PQ Self-Destructs Over Arena Lunacy

Mayor Regis Lebeaume in search of a private law.

As you may or may not have heard already, three key members of the Parti Quebecois bolted the party Monday with another leaving yesterday ostensibly because of Pauline Marois's decision to impose party solidarity and force members to vote in favour of a law shielding the City of Quebec from any legal action in relation to a deal it struck for the management of the proposed arena in Quebec City.

It's a complicated affair and I'm sure most readers (especially those out of province)  haven't wasted the necessary time to be fully apprised of this sordid affair.
Let me try to give you a Twitter version of events. (In my day we used to call a quick summary of a complicated issue, a 'Readers' Digest version, but we must keep up with the times!)

Here goes;

The Mayor of Quebec City, Regis Lebeaume, was convinced by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman that in order to secure an NHL franchise, Quebec needed to build a new arena. Lebeaume quickly put together an arena package, pledged $50 million from his own Quebec City and got a commitment from the provincial government to contribute another $100 million towards the $400 million dollar price tag. He then tried to shakedown the federal government for another $100 million but was unsuccessful. 

In order to keep the project going, the mayor made an un-tendered, under-the-table deal with media scion Pierre-Karl Péladeau to fund the balance by granting Quebecor (Péladeau's company) management of the building and the city's support in his bid to own the potential NHL team.

This didn't sit well with an ex-city official who said that he'd challenge the deal in court because it didn't follow tendering procedures. Lebeaume, fearing that the deal couldn't stand a legal challenge, asked a PQ member of the National Assembly to put forward a private members bill that would shield the city from legal proceedings.
The proposed bill needed unanimous house consent just to be heard, but after some grumbling by the ADQ and Amir Khadir, all members agreed to hear the bill.

As the Bill heads for debate the PQ and the Liberals have indicated that they will vote for it, thus assuring its passage, but many members on both sides of the house have expressed misgivings at the anti-democratic nature of the proposed law.
Monday morning all hell broke loose as three highly placed (and radical) PQ members left the party to sit as independents, with another one joining their ranks yesterday, rather then agree to support Pauline Marois and toe the party line.

Lise Lapointe, Pierre Curzi and Louis Beaudoin

Now the three members who quit on Monday said that they couldn't vote for the bill in good conscience, but failed to mention that Marois offered them a way out. She told them that their vote was not required and they could skip the voting session if they chose to.
But that wasn't good enough and the three walked out on the party via a press conference, without even informing the party beforehand.

Yesterday another PQ member Jean Martin Aussant, also left, but was more direct as to his reasons. He complained that Marois' leadership was the reason for his departure, adding that she wasn't the right person to lead a successful referendum campaign. LINK

All of this was sparked by the unflinching support of Quebeckers to any arena project and the fear by the political parties that opposing  the Lebeaume law would ballot box suicide.

The damage doesn't appear to be over, with Bernard Drainville, one of the few PQ bigwigs remaining advising Marois to make the vote on the arena deal a free vote where members are not forced to vote the party line, or else.....

The split by the four members represents the worst crisis the PQ has ever faced, even worse than after election defeats where at least the party remained united.

A whole new dynamic is created.
Will  the rebels form a new more 'sovereignist' party, one somewhere between the PQ and Quebec solidaire? After all they have almost as many members as the Bloc Quebecois and with further defections likely it's an even bet that a new party could happen?

More likely is that Marois will be shown the door in the true style of the Parti Quebecois, who have a well-earned reputation for eating their leaders.

For federalists it makes for great theatre and my only hope is that the infighting continues for a good long time.

Look for the pages of Vigile.net to fill up quickly, as there's nothing like a good cat-fight to get the pens wagging.

In the meantime, Premier Charest shrewdly put off debate of the Lebaume law until the fall. That way the PQ can have another couple of months to battle it out over an issue that's tearing the party apart.
Well-played!

And so it'll be a summer of Pauline versus the radicals.
Who will win?
I don't care, as long as the fight goes on forever!!!

Arena Madness Sweeps Quebec

Were you ever in a situation when someone close to you was about to make a horrible blunder and try as you would, you couldn't convince them to alter their course?
It's sad and frustrating, a son who starts running with a bad crowd, a daughter who insists on marrying an obvious loser, a brother who abandons his family in search of a more exciting life or a sister who quits school to take up basket weaving.

Nothing you can do can convince them of their folly and all that's remains is to wring your hands and stand back in sad resignation and wait for the train wreck that is about to unfold.

I feel that way watching the comic-drama that surrounds the potential new arena in Quebec city, as the population, the media, as well as the politicians involved, all race towards disaster, supporting a plan and a course of action that can only spell financial ruin.

The big controversy swirling today, revolves around whether Mayor Regis Lebeaume's under-the-table deal with Pierre-Karl Péladeau and his company Quebecor, giving them exclusive management rights to the building is a good idea as well as the idea to insulate that deal from a legal challenge by way of a special law.

The problem is, that it's the wrong issue to be debating.

It's like your son asking for your advice as to whether he should buy a Harley or a BMW in advance of his plan to run off with a biker gang.
If you're a responsible parent , you might just want to slap some sense into him;

"Harley, BMW. Are you insane? For God's sake, PLEASE DON'T JOIN A BIKER GANG!"

And so instead of debating the merits of the Péladeau deal to run the arena, we need to ask ourselves why on Earth we're undertaking a costly new arena WITH NO FIRM COMMITMENT FROM THE NHL.

Regis Lebeaume in the spirit of Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau, has sold a bill of goods to Quebeckers, telling them that it's imperative to build an arena first, in order to secure an NHL team later.
He has told everyone who will listen that Gary Bettman, president of the NHL, has told him as much in private and so it must be so....or is it?

Actually, it's pure unadulterated hogwash. Not true. Fiction. Baloney!

It's frustrating to see politicians who are charged with safeguarding the public trust acting so naively and so stupidly.
If Mr. Lebeaume doesn't understand that Bettman is running a game on him and Quebec City he should be ousted from his job for gross stupidity.

Like a trainer holding a biscuit high in the air, just out of the reach of his dog, in a cynical effort to see just how high his dog will jump, Regis Lebeaume has proven he can jump pretty high.

It's strange that Quebeckers don't recognize the same con they themselves have been perpetrating on the federal political parties in Ottawa for decades. 
"Give us more money and benefits and we might vote for you....errr... Maybe."
We all know how that worked out for the Conservatives and the Liberals who gave away the Sun and the Moon and got nothing in return!

What's painfully clear is that Quebec will get a team when Bettman runs out of options for another one of those failing franchises in the southern United States, just like Winnipeg, who backstopped a crumbling Atlanta franchise, which was going down the toilet.

And so getting a NHL franchise in Quebec hasn't got anything to do with a new arena. If it did, Bettman would have long ago sold a new franchise to Quebec City for 200 million, conditional on a new building.

Did any one notice that Bettman didn't seem to care about the smallish arena in Winnipeg which holds about the same number of fans as the current arena in Quebec city, the Colisée?
For Bettman moving a franchise from one city to another is infinitely more palatable than a franchise going Chapter 11 or even worse, just plain folding, bad for the reputation of the league, no doubt.
There is, as we all know, several teams in deep, deep financial trouble, teetering on the brink of disaster.
 
And so Quebec is held in reserve, for the next franchise flop, which Bettman knows better than any, is going to happen a lot sooner than later.

When that midnight flop happens, Quebec will have its franchise, new arena or not.
That's because there are no viable alternatives to Quebec, Bettman knows it and so should we.
The NHL has run out of cities in the United States that would support an NHL franchise, all that is left is Canada and Quebec is the only location left that doesn't conflict with existing franchise territorial rights.
In the meantime Bettman recognizes Lebeaume for the merry sucker that he is and like an expert con man he successfully strings his mark along.
Bettman must be laughing in his beer at the desperate and panicked lengths Lebeaume is going to satisfy a condition that is really of no import. "Jump a little higher please. Good dog, Regis!"

The pitiful hysteria that grips the Province over the prospect of an NHL franchise is a lesson in collective mania that demonstrates that a good con can be run on anyone including a whole society if the bait is right.

I'm reminded of that old classic musical of 1962, the MUSIC MAN, where an expert con man, in order to sell a small town a bunch of musical instruments, convinces them that they need to form a band to combat youth disaffection. His actions to convince the town  are so burlesque and transparent that one would never believe that a con like that could play out in real life, but alas we are witnessing one and the same, in Quebec City's arena fiasco. It's a bit sad.

I'll bet most of you are too young to have seen this classic and so watch and enjoy a master con artist at work.
Unfortunately, Regis Lebeaume and Garry Bettman need no lessons....

 

And so ladies and gentlemen, there's trouble in Quebec City!

 

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Late Breaking.......

Several  stalwarts quit party over PQ support for legislation, supporting Lebeaume arena plan.

More tomorrow....

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Stéphane Dion Back in Fighting Form!

Up until a year ago, you might have thought that Stéphane Dion was just about the worst leader the Liberal Party of Canada ever fielded. As a dark horse who swept into power in the unlikeliest of manner, his storybook ascension to power was followed alas, by a disastrous tenure as leader and a sad and precipitous fall from grace.
Whether it was his poor command of English or the foolish decision to base an electoral campaign on increasing taxes through some sort of green tax, the public wasn't having any of it and so after an electoral disaster he was shown the door rather indelicately.
While the Liberals were glad to see Dion leave, few would have guessed that the next leader, Michael Ignatieff, everything Dion wasn't, would turn out to be infinitely less successful.

One might have assumed that  Dion would fade away politically but he soldiered on and has survived the Liberal massacre of May 2, being returned to Parliament by voters in the Montreal riding of St. Laurent where his ethnic and English base remained more loyal than his Liberal confreres.

In the aftermath of the election slaughter and no prospect of another election for four years, the Liberal party  has announced that it is hunkering down for an extended period of introspection and re-building, even opting to delay the choice of a new leader for eighteen months. And so like a wounded animal that slinks away to lick its wounds, the Liberals have exited the political battlefield and ceded the fight, or so it seems.

Out of  the ashes of the electoral meltdown, Dion has risen like the Phoenix to reclaim past glories when he stood head and shoulders above all, battling the separatists successfully to the point where to Quebec militants, he became the most hated Quebecker since Pierre-Eliot Trudeau.

His successful letter campaign, wherein Dion wrote detailed and exhaustive rebuttals against separatist propaganda in a series of Op-Ed pieces in newspapers across the country, enraged separatists who fumed at the the calm and collected and professorial manner in which he destroyed their positions.

Dion's greatest achievement was the Clarity Act, a law that creates rules for any future referendum. The law allows for separation but only after a clear referendum question is asked and a clear majority is received. 
As much as separatists hate the law, Dion never fails to remind them that it is the law of the land, with the underlying message that to ignore its precepts would mean that the only road to independence would be a unilateral declaration of independence, something almost impossible to sell in Quebec.

Unlike most of his Liberal party cohorts, Dion is not a disheartened or beaten man, his election was a personal triumph, one that he badly needed. Mr. Dion is still in debt vis-a-vis his leadership run and is rumoured to owe over $100,000. His job at $157K guaranteed for another four years will go a long way to assuage the financial stress. Mr. Dion at 55 has just now qualified to receive his Parliamentary pension, but by staying an extra four years (achieving twenty years in Parliament) he will assure himself of a $100K-$150K per year pension when he chooses to retire or is defeated in the next election (not likely.)
With no aspirations to become leader again (been there, done that) Mr. Dion is in a good place, financially secure and free to say and do what he wants.

What he wants to do, is to pursue his political first love, that is to confront separatists and to dispel sovereignist propaganda.
Dion has also correctly identified the Ndp as the real rival to the Liberal Party dream of reclaiming national prominence and as such a convergence of issues and circumstances has placed Jack Layton and the dippers firmly in his cross hairs.

Since Harper and the Conservatives will content themselves to majority rule and leave the political fighting to the boys across the aisle, the only logical battle is the Ndp versus the Liberals and the return of Dion to the fight augers badly for the dippers whose political positions are so eminently attackable, Dion is going to have a field day.

Even snarling Uncle Tom will match up poorly to Dion's calm and deliberate manner and if Mulcair thinks he can bait Dion into a name calling knife fight, he's badly informed.

Here's an example of Dion's intellectual prowess and what the dippers are up against. It's a speech he gave at the 8th Annual Michel Bastarache Conference at the Rideau Club in  February entitled Secession and the Virtues of Clarity.

And so Dion is taking up the fight against Jack Layton, the Ndp and its hypocritical stance on Quebec sovereignty.

Here in a letter to La Press he attacks the idea of 50%+1 being enough of a margin of victory in a referendum LINK{FR}

Here he attacks the separatists hiding in the Quebec wing of the Ndp caucus; 

He [Mr. Layton] should be forced to ask each of its members that they believe in Canada. And if this is not the case, he should say: "I have so many members who are separatists and who would vote " Yes" in a referendum on independence. " He should tell us what he would do, "said Mr. Dion. LINK{FR}

With a majority government before us,  it augers poorly for political debate. The Conservatives have nothing to gain from engaging in partisan debate (for at least three years) and so we might have expected an exceedingly boring time in Ottawa.

Dion has changed all that.
He's set the tone for the debate, chosen an opponent and demarcated the battle lines. It's going to be the Ndp versus the Liberals and the fight is going to be interesting, with the Liberals playing the Canada card and the Ndp forced to defend its Quebec position.

I wouldn't want to be staring down at Dion, his slight professorial bespectacled look belies a tenacious fighter who is just that much smarter and intelligent than his opponents.

HOUSKEEPING - JUNE

 First, I'd to mention that I finally broke down a opened a TWITTER account and for those disposed to follow me, my address is;

@EditorNoDogs

I promise you that I won't overburden you and will use the messaging for special occasions and to report on Blogger outages or problems. If you've got a Twitter account, I promise to follow you and you can send me private messages as well.

Next I'd like to address those readers, friend and foe who contribute to whatever richness this blog does indeed have through the comment section, which as many readers have said, is more interesting than my missives.

I'm going to tighten up again the rules again in terms of what can and cannot be said. I remain committed that everyone has a right to rant, use strong language and be nasty at times.
But it's got to make sense and it can't be gratuitously simple.
It's okay if you insult somebody, but you've got to make some sort of an argument.

"Joe blow is a moron and and idiot." -NO LONGER ACCEPTABLE.

"Joe Blow is a moron because hes views on such and such are in error and etc. etc." -ACCEPTABLE

General insults about Quebec, Canada, Quebeckers or Canadians remain fair game.
General insults about politicians remain fair game.

As to comments that deal exclusively with orthographical or language, or translation errors, they will no longer be published.
For some of us who write in English or French, which is not our mother tongue, errors will surely crop up. Calling someone out on these errors  adds nothing to the discussion.

Now I'm as guilty as the next. I once called out someone for a orthograpghical error because his/her comment annoyed me. It was wrong thing to do.
That person wrote back to say that they had written the comment early in the morning, on a small hand-held keyboard and as such, should be forgiven any small error.
Absolutely right, I apologize, my bad.

"Learn how to spell dummy.

Its Aerosmith and American. ESL fool, ESL" -NO LONGER ACCEPTABLE.

LETS US ALL AVOID THESE GRATUITOUS 'AD HOMINUM' ATTACKS.

As for errors by this author in the main blog piece, I do appreciate an email that points out syntax, spelling or orthographical errors. This blog is dynamic and people will read the post long after you. I would like these mistakes to be cleared up ASAP and will make the necessary corrections and send you an email of thanks.

Remember, don't use the comments section for this, send an email or a private Tweet!

Again, I want thank all who read this blog, those who read it passively and those who are prolific commenters.

If you are a lurker, try a comment.  A small one to start. Your input is invaluable.

For those who accuse this blog on being racist, anti-Quebec, all I can say that your opinion is your right and whatever this blog is or is not, it's place where your objections will always be published.

Here we offer, the almost unfettered right of free expression.

My inspiration remains another fictional movie character - Howard Beal from the movie NETWORK.

"I'm mad as Hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!!!"

And so I continue to believe that reproducing online, the rage and dissent that exists in our society is a worthwhile endeavour.

No Dogs and Chinese Allowed

Last week a dissatisfied reader complained that he or she found the name of this blog offensive as it was a play on signs that appeared in some isolated Toronto area beaches during the 1930's and 1940's.
 "NO DOG AND NO JEWS'

Let me assure readers that the origin of the name of this blog has got nothing to do with those antisemitic signs. At the time I started up this blog, I was unaware that these type of signs even existed.
Many readers wrote to me to tell me about those "No Dogs" signs, making the same connection as the aforementioned reader with most referring to signs in the Toronto area.
After a bit of research, I did  find mention of these  signs with the strongest source being a reference from a history of Toronto's first synagogues. "One resort posted a sign reading “No Jews and No Dogs.” Link

Here's a second reference;   

“In the 30’s Toronto was still very much a British colonial city. English Anglo-Saxon Protestants held power in the city and made 80% (‘31) of Toronto’s population. Many non-British immigrants had been brought to Canada from all over Europe as cheap labourers, and made up a large part of Toronto’s working class. These immigrants were second class citizens and were not granted the same rights as the ‘British’ citizens. The Jewish community was the next largest ethnic group after the British immigrants, making up only 7.2% of the population. Many establishments banned Jews from entering with signs  reading “Gentiles Only” or “No Dogs, No Jews”.

As for these signs appearing in Quebec, I found but one reference actually making mention of it; 

"In addition, some buildings were subject to restrictive covenants that prevented their sale to Jews. Many clubs, beaches and resorts were closed to Jews. There were signs posted that said; 

“Interdit aux juifs ou aux chiens,” or   “Chrétiens seulement!”. 

 These signs were posted on the golf courses in Halifax at the door of the hotel in the Laurentians, in rural Ontario in the lake region of Manitoba and the resorts of British Columbia ." Link  

I can't say that the evidence is overwhelming that the " No Dogs" signs ever existed in Quebec.

At any rate, this sorry saga of antisemitism has nothing to do with the name of this blog, but rather, the name honours  a scene in my favourite BRUCE LEE Kung Fu movie, 'Fist of Fury,' where Lee's character, suffers from discrimination when as a Chinese, he is refused entrance to a park reserved for native Japanese.

Watch the clip and you will probably understand my motivation;

The scene  is very inspiring (at least for me) especially when Bruce Lee decides to fight back and destroys the very sign which describes the outrageous discrimination.
And so "NO DOGS AND ANGLOPHONES" was born, a play on the sign in the picture at the top of this piece.

Now that the same reader who complained about the blog title thought that this 'type' of blog is counter productive and may actually increase sentiment for sovereignty. As such, he offers, that I'd  be better, helping our community by not publishing these 'inflammatory' ideas.

I'm sorry but I can't agree less.
Writing about the unpopular truths is never something that will be roundly accepted.

This premise of not 'rocking the boat' is what leads, in the most extreme case, to dangerous totalitarian regimes, the likes this world has seen too often.
I'm not suggesting that Quebec is on it's way to such a destination, not at all. But dissenting voices is what keeps governments on its toes and luckily there are plenty of dissenting voices in Quebec, both English and French.

Even a tiny blog like ours contributes to democratic dissent.

Perhaps the greatest lesson of the power of the printed word to bring down the corrupt and evil excesses of government can be taken from the famous open letter. "J'Accuse,"  written by Émile Zola in 1898 indicting the French government's false conviction of French army officer Alfred Dreyfus. Read about the famous Dreyfus  affair

In the end, the government fell, but not before Zola was forced to flee to England because of the pressure put upon him.
Should he have given up and not rocked the boat?

I don't equate myself to Emile Zola, but his heroic and lonely battle that he waged at great personal expense, in a successful effort to the propagate the truth in the face of so much hatred and scorn, inspires me, as it should you.
Zola teaches us that the few may be right and the many may be wrong. He teaches about perseverance and faith. He teaches us that we must not give up our principles and never stop fighting for what we believe in.
Most importantly, Zola teaches us that the few  can prevail.

And so we should not be afraid to offer dissent, especially considering that in doing so, here in Quebec and Canada, we do not place ourselves in any great danger as those who fought for their rights in the past.
Those who refuse to offer dissent out of fear, forfeit their right to complain.

And so my choice of the name of this blog was not based on the humiliating antisemitic signs of the past.
It is inspired by a movie, where the hero decides to fight back against unjust discrimination, his determination and prowess inspiring and uplifting.