Vigile.net - We Love You!

For many of our French and bilingual readers, vigile.net is an interesting cesspool web site that provides us with hours of reading entertainment, a place where all the crackpots of the nationalist movement are conveniently grouped. Like a car accident, we are mesmerized.

Ex-terrorists, fantasists, racists, antisemites, anglo-bashers and xenophobes are all given a tribune to spout their various philosophies, some of the articles being incredibly funny, in a sad and perverse sort of way.

This week Premier Charest went off on the web-site in the National Assembly in the debate over Bill 115;

"Premier Jean Charest accused Ms. Marois of “radicalizing” the debate and of sympathizing with groups that include a former member of the 1970s terrorist group Front de Libération du Québec who are calling for the legislation’s withdrawal.

“She takes the advice of a former FLQ sentenced for murder and sentenced for detonating bombs in 2001 and accepts that members of her own caucus gives money to people who encourage violence in Quebec,” Mr. Charest charged.

Mr. Charest was attempting to link the PQ to a former FLQ member, Rhéal Mathieu, who has taken part in a poster campaign underscoring “Liberal corruption.” Mr. Mathieu has written articles that appeared on the non-profit website Vigile.net which has received funding from PQ members." -Globe And Mail

Vigile.net, is a leftist/sovereingist website run by one Bernard Frappier, that reposts published articles of interest, mostly concerning Quebec politics and independence issues.

The site has a unique formula, reprinting articles from mainstream media sources which provides cover and legitimacy for the the other extremist articles that it publishes.

Typical of the nonsense is a fantasist article that I recently translated on this blog entitled Quebec in 2020.

The few international stories that web site publishes are dominated by virulently anti-Israel articles.
When I say dominated, I mean obsession. Mr. Frappier may or may not be an anti-semite, but he certainly has a hate-on for Israel, a trait that he shares with a great many of the web-site's constituents.
(that was a neat trick!...cough....cough...)

The editor particularly enjoys printing articles by Jews who oppose Israeli policy, as if it somehow underscores the illegitimacy of the Israeli state.

Newsflash for Mr. Frappier, it's really no big deal for a Jew or an Israeli to oppose Israeli policy. Just as it's no big deal when a Canadian criticizes his own government. It's called democracy and free speech.

What would be news is an Iranian, Syrian or Egyptian citizen, criticizing his government in a newspaper or magazine published in one of those countries, but I digress.......

Until now, these anti-Israel articles were culled from mainstream media which never rose to the level of antisemitism.
This all changed when vigile.net reprinted one the vilest of antisemtic/anti-Israel articles that I have ever seen reproduced in the Quebec media.

The article comes not from any legitimate source, but rather a rather nasty American  hate-mongering website that I had previously never heard of. That the editors of vigile.net look to these types of hate blogs for material says more about vigile.net than the hate-mongering site themselves.

At a certain point, fair criticism of Israel turns into antisemitism. It usually happens when the mythical international Jewish conspiracy becomes the focus of an article.  In this respect, the article republished by vigile.net fits the bill to a tee.

The antisemitic blog piece is prefaced by an odious cartoon depicting three rats abandoning a sinking ship named 'Obama,' carrying away booty in treasure chests, representing the three Jews who have recently resigned from the Obama team.

THINGS TO COME - Exodus of Jewish Advisors from Obama White House Likely Not an Omen of Good

This article makes the following claims;

• It was a Jewish plot that killed John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy
• Jews control the world and wrecked the U.S economy on purpose.
• Israel was the author of the 9/11 bombing and that 'warnings' were issued not to go to work that morning.
• Monica Lewinsky was an Israeli secret agent
• The couple that crashed the White House dinner, Tareq Salahi (a Palestinian Arab) along with his wife, were on a mission for Israeli intelligence demonstrating that they could 'get to' the President any time they wanted.
• Rahm Emmanuel is a Mossad agent and left the White House along with other Jews because Israel intends on bombing the Oval office to kill Obama.

Don't believe me? Don't take my word for it, read the article yourself. It's even worse than my synopsis!  HERE

Keep up the good work Mr. Frappier!


Where is the B'nai Brith when there is a real case of antisemitism?

PS-
BTW......Who's you're favourite vigile.net crackpot?

Is Pauline Marois Toast?

Tuesday's debate in the National Assembly should have been a banner day for Pauline Marois as the House was set to pass Bill 115 as the government brought closure to the contentious language debate. Wishing to make the point that Quebeckers make up only 2% of North Americans, she misspoke badly and told the House that "Nous ne sommes qu'un petit peuple" ("We're just a small people")

Premier Charest pounced on the gaffe and reminded Marois that Quebeckers are not a small people but rather a BIG people, small in numbers.
The gaffe was memorialized in a particularly humiliating cartoon by YGRECK

To PQ supporters it was another example of the poor performance of their leader who has clearly not connected with the voters.

While the beleaguered Jean Charest and the Liberal party are at the nadir of their popular support, the PQ seems unable to build any momentum.

A few days after ex-PQ hotshot Francois Legault floated a balloon that he'd be starting a new political party, one that would put aside the sovereignty question, yet remain nationalistic, LE DEVOIR published a poll that  indicated that the Parti Quebecois would get less votes than this new party.  Link

Mr. Legault's party was supported by 30% of Quebeckers to just 27% for the PQ and 25% for the Liberals. Not particularly comforting numbers.

In a Leger poll that considered only the actual parties in exisitence, the PQ fell to 34% support compared to the Liberals 28%. Still not very reassuring. It seems that the fastest growing political movement is the "None of the above" at 13%.

The PQ faithful are not amused.

Next year, Madame Marois is facing a leadership review and it's hard to see her surviving. The last leader, Bernard Landry resigned after failing to crack the 75% level of support among party members. There's little chance that she can do as well, never mind better.

But replacing Madame Marois is problematic, with Legault, the heir apparent, out of the picture. Everyone else is either too low profile or too radical.

That leaves the PQ with only one viable choice.



GILLES DUCEPPE....

Yup, Gilles Duceppe, who has lusted after the  job at the PQ for years. With his Ottawa pension intact he can safely take the plunge back into provincial politics.
To sovereingists, he possesses everything they need, namely rock hard  commitment to independence.  To supporters he has, proven leadership abilities and an abundance of experience.

The fact that he's a bit dopey seems of no consequence.

It is beginning to look more and more likely.

Premier Duceppe?

The War Measures Act- 40 Years Later

Seventy years ago, the German armed forces launched a devastating surprise attack on Poland that led to the defeat and total capitulation of that country in less than a month.  This opening salvo of World War Two was a frightening lesson in expert and innovative military planning and execution, one that would re-write the doctrine of modern warfare.
The massive attack by armored units across the length of the border, coupled with a punishing aerial assault by the German air force's vaunted dive bombers, left the Poles stunned and overwhelmed, unable to offer meaningful resistance.  It was over before it began.

The doctrine of a rapid, surprise and overwhelming assault became known as the 'Blitzkrieg' (Lightening War) and was successfully repeated sixty-three years later by the Americans in their assault on Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi military.
Now renamed "Shock and Awe" the military doctrine hasn't changed much since the German attack on Poland.
The Americans delivered a massive surprise attack with an overpowering and brutal display of air power that was coupled with lightening attacks into the country by armoured units along multiple fronts. Sound familiar?
Faced with such an overpowering assault, like Poland, Iraq was utterly defeated within a month.

Forty years ago the implementation of the 'War Measures Act' by the federal government in reaction to the kidnappings of two individuals by FLQ terrorists can be best understood and appreciated in the context of "Shock and Awe"

Back then, the Quebec government and the forces of order, including the RCMP, were fighting an underground war against a small but effective group of terrorists who represented a very real and present danger to society.
The terrorists were not only waging a war of Quebec Independence, it was also an ideological battle with a socialist agenda that would supposedly transform Quebec into a worker's paradise.

Today this may sound a little lame, but back then the battle between Communism and democracy was very real, with multiple battles being fought across the globe.

Today the FLQ is being portrayed by revisionists and apologists as a benign organization of misguided dreamers, but the truth is that the various FLQ 'cells' perpetrated close to 200 violent acts of terrorism, including robberies and bombings and were directly responsible for about a dozen deaths and dozens of injuries.
The bombing of the Montreal Stock exchange that injured 27 people was the clearest statement by terrorists that the 'system' was under assault and that collateral human damage was an acceptable part of the revolution.

The kidnapping of the James Cross and Pierre Laporte was an escalation, seen as a direct assault on the foundations of society,  which was feared to be the onset of a coordinated attempt to overthrow the government.

As the kidnapping remained unresolved for weeks, popular support for the kidnappers was building.

In the following days, FLQ leaders held meetings to increase public support for the cause. Consequently, a general strike involving students, teachers and professors resulted in the closure of most French-language secondary and post-secondary academic institutions. On October 15, 1970, more than 3,000 students attended a protest rally in favour of the FLQ. Demonstrations of public support influenced subsequent government actions.Wikipedia

At a rally in the Paul Sauve Arena, in Montreal, Michel Chartrand, the fiery union leader, proclaimed that support for the FLQ was rising;

"We are going to win because there are more boys ready to shoot members of Parliament than there are policemen.  Wikipedia

The rally freaked out mainstream Quebeckers as well as the government, who viewed the event as a possible prelude to outright rebellion in Quebec;

Officials of the government of Quebec became so alarmed that they along with the opposition members of the National Assembly unanimously urged the federal government to act.

And act it did.
When a reporter asked the Prime Minister just how far he would go to stop the FLQ, Trudeau replied: "Just watch me".

$150 K reward in 1970. Wow!

It was then that Trudeau invoked the 'War Measures Act' and unleashed his very own version of 'Shock and Awe.'

The War Measures Act allowed the government to assume wide emergency powers in the event of "war, invasion or insurrection, real or apprehended," including the right to arrest and detain without a warrant.

In the dead of night, in a massive and sweeping operation, close to 500 suspected FLQ members and sympathizers, as well as journalists, teachers and radical unionists were rounded up and taken into custody.
Polls later indicated that the public supported the government actions in the order of 85%.

While not everyone placed in custody was subversive, the leadership of the organized public support for the FLQ was effectively neutralized. Those not caught in the dragnet went into hiding or remained fearfully silent.

The massive over-reaction by Trudeau, which included sending the army into the streets of Montreal was something that was completely unimaginable and its effect was overwhelming.

Public support for the FLQ came to a stunning halt. The chilling effect of the arrests rocked the radical world of the FLQ and its sympathizers.

The War Measure Act and the arrest of the 500,  broke the backbone of the FLQ movement in just one night.

That is the definition of 'Shock and Awe.'

After a couple of months all those arrested were released, the kidnappers disposed of and the FLQ movement destroyed, never to reappear.

A couple of days ago, the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste honoured the 'noble 500' by erecting a statue in front of their offices. The detainees were hailed as victims and heroes. Bernard Landry called the actions of the Trudeau government 'terroristic' and gross over-reaction in relation to the threat.

Of course, the principle reason for all this griping by separatists today is because of the  very success Trudeau achieved in destroying the FLQ. I guess it just doesn't sit very well.

Forty years later it's hard to imagine how events would have played without the implementation of the War Measures Act.

I for one, am happy that Trudeau had the intestinal fortitude to do what he did.

By the way, is 'Shock and Awe' dead?

Let me give you a hint - Toronto, G20, 1,000 Arrests?  Hmmm.......

Idiot Abroad - Gilles Duceppe in Washington

It's always interesting to watch political spin artists weave their masterful flights of fancy, re-interpreting the world to promote their own agenda, regardless of reality.

Gilles Duceppe in Fantasyland

It's a special skill that political leaders acknowledge as necessary and each political party has their own 'spinmeisters' that engages the press with their very special versions of the truth.

A recent example of spin was Dimitri Soudas (Harper's spinmeister) claim that Canada lost the Security Council seat at the United Nations because of opposition leader Michael Igantieff's lack of support. The story was then put out that the loss was an expected consequence of principled policies and was to be expected. At any rate, in a classic spirit of 'sour grapes,' the loss portrayed as no big deal. Hmm.....

That being said, when it comes to spin, nobody beats Gilles Duceppe, who needs no help from professionals. He is the ultimate expert at the fine art of creating an alternative universe, one where everything unfolds according to his plan and where he is a conquering hero.

And so Gilles Duceppe's 'triumphant' conquest of Washington is another masterful performance of taking lemons and turning it into lemonade.

According to Mr. Duceppe, his recent visit included meetings with 'high' officials in the State Department and presentations before two prestigious think tanks, as well as important 'private' meetings with members of the Canadian-American Business Council. A smashing success!

As Lawrence Welk used to say...Wunerful! Wunerful!...

In the Quebec press, ever eager to validate the separatists, the visit to Washington was portrayed as a noteworthy political event, one where the separatist leader was afforded a polite and friendly forum among Washington's movers and shakers.

But reality is somewhat different.

Mr. Duceppe's carefully crafted visit was an abject embarrassment, one where the separatist leader was mercilessly snubbed by those who counted.

Of the almost six hundred elected officials to Congress, not one gave Mr. Duceppe the time of day. No interviews, no lunches, no handshakes and no photo ops.

Notwithstanding Mr. Duceppe's statement that the Obama administration was too busy with mid-term elections to meet with him, the reality is that as well as the congressional snub, there wasn't an any other official, Democrat or Republican who dared meet with the sovereignist leader.

This, one can imagine, after months of desperate attempts to secure meetings with someone, anyone who counts. 

For American politicians, Mr. Duceppe is toxic.

The idea of consorting with a French Canadian who advocates the breakup of Canada is about as enticing as attending a birthday celebration in honour of Mahmoud Ahmajinedad at the Iranian embassy.
Among the Washington set, who tend to see the world as black or white,  French-Canadian secessionists are viewed just a step above Al-Quaida. The idea of lending support to their cause, by virtue of a meeting is about as likely as Mr. Duceppe landing an audience with the Queen.

Mr. Duceppe's public line, crafted for public consumption back home, was that he was going to Washington to convince politicians to remain neutral in any future negotiation between Quebec and Canada vis-a-vis sovereignty.
While this may sound plausible at home, for Americans it's as ridiculous as your brother-in-law asking you not to choose sides in the upcoming divorce between him and your sister. 

Mr. Duceppe's speaking engagement before a think tank, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, was a sad little affair that didn't even make the institute's own web site, where no mention of the speaking engagement was made either before or after the event.  See the events calander here.

As for 'prestige,' all is not rosy at the Institute, which has been accused of conflict of interests and of accepting large corporate donations to shape opinion. Link

It begs the question, did Mr. Duceppe pay to speak?

Reading the online accounts of the trip, it's clear that nobody in the Quebec media actually went down with Mr. Duceppe to cover the story and the media relied on Bloc Quebecois press releases and telephone interviews to cobble together a story as best they could.

The only article that seemed to have some first hand information about the speaking engagement was the Toronto Star,  which reports that the small audience of less than a couple of dozen people gave Mr. Duceppe a rough ride during questions after the speech.

Mr Duceppe was challenged as to how an independent Quebec could expect to be afforded entry into NAFTA, given America's new protectionist attitude.

"No problem," answered Mr. Duceppe who maintained the rosy fiction that the world will beat a path to the door of an independent Quebec. "Just wait and see."......Ugh!

As for Mr, Duceppe's claim that he attended high level meetings with the State Department, nothing could be more laughable.
Readers should understand that being fobbed off to the State Department for 'meetings' is the ultimate insult reserved for tin-pot dictators and other undesirable foreign diplomats and politicians, deemed unworthy of meeting actual administration officials, even of the lowest order.

Had Mr Duceppe met with Hillary Clinton or even Dr. Arturo Valenzuela, Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, it would have been newsworthy, but since we didn't hear anything of the sort, it can be safely assumed that Mr. Duceppe met with a low level bureaucrat from the Canadian desk, suckered into taking the meeting by his boss.

What is most telling in this whole affair is that there's not one American official, elected or appointed, nor any State Department bureaucrat who would allow a photo to be taken with Uncle Gilles. Nobody.

And so while Mr. Duceppe weaves the fantasy that he was well-received in Washington and that Americans are listening and open to his message, nothing could be farther form the truth.

Mr Duceppe would have us believe, that in his painful and broken English, he managed to make palatable, what is an anathema to Americans, an independent, left-wing, French state, smack dab on their northern border.

More spin. More lies. More crapola.

And nobody is prepared to cry out in public, that this emperor has no clothes!

Bits'n Pieces - Volume One

Péladeau crushes union

Pierre-Karl Péladeau, Quebec's media scion, has delivered another crushing blow to his striking journalists at the Journal de Montreal. 

"Difficult to be served in French in Montreal"

In his latest offer, he has told the union that he'll only re-hire  about 50 of the 250 strikers. Take it or leave it!.......Ouch!

Since all the strikers had to vote on the offer, it was a forgone conclusion that the offer would be rejected.

But once again, the union may have overplayed its hand. Péladeau put $20 million on the table or about 150,000K in severance per fired employee.

The reality is, that the only alternative the union has, is to stay on strike forever and get zippo!

Even Quebec's anti-scab law hasn't slowed the newspaper from publishing, as free-lancers who don't technically cross picket lines(they send in their stories via email) have replaced the journos.
Well-played PK!!!!

To make matters worse for the union, circulation has actually increased by over 10% during the strike, despite the union's call for a boycott. So much for public solidarity!

While I have some sympathy for the clearly over-matched union clods, I can't help but appreciate that since the strike, the newspaper has dropped its relentless Anglo-bashing.

It now concentrates on stories about government over-spending, lazy  and incompetent union members or government employees and overpaid civil-servants. No shortage of material there!

Representative of this new type of reporting is a story that appeared in yesterday's edition. It detailed the case of Quebec's 'Chief Forrester' whose mandate isn't being renewed. The Minister in charge denied that it had anything to do with excessive expense claims made by Pierre Levac, who charged over $70,000 in mileage during his mandate. It seems that he lives in suburban Montreal, while his government job is based in Roberval, over 600 kilometres away. He was given permission to charge the ten hour round trip commute as a normal business expense!
Asked  to respond, Madame Normandeau's aide didn't seem too upset. "You know, as long as the work gets done..... " By the way the new Chief Forrester will be required to live in the area......Link

Keep up the good work!

Surprise! Politicians lie
A lot of us had high hopes that the Bastarache Commission would come up with a definitive answer as to whether Liberal organizers used undue influence in the selection of judges, but alas, it was not to be.

Perhaps we are spoiled by television legal dramas that feature fearful defendants, who crack in the witness box under the relentless questioning of skillful attorneys. Failing that, there is always irrefutable forensic evidence or the inevitable reveal of the 'smoking gun.'

Too bad that it doesn't happen that way in real life, where reality more resembles our thoroughly unsatisfying Bastarache Commission, where witness after witness told fantastical versions of the truth, with lawyers for the commission or for Mr. Bellemare, unable to crack them or offer any effective rebuttal.

The only irrefutable fact to come out of the hearings, is that certain politicians and political hacks, have no compunction about lying under oath.

In sworn testimony, Marc Bellemarre claimed that he confronted the Premier on September 2, 2003 to air out his complaints about political interference by Liberal party fundraisers in the selection of candidates for appointments to the bench.
On the other hand, Premier Charest, in sworn testimony said that the meeting never occurred!

Somebody's lying!!!

In fact during the closing arguments by both Charest and Bellemare's lawyers, they combined to accuse practically every witness of lying!

In making up one's mind about where the truth really lies, it comes down to who's side you were on going into the hearings.
Who's the winner and loser in all this!
Loser = Jean Charest, Marc Bellemare and the public
Winner = The lawyers =$$$$

'Terrorist' not in Quebecois lingo
A lot has been written in the press recently in relation to the fortieth anniversary of the October Crisis, when two separate FLQ  (Front de libération du Québec) terrorist cells kidnapped a Quebec cabinet Minister and British trade consul.

It seems that there's a concerted effort to re-write history and romanticize the kidnappers, describing them as misguided young dreamers who never intended to kill Pierre Laporte and whose death was nothing more than an unfortunate accident.

Read an excellent account of this  phenomenon by DON MACPHERSON, writing in the Montreal Gazette entitled "Extremist makeover -the FLQ edition"

But this makeover seems to cross all political and journalistic lines. In article after article, in television or radio, among francophone journalists, the word 'terrorist ' seems not to exist in describing the FLQ.

I've scanned over one hundred articles recently and incredibly, the FLQ is called a lot of things, but not terrorists.

"felquistes" - "ravisseurs" - "révolutionnaires" - "jeunes felquistes"
"groupe armé" - " individus" - " kidnappeurs"

Here's just a sampling of the articles I reviewed;

La Presse Canadienne Montreal -- TVA/LCN- Crise d'Octobre -- LCN -Claude Poirier -- La Presse- 

Lysiane Gagnon -- CANOE--Metro Montreal- Chronologie de la Crise d'octobre 1970-

NORMAN DELISLE -- Journal de Montreal -- Canoe --  Radio-Canada --  Rue Fronteanc 

 LaPresseAffaires -- Révélations sur la mort de Pierre Laporte -- Le FLQ à Sainte-Anne-de-Larochelle
 Le fil des événements-Journal de Montreal -- La Crise d'octobre: 40 ans après Une mort fortuite, pas un assassinat --

In fact the only article that I could find referring to 'terrorism' in relation to Quebec is this one.
De Londres à Ottawa, le terrorisme d’État dans l’histoire du Québec.
Interestingly it refers to 'state terrorism,' not the FLQ. hmm....

And so in Quebec, it is clearly verboten or perhaps politically incorrect to refer to members of the FLQ as terrorists. Why?
Is it a case of “one man’s terrorist being another’s freedom fighter.”

What if 33 miners were stuck underground  in a Quebec mine?
Thanks to Geneviève, who sent me an email giving me a heads up to a hilarious article that presents a spoof of what it would be like if miners would be trapped in a Quebec mine and subject to Quebec bureaucracy. Hilarious!
Sorry, the article is in French and there's no English translation.