigrants and nativists.
Entitled "Protect French, move back to the island"("Protégez le français, revenez sur votre île!"), he frets that ethnics are taking over the island and blames white francophones 'de souche' (native Quebeckers) for moving to the suburbs.
He concludes that the immigrants will ultimately turn into Anglophones and thus contribute to anglicization of Montreal, which will ultimately threaten the very existence of the French language in the Province of Quebec. It's a bit of a stretch, to say the least. Despite all the immigration over the last 30 years, the proportion of Anglos has remained remarkably steady.
It's fair to ask if the issue is actually about language or rather about his fear that immigrants (whether they speak French or English) will outnumber pure-bred Quebeckers on the island of Montreal and so affect it's very essence and complexion.
In an even more disturbing article written in La Presse entitled "Francophones not answering the bell"("Les francophones manquent à l'appel"), writer Marie Allard takes the question of the quality of the 'Frenchness' of Montrealers to a disturbing new level.
She complains that the number of allophone students entering school in Montreal outnumber the Francophones 'de souche' and complains about their mother tongue or the mother tongue of the parents of those students.
Less than 40% were born in Québec, as were both their parents. The others were born in Québec of parents born outside the province (23,1%, this rate is rising since 2005), or born of one parent born elsewhere (9,9%) or born in Canada of two Canadian parents(2,4%).
Eccchh!("Moins de 40% des élèves étaient nés au Québec, comme leurs deux parents. Les autres étaient nés au Québec de deux parents nés à l'étranger (23,1%, ce taux plafonne depuis 2005), nés au Québec dont un parent est né à l'étranger (9,9%) ou nés ailleurs au Canada ou dont les deux parents sont nés ailleurs au Canada (2,4%)")
Sounds disturbingly like a quote worthy of a participant of the Wansee Conference whereby the Nazis discussed how to define Jews.
The fact that these students are all attending French school seems to be completely beside the point. Where the students come from and what language their parents speak at home, seems to be the major issue.
The question is why? If they are attending French school, what's the difference?
René Levesque must be rolling in his grave!
Anyone who says the French language debate has nothing to do with ethnocentrism is deluding themselves.
The debate highlights a much larger issue, the absolute dread that francophone Quebeckers have that Montreal will turn into a ethnically diverse 'zoo', one that resembles Toronto or Vancouver, instead of looking like Quebec City, the pristine, picture perfect example of what Quebec nationalists perceive as ideal.
The only problem for those who dream of an ethnically pure Quebec, is that it is not sustainable.
Between 1987 and 2007, Québec welcomed about 750,000 immigrants, over 600,000 who settled in the greater Montreal region (83%).
Quebec City averages just 2,000 immigrants per year and the numbers for the other regions of Quebec are even more pitiful. It's no wonder that these regions are suffering a declining population. The Gaspé region attracted just 20 immigrants in 2007!
You can see other statistics at Demographymatters.blogspot.com.
As Montreal becomes more and more ethnically diverse, a battle looms on the horizon and it isn't going to be between the English and French, it'll be between immigrants and nativists.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
"No Klingon in Quebec"
As one would expect, each of these societies use their own unique and particular manner of communication. Some use telepathy, some speak orally and others use touch. All have their own unique language.
It's also discovered, that when planetary societies interact with each other across the universe, one common second language is employed.
That language is determined to be 'KLINGON.'
The explorers return to Earth and report their findings. Contact with the Universe promises unparallelled advancement. The world is moved to action.
If Earth is to communicate with the universe, Klingon needs to be adopted as the secondary common language of Earth.
The nations of the world react. Comprehensive programs in Klingon language instruction are initiated in all the nations of the world.
Everybody is excited to embrace the new language, nobody wants to be left behind..... well almost nobody....
In the obscure and sparsely populated province of Quebec, in Canada, the common consensus amongst intellectuals, educators and political leaders is that speaking Klingon is unnecessary. In fact, they hold that learning Klingon represents a threat to the preservation of the indigenous French language.
"While it's nice to speak other languages, it's certainly not necessary" they say.
'A Quebecker doesn't need to speak Klingon to work in Tim Hortons or to be mayor of Montreal, or even Premier of Quebec for that matter! We can live quite nicely in French alone!"
But there's a minority who object, they remind the French language zealots that the whole world has embraced Klingon.
The naysayers are dumbfounded."Doesn't it make sense to do the same?"
"Non! Non!" answer the zealots" Those who want to interact with us, can learn French as easily as we can learn Klingon."
"But that makes no sense! What if we want to travel around the universe? What if we want to sell our products to other planets? How will we communicate?" French is a small language and Klingon is universal, do you really believe that the onus is on them to learn French, rather than on us learning Klingon?"
"MAIS OUI, BEN SUR!!!"
Argghhh.........
Louis Prefontaine is a Quebec blogger who typifies Quebec French language radicalism, those who share a common and dangerous philosophy- "Better to be mediocre in French, than successful bilingually."
Mr. Prefontaine complains in his blog about the students of a French language university in Montreal, the Université du Québec à Montréal(UQAM), who created a video sensation on YouTube.
The students produced a humorous and catchy one-take tribute video that has recently gone viral. The video is a takeoff of the Black-Eyed Peas song "I Got a Feeling
I first became aware of the video when I saw it touted on CNN, where commentators raved. To date close to a million people have viewed it on YouTube. Not bad.
Here's what Mr. Prefontaine had to say about the video;
"Even our university bred elite of the future are infatuated with English, as proven by this video created by students of UQAM with it's bilingual presentation, English song and text in English. We need to restore a French complexion to the city."Grrrrrr.!!!!......The students of UQAM appear to be more realistic and worldly than Mr. Prefontaine. They wanted to make an successful video and chose a catchy tune by a popular music group for maximum impact. Judging by the results, it seems that their decision was right, notwithstanding the annoying braying of French language militants.
"Même notre future élite universitaire s’entiche de l’anglais; à preuve cette vidéo de l’UQAM, avec présentation bilingue, chanson anglophone, textes anglophones… Il faut redonner un visage francophone à la ville."
The students understood intuitively what Mr Prefontaine and other French language militants fail to understand or accept, that artistic success on a word-wide level, means singing, dancing or writing in English.
That's the way it is. Tough luck.
Ask Celine Dion.
I imagine that Mr. Prefontaine would have preferred that the students sang 'Allouette, gentile Alloutte' I'm not sure that it would have gone over quite as big......
Should the mayor of Montreal speak English? Perhaps not, but Klingon, ah, that would be nice....
Monday, October 5, 2009
Earl Jones to Take a Plea
Victims of Earl Jones will be disappointed that they won't get to see the fraudster face his accusers in a court of law.
Negotiations are underway for a plea agreement between Jeffrey Boro, Jones' lawyer (shown on the far left in the photo) and crown prosecutors.
The crown is demanding a sentence of 12 years while Jones' lawyers are holding out for 10 years.
At any rate, the broken and fragile Jones is in no condition and has no intention to suffer the humiliation of a full-fledged trial which would ultimately result in his conviction anyway.
Although Jones is supposedly broke, his legal fees are being paid, purportedly by "family" members.
It's important to note, that even at the higher term of twelve years, Jones will be eligible for parole in just twenty-four months.
Those who are holding out even the fainest hope that some money can be recovered, should move on- there's nothing there, according to those who know.
Friday, October 2, 2009
French vs. English Volume 4
Traffic Tickets
A letter writer named Pierre from Notre-Dame-de-l'ile-Perrot wrote a piece on imperatif-francais.org, an article entitled "Complaint against the City of Montreal "Plainte contre la Ville de Montréal" where he fulminates against bilingual traffic tickets.
4,000 kilometers away in Alberta another issue concerning a traffic ticket has been raised. It seems that an Alberta judge has ruled that a ticket issued to one Gilles Caron, a francophone trucker, wasn't valid because it wasn't printed in French as well as in English. That case is headed to the Supreme Court.
Twenty years ago Manitoba was forced to translate everything into French and operate bilingually. It remains to be seen what happens in Alberta.
While a bilingual ticket makes an Alberta francophone happy, a bilingual ticket makes a Quebec francophone very unhappy! I guess it's just a matter of perspective!.....
OQLF Inspector given a rough ride
It's only surprising that it took so long to happen.
An inspector from the Office québécois de la langue française (the government agency that enforces Quebec's language laws) has had a charge laid against a Gatineau businessman for assault. Michel Bond is accused of physically removing the inspector from his place of business and then slamming a car door on the unfortunate doofus.
Not to worry, these inspectors are tough SOBs and they're used to taking abuse. Everywhere they go, they're greeted with various degrees of disdain which range from mild annoyance to overt hostility. Anyone who stays in the job has a thick skin.
A decade ago the predominantly English town of Shawville got a posse together and literally ran an inspector right out of town!
Magog supermarket commits a High Crime and Misdamenour
A Loblaws supermarket in the Eastern Townships was attacked for having the audacity to play bilingual announcements over it's public address system.
The ever vigilant organization, the Mouvement estrien pour le français, defender of the French language in the Townships region, complained to the government watchdog department, the l'Office québécois de la langue française over the bilingual ads.
Their demand is based on the language law requirement that French be 'predominant' in public advertising.
The watchdog group suggested that the store play twice as many French ads as English ones to satisfy the requirements of the law.
Store management is mulling over their options, but there seems to be no truth to the rumor that in order to conform to the law, the store is considering playing the French ads twice as loud as the English ones....
Nationalists want new street name
Nationalists have been making a big stink lately about the street named after Jeffrey AMHERST demanding that the name be changed because he was a racist, who condoned exterminating the local Indians.
This week the suggestion has been made that the street be re-baptized to honour another racist, but this one a francophone, Pierre Falardeau who died last week. He was without a doubt the most vocal Anglo hater in Quebec, an overt racist who invited Anglos to move out of Quebec.
Montreal has always recognized important personalities on both sides of the language issue, the best example being the back to back streets named after the opposing commanders in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, Wolfe and Montcalm (which ironically are streets adjacent to Amherst). In that spirit of openness, I propose that Robin street be re-baptized to honour of one of Quebec's greatest writers, the controversial Mordecai Richler, whose notoriety shouldn't be given any more weight then that attached to Falardeau!-
A letter writer named Pierre from Notre-Dame-de-l'ile-Perrot wrote a piece on imperatif-francais.org, an article entitled "Complaint against the City of Montreal "Plainte contre la Ville de Montréal" where he fulminates against bilingual traffic tickets.
"Here ladies and gentlemen of the OQLF is a complaint against the city of Montreal and the Government of Québec. The document annexed speaks for itself. It is written in English. Oh yes, there's also a French version." But my complaint is that there is an English version at all.He goes on to rant that by offering English versions of documents, the government encourages immigrants to function without having to learn French. Hmmmm....
4,000 kilometers away in Alberta another issue concerning a traffic ticket has been raised. It seems that an Alberta judge has ruled that a ticket issued to one Gilles Caron, a francophone trucker, wasn't valid because it wasn't printed in French as well as in English. That case is headed to the Supreme Court.
Twenty years ago Manitoba was forced to translate everything into French and operate bilingually. It remains to be seen what happens in Alberta.
While a bilingual ticket makes an Alberta francophone happy, a bilingual ticket makes a Quebec francophone very unhappy! I guess it's just a matter of perspective!.....
OQLF Inspector given a rough ride
It's only surprising that it took so long to happen.
An inspector from the Office québécois de la langue française (the government agency that enforces Quebec's language laws) has had a charge laid against a Gatineau businessman for assault. Michel Bond is accused of physically removing the inspector from his place of business and then slamming a car door on the unfortunate doofus.
Not to worry, these inspectors are tough SOBs and they're used to taking abuse. Everywhere they go, they're greeted with various degrees of disdain which range from mild annoyance to overt hostility. Anyone who stays in the job has a thick skin.
A decade ago the predominantly English town of Shawville got a posse together and literally ran an inspector right out of town!
Magog supermarket commits a High Crime and Misdamenour
A Loblaws supermarket in the Eastern Townships was attacked for having the audacity to play bilingual announcements over it's public address system.
The ever vigilant organization, the Mouvement estrien pour le français, defender of the French language in the Townships region, complained to the government watchdog department, the l'Office québécois de la langue française over the bilingual ads.
Their demand is based on the language law requirement that French be 'predominant' in public advertising.
The watchdog group suggested that the store play twice as many French ads as English ones to satisfy the requirements of the law.
Store management is mulling over their options, but there seems to be no truth to the rumor that in order to conform to the law, the store is considering playing the French ads twice as loud as the English ones....
Nationalists want new street name
Nationalists have been making a big stink lately about the street named after Jeffrey AMHERST demanding that the name be changed because he was a racist, who condoned exterminating the local Indians.
This week the suggestion has been made that the street be re-baptized to honour another racist, but this one a francophone, Pierre Falardeau who died last week. He was without a doubt the most vocal Anglo hater in Quebec, an overt racist who invited Anglos to move out of Quebec.
Montreal has always recognized important personalities on both sides of the language issue, the best example being the back to back streets named after the opposing commanders in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, Wolfe and Montcalm (which ironically are streets adjacent to Amherst). In that spirit of openness, I propose that Robin street be re-baptized to honour of one of Quebec's greatest writers, the controversial Mordecai Richler, whose notoriety shouldn't be given any more weight then that attached to Falardeau!-
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