The Curious Case Of Marc Bellemare

I must say I didn't know what to make of the behaviour of Marc Bellemare, who is the ex-Liberal Justice Minister in the Charest government, way back in 2004.
He's been doing the media rounds telling anyone who'll listen that the Liberal party took scads of money from construction industry types and that cabinet ministers were forced to produce donations to the tune of $100,000 in order to keep their jobs. After dropping the bombshell, Quebec's chief election officer demanded a meeting with him to go over the facts but Bellemare has been ducking the meeting claiming that there is a jurisdictional problem. This week he's been at it again, giving another television interview and adding more scandalous allegations against Premier Charest directly.

Now, I've no doubt that there must be elements of truth in what he says, but there's something about his comportment and timing that has me wondering about his motives.

I've been asking around about him, among those who know, to find out exactly what the story is and why he would besmirch the Liberals six years after leaving politics on his own, seemingly on good terms with the Premier and the party.

First the public record.
Marc Bellemare is a high profile lawyer who runs a practice defending clients who he believes were ill-treated by Quebec's SAAQ, the government agency that runs the no-fault insurance program for all Quebec drivers and which determines compensation to injured people in the case of injury as a result of a road accident.

Recruited as a  star candidate back in 2003, he accepted to run as a Liberal with the condition that he could push his pet project, a law that would allow individuals to legally pursue their rights in court without the constraints of the SAAQ limits on damages.

He won his seat handily and was given the Justice and Public Security ministry. His project to allow victims of automobile accidents the right to sue, hit a brick wall in Cabinet with almost nobody supporting his proposed law, leading to a frustrating personal situation for the Minister, who entered politics with the express motivation of seeing his pet project passed into law.

Then radio 'shock jock' Andre Arthur dropped the bombshell that Bellemare's oldest daughter, Lysanne Messier, was an exotic dancer in a Quebec city strip club that was a known as a Hell's Angel's hangout. At the time Quebec was in the process of dismantling the biker gang via a mega trial that was underway. Any contact between the daughter and the bikers would place the Minister in an impossible position.

Now I had assumed that cabinet ministers were thoroughly vetted before they were hired and I asked an insider how something like this was missed. He confirmed to me that Mr. Bellemare signed a disclosure document saying that there were no skeletons in his closet that could embarrass the government. However, he told me, that at the time, extensive security, financial and family background checks were not routinely undertaken. Hmmm....

Even though the daughter was estranged from her father at the time, the revelation and the publicity hurt Bellemare quite badly, more on a personal level than professional, or so it seemed. The daughter denied that she had anything to do with the Hell's Angels and the press, without any corroborating proof, decided to pass on further reporting on the story.

Premier Charest publicly supported his minister and the issued died. Months later, a disillusioned Bellemare resigned, claiming that the nature of politics didn't suit him.

The part of the story that is not publicly acknowledged, is that the daughter did indeed have contact with the bikers. She was overheard heard in a conversation with at least one biker in Sureté du Quebec wiretaps.
Arthur further reported that the daughter had been known to  carry large amounts of cash, both in American and Canadian denominations. LCN reported that in May 2005 she was involved in a car accident and was found by rescue workers in a confused state with white powder around her nostrils.

I have a reliable source that says the Premier was informed of the situation concerning her contact with bikers by the police and I suppose that Mr. Bellemare was either asked to leave quietly or chose to do so on his own, after an appropriate delay to keep up appearances.

It remains an open question as to where Mr. Arthur got his information about the stripper daughter, it either came from the police or within the Premier's office. Since the resulting brouhaha was damaging to the government, I can't see any body in Charest's office leaking that type of information to the press. That leaves the police as the likely culprit, their motives clearly to rid themselves of Bellemarre. This last part is just my idle speculation.

I was also assured that Bellemare left on very good terms with the Premier, but that doesn't seem right, because, Mr. Bellemare is definitely on a revenge kick. His revelations after six years of silence is payback for something. Whether it be about his daughter, his pet project, or being pushed from cabinet, only Mr. Bellemare knows.

His desire for revenge makes his pronouncements suspect, but I've no doubt that some of what he says is true. I am however reminded of Karlheinz Schreiber, who embellished his dirt on Mulroney for personal gain at the expense of others. Ultimately a lot of what he testified was unsubstantiated.

Something just isn't right with Mr. Bellemare.

Mr. Charest is plenty pissed off and first threatened a lawsuit, but now has called for a public inquiry, leading me to believe that Mr. Bellemare has no proof of his accusations.

FOR THE LATEST UPDATE SEE;

Marc Bellemare Going Down in Flames

Maple Leaf Fans Classier Than Their Sportswriters

I was rather astonished to hear that Toronto sportswriter Damien Cox as well as a CBC Hockey Night in Canada round table commentator  (I can't remember who) take Toronto Maple Leaf coach Ron Wilson to task for not pulling goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere in the final 90 seconds of a 3-3 tie against the Montreal Canadiens last  Saturday night. The rationale behind the move was to score the winning goal in an attempt to put the Canadiens out of the playoffs.

"That's awful by Ron Wilson," the Toronto Star's Damien Cox scolded on Twitter during the game's final minute when it became clear Giguère wasn't leaving his crease. "Essentially conceding the point that puts the Habs into the postseason. Makes Leafs look even more pathetic." Montreal Gazette

Of course the Maple Leaf coach scoffed at the idea, showing a lot more class then the two dim-wit commentators calling such a move "fooling around with the integrity of the game."

Nobody in Montreal expected the Leafs to roll over and die so that another Canadian team could make the playoffs, it would be unethical. But certainly nobody would expect the Leafs to sacrifice their integrity by pulling a goalie for the express reason of putting another Canadian team out of the playoffs. The idea is sad and juvenile and says a lot about the type of person the reporter is.

I've been to the Air Canada Centre this year and enjoyed the experience, especially the fans. The team boutique was actually selling Montreal Canadiens hockey shirts. The fans were extremely nice to us as we rooted for the Canadiens and I felt empathy for the frustration that they felt, pulling for a team so bereft of talent. I don't think most Maple Leaf fans would consider it a great achievement to pull a goalie in a lame effort to drag the Canadiens down. As for Damien Cox, he must be a miserable person, someone who the Germans best describe as suffering from a dose of "Schadenfreude."

Mr. Cox fools himself if he believes that there is anything left to the The Canadiens / Leafs rivalry, it has long since died, a victim of expansion and more importantly the lack of talent iced by both teams over the last fifteen years.  Long gone are the days of bated anticipation of  Eddie Shack / John Ferguson confrontations and the coaching duel between 'Punch' Imlach and 'Toe' Blake. Yes, gone are the glory days.
Even the nicknames were better in those days- "The Chief",  "The Flower, "Rocket," "Pocket Rocket," "The Big M," and the "The Entertainer"  aaahhh..the good old days..

I can't imagine Red Fisher, Rejean Tremblay or any other Montreal sportswriter, English or French saying something so stupid and mean-spirited. The Green-eyed monster of jealousy seems to be alive and well in the Maple Leaf press room.

I along with other Montreal Canadiens fans look forward to meeting the Leafs in the playoffs someday. Until then I root for all Canadian teams to make the playoffs as I expect most Canadians do.

The Leafs and the Canadiens both deserve better teams, but the Leafs deserve better sports commentators as well.

 Here' s a reminder of the good old days........

Voodoo Math in French Language Debate

Last week Pierre Curzi, PQ language critic did his best impression of "Chicken Little" telling all who would listen, that the 'sky is falling" on the French language in Montreal and that by 2016, the city is to become anglicized. All week he alluded to a report that his 'researchers' had prepared supporting his claim.

I didn't think the ridiculous assertion would be taken seriously by anyone other than the committed hard-liners, but I guess when it comes to the French language even reasonable people can be taken in by the hysteria mounted by a cadre of bullshit artists who weave a phony narrative based on voodoo mathematics.

The report finally landed on Friday and as I suspect, the data proves exactly the opposite of what Mr. Curzi is saying. If you read French and are interested, you can view it HERE.

The 80 pages can actually be summarized in just one table included in the report. Everything else is pure rubbish ;

False Conclusion # 1-- Montreal will be Anglicized by 2016
There it is, in blue and white, between 1996 and 2006 English language usage went down from 25.6% to 25.2%, so how on God's green Earth can English possibly be primed for a takeover. There is as much chance that the Island of Montreal will become anglicized by 2016, as is the chance that the world will be destroyed in 2012.

False Conclusion # 2-- English is 5 times more attractive to immigrants as is French
 Only 37% of immigrants adopt either English or French as their new chosen language, while 63% keep on speaking their native tongue at home.
Of those who change, 60% choose English, while 40% choose French. English is hardly five times more attractive than French. This statistic is based on 2006 numbers, I recently read that in 2009, French is now being adopted by more than 50% of people in this category. The assertion that English is five times more popular is based on a totally contrived and statistically dishonest interpretation of the fact that Quebec Francophones outnumber Anglos and Allophones by five to one and therefore by virtue of that fact would be expected to choose French five times as much as English. It's nonsense.

False Conclusion # 3-- French no longer dominates Montreal
The fact that only 49% of Montrealers claim French as their mother tongue does not lead to the conclusion that the French language is in the minority. 54% of Montrealers use French as their first language, while English lags behind at 25%. In 1996 the numbers were just about the same- 55% French, versus 25% English. That's a 1% point change in ten years, hardly a game changer.  French remains more than twice as dominant as English.

Last Thursday the Quebec Minister in charge of the the language debate, Christine St-Pierre, was asked to comment on Mr. Curzi's assertions. She wisely demanded to see the report before saying anything and wondered out loud, why he was doing a media blitz while holding back the report.

It's now clear why. Had he done the media rounds with the report already published, journalists would have been able to criticise its contents. It's obvious that he didn't want that to happen.

This week the story is already old news and the media is on to the next story. The fallacy that French is in danger is successfully re-enforced by virtue of his dishonesty.

My compliments to Mr. Curzi for a well played bluff. He is another French language nationalist who twists facts and figures to suit his purpose, knowing that few will actually run down the numbers. It was a masterful move to do the interviews before allowing the report to be seen. It is also a naked confirmation, that he himself knew, how full of baloney he really was.

It repeats and re-enforces the nationalist movements long history of distortion.

The decline of the French language over the last ten years has been slight. It is directly attributed to the fifty thousand new immigrants that make Montreal their new home in each year.

The only way to stop this ever so modest decline of French in the city is to reduce immigration.
Sorry, Mr. Curzi, it has nothing to do with Anglos or the English language.

Our Public Servants at 'Work'- Volume 1

I'm happy to announce that due to the many hilarious stories in the news concerning lazy, uncaring and wasteful public and para-public employees, I'm adding a new recurring piece describing the follies of those who abuse the public purse.

Blue collar Workers Asleep on the Job.

Office workers in old Montreal were surprised to find two City of Montreal employees fast asleep in their city owned vehicle. As passerby after passerby gawked and photographed the oblivious pair, it's disquieting to know that they are earning $40 an hour during their siesta. When asked to comment about the incident, a union representative claimed that the picture only proved that the employees had their eyes closed and not necessarily that they were sleeping. LINK(Fr)

Don't Call Us- Call the Police

A Montreal women complained to a TV commentator that when her corpulent mother fell down and couldn't get up, she called paramedics to help her lift up the heavy load. After three hours of waiting with no response she phoned back Urgences Santé to complain. The dispatcher explained that she'd have to wait even longer as the call was classified as non-emergency.
Frustrated, she asked what other options she had, to which the operator told her to call the police and tell them that she had 'pushed her mother down'.  The operator assured the caller that the police, the firemen and an ambulance would be there within minutes.

20 Grand for Yoga Classes

The day after the Quebec government's tax-raising budget, 300 civil servants, employees of the Centre jeunesse de la Mauricie et du Centre-du-Québec, took advantage of an organized paid day to enjoy a program of yoga, stretching, relaxation and conferences on food and physical activity. Meeting at the Hotel Dauphin in Drummondville the outing set back the government $20,000.


Workshop in 'Silence' costs $1,400
Fifteen Managers of the L'Agence de la santé et des services sociaux de la Mauricie et du Centre-du-Québec  enjoyed an "experience of silence"at the Auberge Les Jardins in Bromont, consisting of two days and one night of silence. They were told to think about what really matters to them at this time of their lives, said Remi Tremblay, who provided the training.
Cost of this weekend cost $1,404.37 per person.

In another story, five members of the Health Agency of Montreal paid a whopping $9,385 to attend an "e-Health 2009" conference in Quebec city to learn about (...sigh) cost overruns. How the group managed to spend so much money in just three days remains a mystery.


Town of Rawdon Blows Half a Million Suing Bloggers 
After some bloggers wrote some pretty nasty things about the mayor and city council members, enough seems to be enough for the town of Rawdon. The village of 10,000 inhabitants sought an injunction to close down the web site  rawdon-qc.net which was the home of the abuse.
The Quebec Court of Appeal overturned the injunction based on freedom of speech and the whole issue is spiralling upwards.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association commented that the issue ought to be addressed pursuant to new anti-SLAPP legislation in Quebec and not left to fester until a trial date sometime in the future.
At any rate the town has blown a whopping $500,000 or 5%, of its $10 million budget on the affair. LINK

$830 for Eyeglasses charged to Community Organization 
An employee of a community organization that helps people with alcohol addiction in the Montreal suburb of  Longueuil, La maison de l’Amitié Omer  was reimbursed $ 830 for a pair of glasses, contact lenses and an eye exam. The Chairman of the organization billed $ 9,278 in meals and gasoline without any receipts. 

Expense-Padding Director's mandate extended

You might remember Marielle Poirier, the directer of Cégep de l'Outaouais, a junior college near Hull who was outed in the Journal de Montreal for expense account padding. She is renowned for taking globe-trotting trips, to attend various dubious meetings,  all on "school" business. She once expensed a purchase in a museum gift shop as a meal reimbursement, only to be caught in the lie by a reporter who revealed that there was no restaurant in the museum in question. She also claimed as an expense a tourist trip to the Grand Canyon and regularly raids the hotel min-bar and enjoys three bottle of wine dinners, all on the arm of the CEGEP.

Was she punished for any of these excesses? No! The Board of Directors of the school unanimously renewed her mandate for another five years.

Image Maker Fired  in Quebec City

A international image-maker, of dubious reputation scored a $300,000+ contract to re-define Quebec City's image. When Clotaire Rapaille made his preliminary findings, that Quebec city residents were "totally neurotic,  sado-masochistic and that they loved being abused by Anglophones, the shit really hit the fan. Mayor Regis Lebeaume was not amused to say the least and cancelled the contract, not before paying the image consultant $125,000 for his bon mots. LINK

French vs. English Volume 10

Parizeau Chooses Anglo Hospitial

Ex-PQ Premier, Jacques Parizeau is putting paid to the argument that Montreal's officially bilingual hospitals treat only Anglophones. Pulling a 'Danny Williams,' Monsieur Parizeau checked into the Jewish General Hospital for treatment for a rapid drop in blood pressure. In attack after attack, nationalist claim that the government is spending too much money on these hospitals because of the small proportion of the general population that Anglophones represent.
I'm sure that for many nationalists, Mr Parizeau's decision to seek the best medical care in an Anglo institution is somehow treasonous and a stab in the heart to the sovereignty movement. We wish Mr. Parizeau a 'prompt re-établissement' and a hearty 'Mazel Tov' on his vote of confidence.

Baby on Board Sign irks Nationalist

In one of the most moronic pieces I have ever seen published, Martin Lavallée in vigel.net  complained that a hoard of new immigrants have been seen tooling around the city of Montreal in cars with the infamous "BABY ON BOARD" sign attached to the inside of the rear window. He claims that it signals an Anglophone invasion from other parts of Canada and the United States and that the Anglos have moved into sacred Francophone territory outside the traditional Anglo bastion in the western end of Montreal. Without a shred of evidence, he builds a rant against the English based on his nonsensical fairy tale premise. He notes that all the new construction of condos and apartment buildings are being built to house an onslaught of invading Anglos.
Now there are paranoid nut cases in all communities, Anglos included, but one must ask what kind of editor, even of a nationalist web site would allow such demented ravings to be published?

Voodoo Mathematics from Striking Newsman

Perhaps being on strike from The Journal de Montreal for over a year has affected journalist  Jean-Philippe Pineault's math skills. In a piece on the striking journalists' news web site, Rue Frontenac, he draws a hilarious conclusion from a report published by separatist language critic Pierre Curzi.
The report, which most likely is another self-serving separatist creation, contends that 157 thousand immigrants chose to adopt English as their new language, while 143 thousand chose French. I don't for a minute have any faith in those numbers but notwithstanding, by my calculations it represents a 52% / 48% split.
Not so according to the writer of the article, it actually means that English is five times as popular as French!
How does the author arrive at this conclusion? Well, Francophones are five times as numerous as Anglophones, so it's natural that five times as many immigrants choose French. Because only half do and so, English is five times more popular.
I'm not making this up.....

Get that? No? 
Let me give you an analogy --- A marketing company takes a survey commissioned by PEPSI to compare it's product to COKE. The polling firm ascertains that 85% of Quebeckers prefer PEPSI, with the remaining 15% preferring COKE. It then surveys immigrants arriving to Quebec and finds that this group is split 50%-50% between products. The marketing company then goes back to PEPSI and tells the company that immigrants prefer COKE five times as much as PEPSI.
"How can you possibly  draw such a conclusion, the immigrants prefer both products equally?" asks the PEPSI representative.  "Well," answers the polling firm, "Immigrants are five times more likely to choose Coke than traditional Quebeckers and so by logical extension it is five times more popular among them."
"BUT ONLY HALF OF THEM CHOSE COKE, IDIOT! HOW COULD IT BE FIVE TIMES MORE POPULAR!!!! "screams the Pepsi executive.
"You don't understand our methodology..."

"Jewish" Court Responsible for allowing 'Kirpan' in Class

 In another rant, prolific Anglo, immigrant and non-Christan basher, Jacques Noel now refers to Canada's Supreme Court as the "Jewish" court, which he blames for ruling that the dastardly Kirpan be allowed to be worn under the clothes of religious Sikhs in schools. LINK.
It isn't so bad when his idiotic and logic twisting rants are confined to obscure sovereingist web sites,  but every now and then his nonsense spills out into the main stream media.
He is famous for twisting voodoo statistics to Quebec's advantage and has published a beaut in a letter published by LE SOLEIL.
In it he attacks Stephen Harper's plan to increase the number of Parliamentary seats to Alberta, BC and Ontario as statistically unfair.
His justification is based on the fact that while these provinces are under-represented based on population, they are not by virtue of registered voters. The fact that many are new immigrants and can't vote means that they should not be considered in determining proportional representation. Yup......

When it comes to proportional representation I bet Monsieur Noel didn't consider this fact, as pointed out by Chantal Hebert in l'Actualité.
It takes more than twice as many voters to elect a member of the NDP to Parliament as it does to elect a member of the Bloc Quebecois. Here's the breakdown of how many votes each party got divided by the members it elected.
-Bloc Québécois :      1 seat for each     28,163 votes.
-Conservatives:         1 seat for each     36,427 votes.
-Liberals :                  1 seat for each     47,184 votes.
- NDP :                      1 seat for each     67,981 votes.
- Green Party:            0 seats for all      937,613 votes.

OOOH.......