Defending Quebec Values?

Jean-Marc Fournier...begging Conservatives for changes.

Recently the Quebec justice minister, Jean-Marc Fournier went to Ottawa on no less than two occasions to demand beg that Ottawa soften the Conservatives new crime bill, C-10, to reflect the values of Quebec society.

Mr. Fournier has the backing of the Quebec corrections industry, the experts and the media, who almost all universally opposes the government's plan to get tougher on crime.

But despite the almost blanket condemnation of the crime bill in the Quebec Press, the question whether Mr. Fournier's position actually reflects "Quebec Values" remains open.
Do the majority of Quebecers really support Quebec's kid glove approach to criminals or does the public support the get tough on crime proposals of the Conservatives?

While Mr. Fournier has a brief to speak for the Quebec government, he is also telling all who'd listen, that the Quebec government's position, vis-a-vis crime and punishment is backed by most Quebecers. Hmm....

Quebec’s Justice Minister left a meeting in disappointment and anger after his federal counterpart again rejected his demands for changes to Ottawa’s crime bill on Tuesday, saying: “I don’t recognize myself in this Canada.”

Jean-Marc Fournier said his province and the federal government have two visions of justice after Rob Nicholson refused during a meeting in Ottawa on Tuesday to change provisions of Bill C-10 that deal with young offenders....Mr. Fournier said Quebec’s values of leniency and rehabilitation for young offenders were being shunted aside in favour of tougher sentences. Link

Of course the following reaction from separatists was to be expected;  

In Quebec's national assembly Tuesday, the Parti Quebecois argued that the province's pro-Canada premier, Jean Charest and his justice minister get no respect from Ottawa.

"It's clear: the values of Quebec and of Canada are different," said PQ Leader Pauline Marois.

"But the Canadian Constitution — which we never signed — is clear: criminal law is federal, and is created by a Parliament in which Quebec will become an ever-smaller minority." LINK

Réjean Pelletier, a professor of political science at Laval University in Quebec City, said that Quebec and Ottawa are likely to continue disagreeing on crime matters, especially the treatment of young offenders.

“Ottawa’s strategy on justice issues just doesn’t fly in Quebec,”  Link

Running point for Ottawa's attempt to get tough on crime is Quebec Senator Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu who was appointed to the Senate almost two years ago by Harper with a mandate to spearhead efforts to get tougher on criminals.
The mild mannered senator is an-ex Quebec civil servant whose comfortable and ordered life was shattered by the brutal murder of his daughter Julie, who was kidnapped and murdered after being held captive for a 12-hour session of brutality and rape.
Hugo Bernier, who murdered Julie had been convicted of rape two years earlier, but was paroled just three months into his sentence and murdered Julie while on probation.

One of the key spokesmen for the Conservatives’ tough-justice agenda is Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu, a retired senior Quebec civil servant. Named to the Senate last January, the 62-year-old Boisvenu founded the Murdered or Missing Persons' Families' Association after the 2002 kidnap/rape/murder of his daughter Julie. In 2005, after he and his wife Diane lost their only other daughter in a traffic accident, Boisvenu wrote Survivre la innommable (Surviving the unnameable). In it, he wrote of the lack of support for the families of victims of crime. The book has become a touchstone for thousands of Quebeckers facing similar losses. He has been relentless in his criticism of lax police work and the judicial system’s lack of consideration for victims of crime and their families. Since becoming a senator, Boisvenu has been touring Canada to explain why the system punishes victims and their families — and how the Harper government is proposing to change it with a series of bills that end early parole and further limit judicial discretion. Link

Mr. Boisvenu represents the other side of the argument, the opinion that doesn't get much play or support on television or in the Press in Quebec. It's the opinion that believes that coddling criminals is the wrong thing to do and it actually reflects the attitude of most Quebecers who fall into line with what most ordinary Canadians also believe.

From his website;

“The problem isn’t crime, but recidivism. I’ve toured federal penitentiaries and provincial jails across the country...60 percent of the inmates are serving a second or subsequent term — that’s what’s costing us. As in education, it’s not success that costs us, but dropouts. Criminals returning a second, third, fourth time — they cost us because we’ve failed.

I have three terms in my vocabulary when I talk about the Canadian prison system:

Tough justice -Let’s not confuse laxity with tolerance.
Responsibility - The criminal is responsible for his rehabilitation, not the state. All the privileges the prison system currently offers — television, the trailer (conjugal visits), retraining programs — must be earned. The criminal must merit these privileges as a function of his rehabilitation.
Imputability - No payroll without participation, without effort. No unmerited automatic parole. Everything must be earned. We have a prison system more or less managed by committees of criminals. We’re buying the peace. That’s what’s costing us.
We must re-establish a set of conditions in our prison system so that these individuals have no desire to return. The first priority of the prison system should be the protection of the population, followed by the rehabilitation of the criminal. We’ve got it backwards!

To counter Mr. Boisvenu's position, his opponent's have made some pretty bizarre claims and stooped pretty low with some nasty personal attacks.
He has been berated publicly by some in the Press as having no legitimacy in the debate because he is unelected. This ironically from an unelected Press who usually complain that senators are lazy and do nothing to earn their salary.
He has also been cruelly accused of being vengeful because of his personal tragedy, and overly biased as a result.

But almost 80% of Quebecers say that they want a tougher approach on crime. Link{Fr}
So it appears that when it comes to values pertaining to crime and punishment, Quebecers fall neatly in line with other Canadians who also want harsher treatment of criminals by the same wide margin.
It seems that the only people out of line with these 'values' are those in the Quebec government and in the press who mislead the public by falsely claiming that Quebecers back their soft on crime approach.

Finally there's been some pushback. Marc-Bellemare, the ex-Liberal justice minister who accused the Charest government of political interference in the selction of judges, came out sharply in favour of the crime bill.

"The Conservatives' Bill C-10 will enhance the credibility of the judiciary in Quebec, where the fight against crime is the last priority of the Charest government." Link

He went on to counter the arguments made by opponents of the Bill;

Minimum sentences- "Is there one Quebecer who is against a minimum sentence of a year for a coach or a summer camp instructor who sexually abuses a minor? I would like to meet him" 

Publically identifying a teenaged criminal "The court has to approve  this. I have five children and I'd like to know if there's a 17 year old bum who killed two people, at risk of recidivism, living three blocks from my home. " 

Adult sentences to minors -"It's not automatic, as Minister Fournier suggests. It's for cases of extreme violence. The Crown must apply and the judge must agree... " 

Reduced discretion for judges- "For 30 years, Ottawa has increased the maximum penalties for a host of offences, but it isn't reflected in the severity of sentences. In reality, judges can choose between one and 14 years in prison. That's overly discretionary. " 

Quebec values- "Minister Fournier did not speak on behalf of all Quebecers in Ottawa. I think Quebec values ​​are consistent with this bill." 

Senator Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu- "I agree with him when he said that Quebec is soft on criminals." 

The 'defense lobby'- "Where was the lobby when I heard Guy Cloutier tell the parole board that he never was attracted to children and then released after serving 29 of the 42-month prison for which he was convicted? " LINK{Fr} .

Finally on Mario Dumont's nightly conservative talk show, Eric Duhaime did a nice job debunking the theory that Quebec's soft approach on crime and punishment is somehow more successful than elsewhere in Canada.
It isn't..

The idea that Quebec 'values' as pertaining to crime are different from Canadians is another great lie being shopped by a media that tries to sell their opinion as fact.

The Press and the politicians would have us believe that Quebecers are happy with revolving door prisons, just like they try to convince us that we should be afraid of bilingualism and that English store names should offend us.

As the old song goes; 'Tain't so, Honey, 'Tain't So!

Anglophobia a Cautionary Tale for Head Offices

Bank of Montreal, Head office in Toronto

Way back when I was a high school student, I remember a particularly brutal food fight in the cafeteria that ended up causing several thousands of dollars in damage.  As food whizzed around the room, it didn't take long for the mayhem to degenerate and soon trays and chairs were being tossed around with reckless abandon.
I recall thinking at the time that everyone had simply lost their mind.
Caught up in the hysteria, we see normally rational people doing the stupidest of things just because everyone else is doing it.

We saw this mob mentality take over during the Vancouver hockey riots after the Canucks were eliminated last year and here in Montreal....well, we've had too many similar mindless riots to single any one out.

Watching the language debate spiral up to dizzying heights over the fact that just two highly placed employees of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, are unilingually English, I cannot help being overcome with the same feeling.
....Has everyone lost their mind?

Last year I thought the government insane for proposing a law to ban niqabs, considering that less than two dozen women actually wear them in public, but now a law is being proposed, triggered by just two language 'offenders' and calls into question the rationality of language supremacists, begging the question as to whether the language debate has spun dangerously and ridiculously out of control.

The recent witch hunt aimed at rooting out English in Head offices and government agencies reached new heights of folly with the Parti Quebecois actually proposing a law to eradicate the scourge of English in crown government corporations. Link{Fr}

All this over two employees!

Adding to the charged climate, a PQ loudmouth,  François Rebello, a sitting member of the National Assembly, has demanded that the government boycott the National Bank, all because the bank president decided to keep a unilingual English IT department in Montreal, rather than ship the jobs off to Toronto! Link{Fr}

I wonder if the 80% of the bank's employees, who work in Quebec(some 14,000 people,) appreciate a Quebec politician calling on the public to boycott the bank and put their jobs at risk!  
Could you imagine the outrage if a federal MP asked Canadians to boycott Quebec dairy products because there are too many separatists in Quebec!

Truly we have lost all sense of proportion and like during that food fight forty years ago I feel inclined to jump up on a chair and shout "STOP THE INSANITY!"

Hysteria... there's really no other way to describe the language pogrom that is sweeping the offices of Quebec's largest and most successful companies, where disaffected and passed over employees get to denounce their company like Nazi collaborators. They do so, encouraged by an eager Press, ready, willing and able to whip up a frenzy of controversy that will no doubt have the effect of killing the golden goose.

While the Caisse de dépôt has no choice but to knuckle under, other companies are able to exercise free will and the chilling damper on reason will no doubt affect decisions whether to locate in Quebec or elsewhere.
A couple of years ago the city of London, Ontario tried to convince Montreal's Shriner's Hospital to relocate to Ontario, with an incredibly generous financial offer, which Quebec was forced to better. Had the offer come from Toronto, the hospital would likely have moved, London being too out of the way, travel-wise, for the Shriners' clients.

While that tug-of-war played out favourably for Quebec, it was a rare and costly win, hundreds of other competitions for head offices, factories and companies occurs each day, with Quebec losing out, most of the time.

Today Montreal enjoys a booming video game industry, cultivated by long years of government subsidies and tax breaks.
This industry utilizes the highest level of information technology as well as the creative talent of superstar programmers and game conceptors, drawn from all over the world. It runs in English.
The video games produced, although translated into French and many other languages, are the creation of an English culture.
Conduct a language witch hunt and order this industry to operate in French and we can anticipate a lineup of cities begging to relocate the industry with a package of incentives that will more than make up the cost of moving.
It would be devastating.

Quebec would be well advised to recognize the unseen hand that renders legislation subservient to market forces. Losing a head office that never came because of language issues is just as painful as having one snatched away.

In our last French vs. English piece I told you that Air Canada was moving 160 jobs to Toronto, all without publicity, so as not to create another controversy.
Last Thursday, the union head, representing head office employees hit the panic button and fretted publicly that this move may just be the beginning of a total migration of Air Canada's head office to Toronto. Between language laws and market realities, it's probably just a matter of time.

So how important is it for Quebec to nurture those companies that do choose to keep their head offices in Montreal?
If one cares about economic prosperity I imagine it's of paramount importance.

By refusing to allow companies that operate internationally or in industries where English is de rigueur, the right to have run even the smallest of departments in English, the government has cleared the way for them to either pack up and move and worse still never even consider Montreal in the first place.

Well done!

On Thursday, as the witch hunt proceeded, La Presse revealed that Bombardier was given a special dispensation to operate part of its aviation business in English in Montreal.  Link{Fr}
A francophone employee complained to the newspaper that;

"These are people of exceptional talent, but who have no interest in learning our language. Never a 'Bonjour' or a 'Merci.' "

I guess 13,000 jobs makes a difference, even to the OQLF. (if not language supremacists)
But the question remains....what is the threshold.

Over at CGI, another technology giant based in Montreal, no such dispensation exists. Some employees are calling reporters to complain about English usage in the Head office. The company has 31,000 employees and 125 offices in 20 countries. Link{Fr}
Hellooooo Toronto?

Of course language militants don't care and in the name of linguistic purity are willing to forgo the benefits of tens of thousand of well-paying jobs.
I daresay that if an international company approached the government about locating a thousand employees in a new Montreal office with the proviso that 100 of the jobs would be English only, the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Impératif français and all the other language supremicists would scream at the top of their lungs to reject the offer.

Sometimes I get the feeling that the separatists are trying to blow up the province economically, so that people suffer financially and unemployment rises, more will be attracted to the separatist pipe dream.
This is Quebec..

I remain in favour of Quebecers maintaining the right to work in French. Gone are the days of the master and slave.
But a law making French the language of work universal in all cases is counter-productive.

In an inter-connected world, the glue that binds is English. It's a realty that Quebec must face realistically and come to terms with the problem of jobs versus pride.

The answer to reasonable people is clear, it isn't exactly Sophie's Choice.

French versus English Volume 41

More English schools to close
At the same time that French-language militants ratchet up the hysterics, proclaiming that the sky is falling in on the French language, the English Montreal School Board started hearings on Monday at its head office to determine which schools it will close or merge in the coming years. Because of the effects of Bill101 and Bill 103 enrolment is down 20% in the last ten years.

"Starting Monday night, the English Montreal School Board (EMSB) will hear from school communities as it decides whether to close, relocate, or merge them.
Seven schools are facing closure or merger and a handful more could be relocated.
The EMSB has said it must close several schools because of declining enrolment, which has dropped by 20 per cent in the last decade. "
 Read the rest of the story

Here's the sad list of prospective closure and relocations.

Monday, Dec. 5
Nesbitt School (closure)
Perspectives II High School (relocation)
St. Brendan School (closure)
St. Pius X Adult Education Centre (relocation)
Vincent Massey Collegiate (relocation)

Tuesday, Dec. 6
Carlyle School (closure)
Marymount Adult Education Centre (relocation)
Royal Vale School (relocation)
St. Raphaël School (relocation)

Wednesday, Dec. 7
James Lyng High School (closure)
Programme Mile-End High School (relocation)
St. Gabriel/St. John Bosco School (closure)
Vezina High School (relocation)

Thursday, Dec. 8
Advisory Committee on Special Education Services
Central Parents' Committee
Fraser Academy (closure)
Westmount Park district boundary

All this week, the scene at the EMSB headquarters was incredibly sad, with parent and teachers making presentations as to why their school shouldn't close, competing with other parents from other schools trying to do the same..

New assault on Christmas
The province of Quebec continues its assault on religion across the board and despite the Conservative government in Ottawa ordering SERVICE CANADA  to rescind an order to ban Christmas decorations, the writing seems to be on the wall. A senior member of Montreal's ruling party, proclaimed that decorations would be limited to 'generic' types of displays and so while the Christmas tree is out, the identical 'Holiday' tree is permissible Ugh!
The Montreal suburb of Town of Mont-Royal decided to pull it's Christmas and Hanukkah decorations in front of city hall after it received a complaint by a Muslim. The town should have called his bluff and offered to display a likeness of Mohamed (which actually is strictly verboten under Islamic law.) In fact, the Islamic faith has a ban on all physical representations of faith and so actually nothing can be displayed! Ha!

"The tree in front of City Hall will remain decorated. "We make a distinction between religious symbols and Christmas decorations, says Philippe Roy(the mayor). Christmas is religious for some, but for others it's cultural. There are non-Christians who have a Christmas tree. "  Really, is he kidding?    Link{FR}

Decor ban reversed for Service Canada in Quebec

TMR latest to refrain from religious decorations

Too much English at Urgences Santé
The union is complaining that  too much English is being used in the transmission of information between paramedics and dispatchers. A new protocol insists that if a patient calls the ambulance service and complains of 'chest pains,' that the paramedic be informed by the dispatcher that the condition is 'Chest pains' and not "douleur thoracique," a French translation. The rationale is to avoid translation errors.
Anybody see a problem here?

The l'Office québécois de la langue française, is looking to put and end to this practice.

Interestingly the article denotes that over one third of calls received by the ambulance service in Montreal and Laval are made IN ENGLISH. Link{Fr}
The head of the union of ambulance attendants  told a CTV reporter that almost HALF the calls made in this region are in ENGLISH! 

Strangely, this may be the most definitive proof that  the percentage of English speakers in Montreal and Laval is really much, much higher than we are led to believe! 

It backs up what I've always maintained, that if you count the territory west of Saint Lawrence Boulevard in Montreal, English is the majority language and this includes the downtown core! 

Short stuff

A mob of language militants demonstrated in front of a government office complaining that too many services were being offered in English to companies, contrary to Bill 101.
As most government agencies are withdrawing English services and removing their bilingual websites, one agency stubbornly refuses.... the Tax department.
Readers, can anyone venture a reason why?

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In a story interestingly similar to that of KIF KIF IMPORT, a new Sherbrooke junior hockey team has been named the "PHOENIX " which immediately brought down the wrath French language supremacists who demanded the team be called the "PHENIX"
While the word "Phoenix" does appear in the French dictionary, according to the militants, it doesn't refer to the mythical bird and so they accused the team of choosing an English name.

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Franz Schuller, artistic director of the record company and a member of Indica Grimskunk, rock legend independent Quebec, is launching a division, whose mandate is to promote young French rock bands with a young audience. In conducting an informal survey of the musical tastes of high school students he became aware of the gap between them and the French-speaking artists.
When asked to list their favourite 10 francophone artists, they often mentioned only one name, the popular singer Marie-Mai. Sometimes the name 'Les Trois Accords'  made the list, but most of the time, eight or nine of the ten boxes remained empty. Ouch!
Readers....do I hear government subsidy?

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At a forum discussing the financing of this year's annual Fête nationale celebrations in Quebec city, the president of the organization that is in charge of putting on the show, Chantale Trottier of the Mouvement national des Québécois, reminded everyone that Anglophone artists would be welcome.....as long as they sang in French and addressed the audience in French. Link{Fr}

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Here's some insightful reporting from the Montreal Gazette's Pat Hickey;
Headline  December 2- Montreal Canadiens' Markov's comeback imminent
Headline  December 3-  Markov's return delayed

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I don't know if Jean-Marc Fournier, the Quebec justice minister, is reacting to his not so successful visit to Ottawa to plead for changes in the Conservatives new crime bill, but his chief of staff, Helene Menard, confirmed yesterday that he will cease to give bilingual press conferences and answer questions only in French from here on in. Link

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"Two prominent Montreal politicians are defending their French language skills after a popular radio host said their level of French is insulting.

On his radio show and on Twitter, Benoît Dutrizac took aim at Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce mayor Michael Applebaum and city councillor Marvin Rotrund.    Link    

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New Brunswick drunk aquitted because cop didn't speak French

"The New Brunswick Court of Appeal has ruled that police officers must follow the province's Official Languages Act when they arrest people.   The three-judge panel unanimously upheld a decision by a Court of Queen's Bench judge confirming the acquittal of Serge Alain Losier on two drunk driving charges because the arresting officer did not speak French.

Losier was arrested Sept. 4, 2008, by a Fredericton police officer after being stopped at a checkpoint. The arresting officer did not speak French, and Losier's English skills were poor." Read the rest of the story

vigile.net supports Syrian repression

It's always useful to hear opinions differing from what mainstream society generally accepts, it's an essential elementary that makes democracy work. 

Good to see that vigile.net is upholding this principle and is promoting the murdering Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad 

Here are a bunch of stories appearing om vigile.net in the past month, all are written in French.

Readers, I haven't cherry-picked just stories supporting the Assad regime, you can see a Google search of all stories concerning Syria on vigile.net Here..

...or view vigile.net's own collection of mostly pro-Syrian regime stories Here including these pearls;

Syrie : le génocide de l’OTAN approche (NATO genocide approaching)

Mensonges et vérités sur la Syrie   (Lies and truth about Syria )

Les disciples de Goebbels à l’œuvre contre la Syrie   (Disciples of Goebbels at work against Syria)

Menacer l’Iran et préparer l’invasion de la Syrie   (Threaten Iran and prepare to invade Syria)
La Syrie, Terre d’asile et de culture (Syria, land of asylum and culture)

Well Done!!

How about some support for Kim Jong-il? 
Quote of the Week

"....But when I saw and heard the commercial for Les Habits  St-Eustache on the V televison network, it was the straw that broke the camel's back. (because of English background music-ed.) This shop is located opposite the church, where our patriots were brutally killed by the English, now part of global conspiracy by Canadians and others whose mission is to make us disappear. I will never buy clothes in this store. -Daniel Roy C.A.

Weekend Viewing & Reading

For those who speak French here are three special treats.
Read a fantastic piece that is causing a stir; Doléances pour un Québec dépassé
Read a fantastic rant inspired by the first; J’aimerais être fier de ma nation

Here's an interview of Mario Beaulieu getting pulverized on a French language television show, Face a Face, by hosts Caroline Proulx and Stéphane Gendron. It's a jewel!
I found the link to the interview on the separtist website Mouvement Québec français, but can't for the life of me understand why they would link to such a humiliation.

Click to watch video

Here's a wonderful documentary in three parts on Anglos who left Montreal, which I found cruising the website of    Michel Patrice. 
Check it out, it's worth the visit.

"This first part is seen through the eyes of 6 friends who left Montreal in the 70's, after the separatist Parti Quebecois first came to power in the province, and the threat of separation for them became very real. They talk about the October crisis, feeling alienated and as they saw it, the limited opportunities for English speakers in Montreal." Phil Carpenter

Moving On; A Documentary in 3 Parts. Pt1: The First Wave from Phil Carpenter on Vimeo.

"This second part is seen through the eyes of 3 professionals including well-know radio personality Terry DiMonte, who left Montreal in the 90's, and later after the second provincial referendum on Quebec's place in Canada. They talk about feeling alienated and as they saw it, the limited opportunities for English speakers in Montreal."  Phil Carpenter

Moving On; A Documentary in 3 Parts. Pt2: The Second Wave from Phil Carpenter on Vimeo.

"This final part tells how people who left, feel about Montreal and Quebec since the last provincial referendum on Quebec's place in Canada. They talk about how the politics has changed, and how the desire for separation among young people in 2008 might not be as strong as it was in previous years."- Phil Carpenter

Moving On; A Documentary in 3 Parts: Montreal Reborn from Phil Carpenter on Vimeo.

Some Goood News!

Listen to the perfect voice of the very talented Marc Martel a bilingual Anglo, who hit the jackpot, scoring a gig as the "Freddy Mercury" lead in the Queen tribute band tour next year!

"Montreal-born vocalist Marc Martel, Quebec City bass player François Olivier Doyon and Toronto guitarist Tristan Avakian are among the winners announced Thursday in the Queen Extravaganza contest.
They auditioned via video before flying to Los Angeles earlier this week for a live audition in front of Queen drummer/songwriter Roger Taylor. The winners will tour next year in a Queen tribute band, recreating the Queen arena experience with songs such as Bohemian Rhapsody and We are the Champions."

Watch and enjoy!

 

BRAVO!!!!      Want more: Marc Martel does Bohemian Rhapsody

Monday's post;

Quebec Anglophobia, a Cautionary Tale for Head Offices...

What Makes Pauline Marois Tick?

Over these last years of blogging, I've refrained from writing much about Pauline Marois largely because I didn't believe I could bring much insight. Aside from crossing her in the hall a couple of times, she, like other peekists remain largely a mystery to me.

But events surrounding her these last months have been nothing short of extraordinary and even as an uniformed observer I'd like to make some general observations.
At least it will allow readers a platform to sound off in the comments section.

First things first.
If you are a federalist like myself, you cannot help but hope Madame Marois hangs on as long as she can. The destructive forces surrounding her leadership serve to discredit the entire sovereignty movement and realistically, as long as she is leader, the PQ isn't going to win any elections.

The utter lack of faith in her within her own caucus and the very public displays of disrespect, is an unheralded situation that leaves the electorate convinced that the party is unfit to govern, sovereignty or federalism aside.
Could you imagine how you'd feel if the door to the cockpit of a plane you've just boarded was left open and you heard the pilot and co-pilot screaming at each other before takeoff? LEMME OFF!!

Readers, I'd like you to consider the situation in the Quebec Liberal party, where scandal after scandal has ripped through the party, yet Premier Charest endures, untouched by insurrection among the party faithful.
Solidarity is just about the only thing the Liberals have left and perhaps the PQ could take a lesson, but as I said, as a federalist, I hope not!
Every political party in Canada understands that without solidarity and loyalty towards the leader, a party cannot expect to win the confidence of the people. Everybody except the Peekists, that is and so it is no surprise they are paying the price in the opinion polls.

One thing I've discovered about Pauline of late is that she's made of sterner stuff than her predecessors, the PQ leaders before her, who abandoned the job rather abruptly, either pushed or in a fit of pique.

The PQ caucus has always been a hotbed of discontent, with every member seeming to have leadership aspirations which they hope to enhance by backstabbing the leader.

And so, it's been a PQ tradition to dump their leaders rather unceremoniously and without much respect.
The fact that Levesque, Parizeau, Boisclair, Bouchard and Landry went so quietly and without a fuss belied the fact that the PQ is a political party steeped in the tradition of patricide and perhaps soon to be, matricide.

But Marois' fall from grace has little to do with her leadership skills as is claimed by the backstabbers. She is, simply put, the fall girl for the political fortunes of sovereignty, which seems to have fallen out of favour with Quebecers, who cringe at the thought of another losing referendum.

Like a cellar dwelling hockey team, it's the coach who gets the blame and subsequently the axe for poor performance.
For the PQ, blaming Pauline is just about the only choice they can make, the other option is to admit that the party platform which is based on sovereignty just doesn't resonate with Quebecers any more. That scenario is unthinkable and so Pauline must be the problem.

But Marois isn't going quietly, something PQ veterans seem to be astounded at.

By sticking around in the face of so much adversity and hostility Madame Marois displays an utter 'sang froid,' and stubbornness that I never knew she had. Her capacity to soldier on in the face of so much back-stabbing, is simply amazing.

Madame et Messier PaulineMarois

Madame Marois has always been an expert political 'operator' cut from the same cloth as Jean Charest. She has survived her own scandals with barely a scratch.
Her detestable husband, Claude Blanchet, is wealthy in his own right. While Marois was a cabinet minister in the PQ government of Jacques Parizeau, her husband was appointed, as director of a new Quebec government investment agency, the Société générale de financement du Québec but was eventually forced out over charges of gross incompetence. During his five year tenure at the helm of the agency, it lost over $800 million, during which time, he and senior management paid themselves generous bonuses, year after losing year!' When he was finally ousted, he negotiated himself an $80,000 pension for life, as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in severance!
I've been told off the record, by businessmen who know him professionally, that he's the type of guy that you count your fingers after shaking hands with him.

The power couple live in a controversial eight million mansion on Île Bizard, which was the subject of considerable controversy at one point. It was alleged in the Montreal Gazette that the couple paid off someone in order to legitimize a zoning change for the property. Read: How estate was built on public, farm lands.
See breathtaking pictures of the chateau Here
The couple sued the Gazette for $2 million over the article, but when the controversy petered out as expected, they settled out of court with the newspaper. The Gazette in the strangest of settlements, admitted that the story could have caused the couple harm, but was in fact true...Huh?  Link{Fr}

So  Madame Marois is not any stranger to being attacked over personal ethics and like Premier Charest is an expert at the political game of shuck and jive.

Like the Energizer bunny, Madame Marois just keeps going and going, but at this point it's fair to ask, why she is trying so hard to maintain her position, which by all counts appears untenable.

What on earth is a girl to do?

While I hope she stays, the Christmas recess might give Pauline the quiet time necessary to decide that it might be time to give up the ghost.

The loss of the by-election on Monday, in Bonaventure, while expected(it's a Liberal stronghold,) is still frustrating for Peekists. Watching the hated Premier Charest hold a riding while being so unpopular must be galling and even though PQ support actually rose, it remains little consolation to hardliners in the caucus, a third of whom need another term in the National assembly to become eligible for a pension.
Now with polls indicating that the PQ can do better with Gilles Duceppe at the helm, perhaps even winning, the pressure on Marois to leave is enormous.

If she does leave, I hope she blows up the party as a parting gift.
How?
She could either give a speech wherein she buries the sovereignty option or worse still stay on long enough to put a referendum back on the front burner.

If she publicly commits to a referendum within six months of taking power, come Hell or high water, it would satisfy the militants, but destroy any chance of electoral success at the polls.

As Christmas approaches, I can't think of a better present for federalists.
Ah....to dream!

Living in Montreal Unilingualy

One of the most annoying Francophone columnists I know is the insufferable Jean-François Lisée, whose stock in trade are articles bashing anglos or articles defending or in fact extolling the virtues of the Quebec 'model'

Mr. Lisée is the favourite target of conservative bloggers who regularly rip apart his voodoo calculations or cherry-picked statistics.

In one of his most memorable pieces, he quotes a study that concludes that Quebecers don't really pay a heavy price for their very generous social services.
The study calculates the federal and provincial taxes paid by Quebecers in addition to payroll charges and levies and compares that to the value of the social services received in return.
Sounds great, until you realize that the study fails to include federal and provincial sales taxes, gas tax, school taxes, liquor tax etc.etc.
Hilariously the study actually puts a PST and GST credit in the benefits column without ever applying the actual PST and GST taxes in the taxes paid column! See the chart Here
Read the wonderful rebuttal to his nonsense entitled,  Les temps sont durs pour Jean-François Lisée

Another one of my preferred bloggers, is the always entertaining 'DAVID" over on antagonist.net who regularly skewers Mr. Lisée in articles like  "Arguing with Idiots"

In one particular piece DAVID critiques a piece wherein Mr. Lisée disparages the United States over the inequities of income distribution.
In that piece, Mr. Lisée  tells us (quite rightly) that between 1979 and 2007, income for the top 20% of American earners went up 95%, while income for the bottom 20% went up only 16%, quite a disparity!

Our industrious blogger David, added in some data comparing Quebec to the United States and found that during this same period, income for the top 20% of Quebecers earners went up an anemic 10%, while income for the bottom 20% went up only 4%.

In fact, DAVID points out, income for the poorest Americans went up four times faster than in Quebec. Ha!

When not offering a rosy economic picture of  Quebec, Mr. Lisée is busy bashing Anglo Quebecers or Canadians in general.

In a recent blog piece Mr. Lisée complains that there are too many Anglophone Montrealers who refuse to learn French.
It all started with a radio interview on the Montreal CBC's Daybreak show where the subject was just that- unilingual Montreal Anglos who don't learn French.
The moderator Mike Finnerty, talked with  Sherwin Tjia, an artist who moved here from Toronto a decade ago and never learned French. Worse still he remains unapologetic. Listen to the Interview

“I’ve been to parties and met Francophones and they say, “You don’t speak French? How long have you been here?” They ask that question with an agenda. They aren’t really interested in how long I’ve been here. [...] the agenda isn’t subtle – they want to be able to come to some kind of conclusion about you, and by extension, tell you how you should be.

In their mind, there’s some kind of Language Statute of Limitations. If I’ve been in Quebec longer than like, two years, and don’t know French – that’s too long. In their opinion, everyone in Quebec should be bilingual, or working towards it. At these parties, they say to me, “You should learn,” almost like a threat.”- Sherwin Tjia

Of course, the interview brought down a storm of criticism, tinged with rage, by the usual suspects of French language supremacists.

"This hostile indifference to our culture is the consequence of the undermining in recent years of the French language in Quebec, as was noted by columnist Jean-François Lisée in an article entitled "Is the Unilingue anglais back" which appeared on his blog. Alas! All this is only too true. For my part I would add that the least assimilable immigrants, the most arrogant, often come from the Commonwealth and serve as a spearhead for the eternal red necks, that ever since our conquest, refuse to accept that French is a language spoken in Montreal."-  Read more of this rant by Gilles Proulx  Link{Fr}

Read a subsequent  interview with Mr. Tjia over the furious reaction his radio appearance engendered in the Francophone press. LINK

Mr Proulx and Mr Lisée both make their assertion that Anglos must learn French to be good citizens, based on a false premise which holds that Quebec is an independent country, not a province in a majorly English country.
The idea that all public discourse in Montreal must be in French, is based on this fruit of a poisonous premise.

I have maintained all along that Montreal is not a French city, but rather a bilingual city. Perhaps it's time to reassess that appraisal and admit that Montreal is actually three cities, a bilingual one, a French one and an English one.
There are those who live bilingually in Montreal while others live unilingually, either in French or English.
That's the way it is.
For Mr. Proulx and Mr. Lisée to pretend that Montreal is a French city because 79% of the province of Quebec is French is just another case of cherry-picked statistics.
There is a block of English speakers, over 500,000, that make Montreal their home. Putting a finer point on it, almost all of these Anglos  live west of St. Lawrence boulevard(which neatly divides the city in two), wherein they likely form the majority!

Insufferable anglophobes like Proulx and Lisée continue to propagate the myth that Montreal is French because the province is 79% francophone.
And they continue to believe that the English live in Quebec by the benevolent good grace of the francophone majority and that furthermore, Anglos should be thankful and respectful for being tolerated.

It is an indisputable fact that one can get along quite nicely in Montreal without French, something that outrages the Proulxs, the Lisées and other French language supremacists.
And so it also follows, that in Montreal, there are people who speak only English, just as it is natural that in Pointe-aux-Trembles there are people who speak only French.

Living in English in Montreal...YESSIR!

Let's see.
My wife has a friend who came to this province many decades ago and married an Anglo Montrealer.
She settled in one of those English town that boasts more than 70% English residents. Everyone on the street where she lived was English. She raised a family, sent her kids to English school and shopped in stores where the clerks were all English, including downtown Montreal.
Television, newspapers, entertainment and dining out....all in English.
Even the repairman who came to fix her washer or stove spoke English, even if he was French.

In forty odd years she hasn't learnt one word of French and still doesn't speak anything but English.
She couldn't tell you who Beau Dommage is or VLB or what Loft Story or Occupation Double represents. She couldn't recognize a picture of Ginette Reno or Roch Voisine.
Ironically she does know who Celine Dion is....
She never in life turned her television onto a French channel or listened to the likes of Gilles Proulx on the radio. As far a she is concerned La Presse may as well be written in Greek, it is of no import to her.
As for missing out on French culture, she along with 330 million north Americans get on quite nicely without it, she isn't really deprived.

Unlike what Mr. Lisée and Mr Proulx would have us believe, she committed no great crime, no bigger than a unilingual francophone who spent her whole life in Montreal speaking only French.

Years ago I made a road trip with a francophone employee, a senior member of management, who astonished me by asking me the name of the musical group playing on the radio. When I told him it was the Barenaked Ladies, he shrugged his shoulders and admitted he never heard of them.
When I forced a lunch stop (I was the boss) at Smoked Meat Pete's out in Pincourt, he asked for mayonnaise for his smoked meat sandwich and ordered a glass of milk. Eccch.....
Not a word of English, not a clue about smoked meat and he lived in Montreal all his life. Egad!

So what....

Yes, you can live in Montreal never speaking a word of French, just as you can live in Montreal never speaking a word of English. You can safely ignore the 'other culture' if you so choose and get along quite well, thank you very much.

To each his own.... Speak French, speak English, speak both. It's your choice.
Absorb the culture of others or don't, it's your choice.

In the world of Proulx and Lisee 'choice' is not an option, it is in fact, a dirty word.

These two dinosaurs remain what they are, arrogant language supremacists and Anglophobes extrodinaire.

Do I support being unilingual in a society of two languages?
No, I've made my choice to speak French and am happy with that decision.
But I will not choose for others or force my opinion on them, either. No.

And so my advice to Sherwin Tjia is that you've got nothing to apologize for.
To those who dislike the fact that you live in the Mile End and speak only English,  tell them what they've been telling us Anglos for years;

'If you don't like it,  move away.'