Language Hysteria Grips Quebec

The run up to the passage of Bill 115 (formerly Bill 103) and the imposition of closure on the debate in the National Assembly has sparked an unprecedented reaction by language militants that can only be described as hysteria.

Gauging the depth of the reaction, one could easily imagine that the law provides for the abolition of the French language and the imposition of English as Quebec's national language and listening to the likes of Pierre Curzi, who declared that the law is as dangerous as the War Measures Act, one might assume that the law will have a profound and fundamental change in the language landscape of the Province.

Of course it is all pure hogwash.
To alarmist French language militants, facts are merely an inconvenience and never get in the way of a good narrative.

Mario Beaulieu, head of the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste and someone who never met a fact that he couldn't manipulate, described the recent demonstration protesting the law, that took place in front of Premier Charest's office, as having 5,000 demonstrators. Link
Radio-Canada put the number of demonstrators at 2,000 and then of course there's the Montreal Gazette who pegged the number of demonstrators at 700. Hmm......

It's hard to have any sort of adult conversation about the very real need to protect the French language, when militants, invent, exaggerate and distort reality to the point that any discussion is pointless.

Anglos who choose to remain in Quebec remain sensitive to the need to protect French. Those who went through the English school system over the last forty years are bilingual and almost all of us enjoy speaking French, as long as a gun isn't held to our head.

Stories of arrogant Anglos telling Francophones to "speak white" are so ridiculous that it would be funny if not for the fact that so many Francophones believe and propagate this fiction.

Last week I was shopping in a Costco located in Pointe-Claire, a west-island suburb of Montreal where English is the majority language.

A young shopper, with baby in tow, asked a clerk in French where a certain product was located. The stock boy, of high school student age, answered the woman in perfectly passable, yet accented French.  Neither one realized that they were both Anglophones!

My 85 year old mother has no problem speaking French and does so whenever she meets a francophone clerk while shopping.

I have always loved speaking French and like those of you who can speak another language, I am very proud of my bilingualism.
The idea of humiliating someone because of language is too stupid to imagine, yet language militants weave the fiction on a daily basis;

Anglos are cruel...
Anglos are colonizers..
Anglos demand that you address them in English....
Anglos want to take over Quebec...
Anglos seek domination...
Anglos hate Francophones and the French language...
Anglos are snobs and elitists...
Blah..Blah...blah....

The truth of course, is rather different.

Some of us Anglos are rich and some of us are broke. Some of us are struggling and many are doing OK.
Some of us are students, concentrating on graduating and some of us are retirees, trying to live out our days as comfortably as possible.
Some of us are family people battling mortgage payments and juggling a hectic schedule that may include dragging our children to hockey and ballet lessons.
Some of us are young, eager to build a career and trying to find that perfect life partner.
Some of us are white, some of us are black and some of us are brown. Some are straight and some are gay. We are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindi, to name just a few of our religions. Some of us don't believe in God.
Many of us are born in Canada, and many come from countries around the entire world.
We are all different.

We do however, share on thing in common..... We are not colonizers.

We haven't got the time, the desire, the power nor the inclination to colonize anybody.

Anyone who uses the word to describe us, is a blatant racist and unfortunately there are too many of these, among the nationalist movement.

The current hysteria over Bill 115 is just another example of the manipulation of reality by militants who understand that they can only achieve their goals by frightening mainstream francophones.

In the face of so much distortion, let me offer this humble rebuttal and dispel some of the more outrageous myths surrounding Bill 115.

Myth Number 1- The Supreme Court Overturned Bill 104 
For language militants it's easier and more convenient to blame the Supreme Court for the Bill 104 mess, (the law that outlawed the concept of bridging schools) than facing the reality that it was the Quebec courts that did the real damage.

Bill 104 was originally challenged in a Quebec lower court where it was deemed illegal by a Quebec judge. The provincial government appealed the decision to the Quebec Court of Appeals, where once again, the law was tossed.
As they say in baseball, zero for two.

The Quebec government could have left things at that and accepted the decision, but it decided, on its own, to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. I'm sure that all these French language militants protesting today, were in favour of the idea of appealing to the Supreme Court, after all they had nothing to lose, they had lost already!!
It's a bit two-faced to complain about the Supreme Court today, but that irony is lost in the hysteria.
To nobody's surprise, the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the lower court.
Nothing new here, the case was a stinker.
Zero for three.

A cynic could be pardoned for concluding that the Quebec government appealed the case to the Supreme Court, to pass the buck. It would be easier to blame the federal government for the debacle, than to admit that it passed a law that was clearly illegal.

But the Supreme Court, sensitive to the need to protect the French language, offered to stay the execution of the law for a year, allowing the Quebec government time to draft a new law that would be compliant with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This was a lot more than the Quebec courts gave the government. If anything, language militants should thank the Supreme Court!

Myth Number 2- The English School System is demographically over-populated
One of the oldest arguments made by French language militants to limit enrollment in the English school system is the one that says English schools have proportionally more students than is demographically justified. They claim that Anglos make up just 8.5% of the general population yet have 12% of the student population in primary and secondary school systems. Statistics Canada, after a thorough study has recently defined the proportion of Anglophones in Quebec as 12.7%  Statistics Canada

Myth Number 3- Bill 115, will have a profound effect on Anglophone student population'
Bill 115 is actually more restrictive than the law it replaced. In fact nobody is arguing differently. What French language militants are protesting against, is the idea that there is a path, however restrictive and expensive, to an English education for those ineligible according to Bill 101.
The number of students availing themselves of this path is estimated (by language militants) at less than 1,000 a year. Considering that over 10,000 students who are eligible by law for an English education, voluntarily opt to go to French schools each year, the trade off doesn't seem that prejudicial.
Proportionally, for every one francophone that seeks an English education, there are 100 anglophones seeking a French education!
So much for those damned elitist, anglo colonizers!

Of course, language militants, expert in misinformation, will find a way to repudiate these truths. They  will continue to bombard fair-minded citizens with false and misleading facts. They will continue to scream that the sky is falling.

It is the only way to achieve their goals, honesty has clearly failed.

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!