French versus English - Volume 26

Quebec Summer Festival continues to offer English acts

Much to the chagrin of French language militants who complain that English artists shouldn't be part of the summer music festival, organizers have once again thumbed their nose at extremists.
Elton John is about to become the next musical superstar to strut his stuff on the Plains of Abraham.
The 64-year-old John will appear at the Quebec City landmark July 9, as part of the city's annual summer festival.
The Rocket Man's show comes three years after Paul McCartney and Céline Dion gave separate shows on the Plains to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City.
Mettalica and John Fogarty will also be performing at the festival.
McCartney's appearance riled some Quebec nationalists, who said a Brit shouldn't be part of the city's festivities.
The weekend of John's show promises to be a huge one for music fans in Quebec. Irish rockers U2 will be playing at the Montreal Hippodrome on both July 8 and 9. LINK

For Anglos from all over Canada and the United States, the Quebec Summer Festival is a marvelous event for tourists. Quebec remains an open and friendly place to visit, with locals hospitable and English-friendly. It may also be the safest big city in North America. Accommodation prices are reasonable and the shows are the best entertainment value on the continent! Here's a LINK to the Festival's English website.

Election brings unilingual MPs's 

Tyrone Benskin

The NDP wave in Monday's election, which saw a slew of unheralded neophytes elected, has resulted in the perverse situation where some of the newly-minted MPS don't speak the language of the majority of the citizens in the riding. The most bizarre case is that of Ruth Ellen Brosseau who was elected in the very French-speaking riding of Berthier-Maskinongé, where you can count the Anglo residents on the fingers of one hand. The Hull native doesn't speak a word of French and has never set foot in the riding, even during the election campaign! She spent her time during the campaign vacationing in Las Vegas and chilling at home in Hull Yikes!
Musician Tyrone Benskin who won the mixed anglo/French riding of Jeanne-Le Ber in Montreal is also francais-challenged, but at least was very well-spoken in the English interviews that he did give after the election, contrary to the situation with the other surprise Ndp winners.
In the Anglo bastion of Notre-Dame-de-Grace-Lachine, Isabelle Morin a unilingual  teacher speaks no English. Ms. Morin told reporters that Parliament would have to wait for her to finish the school year, as she couldn't see herself abandoning her students mid-term!
In all five, young graduates of McGill university are newly-elected in the Ndp wave, all represent French ridings and actually bring up significantly the amount of Quebec Anglos and English-speaking Ethnics in Parliament.

Quebec student org. opposes Bill 101 in cegep

A federation representing more than 60,000 CEGEP students has decided not to support the proposed extension of the educational provisions of Quebec’s language law into the province’s colleges.
After a lengthy debate during a convention in Lac St. Jean on Sunday, no consensus could be reached by the delegates representing the 23 student associations included in the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec.
Instead, said FECQ president Léo Bureau-Blouin, the federation would push for other means to promote the use of French, particularly in Montreal. LINK

French music on radio in trouble

Le Mouvement Montréal français is organizing a demonstration to demand that Québec radio stations play French music during rush hour. Radio stations have been getting around CRTC quotas that force them to play the less popular French music by scheduling the French music in the middle of the night when nobody is listening, thus fulfilling their obligations.

Meanwhile in France, radio broadcasters struggle to fill language quotas as well.

"French radio stations are struggling to fulfill a quota that demands 40% of songs played be French-language titles...Increasingly French singers have switched to singing in English in recent years due to ease of export and the languages perceived better-suitability for pop music – between 2003 and now the number of French-language album releases dropped from 718 to 158. NRJ radio group’s Maryam Salehi asked: “How can you ask radio broadcasters to respect quotas if producers dry up the source?" LINK

Separatists Demand that McGill Professors speak French

A Montreal daily newspaper La Presse, is making a big deal over a job posting for a professorship in the Agriculture department at McGill University because a knowledge of French wasn't listed as a job requirement.

Contacted about the outrage, Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste's president, blowhard Mario Beaulieu was predictably enraged. 

 "It's unacceptable. I believe that French must be mentioned in the job posting. How will these experts do studies in a milieu where they don't speak the language. LINK{FR}

Second Cup the target of language militants- again

Once again the Canadian coffee chain is under attack for committing a horrendous linguistic faux-pas- Posting a sign in its store that uses both English and French text in equal size. Gasp!....
According to the Journal de Montreal, which actually made the story a feature, occupying two-thirds of a page, many customers complained to the Office de la langue Francais who promised to 'investigate' Link

French Test too hard, so future teachers cheat, again.

"Ever since 2009, prospective teachers have been required to pass a written French certification test to obtain their teaching certificate, a measure implemented by the Ministry of Education to improve literacy of French among new teachers.
Considering the exam too difficult, students first began to exchange answers on a Facebook page last year. Now a website www.tecfee.com  was created by a "support group" where there are several questions from the tests of February and March  posted......
The website which opened in September, receives up to 2,500 visitors a month, and receives hits from all over Quebec."
"This group was created because we believe that our generation has not received the proper tools in the transition to high school and college. Despite the 'reform' and the suggestions of the Parent Commission, we were left to ourselves. Not wanting to blame the previous generation, this group mobilized to improve our culture and our language , "reads the homepage of the site. LINK{FR}

Calgary Board of Education to  dump French

"A national group says it's appalled by the decision from the Calgary Board of Education to slash the mandatory core French program.
Earlier this week, the CBE voted to nix the program in grades 4 through 9 as of the 2011-2012 school year.
The executive director of the Alberta Branch of Canadian Parents for French calls the CBE's decision a "giant step backwards" for French second language education in our province." LINK

English cegeps overflow again

It looks like there won't be enough place in Montreal's English cegeps again this year, as demand is outstripping capacity once more. Last year many qualified students were turned away.
Subsequently entrance requirements have been raised to the point that some students with 85% averages are are being refused entry into certain popular programs, like science.

Greeks urged boycott of Liberal party in election

"The Quebec Hellenic Congress was on the defensive this weekend after counselling Greek voters in a Montreal-area riding not to vote for the Liberal party because its candidate is not of Greek origin. In a letter sent out to its members last weekend, the Congress stated that voters in Laval-les Îles should reconsider their support for Michael Ignatieff 's party because of "the arbitrary decision to nominate a candidate of non-Greek origin, this despite the fact that in this riding there are 30,000 voters of Greek origin who regularly vote for the Liberal party." LINK

Liberal Candidate -  Karine Joizi

 Reacting to this news, a Liberal party organizer,  Fabrice Rivault, offered this jewel;"Why not send these fascists back to Greece? Eeeks!

What's more disturbing is that the outgoing MP, who chose not to run, wasn't Greek either. Is the Hellenique Congress' objection perhaps based on the fact that the new Liberal candidate is a Black francophone Haitian? 

Just asking....

By the way, the outrage in the French press over the audacity of the Greek lobby group to push for a Greek candidate is a bit hypocritical. Regularly, we hear that the Montreal Canadiens need to hire more Francophones and you'll recall that Premier Charest was berated quite openly for hiring an Anglo to run the Caisse du Depot. So really, what is the difference?

Incidentally,  the Bloc candidate, Mohamedali Jetha, probably didn't endear himself to the Greek or the many other Anglo voters in the riding by making  this statement;

"The defence of the French language remains a priority, " said the multi-lingual, recalling that Laval has become "strongly anglicized" between 1996 and 2006.

Did the boycott work?

Most likely it did, with the Ndp candidate winning with a crushing 48% of the vote!

Sun news bashes Quebec

In an article that reeked of schadenfreude, Toronto sun columnist Andrew McIntosh, reveled in the fact that leaked cables obtained through Wikileaks painted Montreal and Quebec in a less than favourable light.  See Leaked cables paint unflattering portrait of Montreal

Another example

In his zeal to pan Montreal,  Mr. McIntosh tells us that;

"Montreal has literally become a "Bangkok of the West,"  
Hmmm...Perhaps Daniel R., a regular reader who drops me a line every now and then about my typos and improper use of English, can advise Mr. McIntosh on the proper use of the term 'literal', or otherwise read this for an explanation
I'm not defending Montreal, but the writer's assertion that Montreal is home to "Massive telemarketing fraud." should in fairness have included this paragraph, ALSO found in those leaked cable.

 "Montreal's relatively cheap labor and energy costs combined with strict privacy laws and lax telemarketing regulations have made it an attractive location for contact centers of all kinds, and the city now finds itself second only to Toronto for the dubious  title of "telemarketing scam capital of North America."  Link

Toronto, Heal Hyself!! 

Further reading ; French versus English -Volume 25

Osama Bin Laden's Quebec Apologists

First it was Uncle Tom Mulcair telling the CBC that he didn't believe that the US had pictures of a dead Osama Bin Laden and then he said that he it didn't matter even if they did have picture, 'it wouldn't prove very much." Watch the video of a stunned reporter interviewing another NDP conspiracy theorist.
1. Link to the CBC story and
2. Click on the video
3. Laugh at the idiot who will be the deputy opposition leader.

Not an auspicious start for the NDP's number two. 
By the way, readers, if you'd like to meet another NDP idiot truther, watch recently re-elected NDP hero, Libby Davies, present a petition to Parliament  asserting that the US government was responsible for 9-11. LINK

Any ways, moving along......

While we'd expect the usual gang of rogue nations and certain Christian/Jew-hating imams to denounce the death of the world's number one terrorist, it is surprising how little support has actually been publicly offered.

Of course first on the list of Osama supporters is the Palestinian Hamas government in Gaza, whose leader Ismail Haniyeh,  commented:
"We condemn the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior. We regard this as a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and the shedding of Muslim and Arab blood." Link

Readers might recall that when the Twin Towers fell on 9/11, Gaza broke out in spontaneous exuberant demonstrations of support for the terrorists and joyful celebration of the murder of the 3000 plus victims. Watch Palestinians celebrate on YouTube
But no matter, in Quebec we love Palestinians and hate Israelis.

Even Iran, believe it or not, has expressed satisfaction at the death of Osama. Around the world, country after country, commentator after commentator has expressed loud support for the killing of Osama Bin Laden.

If you scour the Internet, it's hard to find a sympathetic word for Osama outside radical fundamentalist  Islamic organizations.

Except in Quebec, where the nutters come out on vigile.net.

While the world rejoices in Osama's death our very own Richard LeHir decries the fact that he was gunned down.

"Indeed, from the time when American intelligence knew where bin Laden was hiding, nothing prevented them from seizing his person and then bring him to justice, and the fact that they chose, on the order of the President of the United States, to liquidate it altogether on the field, leaves the worst suspicions.Yet in his very brief statement, Obama did not even attempt to argue that bin Laden had been killed because it had not been possible to capture him alive.Instead, he assumed full responsibility for his order to assassinate bin Laden, as if it were the most natural thing and most legitimate of the world....This justice, it is straight out of a bad western theme, and it certainly does not help improve the U.S. image worldwide." Link

Mr. LeHir is badly out of touch if he thinks that the world is upset.  Really, out of touch...

From a Lebanese newspaper

Marius Morin on vigil.net tells that;

"Bin Laden is dead, the crowd and the media are cheering. A victory over terrorism. This is all based on lies. According to several proofs, bin Laden died December 13, 2001, murdered by the Pakistani services....
....While the enemy remains alive, all wars, military strikes, invasions, killings, torture Guantanamins are allowed, and criminals who are the authors are covered: Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, McChrystal, Obama, Hilary Clinton, etc.. Without this lie, (that Osama is alive) well orchestrated and planned, all these people would be accused of war crimes against humanity and would be behind bars." LINK{FR} (read it, it's a jewel)

In decrying the fact that the world is happy with Ben Laden's death, François Munyabagisha on vigile.net warns us not to celebrate.

"2 000 years ago, the spiritual leader of Christians perished on a wooden cross. People celebrated the end of his cause..... Today his ideology still resists against the winds and the tides." Link 

And so, according to the author, Osama, like Jesus, was just misunderstood and perhaps ahead of his time.

Readers, say it with me.... UghhHHH..................

For Die-Hards, Bloc Collapse as Painful as Referendum Loss

Ever since Monday night, there's been a lot of tears and hand-wringing among committed sovereignists, who watched the painful implosion of a hitherto beloved separatist institution.

Indeed, for separatists, watching the Bloc Quebecois going down to ignominious defeat was probably as painful as watching your favourite boxer being trashed for several rounds before collapsing to the canvas only to suffer the inevitable and humiliating ten-count, followed by the referee's emphatic signal, that the fight is over,
K/O... Kaput!....The fat lady has sung!

It was like referendum night all over again..

Forgive my hyperbolic metaphor, but I'm feeling mighty smug and self-satisfied.

I don't usually take pleasure at someone else's misfortune, but in this case, I daresay that I'll make an exception.
And so, I'll take some time to revel in the Bloc's wipeout as well as time to celebrate a majority government.

A special treat for me is the reaction of the you-know-whos, like Louis Prefontaine who is frothing at the mouth in rage and humiliation. Read Une race de ti-counes{FR}  SWEET!

Some sovereignists are trying to spin the Bloc defeat as something positive for the separatist movement, but let's face it, four years of a majority Conservative government must be as inviting as a trip to the dentist for root canal surgery. Read this drivel,  Un excellent pas vers l’Indépendance{FR}

Truthfully, I didn't care whether it was a Liberal or Conservative majority, as long as the separatists were dealt out of the political equation.

Ironically, with almost 24% of the vote in Quebec, the Bloc won just 5% of the seats.
For twenty years the Bloc has punched above its weight, earning two-thirds of the seats with about forty percent of the vote. Payback's a bitch!

The Bloc's presence in Ottawa underlined the fragility of our Parliamentary democracy. Those Quebeckers who decided to mock Canada by electing secessionists, put an enormous amount of pressure on an institution designed to work with elected officials who want the best for the country, not the worst.

Luckily our democracy withstood the test and ultimately the sovereignists realized that even with a forced minority government, federalists would not give in to separatist demands.

Such was the humiliating rout that the Bloc will likely disappear forever, the experiment to promote sovereignty in Ottawa, a failed gambit.
Without an elected leader and without party status, there is no basis to continue, certainly in consideration of the choice that Quebec voters made.
Looking at four years of roaming the political wilderness, it will be next to impossible to keep the Bloc brand alive. I'm not even sure they can pay off their campaign expenses, considering that the federal subsidy will drop by over 40%. If they're depending on the generosity of Quebeckers to help them pay off the debt, they may as well declare bankruptcy now!

So like every Canadian federalist, I'm glad to see them gone and gone forever.

It would be an error to believe that the rejection of the Bloc is an utter rejection of the sovereignty option. After a 20 year experiment in pushing secession in Ottawa, with zero tangible results, many 'soft' nationalists decided that it was just time to pack in the Ottawa adventure.

But while the Bloc's demise is not fatal to the sovereignty movement, it does deal the secessionists a painful body blow.
It signals that the Parti Quebecois is no shoe-in to replace the faltering provincial Liberals, whose franchise is well-past the 'use-by' date. Like their federal counterparts, the word 'Liberal' is toxic in French Quebec, but it doesn't mean that the Peekists are a natural replacement. Quebeckers have shown that they have no problem with rejecting 'all-of-the-above' and going down a different road.

 Gilles Duceppe's political career is  over, I don't see him enjoying any significant role (other than an elder statesman) in the sovereignty movement after this abject failure. The collapse of the Bloc will be pinned on him by hard-liners and the only  political role left  for him is to wear the goat-horns. His political star is eclipsed.

In spite of a brave face, the Parti Quebecois and Pauline Marois in particular are terrified of what happened election night.
Quebeckers have the told politicians that they were tired of the status quo and likely that will play out in Quebec's next provincial election.

For the Liberal and the Peekists, all I can say is....Be afraid, be very afraid.

Quebec Exchanges Four Quarters for a Dollar

So after all this, the polls underestimated the Conservative support once again and even though Quebec exchanged the Ndp for the Bloc, the real story is the Liberal collapse in Ontario, in favour of the Conservatives.

Quebec once again, remains the little boy with his nose rubbed up to the window, looking in from the outside at the Conservative party going on inside.

Is the Bloc collapse significant? I believe so.
Gilles Duceppe has already announced that he's abandoning ship and resigning as leader.
It's off to academia!
After a while, it's likely that the party will disband and the few members elected to sit as independents.
Dum-Da-Dum-Da!

So eager were Quebeckers to show the door to the Bloc, that the province elected a bunch of hardened communists, socialists and unilingual anglophones to represent French ridings!
Talk about the twilight zone.......

With the election of a majority government, the opposition is irrelevant. Layton and Mulcair can huff and puff to their hearts content and the large Ndp contingent in Parliament is of no concern.

By the way, the Bloc got almost 25% of the Quebec vote and won (at the time of writing this post) just 3 seats.
Payback's a bitch! Hahaha!

Rebuilding the Liberal franchise won't be easy, the party borrowed heavily to finance this current campaign. With the election results, the party will see their governmental subsidy halved. The Conservatives will no doubt eliminate this subsidy in the new term. Tough nougies!

Readers, this is a short post. It's meant to open up comments to you, I'm sure you've got a lot to say.

Here's some questions;

• What will Harper do with his majority

• How long will it take for Ignatieff to resign?

• What will happen to Duceppe?

• Who should take over the leadership of the Liberals?

• Who is cabinet material and who will replace Quebec's fallen ministers"

• Will Harper 'screw' Quebec? 

Go ahead, the floor is open!

Between the Bloc and the Ndp, I'll take the Bloc

Yes, there I said it.
Given a choice between the Bloc and the Ndp winning a riding, I'm hoping for the Bloc.

Strange? Perhaps, but the Bloc is a known entity. It's presence in Ottawa is annoying, but not particularly damaging. For twenty years they've twiddled their thumbs and been politically irrelevant.

For the last years, they've prevented the Conservatives from having a majority, something most Canadians actually see as a good thing. Nothing would change with a vote switch to the Ndp, we'll still be left with a minority, but with an Ndp party that will be in a position to make real demands, not a particularly enticing prospect.
God help us if they become the official opposition.

And so I'll take the Bloc, a party that has zero chance of affecting legislation, with no real political agenda other than to annoy and one that is satisfied with doing nothing, happy to bide it's time, building Parliamentary pensions.

There's a joke in Quebec that Anglos would rather vote for the Mafia before voting for a separatist and I daresay it's true. See why Anglos prefer the Mafia to Separatists
That being said, I'd rather see a separatist (with little power to advance a separatist agenda) elected in Ottawa, than a socialist dipper, a party that can wreck actual havoc.
Remember Ontario under Bob Rae?

Today is election day and for most of us who are politically informed, it's a nervous day, especially since we really don't know what is going to happen.
As the cartoon above indicates, voting is a special privilege for those who care and the actual casting of one's ballot is a solemn and thoroughly satisfying experience.

Unfortunately, most of us will end up disappointed, especially in Quebec where there are four strong parties vying for our votes. Basic math tells us that the majority of us will probably have voted for a candidate who loses, but no matter, this is our democracy.

As for voter turnout, I daresay that it might  skyrocket from a paltry 59% in the 2008 election, to over 70% this time around. With the very real specter that vote-splitting will affect the outcome of countless ridings, it appears that more than in the past, each vote counts. This coupled with the fact that the polls are all over the place, with nobody really sure of what tomorrow's result will drive participation. People tend to vote more when the conclusion is uncertain.

As for these polls,
 The dirty little secret that few pollsters will admit, is that the art of gauging public opinion has become LESS accurate over the last decade or so, for of a variety of reasons, the most important being that the response rate, or the number of people willing to answer questions from pollsters has fallen to about 15% from  over 70%. That and the preponderance of wireless phones, (which most pollsters don't call) makes getting an accurate sample much more expensive.

Here's how the pundits did in the last election, not so good by any standard.

So much for the experts and their predictions. I am reminded of the old adage that tells us that 'Experts built the Titanic"

Strategic voting is an interesting and purely Canadian concept, I can't imagine it happening too often anywhere else in the world.
The best example of the phenomenon is the riding of Papineau where Justin Trudeau is fighting for his political life against the Bloc. With the Conservatives having no chance to win, many of Harperites  are swallowing hard and casting a Liberal vote, in an effort to limit the Bloc success. This phenomenon is happening in many ridings across the country.

As for the election all I can do is fantasize along with all of you and hope for the best.

As for my fantasy wish list, here goes;

•  I hope Larry Smith gets elected in Montreal's West Island.  CHANCES IT WILL HAPPEN - Not so good.

•  I hope Elizabeth May gets elected out in BC's Saanich-Gulf Islands. I really can't stand the Greens, but democracy is served by having some representation in Parliament. May is the only Green with any chance to win.  CHANCES IT WILL HAPPEN - Good.

• I hope that Saulie Zajdel knocks off Irwin Cotler in Mount-Royal, in Montreal's designated 'Jewish' riding. Cotler is an anachronism from a time when Human rights was an issue. He made one of the very worst appointments to the Supreme Court when he named a family friend, Rosa Abella to the Supreme Court. Abella with a pedigree as a radical women's libber and a veteran of the Ontario Human Right's Commission is everything I don't particularly support. Ugh!..... Cotler also was an MP with one of the lowest attendance records in the last Parliamentary session, absent almost half the time. CHANCES IT WILL HAPPEN - 50/50

• I hope that 'Uncle' Thom Mulcair loses in Outremont, Montreal. Mulcair is the only person running for office in the whole country that I actually hate with a passion. He is an evil, self-serving political rat that would sell his kids for power. CHANCES IT WILL HAPPEN - not a chance

• I hope that Marlene Jennings and Marc Garneau two Montreal Liberal incumabants, both on the bubble, get re-elected. Anything better than the Ndp. CHANCES IT WILL HAPPEN-Good.

• I hope that Justin Trudeau gets re-elected. CHANCES IT WILL HAPPEN - Good

• I hope that Helena Guergis gets re-elected as an independent. Not my favourite person but treated shabbily by Stephen Harper. . CHANCES IT WILL HAPPEN - Not so Good.

• I hope that Ken Dryden loses his seat in Toronto. Dryden seems to have lost his heart and interest . CHANCES IT WILL HAPPEN -  Good.

• I hope that Conservative cabinet minister Lawrence Cannon gets re-elected in Pontiac, Anglo-Quebeckers only representation in the Harper cabinet . CHANCES IT WILL HAPPEN - Not Good.

• In spite of my desire to have the Bloc win against the Ndp, I'll make an exception for Gilles Duceppe who will lose his seat if the Ndp surge holds. CHANCES IT WILL HAPPEN - 50/50
  

Finally  a note about the TWITTER controversy, with many vowing to release election results before polls have closed in the West, contrary to Election Canada rules. LINK
This is another media generated story that has no bearing in fact.
Election Canada has neatly side-stepped the problem by keeping polls open late in the East and closing early in the West.
As it stands, there is only a half hour  difference in real time between the time the polls close in the East and West. Consider the time it takes to count ballots and TWITS who want to spill the beans can only affect those voters who choose to vote on the west coast in the last ten minutes before the polls close.
Still think this is a big story? Bah!

By the way, Prince William and his new bride will visit Canada with a stop in Quebec this summer. No doubt the heir to the throne will be met with demonstrating yahoos, but it's interesting to note that he speaks fluent French,. At least three anglo Ndp candidates running in predominantly francophone ridings in Quebec can't speak a word of French. One might even be elected!

NOTE TO READERS;
I will post tomorrow, but not at the usual midnight hour. I'll wait for election results and hope to have a a post out by Noon.