Equalization & Deficits Fuel Quebec's Disconnect with Reality

One of my oldest memories is that of my mother gathering the children around the old Formica kitchen table and announcing solemnly that my father had lost his job and that money would be very tight until he found work again.
As a six year old, I really didn't understand what all this meant, but was frightened by the sight of my obviously distressed mother.
Over the next couple of weeks nothing really changed, we ate dinner each night as before and the quality and quantity of the food didn't change. My mother even continued to pay my allowance of 10¢ and the initial fear that I felt at that first family meeting faded. Eventually my dad found work and I'd like to say that everything returned to normal, but normal never really changed.

I'm reminded of this story, because watching events unfold in Quebec, there seems to be an uncanny parallel.
I can't help but feel that Quebecers remain unhealthily insulated and sadly oblivious to the coming financial meltdown because they haven't really felt the effects as of yet. Their allowance hasn't been cut and they haven't had food taken off the table.

Just as my parents used their savings to paper over the fact that there wasn't enough money coming in, the Quebec government has used deficit spending and equalization payments from the rest of Canada to maintain the fiction that the collective Quebec lifestyle can be maintained.

Last week, college and university students across Quebec left their classes to hit the streets in one of the very rare student protests.

The issue that roused them to action wasn't global warming or their position against war.
It wasn't about justice for minorities or a redistribution of wealth towards the poor, but rather sadly, a protest for redistribution of wealth towards themselves.
Two years ago over 100,000 students hit the streets to protest against the government's decision to cut bursaries.

Already enjoying the lowest tuition in Canada, students were outraged that the government was hiking fees over several years, which by the way, would still leave Quebec university students with the best deal in Canada, when all would be said and done.

But the ability to maintain such generous tuition fees in the face of a crushing and mounting deficit is of no import to students, because having been insulated from reality (like my mother did to me) they cannot fathom the government running out of money.
In interview after interview, not one student leader addressed the issue of how low tuition rates can be paid for, as if the issue was entirely beside the point.

In blithely ignoring our financial reality, students are really no different from most of Quebecers, who are deaf to talk of deficits and dwindling resources, because the government just keeps paying and paying.

In recklessly spending beyond the financial capacity of the province, both separatist and federalist Quebec governments are equally to blame, not only for the dire financial consequences but the social consequences of allowing citizens to believe that the government has an unlimited source of funds and that a gravy train will always exist.

How bad is the situation?
Let's pretend the Province of Quebec is one single family.
It spends $70,000 a year, while earning just $57,500. The mother-in-law kicks in $8,500 to help, which leaves the family to borrow $4,000 from the bank, which it already owes a whopping $242,000.
 
Read this story in the Financial Post. (Thank you JASON for the link)

And so students continue to demand that their fees be frozen (some demanding that the fees should even be lowered) as well as demanding that the university increase salaries to support staff in a fantasy world where money grows on trees.

Now I'm not going to review Quebec's ruinous social spending programs, you can read an excellent analysis is a book that came out this week, by Joanne Marcotte entitled 'Gouvernemaman,' a very appropriate term that describes Quebec's 'Nanny State'

In the face of criticism, especially from commentators in the rest of Canada who decry Quebec's expensive social experiment, defenders claim that Quebec, as the highest taxed people in North America are paying for their own programs and that they are proud of the society that they have built.

But Quebecers aren't really paying for their social experiment at all, rather it's Canadians through equalization payments and the children of Quebecers who will bear the burden of one of the world's highest public debt.

Those who defend the grand social experiment remain fiercely defensive and proud, the fact that Quebec marches to a different tune, a badge of honour.

But let us ignore for the moment the fact the this grand social experiment is not only unsustainable, but has seriously impacted the future financial well-being of generations yet unborn.

Has all this social spending made Quebec a better society?

The sad truth is that Quebec has evolved into an unproductive and lazy society which lags Canada and the OECD average in almost every benchmark of success.
This more than anything else is the tragedy of Quebec's social plan.

It seems that over-generous entitlements have had the effect of replacing industry with indolence. The easier it is to get free money, the harder it is to get people to work hard on their own account.

It is an accepted fact that children of long time welfare recipients are much more likely to be welfare recipients themselves, much as children of professionals are much more likely to follow in the footsteps of their successful parents.

As entitlements grow, the standard of living falls. It's a natural and insidious consequnce.
The more money the government of Quebec gives out or re-distributes, the poorer its citizens become..

Click to download PDF in French

"In 2010, the standard of living in Quebec (measured by gross domestic product (GDP) per capita) amounted to $ 40 174, or about US$6,000 dollars less than the average among the 20 member countries of the OECD, and only $4,742 more than the lowest standard of living of these countries recorded, namely, that of South Korea.

Québec's performance in terms of labour productivity is very similar. In 2010, labour productivity in Quebec (measured by GDP per hour worked) was $ 49.90, while the average among 20 OECD countries reached $ 59.96. "In other words, an hour worked in these countries generates an average $ 10 more than an hour worked in Quebec," the study shows."

But the attraction of easy money is hard to give up and for many Quebecers working to make a good living doesn't seem worth the effort when one can get by on government handouts doing nothing.

For those born into a society where government handouts are part of daily life, dependence is as addictive as crack.

So the question remains.
What will happen when the inevitable collapse of the nanny state occurs when the government just plain runs out of money and the ability to borrow?

In 2014 the Federal Equalization agreement comes up for renewal, and the $8.6 billion or 12% of the Quebec budget will be put into jeopardy.
If Quebecers believe that Prime Minister Harper will blindly sign off again on the massive transfer of wealth from the RoC to Quebec, they are deluding themselves badly.

What will happen when the Quebec government's deficit (currently at $4 billion or 7% of the budget) spending can no longer be supported?
Deficit spending and equalization payments account for almost 13 billion dollars, or 20% of the Quebec budget.


The day of reckoning is not that far off and the spending cuts, required to stave of bankruptcy, while not on a scale that we've seen in Greece, will nevertheless be massive.

If students are protesting over a couple of hundred dollars of increase a year, what will happen when they will be forced to pay thousands more.
What will happen when $7 a day childcare goes up to $40 or more and what will happen when welfare and pension benefits are cut.
What will happen when the provincial tax is increased by 50% and personal taxes raised by ten or twenty percent.

Quebecers, having been coddled their whole lives, will react much as the Greeks, bewildered and flustered, unable to fathom how the government could actually run out of money,

I daresay the collapse of the nanny state will be as traumatic for Quebec society as it is today in Greece.

Can't happen?
To believe otherwise is to ignore reality.

In Quebec, Counting Anglophones is an Art Form

Institut de recherche sur le français en Amérique

Many, many years ago, my son was a grade one student having bit of trouble with spelling. Back then, spelling was considered an important element of a proper education and as such, students were treated to spelling bees, spelling drills and spelling tests on an ongoing basis.
Today spelling has joined home economics, shop and history in the trash heap of the education system, but I digress.

My son's teacher asked that as parents we help out at home by honing his spelling skills before the next test, a task which my wife dutifully undertook.
After the results of the next test were announced, she asked him how he did;
"Eight"
"Eight out of what?" she asked suspiciously.
"Ten"
"Hmm....Not bad....not bad at all!"

A few weeks later at a school conference, the teacher once again implored my wife to work on spelling.
"Whatever for? He got eight out ten on the last test"
"EIGHT OUT OF TEN??? He got eight out of ten wrong!!!"

And so as parents we suffered from statistical manipulation, by our six year-old!
That's how easy it is to be fooled by numbers, when you trust the deliverer.

So it isn't any surprise that when studies and statistics are prepared and served up by someone or some organization with a political agenda to promote, what we are provided with is statistical trash.

Such is the case of the insufferable Institut de recherche sur le français en Amérique (IRFA) an organization that uses the word "Institute" to give itself a false and bloated appearance of something which it is not. Aside from its minuscule size, it mimics the work of the SSJB, Mouvement Quebec Francais and Imperatif Francais in promoting the French language and the cause of sovereignty.

THE IFRA is a tiny French language lobby group, run by a university student consisting of a website, post-office box and a personal cellular telephone number.
The website shows a couple of academic separatists forming a 'scientific committee' which includes Marc Termote, a demographer and renowned language militant, and employee of the OQLF.

 "The decline of French in Quebec is so relentless that demographer Marc Termote says the government will have no choice but to consider taking drastic measures if it wants to turn the tide: a halt to immigration or the imposition of unilingual French throughout its territory." Link{FR}

Mr. Termotte is joined on the committee with Claude Castonguay, a retired professor of mathematics from the University of Ottawa and OQLF veteran.

The IFRA commissioned and recently published a study by another like-minded 'Institute" the 'Institut de recherche en économie contemporaine (IREC) which concluded, not surprisingly that English is over-represented in the Public Service in Quebec.
Checking the IREC's website I was not surprised to find that Jacques Parizeau, is the honorary President of the Board of Directors so you can imagine its political bent. 

The impartiality of these types of organizations and their ability to deliver non-biased statistically  based reports is more than questionable and when newspapers reprint their conclusions as fact, it breaks the very tenants of what good journalism should be.
You wouldn't expect a newspaper to reprint as fact, the conclusion that there is no link between cancer and smoking, based on a report prepared by the tobacco industry, nor would you expect a newspaper to reprint as fact, a positive link between prayer and good health, based on a report prepared by the Church.
But when a group of militant French-language separatists, offers a study on the dire situation of the French language in Quebec, it is printed in our newspapers as gospel.  Shame!

The impartiality of those preparing reports and studies on any publicly debated issue has recently become a hot issue in relation to climate change. Competing groups of scientists have muddied up the issue by allowing personal or group bias affect how they collected, prepared and interpreted data. It has had a devastating effect on the debate with the public unsure of who to believe.

Last year, here in Quebec, we were treated to a lively public debate between anglo rights defender Jack Jedwab and French language militant Claude Castonguay over which group, anglophones or Francophones enjoy a higher income, with both claiming that statistics supported their opposite positions. What nonsense!

And so, before ever putting stock in a study, one has to consider the bias and impartiality of those who prepared the report or study.
Readers, they don't come much more biased than the IRFA.

I've  previously written on the skewed conclusions of another report prepared by the IRFA and its contention that English cegeps (junior colleges) are a danger to the French language.

Read: English Cegep Study - A Case of Weird Science

And so when the IRFA recently published a report that describes Quebec's public sector as overly friendly to anglophones, I almost fell out of my chair laughing, not only because its conclusions were so skewed, but because the media lapped up the report without question.
Download the PDF in French

The report concludes that with 8.7% of the population 13.9% of the jobs in the public service are English.
Both of these numbers are false and misleading.

I didn't have to go deep into the report to realize that we were to be treated to a statistical sleight-of-hand leading to dubious and unsupportable conclusions.

There in the Resume;

And there it is..... 'historical anglophones,' a term used by ultra-separatists to magically reduce the real number of anglophones that they count.
I thought it was only zealots like Louis Prefontaine that use terms like that, but its seems to have crept into the language debate as something legitimate.

There really is no definitive way to describe who is an Anglo and so separatists use critera that suits them, where numbers are reduced.

Through voodoo statistical analysis, language extremists like Prefontaine can claim that 'historical' anglophones' represent just 5.6% of the Quebec population, while the author of this report can claim that the number of 'historical' anglophones is about 8.7%.

I much prefer the numbers of Statistics Canada, an organization which is arguably just about as unbiased as you can get.

So the English minority is actually 13.4%!
The explanation for the higher number is clearly spelled out.

Now before defenders of the report start attacking the integrity of Statisitcs Canada, I'd point out that much of the study itself is based on StatsCan data.

If one accepts this 13.4% figure, the conclusion of the report that English at 13.9% is vastly over-represented is proven false.

But wait, there's more! (as they say in the infomercials!)

I've gone through the whole report and cannot fathom how the author arrived at his conclusion that 13.9% of public jobs are English.

He claims that there are 31,000 jobs where public employees use English exclusively or English majorly while working. I'd love to see a list.

Now these jobs are not in Education and Health and Social services fields, which are treated separately in the report.
Here directly from the study;

"In Quebec 31,334 of the 237,209 public administration jobs are unilingually English or bilingual English/French, representing 13%"

I'd like to know where these unilingual English jobs exist in Quebec's public Administration.

Perhaps there's a couple of thousand of employees working in English at the Ministère des Transports or the Sûreté du Québec? Maybe there's a few more thousand stashed at Revenue Québec or  Environment Quebec.
Or maybe these employees toil tirelessly in Télé-Québec or the Ministère de l'Agriculture where they speak English all day and write and file English reports to their superiors who reply in English.

Really?? Are you kidding me?

Anglophones make up less than 2% of the civil service and I bet they speak French almost all of the time.

Even if this fanciful idea was true (which it certainly is not) working the majority of the time in English, means working some of the time in French and so the effective rate of English services offered by the 13.9% is reduced in consequence.

I shall be bringing you more statistical nonsense from the IRFA in the near future but until then, rest assured that as they say on the French language version of Mythbusters, this report is 'bidon!'

Language Marchers Disconnected From Realty

SOURCE DE SOULIERS A BAS PRIX ????

One of the sad aspects of the French language ultra-militants is that the publicity they garner is disproportionate to the amount of support that they actually have in the general community.

Last Saturday's march through downtown Montreal by a coterie of zealots underlines the paranoid psychosis that afflicts those who believe that an English name on a store is somehow dangerous.

Demanding that stores post signs in French is one thing, demanding that they change their names to French goes beyond the pale, into the land of racism and fantasy.

The self-righteous demand that stores show 'respect' to the francophone majority, reminds me of that parent, the one with belt in hand, who demands 'respect' from his child under pain of a beating.

Respect is earned, not owed.

When militants tell stores to respect the letter and even the spirit of the law, what they are really demanding is blind acquiescence, something quite different.

I never understood the concept of minorities owing 'respect' to the majority by virtue of numbers, while by virtue of those same numbers the majority can run roughshod over the minority.

Do Arab-Israelis owe 'respect' to the Jewish majority just because they are a minority?
I'm sure that every single person who took part in the march would say no, me included, by the way.

I'd bet they'd also object to the Jewish state banning Arabic on public signage and would accuse the country of cultural apartheid if they did, even though Hebrew is every bit as 'threatened' as French.
(By the way, public signage in Israel is tri-lingual and stores can post in any language they choose.)

Ridiculous comparison? Not really. Sometimes when you look at an issue from a different perspective things look completely different.

And so it seems that big bad Israel is linguistically more tolerant than Quebec. Ha!

Now before readers write in to say that there is no comparison between Arab-Israelis and Anglophone Quebeckers, because as the language militants love to remind us, we anglos are the 'best treated minority in the world," I beg to differ.

Francophone Quebeckers are the best treated minority in the world. 

So in the case of language in Quebec, it's a 'case of 'might makes right,' it isn't a question of respect.


The protest about English store names is based on the fantasy that 'out of site is out of mind,' that if English signs and store names are removed from public view, then somehow they don't exist. Poof!

It is an effort to promote an alternate reality, one where Montreal's English don't exist and the false perception that Montreal is 'French' and not bilingual is maintained by hiding reality.

This is the real essence of the protest.
Not English signs, rather English people and English businesses that protesters wish didn't exist.

Even the l'Office québécois de la langue française (the language cops)  admit that the demands of these militants are beyond the scope of the law.

Going far beyond what the OQLF guidelines, namely that stores add a modifier to their names, as in"Les Cafes Second Cup" the rabble marching down Ste. Catherine street, with the determination of those storming the Bastille, demand that the coffee shop change its name to "Deuxieme Tasse"

Next they shall tell Quebeckers that those who possess names like Henry, Mary, William and Peter change their names to the more acceptable, Henri, Marie, Guillaume and Pierre.

Ridiculous? I'm not so sure.

Don Cherry Shows More Class than Separatists

As most of you know, I'm no fan of Don Cherry and have written about him him previously in generally unflattering terms.

I'm also not a fan of heavy metal or country music. I don't think Rick Mercer is very funny, nor is Rita McNeil an interesting artist (even at Christmas) and I do believe that David Suzuki is a big fat phony..... but so what?

Just because I don't like their opinions, their comedy or their talent doesn't mean that I should write the CBC asking that they be removed from television. Diversity is what makes the entertainment business interesting and kooky and controversial personalities contribute to keeping us entertained.

Don Cherry is what he is, you love him or hate him. I do suspect that of those who tune into Hockey Night in Canada, many more are in his camp, than against,  otherwise he would have gotten the boot a long time ago.

How popular is Cherry? Very, very, popular.
I once found myself on an airplane sitting beside him on a flight out to Moncton where he was going to make an appearance at one of his sports restaurants in Dieppe.
Throughout the flight, on a smallish BAe-146, no fewer than twenty or thirty fans (crew included) asked Don for his autograph,  which he dutifully obliged with a smile and polite interaction.
"Where you from?--or --Nice to meet you,"
If somebody told him they were from a small town, he'd invariably ask after one of it's local residents.
I dare say he knows a lot of people.
At the airport in Moncton, the scene replayed itself, with ground workers, airline personnel and travellers all lining up to get autographs and rub shoulders.

Throughout it all, he acted with dignity and good grace and I thought to myself that I couldn't imagine going through life being that popular, to the point of being assailed everywhere I went.

As much as Don Cherry is admired by most anglophone Canadians, he is roundly despised in Quebec and by francophones in general for a few injudicious remarks he made on television, denigrating francophone hockey players.

These remarks weren't particularly vicious, but he did disparage francophone hockey players, in describing them as soft and frail. Francophone reporters ripped into him, resulting in a hate-a-thon that sent Mr. Cherry into the language doghouse along with his dog Blue.

Cherry is a throwback to the old days when Europeans didn't play in the NHL and Francophones were  mostly the property of the Montreal Canadiens. He liked it that way.
During the time of racial integration, many old timers found it hard to accept change. In 1989, he referred to Finnish-born Winnipeg Jets Assistant Coach Alpo Suhonen as "some kind of dog food" Yikes!     Wikipedia

"In January 2004, on the subject of visors, Cherry said on Coach's Corner: "Most of the guys that wear them are Europeans and French guys" to illustrate his claim that visor users have less respect for player safety. This statement triggered an investigation by the federal Official Languages Commissioner, and protests by French-Canadians. Wikipedia

That was his whole transgression, nothing particularly racist, just a stupid comment that he wasn't particularly a fan of francophone or Europeans hockey players.

Cherry & the Queen. Separatists worst nightmare!

For this, francophones have never forgiven him and many have called for his removal from the CBC's hockey broadcast. In fact, his continued presence on HNIC is considered by these objectors to be an ongoing anti-Quebec/Francophone provocation.

Anyways....
Don Cherry has always enjoyed a particularly close relationship with Canada's Armed Forces and uses his pulpit on HNIC to honour those who have died in service. His unbridled enthusiasm and untiring support is much appreciated by the military and their families, to whom Cherry is nothing less than a hero.

So after all these years of unflagging dedication to the armed forces, the military decided to honour his contribution with an honorary degree at a commencement ceremony at the Royal Military College.
I cannot think of anyone who is more deserving.

This of course had the Francophone militants up in arms and they raised the alarm that Cherry was unworthy because of his 'anti-francophone' comments.

"Don Cherry, broadcaster for CBC and host of Coaches Corner on HNIC has refused to attend Royal Military College to accept an honorary Doctorate degree due to a "circus" atmosphere.

In a report by Joe Warmington in The Toronto Sun on Saturday it was noted, a true military supporter and Canadian, Don Cherry (77) of HNIC (CBC's Hockey Night in Canada) Coaches Corner, has announced he will not accept an honorary doctorate degree from the RMC on November 17th. 'One' professor at the Royal Military College in Kingston Catherine Lord has suggested that he does not support the French people, but leaves out the fact that he loves the French, just not the French that wanted to separate from Canada."  Read more in the Toronto Sun

After a brouhaha erupted, Don Cherry decided to decline the honour in order to avert a 'circus' atmosphere that would have shifted focus away from the 800 cadets graduating and the two others receiving honorary awards.

Bravo!
Don Cherry has a lot of class.... A lot of class.

Although he isn't my cup of tea, he has earned my respect as a principled individual who in the truest military tradition has placed himself subservient to the group.
His decision to forgo the well-deserved honorary degree in order to save his confreres from certain  embarrassment is in the finest tradition of the armed forces, where the good of the greater is more important than that of the individual.
Again BRAVO!

The argument that Cherry is unfit for an honorary degree from the Royal Military College or even the right to appear on the CBC smacks of hypocrisy of an order that boggles the mind. It is so ludicrous that it begs further discussion.

If that same criterion were to be applied to Radio-Canada (the French CBC) and any commentator or on-air personality who had made an anti-Canadian or anti-English remark on air would be banned, I'm pretty sure that there wouldn't be anyone left to read the news.

Another case of deux poids, deux mesures (double standard)

And so readers, I ask you, should virulently anti-Canadian, anti-anglophone artists like the late Pierre Falardeau, be offered funding from Tele-Film Canada to make anti-English and separatist films?

Should a life-long separatist, be eligible for writing awards from the Governor-General?

The insufferably self-important Quebec writer, Victor-Lévy Beaulieu has been militating for the breakup of Canada his whole life and has never made bones about his dislike of Canada and his trepidation over English culture. Yet, he was nominated three times for a Governor General's prize and actually won once in 1974.
Should his separatist views have disqualified him from working extensively for Radio Canada, a federal broadcaster created with the goal of fostering national unity?
Let us remember that it is English Canada that over-finances Radio-Canada.

Mr. Beaulieu is a prolific writer and has made his anti-Canadian views known without reservation.

"....that our Church sold its soul to the devil English which used to help make us sub-human, disgusts me."  Link{FR} 

How about calling our ex-Governor General, Michaëlle Jean, the pejorative, "Reine-Nègre" ("negro Queen" LINK{FR}
I've written about his opinions and let's just say he's no fan of Anglos, Jews, Greeks, Chinese and Muslims.  LINK Link{FR} 
So why was he offered and why did he accept a Governor-General's Award?

Should his politics have made him ineligible, like Don Cherry?

In Quebec there is no limit to the anglo bashing on television and in the media. It is so pervasive and so common that it is considered normal.

Calling out Don Cherry for a barb he made years ago is utterly two-faced, but typical.

If Don Cherry is deemed ineligible for awards for his opinion about francophones, should artists and other Quebec figures who militate for sovereignty while describing anglophone Canadians as colonizers and exploiters, be eligible for Canadian honours?

In English we have our own saying;
"What's good for the goose, is good for the gander"

or better still
"People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones."

French versus English Volume 38

Yes readers, I've gone back to the 'French versus English' moniker for the Friday post.
Why? Because "Weekend Update" was pretty much lame.....
Not all the stories will be about language but what the hey.......

Unilingual auditor general  triggers furious language reaction  
One has to wonder if Stephen Harper is deliberately baiting Quebec by continuing to make appointments of unilingual anglophones to senior government and political positions.

When he appointed  Michael Moldaver, a unilingual anglophone to the Supreme Court, voices were raised in Quebec opposing his nomination based on his lack of French.  Even the usually staid Quebec Bar Association waded into the debate condemning the principle of unilingual Supreme Court judges.

Quebecers angry at Harper government's 'qualifications before ...‎

After Harper nominated another unilingual, Michael Ferguson, as Auditor General, a disturbing trend became apparent and a cause celebre was triggered in Quebec, which views the tradition of bilingualism at the top levels of the civil service, judiciary and political ranks an acquired right. The fear that this tradition is being reversed by Harper has resulted in a groundswell of opposition.

"To the chagrin of many in Quebec, the Harper Tories have seemingly instituted a policy of putting one's qualifications ahead of their ability to speak French when it comes to government appointments.

On Tuesday, the NDP cried foul after they learned that Michael Ferguson, Stephen Harper's nominee for auditor general was unilingual." read the rest of the story

The decision to put talent before language doesn't sit well in Quebec, and launched a witch hunt to root out other unilinguals in the public service. Joseph L. Rotman, head of the Canada Council of Arts was outed as well by the Mouvement Québec français,

Here's a sample of reactions across Canada, both pro and con;

Unilingual auditor general a mistake - Edmonton Journal
NDP ran unilingual candidates but wants bilingual bureaucrats -National Post
Ferguson wouldn't quit AG job, even with comme ci, comme ca French - Vancouver Sun

Most reactions in English Canada followed this line, offered by a reader in reaction to a story by the CBC, Should the auditor general have to be bilingual?

"We must create a nation where French minority rights are respected but there are still opportunities for Anglophones who represent the majority to get ahead in the Civil Service. As it stands now, bilingualism is put above other more important qualifications. If he is the best choice for AG, then he should get the job."- JimF13

French studying in English
An article in the Paris newspaper, LE MONDE despairs over the fact that of the 7,000 students from France studying in Quebec universities, a quarter of them choose to go to English universities, like McGill and Concordia.

This embarrassing situation flies in the face of a program set up years ago by the government of Quebec whereby francophone students from around the world are allowed to come to Quebec and study in university, paying the same low tuition as native Quebeckers.
The idea of the program is to foster a greater exchange within the francophone world and to increase Quebec's influence on the next generation.

The fact that students use the program to get an ENGLISH education is diametrically opposed to the program's goals,  but it isn't clear what the government can do, short of banning the practice.
Michelle Courchesne, Quebec's education minister promises remedial action.

"We must be fools to blissfully accept to finance the teaching of English in the name of friendship between France and Quebec! If we have to terminate the bilateral agreement dating back to 1970 to eliminate this scam, so be it"  letter to Le Devoir

Another  letter writer to LE DEVOIR was not untypical of the rage the practice of using the program to scam an English education.

And if you do not send them home out of pity for their cowardice and stupidity, at least have the good sense to triple their fees: a third more as foreign students and a third more as the price of their treachery and bullshit. Link

Ouch!

Spanish signs add insult to injury!

A Montreal francophone hospital is in hot water for posting a sign indicating approximate wait times for a clinic in English and horror of horrors, in Spanish as well!

The hospital claimed that it was just trying to communicate with patients more effectively, but of course in Quebec, this is thoroughly beside the point.

The usual gang of language militants reacted with expected outrage.
According to Yves-François Blanchet, a PQ immigration critic;

"In Quebec, everything is supposed to be French. The solution is not to translate the information into other languages​​, but rather that the speakers of the other languages adopt the language that is common to all. "

"It goes completely against the spirit of Bill 101," protested Mario Beaulieu, president of the Mouvement Québec Francais. He said the sign sends the wrong signal to the people, in addition to creating complications.

"If there's a fire, does it mean we have to shout, " Feu!, Fire!, Fuego?"  Link{FR}

Separatist Parade a gigantic bust
A news report which obviously had been prepared in advance, had to be edited hastily to reflect the reality that a separatist parade organized by a coalition of 22 sovereigntist organizations and called for last Friday in Montreal, was decidedly under attended.

Too bad the copy editor forgot to make the correction in the caption under the photo which described 'thousands' of attendees while in the body of the story, not twelve words later, described the participants as 'hundreds'

Both the newspaper  Le Devoir and the radio station 98.5 described the crowd as numbering about 200, an utter disappointment to organizers who wanted to demonstrate that separatists can still get out a crowd.

Considering that the night before, over 250 people demonstrated in the tiny town of Saint-Adolphe-d’Howard to protest the fact the town was losing it's only ATM machine, it's a bit of a humiliation.

More racism on vigile.net!

Democratic Reform Minister Tim Uppal

It amazes me that the separatist website continues to publish racist filth even after being called on the carpet for its overt antisemitism.
Perhaps the the worst offender is the ever-nasty contributor, Jacques Noel, whose evil, racist posts are published on an ongoing basis.

His latest screed is a rather pitiful attempt to prove, using selective and upside down statistics, that Ontario and the other provinces didn't deserve the added seats in Parliament and that in reality, it was Quebec which was shortchanged......I kid you not.

Now I've long given up trying to rebut his childlike nonsense, but when his racist pronouncements are published, I feel encumbered to call him out.
Mr. Noel was upset that Democratic Reform Minister Tim Uppal, a Sikh delivered the news of the seat change, offending Mr. Noel because er.....he wears a funny hat?

"To add insult to the humiliation, it was a Sikh, proudly wearing his religious symbols in the House, who was the sponsor of the Bill. White Niggers of America. Pierre Vallieres must be turning in his grave!   LINK{FR}

(Pour ajouter à l’insulte, pour ajouter à l’humiliation, c’est un Sigh, arborant fièrement ses symboles religieux en Chambre, qui parraine le projet de Loi. Nègres blancs d’Amérique. Pierre Vallières va se retourner dans sa tombe !)

Thanks to TROY for pointing out the story.

Tiny  dollar store start-up attacked over language

If you're wondering why Quebeckers lack the entrepreneurial spirit demonstrated by Canadians in other provinces, it has a lot to do with the red tape and hoops put up by the government. But aside from that there is a gang of language fools who come sniffing around for language violations, like dogs smelling crotches.

A small start-up 'Dollar' type store in Granby was taken to task for selling junk products with unilingual labelling.
Obviously the merchant didn't have the buying power of Dollarama and had to take what he could get.
That naturally, was no excuse for the language militants who demanded action from the OQLF for the outrageous insult.

 "Asked to comment, the store owner, Daniel Tétreault,  insisted that the problem is not a big deal."It's just a few products. We are a new company, I am a local resident from Granby, not a big multinational. Perhaps a few products went unnoticed, I cannot see everything. I'll make an effort and I will try to resolve the situation. But please give me a chance..."
He denounced the fact that his business is being attacked."I find it really unfortunate that some people are trying to destroy my business like that. I just invested a lot of money, I bought the building and I put  a lot of people to work." LINK{FR}

Readers, please groan with me... .Arrrgggggh!!!!!

Accent plus!

An oddball story of government waste wouldn't have made this column if not for the photo accompanying the story.
The piece recounted how the government was wasting over $50,000 to install a shower in the office of one of its branches of the license bureau.

That in and of itself is newsworthy for the utter overspending, but what caught my eye was the sign on the building which actually has an improperly used diacritical accent.
Both the letters  'E'  in Société are supposed sport accent 'egus' (é) but the first 'E' in sign sports an accent 'grave' (è) instead.

Ha!Ha!

This on a government building.
For we anglos who are bilingual yet still have a problem with diacritical marks and male and female nouns, it is sweet confirmation that French is no easy language to master, even for natives speakers.

I still can't fathom why a female dog is considered a male noun.....

One of our readers, GEN sent in this picture of a manhole cover in the city of Verdun adorned with English-only text.
She wondered sarcastically if the OQLF might force the city to replace it.....  Mebbe!
Sheesh...it must be really old.
`

Come4News!

In researching stories for this post, I often type in the words 'langue francaise Quebec' into the standard Google news search engine, but sometimes I forget to add the word  'Quebec' and get results from France discussing the language situation over there.
Here's a story lamenting the deterioration of French in the school yard and unfortunate influence of other languages on everyday French;

"But more than that, today the French language is in danger. In schools and colleges in France the language we hear in the schoolyard or the streets is far from having a relationship with the French that we expect to speak in class." LINK{FR}

The whole story is rather uninteresting until I looked at the name of the website;

Yup, isn't it ironic that a website complaining about foreign influence on the French language is named "COME4NEWS"

Annual Poppy fiasco 

Each year an annual poppy fiasco plays out in some mall in Quebec where legionnaires are told that they cannot sell poppies for a variety of reasons.
I'm not going to come down on the francophone managers of these malls for treating the legion the same way they treat other charities, obviously the education system doesn't stress the sacrifice and contribution of our military. More often than not, they know not what they are getting into and are genuinely shocked at the inevitable shit storm they bring down on themselves.

This year it was the Angrignon Shopping Centre in the Montreal suburb of LaSalle that told legionnaires to take a hike because they hadn't applied for a spot early enough. Yikes.. LINK

After the shit hit the fan via a television news report, it fell to the President of Westcliff management to go before cameras and grovel for forgiveness.
Last year it was the Dorval Gardens Shopping Centre  an English suburb of Montreal, which went through the same fiasco.
Many years ago it was the Champlain mall in Dieppe, New Brunswick which did the same.
I was a bit surprised that anyone in New Brunswick would dare diss the Legion, but it turns out that the manager of the mall who made the decision was a newly transplanted Quebecker.  Link

As Donald Trump is fond of saying "YOU'RE FIRED"


Odds'n Ends

"Liberal MP Justin Trudeau says he is upset and offended by a Tory MP who publicly questioned his adherence to the Catholic faith and his suitability to speak to students at a Catholic school." Read the rest of the story

 

"Anyone who has ever tried to come up with a zinger for The New Yorker’s caption contest knows how challenging it is to seem effortlessly clever. Quebecers, though, will be further frustrated should they come up with a suitably droll caption for the magazine’s weekly back page cartoon. It turns out they are barred from the exercise, which welcomes “any resident of the U.S. or Canada (except Quebec) age eighteen or over.”  Read the rest of the story

"Remember Mouna Diab? 
 She is the arrogant Muslim agit-prop who led a group of Muselmaniacs to Herouxville  in an intimidation campaign to straighten out the filthy kafirs who misunderstood her peaceful ‘religion’.

Now the Hezbo- bitch from Herouxville pops up in the news again : Quebec woman charged with trying to export assault rifle parts to Lebanon -  Read the rest of the story 

"The federal government has to be careful that its planned budget cuts don't have an undue impact on bilingualism, the commissioner of official languages warned Tuesday.In his annual report, Graham Fraser said official languages shouldn't bear an unfair proportion of the reductions." Read the rest of the story

A political attache for the federal NDP is planning to run as a candidate for a sovereigntist provincial party in an upcoming byelection.

Patricia Chartier, a staffer for Quebec MP Philip Toone, says she will be the Quebec Solidaire candidate in the eastern Quebec riding of Bonaventure." Read the rest of the story

Readers, a gentle reminder....PLEASE BUY A POPPY AND WEAR IT PROUDLY!
Have a good weekend!