French versus English - Volume 29

Separatists launch Quebec Anthem
It's become a custom for many years now for sovereignists to conduct themselves as if Quebec were already an independent country, as if it would somehow hasten the glorious event. In this fine tradition the Societe Saint-Jean-Baptiste in collaboration with a Quebec songwriter has launched a proposed national anthem without of course the requisite status of actual nationhood. Story + Lyrics{Eng}

The anthem, with the very original title of 'O Kebek' was to my Anglo ear, entirely tedious and flat, with words right out of a separatist handbook. Now I wouldn't voice my irritation at the song which sounds like a rejected number from the musical Notre Dame de Paris, except that the whole thing is being razzed rather cruelly in the Francophone press.

Montreal La Presse columnist Patrick Lagace in an article entitled "My Bleeding Ears" said if Quebec ever separated and chose "O Kebek" as its anthem, he'd be seeking political asylum elsewhere.  Raôul Duguay, the songwriter, boasted that he graciously gave the song for free via the web. "Lucky for him," Legace went on to say, "nobody would pay for it." LINK{FR}

Small business' in Ethnic neighbourhoods to get French language lessons
A new government initiative will focus on small business' in ethnic neighbourhoods of Montreal that operate largely in English. LINK{FR}
Inspectors will be  'visiting' stores and where deficiencies are found, will offer various tools to help business' to adapt to the French language.
The program has its own dedicated website which aside from the default French, offers Spanish, Arabic and Chinese versions, but amazingly, none in English!

Nothing to get upset about, none of the alternate language links work anyway!!  Check it out yourself!
What a colossal waste of money!


Muslem immigration to Quebec to be subjected to quota

"Nearly a year after the release of a study that pegs the unemployment rate for Algerians living in Quebec over the last five years at 35.4%, the Minister of Immigration of Quebec, Kathleen Weil,  proposes a system which would result in restricting the entry of Arab-Muslim populations in Quebec....

According to Pierre Anctil, a specialist in Canadian immigration history at the University of Ottawa ..... With this policy, the proportion of immigrants of North African origin would decrease from 38% to 30%.
"We are disguising a  religious, cultural and linguistic quota by a geographical reference. Selecting immigrants based on color, religion and language is discriminatory in the eyes of the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms... "  Link{FR}

PQ does an about-face on restricting access to English cegep...... or not?

According to La Presse, a Montreal newspaper, the PQ has decided not to subject colleges (cegeps) to Bill 101, which would disallow many Francophone and allophone students from attending English cegeps.
Readers might remember that this was a central plank to the PQ platform that was affirmed at a conference in April.  
It appears that Pauline Marois has either changed her mind, or never really intended to follow through on this hard line approach.
When asked about the issue, Ms. Marois refused to confirm this shift.  
As the a controversy built around the La Presse story, Madame Marois felt pressure from within the party and issued a press release saying that the story was false. LINK{FR}

Readers, do you get the feeling that the PQ and Marois are starting to lose it? LINK{FR}

NDP imposes English,  for Ottawa aide jobs

"Is Bilingualism important?
Yes, says the New Democratic Party ... but only for Francophones.  
The party of Jack Layton in fact requires bilingualism as a condition of employment for any person wishing to work in Ottawa for one of its members from Quebec, but it does not require fluency in French for those who work for MPs outside Quebec. Following the election of 66 additional members on May 2, the NDP is in the hiring blitz. Its website displays 42 vacancies..........

...The hiring criteria is however not the same for those who apply to work for a Quebec  MP as it is for the rest of the country.

Bilingualism is "required" for anyone wishing to work in Ottawa for a member from Quebec. The reverse is not true. The job of parliamentary assistants to MPs outside Quebec only indicate that bilingualism is an "asset". Even British Columbia MP Denise Savoie, though French herself, does not require of her future deputy parliamentary a knowledge of French.... READ THE REST OF THE STORY {FR}

Militants demand French songs at High School Prom
Another French language defence committee "Le Mouvement Mauricie français" has been inaugurated in  the the massively unilingual French region of La Mauricie, centered around the Three Rivers Trois Rivieres area, where one would be hard pressed to find an anglo, an anglo sign or someone who spoke fluent English. 
No matter, it was down to business and the first order was to embark on a tour of local High schools to make sure that English artists and songs would be limited at the PROM. .LINK{FR}
THE PROM!!!!!
I'm not kidding!...Readers, can they scratch any lower?

Camille Laurin honoured with bronze bust.

Camille Laurin, father of Bill 101 and chief inquisitor of the Parti Quebecois of the Rene Levesque era, has been honoured with a bronze bust displayed beside the Office de la langue française building in Montreal which also bears his name. 
Mr. Laurin may be well loved in the French community but remains the most-hated politician EVER, among Anglophones. 
Mr. Laurin's defence of the French language was tinged by a particularly mean streak towards Anglos,  of whom Mr. Laurin had a very deep and particular dislike. LINK{FR}

 Quebec Rules?  
For those who believe that Quebec takes up too much 'space' in Canada, according to 'Ice Road Truckers' on the Discovery Channel, this is the latest Canadian reality;

Further Reading: French versus English Volume 28

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

From Montreal, Thank You Vancouver!

Thanks to the City of Vancouver for making the Montreal Stanley Cup riots a thing of the past, an dim memory supplanted by the nasty and classless rioting displayed by 'disappointed' fans.
We are off the hook.
When the hockey world next talks about classless, riotous fans, Vancouver is what we'll remember.

And so Vancouver, as the motto of the Montreal Canadiens says;

"To you from failing hands we throw the torch. Be yours to hold it high." 

I'm not sure why the big surprise over the loss to the Bruins, every hockey fan outside Vancouver knew that the Canucks had lost the series back in game 3. 

How nasty were the Vancouver fans?
Here's a video of the mayhem, watch at the 3:15 mark to see a security guard  get the bejesus kicked out of him for trying to defend a storefront from looting.

The only happy circumstance is that the riot took place in daylight and there were a million cellphone cameras recording for posterity.
This will get interesting in the next days as police round up the major offenders.

Watch police nail someone in the nuts with a flash-bang grenade...Ouch! 
More video of rioting
Even More rioting video

As for the Vancouver Canucks, it would have been the worst travesty had they won the last game, having been thoroughly thrashed and embarrassed by a Bruins team that was just plain tougher.

Lets face it, the Canucks have a talented team that can win in the regular season but not when things get down and dirty.

The Bruins humiliated the Canucks and what most fans suspected all along, Roberto Luongo is just not a clutch goalie, having been thoroughly out-classed by Tim Thomas. To make matters worse Luongo had the audacity to call out Thomas' play in classless and stupid outburst that made little senses considering that Luongo was playing scared.  In a sarcastic comparison to another choker the Canucks goalie is now being hailed as "LEBRONGO"...ahem.

Up until the forth game I was hoping for a Vancouver victory, more because they were facing the hated Bruins and less because the team was Canadian, but my loyalties shifted to the team that truly deserved to win.

The proud legacy of the Olympics and the stellar image portrayed to the world of  Vancouver as a beautiful world class city, gets flushed down the toilet as riot footage gets beamed around the world.
And no, it wasn't just a few bad apples rioting, it was widespread.

And so the goat horns of shameful failure is shared equally between the hapless Canucks and the proud rioters  of the City of Vancouver.
Sadly it looks good on both.

Don't Count Sovereignists Out

There's little doubt that the sovereignty movement suffered a monumental setback with the massive defeat of the Bloc Quebecois in last month's federal election.
The electoral bashing was as painful to the sovereigntists as it was satisfying to federalists.

Things went from bad to worse with the recent defection of four hard-line sovereigntists from the PQ caucus, ostensibly over the Pauline Marois' forced support of Bill 204, a law designed to shield the city of Quebec from any legal action in relation to its arena with Quebecor, but in reality a denunciation of the party's go-slow approach to sovereignty.

Falling polling numbers indicate that the party is now trailing the Liberals, an unimagined turn of events that few would have predicted just one month ago.

To make matters worse, Francois Legault finally announced that he will be launching his new party in the fall and appears to have more support than anyone else. It's abundantly clear that Quebecers  are tired of hearing about sovereignty and referendums. Mr. Legault has cleverly positioned his party as nationalist, but has wisely excluded talk of  the big "R" or the big "S"

It's heady days for Quebec federalists, with newspaper article after newspaper article heralding the final demise of the Quebec sovereignty movement, but before breaking out the champagne we would be wise to reconsider that conventional wisdom.
I am reminded of the famous retort that the famous American novelist and humorist, Mark Twain made after hearing that his obituary had been published in the New York Journal.

"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated!"

No, there's little doubt that the movement has suffered a setback, but those of us in the federalist camp who believe that the movement will peter out and die are sadly optimistic and perhaps are viewing events through rose-coloured glasses.

Looking at the situation realistically and unemotionally, we must reluctantly admit that despite recent events, not much has changed over the last ten or fifteen years in terms of support for the sovereignty option.
Notwithstanding the election results and falling polling numbers, support for sovereignty remains remarkably resilient and at a level that should continue to make life uncomfortable for federalist Quebeckers.
Despite all the sovereigntist bad news, between 35% and 45% of Quebeckers still remain committed to the ideal of independence.
And so if support for the movement remains stable, it would be fair to ask what happened in the last federal election and what happened to the Parti Quebecois' fall from grace.

In a word - fatigue.

Quebeckers have come to realize that right now and for the foreseeable future, the votes for sovereignty are just not there and they are tired of fighting and losing.
The 50% plus one referendum rule is a double-edged sword. Lose by just one vote and Quebec sovereignty is a no-go, as we came to learn in the last referendum.
As the old saying goes, "Close only counts in Horseshoes and hand grenades"

In many respects Quebec is less ready for independence than it was in 1995 when the second ever-so-close referendum took place.
Since then, the province has accepted almost 400,000 immigrants who will massively vote NO in a future referendum. Quebec's finances are in disarray and the province has piled on tens of billions of dollars in additional debt. Dependence on Ottawa's largess via equalization payments is at a record high and public confidence in its institutions and politicians (of all stripes) is at a record low.

Many Quebeckers who remain sovereignist are also pragmatists who realize that Quebec is in a mess. They've decided that it's time to put the sovereignty option on the back burner and concentrate on the more pressing issue at hand, getting the provincial house in order.

It's a concept that the old sovereigntist guard led by Jacques Parizeau have difficulty accepting. Facing down their twilight years, he and his aging cohorts simply don't have the time to wait for conditions to improve and so they selfishly demand that Quebec give it that another roll of the referendum dice, with the odds stacked badly against them. This reckless attitude, afforded by the comfort of a secure retirement, had the Young Turks of the Parti Quebecois seeing red. Just last week, they sent a polite letter to Parizeau telling him to butt out of affairs.

Intuitively, most sovereignist Quebeckers realize that the option must be put on hold until conditions improve, not necessarily sovereigntist conditions, but the general political and economic climate that has hit rock bottom.

Those Canadians smugly satisfied that the sovereignty threat is gone are sadly mistaken.

The 35%-45% number of sovereignty supporters remains problematic and disquieting.

I recall Richard Nixon's bold trip to China, at the height of the cold war in 1972  and the subsequent  opening up of relations between the America and the Eastern giant.
It seemed that a Conservative president accomplished what no Democrat was able to do. It was an unexpected and brilliant coup.

In this respect I believe that Stephen Harper, in a position of strength and power, can have the confidence and determination to do what no Liberal could achieve. That is to make a constitutional deal that would drive sovereignist numbers way down.
Now is the time.
While the militant sovereignist would bray at any deal, most Quebeckers realize that perhaps half a loaf of bread is better than none.

If Canadians think that the prospect is not in their interest, they are wrong.

Denis de Belleval -Quebec's Most Hated Man

You'd never know it looking at the photo of Denis de Belleval that he's now probably the most hated man in Quebec. The mild-mannered, soft-spoken ex-civil servant is the paragon of calm, reasoned and lucid reasoning and perhaps that is why he is so disliked.

Mr. De Belleval is an ex-Quebec city manager who has taken exception to the under the table deal that Mayor Regis Lebeaume struck with media scion Pierre-Karl Péladeau, in relation to the proposed new arena in Quebec City.
Mr. De Belleval has unleashed, by way of his threatened lawsuit which would challenge the legality of the deal, a series of improbable and cascading events which has shaken the political foundations of the Parti Quebecois. For an excellent explanation of the whole affair watch the video report by CTV Montreal HERE{Eng}

There's little doubt that Mayor Regis Lebeaume pulled a fast one in signing the deal with Quebecor without calling for tenders as required by municipal law, hoping that in the frenzied anticipation for a new NHL team, nobody would contest the faux pas.
But somebody did and when De Belleval made noises about challenging the deal in court Lebeaume scurried to his friends in the PQ to help him insulate the deal by way of a private members bill that would shield the city from any such litigation.
As we all know, that didn't turn out well for Lebeaume and the PQ and the failure of the Bill to pass in Parliament has allowed the lawsuit to go forward, much to the chagrin of arena supporters.
This has unleashed a torrent of hate and nastiness,  directed at Mr. De Belleval for his audacity to challenge the collective will of arena supporters. While one would expect the comments sections under related news articles to be filled with vitriolic denunciations, what is shocking is the virulent and nasty criticism levied upon Mr. DeBelleval in the mainstream press.
I've seen a lot of angry denunciations in my time, but this one, by Albert Ladouceur of the Journal de Quebec,  has to take the cake. The level of anger and hate is beyond the pale and is usually reserved for war criminals and serial killers;

The vicious hypocrisy of hate

"Removing the mask of Denis Belleval unveils the face of the vicious hypocrisy of a former politician and civil servant who is waging a personal and acrimonious war on the backs of the whole population.

Belleval hates mayor Régis Labeaume to the depths of his soul....
.. His press release yesterday betrays contempt for Quebecor and the NHL.....

...This man has never been motivated by a sincere desire to defend democracy.

... By his arrogant attitude, his pretentious speech, this character places himself in a position of vulnerability from individuals who do not always express their feelings of frustration and anger in a civilized manner.

As patronizing as an aristocrat from a royal court, De Belleval, CEO of the city during the era when the Nordiques of 1995 left town, he ignores the desire of the majority of Quebecers. He is trampling on the will of citizens who support the construction of an arena and a return of the NHL. He does not listen to them. He hears only himself.

By removing his mask, De Belleval positions himself squarely against the efforts of a major local company to bring the NHL to Quebec City. He has vomited on Bettman and the NHL and all professional sports.

He calls the NHL "an industry so badly managed that the majority of its members are virtually bankrupt. Only the use of public funding allows them to survive.... "

According to De Belleval, "the slavish and destructive pursuit of a professional franchise is undermining the social fabric of many cities in the world and regularly gives rise to public finance disasters."....

...Those who support him may discover in him a destructive and narcissistic tendency, rather than the need to carry the torch of democracy.   LINK{FR}

Wow! The writer actually warns that Mr. de Belleval has put his life in danger!

Here is another pretty vicious attack, this time by Jean-Jacques Samson, again in the Journal de Quebec;

Eastern Quebec supprots the arena project massively

"The allegations by Denis de Belleval on Regis Labeaume, Quebecor and the NHL displays  staggering and contemptuous rage..

His vicious attack is packed with innuendo, malicious references to possible criminal acts or irregularities, of favouritism in the negotiations between the City of Quebec and Quebecor, as we have witnessed in recently in other municipalities.....

M. Belleval makes unfair and derogatory judgments about mayor Régis Labeaume and Quebecor Media, which he associates with corporate welfare bums....

...M. Belleval is discredited by his emotional, offensive and unreasonable accusations.

The  right arm of the former mayor Jean-Paul L'Allier, is in a particularly poor position to criticize anyone, company or individual, having just been removed from the government. His entire career has been spent, with the exception of a brief interlude from 1983 to 1985 , working for the government He has benefited from personal acquaintances with Brian Mulroney, Lucien Bouchard, and friends in an old boys network from the University of Laval."

The author then goes on to a lengthy description of the government largess that Mr. de Belleval benefited from including numerous soft appointments to government jobs and several golden parachutes.

"...Should we then speak of civilian welfare bums to designate members of this small oligarchy which distributes among themselves the positions of power? ...

..I fail to understand what De Belleval seeks, perhaps an escalation of litigation? An old Breton proverb says, that he who pisses into the wind will rinse his teeth." LINK{FR}

Here's one more denunciation from the same article, this time by Jérôme Landry, of 'Nordiques Nation,' a lobby group set up to promote the return of an NHL team to Quebec.

"He knows nothing and it takes up too much public space. He alone knows what is good for society. It is a pretentious position. What is wrong with listening to what people want? I do not know by what right he can put a spoke in the wheels of an important project for Quebec. It's snobbery. He looks down on all that the middle class enjoys. He's a 'dinosaur' according to Regis Labeaume. "This generation of politicians and officials cost Quebecers a lot.

 It is those like him who are responsible for deficits and debt. It is those like him who have created financial problems in Quebec. The generation of the 80s. He's in no position to lecture anyone. I 'd like him to clarify the severance packages he received for his work in the public sector. The author of all that has happened, Denis Belleval put his personal political agenda before the public interest of the taxpayers of Quebec." LINK{FR}

And so the attacks on Mr. de Belleval, mostly ad hominem  display a rage rarely seen in the press. The arena issue and Mr. de Belleval's unwelcomed interference has so enraged the local Quebec City press that all manner of scorn has rained down upon him and the fact that he seems to relish the attention further exacerbates the controversy.

But Mr. De Belleval is not the only one to feel the public's rage in the arena affair. Amir Khadir, the hitherto untouchable member of the Quebec Solidaire, who despite his numerous controversial positions has never really had the shine taken off his apple, is now perceived by 37% of Quebeckers as the chief instigator of opposition to the Quebec City arena.
Through thick and thin Khadir has maintained his personal popularity, but it now seems that it is limited to his constituency in the Plateau Mont-Royal in Montreal. Mr. Khadir, who has attacked, big business, rich people, Israel, the United States, and Canada in the past, much to the indifference of Quebeckers, miscalculated when he attacked hockey.
Now that's something that Quebeckers will just not cotton to!

His position against the arena has badly hurt the chances of his party in the next election and its chance to elect members outside the island of Montreal. A poll in Le Devoir on Saturday pegged the QS support down to 9%, just enough to hurt the PQ through vote-splitting, but not really enough to elect any members aside from Khadir.
Thank-you, Mr. Khadir!


NOTE TO READERS
As summer is upon us, I'm going to take a semi-break by publishing just three times week, MONDAY, WEDNESDAY and FRIDAY, until September.

I do hope you'll continue to drop by!

To Survive, PQ Must Abandon Sovereignty

Recent political events in Quebec have been compared to a 'Tsunami,' with the Bloc Quebecois being suddenly and violently swept away with little or no warning in the federal election of May 2, when they were caught unawares, by a massive and unexpected Ndp wave.

But until the recent past, a Tsunami was described in the West as a 'rogue wave,'  something quite unexpected and deadly, but strangely out of place and in this respect the description bears little resemblance to what  is happening politically to sovereignty movement.

I much prefer the comparison to that of an earthquake that explodes after years of pressure building up between two opposing tectonic plates butting up against each other and moving in diametrically opposite directions.

The recent resignation of four hard-line members of the PQ signals that the two factions, the hard-liners and the pragmatists in the party can no longer peacefully co-exist and after years of building pressure, the fault-line finally exploded in a rupture that has cleaved the party rather dramatically.

It's not a complicated issue, three of the hardliners that left the party are all pushing 70 years old and are old-line separatists, creations of the 1960's. To them fighting the good fight for sovereignty is worth the inevitable pain of defeat. To them the more pragmatic and realistic approach adopted by the PQ since the 1995 referendum defeat, where promises of a  new referendum has been conveniently put off until those mythical 'winning conditions' appear, is a policy akin to waiting for the Rapture.

The PQ finds itself in a difficult spot, Madame Marois has continued this policy of promising a referendum when conditions improve, knowing full well that they won't, but it is this promise that has come to be the Achilles heal of the party facing an electorate which has clearly rejected the idea of another referendum. In fact just the talk of a potential referendum is enough to drive voters elsewhere as the new political reality of Quebec manifests.

After fighting for sovereignty for 40 years Quebeckers are tired. Unless you're a fanatic, it's hard to be on the losing side for so many years and for most, enough is enough.
Over these last forty years conditions have changed so dramatically in Quebec that that many come to question the basic raison d'etre of the movement.
Quebec has moved from a bilingual province, to a unilingual society in full control of the levers of power, be that industry or government and as the province has realized it most basic goals and addressed the most pressing linguistic issue to the satisfaction of the majority, attraction of sovereignty has faded.

A recent poll confirmed the direction of Quebec voters with just 26% supporting the PQ, one point behind the sad-sack  Liberals. What is patently apparent is that should Francois Legault launch his new party he would sweep into power and a Montreal newspaper reported yesterday that he is ready to launch this fall. It seems that his description of the new party's philosophy- nationalist, not sovereignist, is striking the right cord with voters who want Quebec to remain fiercely independent, but don't want any talk of referendums or sovereignty.
A bit of a paradox, but then again so is Quebec.

Interestingly, it doesn't mean that support for sovereignty has taken a dramatic plunge, it just means that many sovereignists have come to realize that the numbers aren't there to win and to continue the fight would be an exercise in self flagellation.

Now that the sovereignist hardliners have left the party, Pauline should actually breathe a sigh of relief. What remains are young pragmatists that yearn for power as much as they do sovereignty. The majority of those left are relatively young have never been in power. For them, a strategic backing away from the referendum option, in favour of actually becoming the government is something they are quite willing to trade off.

Sure Pauline, sure! (ygreck.ca )

And so it befalls Pauline and the PQ to put the referendum business firmly on hold.
In order to claim political power the PQ must unambiguously tell the population that there will be no referendum, at least in the first mandate of a new PQ government.
Of course certain hard-liner will flee to the Quebec solidaire party, but not enough to make a difference.

82% of Quebeckers have indicated that they don't want a referendum, including 71% of the PQ constituency, who according to pollsters are looking for a party that can provide 'good government.'

With the departures of the radicals, Pauline Marois has been handed a unexpected gift, an opportunity to move the PQ towards legitimate power.
All she has to do is to swallow hard and announce a referendum freeze.
The party will accept it and more importantly the public will buy into it.

Does Pauline have the strength to give up on sovereignty?

Readers, can this PQ leopard actually change its spots?