French versus English - Volume 28

Billionaire labels separatists 'fascists'

"One of the world's richest financial advisers has bowed out of the Action democratique du Quebec's annual convention after describing the sovereignty movement as 'fascist.'

Stephen Jarislowsky says he doesn't want to involve the party in a debate it hasn't sought or disrupt the conference to be held this weekend in Trois-Rivieres.

Jarislowsky withdrew after he was quoted in a Montreal newspaper as saying that the separatist movement is perhaps not like Nazism, but it is 'fascist.'" Read the rest of the story

French public school dumps English lessons-Too hard for students.
 A French primary school in  Laval, Le Sentier, has dropped it's English program claiming that it's too hard on students.
"Based on our analysis results, several students were in a situation of failure or in the process of failing. To devote more hours to learn English, we must cut time devoted to the other subjects, thus requiring more student effort. A pupil in trouble at the primary school level will also be a student in trouble at the secondary level and may jeopardize his graduation." "explained a spokesman for the Commission scolaire de Laval. 
Most parents are not amused and are considering action, including a petition to have the program returned to class. Said one mother, "By abolishing a program in place for 25 years, we lose our edge, it ceases to be a model school," LINK{FR}

In an unrelated but equally interesting education story, Lucien Francoeur, a veteran educator had some choice words to describe the modern Quebecois students;
"Students who come from elsewhere have mastered three languages​​: their mother tongue, they all learn English and also the French that they have learned with traditional methods. Le Québécois "ethnics" use  one English word in  four (fun, top, chill), but cannot not have a conversation in English and write their mother tongue phonetically. When I form a study group it is often the ethnic student that supports the quality of French because they speak it better than native Québécois." OUCH!  LINK

Anglo News Editor draws ire over Duceppe/Osama article
The editor of a small English local newspaper got into trouble after writing about his joy over the defeat of the Bloc Quebecois.

 "Seeing the Bloc Québécois virtually wiped off the political map was almost as much fun as listening to President Barrack Obama describe Osama bin Laden’s death at the hands of the US Navy Seals."

 The small article in a newspaper of minuscule readership made a big splash in the French press which collectively decided that the editor, David Goldberg had drawn an unfair comparison between Mr. Duceppe and the head of the terrorist network.
Gilles Rhéaume, the noted separatist militant and head honcho of an organization he himself created to combat alleged Quebec bashing  (Ligue Québécoise contre la francophobie canadienne) has made a complaint to the Quebec Press Council on the basis that Mr. Goldberg's remarks were mean. The article has been pulled from the newspapers' website and the editor wrote an apology (sort of) the following week.
Read the story about Mr. Rhéaume HERE{FR}
Read the original article HERE

New SSJB branch created to fight English cottagers

SSJB spokesman Roger Kemp- English cottagers a menace!

The Societe Saint-Jean-Baptiste proudly announced the opening of a regional branch in the Mauricie District district of Quebec, an area that remains one of Quebec's most unilingually French regions in the province.

According to Roger Kemp, president and spokesman for the regional branch of the Movement, Trois-Rivières and the Mauricie are not immune to the consequences of the invasion of English.

"More and more voices being raised that as the situation of French in Montreal deteriorates, it is becoming more difficult to respond to clients in some local shops in the metropolis. This situation is spreading and we are feeling the effects in the Mauricie," he says. He mentioned as an example the fact that an employee of a local company from the region, may be obliged to speak English when dealing with a small unilingual anglophone businss from Montreal. Even worse, a municipal employee in the region may be obliged   to speak in English to a new owner of a cottage who does not speak French.
Really? .......Oh, the inhumanity!!!!
 Mr. Kemp added an ominous warning that if the trend continues Trois-Rivières and all of Québec are in danger of becoming English! LINK{FR}

Outgoing Habs GM unloads on language.

Pierre Bovin the outgoing general manager of the Montreal Canadiens unburdened himself in a frank and revealing interview with Montreal Gazette writer Dave Stubbs,

"Pierre Boivin, the outgoing president of the Montreal Canadiens, has some advice for the federal New Democratic Party.
He didn't put it that way. But the NDP, which proposes to require that all judges of the Supreme Court of Canada be bilingual, should take note of something Boivin said in his interview with Dave Stubbs of The Gazette, published on Wednesday.
While English is the working language in the front offices and dressing rooms of the National Hockey League, the general manager and the coach of the Canadiens must be able to explain themselves to the team's fans in French as well.
This bilingualism requirement means the Canadiens "are severely competitively disadvantaged," Boivin said. read the rest of the Montreal Gazette article

And for a weekend laugh........

Sign = " HERE we do business in French"

FAILQC.com, always good for a smile!

Montreal's Bicycle Nightmare

You'd think that driving in Montreal is hard enough considering the deplorable state of the roads and the labyrinth of constriction sites that can turn any mundane journey into a nightmare, where a fifteen minute trip can morph into either an hour-long bumper-to-bumper trip through Hell, or a visit to the garage, to fix the car suspension, after falling victim to North America's worst pot-holed streets.

Adding dedicated bicycle lanes downtown, may just be the most foolhardy project that the city has ever undertaken and this in the city that has produced boondoggles like the Olympic Stadium. 

Montreal - Jaywalking capital of North America

Driving was never easy in Montreal. Poor planning and even poorer maintenance has resulted in a road system that is an embarrassment to its citizens and a humiliating indictment of incompetence of those who run the city.

79% of drivers say that Montreal streets are more congested this year over last year. 75% believe there are too many construction zones and most believe that these sites are poorly organized, complaining that the pace of work is slow, with  many sites lying dormant for long periods of time!

To make matters worse, Montreal drivers, cyclists and pedestrians are notorious scofflaws and so crossing any sort of intersection, be it on foot, on a bicycle or in a car is always a scary affair.
Adding dedicated bike lanes to the mix, with cyclists whizzing by helter-skelter, places another burden on car drivers who already suffer from sensory overload.

Overpass- FAIL

 The fact that drivers must worry if the overpass they are driving under or the bridge they are driving upon will literally fall down, either crushing them in their car or plunging them into the mighty St. Lawrence river, makes motoring in Montreal an adventure, not for the faint of heart or inexperienced.

It takes a steady nerve to drive the Metropolitain Boulevard, a decrepit elevated cross-town highway that boasts no run off shoulders and lanes so narrow that you can roll down your window and touch the eighteen wheeler racing along beside you.

Quality paving- a Montreal tradition.

To cross the St. Lawrence river over to the south shore, three out of the four bridge choices are problematic. The condition of the Champlain, the busiest bridge in Canada, has been variously described by experts as somewhere between ready to fall at any moment or good for another ten years....maybe.
 
The Victoria train bridge is safe but ancient and offers just one lane in each direction. The drive on the grated deck sends a jarring vibration up your spine to the point that it feels like one is being drilled at the dentist and being able to see (through the grate,) straight down at the raging river below is not for acrophobics.
The ever under-construction Mercier bridge is so decrepit and the road so poor that the all-too often closures due to safety concerns may be the least of driver's problems.

Falling concrete. Watch out below!

Then there is that other cross town highway, the elevated 'Ville-Marie' expressway that has chunks of concrete falling off of it on a regular basis, leading to months-long lane closures in order to facilitate ad-hoc patch-up repairs.
All the overpasses on the highway leading to Montreal's airport have had the lanes reduced to one from two, due to weight concerns and the fear that they too are in danger of falling down.

"Wait for the Green light"

Enough? Well, I'm not finished.
When I said that Montrealers are notorious scofflaws, I wasn't exaggerating. It seems that traffic signs and stop lights are merely suggestions. Any driver who assumes pedestrians will wait their turn to cross a street is dangerously out of touch with reality. Conversely a pedestrian who assumes that cars will politely stop at a crosswalk is taking their life into their hands.

What other city in North America has signs under traffic lights reminding drivers that they should wait for the green light to proceed?

You'd think city officials would try to come up with a plan to make things better, but if you did, you'd be displaying a childlike naivete and an utter lack of understanding of what makes Montreal tick.

Montreal is like your neighbour who drives a shiny car but lives in dump. It's a town that dresses up, but can't pay the VISA bill and like a family that goes on a vacation instead of fixing the leaky roof.

In other words it's a city with retarded priorities.

The left lane. Where experienced drivers don't drive.

Rather than fixing the road infrastructure at a cost of billions, it's easier to ignore the problem and dress up the city with spanking new bicycle paths, built at a cost of gazillions with nary a thought as to the legacy of all that lane trimming will have on traffic.
With it's five month long winter, its roads in such abominable condition and scofflaws for residents,  Montreal must be the worst-positioned city in North America to embrace a cycling culture.  Read this tale of woe.

Montreal's sad bicycle saga should serve as a cautionary tale to any large urban city considering chopping up their precious roads to embrace a phony bicycle/green culture.

I know that what I am saying is bordering on the heretical, but a certain level of rational debate must be returned to the question of bicycles in the city.

Granolas have argued the principle that bicycles are a green alternative to automobiles and represent a step forward in urban planning.

That, gentle reader,  is a cruel lie.

Studies in Europe and in North America all agree that there is no discernible decrease in car use with the addition of bike paths in a city. Bikes represent an alternative to public transport, that's all.

Bike paths are used mainly for recreation and leisure. Sure, there are students who bicycle to school, but the alternative is the bus or subway, not cars. The number of office workers, store clerks and downtown shoppers arriving on bicycles is negligible.

How many people do you know that have sold their car in favour of a bicycle and use it as their principle mode of transportation? I don't know any.

Considering that the downtown bike paths are closed five months a year BECAUSE OF SNOW, the whole project represents an egregious waste of the most valuable urban commodity of all- space.

Anyone  who tells you that bikes could and should be part of an integrated transportation plan is an dangerous idiot.

Then of course, there is the safety issue. Take a look at the picture on the right. It practically screams, "Accident ready to happen!"
Crossing the bike lane to effect a simple turn has become a frightening affair where helmet-less, earphone wearing bikers, fly innocently along, oblivious to what is happening around them, secure in the knowledge that it is the driver's responsibility to make sure no collision occurs.

And so driving in Montreal has become ever more dangerous.

There is a fierce bicycle lobby that has cowed public officials by tapping into the public's blind acceptance of any concept that is green, regardless of the costs versus any benefits.
Bicycle lobbyists continue to exploit the public's ignorance to advance a philosophy that benefits the very few at the expense of the many.

And so the public continues to be pedalled (excuse the pun) a bill of goods.
The vaunted BIXI bike rental program, a Montreal invention that is sweeping North America turns out to be a giant money-losing fraud with the Mayor now telling us that he expected the service, like public transport, to lose money. Of course he never told us that before the service was installed.  And so taxpayers are on the hook for another 100 million dollar loan to keep the program alive and cyclists continue to get a free ride at the taxpayer's expense.
By the way, if you don't have a sense of what a 100 million dollars is, consider that it's enough money to pay for a $300 bicycle for each and every child under 15 years old, living in the entire island of Montreal, that's 300,000 children!
BIXI has 40,000 members.

However one does the math, the benefit of bike paths versus the drawbacks don't add up.
When the public debate comes to your city over bike paths, don't say you weren't warned.

Further reading by  P. J. O'ROURKE  'Dear Urban Cyclists: Go Play in Traffic'

NHL Coaches Show the Power of Biligualism

Three out of the four semi-finalist teams in this year's Stanley Cup playoffs are coached by a Francophone, two Quebeckers and one Franco-Ontarian. Not only are the coaches bilingual, their English is just about impeccable, as you can see in this video.

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The NHL operates in English and whether you come from Quebec, Newfoundland, Russia, Finland, Sweden or parts unknown, you better be able to speak English if you want to participate.
These Francophone coaches are shining examples of the opportunities that bilingualism offers Quebeckers to those who choose to embrace the most important language in the world.
 
Unfortunately, there are nationalist voices in Quebec that are actually fighting the notion of learning English as a second language, because they see it as a threat to their own French language and Quebec culture.
In this regard, Quebec must be one of the very, very, few places in the world where the benefits of learning English is actually a subject of  public debate.

The most repeated argument that militants make against English is that Quebeckers should not be obliged to learn it, because most of them will end up spending a lifetime in a unilingual situation in Quebec, where they can work and recreate exclusively in French.

And so, this idea, that if you don't aspire to work outside the province, you needn't learn English assumes that children in grade school have already made the decision to remain in Quebec.

The old teaching axiom of telling kids they can be anything they want, if they work hard, apparently doesn't apply in Quebec.

Perhaps Quebec teachers should ask kindergarten students for a show of hands to determine who wants to remain in Quebec and who wants a wider horizon. Those toddlers who have decided that they will spend their entire life in Quebec can safely be exempted from English class!

To make the decision easier perhaps teachers can explain to the five year-olds that they needn't learn English because their best shot at success lies in Quebec. After all, its hard to make it in the real world and perhaps Quebeckers can't compete. After all, few from Quebec have been successful internationally,  nobody from Quebec has ventured into space, nobody has headlined the most popular show in Las Vegas, nobody has run an international entertainment company or became a world champion car racer or poker player or for that matter, a coach or player in the NHL, or anything else that demands talent and excellence coupled with English.

The message to these students, that their horizons end at the Quebec border, is criminal, fostered by a ruling class who have chosen their own unilingual path.
Most of those who run Quebec politically, socially, and educationally are such unilinguals. Seeing themselves as successful, they see no problem with unilingualism.

The saddest part of all this is when Quebeckers realize that not having English is a handicap, it's too late for most.
Last summer I went on a European cruise and was seated for dinner each night beside a large table of sixtyish Quebeckers. One member of the group spoke English and he had to order dinner for everyone each night. I imagine he had to make all the arrangements for touring and excursions and I can't imagine how the group got around Italy, Greece and Turkey without English. As in just about every international domain, the tourist industry operates in English.

One morning, I overheard one of the Quebeckers inquire of the tour guide (in halting English) as to when her group was to exit the ship.
After receiving a very polite answer, she turned to her friend and asked.
"Qu'est-ce que ça veut dire 'corter do ate?''

How on Earth would anybody want to condemn their children to a lifetime of that!

Travel opens the eyes as to the necessity of English. I'm reminded of all those francophone high school graduates who sew a Quebec flag onto their knapsack, travel to foreign destinations, only to discover that they cannot be understood without English and that nobody has a clue as to which country that little blue flag represents. It's an eye-opener that comes sadly late in the game.

Not everyone in Quebec feels that English is a threat. In fact almost 80% believe that bilingualism is an asset. Here's an open letter by Gaétan Frigon who at one time ran the Liquor monopoly, the SAQ and Loto-Québec;

 "Our history is littered with situations which prompted us to protect and promote French in Quebec. However, this promotion has too often taken an anti-English form rather than a pro-French.

The idea was to prevent our young people from learning English too early lest they become anglicized. But it is time that our vision of the English language change. The English of yesteryear that we fought for so long, no longer exists. The English of today is not the language of the victorious British, but rather one imposed as the international language of U.S. hegemony, ever since the end of the Second World War.

Quebec today must adapt to this reality or risk losing any competitive advantage in its relations with other countries.

In fact, in world history, there has always been one language that more or less dominated. Latin was this language for the longest time. French had also been, especially at the diplomatic level. There have been attempts to impose upon the world the language of Esperanto, but it failed. Today, there is only one language that can be classified as international, and it is English.

If a Chinese person wants to do business with a German, chances are they do it in English. If a Japanese person wants to do business with a Spaniard, chances are they will do it in English as well. And if a Quebecker wants to converse with a Korean, chances are they will do so in English.

If you go around the world, the English language becomes a passkey that allows you to be  understood by almost everyone, anywhere, and without regard to political status of countries where you find yourself. 

In my many travels around the world, I have personally experienced that my knowledge of French was totally unnecessary, but where I was lost without a working knowledge of English.

Even in large cities of China, the signs designating the street names are in Mandarin and English. A country like Vietnam, most of whose inhabitants still spoke French a few decades ago, has changed dramatically. Today, only people over 50 still speak some French while the younger ones are learning English as a second language and speak it fluently. The same phenomenon also occurs in Italy, where the second most spoken language is not French, but English.

In Quebec, our response to English is still negative because of our history and it is unfortunate, because it brings us into a dead end. It is a sign of what we've been, but not a sign that we must become as an emancipated people . Whether we agree or not, our youth will eventually be losers if they do not speak English, simply because young people all over the world will master English.

In taking up English, we as a people show that we are mature enough to put aside the English symbol of British rule and adopt English by necessity as the only international language.

In doing so, Quebecers clearly demonstrate that they are mature, by being able to live and work in French at home without crushing the English language that has become indispensable as a second language.

In fact, in most non-English speaking countries, governments are doing everything in their power to ensure that their children learn English as soon as possible. we should certainly not want Quebec to become the only nation in the world where young people leave school without mastering the only language that they can  be universally understood elsewhere on the planet.

Mastering English as a second language is a priority for all Quebecers, separatists as well as  federalists. Otherwise, we will simply become a Francophone ghetto without a future. " LINK

Further reading: No Klingon in Quebec

Quebec "Intellectuals" Beat Up Voters over NDP Choice

Reading the angry reactions in the sovereigntist press over the surprising success of the Ndp in Quebec in the federal election, reminded me of the tag-line of that old comedian, Flip Wilson, who in a famous bit where he feigned embarrassment when caught wearing a short dress, offered the comedic excuse that, "THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT!"
A recurring theme running through these sovereigntist opinion pieces holds that Quebec voters were naive, lazy and overly influenced by the polls and the federalist media.

And so, it wasn't a conscious political choice that Quebeckers made in opting for Layton, but rather the overbearing influence of federalist La Presse and Radio-Canada which were accused of promoting the Ndp. The federalist devil made them do it!

I couldn't help but take some guilty pleasure at the pain, anxiety, and the outright distress that punctuated these missives and so I offer readers some translated excerpts, purely for entertainment value;

Jacques Lanctôt- ex-FLQ terrorist

"We are a nation of losers, but that we are happy about it, amazes me. This is the only way I can explain the debacle that sovereignist forces suffered this week.....

Quebecers were fooled by the propaganda of the regime, backed by Radio-Canada and La Presse, among others, who kept hammering that the Bloc was useless...I'm grieving, I lost my MP, Gilles Duceppe, a man of integrity who gave 20 years of his life to defend the ideal of independence......

In a riding that is 99% French speaking, Quebecers elected  a unilingual Anglo who does not even reside in Quebec and didn't set foot in her constituency during the 38 days that the campaign lasted. I am ashamed." LINK

The ordinary voter has a limited political understanding. ....

If misinformed and manipulated, must we treat the voter as a fool, or rather the manipulators of the media who manufacture consent? ....   vigile.net

"As for the media bosses at Radio Canada, Power Corporation and elsewhere, they had no reason to intervene as they usually do when their journalists get carried away by an infatuation that threatens the federal order. 

The only ones to be strongly denounced are 22,403 voters in the county (Berthier-Maskinongé..ed.) who voted for her (Ellen Brousseau..ed.) just to be like everyone else. This of course applies to all the fools who voted in Quebec blindly in favour of "pouteaux"(placeholders.ed) notwithstanding their personal value , because we spoke highly of Jack on TV.   Normand Lester-LE DEVOIR

Okay Louis Prefontaine doesn't rate as an intellectual and I try never to quote him. I'll make an exception this time as his pain resulting from the election results is too sweet to pass up!

"Tonight, it was an ethnic vote that propelled the New Democrats to the stars and almost erased the Bloc Québécois from the map. An ethnic vote, by a race of imbeciles.
Of imbeciles, so ignorant, spineless, so brutalized by the weight of a destiny too heavy to bear, who decided to vote for Ruth-Ellen Brosseau, a unilingual anglophone who chose to take a vacation to Las Vegas during the campaign. A race of retards voting for Tyrone Benskin, who is almost unable to string three or four words together in our language. ....

....We are now an object of ridicule for anyone the least bit interested in politics. A nation of inbreds, having made ​​a huge turn to the right with the ADQ in 2007 and then four years later, making a left turn towards the NDP. We are a farce, the height of absurdity, in desiring a change, we are a nation of morons and degenerates so illiterate that we do not even see the contradiction between these two votes. We have a desire, buried deep within us for the death that awaits all the conquered peoples and who have ceased to believe in themselves, we have made the Bloc Quebecois, the only party that effectively defended us against the Canadian nation, responsible for a roadblock that was in fact, a federation unable to meet our aspirations. 

Do we still deserve to live and survive? I doubt it. Individuals make me want to believe. But the mass of ignorance confuses me with a passion that leaves a bitter notion that poison was poured into our veins for too long and which has infected our ability to imagine our freedom." LINK

 Ivan Parent has made a name for himself in regards to certain, ahem, controversial statements about minorities in the pages of vigile.net. Here, in a piece entitled "THE SHAME" his pain over the NDP debacle is once again, too enjoyable to pass up;

 "I never thought to say it, but tonight (May 2, 2011) I am ashamed to be a Quebecker. I am ashamed to be from a bunch of cowards who, seeking change, voted for the enemy. Too afraid to stand erect, the normal position of Homo erectus, the Quebec population prefers to lick the carpet. Anymore  colonized than this and you die. When we see that Harper will finally achieve his majority, we can say goodbye to our attempt at democracy, we will officially enter into a totalitarian state tomorrow morning. Previously, we had someone to defend us in Ottawa, the page is turned,  the BLOC is finished, a collective suicide.

Here's on that will make you gag. Victor-Lévy Beaulieu is nothing less than a demigod in the world of Quebec francophone writers. A sovereignist icon, he once threatened to burn all his books to protest bilingualism.

"The defeat of Gilles Duceppe in his constituency literally threw me to the floor. Of all the politicians that Quebec has produced, how many have demonstrated such integrity, such a sense of duty, such a devotion to their people? I recognize only two: Camille Laurin and Jacques Parizeau. The voters of Laurier-Sainte-Marie, that he has served diligently for twenty years, have inflicted such a humiliation,  enough to make us all feel ashamed! God of all the skies, what a hysterical neurosis!..." LINK

 Gilles Duceppe and Jacques Parizeau as the paragons of integrity, my word! I guess it makes sense when you consider that Mr. Beaulieu once called the Governor-General Michaëlle Jean, a 'negro-queen.' an ethnic slur for which he was called to task for.
Considering that he's a big shot writer with upwards of 70 books to his credit, one would expect him to understand how to properly use the word "literally  as opposed to 'figuratively,' as modifier, in a sentence.'

"La défaite de Gilles Duceppe dans sa circonscription m'a littéralement jeté par terre." Read an Explanation

Here's two other stories that might interest you if you have French.

Pierre Dubuc of L’Aut’Journal wrote "When the Press Campaigns for the  NDP" complaining that the media was responsible for the NDP success.
Christian Rioux  of Le Devoir in an article entitled "Sentimental Crowd  posits that pseudo-journalists like those on the widely-watched  Tout le monde en parle gave Jack Layton a boost by offering up softball questions.

I'll give the last word to the most famous separatist foil over at La Presse, Andre Pratte;

"Instead of blaming the voters and the media, rather than seeking petty faults with the NDP, the losers of this election in Quebec, the Conservatives, the Bloc and the Liberals should admit that the voters have unequivocally rejected what they offered them. In a democracy, citizens are always right." Link

 Readers I really enjoyed  bringing all this pain to you. How do I spell satisfaction? -  
- S-C-H-A-D-E-N-F-R-E-U-D-E-!...... Definition

Canucks Flasher Makes It Easier to Cheer for Vancouver

Let's face it, Vancouver is not the ideal city to represent Canada in the Stanley Cup finals, but it's all we Canadian hockey fans have left, so the beggars that we are, can't be choosers.

The city's image is that of Canada's Yuppie capital, a town where condos start at $750k and and where the words blue collar and Tim Horton's are dirty..

The infamous Green Men waving their arms at the opposition in skintight suits with their packages bulging, is enough to make real hockey fans cringe, but c'est la vie.
I don't want to use the word 'gay'  disparagingly,  but if ever there was a  word to define their antics...well.

I still choose to cheer for the team reluctantly, but I can say without any hesitation, aside from my beloved Canadiens, I'd rather see the Leafs, the Flames, Senators or Oilers represent our country in the finals before Van City (the worst nickname ever.)

But that all changed with an over-enthusiastic fan who may have single-handedly changed our perception of the city with a well-timed flash of her breasts in front of the Sharks Ben Eager, sitting in the penalty box.
Apparently the young lady was replacing the Green Men (mercifully) and got caught up in the moment.

Here's the video that the CBC inadvertently broadcast. NSFW

Go Canucks Go!..er...

Related post;
How The Habs Can Improve Their On-Ice Product.