French versus English Volume 46

Star Académie -Too much English

"The popular reality-talent show was steaming along, with all the right heartstrings being pulled, and then the candidates starting singing, with many of them doing it in the language of Shakespeare...

Actually, out of the eight songs sung by the 'contestants in danger' (contestants who were vying for a spot on the opening roster of the show), four were in English and one was bilingual.

Later on in the show - after a soaring tribute to Gilles Vigneault - René Angélil, Céline Dion's manager/husband and the director of the Académie, picked up on the trend.

"They can sing in English if they want, but if they want to make it until the end, we think,  from prior experience, it's not the best option to sing in English. ... I think we should hear more French here," Angélil said. Read the rest of the article  Alternate Link

Read the story en Française

I must take exception to Celine Dion's hubby/manager, René Angélil who advised candidates to do as he says, not as he does.

It was Mr. Angélil who transformed Céline Dion from a local francophone singer with a unibrow, into an Anglophone artist who captured the world singing IN ENGLISH, doing her best imitation of an Anglophone.
It was Mr. Angélil who advised Céline to remove the accent from her name in order to become CEE-leen from SAY-lin.
Talk about two-faced.....

Then there is the Pierre-Karl Peledaeau's better half, Julie Snyder who I can't stand because she scores her gigs the old-fashioned way, via nepotism.
She couldn't resist throwing a zinger at Quebec Anglophones, by intimating that they cannot speak, a gratuitous lie.

“Congratulating one Ontario-born contestant on the live show for speaking French well, showbiz veteran Snyder added, with mock incredulity:
“How can that be? Us, we have Anglophones in Montreal who don’t speak a word of French, and they were raised in Quebec! They were born here!”

 Read more: Montreal Gazette  Alternate Link

By the way, STAR ACADEMIE is modeled after a television show from France which is named rather ironically STAR ACADEMY (note the spelling)


Is this What Language Militants Want?

Flipping channels, I came across this, the logo for the locally produced French version of TPIR.
It's interesting because it's got that famous 'descriptor' that the OQLF demands, so it's 100% Kosher, but.....
Does it really help?

Huntington mayor continues to run hot?

Stéphane Gendron, the mayor of Huntington and host of a morning television newsmagazine, is not averse to ruffling feathers.
He went a bit too far when he ranted that Israel didn't have the right to exist and the fallout that ensued was so intense, that even he had to come off his high horse and apologize
You can view the apology here  LINK{Fr}

Readers will recall that the good mayor publicly announced that his town would remain bilingual, even if it didn't qualify under the strict interpretation of Bill 101 and therefore not authorized to offer English services to townsfolk.
Of course somebody complained and now the OQLF has announced that it is launching an investigation.
In reaction, the defiant mayor told the 'Ofeece' that he wouldn't knuckle under. In a stinging rebuke he told them that;

"Despite the laws, we have an ethical obligation and moral duty to serve a significant portion of our population in English. It's a question of history - the English founded this city - and of the dignity for our people and our seniors..."
"Leave us in peace, I have no use for the insecure and culturally impoverished who are tightly intertwined with the French language, who live their lives waiting for their disappearance in North America," he said. "To focus on this linguistic insecurity, Quebec has been diminished - Ontairio which said yes to immigration has passed us by. 

(Thanks for the story, Kevin)

Accent on Stupidity

You might remember Yves Michaud, the victim of a National Assembly unanimous condemnation back in 2000, for disparaging remarks he made about Jews not being good citizens because they all voted NO in the referendum.
Michaud was highly traumatized by the condemnation which essentially branded him as an antisemite and ever since, he and other militant sovereigntists have been laboring  to overturn that resolution, asking members who voted for the motion to recant.
In the meantime, Michaud remains an activist defender of shareholder rights, buying a few shares in public companies and then attending annual shareholder meetings to air his grievances.

This week he used the shareholders meeting for the giant Quebec food chain METRO, to complain, believe it or not, about the fact that an accent doesn't appear over the 'E' in 'Metro."
Again readers, I'm not making this up.
"Michaud says he's filed a complaint with the Office québécois de la langue française (OLF) saying the grocery chain is violating the French language charter because the word 'Metro' without the accent aigu on the 'e' doesn't exist in the French language. He says it's unacceptable to twist the name of a company that has its roots in Quebec, which serves a majority-francophone clientele and whose shareholders are mostly Quebeckers."  CJAD    CTV

By the way it seems that Quebecor, the pride of Quebec's Pierre-Karl Péladeau, is hearing Mr. Michaud's footsteps behind him.
The company announced that they are seriously looking at putting two accents on its corporate name, at least in Quebec.

How big a deal is an accent?
Well it doesn't seem to bother Parisians who omit the accent in question, on their stylish subway signs!

In another flight of incredible language stupidity, another French language supremacist,  Pierre Gauthier,  is furious that a Chicoutimi theatre is showing English movies one day a week.
It seems that the nearby Canadian Forces airbase at Bagotville has lost it's on-base theatre and has asked the local theater to fill in. The base, of course, is home to many English servicemen and their families.

Mr Gauthier has called the screening of English movies in public an 'accommodation' that should never have been allowed.
After all, the advertising of the movie will be in English and regular patrons, other than air force people are free to attend as well, a dreadful and dangerous situation that will surely lead the hitherto ever-pure Saguenéens down the evil path of Anglicization. Link{Fr}

I'm not really sure what this blowhard wants, can he be actually suggesting a public prohibition of movies in English?

In a letter to Le Devoir a reader complained bitterly that a lounge act in the Mont Tremblant casino was singing in English and talking to each other in English as well. Link{Fr} 

By the way, rumors flying around Quebec City has it that Madonna will perform at the famous summer music festival. The festival has always featured a lot of English acts, much to the chagrin of French language supremacists.
In the past they've even complained about Paul McCartney performing on the Plains of Abraham, so it's likely we'll hear from the usual suspects again.
If the Madonna concert is a go, it will likely play before largest concert audience ever assembled in Quebec. Oh my!

 Students go nuts
A student organization form UQAM is doing back flips to disavow itself from a pamphlet put out under its name .

"We have to hit very hard, harder than the student movement ever has: kidnapping, sabotage, destruction of property- and we haven't got many tries to succeed"

YIKES!
The author is lucky he doesn't live in the United States where Homeland security would have swept down faster than you can say the word 'terrorist.' Think I'm kidding.. Read this
In Quebec it's Ho Hum! Link{Fr}

Shafia case was affected by English-French snafu: officials

"When the Shafia girls went looking for help from youth-protection officials three years ago, their case was hampered by a uniquely Canadian bureaucratic snafu.

Some of their pleas were lost in translation. Or, more precisely, their different complaints were handled by separate English- and French-language agencies that failed to share case information.

Youth protection is divided by language in Montreal, with one agency handling English complaints and the other handling ones in French and other languages." Read More at CTV

Picture of the week

Nothing to do with F versus E, but I couldn't resist posting this photo.
There is a bit of controversy raging over the issue of 'smart' electric meters that Hydro-Quebec has started installing, over issues of electromagnetic emanations.
I've no idea whether this is a legitimate concern or another case of fear over reason, like Montreal's refusal to fluoridate water.

At any rate, this Boucherville resident took matters into his own hands and wrapped his meter in three layers of aluminum foil! Link{Fr}
 Perhaps Mr. Jean-Pierre Grauby, pictured above, should consider other 'suspect' emanations and protect himself whenever he goes out, like this guy pictured on the right!
(Thanks for the story, Sam.)

Suicide is Painless
Next week is Suicide Prevention Week, as good a reason as any to report on a story about the controversy between a couple of Quebec journalists and a talented blogger, in relation to Quebec's relatively high suicide rate, or relatively normal suicide rate, depending on who you believe.

Readers are familiar with Jean-François Lisée, who takes it upon himself to debunk federalist and right-wing 'myths' every now and then in his column.
Mr. Lisée is an expert at picking and choosing statistics to distort reality. According to Mr. Lisée, Quebec is financially secure, with no debt problem, outperforming almost every other economy and whose residents are much richer than Americans... I kid you not.

This week however his claim that Quebec's suicide rate is not that bad got the goat of fellow journalist Richard Martineau who wrote a stinging rebuttal. Since then, much ink has been spilled between the fellow Journal de Montreal columnists.

The polemic revolves around Mr. Lisée's claim that Quebec's suicide rate is not that bad.
In his article entitled Québec : only 26th in world suicide ranking he says:

"Quebec ranks 26th, behind countries like Finland, Belgium, Switzerland, France and Austria."

I suppose that's true, but what Mr. Lisée omits to tell us is that there are 80 countries with lower suicide rates and that Canada ranks 40th on that list.
If one were to remove the Quebec component of that Canadian statistic and counted only the RoC, the ranking would certainly be much lower, because the Quebec suicide rate is almost double that of the RoC.

BUT IT IS NOT A PROBLEM according to Mr. Lisée.

By the way, in a wonderful rebuttal piece written by the very talented DAVID,  Mr. Lisée is soundly thrashed for his blatant disregard for reality.
In that piece, we are told that the suicide rate for adult males in Quebec is actually higher than that of US servicemen, active or retired!

Mr.  Lisée has published a book supposedly demolishing other anti-Quebec myths. This very same blogger has undertaken to counter these arguments and I'll report on that effort periodically.

Happy Birthday Judy!

Have a good weekend!

Forced English Immersion in Grade 6 a Bad Idea

When I was a wee boy of six, my mother decided it would be grand if I took some piano lessons, for reasons that I still can't fathom.

I think it's a great idea for parents to expose children to all sorts of skills at an early age, be it sports like golf, an instrument like piano or learning experiences in science or literature. Who knows what hidden talent might be exposed, like a buried treasure waiting to be discovered.

I could have been revealed as possessing a hidden talent, a budding child prodigy like Tiger Woods who started playing golf at two years old and who broke eighty at age eight. I might have been a Mozart who composed and gave concerts from the age of five or a Bobby Fisher, who became a chess grandmaster at 13. (oooh--let's forget that  last one!)

Alas, I was none of the above and loathed the piano lessons, realizing almost immediately that I had zero talent or love for the avocation.
After two years of intensive study my mother gave up, liberating me from the heavy burden of attempting to master a skill, that I did not want to acquire.

It took me less than a year to forget everything I learned and today, I couldn't tell you where Middle C lies on the keyboard.

WHICH brings me to Premier Charest who announced that Francophone students in Grade Six are to be exposed to an entire semester taught in English.  Parents are largely supportive, expressing an overwhelming desire to see their children become bilingual.

But I'm doubtful the project will have a lasting effect, and just like me and my piano lessons, it's likely a colossal waste of time, effort and money.
For the vast majority of students who will be forced into a traumatic social experiment, it is the equivalent of throwing a non-swimmer into the pool without any thought, in the misguided belief that they will learn to swim.

Of course the usual suspects are against the idea of intensive English in Grade six, especially the teachers who dislike the idea for a variety of reasons, claiming among other things, that for many students, the project is above their abilities.
I'm not sure I disagree.

What I find troubling is that the project seems to have been embarked upon without much thought or study, as if the Premier and eduction Minister cooked up the idea all by themselves, because it seemed like a good idea, one that would be popular with the voters.

But why Grade six?

Many of we Anglos have sent our kids to French daycare, preschool or kindergarten in an attempt to get them on the road to bilingualism sooner than later.

Young children, exposed to a second language do remarkably well and learn much faster than older kids or adults.
Studies have indicated this very fact.

"The critical period hypothosis  was first proposed by Montreal neurologist Wilder Penfield and co-author Lamar Roberts in a 1959 paper Speech and Brain Mechanisms, and was popularized by Eric Lenneberg in 1967 with Biological Foundations of Language."

According to the theory, the earlier a child is exposed to a second language, the faster they learn. After puberty the ability to acquire a second language nosedives. Hmm....

The choice of Grade six for this grand social experiment is explained by the fear that francophone children who learn English too successfully when young, are in danger of  hurting their French and so the teaching of English intensely is delayed to grade six, when the benefits are diminished.

Those of us who are bilingual, truly bilingual, can testify that learning a second language is not as easy as one intensive semester.
It takes years of study and practice, there is no easy way around it.

I'm all for learning English (or French for Anglophones) but this plan has almost zero chance of success, the idea that the moribund education department could pull off the project logistically,  especially the problem of finding the hundreds of qualified English teachers necessary, is beyond credulity.
The school boards will have to line up buses at the Fairview Shopping Mall and kidnap Anglos, shipping them off the Saguenay and parts beyond.  

The reality is that for two-thirds to three-quarters of Francophone Quebecers, English plays no role in their lives. They remain as disconnectd to English, as British Columbians are to French.

For most of these children who are to be exposed to an English-only curriculum in Grade six, they may as well be teaching Chinese or Klingon. The program has the same dubious chance of success as forcing everyone to take a semester of piano lessons.
Without a piano at home and a desire to continue to practice and learn over the many succeeding years, the chance of success is nil.

The truth that parents don't want to face is that in order for children to become proficient in the language of Shakespeare, they themselves must get involved.

There is no magic bullet or short cut, even if parents and the government dream that there is.

Parents shouldn't depend on the schools to do the work for them, they can provide a steady diet of English and they can start at a much earlier age than grade six.
More francophone children have learned English through video games and a few hours of English television than through all the efforts by educators in elementary schools.

Those parents who are not interested should remain free to make their own decisions, just as British Columbians can choose a second language for their children, or not.

I hate to say it and I know I'll be attacked for this, but for many Quebecers who spend their whole lives in a French environment, learning elementary English is all that's necessary, so that when they travel, they can survive.

How about some state-sponsored high school courses in GLOBISH.
For many, it is the imperfect, but reasonable answer.

The Ignominious End of Gilles Duceppe

A PICTURE TO REMEMBER!

Witnessing the sudden collapse and downfall of the political career of Gilles Duceppe, I must admit to a raging case of schadenfreude.
No politician deserves such an ignominious fall from grace more than the duplicitous, back-stabbing opportunist that defines the persona of Gilles Duceppe.

As you can imagine, I'm no fan, not so much for his separatist politics, but rather for his proclivity to bite the hand that feeds him.
We Canadians have paid his Parliamentary salary for over  twenty years and now are obliged to pay his 140k pension until God knows when, during which time, he has and will continue to tell the world that we Canadians are exploiters and colonialists. 

The ethics scandal that has brought him down is particularly satisfying because it was Gilles Duceppe and the Bloc Quebecois that presented himself and itself as more Cathoic than the Pope.
Two elections ago, the Bloc campaigned on the platform of honesty and integrity and so there's a sense that Duceppe is receiving his just desert.
Like a pious televangelist who is ruined when caught cheating and whoring, it sets the world right, for a moment, anyways.

My favorite comment on the affair by a Le Devoir reader;
 "Duceppe l’arroseur arrosé, Youppi"  (Duceppe the sprinkler, sprinkled)

Unethical or illegal, Duceppe displayed the shady behavior of a disgruntled employee who steals from the company where he works, while continuing to cash a cheque.

Whether guilty or innocent of using public funds for partisan political ends, it doesn't really matter.
Despite a spirited defense put on for him by Le Devoir and assorted hardliners, wherein they claimed that he technically violated no rules, the public has already made up its mind......Guilty.

Mr. Duceppe didn't exactly help his cause, his actions after the revelations were made, were those of a guilty man.

I am reminded of a story told to me a while back when I participated in a golf tournament put on by the Montreal police.  A senior Montreal detective regaled our table at the 19th hole with a story about the down and dirty investigative methods employed by cops.
In this particular case two suspects were picked up for a crime that only one committed. They were both placed in jail overnight having been told they'd be charged in the morning.
Overnight the cops observed their behavior.
The first suspect was agitated and angry, demanding a lawyer and telling all who would listen that he was innocent.
The second suspect remained calm, asked warders for a cigarette and turned in early, sleeping quite well.
In the morning the detective let the agitated suspect go and charged the other.
You see, as my detective friend explained, the behavior exhibited by the men, clearly indicated that one was innocent, the other guilty.
The first, furious that he was being charged with a crime he did not commit, the second resigned to the fact that he was caught.

Who did Gilles Duceppe closely emulate, the guilty suspect or the innocent?

There are politicians around the world charged with crimes or accused of various misdeeds who almost universally fight the charges tooth and nail while remaining in office. It's par for the course.
Silvio Berlusconi spent his whole political career under an ethics cloud and never wavered. a good chunk of the Israeli cabinet is under scrutiny for either ethics violations or outright criminality. American senators and congressmen are regularly subject to impeachment through a process that takes years to play out.
Who resigns? Practically nobody.

Mr Duceppe cut and run, hoping that if he left the political scene, perhaps he would be left alone.

Had he come out and raged against the allegations against him, labeling the charges as partisan attacks, I'm sure that he could have withstood the attack, but Duceppe is a chocoladnicky, a Russian expression for someone apt to melt under the heat.

Now there are those who say that Duceppe used the ethics investigation as a convenient device to extricate himself from a sticky situation where his attempted coup against Pauline Marois failed.

I find it a little hard to believe, but no matter.

His attempt to take over the leadership was a half-assed effort that was so badly planned and executed that I seriously question his skills as a politician.

Once he embarked on his betrayal of Marois and she got wind of it, she put the mutiny down in short order.
The incredible thing about it all, is that if he had done nothing and remained on the sidelines as a 'loyal' separatist, Marois would have collapsed under her own weight and the leadership would have come to him without lifting a finger!

All this has led me to conclude that Duceppe was no brainiac, but rather an opportunist who talked up a storm but was always out manoeuvred by the Prime Minister of the day or Pauline Marois back home. Readers will remember that this is the second time she beat back an attempt by Duceppe to take over the PQ.

Over the twenty odd years in Ottawa, the Bloc led by Duceppe brought Quebec not an iota of benefit, in fact, its very presence insured the opposite. 
In asking Quebecers to support a party riding the pine of ignominy, in the opposition benches of Parliament, the Bloc robbed Quebecers of representation in cabinet and the halls of power, a frightful price to pay for the luxury of thumbing ones nose at the hated Anglos in the RoC.

I'm glad that Gilles Duceppe is going out a disgraced loser, because that was what he was his whole career, a disgrace who cost Quebec influence and power, a humiliating presence in Ottawa that rendered Quebec impotent and irrelevant.

His phony Don Quixotesque act, tilting at federalist windmills has crippled this province incalculably.

As he exits the stage a disgraced and beaten man, it remains a bittersweet victory for federalists.

After all, we will have the pleasure of paying him a handsome pension for the rest of his natural life.

The idea of Gilles Duceppe in retirement, sipping margaritas in Aruba, on our dime, while lobbing the occasional separatist bomb at we evil Canadians, remains a bitter pill to swallow.

Good riddance to bad rubbish!

Shafias- Please Rot in HELL!!!!!

Sorry for my rage, but I want to give readers an opportunity to publicly describe their feelings towards a family trio that represents all the evil traits that we do not want in Canada.

I was a bit worried that the jury wouldn't believe that these fanatics could actually murder their children and/or siblings because it is an act, practicably incomprehensible to Canadians.

REST IN PEACE

I don't know if this is fair to say, but I hope they get a rough ride in prison.

I prepared this, just in case they were acquitted.

Readers, I cannot describe my hatred,  rage and contempt.... Can you?

How can we keep these fanatics out of our country?

Sunday Housekeeping- Trolls

As regular readers might have noticed, I've unfortunately had to crack down on one-line insults that bring nothing to this blog

It serves no purpose to go through 200 comments where 50-75 are pure trash, with no redeeming value. I'd rather have 10-15 well thought out contributions, than 200 idiotic and insulting posts.

By the way, I have the ability to delete comments without leaving a trace, but as of now will continue to show readers where and which comments are blocked.

I do not moderate comments on an hourly basis so it's possible something obnoxious is up for a while, try not to respond, I'll take it down ASAP.
If you see something that should be taken down, let me know, but do not quote the offensive material, just provide the date and time. There's no use propagating trash by repeating it.

As for Trolls, I will not take down your comment just because they are meant to incite, as long as they don't violate decency standards. Please try to be witty, if you are trying to provoke.


What is offensive?
You're all literate and can pretty much can guess what will be taken down or not.

English or French, federalist or sovereigntist, the rules are the same and everyone will be treated respectfully and equally, but please don't test my patience with trash talk.

I repeat that I will not suppress contradictory views to mine or those of most readers, healthy discourse is an integral part of this community, but to those tho just want to disrupt our conversations with banal insults, please go away.

Here is something important;
You can always delete your own comment by clicking on delete. Obviously, you can't delete other people's comments.

If you change your mind about what you've written either because you were tired, drunk or made some embarrassing typos, here what you should do;
Delete the original post and write a new one.
In your new post use the word REWRITE on a separate line, at the beginning or the end of the post and I'll completely remove any trace of the original.

Finally, you might notice that the time stamp on your comment is three hours early and unfortunately, I can't do anything about it as it is a BLOGGER problem that they are supposedly working on (although I cannot fathom how they haven't corrected this so far.)

Thank yo for your support and your contributions.

This January has been our busiest month ever with almost 50,000 page views and 12,000 different visitors.

Most of the success of NDOA lies in reader contributions and I pledge to police the comment section more assiduously, making for a better read and a better debate.

Best  regards....