Wiliam 'Pit Bull' Johnson Tells It Like It Is

There' s an old adage that says that Truth is the first casualty of war and  it certainly applies in the continuing saga of misinformation, twisted and misinterpreted facts and figures bandied about by national groups 'proving' that English is taking over Quebec and that the French language and Francophone culture is going the way of the Dodo bird.  Back in May I wrote a piece about a newspaper story that reported on a  study that put forward the fact that Francophones now made more money on average than Anglophones.
The story made little sense and seemed poorly researched, likely using questionable methodology. Read my piece about the problems I had with the research.
Now nationalists are hitting back with research of their own proving and complaining that the research was flawed. A mathematician, Charles Castonguay, in a story on vigile.net  criticized the methodology of  Jack Jedwab, executive director of the Association of Canadian Studies, a non-profit think tank.
I tend to agree that the study was junk and as a consequence it didn't do the Anglo community any good by stooping to the same dishonest methods used by nationalists to manipulate numbers.

At any rate I never trust these types of studies put out by partisan parties. Things like milk companies providing studies that show children who drink their product in the morning do better in school or tabacco companies providing data that second hand smoke is nothing to worry about. Sure.......

William Johnson has been an outstanding spokesman for the English  community for several decades. His superbly researched articles are devastatingly to the point and exposes head on, the lies and half-truths promulgated by the the French nationalist movement. His tenacious attacks have led to his nickname - William "Pitt Bull" Johnson

His latest article appeared in The Montreal Gazette on June 14, 2009;

A simple fix for panic over threat to French: a reality check

The government of Jean Charest is enacting a new law to further strangle English schooling in Quebec. But a coalition including the Parti Quebecois, the Bloc Quebecois, and the New Democratic Party denounced the bill last Monday on the grounds that it doesn't go far enough.

They all signed a statement calling on the Quebec government to invoke the "notwithstanding" clause of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to override what the Supreme Court of Canada declared last October to be a constitutional right: to have access to English public schooling after demonstrating a serious commitment to the English language while attending an unsubsidized English school.

Monday, NDP leader Jack Layton was asked during a scrum: "Is this merely the position of Mr. (Outremont MP Thomas) Mulcair or is it the party's?" Layton answered: "No, no, it's the position of the party."

Under Jack Layton, the NDP increasingly aligns its policies on language and secession with those of the two separatist parties....

Out of respect for the Montreal Gazette's copyright, Click here to continue reading this article

Holier-than-Thou Opposition Demands Israel Censure

A while back, Quebec opposition parties, led by the Iranian born Muslim separatist member of Quebec Parliament, Amir Khadir, demanded that the National Assembly table a motion condemning Israel for the attack on the Gaza bound flotilla which aimed to bust the Israeli embargo. As we all know, up to a dozen resisters were killed when they clashed with Israeli commandos who boarded their ship.
Now I'm not getting into a debate on the merits of the Israeli raid, but it seems to me that if Mr. Khadir is to condemn Israel, he should be an equal opportunity censurer. I don't recall Mr. Khadir demanding that North Korea be cited for killing 46 sailors in a recently unprovoked attack on a South Korean Navy boat sailing in international waters and I haven't heard the good doctor call for an official condemnation of the government of his own native homeland of Iran, for the killing of dozens and dozens of  protesters who were demonstrating peacefully against a rigged presidential election.
Me wonders why?

Enough.. The Israeli attack is not the gist of this post, it is about the high and mighty attitude we take and the perception that we Quebeckers are somehow better than the 'barbaric' Israelis. This piece is not about Israel, it's about us.

Such things could never happen in Quebec, right?
We're too civilized, right?
We're too conciliatory and would never resort to violence, right?

I came across a video that is quite interesting which I'd like to share with you, but first some background.

Back in the summer of 1990 Mohawk Indians on a reservation in Oka near the town of St. Eustache got into a dispute over a land claim over an unoccupied  tract of land of just nine acres, that the city was about to turn into a golf course.

As disputes go, I think you'll agree that it can't hold a candle to the disagreement between Palestinians and Israelis.
The Mohawks set up a roadblock blocking a crummy dirt construction road, that gave access to the site and a confrontation ensued when the arrogant mayor of the hick town of Oka asked the police to intervene.

Now the Indians weren't launching homemade missiles or sending suicide bombers into the local Tim Horton's. They simply barricaded a road. Those living near the reservation didn't have to build a safe room in the basements or walk in fear in the streets that death would rain down upon them from the sky.
But the confrontation escalated into a major fight with positions hardening on both sides. The police tried to storm the barricade and in the ensuing melee, an officer of the Surete de Quebec was killed.

The army was called in and the situation degenerated.
Sounds like a rather stupid fight over an empty field, in hindsight, right?

The Israeli's would laugh. They'd tell us to give the Indians the empty land, it 's no big deal. Nobody is trying to take over your country. Nobody is trying to kill you. One half of a lousy golf course is all it takes to defuse a situation that has already cost one life and is costing the country millions of dollars.

But no, for we Quebeckers, it was the principle of the thing and the sentiment of the day was not to give an inch.

As the debate grew nasty, the federal MP for Chateauguay observed that all the natives in Quebec should be shipped off to Labrador "if they wanted their own country so much". Radio hot lines hosts, including renowned Anglo hater  Gilles Proulx, were spewing racial invective and some were demanding that the authorities attack the Indians. (Mohawks speak English and are viewed by Francophones as 'English' Indians.) Hatred spewed forth in forms unseen in living memory.

And so it seems that in the right wrong circumstances, we Quebeckers are not as a conciliatory bunch as we claim!

If a road closure got us so steamed up I can only imagine what would be if a suicide bomber walked into Place St. Eustache and detonated a bomb killing ten to twenty people. What if rockets landed in the middle of a residential neighbourhood in Chateauguay on an ongoing basis? What if the Indians threatened more and more deadly attacks and what if they demanded that we give back all the land which they claim, was theirs to begin with.
Do you think we might ask the army to blockade the reserves and make sure no weapons got in?  Do you think we might ask the police to patrol the river and stop and inspect all boats headed into the reservations? Maybe we'd launch  our very own version of 'CAST LEAD"
Just asking......

But let's not daydream.
The  natives didn't do any of that. All they wanted was their nine acres back and so - back to the story.

Mohawks of the  Kahnawake, reservation on Montreal's south shore blocked the Mercier bridge in solidarity with Kanesatake, pissing off residents of Chateauguay.
Now things were getting serious. The bridge is a major link between the island of Montreal and the South shore, including the large community of Chateauguay. The closure meant an hour or two of extra commuting and in the summer heat, emotions exploded.

At the blocked bridge crowds spewed racial hatred at the natives and radio commentators urged military action. The crowd wanted blood and the atmosphere rivalled the  bloodlust of the legendary Roman Coliseum.
When the bridge blockade was finally ended the natives made their way down from the bridge through the old Whiskey Trench, a stretch of sunken road so-named for the old Seagrams plant that sat alongside. As the natives made their way through, the locals attacked from above, not only with racial epitaphs but with rocks as well.

Watch the video;

And so Mr. Khadir wants to censure the Israelis.
My question is this, who's going to censure us?

It seems that the Israelis are capable of a lot more restraint than us. I know they wouldn't go to war over an empty lot.
We did.

How does the old saying go?
Let he without sin cast the.........

English School Boards Defend Promoting Quebec Nationalism

Making a collective gaffe is something that no organization is immune from, but when it happens, it's generally a shock to the upper management. Sometimes defending the indefensible seems like a better option than admitting the mistake quite publicly and working towards repairing the damage. 

Every single organization is vulnerable to the big gaffe, it's bound to happen even with the best intentions. But how an organization deals with adversity, is what separates the good from the bad and today, our Quebec English school boards are demonstrating,  how very, very, bad they are.

You might  remember the disastrous launch of "New Coke" back in 1985, when the company replaced the old familiar taste of Americas favourite drink with a newer and  supposedly 'younger' edition.  As marketing strategies go, it couldn't have been a bigger fiasco. The public was so outraged that the company fiddled with a familiar friend that the pressure to return to the old product was unbearable.

The company had staked its future on the new product  and had invested heavily. Initially trying to  ride out the storm, the company finally realized that they'd have to do the unthinkable. Abandon ship.

On July 11, Coca-Cola withdrew New Coke from stores. “We did not understand the deep emotions of so many of our customers for Coca-Cola,” said company President Donald R. Keough.

A Montreal Gazette editorial on June 12, revealed that Grade ten students in English school boards were subjected to exam questions that would make the hair crawl on any bone fide Anglo Quebecker.

Of the four questions to be answered, the first question required the student to write a paragraph and to "make an observation about some vision as Quebec as a nation."
 The second asks the student to "formulate three questions about some vision of Quebec as a nation."
The third question has a diagram that is to be completed by listing four examples of;
a) "What makes Quebec distinct?" and
b) "How can Quebec protect its distinct status?"
The exam's final issue is "Justify your opinion on protecting Quebec's distinct society," and requires the student to produce a two-page essay on: "Will the recognition of Quebec as a nation help protect Quebec's distinct society?"

Yikes!!!!!
If you are assuming that these questions were rammed down the throat of school boards by the government, you'd be wrong.
The questions were formulated by the English school boards themselves, if you can believe it.
There was a shit storm of controversy on the English language radio talk shows with parents and students themselves howling at the inappropriateness of the question.

On June 16th in a letter to the Montreal Gazette, a parent wondered;

"Will students fail the exam because they have the intelligence to answer the question logically? Will all English students who failed the exam be forced to attend summer school because they did not answer the questions according to the doctrine of the Quebec government? LINK

How did the school boards react? By circling the wagons and defending the indefensible. Yup, they are trying to ride out the controversy, instead of admitting the blunder.

One official offered that the questions were based on the Prime Minster's recognition that Quebec is a distinct society.

An angry caller pointed out that the Prime Minister did nothing of the sort. He reminded listeners that the Prime Minister recognized Quebeckers as a distinct society, not the Province of Quebec.

Much fury on the radio hot lines ensued.

One mother was torn between telling her son to suck it up and just give the politically correct answer that will get him into  Cegep,  or to defy the authority by rejecting the very premises of the questions.
Tough call.
The school  boards aren't making it easy by stupidly defending their indefensible position. It's no wonder our English school boards have a reputation for dysfunction.

Perhaps it's time for board members to to be reminded of the story of  New Coke..

Marc Bellemare Starting to look Unbalanced

A few days ago Marc Bellemare gave an interview on a French language all-news station telling all who would listen that he has no intention of testifying before the Bastarache Commission, looking into his express allegations that Premier Charest and the Liberal party exercised undo influence on the selection of judges while he was justice minister. Mr. Bellemare also stated that he would fight any subpoena, based on his opinion that the Commission is biased, a position that legal experts agree is un-winnable.

I've spoken to Liberal insiders, at the very highest levels who have told me that in no uncertain terms that Bellemare is off his rocker.
His allegations stunned the party and the Premier in particular who swears that the two left on good terms. That's their story.

But what prompted his outburst years later remains a mystery. Nobody, and Bellemare in particular has explained it.

When Bellemare first made his allegations the press embraced the story with open arms, after all, it was good press and fit in nicely with the ongoing controversy over ethics in the Premier's office.

But after the initial hoopla, certain members of the press did  what they do best, investigate the veracity of what was being presented as fact.

Jeam Lapierre, one of Quebec's finest political analysts (he was a member of Paul Martins's cabinet, before quitting) was visibly perturbed with Bellemare's lack of forthrightness. He offered an on-air opinion that it was high time for the ex-justice minister to 'put up or shut up.'

Lapierre also took exception to the blistering attack that Bellemare made on Justice Michel Bastarache who is heading the commission. 

"I don't have confidence that Mr. Bastarache has the impartiality or the intellectual and moral liberty to go so far as to say that Mr. Charest lied, and if he doesn't have that capacity, in my opinion he is not impartial,"
"If commissioner Bastarache says that Jean Charest lied, that means what? It means the end of the government, the end of Jean Charest's career. Do you think Mr. Bastarache has that intellectual liberty?" - Marc Bellemare

Bellemare then cast more aspirations on the commission head by pointing out that he is a member of a law firm closely linked to the government.

Not even the Parti Quebecois would dare go so far as to call an ex-Supreme Court Justice unfit and it is looking more and more that Bellemare is getting cold feet.

Given the aggressiveness that Premier Charest is going after Bellemare, it seems that the Premier is absolutely convinced that Bellemare is either lying or unable to prove his allegations.

Mr. Bellemare is starting to look familiarly like Myriam Bédard, the ex-Olympian that rocked the political world with her allegations that she was fired from her VIA Rail job because she raised objections concerning the corporation's dealings with a firm involved in the Sponsorship scandal. She became quite a personality and testified before Parliament making all sorts of allegations. The reaction from the brass at VIA rail was to depict her in various unflattering terms, an unwise decision which led to the sacking of then President of the crown corporation, Jean Pelletier.

But months later it became quite evident that Ms. Bédard had several screws loose, as she continued to make statements that were bizarre, to say the least.

"...she claimed that she had been told that Groupaction was involved in drug trafficking, that her partner Nima Mazhari had personally convinced Prime Minister Chrétien to keep Canada out of the war in Iraq, and that Québécois race car legend Jacques Villeneuve had been paid $12 million to wear a Canadian flag on his uniform." Wikipedia

In 2007, she was found  guilty of child abduction (for violation of a child custody agreement) when she took her child  to Washington DC, without permission, where she was arrested by U.S Marshalls.
 
Her common law husband Nima Mazhari was also convicted in 2007 of fraud. A Quebec City judge described him as a "liar" and a "manipulator," and sent him to jail for six months for bilking an elderly artist out of $100,000 in paintings.

Jean Pelletier later sued the government for wrongful dismissal in relation to his firing in the Bédard affair and won a $400,000 settlement.

We may just be witnessing another saga of similar proportions.

Who knows?
But a lot of people are starting to wonder about the sanity of Marc Bellemare.

World Cup Soccer---Bah Humbug!

Having just witnessed another fantastic NHL hockey playoff come to an end, and now watching the hoopla surrounding the World Cup of Soccer in South Africa, I cannot escape the feeling that, well quite simply, soccer is one boring experience!

Much as I've tried over the years to get into the game of soccer, I just can't. The sad truth is that as a spectator sport, soccer plainly sucks.

Now before you get off on a rant and tell me that it's the most popular sport in the world, let me say that, in and of itself, that fact is wholly unimpressive.

Rice is the most popular food in the world, but I wouldn't sing its praises either.

Soccer is the most popular sport in the world simply because it appeals to the poor. That is why over one quarter of a billion people participate.

One ball and an open space is all it takes. As for rules, any idiot can catch on quickly, kick the ball into the net and score a point, most points wins.  For most nations, soccer is the only recreational sport that the country can afford to support and so soccer balls are provided for recreation in refugee camps, slums, poor villages and neighbourhoods across the entire world. In fact if you're in Liberia, you can even kick around a human skull, failing a ball. It makes perfect sense that soccer has a world-wide appeal, but it doesn't make it a great game.

Soccer suffers from some very basic and fundamental flaws. First and foremost is its LACK OF SCORING. Last Friday's opening World Cup matches yielded a grand total of two goals between the two games - not very exciting.

Not only is the lack of scoring a problem, but the LACK OF SCORING OPPORTUNITIES make the game almost impossible to sit through. It's a rare game that has more than six or seven scoring chances that get fans out of their seats, compared to a hockey where an average of between thirty and forty shots are directed at the net, each game. The reality of all this is that fans have to get rip-roaring drunk to sit through the tedium of a soccer match.  And so many drunken mobs of SOCCER HOOLIGANS roam the streets before and after matches with the stated goal of causing mayhem and destruction. Anything to make the soccer experience more exciting.

Soccer invented the the term 'NIL' to replace the word 'zero' to somehow denote that not scoring a goal is some sort of an achievement. An English fan once explained to me that soccer is a game of anticipation, not action. Arghhh....

Of course soccer has not come to grips with the fact that TIED GAMES (DRAWS) ARE A COLOSSAL BORE. Every other major sport in the world has figured out a tie-breaking formula and while soccer does use the 'Golden Goal" formula sometimes, the preliminary rounds have already provided the dreaded 'Kissing your sister' result all too often.


THE FIELD IS WAY TOO BIG, it takes so long to get to the opposing goal that almost all the time is wasted in the neutral field. For fans in the stands, it's a snooze-a-thon, players look like Lilliputians  and even when an exciting play is executed, hardly anyone notices.

The large field leads to inept refereeing, the officials are almost always too far away to get the call right, leading to comically bad decisions that affect the outcome of the match all too often.

In fact referees are so far away from the action that players have perfected the sickening art of diving, or faking, to the point that the very integrity of the game is in jeopardy.

Take a look at this video of soccer's finest, doing their thing.

Sickening!

How can any parent encourage their children to grow up and emulate a bunch of dishonest pansies, who flop around the field like beached whales, trying to cheat without any scruples or embarrassment.

When referees occasionally do catch someone diving, the player is given the ubiquitous yellow flag, or a warning, instead of being kicked off the field immediately. So diving pays.

Of course soccer refuses to use video replays to aid in making crucial decisions as compared to NHL hockey and American and Canadian football. The use of video review in sport has made the games infinitely fairer and yes, even more exciting.

Had any sort of video review been used, France would have had the most famous 'hand goal' reversed in its preliminary game with Ireland.

 The reputation of professional  soccer is set to take a stunning hit as allegations of widespread game-fixing are surfacing. Perhaps soccer with it's less than genius fan base can survive this type of scandal, but I can imagine the reaction in North America of the news that players of a professional team threw a game deliberately.
Even the slightest whiff of impropriety brings down the wrath of the league on any miscreant, just ask Pete Rose.

Investigative journalist Declan Hill, who authored The Fix: Soccer and Organized Crime, says match-fixing in professional soccer is organized primarily through the multi-billion-dollar illegal Asian gambling market and is widespread. Ecchhh!.  Link

Aside from all this, it boils down to the fact that soccer remains uninteresting to those not born into the game. Although easy enough to understand, soccer has little appeal to native born North Americans, who shun the game despite the best efforts of promoters to hawk the game.

North America's most important professional soccer league draws an average of just 16,000 per game and is heavily dependent on foreign immigrants as a fan base.

The world cup or "Mundial' is a time for North American immigrants to flaunt their national pride by flying flags on their cars and cheering for the home team in ethnic bars and restaurants. If you live in Toronto and Montreal or any city with a sizable immigrant population, you're now being treated to wildly enthusiastic display of support and adoration for the old country.

To all of you, I say, Enjoy!

Native Canadians will be sipping beer by the pool or cottage,  contemplating the upcoming NHL free agent bonanza on July 1st and the NHL draft.

As for the world Cup of Soccer. zzzzzzzzzzzzz.