McGuire for Habs GM, Carbonneau for Coach

As we enter in the NHL playoffs with no dog in the fight, the letdown for Canadiens fan is utterly disheartening and depressing.
If this is what life is for Leafs fans on a permanent basis, I want no part of it.

The NHL playoffs is the most exhilarating sports championship, bar none.
It combines the endurance of a marathon, the bloodlust of the Roman Coliseum, the innate finesse of a high wire artist, the passion of a religious cult, the strategy of a chess grandmaster, the mayhem of a roller derby and the team spirit of a combat unit.
What sets hockey apart from all other team sports playoffs series is the creation of villains. The relentless bashing, retaliation, dirty questionable hits and outright brawling satisfies the innate bloodlust of fans that is only equaled rivaled in MMF.

Saturday's game between Ottawa and New York best exemplifies why hockey can excite the emotions like no other sport, where rivalry tinged with genuine hate, allows fans to embark on an emotional hate-a-thon.

All professional sports leagues provide plenty of heroes, but no sport furnishes as many detestable villains and lets face it, a villain is more interesting emotionally than any hero.

Then there's the actual brawling and fighting. We love it. There's more action in a 90 second NHL slugfest than many a ten-rounder.
Now, no pooh-poohing, even baseball and basketball fans love a good bench clearing brawl, but unfortunately, they are all too rare in those sports.
And so there is truth to the old dictum - "I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out!"

I defy anyone to tell me that the electricity in a hockey arena is rivaled anywhere in sports.
NHL playoffs provide an adrenaline rush, that can only be recreated by actually participating.

True fans from any NHL city, will testify that a lengthy hockey playoff run, even when it falls short, is the most satisfying fan experience in all of sports. There is simply no comparison.

A real hockey fan with a team in the playoff hunt, whether he or she be at work, at home or at play always has the team close to heart. Like a junkie, true fan needs their fix of playoff hockey delivered every second day and when for scheduling reasons, the wait between games stretches to three days, symptoms of withdrawal, including nervousness and anxiety are apt to appear.

Now I know hockey is a business like anything else in the entertainment world, but in a certain sense it is not.
Hockey is a passion that the average Joe or Jane can enjoy for free.
Being a fan doesn't cost money and that's what makes its appeal so universal. Yes in a sense we pay for by watching commercials on TV during the games, but that's putting too fine a point on it.
That's also why I'm not against government subsidizing pro sports teams to a certain degree, but that's another discussion...

First, let's bury the past.
There isn't any doubt that the once mighty and proud Habs are a shadow of what they once were. The Gainey/Gauthier era was the most destructive force ever unleashed on the team, a tandem that should have been forced to swear a Hippocratic oath (Do No Harm.)

I am not a fan who lives and breathes hockey or the Canadiens, but if you were to ask me about the Thomas Kaberle trade I'd have never have done it based not only on his outrageous salary but for the fact that he was a Toronto Maple Leaf reject.
I mean if you're going to sign players who were rejected by the Leafs, you've sunk pretty low and are not only demonstrating poor hockey judgement, but also that there isn't much pride left in the organization.

I was dumbfounded when it surfaced that Gauthier dealt away Mike Cammalleri, without contacting most NHL general managers and settled for what he could get from Calgary.
Was he too busy to call?
Even the most inept seller knows that if you want to move something for value, you've got to advertise.
And so it seems that Gauthier traded away a pain in the ass, in Cammalleri, for a cancer in the name of  Rene Bourque.
I bet all the other general managers were disappointed that they weren't contacted, after all they each had some mistake to pass off on the hapless Gauthier.

Listening to the sports talk shows on TSN radio, I'm convinced that every idiot who calls in offering advice to the Habs, actually makes more sense then Gainey and Gauthier.
It remains a sad truth that all these fans, many of them broke and many who can't even balance their chequebook, can better mange the salary cap than the Habs management!

I don't know all the candidates for coach or general manager that are being tossed around and that in and of itself is a problem. We need a coach with experience and a general manager who knows something about hockey players.

And so I nominate Carbo to come back, he wasn't half bad and was only fired as a sacrificial lamb, as were those before him including Claude Julien and Alain Vigneault. Need I say more?

Who's got more experience and can speak English and French purr-fect-ly?
And realistically there's no better candidate out there.

As for GM, my choice is Pierre McGuire, an anglo from Montreal who's got that distinctive LCC French, which should allow him to pass muster.

He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of player personnel and is guaranteed not to make idiotic deals.

I've heard him on TSN radio over the past years and he wasn't shy to tell listeners that the Gionta, Gomez and Cammalleri deals were all bad for the team, based on various reasons, either talent-wise, term or salary.
He told us all this upfront, before the players all bombed and the crap hit the fan.

He also seems strong-willed and confident, as well as comfortable with the Press, something the Habs desperately need.

Now Pierre has just taken a great job working for the new NBC Sports Network, moving his family to Hartford, so I would have assumed he'd not be interested in the job, but after checking with a family insider who I know, he'll definitely take the job, if offered!

That readers by the way is a NODOG scoop and it is entirely reliable!

The Canadiens aren't going to make a big comeback soon, they are saddled with too many bad contracts and so will have to wait them out for a couple of years.
That being said I definitely see them making the playoffs next year, if they get rid of some deadwood.

Here's a couple of suggestions:

Buy out Scott Gomez's contract.
He's only making $5.5 million this year, but the Cap hit is $7.3 million. By paying him out, the Cap hit would be reduced to $3.5 million this year and $4.5 million next year.
In 2014/15 and 2015/16, the team would still be punished to the tune of $1.5 million towards the Cap, but it'd be worth it. CapGeek.com

Same thing for Kaberle who has only has two years left on his contract. His $4.5 million contract and Cap hit could be reduced to $1.5 million by buying him out. CapGeek.com

Time for Molson to roll out the chequebook and pay for the idiotic mistakes of the past.

By the way, bring back a character player like Hal Gill and restore some pride in the team

What say you all?

 ********************************

Congratulations to Canada's National women's hockey team on winning the World Championship.

 The winning overtime goal was scored by none other than bilingual Montrealer Caroline Ouellette (pictured on the left,)

It doesn't get any sweeter than that!

Please feel free to offer the team your congratulations in the comments section....

Sunday Housekeeping Volume 8

As readership grows, we seem to be attracting much more attention, not all of it good.
It seems that there are those for whom this blog is disturbing and who have decided to 'gum up the works' by posting a lot of junk.
 
Due to the high number of comments we are receiving, many of which are idiotic trolls and inflammatory junk, I am going to tighten up the rules.

I cannot moderate two or three hundred comments a day. It isn't feasible. I have a job. 

As of tomorrow, I am asking all of you to let go of the gratuitous insults both on the English and French side, but clearly much more on the French side.
Many of these comments are nothing more than one line drive-bys, meant to disrupt.

They won't be  posted anymore.

I want all readers to make an effort to clean up their language and refrain from ruining an interesting post with a nasty French or English insult. It isn't necessary to use foul language or nasty insults to make a point.
One can still get the message through and even show rage or frustration without being gross.

If we've got to go down to twenty or thirty thoughtful comments, so be it. I'm not writing this blog to run up the score.

I urge everyone to participate, but if you are here to piss in the soup or to deliver stupidities, please keep away.

Each  comment should contain an original thought, a counter argument, or information about a subject that others would be interested in.
It would be nice if you guys responded a little more often to the main post, but sometimes we do go off on a tangent, which will be allowed if it is of interest.

Stop the insults.
Make your point without referring to seppies or angouilles.
I don't know any Nazis in Quebec and don't want to see the word in the comments section. It debases us all.

Each comment will be judged on its merit, if it doesn't get published take it as a sign that it doesn't fill the most important criterion, that is to be interesting without being mean or insulting.

You can still rant, but leave out the insults. Be inspired by the greatest rant ever, that of newsman Howard Beal from the movie network.;

Enjoy. I hope it inspires you;

I am turning comment moderation on once again, which means I'll have to approve comments before they go out. It will mean a delay in seeing your comments published, but I haven't been left with much choice.

I hope that readers will get the message and that moderation will be become unnecessary once again.

Thank you for your cooperation and I earnestly hope to see you in the comments section, it's up to you!

French versus English Volume 52

FLQ terrorist joins radicalized student boycott 

For the casual observer, the student protest and boycott over the proposed increase in tuition fees is a homogenous and unified student front, determined to roll back the government decision.
But the reality is not that simple, there are various student associations representing different groups of students from university and cegep.
The most radical and militant of all these groups is the  Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ),  an association of radical leftist students closely associated with the union movement.
One of the group's tenets is this pearl, which sort of says it all;

ASS?

"For labor solidarity with all progressive international struggles for the betterment of society"

The group is not only against the tuition increase, but actually demands free education and increased financial support, with the ultimate goal of eliminating all student loans and debt.
Of course, ASSE is against Globalization, Big business, etc. etc.

Much to the consternation of other peaceful student groups who seek to gain public sympathy through peaceful demonstrations, the ASSEholes have no compunction using deliberately disrupting tactics, such as the blocking of bridges, roads and buildings, with the express idea of making life difficult for the general public. The group views its actions as an ongoing battle against the establishment and makes no apologies for their unpopular actions.

This last week, ASSE held a rally at which ex-FLQ terrorist, Paul Rose gave a speech in solidarity.
Readers well remember that Mr. Rose was convicted of kidnapping and murder of a Quebec cabinet minister, Pierre Laporte,  during the 'October Crisis'  back in 1970, along with other terrorist cell members. He was released on parole in 1980.

As you can imagine, his speech made many people uncomfortable and the appropriateness of his presence was openly questioned by several in the media.
Doing damage control, ASSE leaders told the media that the meeting was open to all and that they hadn't invited Mr. Rose to speak.

That being said, the official ASSE Twitter feed, made note of his appearance and proudly tweeted a picture of him speaking. Link{Fr}

Incidentally, the boycott of classes has become a French only affair as all English Cegep and University student associations have given up an official boycott, although some hotheads are trying to stop students from taking exams.

I remain dumbfounded that students in the French system are actually okay with putting their school year at risk.

To me, they remain stupider than wood, as a lost year would cost more than the whole tuition increase, as well as a lost six months.

It seems that for these French students, it remains a question of principal, while for English students it is a case of principle + interest!

Quebec to pay for immigrants to learn English
"The province continues to encourage immigrants to learn French but there are reports the Quebec government may soon offer immigrants “choice.”

New arrivals to the province may soon be able to learn English.

Quebec's largest public-sector union argues that would contravene the law stipulating sessions can only be offered in French but the government says the move is in the interest of speedy integration.

All immigrants know they need to speak French and Kathleen Weil, Quebec Minister of Immigration and Cultural Communities, has choice words for those criticizing her government's employment measures.

“You can't start discriminating against new immigrants because they're francophone and you say well I'm afraid if you learn a little English suddenly you're going to become Anglophone,” she says. “It's absolutely insane to argue that.”  LINK 

Quebec public service union gets political

"According to documents obtained by the Syndicat de la fonction publique du Québec (SFPQ), the Department of Immigration and Cultural Communities is about to provide newcomers with orientation sessions in English and Spanish.

The sessions, lasting three hours, are currently offered in French by the department and allows immigrants to become familiar with their new host society.
Private classes are offered in other languages​​, but only on request.

The Regional Vice President of SFPQ for Montreal and Laval, Jean-Francois Sylvestre, indicates that the department intends to appeal to organizations contracted to deliver these new sessions in three languages​​, by the summer. Link {Fr}

Francophone players set to bomb in NHL draft

With all the endless discussions on TSN and RDS over the 2012 NHL draft, few commentators are willing to discuss the obvious, the disastrous situation in relation to Francophone players in the draft.
Out of the top 50 prospects playing in North American junior leagues, there is not one Francophone and only one Quebecker.
To boot, that Quebecer is Michael Matheson, an anglophone from Pointe Claire who is ranked 30th.

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey league lists just three players in the Top 50,  two Russians and a Czech.
The Ontario Hockey leagues  boasts 20 players and the Western Hockey League contributes 13 names to the Top 50 list.  Link

Nasty sportswriter bids good riddance to Cunneyworth

My least favorite sportswriter, the ever nasty anglophobe, Rejean Tremblay has struck again.
In a full page article in le Journal de Montreal he advises Quebecers not to feel bad or sorry about Randy Cunneyworth being run out of town over his lack of English.

GOOD LUCK--Somewhere Else!

He complained that Cunneyworth played the sympathy card to the hilt and that Quebecers shouldn't fall for his act.

"Bob Gainey and Pierre Gauthier ransacked the very institution that is the Montreal Canadiens. They proceeded to voluntarily eradicate French among the players and leaders. Probably for reasons of control....

....Saku Koivu insulted 80% of the population of Quebec. And the message to all of North America was loud and clear: 'We don't give a shit! "
Koivu and Brian Gionta  have opened the door to the hiring of unilingual English vice presidents at the Caisse and other large institutions in Quebec. If we accept that the captain of "our" Canadiens remains a unilingual Anglophone, we will accept it everywhere and that's what almost happened."

Nothing like mixing Quebec politics and sports...

In a typical two-faced argument Tremblay told readers that Cunneyworth didn't deserve to remain based on his record. He reminded readers that when Cunneyworth took over the team, they were two points out of the playoffs and finished dead last.  Link{Fr}

Why two-faced?
Because even if Cunneyworth won the Stanley cup, Tremblay would still demand his firing.

Remember Al MacNeil?
In  1971 he was removed as coach of the Canadiens after winning the Stanley Cup because the unilingually English coach was thought to be unable to get along with Francophone players. Link{Fr}

Ontario MPP proposes more power for language commissioner

"For the second year in a row, an Ontario NDP MPP has a bill in the House to increase the powers of the French Language Commissioner. Bill 193 last year did not make it past first reading, Bill 49 this year was introduced March 20 but both are very similar. They want to increase the power of the Commissioner to provide annual reports, special reports anytime with recommendations for improving the provision of French language services.Naturally, L’Assemblée de la francophonie de l’Ontario is in support of this, however receiving the vast amount of funding from the government the way that group does, should make one question the need for this bill and politics involved." Read more

Quebecers remain Canada's biggest cheapskates

"Quebecers have maintained their position as the least generous Canadians when it comes to charitable donations and time donated through volunteering.

"Across the country, it remains a constant, we rank dead last in terms of average donation:  

$208, less than half the national average of $446... 

And let no one say this is a matter of wealth: New Brunswick, which is not deemed to be particularly wealthy, the average is $380...."

On Volunteerism;
 "No. Here too, we are dead last in the country.  
A lower rate of volunteers, who give fewer hours on average than the others: 128 compared to the national average of 156...."  Link{Fr}

Unilingual English immigration commissioners come under fire.

"The federal government came under fire Wednesday for appointing more unilingual anglophones - this time at the Montreal and Ottawa offices of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.

Montreal newspaper La Presse reported two recently minted commissioners in Montreal and one in Ottawa who don't speak French." Link

Of course the usual complainers like Yves-François Blanchet of the PQ and  Sadia Groguhé of the Ndp, both lambasted Ottawa for this outrageous slight, but the Minister in charge, Jason Kenny was having none of it, reminding those who complained that there are unilingual French commissioners as well and that immigrants had the right to a hearing in either official languages.
Only 2 out of the 32 of the commissioners in Montreal are unilingually English, while 5 are unilingually French. Link{Fr}

Why a unilingually English commissioner in Ottawa is an outrage, while a unilingually French commissioner in Montreal is fine, remains an unanswered question.

In a related story, La Presse noted that the English commissioners who hear refugee claims were less generous than their Francophone colleagues, granting asylum in about 18% of the cases, less than half the rate of the Francophones. Link{Fr}

Quebecor to Francize its name

"Quebecor Inc., the French-language media giant, has decided it isn’t quite French enough.

The owner of the TVA television network and cable company Vidéotron will make a formal proposal to shareholders at its May 9 annual meeting to add a French version of the corporation’s name for use in its home province. From now on, it’ll be Québecor, with an acute accent."

Quebecor Chief Executive Officer Pierre Karl Péladeau began reflecting on changing the name last fall, company vice-president Serge Sasseville said Monday.

“He has a big concern for the protection of  the French language in Quebec,” Mr. Sasseville said, adding that Quebecor is an “important actor” in Quebec’s cultural sector that promotes French-speaking artists and programming. “We accordingly judged that it was important that we use a French version of our name in Quebec.”  Link

Adbul Butt Strikes again.

Please visit his YouTube channel for more fun.

Please have a great weekend and if you have story ideas, please send me an email!

Further reading:

French versus English Volume 51

Montreal Canadiens-Between a Rock and a French Place

It's hard not to view the current situation over at the Montreal Canadiens as a metaphor for what is going on in Quebec society in general.
As the team sinks lower and lower in productivity and success, the focus remains on language, with most of the Press and the public buying into the fantasy that limiting the team to French speaking executives is no handicap at all.

The question remains;
What would be, if more talented English executives were available?
What if a Sam Pollack figure was available to return as General Manager and a Scotty Bowman or Toe Blake figure available as coach?
The public has bought into the moronic fantasy, first enunciated by Serge Savard and parroted ad nauseam by sportswriter anglophobes like Rejean Tremblay,  that "à talent égal, des Québécois" (when presented with equal talent choose the Quebecer)

But what if one of the most elite general managers in the NHL suddenly became available to the Canadiens, an experienced and talented manager like Ken Holland, Lou Lamoriello, Peter Chiarelli or Paul Holmgren?

What if one of the most elite coaches in the NHL also became available to the Canadiens, a proven winner like  Dan Bylsma, Mike Babcock, Ken Hitchcock or John Tortorella?

With the Savard Doctrine clearly not in play (none of the current potential French candidates for coach or general manager hold a candle to any of the above names,) would the team hire one of these unilingual Anglophones instead of a clearly inferior Francophone candidate?

Alas reader, you know the answer.
It would be French over quality, hands down.
That is where we have arrived in Quebec, not only in the Montreal Canadiens organization, but throughout Quebec society in general.

Recently, SNC-Lavalin one of Quebec's most successful global enterprises was racked by a massive corporate scandal which caused the board of directors to quickly remove the chief executive, Pierre Duhaime.

"SNC Lavalin is in the news again.  Just a few days ago the engineering consulting firm dumped its CEO in a controversy over millions of dollars of dodgy payments.  Now, the firm is being blasted for replacing him with an interim CEO who is a unilingual anglo.  SNC-Lavalin says Ian Bourne has a basic understanding of French but is not able to give interviews in that language." Link 

Sound familiar?
It's as Yogi Berra once said,  "it's deja vu, all over again!"

Yup, the story is eerily familiar to that of the hiring of Randy Cunneyworth and the public's overiding negative obsession over the fact that he is a unilingual Anglophone.

Whether these two men were the best available talent to handle these two powerhouse organizations, deep in crisis, is sadly beside the point.

It seems that even the silly Savard doctrine no longer satisfies the language bloodlust of Quebecers and so the new hiring doctrine has become;

"À talent égal ou inférieure, des Québécois!" or the "Savard doctrine plus"

Now back to the Canadiens, where after a ferocious media campaign of language intimidation, a frightened and panicked Geoff Molson, caved in faster than Chinese coal mine.
Daddy's little rich boy was so terrified of screwing up an investment that supposedly couldn't be screwed up, that he threw his anglo coach under the bus, just two days after approving his hiring!
Realizing that the message of the language zealots was starting to resound in the mainstream media, thus threatening his invincible money machine, he hired the very author of the Savard doctrine himself, Mr. Serge Savard, to take over his responsibility to run the hockey team.

And so Mr. Savard, no dummy when it comes to PR, will interview lots of candidates, including Anglophones, for the job of GM and coach. Ultimately, to nobody's surprise, he will settle on two Francophones, eliminating 80% of the candidates in his mind before the interviews even start, thus insuring that the team has a four out of five chance of hiring an inferior candidate.

I was watching the post game festivities of the first Montreal Impact MSL soccer victory and came across this interview which saddened me greatly.
Look how intimidated desperate the unilingual anglo coach, Jesse Marsch, is over his non-French. It's pitiful...

Yes the language militants are rolling to victory in one battle after another in their quest to rid the corporate offices of Quebec of any vestige of unilingual Anglophones.

"Qu'on leur coupe la tête!" is the rallying cry as they march on the Caisse de dépôt, the National Bank, SNC-Lavelan and the Montreal Canadiens in their holy crusade.

Albert Einstein -NSFQ*

If Albert Einstein was reborn and applied for a job at a Quebec think tank, he'd be denied a senior position because a Quebecois who spoke French would be deemed more suitable for the job.
After all, if Mr. Einstein couldn't explain his theories and equations in French to his colleagues and subordinates, what the heck would he be good for?
I'm sure Mario Beaulieu would lead the march to have Einstein removed, advising him to learn French immediately or move on to a more suitable environment, perhaps to some hick town in New Jersey.

"À talent égal ou inférieure, des Québécois!"

Now French language militants who peruse this blog will likely say that the above analogy is exaggerated and burlesque, but let me respond beforehand.
When Mario Beaulieu and his evil minion of language idiots demanded that the Caisse de dépôt, the National Bank and SNC-Lavalin remove their respective unilingual anglophone managers, did they even once stop to consider that perhaps these employees had such outstanding and valuable qualities that the language question should be set aside?
Friend or foe of this blog, you will all have to agree that this was never a consideration, because in Quebec, language trumps everything!
Accordingly, a reborn Jesus Christ, wouldn't qualify for any position of power in the Quebec Catholic Church because he had no French.

"À talent égal ou inférieure, des Québécois!"

Readers, I understand Mr. Molson's decision to cave in to language extremists, he is in the entertainment business and must deliver a product that his customers want.
If they'd rather have an inferior product in French, so be it, it costs him or society nothing.

But when the "Savard doctrine plus" is forced upon industry and tremendously talented Anglos are chased out of their jobs, it is sadly destructive.

*NSFQ =Not suitable for Quebec

Quebec's Construction Nightmare

The "Godfather"

I know we spend an inordinate amount of time discussing language on this blog, but as I pointed out recently, the French/English debate takes up so much air that legitimate debate over the real problems that this province faces are too often left unexamined.

Last week a story exploded on the French side of the media in relation to union malfeasance, it was quite a humdinger and underlined the depths to which this province's construction industry is gripped by dishonest elements.

Curiously the story made barely a ripple in the English Press and so I thought it would be useful to run down the bare bones of the story for those of us on the English side who missed it.
It's unfortunate that the English media chose to largely ignore the story, the ongoing saga of corruption is like a disease eating away at the fabric of our society and bears very close examination.

This isn't a French/English story, it is a story of good versus evil and whether we as a society have the wherewithal and the intestinal fortitude to set our house in order.

Corruption in Quebec's construction industry generally takes the form of contractors rigging tender bids by means of illegal cooperation among the players. It's a story as old as the hills.
This illegal practice remains the principle focus and obsession of Quebec's Press corps, determined to prove that the government of Premier Charest is turning a blind eye to the practice because his Liberal party is the beneficiary of illegal campaign contributions from those involved.

But these last weeks we've been exposed to another aspect of perfidy in the construction industry, this time on the side of unionized labor, a problem even more dangerous and costly than bid-rigging.

The story started with the French language television news magazine infiltrating a union meeting and  surreptitiously filming the union boss of Local 144 International, Gérard Cyr, a nasty piece of work, if ever there was one.
It was quite a show!

Mr. Cyr is the business agent of Local 144, a designation akin to calling Bill Gates a minor software engineer.
Mr. Cyr is in fact the most powerful personality in all of Quebec's construction industry, directly controlling 98% of the province's boilermakers, 96% of steel erectors, 90% of pipefitters and 93% of plumbers!
Local 144 directly controls the flow of workers to over 50% of Quebec's construction industry and employers are at its absolute mercy, to say the least.

Up until recently, when the Quebec government passed a law (Bill 33) banning the practice, the union controlled which workers and how many would be assigned to each job site, and you can imagine the abuse, considering that employers had no other choice but to do business with Mr. Cyr and his cohorts of local 144.

Even the workers are under the absolute control of the union, which exercises the power to provide work to those who tow the line or keep dissenters off the job site. 
A worker who ran afoul of the union told a reporter that he was forced to exile himself to Fort McMurray in Alberta to seek work. Link{Fr}

Now the news story started with this, a speech captured on tape of Mr. Cyr, addressing a large room of union workers, looking and sounding like a union gangster.

"I AM THE GODFATHER!!" he shouted. 

The broadcast of this speech along with an exposé of the deep down reality of Local 144 was a shocking and disturbing eye-opener that even had the Minister of Labour Lise Thériault shaking her head in disbelief.

 "After watching this video, Ms. Thériault immediately responded in an interview on the  Larocque Lapierre show.
She announced that the Commission will investigate the construction sites mentioned in the report.
"I am deeply shocked to learn that workers must pay to work," says Thériault. "The allegations are all too serious."

Ms. Thériault was particularly hurt by degrading and sexist comments uttered by Mr. Cyr. "It doesn't make sense. We're not in 1950, it's 2012. Women fought hard enough to earn their place in positions of power." Link{FR}

You can watch the entire speech and all the allegations in three stories by J.E. (in French) here;
Part One  Part Two  Part Three


Now you might be familiar with Canada's Competition Act or at least its principles.

"The purpose of this Act is to maintain and encourage competition in Canada in order to promote the efficiency and adaptability of the Canadian economy, in order to expand opportunities for Canadian participation in world markets while at the same time recognizing the role of foreign competition in Canada, in order to ensure that small and medium-sized enterprises have an equitable opportunity to participate in the Canadian economy and in order to provide consumers with competitive prices and product choices."

 The act insures that companies aren't allowed to become monopolies that gobble up all the competitors, thus controlling the entire market, enabling them to charge higher prices and offer poorer service.
This rarely happens in Canada but the situation gets more complicated where;
"a market or industry is dominated by a small number of sellers (oligopolists). Because there are few sellers, each oligopolist is likely to be aware of the actions of the others. The decisions of one firm influence, and are influenced by, the decisions of other firms. Strategic planning by oligopolists needs to take into account the likely responses of the other market participants."  Wikipedia

Many would argue that this is exactly the situation with Canada's wireless telephone industry where  three companies control close to 90% of the subscribers, leading Canada to have some of the highest wireless rates in the western world.
The federal government is aware of the problem and is trying to bring new players into the market to stimulate competition.

So what happens when similarly, one union and one union boss controls 50% of labor pool in Quebec's construction industry?
Not only are prices higher and service poorer, they are astronomically and criminally so.

The television exposé detailed the horror story rather explicitly and the picture is frightening. For the first time witnesses (mostly anonymous, out of fear) are coming forward to tell the truth about Local 144 and the Quebec construction industry.

The union shakes down employers to hire more workers than needed and forces them to pay extortionist salaries.
At one point in the construction of a pipeline between Quebec city and Montreal, some workers made  $90,000 in the three months leading up to Christmas!

Stories of kickbacks abound, where every Friday workers fortunate enough to get these jobs prepare envelopes of two or three hundred dollars in cash which are given to union collectors.

Here are some translated quotes from Le Journal de Montreal which also ran a story about Local 144

"Local 144 isn't complicated, it's like a biker gang."

"Because I'm not in the right gang, I work only four months a year."
 
"On the Ultramar pipeline those who were in Gérard's clique made $5,000 a week, those who weren't, stayed at home."
 
"On the construction sites, there's a big waste of time. Where you need one guy for the job, there are two, where you need three, there are six."


"On the laying of four inch pipes, we had to install three per day. If you laid  four, you were thrown off the job. Guys could easily lay ten per day."

"It's a small group that direct an entire province, a circle, a  family"

"They supply forty guys for a job that require twenty. It leads to an awful lot of coffee breaks"

"Everybody has envelopes and all deals revolve around them"

The union successfully negotiated a $1,000 a week travel allowance for workers working on the pipeline, even for those who lived close to the the work site!

Another interesting shakedown is the requirement that the union approve building materials, a practice specifically outlawed.
The union provides stickers that are affixed to approved products like pipes and fittings.
One employer recalled paying $12,000 for 'stickers' to add to products that he acquired outside the inner circle. Link{Fr}

Anyway you look at it , that is a criminal shakedown.

In the face of all the allegations the union stands firm, denying every allegation including the one that accuses them of organizing a devastating shutdown of Quebec's construction sites last October in protest of Bill 33. In scenes worthy of a Sopranos episode, roving bands of union thugs intimidated workers with all manner of threats and in one case actually turned off a generator providing electricity to a pump providing air to a diver working underwater! Link

“They shut us down,” said a worker sitting outside a downtown coffee shop who had planned to work on Tuesday. When asked whether he felt intimidated, the man in his 30s replied, “Let’s just say we were encouraged to walk away by several guys who weighed about 250 pounds.” Link{Fr}

As you can imagine Gerard Cyr and Local 144 have a lot to be angry at the government about, which is menacing the evil empire.

Bill 33 was the was a giant first step in bringing the industry to order, but as usual, nobody in the Press is willing to credit the government for taking action.

Of course that one single law doesn't go far enough and calls for action are starting to be heard;

"In light of all this information, the office of the Labour Minister Lise Thériault, stated: "We seek to put an end to acts of intimidation, extortion or fraud of individuals in positions of power within of an employee organization, who pervert the true and essential mission of trade unions, which is the defense of workers. "

According to Yves-Thomas Dorval of the Employers Council, "we must go further than Bill 33, one must ask about the compulsory unionism in the construction environment."  Link{Fr}

By the way, in the aftermath of the fallout over Mr. Cyr's outburst and the disturbing revelations that followed, the 69 year old union leader announced his decision to resign soon, turning over his job to the capable hands of his own son-in-law..
Plus ça change........


Is it any wonder Quebec is going broke? Perhaps Canada should ramp up the equalization payments...

*************************************************

 Here's the audio of the interview On CJAD last Thursday, where Brent Tyler, myself 

and Aaron Rand discuss Bill 101