So Really, What's Wrong with Bill 101?

After eight hundred posts on this blog, it occurs to me I've never tackled Bill 101 head on. We've had (readers and I) some lively discussions on aspects of the law but never really faced the issue head on.

I imagine that everybody who  comes to this blog on an ongoing basis has some pretty strong opinions on Bill 101 and I'm not here to convince anyone to change their position towards mine.

That being said, I'm going to give offer my point of view on the major elements, step by step and give you all weekend to make your opinions known in the comments section.

I think that there are four overriding positions that represent the opinions of most Quebecers.

POSITION 1 -There are those who want the law completely abolished because they believe that it is an affront to our democratic freedoms

POSITION 2 -There are those who want the law strengthened, because they believe that French is more threatened than ever and needs even more protection than is now provided

POSITION 3 -There are those believe that although not perfect, the law is an acceptable compromise.

POSITION 4 -There are those that believe the law should be softened

So what is your poison? 

Door  #1,  Door #2,  Door #3 or Door  #4

Regardless of how you feel, it's a foregone conclusion that the law isn't going away. There is zero chance that Bill 101 will be softened, somewhat of a chance that it will be made more restrictive.

That being said we can all fantasize about what we would like to see.

Here are some major bones of contention in relation to Bill 101 and my take on the subject.


MANDATORY FRENCH SCHOOLING
Freedom of choice restrictions apply to immigrants and francophones, but anglophones have the option of going to any school they please. The law makes second class citizens out of francophones and immigrants, but the vast majority of francophones support the idea that their children should be obliged to go to French publicly funded school, at least through high school.
Who am I to argue with those who want to put restrictions on themselves?
And selfishly, it makes no difference to me or my Anglophone family.

As for immigrants being forced into French schools, well, those are the rules that they agreed to abide by before coming to Quebec and so I also don't really have a problem with that either. They can always choose Ontario before coming if they don't like it.. It isn't as if it is a big surprise, sort of like winter, part of what they should expect. And so  I remain unsympathetic.

The one bugbear that I have is those immigrants whose first language is English, like someone from Great Britain, Ireland, Australia or New Zealand. Forcing these people into French schools is utterly vindictive.
Is there one chance in hell they will become francophones?

All that being said, the English minority in the province hovers around 10% -13%, but our primary school system is being fed 0% of the newly arrived immigrants. Because we are in the same boat as our francophone brethren in terms of reproduction, the number of students in the system will continue to diminish and the English primary school system will eventually collapse.
Somehow, 10% of the immigrants must be allowed into the English school system to balance things out.
How? ....perhaps a lottery, like the U.S. government does with visas.
As is the case now, anyone wanting an English education, but who is not eligible for publicly funded English school, can pay for private education. That seems legit.

As for 'bridging schools' I can't really say I'm in favour of using a trick to defy the law.

As per applying Bill 101 to cegeps and universities, the vast majority of francophones are against this idea and since a government is supposedly elected to reflect the will of the people, institutions of higher learning must remain open to all.

FRENCH AS THE COMMON LANGUAGE
I haven't got a problem with this, Francophones shouldn't be forced to address bosses in English like the good old days on the plantation. The head offices that refused to adopt French as the working language have long ago fled à la SUN LIFE and they ain't coming back.

As for imposing Bill 101 on small companies, nothing could be stupider or more vindictive.
Imagine a small English family business being forced to add French software that nobody is going to use just to satisfy the OQLF?


FRENCH OUTDOOR SIGNAGE 

I have to come down on freedom of choice. Merchants should be free to advertise in the language or languages of their choice and consumers can shop where they want to and avoid stores that offend them. In this case let the DOLLAR rule.

Since the government has already moved towards unilingual French signage, be it road signs, or it's own advertising, the face of the province won't change much.
The rule that French must be twice as large as the English is unacceptable. Were the shoe on the other foot, francophones would be rioting over that humiliation.
The two for one ration between English French is as silly as the picture on the right....

Even if the law changed to allow English signage, how many companies would have the guts to go bilingual or English?....Not many, I presume.
In fact, few companies avail themselves of what rights they have now to use English.

SERVICE IN FRENCH
Most of the complaints concerning clerks who can't serve in French have to do with newly arrived immigrants who are working their asses off trying survive without the benefit of welfare or unemployment insurance. Being a clerk is just about the most unrewarding job, offering poor pay, long and inconvenient hours. Who else is going to take the job?
Stores that don't offer service in French are run by idiots who are only hurting themselves by alienating  francophone clients.
There's an easy solution for those offended......Shop somewhere else. No law required here.


SERVICE IN ENGLISH
Aside for Revenue Quebec, which will take your money quite happily English, most government services are not really offered in English even if they are supposed to be. Government web sites are slowly losing what English they have and within a few years will be unilingually French.

Yes you can receive most forms in English, but English service at government offices is hard to come by. While I don't think it's reasonable to walk into a license bureau in Alma and expect to be served in English, for anglophones with difficulty with French, arrangement should be made upon request.

At any rate, nobody can deny that Bill 101 changed the face of Quebec and certainly transformed it from a bilingual society into a French society, with English reduced to the island of Montreal.

Has Bill 101 served its purpose?
Has the language issue been redressed in favour of French and has Bill 101 passed its shelf life like  Affirmative Action laws in the USA?

Opinions about Bill 101 remind me of pizza.
Go to a real pizzeria with a dozen friends and you'll order 12 different  pizzas.

And so, the above post is just one Anglo's opinion.

It's your chance to sound off.
We have all weekend. How about a thoughtful comment on Bill 101.

Let's try lay off the #$#@$#!!!!

BTW......How contentious and emotional is Bill 101?
Here's a photo essay to remind us how touchy we all are over the issue of language.

 

 

 

More Anglo Bashing on Quebec Television

Many readers caught a story on the French J.E. television program on the TVA network that was particularly annoying in its wholly biased coverage on a story about English signs in Laval

You can catch the whole report in French on the TVA website, but I've pulled out and subtitled the essential elements here.

The story, as you can view above, complains that many signs in the largely Greek/Italian/Jewish neighbourhoods of Laval are not following Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF ) regulations that require English text to be subordinate to the French.

Any story that interviews Mario Beaulieu as an expert on the subject of language rights, is automatically biased. The militant anglophobe believes that there are already too many francophone Quebecers who speak English and that English instruction should be limited, not encouraged. He just returned from Europe where he spent time telling anyone who would listen that Canada is an evil place and Anglo Canadians a vicious race of colonizers.
The only good news on that front, is that the Europeans couldn't care less.

The story also cited as a contributing factor in the 'deteriorating' sign situation, the fact that Anglos are moving to Laval in increasing numbers and even provided a graph to highlight the 'problem.'
I wonder if it would be acceptable in any other province for a television program to offer a similar graph showing an alarming influx of Tamils, Chinese, Muslims, Jews, Natives or Blacks!
Could you imagine an Ontario television station putting up a graph highlighting a Francophone invasion of a particular neighbourhood in Ottawa and intimating that it is upsetting the linguistic balance!

I don't think so.....

The graph on  the J.E. show underlines the sad fact that complaining about Anglos moving into a neighbourhood is perfectly acceptable as long as it is framed in context of the defence of the French language.
And this isn't an isolated case, the French language militant group Imperatif-francais blasted the City of Laval officials over the same issue and accused them of doing nothing to counter this 'alarming' influx. LINK

Then there's the lovely woman interviewed for the story who told viewers that English shouldn't be allowed on signs anywhere in Quebec, an excellent way to frame the story.. ahem...

Now the gist of the story is about the size of English text on signs, with the commentator reminding viewers that the law demands that the French text be twice as big as the English text.

I've had a problem with this very issue ever since the 'rule' was put in place, because it doesn't make sense as a regulation and it doesn't really satisfy the Supreme Court ruling.

"In 1993, the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled that Quebec's sign laws broke an international covenant on civil and political rights. "A State may choose one or more official languages," the committee wrote, "but it may not exclude outside the spheres of public life, the freedom to express oneself in a certain language."

Reacting to these events, Bourassa introduced new legislation in 1993. This law allowed English on outdoor commercial signs only if the French lettering was at least twice as large as the English." LINK

Actually the last part about French being twice as large as English is NOT part of the law. It is a common misconception.

What the law  actually says;

Article 18

Les articles 58 58.2 de cette charte sont remplacés par le suivant:

«58. L'affichage public et la publicité commerciale doivent se faire en français.

Ils peuvent également êre faits la fois en français et dans une autre langue pourvu que le français y figure de façon nettement prédominante.

Toutefois, le gouvernement peut déterminer, par règlement, les lieux, les cas, les conditions ou les circonstances o l'affichage public et la publicité commerciale doivent se faire uniquement en français ou peuvent se faire sans prédominance du français ou uniquement dans une autre langue.». LINK

In other words, the law says that French must be clearly predominant. It says nothing about size and leaves that determination to be fixed later by regulation.

The OQLF was given the mandate to enforce the language law and it was the agency that came up with the interpretation of the two to one ratio rule for text on signs, French versus English.

There has been a couple of cases that went to court and subsequently backed up the OQLF position, but the issue has never been tested on the level that I describe below.

At what point does 'nettement predominante' become so overbearing that it has the effect of rendering the English unreadable and so ipso facto, in contravention of the United Nations covenant that English be allowed?

Here's the example the J.E story uses itself. It shows an actual sign in Laval (on top) that contravenes the 2/1 ratio regulation and shows an artist's conception (below) of how the sign should appear to abide by the regulation.

This montage is not my work, it was offered on the television story as a teaching aid and you can see clearly (or unclearly) what the problem is.

When the French text is set to the minimum size that can be reasonably read from the distance from which the sign is expected to be seen, reducing the English to half that size makes it unreadable, something that clearly violates the UN convention.

When the 2/1 ratio rule is applied to large signs, it may be in conformity, but when it comes to smaller text, the application of the rule becomes ridiculous.

Here's another sign featured in the story, it's a sign in front of a professional office.
This time I did the photo manipulation myself to show you what would be required under the 2/1 ratio regulation.

From the distance that the sign would be viewed normally, the English text looks like the bottom line of an eye-chart, the line that nobody can read!

Watching the story on television and looking at the examples provided, convinces me that the regulation, in instances where the size of French is smallish, cannot be enforced legally.

It may be time to take another run at Bill 101 in court concerning this 2/1 ratio issue, but we'd have to find a business that was fined over the issue of ratios in small sized text on a commercial sign.

I'm not sure that the OQLF is fining anyone over this 'small text' issue at all,  perhaps concerned that to do so, would place them at risk of having the regulation overturned.

 **************************

Dear Readers...

A special Happy New Year to Jewish readers of this blog and their families.

As is the tradition, the family gathers around a special dinner to celebrate the Jewish calendar's version of the new year over two nights, tonight and tomorrow. Shana Tova!

Montreal Returning To its Bilingual Roots

The declining situation of the French language in Montreal can be fairly described with that familiar bromide of "between a rock and a hard place," with the need for immigrants to stem the effect of a declining birthrate, offset by their propensity to adopt English in large enough numbers to upset the linguistic apple cart.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.....

In describing the linguistic situation of French in Montreal, I much prefer the Latin expression,

"A fronte praecipitium a tergo lupi"

(A cliff in front of you, wolves behind.)

The recent outcry against international companies trading under English trade names is just one element denoting the shifting sands under the French language, where a convergence of trends augers poorly for the future of French as the overwhelmingly dominating language of Montreal.

Last Friday the OQLF published a report indicating that by 2031 the island of Montreal would tilt  towards a majority of citizens whose mother tongue is other than French.

The reliability of this report leaves something to be desired, as pointed out by Don Macpherson of the Montreal Gazette, who tells us that the demographer making this prediction, Marc Termote,  has had a spotty record, already having made this prediction on five previous occasions, all with different conclusions.
Read the story in the Montreal Gazette. Link

No matter.
While one can dispute the 'when,' the fact that Montreal is becoming more English should escape nobody on either side of the linguistic debate.

Facts and statistics are all subject to interpretation, but let me try to keep things as simple as possible.

Montreal today has a demographic element of 25% Anglophones, 50% Francophones and 25% Allophones(whose mother tongue is neither English nor French)

We are told by the government, that eventually, half the allophones will adopt English and half will adopt French and so melding these numbers we can extrapolate that Montreal is roughly 37% English and 63% French.
Since Anglophones are no longer fleeing the province, the balance between English and French in Montreal remains stable, only if the 40,000 or so immigrants arriving to Montreal each year choose to adopt French over English by this same 63% to 37% ratio.
In fact to maintain linguistic balance province-wide, immigrants would have to adopt French at a level of about 87%.
But such is not the case and so each year, the English numbers creep up, slowly but surely.

But other factors are also at play, including the fact that while Anglos remain firmly embedded in Montreal, many francophone families have fled to the suburbs, tilting the linguistic balance on the island towards English even more.   

Also contributing to the Anglicization of Montreal is the changing face of the retail marketplace, Not only are the mastheads of the new wave of international retailers alighting in Montreal, English, but the culture and products purveyed therein are English as well.

Montreal's English institutions continue to thrive and expand, the new mega-hospital currently under construction another symbol of the permanency and strength of the community. McGill University, an international and Canadian treasure,  centers a concentrated network of institutions of higher English education that is so attractive that it pulls students from the indigenous francophone community as well as from other provinces and abroad.

The massive Bell Centre home of the 'English' Montreal Canadiens, serves up English concerts and events on most nights, with French artistes taking a decidedly backseat.
Most of the tourist attractions including the Comedy Festival, The Jazz festival and the Grand Prix are largely English affairs drawing tourists to the city that interact largely in English regardless of their mother tongue.

The decline of French in Montreal is largely paralleled with the decline of French internationally, as English has evolved into the de facto language trade, commerce, entertainment and tourism.

An so French language militants are truly behind the eight ball in trying to reverse what appears as an inexorable decline of French in Montreal and an opposing rise in English, which has all the appearances of having passed a critical tipping point.

But the reality is that while Montreal is becoming more English, it is just reverting back to its natural state, something it always was, a completely bilingual city.

Photographic evidence shows us, that whatever decade you choose to examine, (except for the last three) Montreal was one of the most bilingual cities on Earth.

St.Catherine & Stanley 1915

This 1942 photo of a deppaneur denotes the beautifully bilingual nature of the city.

Montreal in its greatest decade- The sixities. English  and French, side by side

Montreal in the Thirties. The sign says it all

The City of Montreal was officially bilingual until the late 1970's

For those of the Bill 101 generation, a bilingual-looking Montreal is but a figment of the distant past, but the truth remains that the city's history is as English as it is French.

Nothing can change the fact that Montreal was built by the Scots and the English with most of the heavy lifting done by the Irish. The street names of the downtown core reminds us of a heritage that French language militants wish us to forget.

While they argue that Anglos are taking over, the reality is, that Anglos are taking back what always belonged to them.

Bill 101 continues to artificially prop up the French appearance of the city by forcing a predominance of French signage, propagating the fiction that somehow, by pretending English doesn't exist, it will somehow  disappear.

But the sign laws are largely ineffective. If every sign in the city magically turned into French tomorrow, it wouldn't change anything.

Like the PARIS casino in Las Vegas, which tries to project an imaginary French atmosphere upon guests, the use and exclusive appearance of French in Montreal is largely illusory.

Don't expect to use French at the casino's craps table or order dinner in French at its Les Artistes Steakhouse and similarly, although the store windows in the Fairview Mall are French, most people are transacting in English.

And so it seems that the artificial world that Bill 101 foisted upon the city these last thirty years is failing.The linguistic reality can no longer be plastered over by French signs which serve only to distort the truth.

Francophone militants claim that Montreal belongs to the French. By repeating it often enough and loud enough, they believe they can make it so.  But they cannot change what is.

Montreal belongs to the English and French in friendship and partnership.

It remains home to a beautiful language duality that language bigots cannot abide.

Too bad....

Weekend Review - Volume 36

Separatists- Once more with Feeling

Hurray! Another separatist party is created in Quebec!
Independent MNA  Jean-Martin Aussant  who left the PQ to sit as an independent is starting up a new separatist party, the third to have a sitting member in the National Assembly.

Although not as yet formed the new party will operate under the 'Option nationale' banner and will push aggressively for the sovereignty option as well as Mr. Aussant's pet project, the defence of Quebec's mineral resources.
Good Luck!
I mean it sincerely, the more separatist parties the better to split votes!

Separatists- Looking for love in all the wrong places!
It seems to me that if a pre-K class in Langley British Columbia invited blowhard Mario Beaulieu president of the separatist Societe Saint-Jean-Baptiste (SSJB) as well as president of the  Mouvement Québec français (MQF) to address the little tykes about the merits of sovereignty, coupled with a healthy side order of running down Canada, he'd hop on the first plane, with bells on, to deliver a three hour monologue!

With talk of sovereignty not exactly a topic du jour in Quebec and with interviews on Quebec television fewer and farther between, Mr. Beaulieu went to Europe to seek out support from those who couldn't care less.

First stop was a conference in Val d'Aoste, Italy celebrating peoples whose language/culture is under attack. Judging by the photo, the exhibition held in some sort of a field, wasn't exactly a rousing success, with the Creole restaurant which was set up in an adjacent tent  to the Quebecers, appearing to be way more popular.

Then it was off to Paris, to celebrate the Fête de l'Humanité, a gathering organized  by France's dwindling Communist party, which enjoys less than 2% of popularity in France. To bolster Mr. Beaulieu's representation of Quebec as president of the SSJB and the MQF, was the Réseau de Résistance du Québécois.

 In an article in La Presse, Alain Dubuc, wonders if Mr. Beaulieu has lost sight of reality.

"How can we interpret this strange crusade? Two hypotheses come to mind. The first, rather uncharitable, is based on the well-known attraction of travel. The second, more troubling, describes some kind of activist who has lost touch with reality, strategies he developed in a vacuum where he just forget the real world and real issues. Where the key is to make gestures, even if they are unnecessary and ridiculous. LINK{Fr}

Surpise! Quebec politicians actually more popular than used-car salesmen.

When it comes to public confidence in Quebec, politicians rated just ahead, wait for it, used car salesmen! The politicians received a confidence rating of just 8% in a survey by Leger Marketing, saved from finishing on the bottom of the list, by 1%.

On top of the list;
Firemen                  97%
Ambulance Techs- 93%
Nurses-                   91%
Surgeons-               89%

On the bottom of the list;
Used car salesmen-  97%
Politicians-               93%
Lobbyists-                91%

Click on the picture to read the entire list in French.




From le magazine nagg

The most pathetic OQLF story of the year!

This story may just be the most pathetic Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) story of the year.
A Montreal Gazette reader, Robert Wilkens wrote a depressing, yet hilarious article that describes  the Keystone Kops goings-on, on his little street in downtown Montreal.
It seems that when bureaucrats at the OQLF combine with the fools running the Montreal public works department, hilarity ensues. Don't skip this story. Click on the link!

"You see, a few years ago a city authority visited the modest corner in question – Guy/Paxton Park – and a team of several seemingly well-intentioned labourers proceeded to paint the backs of three long-neglected community benches. The seats themselves, which were in an equal state of disregard, were left totally untouched and remain so to this day. Every morning I am reminded of this bureaucratic absurdity.  LINK

The beat goes on  for French music, again!

This story is about another tedious march by French language militants demanding more French music on the radio. The Mouvement Montreal Francais (MMF) led by the, err.... ultra-famous Quebec actor Denis Trudel demanded that a Montreal radio station, CKOI and others, stop playing so much English music, more than their CRTC license provides for.
The stations are accused of using a clever trick to understate the amount of English music played by stringing together a bunch of English songs in a mashup or remix, thus counting that the resulting effort is just one song, in terms of accountability. VERY CLEVER!
The marchers protested such 'cheating' and bore placcards with the names of French artists that they wished to see replace the English music.
The issue of why people should be forced to listen to music that they don't want to hear, is definitely of course, strictly beside the point.   LINK{Fr}

After the march, demonstrators repaired to the local Valentine restaurant for dinner, but only after a very heated discussion about French content, that led them to modify the original plans that had the group scheduled to go to Harveys!

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." - William Pitt

An inside view of Quebec corruption.

There's been lot's of discussion lately about corruption in Quebec, with most people demanding a public inquiry to peel back the hidden layers of criminality.
Here's a glimpse of what would be discovered, courtesy of a story that wasn't picked up in any English media. It should have been and so I translated it as best I could. 
Regardless of how cynical you are, this story will have you shaking your head;

Presumed Bribery at Revenue Canada-millions spent at the casino

Francis Vailles
La Presse

The RCMP has discovered that a Revenue Canada manager spent $11.8 million in cash at a casino in the company of a known tax evader, Francesco Bruno, between 2006 and 2010.

  

This information comes from new documents filed in court in Montreal by the RCMP as part of its investigation into the alleged bribery of Revenue Canada officials. Seven tax auditors are believed to have received generous bribes from crooked taxpayers to help defraud Revenue Canada.
The Revenue Canada manager who purchased the millions of dollars in casino chips is Madan Kehar. Most of his purchases were made at the Montreal Casino in the presence of Francesco Bruno, who also spent $ 1.4 million in cash on such occasions.

Francesco Bruno (left),  Alfredo Magalhães, in a box at the Bell Centre in 2005

Francesco Bruno is the president of BT ceramics, which was found guilty of tax fraud last spring. It was he who helped one of Tony Accurso's companys evade taxes of $4 million through an elaborate scheme of false invoices. According to the RCMP, Madan Kehar as well as two other Revenue Canada officials had intervened to prevent another auditor from delving more deeply into the issue of BT ceramics in the early 2000s.

New information from the RCMP was released as part of a subpoena  for documents, approved by a judge, directed at the Bell Centre, in late August. The police obtained Bell Centre invoices that proved that certain tax inspectors benefited from the largess of Francesco Bruno during a Canadiens hockey game in September 2007.

No tax at the Galeries Laval

In the new report from the RCMP, police made an astonishing discovery in the offices of BT ceramics in 2008. The safe of the company's CEO, Francesco Bruno, contained original documents belonging to Revenue Canada in relation to Galeries Laval, a shopping centre then owned by Tony Accurso.
Such forms never leave the offices of Revenue Canada, the investigators reported. According to them, "the fact that such forms disappeared from the Canada Revenue Agency benefits Galeries Laval, because the  information is no longer accessible to the Agency."One form, dated June 2004, noted that the latest official to have worked on the Galeries Laval file, questioned the fact that the mall never paid any tax.

In another form found hidden in the safe, suspicion was cast over of another Revenue Canada auditor concerning another Tony Accurso company, Louisbourg, over another bogus invoice scam.
Readers are reminded that Francesco Bruno, BT Ceramics, were located in a building belonging to mafia bosses Vito Rizutto and Paolo Renda.

Bahamas and Switzerland

In addition to the Revenue Canada official Madan Kehar, two key officials are also targeted by the RCMP investigation, Furgiele Adriano and Antonio Girardi. Furgiele is the cousin of Francesco Bruno.In its investigation, the RCMP discovered that Francesco Bruno opened a bank account in the Bahamas in 2006 with Revenue Canada officials Furgiele and Girardi. The account manager was Quebec's Martin Tremblay, later jailed for money laundering in another case. In July 2006, the Bahamas account was closed and the money, $816,278, was transferred to Switzerland

In addition, the RCMP also discovered that Furgiele received $150,000 from a taxpayer at the beginning of 2008 a few weeks after he received a tax refund of $2.3 million. According to police, Furgiele was at the heart of the scheme that enabled the taxpayer to save the taxes. That taxpayer in question, is Francesco Bertucci, his company, Thomson Tremblay. The police tried to talk to him, but his lawyer objected. The RCMP believes that Revenue Canada officials Nick Iammarrone, and Giuseppe Oliviero participated in the scam benefiting Bertucci.

Bell Centre

In order to get the approval of the judge in its application for a subpoena of the Bell Centre, the RCMP submitted photos of another night at the Bell Centre in 2005, which it seized in the home of Furgiele, which were filed with the Court. It shows nine officials of Revenue Canada drinking with Francesco Bruno in a box at the Bell Centre.Among the officers of Revenue Canada that were there, were team leaders Furgiele Adriano and Antonio Girardi, as well as agents Madan Kehar and Giuseppe Oliviero. As for taxpayers, in addition to Francesco Bruno, there were two other co-shareholders of BT ceramics, Alfredo and Rodolfo Magalhaes Palmerino.Officials suspected of wrongdoing were fired from Revenue Canada or have already retired. No charges were brought against them or against Francesco Bertucci.

read the original story in French

If you want to believe that it's just the Italians involved, here's a story from yesterday's news..

and folks, it's just the tip of the iceberg.

Habs jersey sends TIFF atwitter

Actor Viggo Mortensen and Keira Knightly currently starring in 'A Dangerious Method' greeted journalists at the Toronto International Film festival wearing the dreaded Habs jerseys.
Moretensin is a huge Montreal Canadiens fan and previously pulled off the same stunt at the  2005 edition of the festival.
He admits that during filming of the Lord of the Rings, he wore the sweater under his costume.
Huh!
As they say on Global TV, "Whooda guessed?"

For Toronto Maple Leaf fans, who might be feeling a bit left out, I scoured the Internet for something similar, but all I could come up with is this photo of Brooke Mueller (Charlie Sheen's ex) wearing a nifty Leafs T-shirt. 

Hold on a sec......

Is that a foil crack pipe she's holding?  LINK

eeek!!

Speaking of hockey shirts in the media, who can tell me which famous movie this Habs jersey made a prominent appearance in?

What's the Montreal connection?

The stupidest stories of the week..

Finally, here's two stories that definitely had me shaking my head, I don't know which one is stupider. I'll let readers decide;

The first story details a female high school teacher who seduced a fifteen year old male student and carried on an affair in which they had sex between 200-300 times, everywhere you can think of including the high school itself.

The teacher is trying to get the case dropped because it has taken so long to come to trial.

She complained to the judge that her life has been ruined by the publicity.

Pontbriand, her slight body shaking with emotion, said the ordeal has zapped her of her energy and she finds it difficult to hide her tears from her children.

“The most precious time in a parent’s life is when the children are small - the giggles, the little fat tummies, the hugs and kisses,” said Pontbriand, 40. “There are times your child catches you crying and says, ‘It’s okay, mommy; I’ll kiss it better.’ ”
The teacher with 13 years’ experience has been unable to work, she said, because her case has appeared around the world on Internet and television. LINK

This  next story is of a Montreal borough Notre Dame de Grace, (NDG) which decided to engage graffiti artists in a contest, in order to reduce tagging around the neighbourhood.
The borough was to provide a workspace and guess what first prize was supposed to be.
100 cans of spray paint. .......yup!  LINK


FailQc.com.

At first I laughed at the misplaced footings for a sign for some sort of federal building in Quebec City.
But then the English translation on the sign had me feeling that the translation was performed in Bangkok.

Workshop Quebec City?

A 'workshop' is what you have in your basement, not a big government facility. It should read 'shop' or 'facility', or something else.

Is the start of an Inglish invasion.

Quebec Corruption-Time to Put the Hammer Down!

I read the comments section religiously and while I often disagree with what is said, many times my opinion is shaped or re-shaped by the observations made.

In relation to the Construction industry corruption scandal that is now gripping Quebec I must say I couldn't agree more with these comments offered under the blog piece-Corruption Bombshell To Explode in Quebec

Anonymous said...

The mafia (in conjunction with the labour unions that they control) run the construction industry and they've been doing this for decades. I know I'm going on a tangent here but the folks ultimately responsible for all of the corruption are already known by the police. Everybody knows who the crime bosses are but nobody is willing to do anything about it. Heck, it's almost as if nobody cares that organized crime runs so many rackets in Montreal. 

JohnL said...

@Press 9: We don't need a commission to tell us what we already know: Organized crime owns the construction industry and the unions. Instead of worrying about costly commissions, why aren't we focusing our energies on the real problem, which is the mafia? 

JohnL said...

And let's be honest: Quand on dit que "les Québécois EXIGENT une commission" all this means is that a pollster asked the right question. I guarantee you that if we asked the population whether we should crack down on the mafia and street gangs, that we would also receive a positive response on that issue too. But mysteriously enough, no pollsters are asking that question; and if they are, it's not being reported.

Those who want an inquiry want to prove that Jean Charest and the Liberal party are crooks, nothing more, nothing less.
Given the cash nature of any payments, I can't see an inquiry helping to prove unprovable allegations. The whole inquiry would in all likelihood degenerate into a another unfulfilling and frustrating Bastarache Inquiry fiasco.

Now before readers accuse me of protecting the Premier from calls for a public inquiry over friendship, let me say that as much as I am a friend, I can't see him re-elected under any circumstances, so deep is the enmity and anger directed at him by all but core supporters.

In fact, given that the Premier is unelectable and the Liberals are headed to the same scrapheap as their federal counterparts, it would be nice, to see Premier Charest, take it on the chin and  finally right the ship of state, which has been listing rather badly for decades under the strain of corruption.

It seems to me, that institutional corruption has been a way of life in Quebec as far back (and perhaps longer) as the Duplessis era where in order to get a measly snow-removal contract, a company had to have political contacts (read; bribes)
The only difference between then and now is the media attention and so if it appears that Quebec is more corrupt today than yesterday it is but an illusion.

If as a society we are serious about ending or even reducing corruption, a public inquiry won't help.
If we want to end, or even reduce corruption in the construction industry significantly, the guilty need to go to jail......It's that simple.

Now that Mr. Duchesneau has forwarded a list of twelve or thirteen cases of documented corruption, the last thing we need is an inquiry to gum up the works for a year or two.

What we need are prosecutions and after convictions, jail sentences and lifetime bans from doing business with the government, directly or indirectly.

Over the last year or two, a bunch of companies have been found cheating the government, be it over tax evasion or over-billing on construction projects.  All skated, paid a fine and went back to work, according to the same old, same old rules of corruption.

To these crooked firms, the fine is just a cost of doing business and perhaps the next time they scam the government, they'll steal a little more to make up the loss. It's nothing more than paying off a cop to look the other way or paying a speeding ticket after being caught for the umpteenth time on a joy ride.

The process would be greatly aided if Mr. Charest would name a special prosecutor who would be given independence and ample resources, including the hiring of crackerjack legal talent from outside the sadsack Crown prosecutors office.

As anyone who has watched an episode of Law & Order knows, a little pressure on the weakest link, will have crooks singing for mercy, especially those in the Ministry of Transport, who can't afford $500 an hour lawyers and are trembling at the thought of going to jail.

If in the course of any investigation the trail leads to the Liberal party or the Premier's office and if the independent prosecutor has reason to believe he can obtain a conviction, then so be it.

I much prefer to let the chips fall as they may through proper legal channels rather than the  spectacle of a He/Said sideshow, which is what a public inquiry is.

I'm not cynical about the chances of this happening..,

Given the right approach, the corruption house of cards can collapse and the message that crooks will go to jail if caught cheating the government, will have a salutary effect.
Truthfully, with a little effort, the whole thing could be wrapped up in a year.

Readers I have a little treat for you in the form of a news story that is no longer available online. (I can only imagine why it was taken offline.)
I clipped it a while back and was saving it for a rainy day, which apparently it is today.

It concerns those big-shot Consulting/Engineering firms that are part and parcel of the construction corruption scandal.
Here's a translation, as well as the original story in French, which I'm sure will provide a chuckle.

Consulting engineers defend their right to give gifts
(CP) - Three days ago

MONTREAL - The association representing consulting/engineering firms are defending their right to offer reasonable gifts to their clients and to determine for themselves what is reasonable.

While the engineering firm BPR has regularly made the headlines for months over certain practices attributed it, the Association of Consulting Engineers of Quebec (AICQ) believes that these practices may  not all be as equally reprehensible as the media seems to suggest.

When in business, it's a good idea to get close to customers and try to understand their needs, according to its CEO, Johanne Desrochers, who not surprisingly refused to discuss the specific case of BPR.

On the issue of gifts, Ms. Desrochers said  that it is everyone's responsibility to know where the limits are. According to her, these limits vary from one industry to another and from one sector to another.

The head of the association declined to say what gifts might be considered acceptable among those which made ​​headlines, from fishing trips to restaurant meals.

In fact, it would be wrong to try to define the limits of what is acceptable, according to Johanne Desrochers and be better to go on a case by case basis.

Les ingénieurs-conseils défendent leur droit d'offrir des cadeaux

(CP) – Il y a 3 jour

MONTRÉAL — L'association qui représente les firmes de génie-conseil défend leur droit d'offrir des cadeaux raisonnables à leurs clients et de déterminer elles-mêmes lesquels sont raisonnables.

Alors que l'entreprise d'ingénierie BPR fait régulièrement les manchettes depuis des mois en raison des pratiques qu'on lui prête, l'Association des ingénieurs-conseils du Québec (AICQ) est d'avis que ces pratiques ne sont peut-être pas toutes aussi condamnables qu'on semble le laisser croire dans les médias.

C'est une bonne idée, quand on est en affaires, que d'être près de ses clients et de tenter de comprendre leurs besoins, selon sa présidente-directrice générale, Johanne Desrochers, qui a sans surprise refusé de discuter du cas précis de BPR.
Sur la question des cadeaux, Mme Desrochers a dit penser que chacun est responsable de savoir où sont les limites. D'après elle, ces limites varient d'une industrie à l'autre et d'un secteur à l'autre.

La patronne de l'AICQ a refusé de dire quels cadeaux pourraient être considérés comme acceptables parmi ceux qui ont fait les manchettes, allant de voyages de pêche à des soupers arrosés au restaurant.
En fait, on aurait tort d'essayer de définir les limites de ce qui est acceptable, selon Johanne Desrochers. Il faudrait plutôt y aller au cas par cas.

Here's another fun story;

 "When preparing her run for the leadership of the PQ in 2007, Ms. Marois raised the sum of $123,000 from 62 donors. The majority of the money, about $80,000, came from Consulting/Engineering firms, according to calculations that were made ​​by the Quebec solidaire last year and which was reported in La Presse."  Link{FR}

When confronted by reporters about this financing, Madame Marois was unequivocal;
"It's not relevant," she replied. "I was not in the government, I could not award contracts"

HaHaHa!.....