Michel Chartrand's Revisionist Image

I've never understood the convention of news reporting that holds that when reporting on the death of a public personality, the policy of speaking little or no ill of the dead be respected.

In private life we've all gone to funerals where the deceased is eulogized by a member of the clergy or by a family member and painted in the most positive and saintly light, only to have someone sitting near us mutter under his or her breath that the deceased was a right sonuvabitch, roundly despised by all. 

Perhaps it's OK in private life to fudge the truth, but when the media glosses over the bad and leave a distorted impression of the truth, it behoves others to set the record straight. That is perhaps the greatest contribution that independent bloggers can provide and no, I'm not talking about myself.

I just read one of the best pieces on the death of Quebec labour leader Michel Chartrand written by blogger Martin Masse entitled Michel Chartrand, vieux communiste, vieux fasciste (longtime communist, longtime fascist) on the libertarian site Quebecois Libre.
If you read French and are interested in an honest and not so flattering view of the life of Michel Chartrand, read the article.

Michel Chartrand, a longtime Quebec union leader died this week and has been cast in almost all editorials and obituaries as a kooky firebrand that stood up for the little guy and fought the good fight.
Even the Montreal Gazette, after quoting his virulent antisemitism;  "We don't want them(Jews) to pollute the atmosphere of this country, anymore" said;

"Extremes aside, however, Chartrand's passion for socialism and justice was genuine and unwavering." Montreal Gazette

"Extremes Aside"? Ugh!!!

Who can summarize a person's lifework, without considering his extreme views and pronouncements?

Chartrand was a rabid fascist in his youth who matured into a dogmatic left-wing Marxist communist, somebody who agitated for the overthrow of our democratic system.

"The capitalist system is based on violence and it leads inevitably to violence. Currently, the government creates more violence against the unemployed, welfare recipients, people living in slums, youth, then all the guys who plant bombs can do against the property of the bourgeoisie. " -Michel Chartrand

After spending a month in Castro's newly minted communist republic he waxed rhapsodic over what he described as paradise. He once gave a lecture in a Quebec City university extolling the virtues of Europe's most successful and desirable place to live- Albania.

He was an avid admirer of the terrorist FLQ and considered their methods justified;   

"We are going to win because there are more boys ready to shoot Members of Parliament than there are policemen." -Michel Chartrand

The only thing that remained constant in his life was his love for his wife, his devotion to the Catholic Church and his hatred of Jews and Anglos. He was married to his wife by Quebec's most famous anti-Semite Abbé Lionel Groulx and contributed articles to fascist publications. He was a member of the entourage of Canada's number one fascist, Adrien Arcand who advocated publicly to isolate all the Jews in Hudson's Bay and who advocated to model Canada under the precepts of National Socialism. (Nazism)

After giving up his fascist views, Chartrand did a 180 degree turn and became a virulent Marxist-communist, who along with other Quebec labour leaders made a serious attempt to usurp power from the elected authority in the late sixties and seventies.

He was jailed in relation to union activity during a strike in Abitibi and during the October Crisis in 1970 he was imprisoned under the provisions of the War Measures Act. He was likely one of the few jailed under the Act that actually met the criteria for internment, after a seditious speech at a rally supporting the FLQ.
He stayed in jail for a full four months, longer than any other of the internees, the government fearful that he would use the crisis to take a clear run at the elected authority.

As pointed out in the piece by Mr. Masse, these facts are conveniently left out of the puff pieces that present Mr Chartrand in a positive light and replace the truth with a convenient and revisionist version of history.

I'm sure that when the time to write Jacques Parizeau's obituary, nobody will forget to include his famous faux pas in blaming "Money and the ethnic vote" for the defeat of the sovereignty referendum. History has already judged Parizeau harshly for his isolated gaffe. Compared to Chartrand, Parizeau is a model democrat.

Mr. Chartrand is getting a free pass from the press and his place in history is being sculpted in the great tradition of Lionel Groulx.

Perhaps we'll have a Metro station named after him.

Fake Language Demonstration Really About Union Jobs

I've always been a "Doubting Thomas," forever sceptical of what is being presented in front of me, either in the print media or on television news reports.
I find myself often talking back to the television, correcting pronunciation or challenging the facts presented. I usually don't get much reaction, aside from my wife, who tells me to shut up more often than not.

It was with mouth ajar that I screened a YouTube video of a demonstration in front of Immigration Minister Yolande James' office in Montreal.
The media variously reported the crowd between several hundred and two thousand, but the reality was it numbered closer to 200.

The demonstration purported to be about the protection of the French language and the elimination of French classes for immigrants by the Ministry of Education. I'm not aware of the merits of the argument, but I assume that if French classes were cut, there was an excellent reason to do so.

The reality was that the demonstration had nothing to do with language, but rather about the thirty jobs or so, that were to be lost by the union, the Syndicat des professeurs de l'État du Québec.




Watching the video, it became evident that the whole affair was put up by teachers who recruited their students to demonstrate in their stead, under the guise of protecting the French language.

Nobody in the mainstream media pointed out the shameful pimping out of students by the teachers union.

I imagine that this type of extra-curricular activity leads to extra credit....

• At the 3:00 mark of the video a teacher is asked for a comment by a reporter and tells him she can't comment because she's a public employee, but she pushes a student in front of the microphone to speak for her.
• At 3:30 of the video, a Spanish accented student tells the camera that he came to the demonstration to speak French. His teacher, standing to one side, tells him to repeat what they practised in class!!

All the students interviewed spoke excellent French and exactly what they are doing in French language school is an open question.

The placards that the students held up were much too sophisticated for people learning French as a second language. Not many immigrants can successfully use the word 'PRECARITÉ,"(precarious) or can make a play on the two different meanings of the word "TOUR." (tower/turn)

I remember way back in Grade 10 in high school, one of my teachers spent half a period beseeching students to attend a demonstration in favour of teacher contract demands.

It was creepy and unethical then, as it is now.

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.