Pierre-Karl Peladeau Poised to Become Canada's Next Media Scion

Pierre-Karl Péladeau

With Conrad Black safely ensconced in a Federal prison in Florida, his media empire but a fading memory and coupled with the demise of the Asper family business, Canada's media moguls have all but disappeared. Like so many other business', control has morphed into the nameless and faceless blur of conglomerate anonymity.
 Most Canadians have never heard of Pierre-Karl Péladeau, but in Quebec, he is fast becoming a business superstar. P.K., as he is affectionately referred to (no, not Suban,) he is the son and heir of the media empire created by the late Pierre Péladeau who was Quebec's most powerful media tycoon of the last century. Péladeau senior was quite the character, building up his empire from scratch, living out the proverbial rags to riches story.
His first success was the creation of the Montreal daily newspaper , LE JOURNAL DE MONTREAL, which he launched during a strike at the major competition -LA PRESSE. (ironically- Le Journal de Montreal is presently on strike itself, but more later.)

A colourfully ruthless and contradictory character, Péladeau became a legend in his own time. A fervent separatist, (for a while anyway) he happily accepted entry into the Order of Canada in 1987. Racked by alcoholism and manic depression, his personal and family relationships suffered badly. His cockiness led him to shoot off his mouth all too often and he had a propensity to make injudicious remarks (which he was usually forgiven for, by the media)

Pierre Péladeau

He was quoted in a magazine article saying that Jews ''take up too much space'' in Quebec, a remark for which he later apologized. He was a shameless womanizer and once remarked that he only spoke English when he could make money. READ MORE.

His rocky personal life, no doubt contributed to his daughter Anne-Marie's descent into hell, a life-long drug-addicted fog that left her estranged from the family. She has lived the past two decades in and out of rehab, only to return to the streets each time to a life of more drugs and petty crime to finance her addiction. Effectively cut off from the family, she sued her brothers for 21 million in inheritance and reached an undisclosed settlement.
She earned her fifteen minutes of fame when she was filmed (ironically by  a Péladeau owned TV station) by a news helicopter, getting beaten up  while resisting arrest by police, who had been chasing her car after she had fled the scene of an armed robbery. You can see a video of the incident,  HERE.

When Pierre Péladeau died, he left assets that generated revenues of almost seven billion dollars a year, but it wasn't a particularly rosy picture, as the printing business was going downhill with the emergence of the electronic world.

Pierre-Karl's first years at the helm of the business were not pretty. He was forced to declare bankruptcy in his premier asset, Quebecor World and it seemed for a while that the younger Péladeau may not have had the right stuff.
But like a true media baron he rebounded spectacularly and today runs a diversified empire that includes jewels like Sun Media (newspapers,) Videotron (Cable TV, Internet, Wireless)  and TVA (television stations, film production,).

Pierre has developed a ruthlessness that would certainly make daddy proud.

He locked out writers at his two flagship newspapers LE JOURNAL DE MONTREAL and the  JOURNAL DE QUEBEC in a pay dispute that has now been going on for over a year. The usually savvy writers badly underestimated the determination of Péladeau to not only win but to destroy their union as well.
The newspapers haven't stopped publishing, in fact they are thriving, using a loophole in Quebec's anti-scab law which forbids replacement workers from entering the company premises to take over the work previously provided by strikers.
Laughably, the scabs send in their material to editors via the Internet, a practice that was upheld as legal on several occasions in Quebec court, the law clearly out of date, in an electronic age. The striking workers have launched an alternative news website called Rue Frontenac, but for them, the writing is on the wall and they may soon fade into the sunset, reminiscent of the "Gars de Lapalme."

With success and confidence Péladeau is becoming more politically assertive and has openly called into question several Quebec sacred cows, including unionism.
In an open letter that he published in his newspaper he  attacked the lofty and protected position of Quebec's labour movement.

"...we need to question the imbalance all the legislation of the past decades has created between employers and unions, an imbalance which has and continues more than ever to handicap Quebec businesses in the context of an increasingly globalized economy."  Read more translated English excerpts from Macleans  or the complete original French version HERE.

Péladeau has shocked Canada's staid and established media by proposing the creation of a FOX NEWS conservative-type of all-news channel, to be called SUN NEWS TV, to be launched January as an alternative source for news, to counter what he perceives as the liberal bent of the national media.

The project has come under a storm of criticism from defenders of the status quo, including Don
Newman, who attacked the concept as "The absolute last thing this country needs."

Should the project come off, it's no doubt that Péladeau will become a household name across Canada, similar to that of Rupert Murdoch and that he will use the platform to raise his profile à la Donald Trump.
Péladeau is carefully cultivating an image of an arrogant conservative business tycoon, complete with a trophy partner on his arm, Julie Snyder, a Quebec television personality.   As his image expands, so do the opportunities. Reputation and myth go a long way to creating credibility and for a Quebecker, conquering Bay street as well as the business world is of primordial importance.
With the field clear of contenders, Péladeau is making a run to becoming Canada's most powerful and important media mogul. He just might do it.

Offending English Sign Contest Fizzles

One of the recurring themes of radical French language groups is that the Province of Quebec is being overrun by an army of English and immigrant scofflaws, bent on turning the pure and chaste Francophone landscape into a quagmire of English filth.

This contrived narrative is promulgated by a coterie of hysterical radicals bent on raising a false panic in order to hype a nonexistent scenario that describes the imminent decline and fall of French Quebec.
Although the idea that English signage is on the upswing and supplanting French is patently absurd, it is an idea that has gained traction, even in the non-radical community.  Anybody who has lived in Quebec and Montreal in particular for an extended period can attest that English signage is becoming as rare as a hen's tooth.
Even in Anglo towns, where the English population number upwards of 70%, signs are almost uniformly French, notwithstanding that the law allows for English as well (albeit in a smaller format)

Repeating a big lie over and over again is a tried and true formula for conditioning people to believe what is not true.
And so we hear each day that English signs are everywhere, that the situation is getting worse and worse and that the  Office québécois de la langue française is useless and cannot or will not confront the evil law-breakers.
Soon Quebec will become Anglicized....blah....blah...blah.

The Mouvement Montréal français, a radical French language group is one of the biggest promoters of this idea and in consequence has invited readers to send in examples of these illegal signs and advertisements to their web site, where they are dutifully published. The organization promises some sort of reward to the best of submissions but so far, the pickings have been decidedly slim.

It seems that even this radical group of burning language zealots cannot produce much content. After several weeks the site has posted just fifty-three examples of offensive material.
See the complete collection of offending material HERE.

Some of the examples are not even violations of the law and many are downright stupid or hilarious!

Here's some of my favourites;

Complaint Numbers 1& 2

Companies that use their corporate names on the door are especially bothersome to radicals when the name is clearly English. This practice has remained a bone of contention among militants who want all names translated into something more 'French.' By the way, the practice doesn't contravene the language law.

Complaint Numbers 11

A Westmount street sign is cited for not having  RUE or AVE under the name MELVILLE. But there's no English either, it just says MELVILLE.

  Complaint Numbers 14

In an attempt to be inclusive and demonstrate an openness towards minorities, a Caisse Populaire was denounced for placing signs saying WELCOME in many different languages.

Complaint Numbers 25

The Montreal Alouettes  were chided for having Westmount Movers as one of their sponsors. The complaint was that there was too much English in the name, again, something completely within the law. The Montreal Gazette was also cited for promoting  an English language Alouette fan web site. I'm  not sure what the complainer wants,  the English newspaper to run its web site in French  or to advertise the English web site in French?

 Complaint Numbers 26

An English only sign, pasted on a Université de Montreal door got somebody's dander up. The sign described a meeting of the 'Pattern Review' group, which after a bit of research, I determined was a an American sewing club based in Massachusetts. Apparently the group came up to Montreal for a fun weekend and rented out some meeting space from the school. Perhaps they should have hired an interpreter. Worse still, they probably ran their whole meeting in English. Call out the stormtroopers!!!

 Complaint Numbers 53

Another Caisse Populaire was the target of a complaint because a flat screen TV showed an English message. What the complainer failed to consider was that the TV toggled between English and French.

 Of the 53 complaints 13 sprung from one source, a Greek telephone directory, destined for a community that speaks  English and Greek almost exclusively. The multiple complaints were submitted by resident Anglo Basher Louis Prefontaine, who led the intrepid  pack with 17 of the 53 complaints, followed by a certain Gaetan Ledoux who complained ten times. Between the two of them, they submitted over half the complaints and as I said previously, it seems that the pickings of offending material is decidedly slim.

"While we obsess over the legality of the language of  signage, Montreal English speakers  are taking the city, district by district, based on institutional  bilingualism imposed on us by our cowardly politicians.  They are laying the foundations of a future Anglophone metropolis in the heart of Quebec, dispossessed of it's native  language."  Louis Prefontaine, Quebec language zealot.

In another complaint which had nothing to do with signage, the borough mayor of NDG was chastised for speaking to a Filipino group in English without the requisite French.  Of course Filipinos are closely aligned to the English community and speak English at home, even if their children are forced into French schools.

At any rate, many of the signs weren't even illegal at all and some of the complaints were so petty that it would be funny if not so sad.

I've already written two pieces about the The Myth of the Anglicization of Montreal  nonsense HERE and HERE.


By the way, I'm thinking of submitting this picture of an English sign which I snapped last year in the window of a government-owned SAQ, blatantly flaunting the language law.


Perhaps I can win a prize? Are Anglos even eligible?

Whadda think?

Brainwashing of Students Spilling Over to Anglophone Side?

Before I went on vacation I wrote a piece concerning our English school board's inclusion of some very disturbing questions on a grade ten final exam, questions that most Anglos would agree were highly inappropriate and which evinced some indignant reaction from readers.

To date, the school boards involved haven't apologized and the matter seems to have blown over. It's typical of our English community to bitch and moan for a while, but in the end, take no concrete steps to protect our rights. Unfortunately we have demonstrated a history of acquiescence, a trait not lost on our elected politicians who quite rightly take our Anglo votes for granted.

In a Montreal Gazette article entitled, Grade 10 exam smells like propaganda, describing the fiasco, freelance writer Jim Wilson reminds us;

"If you have misgivings with this type of exam, make your views known, and call your school board or school. Ask whether they approve of this exam and are they planning to take any action so it doesn't happen again."

So how many of us heeded his advice? .......Precious few, I imagine.

That is why we as a community have been rolled over. We deserve it.

Brainwashing children with state inspired dogma is something we expect in countries like  North Korea or Venezuela, not Canada. We assume our schools keep away from biased political messages and stick to teaching critical thinking instead. For many years we have seen this principle violated on the Francophone side of the education equation, but never believed our Anglo schools would stoop to deliver a state sanctioned political message. It's sad that we have reacted so passively.

Can it be that the brainwashing taking place in Francophone schools is actually spilling over onto the English side?  If so, it's a scary idea.

Here's a reproduction of a quiz given to Francophone students over a decade ago, so if you think opinion shaping in Francophone schools is a new phenomenon, you're sadly mistaken.

It was graciously submitted by MITCH, a reader who must be a bit of a pack rat to have kept it for so long!

I'm including the original article (in English)  and the quiz itself (in French). I've added an English translation of the questions.

French Quiz

1. I allow others to call me by an English nickname or call others an English nickname.
2. I complain when a product ticket doesn't contain French
3. I mostly listen to English language radio.
4. I don't like the use of Anglicisms
5. I speak English to Francophones
6. I demand to be served in French.
7. I rent English movies
8. I speak French to immigrants.
9. I mostly read newspapers, magazines and books in English
10. I  speak only French at home
11. I have an English message on my telephone answering machine
12. I believe workers have the right to work in French
13. I don't complain when instructions aren't offered in French
14. I mostly consume cultural products in French
15. I send or receive greeting cards that aren't in French
16. I believe that an employer who cannot serve a customer in French is unacceptable
17. I wear hats or sweaters with messages other than French
18. I address Anglophones in French
19. I mostly watch English television
20. I speak French at work.
21. I find it acceptable to receive a pamphlet, catalogue or brochure in English
22. I work to improve my French
23. I don't believe an employer should be forced to communicate written instructions to employees in French
24. According to me, French is the official language of Quebec.
25. I mostly listen to American music  

Students are advised to score one point for every even numbered question that they answered TRUE and one point for every odd-question answer they answered FALSE.

Students who score less than fourteen points are admonished that it is time to reflect on their linguistic attitude . Hmmm...

Perhaps they should be sent to a post Vietnam war type re-education camp or a Quebec version of the Russian Gulag.

So it seems that brainwashing has been going on for quite some time in Francophone schools and that the present generation has been subjected to a propaganda onslaught that teaches the very simple fact that embracing English is evil.

Incredibly, it seems that Anglophone students are now being subjected to political indoctrination as well.

On June 19th, an anonymous reader commented (Yes I read all comments...:)

"I work for the EMSB. Every school has its resident Francophone seperatist teachers. I still can't understand how or why these individuals are hired especially since they make their political views known in their classrooms and pin up the entire place with nationalistic propaganda." 

I don't know if this is true (it sounds likely), but I sure wish that this reader would elaborate. It sounds like a most interesting story and it would be useful to hear an insider's perspective.

Some Things Never Change!

Returning home from my European vacation, I'm anxious to get back to work and look forward to returning to this blog and completing the book that I am presently writing.

Most bloggers stop writing not so much because they get bored with the project, but rather because they run out of things to say.

I can tell that as a writer concentrating on the Anglo condition here in Quebec, I don't think I'll ever have this problem.

Deplaning from my flight from Barcelona and stepping out onto the curb of Trudeau airport awaiting my lift home, I was greeted by a union van, circling the airport arrival area, kitted out to protest a language issue at a bus company.
I'm not making this up, I swear!

In Quebec, the language of work is French!

No, I don't think I'll ever run out of material!!!

It's Good To Be Home!

It's a truism that the best part of any vacation is returning home to family, friends and be it ever so humble, the delicious familiarity of one's very own bed.
If one is fortunate enough to live in a country such as Canada, travel helps remind us that we live in one of the very best places in the world. That isn't the rube in me talking, it's just a plain fact, as underlined in all those United Nation surveys placing Canada near the top of the list of countries to live in. Alas, but for the weather, our little big corner of the world would truly be a paradise!

I have been gone these last two weeks, sailing the Mediterranean with my lovely wife aboard a massive cruise ship that shlepped us from port to port in a gruelling schedule which included eight ports of call in five countries over twelve days.

While I shall not impose on your kind attention, a painful dose of travel stories and boring vacation photos, I will share those pictures and anecdotes that I believe you may find the least bit interesting. At any rate it will buy me a day or two to catch up on my RSS reading and get back to the fine business of commenting on local issues.

After flying to Barcelona and touring for a day, we boarded our ship and set sail for our first port of call- Nice, France. Little was I to know that it would be the highlight destination of our trip.  We spent the day walking up and down the famous seaside boulevard, the Promenade des Anglais, (named after the English who built it) which runs along  the beach, opposite the storied hotels and casinos of the famous Cote D'Azur town. There is a certain ambiance to the town that is indescribable, suffice to say that we thoroughly enjoyed our day!

I haven't been back there in many years and was thoroughly disappointed to find that the very French custom of topless sunbathing is no longer in vogue. The lack of this distraction caused me to notice (which I hadn't on my previous visit) that the beach consists of nothing more than a huge mass of rocks and pebbles, leading to what must be, a most unpleasant beach experience, unfortunately to be re-lived in much of the destinations we were to visit in Italy and the Greek Isles. Yech!

 As I mentioned, we had already vacationed in the picturesque town years before and had already seen the few sights that there are to see. So we set off to pay tribute to the finest of local shrines, the CHANEL BOUTIQUE on Rue Paradis (where we purchased a very expensive, ahem ...relic.)

Having made a very successful start to fulfilling two of the four basic vacation precepts (touring, sunbathing, gorging and shopping,) we then ambled down the very touristy Rue Massena where I snapped the following photo montage.
It seems that the French are not quite as afraid of English as are our native Quebeckers. Many signs are bilingual and some are completely in English, unapologetically catering to the international clientèle.  It was quite surprising to see signs posted in France which would be illegal in Quebec! My favourite 'pancarte' was a tongue in cheek signboard in front of a cosmetics store that proclaimed that they only tested their products "Sur les Anglais." Tres Drole!
Lo and behold, I found a restaurant called "LE QUEBEC" which proudly announced itself as a "STEAK HOUSE." How deliciously ironic! Perhaps they are unfamiliar with the infamous LOI 101!

A restaurant named "Quality Burger Restaurant" would likely come under a 'Sleep Country Canada' language assault, would it be located in our fair province! Even the tiny town of Villefranche-Santé unabashedly welcomed visitors bilingually.

On our drive back to the port, the taxi driver recounted a most interesting story. He was complaining that he was forced to co-sign for a rental apartment for his ex-wife and daughter, as well as putting up a hefty deposit. It seems that evicting a deadbeat single mother from  an apartment in France is a time consuming and exasperating affair, lasting up to eighteen months, a period wherein where the landlord receives no rent. So apparently, it was explained to us, that it has become the convention of landlords to demand quite a bit of security before renting to the aforementioned dreaded single mom.  Our intrepid driver explained that he himself was embroiled in just such a dispute, related to his personal condo that he had rented out to exactly some such 'undesirable'. When I asked how he could afford to receive no rent for such a protracted period of time, he explained that he had purchased insurance for the eventuality. Incredible!
And we think our rental board is dysfunctional, HA!

We returned to the friendly confines of our cabin aboard the ship, upbeat and hopeful that the rest of the ports of call would be as interesting and exciting as Nice.
Alas it was not to be ......

Tomorrow I shall impose one last time on your patience to recount the rest of our cruise experience and return on Wednesday to the burning issues at hand, so please bear with me.