Huntingdon Mayor Shows Up Gutless Anglo Community

When it comes to defending our own language rights, it's embarrassing to say that one gutsy Francophone, Stéphane Gendron, has more gumption than almost all our Anglo community.

An editorial piece in the Montreal Gazette last week typifies the defeatist attitude that permeates the Anglo community, where even those in leadership positions choose to give up rather than fight. 

"Gendron has proposed that municipalities with an anglophone population of 10 per cent or more be required to provide bilingual service. That’s asking a lot. A more reasonable proposal would be to require municipalities with 50 per cent or more anglo residents to provide bilingual service, and give other towns the option of doing so.
But the sad reality, as demonstrated by the all-party reaction to Gendron’s campaign, is that under present circumstances asking for any change in the language law that would benefit the province’s English-speaking minority is asking too much." Link

 Five years ago, on the thirtieth anniversary of Bill 101, the Gazette published this drivel.

Bill 101 paved way for peace

"A generation later, the language charter is widely accepted as an intrinsic part of Quebec’s social fabric. Both anglos and francophones of moderate persuasion say the law has engendered an unprecedented era of social peace and easing of language tensions and fostered a cross-cultural communication between English and French Quebecers that has served as an important bridge between the storied "two solitudes" of the bad old days." Link

Social peace...

The collective wisdom of our Anglo intelligentsia, spearheaded by the Montreal Gazette, Hubert Bauch and Anne Lagacé Dowson is that whatever rights we give up each day is a small price to pay for the peaceful coexistence we have achieved.
Put that way, it sounds pretty neat.

But if one considers that it is really no different from paying a weekly protection fee to the local street gang in order to 'insure' that the goons don't beat the crap out of us, it doesn't sound so noble, but that is what we have done, bargained away our rights in the name of security.

Those of us in the English community who advocate appeasement, conveniently forget that hundreds of thousands of our fellow Anglos were chased out of this province by language persecution. When reminded that this was the price of this so-called 'social peace,' they make the case that those who left were no better than Rhodesians, unwilling to downgrade their status to second class citizenship in the name of safety and expediency.

The appeasers have bought into the narrative that somehow the English, the Irish, the Scots and later the Ethnics are all evil anglicizers, exploiters and colonialists of the innocent and naïve Francophone nation, when reality tells us that proportionally, it is the industry of these minorities that actually made the greatest contribution to the building of the province.

Slowly over the last forty years Anglos went from being full and respected partners in Quebec society to an afterthought, a people whose rights as a founding nation were cast aside, replaced by the notion that we are a bother, interlopers who have overstayed our welcome and where our Francophone hosts begrudgingly tolerate us because they have to, not because they want to.
Like an unwanted longtime resident in a rent controlled apartment building our Francophone landlords wait rather impatiently for us to die off or leave, turning off the electricity every now and then or cutting off the heat in an effort to hurry up the process.

Like the proverbial frog in the pot of boiling water, our status and rights were incrementally chipped away until we became what we are today, a second class element of society along with the immigrants and ethnics, reminded on a daily basis that we are not what Quebec is supposed to be.

It's sadly amusing to read justifications in the press describing how necessary and reasonable provisions of Bill 101 are and that the restrictions and denial of civil liberties imposed on the English and ethnics are not that big a deal.
It's not surprising that the law is popular among Francophones, the price for defending the French language is paid by our community, not theirs.

The issue of bilingual status for towns is one of Bill 101's cruelest and most vindictive elements.
The law demands that a city or town have an outright majority of Anglophones before it can use the English publicly, alongside French, of course.
To Francophone militants this seems eminently generous, but the provision was actually put in place in an attempt to avoid a human rights outcry at the United Nations where the Quebec government would be obliged to explain how a town like Montreal West with 80% anglophone population would be barred from using English.

And so when it comes to rights, it seems that fairness is in the eye of the beholder.

Somehow it is fair that a town in Quebec with a 49% Anglophone population be denied the right to communicate with citizens in English, but an Air Canada flight with no French passengers aboard be obliged to have French speaking personnel to communicate and make announcements to passengers in both languages.

Each day, we are told that Francophones, as the church lady used to say on SNL are "Special" and as such deserve extended language rights in Canada which they deny their English citizens in Quebec.
Imagine if Air Canada or Via Rail were free to impose that same 50% threshold rule in their operations and so be required to offer French only in the case where there was a clear majority of Francophones aboard an airplane or train.
In cases where there weren't enough Francophones aboard, a passenger could still order a Seven-Up in French.
All she'd have to do is wait for the crew to finish serving everyone in English and then send a written request to the pilot requesting service in French. How convenient and fair!
Such is the stupidity of the argument made by French militants who tell us that English townsfolk can get English documentation, available on request!

Should the 50% rule be applied by Ontario and New Brunswick, Francophones in cities like Moncton (34% French) and Ottawa (21% French) would lose the right to receive French communication alongside English, from the city as a matter of course.
In fact just about every city or town in Canada outside Quebec would fall short of a Francophone majority and as such, would be ineligible for bilingual communication, a situation that would be described as unfair, by French language boosters.

To these French language defenders there is nothing discordant in supporting the requirement for bilingual personnel in a Cornwall hospital, while defending the principle that nobody be 'forced'  to speak English on the job in Quebec.

Incredibly, in Quebec, it remains public policy that minority rights are to be tolerated only in cases where the minority is the majority, a convoluted notion if ever there was one.
Again, perfect sense in this province....

The unmitigated effrontery of the double standard is maddening.
I could go on and on.... so could you.

And so that brings me back around to the likes of Stéphane Gendron, a man clearly tilting at windmills.

You know you've struck a nerve when the whole Quebec establishment, both sovereigntist and federalist attacks you.
That the Francophone community is furiously denouncing him in a vitriolic campaign of denigration is understandable.
The story has already spilled out across Canada and the fear remains that the story could spread to the United States with the province again subjected to ridicule and derision, perhaps by another '60 Minutes' fiasco.

But it is the reaction in the English media that is saddest, where Gendron is portrayed as a pitiful figure fighting a losing battle and discredited because he made some injudicious remarks about Israel (for which he later apologized for) therefore disqualifying him now from being taken seriously.
But as Jonathan Kay wrote in the National Post 'sometimes devils dance on the side of angels'

Like those merchants in the neighborhood who continue to pay the street gang protection money while rationalizing it as a good business decision, seeing somebody stand up to the hoodlums is embarrassing.

When he ultimately fails, the Anglo detractors will say 'I told you so' as if their chosen path of appeasement is validated.

History abounds with stories of heroic, yet futile resistance and those of shameless collaboration.
History judges the appeasers and collaborationists harshly, it is the resisters who we admire, whether those efforts are futile or not.

Stéphane Gendron is a hero very much because he is bound to lose his fight.

One thing remains indisputable, the longer he lasts on the battlefield, the more harm he does to the credibility of his opponents and like Rocky Balboa boxing against Apollo Creed, just standing on his feet for the full fifteen rounds, is victory in and of itself.

For those apologists who say his fight is useless, I tell them that they are wrong.

Everyday that Stéphane Gendron continues the fight and keeps the story in the news, the issue of minority English rights in Quebec remains unsettled and that so-called 'social peace' declared by appeasers, remains an illusion.

That is what the other side understands better than we, and that is why they hate Gendron so much.

Ultimately, it remains humiliating that a francophone is fighting a battle that we are too afraid to engage in ourselves.

All I can offer is this brief passage from one of my favorite poems;

"And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light"

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It  has been pointed out in the comments section that perhaps Huntingdon is NOT breaking the law!

This according to a memo written by l'Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) itself, in  1999.

Click Here for the original at the  OQLF website

"ALL of Quebec's municipalities can put out information in both languages and it wouldn't break the law. (nice research Steve) So the OQLF harassing him at all is ridiculous, even from their own text."

Thanks to Hugo  for pointing this out.

French versus English Volume 49

Fear of 'English jobs' leads to decline in English vocational funding.

“....Someone who is very highly placed in the world of Quebec education told me at the Quebec Federation of Home and School Associations annual meeting last fall in Beaconsfield that English school boards are having a terrible time getting Quebec to approve new student spaces in English vocational education.

“The problem,” the person told me, “is that the ministry has started to say to us, ‘You’re trying to get us to create English jobs,’ but we’re not. Vocational training is part of the education system, but the government has started to decouple the two.” Read the rest of the story

Furious demand shrinks access to English cegep.

“...The other day I was talking to a colleague who told me she's been hearing anglophone parents of high-school students expressing hope that Bill 101 is toughened to keep francophones and immigrants out of English-language CEGEPs.

Normally, language crackdowns aren't something anglophones like to see in Quebec. But competition for limited spots in English CEGEPs, which are not bound by Bill 101, has become more intense as applications have risen through the ongoing economic sluggishness.

The access quandary is politically amplified by the fact that old attitudes toward English in Quebec are breaking down. Bright, ambitious young francophones and children of immigrants increasingly see English CEGEPs as stepping stones out into the wider world. Read the rest of the story

Don Cherry complains about lack of "Ontario" players on Maple Leafs

Many readers are of the opposite opinion of mine when I say that there are not enough Francophone hockey players on the Montreal Canadiens.

It remains my position that a NHL hockey team is a business and as such, must serve its clients as best it can.
Listening to what customers want and delivering a product in tune with those desires, is what makes businesses SUCCE$$FUL.
There remains those who believe that language or national origin should have no place in any decision to hire one player over the other.......Fair enough, we've each got a right to our opinion.

 But those who complain that it's only Quebecers who complain about such issues are wrong. I bet most teams would love to have local talent.
Here's the proof that Quebec is not alone in this desire.

Listen to Don Cherry complain about a lack of Ontario players on the Toronto Maple Leafs and listen to Brian Burke's (the Leafs' general manager) defend himself from allegation that he is anti-Ontario.  HERE

By the way, I had lunch this week with a former coach of the Canadiens, (I won't drop his name because it was a private conversation.)  He told me, as we were discussing the French/English issue,  that French players do try harder when wearing a Habs jersey. He said some players who had a bad game were too scared to go out and face the public. Oh Boy!
No need to motivate them!!!

Gilles Duceppe wins Waste award

"Former Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe received a lifetime achievement accolades in the 14th annual Teddy Waste Award ceremony, put on by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation to highlight what it deems to be wasteful government spending.

At 2:50 Montreal is skewered for it snowplows plowing bare sidewalks
At 9:10 Gilles Duceppe receives a lifetime achievement award

Read  the story

Small Quebec town  to challenge Bill 101

"The city of Huntingdon is vowing to keep serving its citizens in the “two official languages” after the Office québécois de la langue française asked it to transmit its communications to residents in French only.

In an email to the municipality in January, the OQLF noted it had received a complaint against the city.

It was a written, bilingual publication from the city that sparked the complaint, although Huntingdon Mayor Stéphane Gendron said that’s all they know. The city’s communication with citizens is always bilingual, Gendron said.

By transmitting bilingual communications to its residents, the city of Huntingdon gives the impression of being a bilingual city and, as a result, “doesn’t fully play the exemplary role expected of a public administration body” in terms of the French-language Charter, the OQLF’s email said. It also noted a publication can be transmitted in another language afterward to people who make the request.

“I don’t understand. Does it hurt someone to receive a bilingual publication,” Gendron asked? Link

Remaining adamant, the mayor, Stéphane Gendron hasn't backed down in the face of a furious backlash. He has however said he's going to step down early as mayor to concentrate on a media career.

Protest over Bilingual Hospital continues

"Ryan Alguire is a student at St. Lawrence College who wants to work as a water technician for the city but he's been told that he needs to be bilingual. "It's frustrating to have to pay money to go to school here, pay taxes and everything and live here my entire life, but not actually work in the province that I love," he says.
 St. Lawrence College nursing student Colleen Rudowski came to voice her opinion even though she says a lot of students are afraid to speak up. "I find a lot of students or people in general are just apprehensive to speak up about it for the fear of not getting hired at the hospital in Cornwall, not finding employment or somebody holding a grudge against them. I'm already planning on leaving because I can't speak French fluently," she says. " Read the rest of the story

Quebecer asks Queen to 'fire' Harper

“.. Somebody wrote to the Queen asking her to fire Stephen Harper as Prime Minister Link{Fr}

Quebec versus Alberta

"Three years after global energy prices tanked, Alberta’s oilsands are booming once again.

But industry players say they’re already bracing for what they fear lies ahead: chronic labour shortages and soaring cost pressures, two factors that caused so much havoc during the last boom.

As 2012 began, the number of workers employed in the province was already five per cent above its pre-recession high, the Conference Board of Canada says, handily outstripping the national growth rate.

Over the next two years, the board predicts Alberta will create 132,900 net new jobs — or about 40,000 more people than the entire population of Red Deer — cutting the province’s unemployment rate to 4.5 per cent by 2013. That’s just one per cent above the pre-recession lows of 2007." Link

Sounds like good news?

Not if you are  Françoise David, co-president of socialist Quebec Solidaire.

In an interview she showed concern that Quebec's  'Plan Nord will be too successful and thus depopulate areas south of the St. Lawrence river, its workers tempted by high wages in the North.

"Young people might be tempted to leave school to go north. What will they eventually become without formal training?" Ms. David wonders. 
Madame David also expressed concern for families who will be separated because of the far-away jobs. Link{Fr}

By the way, Quebec's unemployment rate..... 8.4%

Here's another interesting comparison, this time between Quebec and North Dakota over at antagonist.net

It is comprised of two videos, one showing the benefits of shale gas production in North Dakota followed by a video by Quebec 'zartistes' demanding a moratorium on any development.
SEE IT HERE

Radio-Canada now working for the OQLF?

It seems that the French CBC has undertaken an investigative report concerning the existence of stores that allegedly contravene Bill 101's provision that an English store name must have a French modifier.
Horror of horrors, 26% of the stores were found delinquent.
The funniest part of the story was when the interviewer asked a passerby what he thought of the situation. The man replied that he was from Paris and all the store names there were in English!!!!
 
The report was so anti-English, you'd think Mario Beaulieu was the editor.
Your federal tax dollars at work! LINK{Fr}      Watch the news report{Fr}

Montreal film director camps it up in 'GOON.'

Montrealer Jay Baruchel, co-writer, producer and star of Goon, had his tongue firmly in cheek when offered this scene of a hockey arena in Quebec.

The scene flashed by, almost unnoticed, but not to this eagle-eye.

"I swear I'm not making this up!

Just when you thought government waste couldn't get any sillier, here is a story that will have you shaking your head in disbelief.

The Journal de Montreal ran a story last week detailing the wasteful spending habits of Quebec's school commissions charged with running the provinces education system up until the end of high school.
Detailing a litany of dubious spending practices where expense reimbursement is out of control, including golf tournaments galore, or hiring a separate service to water plants in offices, the horrors go on and on.
But one last item caught my eye.
The Commission scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys pays employees 44¢ per kilometer when they use their vehicle to attend meetings outside the office.
Now here's the kicker...
If at the same time, they give a lift to another employee, THAT EMPLOYEE receives10¢ per kilometer as a gesture of good will for ride-sharing! LINK{Fr}



The school commissioners who are elected,  have a pretty good gig controlling a $9 billion budget.
By the way the turnout in recent school elections of 2007 was 7.9% and 67% of Commissioners (879 of 1305) were elected by acclamation.

  In Monday's Wednesday's post we continue our discussion of Partition;

'Does Partition Make Sense for Sovereigntists?'

Monday's Post- 
'Huntingdon Mayor Humiliates Gutless Anglos'

Further reading:

French versus English Volume 48

 Have a great weekend!

'P' is for Partition...Are We There Yet?

When I first started writing this blog I never fathomed that I'd ever write a serious piece about partition.
It just seemed too radical and impossible a concept to be taken seriously.

But as time marched on and circumstances changed, it has become clear that an independent Quebec would be an extremely hostile environment for Anglo society and particularly the English language.

The recent witch hunt that sought to root out those few unilingual Anglos working in the National Bank or the Caisse de Depot is a clear warning of things to come and reminiscent of the bloodlust displayed by ordinary citizens incited to action by revolutionary leaders during the French revolution.
Scenes of a hysterical mob, hunting down aristocrats, carting them off to the guillotine, all for the sick edification of a mob bathing in an orgy of revenge, in a sportive and festive atmosphere is not much different from scenes played out in the Roman Colosseum where Christians were fed to the lions!

Later on this year, when Randy Cunneyworth will be relieved of his duties as coach of the Montreal Canadiens, shuffled aside with full pay (to keep quiet), solely because of his unilingualism, there will be a grand fete in the streets by French language militants celebrating another victory over les maudits anglais.
Mark my words, this is the path we are embarked upon.

Gone are the days of Rene Levesque and the ideal of an independent Quebec, respectful and inclusive of anglophones and minorities, a dream replaced by the dogmatic world of assimilation, where room for the English language and ethnic diversity no longer exists, victims of extremism, dogmatism and resentment.

Over-reaction?...... sadly I think not.

In the old days, the raison d'etre for sovereignty was the economic emancipation of French Quebec, but with that goal already accomplished with nary a shot fired, a new rationale was invented, this one based on the notion that the English language threatens the very existence of French Quebec society.
Today, the sovereigntist narrative tells us that Quebec needs immigrants to survive, but as long as they have the choice to assimilate into the Anglophone community, French will always be a second choice, even with the necessary, but not always successful coercive measures, meant to steer them towards the righteous path.
Without sovereignty and the elimination of that choice, French society is bound to anglicize over the long term.

And so, despite  the fact that most Francophone Quebecers don't hate Anglophones and would like to see them remain part of an independent Quebec, when push comes to shove, it's the militant minority pushing an anti-English agenda, that will impose itƒass views.

Can English survive in an independent Quebec?

No it cannot, it is that simple.
A newly independent Quebec would see to the elimination of the last of our English language rights, be it in the National Assembly, the courts, the job market, the schools, the hospitals and the marketplace.

To those who believe differently, all I can ask is, if not, what is the point of sovereignty?

Under these circumstances Anglos would be left with the decision to leave their home or give up their heritage and language and for most, who are planning a future, the decision to go will be natural, much to the smug satisfaction of militants who can finally rejoice in hammering the last nail in the coffin of English influence in Quebec.

This was the scenario that I envisaged for the Anglo community facing a YES victory in either of the last two referendums.
But since then, things have changed rather dramatically.

Ever since the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, Quebec society has been defined by the French/English dynamic, but the chasm between the two nations has largely been replaced by the new reality, that which incorporates immigrants into the social equation.

Today, the vast majority of all new immigrants settle in the Montreal area and assimilate almost evenly between French and English cultures.
But language aside, the fact is, Montreal has become a multiethnic, multicultural community, similar to Toronto or Vancouver, while the rest of Quebec (RoQ) remains lily-white, French and Catholic.
There's no doubt that the city of Montreal and the RoQ have undertaken, by accident or design, different evolutionary paths, redefining the term of "Two Solitudes" as described by Hugh MacLennan.

As sovereigntists freely admit, their vision of an independent Quebec is in direct conflict with multiculturalism, something that now defines what Montreal has become.
And so separatists look to sovereignty to wind back the clock.

Those who propose the new sovereignty, demand that Montreal returns to what the rest of the province has remained, and that all immigrants not only be forced to adopt French alone, but abandon their heritage as well, assimilating into the culture of poutine and hockey.
Sorry to be cruel, but such is the case.

So let us be honest and admit that this new independent Quebec breaks faith with the old covenant of two founding nations, and to believe that English Quebecers will blithely accept their change in status is beyond wishful thinking.
How would Francophone Quebecers react to the unilateral elimination of French rights by a pan-Canadian referendum and the declaration by Canada's Parliament that French no longer has status anywhere in the country, including Quebec?
Would they blindly accept their new status, would they pack up their belongings and move to France or would they seek a rupture from Canada through the independence of the province of Quebec?
I think most of you will agree that the choice of Door Number Three is the likeliest of scenarios.

For Anglo Quebecers, the question is essentially the same. In the face of the elimination of their cultural and language rights should they blindly accept their fate, move to Canada or seek a physical rupture from Quebec?

And so the subject of Partition is not as far-fetched as we are led to believe and whether it realistically offers a viable  resolution to the conflict between multi-ethnic and multicultural Montreal and the traditionally homogeneous culture of the  RoQ is a matter for discussion.

We're going to tackle the question of partition over a series of posts in the next little while, which I hope will stimulate some interesting debate.
Over the question of partition, I can offer no inside perspective, only a personal opinion that can serve as a platform for readers.

The question that today's post addresses, is whether the concept of partition, that is, the creation of an eleventh province out of Montreal, is legitimate, fair or legal.

That's it.

I'd like readers to restrict their responses to this aspect of partition question, as we will be discussing, borders, politics, referendums, monetary issues, etc. etc. in future posts.

Now to launch this debate, I'll share my views and start with a partial presentation of the Declaration of Independence of the United States, one of my favorite inspirational documents.

It is a brilliantly conceived and finely crafted declaration that sets out the grievances of the colonies and sets forth succinctly, justification for independence;

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America

hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security..... Read the rest

I highlighted in yellow the basis of my position, which is, legalities aside, the idea that when a government loses the consent of the people to be ruled, there is no more legitimacy.

Now as for legal questions of partition, I've noticed of late that there are quite a few comments posted surrounding the issue of partition.
It seems that the Comment Section is pushing for a debate. So be it.

I've always maintains that this blog is a collaborative effort and I as editor, write stories meant to stimulate discussion.
Those who have been long time participants know that this is not a vanity blog where only opinions agreeing with my position are published.

For those who submitted comments about partition recently, I'd appreciate if you'd re-post them here, so that they can be included in the debate.

To those Francophones deeply offended and outraged at the notion of having their beloved Quebec carved up like a turkey, (federalist will enjoy the irony of that,) I'd appreciate if you'd tell us why the breakup of Canada is legitimate, but not the breakup of Quebec.

Now I understand that the legitimacy of partition, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, but just the same, it will be interesting to hear all opinions from all sides, which I promise will be treated respectfully as long as we all engage in fair debate without descending into the anarchy of name-calling.

Remember, comments to this post should be based on one issue alone...we'll deal with the rest later.

What are the legal arguments of partition?
Is partition legal or not, and if not legal, is partition morally justified anyway??

I look forward to your contributions.

Pauline Papadopolous and the Politics of Appeasement

First of all, apologies to my Greek friends for any offense triggered by the headline, it wasn't meant to embarrass or humiliate, but rather to make the point that Pauline Marois is as cruelly selfish and short sighted as those politicians that led Greece blindly into a financial sinkhole, all because they sought personal political power ahead of the interests of the country.

Today Greek society has been ripped asunder by a humiliating national bankruptcy, brought on by a ruling class unable or unwilling to tell citizens that there was no money to pay for the bloated state budget that voters had come to expect and this, for decades.

Right up until the end when the Europeans pulled the plug, nothing really changed in Greece, the people and the government were unwilling or unable to comprehend or react to the mess they had gotten themselves into.
Like a deadbeat who runs up the credit card with no intention of repaying a dime, when the spree is finally over, the shock that there is nothing left and nothing coming in, is hard to accept.

And so today the Greeks are shell-shocked at the reality that there is no more money and that the solutions before them, either default or repayment means a generation or two of poverty.

For the Greek youth of the country, it is a situation particularly difficult to swallow, the realization that their parents borrowed money on their name, money which they are now unable to pay, leaving the next generation the legacy of servicing a crippling debt, one that they did not bargain for, nor received the benefit from.

Sadly in all this is the attitude of the Greek baby-boomers, the generation that bled the state dry and borrowed staggering amounts of money to finance their caprice.
For them, taking responsibility is difficult, as if none of this is their fault and as the situation unravels and the cruel reality of going broke sets in, scapegoats are sought.
Who is to blame?
The Germans, the banks, the politicians, the European Union, the Nazis, the Americans etc.etc., anyone but themselves, so deep is the addiction of entitlement and the disconnect between consumption and wealth creation.

Sadly for Quebec, Pauline Papadopolous is following directly in the footsteps of those failed Greek politicians and her supporters are of the same ilk as that Greek generation that cared only about their own pockets without a concern over the public debt they were ringing up.

Like the Greek politicians, Pauline fails to heed the reality that Marget Thatcher described so succinctly;

"The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."

A motivating factor for this post is the recent poll which showed that over 40% of Quebecers agree that tuition fees for university students shouldn't be raised, reflecting the same disconnect with reality as the Greeks, who failed to accept that somebody has to pay for what is consumed.

Is Quebec in the same situation as Greece?
 
Depending on one's political bent, the situation is described as completely dissimilar, or contrarily, very much the same.

One fact is indisputable, there's no doubt that Quebec is one of the heaviest indebted states in the world, whether a country or a province, and that it spends a lot more than it takes in.

I don't want to get into a discussion of whether Quebec is solvent or on the brink of disaster. Suffice to say that if Quebec doesn't change its over-spending ways, it will run into a Greek-style disaster, sooner or later.
Debating the time line is beside the point and deflects from the discussion.

To finance its orgy of entitlement Quebec has run up a monstrous debt and has used transfer payments from Ottawa to soften the impact of deficit spending.
As Quebec fast approaches its debt ceiling and Canadians review their willingness to ship eight billion dollars over to Quebec each year, something has to give.

As Pauline Papadopolous seeks political power she is descending into the politics of appeasement, the very same policy that has ruined Greece.
Say anything, promise anything and make common cause with those consuming elements of society that are looking for a backer to keep the spigot of entitlements wide open.

Her most recent promise to students to reverse fee increases proposed by the government is a grim reminder that she will sell out the province's future in order to get elected.

In a speech to the National assembly she said that in opposing the increased tuition fees, she is demonstrating solidarity with students and the middle class, unlike the Liberals and the CAQ, which she claims are demonstrating solidarity with Ottawa.  YouTube{Fr}
Huh?
She actually made the connection between increased student fees and support for Ottawa, a moronic connection, not dissimilar to the federal minister Vic Toews statement that Canadians who don't support the Conservatives online snooping bill were siding with the child pornographers.
That contention was roundly ridiculed for its foolishness and for blatantly taking Canadians for fools.
Too bad that the same reaction was absent in Quebec vis-a-vis Madame Papadopolous' contention that increased fees are somehow connected to support for Ottawa.

And how did she sidestep the fee issue and the problem of underfunded universities?
By promising a 'summit' to discuss the problem after the election of the PQ.... How convenient..

In all of Madame Papadopolous' pronouncements, I have yet to hear her admit that Quebec's entitlements are excessive or unsupportable, in fact she and her party actually talk up expanding the role of government in Quebec society.
While every other political party in North America, in opposition or in power, admits that government largess must be curtailed, She and the PQ remain 'distinct' in believing that huge deficits and crippling debt are not a problem and that current spending can be supported, irrespective of provincial revenue.

I'm not saying that Jean Charest and his Liberal party are paragons of fiscal restraint, but listening and watching Pauline Papadopolous troll for votes by promising a worker's paradise where entitlements would not only be maintained but expanded, supported by the concept that it could all be paid for by increased taxes on business and the rich, coupled with more money shaken down from Ottawa, makes me cringe in fear.

Madame Papadopolous has all the right jargon, she talks about investing in education, investing in infrastructure, investing in daycare, when in reality she means spending more money than the province takes in.

Looking at the untalented hacks that is the Parti Quebecois, I am struck by the fear that if they ever take power and the likes of Pierre Curzi, Bernard Drainville, Jean-François Lisée  and Louise Beaudoin actually get to implement their half-baked political nonsense, this province will sink rather quickly.

You'd think that in light of the recent debt crisis that has hit nation after nation, politicians would preach restraint to a public prepared to accept less and contribute more to defend the long-range financial viability of their society.

Not in Quebec, where Pauline advocates spending like it's 1990, because we're 'special,' a magical society immune to the financial rules of solvency.
According to her, there is no problem as long as one doesn't discuss or admit to one and until then, as they say in French, it's 'Bar Ouvert'

Looking at the political support Pauline is rounding up, it's clear in which direction she and the PQ are going.
Recruiting the likes of Claudette Carbonneau, the recently retired head of Quebec's most powerful and allegedly-corrupt union, the CSN, to sit on her sovereignty commission as well as new candidates such as Diane De Courcy, the head of the oft-maligned Commission scolaire de Montreal, it underscores the sad reality that she is gearing up to implement the failed Greek policy of political appeasement.

Every separatist nutbar, union demagogue, language militant and 'entitleists' ( a term I just made up to describe those who believe it is their right to soak the government for all it's worth) will find a place in a potential PQ government, which will ultimately be so self-destructive that it will make the Haitian government look professional.

It's a scary situation, because on one side you have a Liberal party that is preaching some sort of fiscal restraint, increased fees and reduced services in an effort to move towards fiscal sustainability.  It isn't enough, but at least it's a start.

On the other hand you have the PQ led by Madame Papadopolous telling the people the opposite, that money is no problem and entitlements will flow unabated with the election of her government.

Mr Charest is offering a plate of humble pie, Pauline Papadopolous a dish of ice cream.

And so the question remains, will Quebecers accept the necessity of restraint or follow the Greeks down the path of financial ruin?

The MYTH OF ANGLICIZATION- Part Three

Whenever I hear the argument that the French community in Quebec is in danger of assimilation, I always smile and ask the person who is making the statement that if that is true, what about the assimilation of Montreal's English community, who if you take a moment to consider it, are in the same boat, a people, completely surrounded by a 'hostile' culture and foreign language.

The Anglos of Montreal represent a community  ten times smaller than Franco-Quebecers and are subject to ferocious forces of assimilation, with their own government overtly hostile to their language and culture.
And yet the Anglo community endures. Why? 

In response, I've been told that my comparison isn't fair, because the English community is but an integral offshoot of the 'golden' English hegemony that more or else rules the world.

But if that were true, why is it that small communities, pockets of English located in the Townships, the Pontiac or the Gaspe are disappearing at an alarming rate, not dissimilar to what is happening to small francophone communities around the country?

The realty is that the dynamic forces of assimilation work the same way on English communities as they do on French ones and those that disappear or survive do so for the same reasons.

So let us examine why the English community of Montreal and the French community of the province of Quebec survive, while small English communities in rural Quebec fail as do the small pockets of French across Canada.

It has to do with 'Critical Mass'

"Critical mass is a sociodynamic term to describe the existence of a sufficient amount of adopters of an innovation in a social system such that the rate of adoption becomes self-sustaining and creates further growth. It is an aspect of the theory of Diffusion of Innovations, written extensively on by Everett Rogers in his book, "Diffusion of Innovations". Social factors influencing critical mass may involve the size, interrelatedness and level of communication in a society or one of its subcultures. Wikipedia

Simply put, it means that societies become self-sustaining when they attain critical mass, which in the case of Montreal's English community, means that it has the necessary social institutions to sustain itself, including English schooling from daycare to university, English health services, English media and entertainment, English job opportunities, English religious and recreational institutions and of course a population sufficiently large enough to provide for marriage within the community itself.

The Montreal English community maintains the above-mentioned elements and so survives in a 'hostile' environment' where outside its Montreal area borders it is surrounded by a sea of Francophones.

Even if Quebec's Francophone element grew ten times larger than it is now, the English community of Montreal would continue to survive.
Like a walled city which has all the critical elements for its survival within, whatever hordes remain outside are largely irrelevant.

Out in the Gaspe, the Pontiac and the Townships, the English communities that survive remain threatened because they have lost or are facing deteriorating elements of critical mass and so, are ultimately doomed to fail.
As schools close for lack of enrollment, as jobs disappear where English is spoken and where churches, theaters are no longer able to survive, so goes the community.
Slowly but surely the forces of assimilation bear down and like similar Francophone communities across Canada, the writing is clearly on the wall.

To compare Montreal's English community or Quebec's Francophone community to those small disappearing towns described above is fundamentally dishonest, and French language alarmists who make the connection with disappearing Francophone towns across Canada are playing a deceitful game.

As for Quebec's Francophone society, it is almost ten times larger than the successful English community I described above and if Montreal's English community has attained critical mass, the Francophone society has attained, for want of a better word, 'super-critical mass.'

Quebec Francophones may only represent 2% of the North American population, but they represent 87% of the population of Quebec and control a huge swath of North American territory, an area bigger than 90% of countries in the world.

The seven million people that make up the Quebec Francophone society represents a population that is greater than 40% of the independent nations of the world, certainly more than enough to be self-sustaining.

And so, assertions by French language militants/separtists that francophone society is in danger would be laughable would it not be so sad.
Like flimflam artists, they talk fast, spouting nonsense, making false and misleading statements and using the tried and true method of repeating the assimilation lie over and over again, with complicit media sympathisers affording them a tribune to brainwash Quebecers.

Readers, if Quebec hasn't assimilated over the last hundreds of years, it isn't going to assimilate now. Period.

Having personally borne witness to Quebec Francophone society during the1960s, where assimilation forces were infinitely more pressing, I view with utter astonishment the separatists effrontery to alarm Quebecers into sovereignty, no different than cowboys making loud noises to steer the herd in a desired direction.

Its like the British, having just defeated the Germans in the Battle of Britain, decisively ending the threat of invasion, being told by their leaders to watch it....because  they might be in deep trouble now.  Absurd!

The sad reality that militants don't want to admit is that Quebec's Francophone culture and language  remains triumphant within the Canadian framework.
To admit that, is to remove a cornerstone argument in the independence narrative.

In fact, I would argue that by remaining in Canada, Quebec's Francophone culture has been afforded an extraordinary protection, akin to having a big brother watching out for you in the schoolyard.

For those doing business in Canada, French is a requirement coast to coast, from corn flake boxes to documentation for products as complicated as cars.
All this is subsidized by English Canadians who pay for 75% of bilingualism, a benefit that serves francophone Canadians only.
An independent Quebec would have to pay for all this itself and who knows how many companies, relieved of French in the rest of Canada would just forgo Quebec?

One last point about language bilingualisn and critical mass.

Mario Beaulieu and other militants boast that Quebecers are the most bilingual of Canadians and so don't really need more intensive instruction in English. He and his cohorts are victims of believing their own bullshit propaganda, telling Quebecers that the more they learn English, the more they will abandon French.

But are Quebecers all that bilingual in the first place?

Because of the strength of French in Quebec, the hostility shown toward English, Quebecers remain, contrary to popular belief, sadly disfunctional in English.

Less than half of Quebecers are bilingiual and removing anglos and ethnics from the calculation (they  are much more bilingual than Francophones) we find that only 36% of Francophone Quebecers consider themselves bilingual.

64% of Quebecers are completely insulated from the English world, they couldn't tell you who Rick Mercer or Lloyd Robertson is.
The idea that these people are in danger on anglicizing is laughable.

And of the 34% who claim to be bilingual, how many can truly say they are fluent?
For most these people, bilingualism is the ability to order breakfast in English....after a couple of tries.

I don't think that there are more than 10% of Quebec Francophones who are fluent in English.

If one is to consider society's most socializing element, television, it is easy to conclude that French in Quebec is as secure as English the ROC.

Quebecers spend 1,500 hours a year in front of the boob tube, which is about 500 hours more than they spend in school. (Yup, do the math....180 annual school days x 5.5 hours)

The socializing element of television cannot be overemphasized, Quebec society like all others, is formed by it's influence. 
If Quebecers were to be attracted to English television, I might concede a problem. But they are not.

For whatever reason (and lack of proficiency in English is the number one reason,) Francophones watch French TV almost exclusively, and they watch locally produced content, not as in the old days, where American shows, dubbed into French were the staple fare.

So strong is the connection of Francophones with locally produced TV shows, that the numbers of viewers is simply astounding, with many top shows being watched by over two million people, something that no English entertainment show produced in Canada can match and this with almost four times the population. Link{Fr}

And so an honest examination of the facts can only conclude that the Francophone society in Quebec is secure, safe and successful, with its future assured.
All this within the  confines of a protective, indulgent and doting Canada.

Quebecers have the inalienable right to self-determination and if they wish to become an independant state, so be it.
But for boosters of independence to tell Quebec that they need to separate to assure its linguistic and cultural survival is utter tripe.

Unfortunately, too many Quebecers are eating it up with a spoon....