Price-Fixing at the Pump- Government style

A Quebec City judge has allowed a class action lawsuit to go forward against 11 oil retailers who are accused of price-fixing. It is alleged that prices were set through a series of phone calls made between the retailers. -CSP Link to read the entire article 

The mistake the gas retailers made was to undertake the scheme themselves instead of getting the government to help them fix prices.
They should have formed an association and lobbied the government to set prices at a level at which they could make more money.

Sound ridiculous?
That's exactly what the gas retailers in St. Jerome did when COSTCO moved in and started undercutting their price.

Here's a notice attached to the gas pumps at a Costco in St. Jerome;

Dear, Costco members,

The Regie d'energie of Quebec has recently imposed a 3¢ per litre increase on gasoline sold in St.Jerome.

We disagree with this artificial increase imposed on the citizens of St. Jerome for the benefit of gasoline retailers.

For this reason, we will be donating 3¢ per litre sold, to the Fondation de l'hopital regional de St. Jerome.

Costco Wholesale will continue to supply members the very best quality/price value for all their purchases.

Pierre Riel

First Vice President and general director Eastern Region Canada

Islamaphobia Rears it's Ugly Head in Longueuil

A current topic in the French Quebec media is the push towards official secularization and the separation of religion and government. While the goal of eliminating overt connections with any particular religion seems reasonable enough, it is in realty, nothing more than a back door attack on Muslims and other immigrants that look different from old-stock Quebeckers.
One of the proposals being promoted is that government employees be barred from wearing religious symbols or clothing while serving the public. The idea has roots in the French law that bars religious regalia in schools and by public employees.

A big push is underway to enact similar legislation in Quebec, as many Quebeckers are frightened that Muslims are changing the traditional face of Quebec, particularly in Montreal. Those militating for such measures are clearly in store for a disappointment, any such law would be overturned by the Supreme Court. Canada is not France and such laws are clearly unconstitutional.

Many are also furious about concessions known as 'reasonable accommodations' made by public employees, mostly benefiting Muslims and Hasidic Jews whereby for example, a Muslim woman may ask to be served by a women instead of a man.

Last week, an idiot from Longueuil (a Montreal suburb) decided to push back. In a story published last Friday in LE Devoir (French)  a certain Michel Robichaud demanded his very own reasonable accommodation. He demanded that he not be served by a Hijab wearing, government employee when applying to renew his Medicare card in a government office.

A brouhaha ensued between the troublemaker and the director of the office and I can only imagine the utter humiliation suffered by the employee involved.
Imagine the hurt that this fool inflicted on an innocent government clerk, who was just trying to make a living through honest work.

The manger of the office was rightly furious at the grandstanding antics undertaken  at the expense of one of his employees and told the complainer that if he didn't want to be served by the Hijab wearing woman he should get back into the waiting line, THE BACK OF THE LINE!

For Mr. Robichaud this reaction was manna from Heaven, he had gotten his wish fulfilled, a media event.
The story was carried by the Le Devoir which actually reported favorably on the complainer's position.

Of course  Mr. Robichaud who was spoiling for a fight and lodged an official complaint with the Régie d'assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ) about his treatment, who told him in no uncertain terms what they thought of him.
Mr. Robichaud told reporters that the agency representative told him that the response he got was consistent with the agency policy.  
"She said that they had not refused to serve me, but rather it was I who refused to receive the service. Under the principle of reasonable accommodation, the RAMQ allows it's employees to wear the Islamic veil, regardless of the opinion of the person being served."

"She also told me that my complaint was inadmissible because no law has ever been passed declaring Quebec a secular state.  continued Robichaud. "By invoking the neutrality of the state,  I had no legal basis, she said. Which law are you referring to she asked? 

I hope that this racist attitude doesn't spread but I fear the seeds of discord have already been planted.

Last year I was in a Canadian Tire store in St. Laurent standing in the check out line when a grandmotherly type Francophone standing in front of me, started up with the teen aged cashier wearing a Hijab.
"My dear, don't you realize it's a symbol of oppression?"
The girl was mortified and stood in stunned silence during the lecture.

I was furious at the bullying and figuring that what's good for the goose is good for the gander,  I decided to make it my business to ruin her day as well.

I moved in close and inches from her face let loose a loud barrage of insults that scared the crap out of her. 
"VA CHIER, ESPECES DE P'TIT RACISTE!!!!

Maybe I shouldn't have done it, but it felt right at the time. 
Come to think of it, it still feels right today.

Hope Springs Eternal after Markov's Triumphant Return to Habs

Montreal Local TV News Photobomb

I record the Montreal evening news on both the CBC and CTV local affiliates each evening which I skim at dinner time. Like all local news productions there are plenty of gaffes both technical, editorial with a good number of mis-speaking anchors and reporters.
In the spirit of laughing with you, not at you, I've decided to share the best.  (Sure.....)

Here's a clip of Brian Wilde, from the sports department, getting photobombed,  further confirming that live on-air reports are always deliciously dangerous.

Separatists See Red over Toyoto Ad

A one second view of a giant Canadian flag has separatists apoplectic over it's inclusion in a Toyota television ad. The car company has been forced to remove the commercial in Quebec markets, but continues to play it as is, in the rest of the country.

The concept of the commercial is to underline the fact that 80% of cars built by Toyota, over the last twenty years are still on the road.

The spot features a Toyota car, parked in the front row of a drive-in movie, as historical events of the last twenty years play out on the big screen. Scenes of SARS, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Nelson Mandela and the giant demonstration in favour of Canadian unity held in Montreal, prior to the 1995 Quebec referendum which featured the infamous giant Canadian flag.

Dubbed the "Love-In" by separatists the event has become a separatist urban myth, one that claims that the illegal demonstration was the tipping point that pushed the "NON" side over the top to victory.

Back in 1995, the separatist Parti Quebecois government drew up a law that created the rules of the referendum which would determine if Quebec would become independent from Canada. The law provided that one global committee would be created for each side in the debate and that only these committees would be allowed to spend money in the campaign, subject to strict spending limits.

To make a long story short, a murky organization called OPTION CANADA , funded by Ottawa worked behind the scene and outside the official NON committee in favour of the no side.

As we all know, the referendum was mighty close and after the slim NON victory, the massive pro-Canada demonstration came under renewed investigation by sovereignists, who concluded that it was illegally funded.

Charges were laid against the directors of Option Canada for breaking the referendum law, but had to be dropped months later, to the consternation of sovereignists, when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled (in a case brought forward by my good friend Robert Libman) that sections of the referendum law that dealt with spending and the limitations on individuals and groups outside the official committees to be illegal, thus making the prosecutions impossible.

To this day sovereignists ignore the fact that the sections of the referendum law were ruled illegal and that Options Canada was entitled to do what they did. In fact many years ago, I was told by someone involved, that before Option Canada proceeded, they had legal opinions advising them that the referendum law could not possibly stand a legal court challenge.
If anyone cheated, it was the PQ, who drafted a law, full well in the knowledge that it wasn't legal, a blocking move that would hopefully keep federalist forces from spending in the campaign. The manoeuvre was largely successful, up until the actions of Option Canada.

Today separatists continue to believe that the referendum was stolen. Option Canada and it's actions in the referendum have become fixed in sovereignist lore as a historical betrayal on a par with the actions of Judas against Jesus.

In placing a clip of the giant red Canadian flag in the commercial, the advertising agency may as well have waved a red flag in front of the sovereignist bull.

The pain and angst that the commercial has rekindled in sovereignist forces is deliciously sweet to federalist Quebeckers like myself.

Fifteen years later, the burn remains as painful as the day of the demonstration. The faithful re-telling of the referendum betrayal story to the next generation of separatists by the lst generation, has become as traditional as the re-telling of the story of Exodus by Jewish families at the annual sedar.