Sovereignists Freaked Out by 'Force Quebec'

The announcement last week by ex-Parti Quebecois bigwig, François Legault, that he may be starting a new political party in Quebec has sent shock waves through the political establishment. Link

Mr. Legault has quite rightly read the political mood of the province, which is dominated by a profound dislike of the Liberal government, coupled with abject disdain of the alternative, the Parti Quebecois.

As unpopular as Mr. Charest is, Pauline Marois is not generally perceived as a viable alternative and with personal polling numbers that are almost as bad as the Premier's, it's clear that both parties are ripe for the picking.

Mr. Legault is offering a 'third way,' (la troisième voie) a political dogma between sovereignty and federalism, a government which will remain nationalistic, but without threatening independence. How this will work is not clear, but it seems to be sounding a solid note with francophones who lost confidence in the Liberals, but are afraid of the Parti Quebecois.

While both the Liberals and the Parti Quebecois would be badly hurt by this new party in the short-term (next election), in the long run it is the Parti Quebecois which will be destroyed.

As I wrote in a column last week, the sovereignty option is fast fading and even nationalists are looking for an alternative that will protect Quebec's individuality without pushing an independence option, which they rightly perceive as unattainable.
It seems that voters, dumb as they are, are more realistic about the chances of independence than the Parti Quebecois, who at any rate, will never give up the sovereignty option.

Polls are showing that the new party would get more votes than the PQ or the Liberals and would likely form a minority government. In that case, it would be likely that the Liberals would support the government while they rebuild their brand, gearing up for an eventual two-way fight.

The bad news for separatists is that support for the new party is coming largely at their expense.
Voters willing to move their votes over to the new party are made up of 34% those presently supporting Quebec Solidaire and 29% of Parti Quebecois supporters. The Liberal bleed is less than half at 14%.

The re-alignment of the political stars means that in the future, we will likely see a federalist Liberal party battle a small-c conservative, Force Quebec, a party advocating a nationalistic policy without independence.

How freaked out are the sovereignists over the unfolding winds of change?

Extremely.

The furious reaction in the press by sovereignist stalwarts, forecasting the failure of Force Quebec, was a clear case of 'whistling past the graveyard,' but try as they did, they couldn't hide the fear.

"...my hypothesis is that the movement will probably not become a party." 

"Chances are that Legault and Facal are mainly positioning themselves in case Marois should falter."

-Josee Legault -Montreal Gazette 

"Putting the sovereignty question under the carpet is like pretending winter doesn't exist."

-Richard Martineau-journal de Montreal

"Force Quebec will never see the light of day."

-Richard LeHir

Just as the Parti Quebecois sent the Union Nationale party into political oblivion, the fear is real among sovereignists that this is the beginning of the end of the Parti Quebecois as a political force. Remember that two elections ago the party was relegated to third place behind the ADQ.

And so for the Pequistes and their supporters it's certainly time to fret....

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A NOTE ON CANADA'S UNITED NATIONS 'HUMILIATION'

In an insane asylum taken over by the inmates, it's no great dishonour to be rejected by the majority.

The only saving grace in Canada not getting a seat at the Security council is that we lost to Portugal.
We could have been rewarded with Iran, Libya or some other banana republic, which would no doubt be a more popular choice among the sad loser countries that make up the majority of the once august body.
There are those of us at home who will berate the government for it's principled polices that led us to be rejected by this merry band of fools.

Fair enough. Let's be thankful that we have that type of democracy where real free speech exists. How many countries that voted against can say the same?

In the spirit of celebrating that freedom, a shout out to the Canadian Arab Federation who helped torpedo the nomination by circulating an E-mail entitled. “Don’t Give Canada a Security Council Seat.” Well done!

I wonder what would happen, if an organization similar to the Canadian Arab Federation agitated in a similar fashion in any of the CAF's member's ancestral Arab homelands.

In an online comment written in reaction to a story about Canada's loss, a reader asked an intriguing hypothetical question;
Would an independent Quebec with Pauline Marois as its leader have voted for Canada? ..Dunno.....

Quebec in 2020- A Veritable Paradise!

About a week ago an article appeared on the separatist web site vigile.net, written by regular windbag, Georges Le Gal. 
The article was a fantasy describing the Shangri-la world of an independent Quebec in the year 2020 and was incredibly funny in a perverted sort of way.
A lot of our bilingual readers mentioned the piece in comments section with  'adski' summing up the article perfectly.

"This whole "article" reads a bit like a page from some fascist/communist manifesto. It conjures up images that we see on rare footage that trickles out of North Korea, where happy people march holding hands, singing happy songs...." 

I couldn't have made a better snide remark, so decided to pass on writing a piece denigrating critiquing  the article, after all, as they say in Latin- "Res ipsa loquitur."

But in light of these intriguing references made in our comments section, I received a couple of requests to translate the article for the many readers who don't have French.

For those who have already read the original piece, I beg your indulgence and apologize for the imperfect translation. To tym_machine, no nit-picking over typos!

Again, if you read French, read the original article here. 

"Fall 2020; the Quiet Revolution is now 60 years old, Events of October¹ now 50 years old , the first referendum, now 40 years old, the second referendum, now 25 years ago and yes, Quebec got rid of the Charest government in 2012 and the link to Canada in 2016.

Indeed, in 2016 the coalition party of independence, the Separatist Parti Quebecois of Solidarity (PIQS,) after taking power with a strong majority and a decidedly pro-independence platform convened  its constituency, the 63 members of the Bloc Quebecois in Ottawa and the the 85 PIQS deputies in the National Assembly to declare the unilateral independence of Quebec.
The first law passed after consolidating the independence of Quebec was Law 201, the Charter of the French language of an independent French Quebec. 

In summary, Act 201 provides that: 

1. Finally, French is the only official language, national language,  common language, working language and language of education in Quebec.  

2. The Supreme Court of Quebec, which replaced the Supreme Court of Canada and the Charter imposed by Trudeau, now interprets the laws, in the best interests of French Quebec. 

3. The primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities have become French, as it should, all except for about 8%, for the benefit of the  historical Anglophone minority . Private schools, as elsewhere in the world are no longer subsidized by the state. This new legislation and other major changes allow the government to make public education a successful model where the dropout rate is the lowest among  nations. Learning a second, third and fourth language has become natural for many citizens. 

4. Quebecers are now proud of the place of honour that French is accorded in our institutions, in communications and the public domain. Our political representatives, including our leaders make their speeches and answer questions from journalists in French only. The growing number of tourists, including American and Latin Americans are amazed to find themselves in such a cozy country with a French face. 

5. The new Quebecois² in Quebec are settling mostly in the regions, the number of them arriving each year is now 20,000, rather than 50,000 when Quebec was a province like the others. They are happy not only because they are well integrated into Quebec society and have acquired a good knowledge of French, but because they have increasingly found jobs where they can put their talents to good use. Quebec's new government is recruiting more people from Western Europe and Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia, immigrants that generally integrate easily with the traditions and customs of Quebec, including the concept of gender equality and a secular state.
Past abuses of "reasonable accommodations" have been resolved. To get their citizenship and Quebec passport, the 20 000 immigrants welcomed annually to Quebec must not only know French, but also solemnly pledge to respect the fundamental values of Quebec. The new Quebecois are pleased to join the independent French Quebec, egalitarian and secular, because they feel uncomfortable with Canadian multiculturalism and tensions related to accommodations. In addition, complimentary registration upon arrival at the Center for orientation, training and integration of new Quebecers (COFINQ*), greatly facilitates their life in Quebec. All Quebecers who have not yet learned the national language also benefit from free services. Some, who choose not to learn the national language, quickly find that their place is better in Canada than in Quebec. 

6. The Office de la langue Francais plays a much more important role and now benefits from greatly increased funding while watchdog agencies like the Mouvement Québec français now receive grants to continue to fulfill their caretaker mission.

7. The two mega-university hospitals in  Montreal of which, only the English one was built, has become a French institution under the name of the 'Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Montréal et McGill' (CHUMM) as the historical Anglophone minority now receives fair and equitable funding, proportional to its demographic weight. The savings accrued are now used to improve the health system, especially in the regions.
All these arrangements have brought a sense of quiet pride to Quebecers, whether native or immigrant. There is broad consensus on the acceptance of the Charter of the French language in an independent French Quebec (Act 201). Quebecers are proud that their government has dared to adopt the Charter despite the threats of some Anglo-Quebecers and Canadian hotheads. Quebecers now sense that they have dropped their colonial yoke.
* COFINQ (Centre for orientation, training and integration of new Quebecers) centres, established in all major regions of Quebec and Montreal operate with full programs preparing new Quebecers to smoothly integrate in Quebec by adopting our language and our common values and are afforded the opportunity to showcase their skills at work and elsewhere in society. These new centres and programs are much larger than the programs of the former province of Quebec and include not only the integration of immigrants on a larger scale in the regions, but also the Francisation of all Quebecers not yet Francisized ."

PRICELESS!!!!!!!!

I am reminded of those old  POPULAR SCIENCE magazines of the 30's, 40's and 50's, that made lame and fanciful predictions, like the one that presaged that by the year 2000, we'd be driving our cars to Europe under the ocean!

I'm moved to hum that old song by Zagar & Evans; ............."In the Year 2525"

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!