In Quebec, The Fix Is Always In

If we can learn anything from the recent awarding of the untendered Montreal metro car contract, it's that when push comes to shove, in Quebec, the fix is always in. LINK

Historically, this dirty business of fixing contracts, has almost always been conducted behind closed doors, beyond public scrutiny and media purview. But backed into a corner by the courts and a clearly superior foreign bid, the Liberal government decided to brazen it out, the prize just too big to give away to outsiders.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the shameful betrayal of fair and free trade is the fact that the government knew it could count on the opposition to support its 'Quebec 1st' policy because in the end, Quebec politicians of every stripe believe in the same thing, which is fair trade when Quebec is advantaged and protectionism when it is not.
Even the conservative Action democratique and the ultra left wing Quebec solidaire parties voted with the Parti Quebecois and the government to unanimously pass a law that bypassed the tender process to reward another Quebec company, Bombardier, with an uncompetitive contract.

In fact, the very best excuse for voting for the bill came from our good friend Amir Khadir, who actually praised Bombardier,(usually a foil for separatists and leftists) as good corporate citizen who "respects our laws, the environment, pays its taxes and respects our language."

Karl Marx must be spinning in his grave.

"Quebec solidaire agrees with the protection of quality jobs in Quebec's regions,"  

 -Montreal Gazette

Mr. Khadr is right about one thing, if there's anything that Quebeckers know a thing or two about, it's protection and price-fixing.

These dirty practices predate the sovereignist movement and the rise of big government, so the Maclean's article which cited those reasons for the extreme level of corruption in Quebec is clearly wrong. 

Perhaps that was the major flaw of the piece, coming to unsupportable and faulty conclusions. 

It left Quebec apologists an easy out, they quickly pounced on the author's mistake in over-reaching and allowed them to once more pull out the old chestnut of 'Quebec-bashing.'

Yes, even before separatists and big government existed, corruption was part and parcel of the Quebec landscape. Back in the day, the partisan nature of government contracts was so pervasive that it reached down to the lowly contracts for snow removal on public highways where political loyalties were the over-riding consideration. Contractors were designated either 'red' or 'blue' and winning a contract was more dependent on the government of the day, than the price of the bid.

The powerful agricultural lobby has always worked with compliant politicians to artificially raise prices  by creating 'floor' prices for such staples as butter and milk. Until a couple of years ago the industry kept margarine from being coloured yellow, ostensibly to avoid confusion between it and the real McCoy, butter. So fierce was this protection that the government actually raided a Wal-Mart that dared sell yellow margarine imported from another province.

To this day, in Montreal, you can hardly visit a new car dealer on the week-end, as the industry colludes to keep their doors closed and keep weekends free for employees. Dealers who have opposed this prohibition, have suffered assorted 'bad luck," like rocks being thrown through their showroom windows, in a not so subtle reminder not to buck the 'collective' decision.

Recently, a group of gas stations in the Easter Townships was charged with colluding to fix the price of gasoline at their pumps. Consumers are now in the process of a class action suit to recover the ill-gotten profits. Link

Perhaps the most egregious abuse is that which takes place in the civil service where contracts subject  to the tender process are also said to be rigged. A software developer recently confided that he was asked to make an uncompetitive bid so that the favoured vendor would win the bidding process. "Don't worry" he was promised, "Your turn will come."

In Montreal, this process is legendary in relation to the bidding on public works contracts.
It is alleged that a group of thirteen construction companies divvy up the pie and outsiders are 'convinced' that biding is not in their own interest.  ahem....

The recent media attention directed at these so-called fixed contracts has had a surprising benefit. A city official has told the media that tender prices for municipal contract has plummeted by 30% since the publicity!

There are voices being raised, a Trois-Rivières company has lodged a complaint against the city of Drummondville with the Quebec municipal affairs department, claiming that its bid for a contact, some $200,000 cheaper than the winner, was subject to bid manipulation. Link

So nothing has really changed over time, except for the scale of the frauds that have matched the growth of government.

In response to the Maclean's article, we were promised by many editorial writers that Quebeckers were ready to shake off the embarrassing history of corruption and as proof offered up the fact that Quebeckers are now demanding that the province open a public inquiry into the construction industry, the province's most corrupt sector.

But the metro car scandal is sad confirmation that this supposed fresh wind of honesty, blowing across the province, is illusory.

Nothing has really changed and the truth remains that Quebeckers are still firmly attached to the concept of cheating.

The real scandal of the metro car fiasco is not that the government pulled a 'fast one.' It's that it did it with the opposition's help and public compliance.

Without the public's acceptance, it would be impossible to continue the corrupt practices that pervade all levels of government and the civil service. This fact is profoundly sad.

While talking a good game, Quebeckers have only themselves to blame. By not rising up in abject rage against the abusive metro contract, the public has sent a signal, that is business as usual.

And so, once again, the benefits winning jobs at the expense of fair trade are too attractive. The attitude isn't much different from a parent who tolerates a teenager's shoplifting, as long as they bring home something of value.

As for corruption in the Province of Quebec, it seems that 'plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.'

French versus English Volume 16

Education Department comes up with a novel approach to raise student success.

Under extreme pressure to reduce the appalling dropout rate in Francophone high schools in Quebec, the education department came up with a novel approach.
Count differently....
Yup, the education department announced that it is changing the formula it uses to calculate this dropout rate, with the resulting benefit of 'reducing' the number of students leaving high school without a diploma, by almost 6%.
One of the effects of this change is that it will no longer be possible to directly compare dropout rates with other provinces, an added bonus. LINK(French)

The  department has also been creative in making sure more high school students pass their final French matriculation exam. It changed the exam and the way the test results are evaluated by teachers last June. One teacher suspected that it was now too easy to pass. Benoît Paquin, a teacher in a Montreal suburban high school in Longueuil gave the test to students who were two grades down from the final year and most passed the test with a 72% average when the new marking criteria was used.
According to the teacher the changes were made to make sure that students who have gone through the "reform" or the new controversial education system are able to be as successful as students who learned under  the 'old' system.
How Clever! LINK(French)

Quebec Citizenship 

Michel Seymour, a philosophy professor at the Université de Montréal. has suggested an interesting solution to the Bill 103 'problem,' offering this pearl...

"Quebec citizenship should be established with French as the official language. To acquire this Quebec citizenship, one must exhibit an ability to speak French." LINK

Quebec citizenship?

'Bilingual' New Brunswick leaders debate in French -ugh!

You don't have to speak French to watch this painful butchering of the French language by the provincial party leaders in a pre-election debate. I have added some subtitles to the satirist 'Infoman's' commentary, who provided some well-deserved sarcasm.

 
Pierre Curzi gets Owned

Attending the legislative hearings in Quebec looking into Bill 103, the law that will replace Bill 104 (the language law overturned by the Supreme Court,) MNA Pierre Curzi, champion of the French language and enemy of Paul McCartney and the Montreal Canadiens, stumbled badly on camera. Obviously unprepared and un-attentive, he tried to challenge a representative from VISION schools, a private French primary and high school system that uses English in most of their courses.
Mr. Curzi seemed strangely lost and hemmed and hawed quite a lot. The pièce de résistance is his last question to the school administrator, asking if graduating from the Vision school offers a student a pathway into a private English high school.
Taken aback, the administrator sarcastically reminds Mr. Curzi that any student can attend an English private high school, any time, it doesn't require any credentials. Ha!
I've added subtitles.

Militant site rejoices in Claude Béchard's Death

I'm usually not a big fan of Richard Martineau, but the columnist exposed a rather nasty link between the radical Réseau de résistance du Québécois and it's website and a thoroughly disgusting comment board  LINK.
In talking about the recent cancer death of a 42 year-old Claude Béchard, a Quebec cabinet minister in the Liberal government who left behind a young family, a reader opined;

Louis Hebert wrote:

"Since when, should one not rejoice when one's enemy disappears,  for me, they can all die, these scavengers.  BRAVO!" Link

Claiming innocence Patrick Bourgouis, head off the quasi violent RRQ wrote back to Martineau that the chat room was unmoderated and was no longer associated with the RRQ.

That may be well and good, except it's not entirely true, according to Mr Martineau, 
The board can be reached via a link  on Mr. Bourgouis' website le Quebecois.

Moncton rejects forced bilingualism

"The City of Moncton will not be adopting a bilingual signage bylaw.

City staff presented a report on bilingual signage at yesterday's council meeting and the recommendation was that a bylaw was not the course of action the majority of Monctonians wanted to see.

"I think concern from businesses very clearly was that they really didn't want to be legislated," Catherine Dallaire, the City of Moncton's general manager of corporate services, said in presenting the report's findings. "Their point of view was a little different though with regard to their support for bilingual signage - they didn't disagree that in most cases bilingual signage was something they would support in the community."  By Cole Hobson, Times & Transcript

Air France in trouble over French

Yesterday, I wrote about Quebec language police forcing a Quebec school board to get rid of its English computer keyboards, an interesting story, based largely on its pettiness.
In France, where they have their own version of Bill 101, the Toubin Law, these same types of issues come up as well, but a recent case is not petty at all, with public safety at issue. LINK (French)

The national French airline has just lost a case in French court over the translation into French of technical documents concerning the operation of some airplanes. The documents in question are produced by the airline manufacturer (probably Boeing) in English only. As you may know English is the language of international air travel and pilots generally must communicate in English when flying internationally. As such, the manufacturer provides documents in English only.
The French court ruled that Air France must translate these documents into French for the benefit of pilots, who according to French law have the right to work in French.
Air France argued unsuccessfully, that it is not their obligation to translate safety documents produced by a third party as it may jeopardize safety and that the issue is moot as all their pilots are already obliged to speak and understand English.
The court was unimpressed by their argument and ordered the airline to comply.

Happy Thanksgiving! I'll be back on Tuesday......

Read - French versus English Volume 15

Language Cops Strike- Hilarity Ensues!

Readers of this blog probably don't need to be advised of the latest move by Quebec's French language cops in their ongoing effort to defend the security and integrity of the French language.

Just when you thought the Office québécois de la langue française, (OQLF) couldn't get any more petty and vindictive, they quickly put paid to any such notion.

Living up to the tenet of the organization's motto- "TOUTES RÉSISTANCE EST INUTILE!," the OQLF demanded that an English school board change its computer keyboards to French versions. The idea that the words SHIFT and ENTER represent a clear and present danger to Quebec society's ability to maintain its purity, would be laughable, if not so sad.

But the $5,000 cost seems to be of little concern to the school board in question, as its spokesman desperately tried to downplay the whole incident. Obviously there are other pokers in the fire. And so the Riverside School Board is replacing the offending keyboards and plastering  stickers over English keys on laptops.   CBC Story

The story has achieved a bit of traction and has hit the CBC National television news when Peter Mansbridge asked viewers, tongue in cheek, if they were interested in buying the perfectly good keyboards. Video of the CBC News story

Of course the OQLF is used to being humiliated by Anglos, but to them, it's basically 'water off a duck's back.'
There's little doubt, that there's going to be some blowback in the French media, once the story crosses the language barrier. The French media doesn't usually appreciate having this beloved institution held up to scorn and derision, especially by arrogant anglos. Likely to defend the OQLF in dead earnest, they will surely increase media attention in the English press. New York Times, anyone?

The idea of forcing an English school board, where almost all head office employees are English, to operate in French, is one of the more vindictive applications of the dreaded Bill 101 language law. It's the same principle that forces English television stations to advertise their English shows in French when using outdoor billboards. I suppose there is a logic there, twisted as it would seem.

Ever since the the adoption of Bill 101, the pettiness in the treatment of the English language has been a hallmark of the OQLF, which treats English as an enemy combatant, subject only to the fair rules of war.

When the Quebec school system was reorganized into English and French, non-confessional school boards, the old Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal needed a name change, but was refused its first choice, the 'Montreal English School Board.' And so today the board operates under the name that was approved, the 'English Montreal School Board."...Can you figure that one out?

Every time I hear stories about the application of the language law in such an arbitrary and  petty manner, I am reminded of the side mirror outside my passenger door on my car.

"OBJECTS IN THE MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR"

How come no stickers on the mirror?

How come a poor watchmaker in Hudson or a cash-strapped English school board is harassed by the language cops while giant car companies have no obligation to be in compliance with Bill 101?

Although the majority of dashboards in our cars are filled with pictograms and the computers toggle between French and English, there remains a 'shocking' amount of English on our instrument panels.
Why? Why? Why?

I'm sure the car companies have some sort of exemption, probably because the exorbitant cost to 'bilingualize' the dashboards would have to be passed on to reluctant consumers, but that  hardly seems an excuse.
The unequal treatment whereby the small fish are terrorized and the big ones go about their business with impunity gives rise to disrespect.

I am reminded of my only brush with the OQLF, some twenty years ago, when our company head office was visited by a language inspector bent on insuring that we were operating under the doctrine of Bill 101.
When employees were informed that the inspector was about to start his rounds, they all toggled their computers over to the English version of the software that we were running at the time. It was just a matter of pressing the F12 key to switch between English and French.
When the inspector asked some of the French employees why French wasn't available, they just shrugged their shoulders and told him that it was okay, because they were used to the English system.  Ha Ha!!

When we received a registered letter from the 'Office' informing us of our non-compliance with the law, we dutifully wrote back telling them that our software was indeed French compliant and that the inspector should have 'known' that fact, had he done a thorough inspection!

We never heard back from the 'Office' and had a good laugh until our software company phoned us and angrily told us that they were now the subject of an audit by the OQLF because of our actions..... err.....sorry about that!

Is Sovereignty Dead?

One of my favourite movie scenes comes from the eminently forgettable indie film "Living in Oblivion," a low budget movie about making a low budget film. Starring Steve Buscemi as the frustrated director and Catherine Keener as the principle female lead, the movie is a painful and uncomfortable glimpse into the frustrating world of independent film making.

The scene in question, involves Keener's character confronting her mother over her father's abuse of her as a child. It is central to the movie and all eyes are nervously on the two actors as the scene is being filmed. Unfortunately during the first take, a light explodes on set, much to the frustration of Buscemi's character, who explodes in rage. The next take goes just as badly with the 'mother' forgetting her lines and then the third try is ruined by Keener's character blowing her lines, in turn.

It's getting late and time is running out. The scene has to be filmed now or time constraints of the low budget will force the director to cut it. Finally the two actors deliver a riveting performance and nail the scene! Tears come to the director's eyes, but when the cameraman announces that he's now ready to film, the directer realizes that they didn't get the scene on film. Utter frustration!

Buscemi's character is crestfallen, with the pain and disappointment visibly etched on his face.

Then, slowly realizing that the moment is lost forever, he just gives up.
Sadly he tells the actors that it's time to go on. "We almost had it, it was beautiful....we can't think about it.... the moment is gone...."

Every time I think of the 1995 referendum, I think of that scene. So close!

While die-hard sovereignists believe that they can somehow re-create that magic moment in 1995 and perhaps go over the top the next time, it is destined never to be and like in the movie, the moment has passed, gone forever.

It seems to me that more and more sovereignists are slowly coming to the same realization, even those in highest echelons of the Parti Quebecois. The sad realty for these sovereignists is that the opportunity for independence has passed them by, forever.

While almost 35% -40% of Quebeckers still say that they will vote for sovereignty in a future referendum, almost 70% believe that they the YES side cannot win. They are probably right.

While sovereignty remains as strong a dream as ever among the college set, those in power positions in the movement are starting to believe otherwise.

Defections in the ranks of PQ thinkers and the rumours of a new provincial party to be created on the basis of an autonomous Quebec within Canada, comprised of both strong sovereignist and federalist politicians gives credence to the notion that it's the beginning of the end of the sovereignty dream.

The PQ has abandoned any talk of a referendum and doesn't even talk of 'winning conditions' any more. At best they are talking about holding mini referendums to force Ottawa to give up more power. That exercise is sad and somewhat embarrassing.

So can it be? Is sovereignty really dead or on its way out as a viable option?

Likely, yes.

For those of us who grew up here in Quebec, sovereignty was the burning political issue that spanned our entire lives and the realization that perhaps the question has already been settled, is slow to be accepted. 

There are many reasons why, perhaps demographics the most important. The half a million or so immigrants who have flooded Quebec since the last referendum are overwhelmingly federalist and even if francophones were to repeat or even increase marginally the support they gave to the YES side in the last referendum, they would still be badly outvoted by the NO side.
Every three years, a full percentage point shifts naturally over to the NO side due to immigration. If a referendum is five or tens years away, as die-hard sovereignists predict, it just gets worse. 


But more than immigration, another factor in the decline and fall of the sovereignty option is Quebeckers' realization that they get more out of Canada then they put in.
Whining aside, it's a fact that most Quebeckers, begrudgingly realize, reminded relentlessly by the ROC that Quebec is a net beneficiary of the federal system.

And so, no amount of deflection by the 'argue anything' type of defenders of sovereignty, can change the perception by Quebeckers that they get more out of Canada then they put in.  The $8.5 billion in equalization payments is a powerful argument for staying in Canada, after all 'money talks.'

Perhaps the sovereignist's biggest problem is that they never offered Quebeckers a real alternative to federalism. It's one thing to complain about the old system, but they never presented a plan of what an independent Quebec would look like.
Believe it or not, people with mortgages and jobs are profoundly interested.

Today's voters are infinitely more sophisticated. Fooling them with a misleading sovereignty question is no longer an option and without a clear accounting of the benefits and true costs of independence, sovereignists have little to offer but dreams. And dreams don't pay the bills.

In the end sovereignty has been defeated by selfish self-interest, not as bad a concept as it sounds.  The success that Quebec has achieved in wresting control of its own economy and its language and culture has made the pursuit of sovereignty uneconomic both financially and socially.

Our generation has seen the Irish Republican Army give up the fight for independence in Northern Ireland as well as the Basque separatists in Spain.

The destruction of the Berlin Wall signaled the fall of communism throughout the world.
A lot bigger and more powerful movements and philosophies have been cast aside.

The end of the sovereignty dream in Quebec is no big deal. It's only a matter of time before everybody realizes it, even the die-hards.

B'nai Brith is a Laughingstock

Last week's controversy over a cartoon in an Ottawa newspaper (and reprinted online) drawn by Guy Badeaux has actually sparked a row between two Jewish lobby groups, one claiming that the cartoon is antisemitic and the other scoffing at the idea. LINK

The B'nai Brith, a self-proclaimed representative of Canada's Jewish community, accused the cartoonist of inferring in his cartoon, that Canadian Jews control Parliament. The cartoon in question had a Jewish Star placed in the face of Parliament's clock tower.
The cartoonist said the depiction was inadvertent and that it was just a representation of the the clock face, which actually does have a Jewish Star buried it's artwork.

“The caricature plays into vicious and baseless age-old stereotypes of a Jewish conspiracy of control,” said Moïse Moghrabi, Quebec Chair of The League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada."- B'nai Brith

B'nai Brith admits that it never even bothered to get Mr. Badeaux's take on the cartoon, thus demonstrating appalling arrogance and a profound absence of fair play. Labelling someone a racist, without checking the facts is an unpardonable sin, especially when it is done on a organizational level.

Mr. Badeaux's explanation that the depiction was inadvertent seems to be reasonable and his reputation and his friends (many Jewish) back him up.

In accepting B'nai Brith's theory over Mr. Badeaux's explanation, one would have to violate the principle of Occam's Razor, which postulates that "the simplest explanation is usually the correct one".

Faced with a barrage of criticism from all quarters, including the premier Jewish lobby group, the Canadian Jewish Congress, B'nai  Brith reacted the way most self-righteous and moralistic organizations would, they dug in their heels, claiming that they weren't satisfied with the explanation.

"Despite both Badeaux’s and Congress’ claims that the cartoon was innocuous, a Sept. 22 statement by B’nai Brith re-iterated the organization’s belief that it was aimed at the Jewish community." LINK

For that, they have become a laughingstock.

Bernie Farber of the Canadian Jewish Congress, reacted strongly in Mr. Badeaux's defence;

"There is a Star of David on the face of the Peace Tower clock, there is. He has used it not for the first time in a caricature he has done," Farber said. "This has nothing to do with anti-Semitism and everything to do with a cartoonist who was trying to depict the Peace Tower. It was very legitimate." LINK

Farber was incensed that B’nai Brith  did not seemingly “check all the facts” about Badeaux and decided to label him an anti-Semite “when he clearly isn’t. We have to set the record straight.”  LINK

I don't know Moïse Moghrabi, chair of B’nai Brith Canada’s, Quebec region of the League for Human Rights, who levelled the accusations on behalf of the organization, but he certainly deserves to get the sack. Anything less and any semblance of legitimacy, evaporates.


It is ironic that the only reputation damaged in the whole affair, is that of the B'nai Brith, itself.

I've never been a fan of unelected lobby groups presuming to speak on behalf of whole communities, be they Jewish, Italian or whatnot. That includes both the Quebec Jewish Congress and the B'nai Brith and perhaps by saying so, Mr. Moghrabi will label this blog as antisemitic, as well. So be it.

It is impertinent for these organizations to lobby in the name of all Jews. Their position on Israel, on education, language issues and even antisemitism may represent what many Jews believe, but certainly not all. They are elitist organizations that presume quite a bit.

The Quebec Jewish Congress' lobbying on behalf of Hassidic schools that clearly break the education laws certainly does not reflect well on the community and the generally negative reaction has affected the entire Jewish community's standing. LINK

Another major gaffe was the organization's push to influence Premier Jean Charest to increase funding to private Jewish schools, an incident that backfired so badly that it was likely the tipping point in the 'Reasonable Accommodation" debate.

As for it's most important role, denouncing antisemitism, the above brouhaha with Mr. Badeaux is sad proof that many of the accusations of antisemitism are clear over-reactions.

Although antisemitism is a problem, not every crime committed against a Jew is antisemitism. By crying wolf at every slight, imagined or real, B'nai Brith does a disservice to those it claims to protect.

Last month a Catholic cemetery in Saint-Denis-sur-Richelieu suffered an appalling attack of vandalism, with over 90 gravestones defaced.  LINK
Was it a case of anti-Catholic racism or an act of stupidity, more likely perpetrated by rowdy youth?

Had it been a Jewish cemetery, I've no doubt that Mr. Moghrabi would be screaming antisemitism.

Don't get me wrong, I am in no way belittling the  problem of racism that Jews and other minorities (especially Muslims) face, but overreacting and 'crying wolf' doesn't help.

B'nai Brith should be ashamed of their actions and apologize to Mr. Badeaux.  If they don't, they lose any moral authority that they claim. For the organization, it's time to suck it up and do the right thing, otherwise, just go away.