French versus English Volume 50

Quebec's Most Politically Incorrect Politician

Mayor Stéphane Gendron of Huntingdon isn't backing down over his fight for bilingualism and has written an inspiring rebuttal to his detractors.

"From coast to coast in Canada, there has been a wave of positive reaction to the Huntingdon municipal council’s unanimous decision to stand up to the Office de la langue française, which is asking us to stop any bilingual written communication with our residents.

But here in Quebec, it’s a different story. Last week, all political parties at the National Assembly condemned our decision, which is against Bill 101 (the Charter of the French language). In Quebec, the most hysterical have vowed to come to Huntingdon and to raise 1,000 complaints against our community. Systematic harassment by the language Taliban of Montreal has become a daily routine in Huntingdon. Others have already started vandalism operations targeting private property. As well, threats of physical attacks have begun on social networks.

Huntingdon will never yield to such intimidation. Quite the contrary. For us, it’s an added incentive to fight for what is just and equitable." Read the rest of the story

Then he struck again;

 On his Facebook page he unloaded this zinger, which I've reproduced in the original French because it is just so delicious.

"Allez vous faire foutre et mêlez-vous de vos affaires." 

(Go f*ck yourself and mind your own business)

The mayor was reacting to an access to information  request by an environmental group seeking information about a Huntingdon factory's use of recycled water used in fracking.

"Asked by email about his remarks, Mr. Gendron said he did not consider them as out of  line even for a mayor. "To send to hell those grandstand managers who assume that we are in bad faith and who believe they alone possess the environmental truth?

NO, it is not out of line. We have a democratic mandate to govern, not to be accountable to the environmental Taliban . I repeat: the city council does not give a crap."

Read the rest of the story in French

Then he struck again;

Reacting to the blockade of the Champlain bridge by students protesting tuition fee hikes, who held up rush hour traffic for an hour on Thursday morning, he unloaded this;

"Les tabarnaks d'étudiants. Les criss, ça va finir dans le sang un moment donné. Ils ne cessent de provoquer... Câlisse on veut aller travailler bande d'esties de puants sales. La bastonnade, c'est pour quand?" Link{Fr}

Readers, I'm not even going to try to translate what he said, suffice to say, he said out loud what every driver struck in the traffic jam was thinking.

Gendron is fast becoming the most talked about person in the province. For French language hardliners he is the reincarnation of the devil.
For those who support bilingualism, he may be the most admired Quebecer.
Over at  the Montreal Gazette a reader wrote in proposing a Facebook campaign for Gendron to run for mayor of Montreal.

I'd vote for him! Link

Laurentian town also runs afoul of the OQLF

The small community of Ste. Agathe, about an hour north of Montreal, centers the tourist playground of the Laurentian mountains both in summer and winter.

It seems it has also run afoul of the OQLF by publishing some information to its citizens in English.

The exasperated mayor who said he will find another way to communicate with its Anglophone community was a bit cheesed off at the pettiness of the inspectors who visited the town.

They complained because the town was still using a bunch of old computer keyboards that were in English and demanded that the town replace them with French accented keyboards. Link{Fr}

Quebec's unemployment rate back to normal

During the recession Quebec nationalists cackled that the unemployment rate in Quebec was actually lower than Ontario's number.
Quebec was largely insulated firm the recession because of the high number of government workers, while Ontario's manufacturing industries were badly affected by the North American slowdown triggered by the Wall street meltdown.

Well those days are over now and Quebec's unemployment rate vis-a-vis Ontario's has returned to historic levels. Link
Quebec's Unemployment rate-------- 9.3%     (25% higher than the ROC)
Ontario's Unemployment rate-------- 7.6%
Alberta's Unemployment rate--------  5.8%
Saskatchewan's Unemployment rate  5.3%

ROC's Unemployment rate-----------  7.3%
USA's Unemployment rate-----------  8.3%

This week brought more bad news on the job front as Aveo closed up shop and threw over 1,800 Quebec workers out of work. This was followed by the announcement that a large printer was closing another Quebec plant throwing hundreds more out of work.Ouch!!!

Halal chicken and kosher products cause rage

Incredibly Quebec's job job crisis seems to be taking a back seat to a much bigger issue....Halal chicken. 

The pages of newspapers are filled with outraged commentators decrying the Islamization of Quebec society.
It seems that a large chicken processor has been allowing an Imam to say a blessing over the chickens it slaughters, something that is offensive to many secularists. Link

A PQ MNA André Simard,  held a news conference to decry the nefarious practice of forcing Quebecers to eat  blessed chicken without their permission. Link{Fr}

Permit me to tell you two stories that come to mind;

I watched an episode of Just for Laughs on the CBC the other day and one American comedian was ripping into the debate over gay marriage.
"Gay marriage? Really?
My house is worth eight dollars and I pay 3,000 a month mortgage. If two gay guys want to get married and buy my house--- we're gonna have a wedding!"

When my mother was having bypass surgery in the Jewish General Hospital a few years ago, I waited nervously in a bright corridor outfitted with chairs and benches for family members waiting while their loved ones underwent their procedures.
As the hours drag on, you get to talking with those around you who are also waiting. Every now and then, hospital volunteers brought us updates and various clergyman of all faiths came by to offer comfort. (The JGH may be the most ethnically diverse hospital in Canada)
And so an impressively tall Greek priest, in a flowing black robe, wearing a humongous Crucifix, stopped by and wished everyone well and asked if anyone wanted a little impromptu prayer, to which an elderly and obviously Jewish woman said okay.
After the ten-second prayer in Greek, the priest smiled and left, after which she looked over at me with a twinkle in her eye said, "Hey, I can use all the help I can get!"

Prayers over chickens? Really?
Is this the Earth shattering issue of the day? 

With a 9.3% unemployment rate, do the newspapers really need to devote fifty times more ink and airplay to this stupid story?......Hmmm, I guess so.

So while I'm on the subject of Halal chicken, complaints over Kosher foods by these same people are also getting a wide play in the Quebec media lately.
It seems that many regular products found on the shelves in supermarkets have little designations on the package indicating that these products are also Kosher, a shocking situation to certain watchdogs who complain that it isn't fair that everyone has to pay for the added cost.

The Halal chicken complainers, (including a PQ member of the National Assembly) demanded that the chickens be labeled as HALAL so that consumers could make their own choice, but it's really a smokescreen, because as I said, they are also complaining about KOSHER products that are properly labeled.

Last week the Journal de Montreal ran a story comparing prices in Plattsburgh against prices in Montreal.
None of the above complainers seem overly upset that a four litre package of milk sells for $3 south of the border, while it sells for $6 dollars in Quebec, but a Kosher product that may cost ½ cent more....well that's a completely different affair!  Link{Fr}

Blah....Blah....more righteous ethnic bashing...

Majority of Quebecers want ‘more freedom’ in education, reject mandatory ethics course: survey

“A survey conducted in the province of Quebec revealed that 55% of Quebecers favor the introduction of a school voucher program in which the government allocates a fixed amount of money for the education of each child, letting the parents decide whether their child is educated in a public or private school. The percentage jumped to 63% for parents of school-aged children. 

“To be truthful, I think people want more choice,” said Patrick Andries, secretary of the Coalition for Freedom in Education (CLE), to LifeSiteNews. “They want to get away from the monopoly of the education system so that they can have more choice and not be subject to financial penalties because they want to choose a private school.” Read the rest of the story

Young Francophone Quebecers want more English movies and live entertainment

A survey of Quebec city residents had some not so surprising results.

The younger the respondent, the more he or she wanted access to English movies and live entertainment; Link 

Chinese learn French to get into Canada

"Thousands of people in China are trying to write their own ticket out of the country — in French.

Chinese desperate to emigrate have discovered a backdoor into Canada that involves applying for entry into the country’s francophone province of Quebec — as long as they have a good working knowledge of the local lingo.

So, while learning French as an additional language is losing ground in many parts of the world — even as Mandarin classes proliferate because of China’s rise on the international stage — many Chinese are busy learning how to say, "Bonjour, je m’appelle Zhang." Read the rest of the story

Prank phone call imitating OQLF inspector irks commentator

"The Masked Avengers, or Les Justiciers Masqués, are a Canadian radio duo from Montreal, Quebec, made up of disc jockeys and comedians Sébastien Trudel and Marc-Antoine Audette, known for making prank calls to famous persons by pretending to be government officials or officers in charitable organizations. " Wikipedia

Here is an absolutely hilarious call that they made to a French language radio commentator in which the prankster pretended to be a language inspector from the Office québécois de la langue française who had some complaints about the proper use of French in the radio personality's show.

If you understand French, please listen, the heated exchange is delicious as the 'inspector' is thrashed by the recipient of the call who goes ballistic.
When the prankster finally identifies himself as a  Justiciers Masqués, M. Beauregard is already so worked up in a rage that he doesn't hear him at all and just keeps ranting!
  LISTEN HERE IN FRENCH

Courrier Laval's anti-English bent

For over a year now the largest community newspaper in Laval, Courrier Laval, has been writing stories deploring the fact that so many English speakers are moving to the city and upsetting the language dynamic.
Here's a sample of what the newspaper is publishing:

" An increase which is not surprising the Mouvement Laval français. "I'm not at all surprised, because since 1995  we've published several papers on it. Every time we compiled figures from Statistics Canada, you could see this increase, says Pierre-Benoit Livernois, vice president of the organization.

If the subject is of interest to groups dedicated to the defence of language, member of the Mille-Iles, Francine Charbonneau, considers it equally of concern with the population. "At least once a week, a citizen will call me with a language complaint, perhaps saying" I was at Carrefour and there are signs in English,"he  said. " But I think Laval remains French. Yes, there are English-speaking families, but in daily life, Laval is French "..... Link{Fr}

They even included a handy map to illustrate how big the problem of the spread of English in Laval really is.

Now that the Courier Laval has identified where the Anglos in Laval may be found, is the 'Solution Finale' the next logical step?

FINAL SOLUTION for Anglos in Laval?

In another article, readers were instructed on how to lodge a language complaint at the OQLF. Link{Fr}

In another article the newspaper examines the proportion of Anglophones operating businesses in Laval.  Link{fr}

Now I was working on a piece on the anti-English bent of the Courier Laval when I came across a comment written in French by a reader under one of these stories. You can read the original comment in French HERE.

Elke R.

Sir/ Madam, 

I am writing because I am very disturbed by the level of hatred that we find in the Courrier Laval. More precisely by the anonymous employee who claims to be shocked that one of his co-workers has been welcomed in English. Am I alone in finding this an exaggeration? To use a word as serious as "shocked" in response to a simple "hello" or "good morning". 

For my part, I reserve the use of that word for subjects such as the corruption of our politicians, the poverty of the city where I live, the state of our streets, etc.. 

The way we are portrayed in the Courrier Laval is deplorable and unjust.  

Let me introduce myself. I am the person who opens the door for you at Tim Hortons. I am the one who has given you my seat on the bus. I am the neighbor that you can count on to pick up your mail when you're on vacation. It was me who brought your children home in my car after school when it was too cold to walk. 

I have lived in Laval for 44 years now, in "your beautiful province," which unfortunately, I have to admit, is no longer beautiful to me.  

Can you understand how hurtful it is to read comments like that, the person who has been so scandalized by a word, just because it was in a language that was not his own? Don't you see the amount of hatred hiding behind a comment like that?  

Why all this hate?  

What have we done, the English among you, to deserve a reaction like this?  

I wish I had an answer for that. Because when I look at the situation in Laval and Quebec City, I see two completely different situations.  

Here, the English, have no voice, we have no service and we have no power. So what are you so afraid of?  

My two children attended French schools, my husband is French and in offices, shops and hospitals I must speak French, because otherwise I would not receive service.  

Last week, you talked about a person who was so proud to have called the OQLF because he was "outraged" to have seen a billboard that had no trace of French upon it. 

 "Outraged" is a word I would use to describe my feelings towards men found in possession of child pornography, "outraged" is to see what is happening in Syria, "outraged" describes my feelings  towards Guy Turcotte. But to use that word over language?  

Again, can you imagine how it feels knowing that you are so hated within your own community? 

Anglicization does not come from us. Look instead to the French. I do not change my "tires" I change my pneus. I'll take my pizza 'tout garnie' instead of "all dressed". I even bought 'plaque au plâtre'  instead of 'Gyprock'

So we English force ourselves to learn the exact French words, it is almost comical to hear you use  your Anglicisms.  

I am not your enemy. I am your neighbor, your colleague, your friend, so please understand that your words are extremely offensive. 

I have no voice here in Laval, I have no help in my language or respect from you, so why the need for so much hate?  

Last year I was in a Harvey's with my family. The line was not moving very quickly, because the cashier was new. Not just new, it was the first day of her first job.   

Her second client, the woman in front of us with her young son, screamed so the entire restaurant could hear. "How dare you! Who do you take yourself  for?! I want to see your boss! It is Quebec ICIT!"  

Why all this scandal? Because the little girl, being so nervous, greeted the lady saying "Hi, welcome to Harvey's! "politely. Now imagine the girl, in tears after only five minutes spent on her first job.  

But that's not all! The lady, who insisted on being served in French gave her order to a counterman and used all sorts of anglicisms including  , "Je veux mon 'Hot Dog'  'all dressed' et mon 'hamburger' juste avec des 'pickles.'

  "Yes! We are here in Quebec!  
Can you imagine living in a country and being afraid to display the flag of this land in front of your own house? 

Can you imagine living in a place where such hatred is displayed on Page One of your local newspaper.

Maybe you can't imagine it , but I can.

By the way, the letter was written in perfect French..

I'll leave it up to you to comment upon this letter.

Readers, ending on the lighter side, please have a good weekend.

If you're going to FAIL in spelling, best not be a French teacher

Spring arrives in Montreal!

Does anyone know where this sign is located?- Hint: It's not Montreal

Further reading:

French versus English Volume 49

Pauline Marois Buries her Betrayers

Pauline Marois- Winner by a knockout!

We've all heard the familiar saying, 'To the victor belong the spoils' and most of us have understood it to refer to war, wherein the winning side gets to confiscate the riches of the vanquished.

But the saying actually has a different root.
"During a Congressional debate in 1831 a New York senator, William L. Marcy, used the phrase "to the victor belong the spoils." This saying accurately described the spoils system of appointing government workers. Each time a new administration came into power thousands of public servants were discharged and members of the victorious political party took over their jobs."

For the fifty odd years before the Parti Quebecois was elected, the Quebec government flipped between the Liberals and the Union Nationale party and with each change, supporters of the winners were rewarded and losers were punished.
The practice of spoilage was so entrenched that there were actually 'Blue' snow removal contractors and 'Red' snow removal contractors and rights were awarded according to which political party held power in Quebec City.

Even today, the effects of this type of dishonesty haven't been banished from government completely and rewards for political support remain a sad part of the Quebec political landscape all the way from our towns and cities up to the highest echelons of government.
Today, politics remains a game of winners and losers, where partisanship, financial benefit and personal aggrandizement override the public's best interest. Those things never seem to change.

Yes, Politics is a rough and dirty game, even rougher and dirtier in Quebec, just ask Gilles Duceppe who was destroyed by Pauline Marois when he attempted to engineer a takeover of the party and steal her job.
It seems that Marois had been keeping in reserve a devastating political skeleton, the fact that Duceppe has used House of Commons funds to improperly fund partisan party politics.
From the speed at which Duceppe exited the political stage after the bombshell was dropped, it became patently clear that she had the goods on him.

Yup, things get rough, especially in the PQ caucus where over the years, leader after leader has been betrayed and driven from office or leadership by a dirty backroom effort by those colleagues and party members who should have been loyal.

A couple of months ago, Pierrre Curzi and three others PQ MNAs decided that by bolting the PQ caucus to sit as independents, they could trigger a leadership crisis that Pauline Marois could not survive. They believed that their action would leave Marois in an untenable position, a political dead woman walking, a scenario that just about every political pundit believed to be true.
Hoping to return to the party in triumph after her demise and a Gilles Duceppe coronation, things didn't exactly work out as he and the other conspirators planned.

As we all know, Marois pulled victory from the jaws of defeat and the stunning turn of events sent the bewildered hard line conspirators to the rail.

It is perhaps one of the greatest turnarounds in Quebec political history and places Marois alongside Jean Charest as a political operator extraordinaire.

And so the Curzi group was forced to confront the reality of a future electoral disaster, as independents with zero prospects of returning to the National Assembly. They were left with the choice between grovelling for reintegration into the PQ  or ignominious retirement.
 
You'd think Pierre Curzi would understand that a return to the PQ caucus after his duplicitous betrayal was a non-starter, but apparently he's a dreamer in more sense than one.

Apparently he thought he'd be welcomed back like the Prodigal Son and so had the audacity to demand that Marois give him his old job as language critic back and a commitment from her that he would be allowed to re-write Bill 101 to his hard line satisfaction à la Camille Laurin.

While toying with Curzi during those few 'reintegration' conversations, Pauline must have been wondering whether Curzi was smoking crack, so out of touch with reality was he to naively believe that all would be forgiven and that his previous vaulted position would be returned to him on a silver platter. To the victor belongs the spoils and Curzi and friends were decidedly the losers.

If Madame Marois was to accept Mr. Curzi back into the fold, it wasn't to forgive and forget, it was to humiliate.
Poor Pierre was to be banished to the obscurity of the back benches where he would fulfill the role of a stuffed Rhinoceros head on a wall, a trophy conquest held up as an example of what happens to those who cross Pauline.
Like a group of mutineers on a pirate ship after a failed mutiny, it is time for the plotters to walk the plank.
When the penny finally dropped on Curzi that he was dead political meat, he abruptly announced his retirement, with Marois surely enjoying the moment.
Let's be fair, she deserved her moment of revenge.

And so the same fate awaits Louise Beaudoin who is also trolling for the right to return to the PQ caucus after bolting with Curzi, Lisette Lapointe and Jean Aussant.
Lisette Lapointe, a sworn enemy of Pauline was smart enough to read the handwriting on the wall and took  the only option open to her- retirement.
Jean-Martin Aussant, is playing out the string as leader of a no-chance party with less prospects of electing a member than the Montreal Canadiens have of making the playoffs. It won't be long before he'll be teaching 'Separatism 101' in Cegep in Drummondville.

Watching the events of the attempted insurrection over at the PQ reminds me of those all too often  coup d'etats attempts in various South American or African banana republics.
The rebels mutiny and try to storm the palace to supplant the leader du joir. Sometimes they win and sometimes they don't, it's always hard to predict who will prevail, these things seem to turn on the smallest of variables.
The very clever rulers keep themselves out ahead of the conspirators and make contingency plans even before the plots are hatched.
It is rumoured that Fidel Castro kept ahead of coup plotters by surreptitiously hatching his very own phony plots to overthrow himself which allowed him to scoop and neutralize anyone stupid enough to join,  thus eliminating potential problems before they happened. Clever!

Those political leaders who don't watch their backs are prone to be stabbed between the shoulder blades, the best example perhaps, is Paul Martin's two year campaign to destroy the then sitting Prime Minister, Jean Chretien.
Surprisingly, Chretien, usually a savvy and competent operator, didn't show much spunk in fending off the attacks and ultimately was taken down in a palace coup that led to his resignation and subsequent coronation of Martin as leader.
The list of similar victims is long, especially in the ranks of the PQ leadership, including Rene Levesque, Lucien Bouchard and Andre Boisclair, to name just a few.

Like Castro, it seems that Pauline, has mastered the art of self-preservation, something none of her predecessors managed to do.
We need to give her due... Pauline played a political game of hardball that few knew she had within her and out manoeuvred any and all rivals, destroying them in the mix.
   
What is most interesting in all this is that Madame Marois has decimated the radicals in the party  and will be the first PQ leader to rule without the radicals nipping at her heals, at least for the forseable future.
Swept aside are the ultra radical elements which have always demanded a referendum come Hell or high water, a sure-fire loser and electoral albatross.
This leaves Marois free to pursue her policy of sovereigntist governance, a policy that dictates a nationalist agenda with a referendum an option only in the case of winning conditions.

So now Pauline is free to make a serious run at power.

Just last week the PQ unveiled the new election platform, one which promises whatever the people want, regardless of cost, regardless of consequences.....a surefire winner in Quebec.

And so the PQ has come out in favour of students in their battle to reverse fee increases and has promised to eliminate the health premium to be charged all Quebecers next year. Also they are promising to put a moratorium on just about any wealth producing energy or mining project, all very popular among the entitled set.
The vote for sixteen year-olds, and consultative referendum process, proposed during the PQ's darkest days, is still on the table but will probably be dumped after an election victory.
 
Today the PQ is concentrating on old fashioned pandering and to that end has stolen a page from the old ADQ, in appealing to xenophobic elements by attacking Halal meat as some sort of Muslim conspiracy to take over the province.
With the greatest impediment to a PQ resurgence out of the way, the PQ can realistically compete to become the next government.

And so we have a whole new electoral ballgame.

Does Partition Make Sense for Sovereigntists?

There's little doubt that most Francophone Quebecers abhor the idea of partition and when it comes to militant sovereigntists, just the mention of the word is enough to get their mouths frothing in rage.

I don't know if many readers recall a letter campaign back in 1998 directed at Westmounters by a nationalist group, in which some dire threats were made against the town for even thinking about partition.

The letter was all the more frightening because it was distributed by a militant group that included Rhéal Mathieu a member of the FLQ in the sixties, who served nine years for terrorist activities and who again was convicted in 2000 in relation to the bombing of the Second Cup Coffee shop. In a piece on vigile.net, he gives an account of that operation. Link{Fr}
I've gone ahead and translated the threatening diatribe, since I've wasn't able to find an English version online.
It may well be the first translation of the document. I've posted the French original online and you can read it by clicking under the image below.

THOUGHTS ON CANADIAN UNITY

See the original document in French

ON THE OCCASION OF THE CELEBRATION OF VICTORIA DAY

On May 5, 1997, the City of Westmount adopted a resolution on Canadian unity proposed by militants and described by the media as 'partitionist.' Mayor Peter Trent himself has repeatedly stated that these unity resolutions, in and of themselves, are partitionist. This resolution is actually a 'Sword of Damocles' hanging over your head. This letter is intended to make you aware of the immediate and long-term consequences of adoption of such a resolution.

In effect, you must now consider what you will do when Quebec becomes a sovereign state. You should think carefully before acting, because if your city is considering partition, it is likely that your life will become a Hell. Your situation may be similar to that of the American hostages in the embassy in Tehran, or at best, to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

In the very real world, what would life in a partitionist regime be like? You should be aware that should Westmount decide on the partition, the situation would be entirely different from that of Northern Ireland where there are airports and seaports. Westmount is an enclave within the city of Montreal, compared to Northern Ireland which is on a peninsula. Londonderry, Belfast and Newcastle are seaports, a stone's throw from England.

The strategic position of Westmount looks much more like that of West Berlin under Soviet blockade than that of Northern Ireland. With one exception, however, because in Westmount you could not even attempt to move across the wall, because you are surrounded by Québec!

If you tried to partition, refusing to pay your taxes to the government of Quebec, it is foreseeable that the worst of disasters could befall you and your families. You could run out of drinking water, fuel, electricity and in short, all the amenities you need to ensure your daily survival. A political hailstorm on the city.

Is not, the first responsibility of a municipal government to provide the population basic services, such as protection against fire, water supply, traffic management, and disposal of waste water? The constitution is outside municipal jurisdiction. By adopting such a resolution, your municipality does a disservice to your best interests. It puts you in a rather untenable position.

After any attempt to partition, it is clear that collaborative arrangements with the city of Montreal on the protection against fire, the water supply, waste management, sewage and traffic would fail. Westmount Square could go up in smoke and no firefighter from Montreal would come to the rescue.

From where does the water that your firefighters need come from? Westmount does not even have potable water of its own. Why would the city of Montreal or the Quebec government provide drinking water, filtered and disinfected, to people who want to extract a piece of territory? As citizens, you would be forced to collect rain water for your household needs.

With regard to traffic management, the situation would be unbearable. To prevent smuggling as in Kahnawake, Quebec would have to establish a security cordon with  several customs stations mounted at key locations in Montreal and forcing citizens who wished to enter or leave to lose several hours a day in order to present themselves to Quebec Customs officers.

If we consider the issue of domestic waste management, what would happen? Within two weeks, Westmount would become a dump, because the government would refuse a Canadian city, in this case Westmount, to export its waste to Quebec.

Today, do you think you would easily find a buyer for your home if Keith Henderson, Tyler and Galganov continue to say, in agreement with your local council, they will partition Westmount, build a wall around it to isolate it from the city of Montreal? Do not let these racist idiots speak for you!

You know the motto of Quebec: "I remember." Well! We remind you that today is the 35th anniversary of Operation mailboxes in Westmount, led by the Front de Liberation du Quebec, May 17, 1963: 10 bombs, five explosions, an officer of the Canadian Army seriously injured.

Today, in Westmount, Quebec patriots came to your house to your mailbox, with an olive branch in hand, not with dynamite. As in Northern Ireland, we want peace. We took our pen to appeal to your reason.
- We demand that the Mayor Peter Trent declare that the City of Westmount is not partitionist.

 -We demand that the citizens of the city of Westmount appear before the City Council and adopt a resolution confirming that they agree to submit to any democratic decision of the Quebec people.

If the council persists in its anti-democratic path, legal action to boycott the city of Westmount could be undertaken in the coming months. These actions would be aimed at teaching Westmounters what everyday life would be in an partitionist enclave. Obviously, in addition to the disadvantages that would befall everyone, one would expect that the market value of your residential and commercial buildings in Westmount would be greatly affected.

We do not want that to happen. Rather, we hope to receive a positive response to this call, otherwise you and we, will live with the consequences.                                        National Liberation Movement of Quebec

I'm not going to critique the letter, readers are welcome to do so, suffice to say that I reproduced it here as an extreme example of how seriously sovereigntists consider the partition threat.

But I'd like to present a different scenario today, one where maybe, just maybe, sovereigntists could possibily consider the idea of partition viable.

Here goes;
Let us for the sake of argument consider a PQ majority victory in an election sometime next year, followed by an unsuccessful referendum which again, for the sake of argument, was lost 55% to 45% margin.

Nobody can dispute that this third kick at the can will be devastating. It would be unthinkable for Pauline Marois (like Parizeau before her) to give a speech promising another referendum.

The referendum would cool the ardor of that younger generation of militants that never had a chance to vote for independence. For the older generation of sovereigntists, it would signal the end of their dream.

So where to go from there?
With the vote for independence going backwards, coupled with the demographics of immigration that sees another 40,000 federalists entering Quebec each year, even the most ardent of sovereigntists would be demoralized.

As the old saying goes, Half a loaf is better than none.


At that point the only way to achieve sovereignty would be partition.
Allow the island of Montreal to become Canada's eleventh (then tenth) province and remove all those anglos and Ethnics from voting in a new referendum, which I have no doubt will pass.

Quebec minus Montreal would be painful but would return Quebec to what sovereigntists dream it should be.
Eliminating English altogether in Quebec would force new immigrants to adopt French.

Those Francophone Montrealers who wished to remain in Quebec would merely have to move to Laval and vice versa for federalist Quebecers who wished to remain in Canada.

It's a rather neat solution, don't you think?

By the way, all those threats above......hogwash.
It cuts both ways.
It would be in everyone's interest to cooperate.

Language Hotheads Breed Violence

The day after Benoit Dutrizac aired the infamous recording of a Verdun depanneur cussing out his Francophone customers, he followed up the story with an interview with Quebec's most renowned Anglophobe, Gilles Proulx, who reminded listeners rather seriously that if the store was located in Northern Ireland, it would long ago have been burned down via a Molotov cocktail. Listen{Fr}

The next day a militant language group demonstrated in front of the depanneur, hurling not only insults, but feces as well.
The police had to advise the owner to close up shop for his own security. Link

Of course Mr. Proulx would be the first to tell you that he didn't incite anyone to violence, he was just stating a fact in referring to violence in Northern Ireland.
He did the same thing back in 1995 during the Mohawk blockade of the Mercier bridge, hissing on the radio that the Mohawks involved, couldn't even speak French, fanning the flames of hate in an unstable and potentially violent situation.

That scene ended shamefully with vigilantes attacking a convoy of cars full of Indian women and children trying to escape.
I hope the Jeunes Patriotes du Québec who participated in the attack on the depanneur have a chance to watch this video, so that they can see the consequences of their actions and perhaps understand what is to be hated by a gang of racists.
This video isn't of Palestine, Syria or Tibet. This was Quebec 1995.

Pathetic...

At any rate I'm not really sure what Mr. Proulx was so upset about, it certainly couldn't be the statement that had every one else riled up, the one made by the depanneur owner, impinging the reputation of his customers;

"You stay at home, you drink beer, you smoke cigarettes, you take welfare," he said. "I am an immigrant here. I have a business. I take care of you people."

You see readers, Gilles Proulx made a similar statement himself on the radio, (one which he was reproached for by Quebec's Press council) when he said this about Quebecoise women on welfare.

"grosses torches qui mangent des chips et boivent du cola en écoutant les émissions les plus stupides"

I'll let our Francophone readers do the translation for you......

At any rate it isn't surprising that Stéphane Gendron, the controversial mayor of Huntingdon who characterized Bill 101 as racist, had his home and automobile vandalized last week.

No doubt language militants including some of those who habituate the comments sections of this blog applaud the action.
All this over an opinion in a province that is supposed to encourage free speech.
To all of you who think that the depanneur and Mr. Gendron got what they deserved, you should understand that you are a testament to savagery and a shining example of the same intolerance displayed in the video above.
I hope you are proud of yourselves. I wonder where you learned your democratic principles.

But unfortunately, it's not only the shock jocks, the Societe Saint-Jean-Baptiste, or militant bloggers who are raising  the level of language tension here in Quebec, shamefully it is the OQLF which is stirring up the pot in a dishonest campaign of misinformation meant to dispel it's image as ineffective.

For many months now, ever since the OQLF came out with a new policy whereby stores using a registered trademark would be required to add a French 'modifier' I've been telling you that they had no legal basis to do so.

I also ruminated that it was wrong that nobody in the mainstream Press seemed to be interested in that aspect of the story. And so perhaps my interpretation was wrong, it's happened before.

But FINALLY somebody agrees and does so in print.
Yesterday in LaPRESSE,  Denis Lessard has written an article that says that the OQLF has no legal basis to force 'modifiers' on store names.

"Yesterday, the spokesperson of the Office, Martin Bergeron, argued that it was too early to announce the number of complaints made ​​on the question of name displays as a result of the campaign organization. "We checked our legal interpretation before moving forward. We understand that there are people who do not have the same interpretation as us, "he said.

 That readers is the closest you're going to get to an admission that the OQLF knows that it is wrong.
Mr Lessard went on to say this on the subject.

"This new campaign of the OQLF ignored a formal opinion of the Conseil de la langue, provided the government of Lucien Bouchard in 2000, at a time when  Louise Beaudoin was the minister in charge. The PQ government was told then that it was advisable to use incentives to get companies to francize their names, since according to the law, they were not on solid ground." Link{Fr}

And so the OQLF is out of line and knows that it is on thin ice, the question  remains as to why it pursues this course of action.
Can it be that it is doing exactly what Camille Laurin did when he introduced Bill 101, thirty-five years ago, that is, advancing policies that cannot stand a court test in order to foster discord and thus further the cause of sovereignty?

What is clear is that this new aggressiveness has whipped up language militants into a frenzy, triggering a slew of new complaints by militants emboldened by the actions of the OQLF.

Our intrepid defender of the French language, Louis Prefontaine, is so riled up that he has promised to head down to Huntingdon to search out and denounce to the OQLF all illegal English signs.

I hope he is received politely, you might remember what happened to the OQLF inspector who was given quite the welcome in a small English town, a few years ago.
'In 1999, a group of militant Shawville English-speakers gave a provincial “language” inspector quite a rude welcome and finally chased him out of town during a showdown over English on business signs.'

You see Mr. Proulx, two can play the innocent incitement game. It isn't nice.

Finally some push back.
In an article in LaPresse, Yves Boisvert writes;

"In several cities in Quebec, as Huntingdon, the two linguistic communities live in perfect harmony, many couples are "bicultural", there are English and French schools and no one is fainting because they heard a word of English at the convenience store .

What harm does it cause to French if some cities adopt a bilingual policy in their communications, even if "only" 44% of citizens are English speaking?

Can we not imagine some flexibility in applying the law to take into account local traditions, the size of the municipality....."

These things apparently cannot be said."  Link

Yup, rationality is out the window, when language fanatics, encouraged by the government itself, run riot over free speech and free choice.

It seems that all is fair in the language debate in Quebec.

I wonder if Dutrizac or Proulx would be offended if someone planted a microphone in their homes or under a table in a restaurant where they were dining and aired some of their injudicious remarks on the radio. I'm sure they wouldn't like it.

But how can you blame these shock jocks for ethical lapses when an official arm of the government is leading the crusade against English by totally abandoning all sense of fair play, by advancing policies that cannot be defended legally.

Such is where we are.

If something isn't done to stop the insanity we are headed down a road that will hurt Quebec badly and I mean the Francophone majority.

I shall turn things around and remind militants who are raining down hate down on Anglos and ethnics that it is a sure-fire  formula for making 350 million enemies around you.

In order to survive in a free and independent state, as you hope, Quebec will depend on the good will of neighbors and like the poor depanner in Verdun, spitting on your customers is decidedly bad business.

Is OQLF Making it Up As it Goes Along?

I know I promised a blog piece today on partition, but I think that the order of the day should be rearranged to accommodate a followup to Monday's post.

No doubt you heard about the Chinese Nigerian depanneur in Verdun who was secretly recorded in a telephone call by a researcher for Benoît Dutrizac, a noted Quebec shock-jock widely known for his rabid Anglophobia.
The Chinese immigrant was castigated for his lack of French and given a lesson in Bill 101, but the shopkeeper wasn't having any of it and unloaded on his accuser, in no uncertain terms.
It was actually quite hilarious.. Give a listen;
If you don't speak French it doesn't matter, most of the action is in English.

As you can imagine when the call was aired on the radio, it evoked quite a reaction.

Here's a video of a demonstration mounted in front of the convenience store by Les Jeunes patriotes du Québec. YouTube

Here's a story over CTV.

Read some of the comments below the article for a laugh!

Thanks to Andrew for the story.

Now I mention all this because the next day, Mr.  Dutrizac interviewed none other than the esteemed Madame Louise Marchand, head of the l'Office québécois de la langue française, who tut-tutted  at the extreme disrespect shown by this immigrant to the francophone majority.

It's one thing for a renowned Anglo-hater like Dutrizac to unload on an immigrant, taping a conversation surreptitiously and airing it without permission. Picking on the most vulnerable, an immigrant shopkeeper who probably works a hundred hours a week, may be par for the course for this self-important sleazebag, BUT......
the head of the OQLF dumping on the shopkeeper goes beyond the pale.

It seems that Madame Marchand is doing a lot of talking lately and I am fast coming to the realization that a lot of it is misdirection and malarkey.

Her latest campaign of 'persuasion' instead of enforcement in the matter of English store names and 'descriptives' has me thinking that the lady has no case at all.

It's like a cop making a friendly 'suggestion,' ....it only happens when he has no legal way to force you to do what he wants you to do.

Let's go back to the beginning.
Bill 101 was drafted almost thirty-five years ago by the famous Dr. Camille Laurin, who made no bones about the fact that it was a more than a law about protecting and promoting the French  language but rather a political instrument designed to further the cause of sovereignty.

It is important to understand this aspect, Bill 101 was created to promote sovereignty, as the good doctor freely admitted.

When Rene Levesque first saw the draft version of the law presented to his cabinet, barely three months after the PQ won the election, he was quite honestly appalled and pointed out to Laurin that many parts of it were clearly unconstitutional, plain to see, even to non-lawyer.
One of the original clauses in the act actually outlawed English in the courts and the legislature, something directly contravening the B.N.A Act.

Laurin told Levesque that it was part of the strategy, to create a law that would be attacked by the Anglos.
Those court challenges which would ultimately succeed, would engender a sense of rage among francophones, feeding the fire of sovereignty.
The strategy worked magnificently, over the years, some 70 clauses have been repealed, rejected or rewritten, representing about one-third of the law.

Today it is an integral part of the sovereigntists narrative that the evil Supreme Court has taken an axe to the law in revenge against Franco-Quebecer nationalism.
In that respect Mr. Laurin is to be congratulated for his grand deception, a marvel of cynical manipulation.
But pardon me if I don't clap.

When Laurin first presented his draft law to reporters at a press conference, a young reporter at the time, Don Macpherson, asked Dr. Laurin if he was prepared, and if he would indeed welcome the exodus of minorities that would surely ensue. A deadpan Laurin answered that he would regret such an exodus, but clearly it was lie.

Although Levesque objected to the law, he was overwhelmed by his own cabinet and when Laurin presented Bill 101 to Parliament Levesque signaled his displeasure by walking out on the presentation, but the law passed anyway.
Bill 101 was conceived as a weapon for sovereignty and remains such today, to pretend otherwise is pure fantasy. Ask any of the mayor players involved in its creation and they will freely admit it.

Unfortunately most francophones have bought into the lie that Bill 101 is only about protecting the French language, not persecuting minorities.

It is in this context we can understand why the OQLF attempts to restrict, eliminate and render minorities uncomfortable, in any way it can. It is all about sovereignty.

It still goes on today. Anglophones being told they cannot buy English products because they are in Quebec.

Thanks to Susan for the link...

I don't even know what this product is, but does it mean that you cannot order a book or a film over the Internet if there is no French version available?
I don't think that the law provides for that, but I'm sure the OQLF is creating a climate of fear, scaring manufacturers with misinformation, then claiming they had nothing to do with it.

Not only does it make no sense, it's petty and vindictive, meant purely to harass English speakers.

Now the law provides many rules and regulations for the use of French and places limits on minority languages rights, but a lot is left unsaid and so Bill 101 actually provides for the government to add definition to the law by means of regulations that the OQLF may provide from time to time.

Two of these regulations, or interpretations are quite interesting.

One concerns the name of businesses and the right to use a registered trademark on its masthead and in advertising.
Now here are the regulations directly from the OQLF website, I'm not making any of it up.

Regulation respecting the language of commerce and business

Charter of the French language

 (R.S.Q., c. C-11, ss. 54.1, 58 and 67)

25.  On public signs and posters and in commercial advertising, the following may appear exclusively in a language other than French:

  (1)    the firm name of a firm established exclusively outside Québec;

  (2)    a name of origin, the denomination of an exotic product or foreign specialty, a heraldic motto or any other non-commercial motto;

  (3)    a place name designating a place situated outside Québec or a place name in such other language as officialized by the Commission de toponymie du Québec, a family name, a given name or the name of a personality or character or a distinctive name of a cultural nature; and

  (4)    a recognized trade mark within the meaning of the Trade Marks Act (R.S.C. 1985, c. T-13), unless a French version has been registered.     OQLF LINK

 Clearly, there is no such requirement for a 'descriptive' phrase to be added to a trademark.
I have no idea by virtue of what rule or regulation the OQLF is now demanding that companies do so.
I also believe that trifling with international law vis-a-vis trademarks is a losing proposition if the OQLF decides to add a rule to provide a requirement for modifiers.
As of now, I believe none exists.

Secondly is the concern over English communication in Huntingdon.
The OQLF has said that it is illegal for the city to add English in addition to French in its communication with citizens.
As I told you on Monday, (after Hugo S. pointed it out) this goes against the OQLF's own interpretation.

Link to original OQLF web page

So it seems that municipalities do have the right to communicate with townsfolk in another language as long as French is included.
I don't think the above notice could be much clearer.

I'm not a lawyer, but these two examples seem to run completely opposite what Madame Marchand is saying in public.

Is the OQLF out of control, making things up as it goes along?

Does Madame Marchand actually know what the heck she is talking about, when she tells us that Canadian Tire must by law add a descriptive, where no law or regulation exists requiring it to do so?

Why isn't anybody calling out for clarification?

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UPDATE!

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Here is a story on the depanneur that was aired on CBC.  Listen here