Is the Anglo Assassin a Harbinger of Violence?

May we see your invitation please?

It's a bit ironic that I wrote what probably was my most unpopular post on Wednesday, a day that saw the greatest volume of traffic ever seen on this blog.

Perhaps it was the election but this last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, generated over 23,000 pageviews, which is at least three or four times more traffic than usual.

It is also makes it hard to keep up with the comments and if you are wondering why some "Anonymous' comments are allowed to be kept up, it is because they generated a lot of reaction and sub-comments attached, in the brief time they were up.

I cannot monitor the comments section in real time, 24/7 and so sometimes after a few hours of absence, 'Anon' comments take on a life of their own.

I know it's frustrating to have a good comment taken down, but you can imagine the mayhem that responding to Anon@12:00 PM or ANON@10:12AM would become with the amount of comments, coming through.
Yes, the screen names are silly, but they serve their purpose. I will re-iterate that I'd wish you would stick to one name, as jumping around and being whimsical really just adds to the confusion.
Also, I'd remind readers that sarcasm, doesn't translate well into print, trust me I've crashed and burned often enough.

At any rate this has been a heckuva week and much to my frustration, BLOGGER ate up the original of this post as it was ready to go.
This is the second time I'm writing it, which has sadly happened to me before, and the rebuild, I might add, are never as good as the first draft.
It is highly frustrating, but in the end you get what you pay for, so no use complaining.

We've certainly been through a lot with this election and it is unbelievable that on the day of Pauline Marois' greatest triumph, somebody tried to kill her.
Talk about a buzzkill.
It's been reported that she is badly shaken up by the attempt on her life as you might well understand, it's quite a rude awakening and I imagine she'll be looking over her shoulder every time a car backfires. (Do cars still backfire?)
The shooting overshadowed her speech where it was plain that her intensive and secret English lessons are paying off, as she actually made coherent sentences and seemed a lot more comfortable in the language of the Gods. (private lessons...no English Cegep for her!)

Our shooter, Richard Henry Bain was the garden variety nutbar, shooting at anything that came in his path. If his rifle didn't jam, we might have faced a Norwegian type tragedy.
But one senseless death is one too many, Denis Blanchette, the poor fellow who was killed when he simply went out to complete a work shift, like any Joe Six Pack and ended up in the proverbial wrong place at the wrong time.

I'm offering my personal condolences and those of this blog community to his family. There is nothing really we can say that makes any sense of the tragic affair.

You can lay the blame for this murder squarely on our Keystone Kops who failed to guard a key backdoor and allowed an idiot in underwear and a bathrobe, armed with a huge CZ assault rifle, free entrance and access to the Metropolis club where Pauline Marois was holding her post-election celebration.

The pitiful performance of Montreal's doughnut eaters who were guarding the perimeter was only topped by Madame Marois' protection detail from the Sureté du Quebec, who actually escorted her from the stage directly towards the backdoor and into the path of the shooter.
I'm not making this up.
When another cop yelled at them to withdraw, they made their way back to the stage where Marois convinced them that it was okay to continue with her speech. Again, I'm not making this up.

Right this way Madame Marois!

In political protection units around the world, this case will be the standard to measure poor planning and failure, it is likely Madame Marois would have been better off being guarded by mall cops.

The next day a police spokesman gave an interview where he told the audience that they had no indication that the shooter was dangerous, but that readers is a big, fat lie.

A man was interviewed on crime-reporter Claude Poirier's very reputable television show who said he warned both the Sureté du Quebec and the Montreal police that there would be an attack at the Metropolis.
He gave a completely detailed account of his interaction with the police and also furnished the names of the two policemen who interviewed him. He also had the business card of one of them.
It seems he had picked up the threat on the internet and informed the unenthusiastic police.
Shades of killer Luka Rocco Magnotta who was also reported to the police only to have the warning ignored as well. Link

In a purely Quebec twist the shooter may have been sent off the deep end because of a ferocious bout of Quebec red tape.
After months and months of trying to expand his hunting and fishing lodge, held up due to red tape, he had just received that morning yet one more letter from the Ministry of Natural Resources requiring Bain to spend more money on an environmental impact study before his proposal could go forward

And nobody but nobody in the mainstream press picked up on the irony of the defiant message of Anglo resistance, shouted in French; "les Anglais se réveillent!" (the anglos are awakening!)
And so our shooter seems to respect the precepts of Bill 101 and bilingualism if nothing else.

Of course the story went viral much to the chagrin of French language militants because the spin seemed to play over that statement of political persecution.

Newspapers from around the world characterized the shooting as political and outlined the PQs plan to further restrict Anglo rights and to seek independence.
In one fell swoop, the battle for French language supremacy or English language survival has been re-set as one that has become violent.

Somebody at the US State department just raised the flag on the QUEBEC FILE to a higher level and believe me when I tell you that there is very definitely such a file.

Now all our politicians from every political stripe have assured us that this is the work of a madman, a one-off that shouldn't concern us.

But I'm not so sure. Can it be a harbinger of things to come?

As Madame Marois and the PQ push their anti-English, anti-Allophone, anti-immigrant, anti-religion agenda could it provoke a violent reaction?

We've seen things escalate dangerously in the student strike, just this week we saw students using violent intimidation to interrupt classes, so to believe that we are immune from violence is perhaps a case of whistling past the graveyard.

At any rate, I'm not so sure I'd like to be one of those new language inspectors promised by all parties, hired to prowl through the West Island and downtown Montreal seeking out those felonious "Dishwasher wanted" signs.
The reception they receive may just be decidedly rough.

The question for readers to address in the comments section is whether this assassination attempt was just a terrible one-off incident or the harbinger of language violence to come.

By the way, the usual suspects are blaming the Anglo press for promoting hate against Quebec that led to the shooting incident.
Blowhard Mario Beaulieu sounds off HERE{Fr} .
Someone signing Mr. Bealieus's name left the contents of his attack on the English media in the comments section yesterday and as is my custom I've left it up.

Richard LeHir over on vigile.net, included our blog as one of those described as a hate mongering website.
Oh, well I've been called worse by better men than he! Link{Fr}

To all readers, have a good weekend!

Quebec Betrayed by Two Selfish Politicians

Looking at the final numbers it's plain to see that the Liberal's had a lot more strength than any of the pollsters gave them credit for, but that's generally always the case here in Quebec as the undecided usually vote massively Liberal come election day.
One pollster had the Liberals at just 25% support just three days before the election.

I daresay that with a sock puppet as leader of the party we'd be looking at a Liberal minority or majority.

There's no doubt that Jean Charest gambled with the future of this province by foolishly believing that he could pull another rabbit out of his hat.

What on Earth was he thinking?

Many blog pieces ago, I told you that Charest could not hold his riding, after all, he barely squeaked through the last two elections.

Yesterday's results showed Charest didn't lose by a little, it was over 3,000 votes, a sizable number.

Somewhere in his entourage somebody needed to deliver the bad news to the leader months ago, that as long as he stayed on, the party was doomed.

Instead of doing the honourable thing, resigning with dignity and turning the party over to somebody untainted by scandal, the Premier bet the house and farm and went 'all in' with a losing hand.

There would have remained over a year on the old mandate and a new leader as is always the case, would be met with enthusiasm by the public.

The ideal situation would have been for Charest to resign after Christmas and after a leadership convention which would have taken us into Spring, when the new Premier, fresh as a rose, could call an election that we now know would be eminently winnable.

Mr. Charest's decision was based on selfishness, I must sadly conclude.

Even those of us who voted Liberal had misgivings about Charest, there was just too much dirt and too much had stuck.

For me, the real undoing of the Liberal party was Tony Tomassi, forced to resign after being accused of handing off valuable daycare licenses to friends.
Up until then everything was containable.

But petty graft is something easy for the public to understand, like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
If the Liberals could stoop so low, there had to be graft higher above, or so the rationale.

By the way, word around the Charest entourage is that he will be leaving the political scene, sadly with his tail between his legs.
Don't feel too bad for him, he'll be collecting about a year's salary as an exit bonus and his100k plus federal pension kicks in starting June. Unfortunately, he'll have to wait until he turns sixty to collect another 100k plus pension from the Quebec government.

If there is another politician that deserves credit for the PQ victory, it is Prime Minister Harper who somehow forgot that he is Prime Minister of the whole country.
Sometimes he seemed to go out of his way to bait Quebecers with idiotic and divisive moves like adding the Queen back into the Canadian brand.
There was no call for the re-branding of the armed forces with the 'Royal' appellation and it was political suicide in Quebec.
Before all you Harperites say that the PM is just giving Quebec what it deserves, that's not what a Prime Minister is supposed to do, that is, punish those who didn't vote for him or his party.

I can say that for the first time in my life, has a Prime Minister acted in such a partisan and shameful manner, he seems to revel in his Quebec-bashing.

And yes, those who aspire to the top civil service jobs do need to speak French, just like you need an accounting or law degree in order to join the profession.
The naming of a unilingual anglophone to the post of the Auditor General was unpardonable, I don't care how many of you see it differently. (The Supreme Court is another matter)

Mr. Harper, Mr. Charest, from all Quebec federalists, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the betrayal.

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ELECTION REACTION- SOUND OFF

HERE'S YOU CHANCE TO SOUND OFF ON THE ELECTION IN REAL TIME! (Don't forget to refresh every few minutes!)

When Government Teaches Hate

Hate & intolerance are everywhere, but this this Toronto's reaction.

Protecting the public from pesky minorities who disturb the peace and tranquility of a conformist majority with dangerous alternate views and beliefs, is something that we expect in uncivilized countries like Egypt, Pakistan, Nigeria and Iran, where Christians, (the Jews are long gone) are routinely attacked, stoned, killed and imprisoned for 'insulting' the majority.
What can we say or how can we describe a society where an eleven year old girl with Down Syndrome can be imprisoned for the blasphemy of insulting Islam.

I'm sure every separatist who is proposing a kinder and gentler version of the Pakistani blasphemy law, will tell you that what they propose is in no way the same.
They will tell you that the Quebec law is about projecting a neutral government attitude towards religion, but like laws in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and other shit hole similar countries, there is no getting away from the fact that it is about legislating a majority view, and imposing it upon a minority.

As Henry Ford purportedly said, "Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black."

The Parti Quebecois' proposed Charter of Secularism may be a kinder and gentler version, but its intentions is the same, to make everybody adhere to the government's view of what a citizen must believe, how they may behave, and what they may look like.
The promises that the secular provision of the proposed law, the one that would ban 'ostentatious' religious regalia, would apply only to public and para-public employees is so ludicrous, that I hardly believe that the separatists believe it themselves.

Let me take you back forty-eight years ago when the United State passed the Civil Rights act of 1964.
The law was more than groundbreaking, it was perhaps the greatest piece of legislation enacted since the Magna Carta, written almost eight hundred years earlier and which for the very first time limited the power of the King of England.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 enshrined the principle of equality and provided that the government, the military, those involved in interstate trade, or any organization funded by the government would be bound by the terms that outlawed major forms of discrimination against racial, ethnic, national and religious minorities and women.

Let us review that again, the law as first written applied to the government itself. Sound familiar?

It was a hard sell at the time and faced enormous pressure by the bigots and racists, of which there were plenty at the time, but eventually its principles were embraced by all of American society, not just those parts controlled by the government.

After all, if the government couldn't pay women less than men, if they couldn't hire based on colour, race religion or gender, why would it be acceptable outside of what the government controls and how could discrimination be tolerated at General Motors but not the Commerce department?

The principles of the Civil Rights Act became the values and principles of American society and eventually became the bedrock societal principles shared by every western democracy in the world.

That is the power of a great law and a great government bound and determined to set the proper example.

Just as the Civil rights Act of 1964 acted as a catalyst for positive change the Quebec charter of Secularism will act as a catalyst of discrimination.

After all, if the Quebec government can ban the hijab, why shouldn't Provigo?

As separatist politicians and militant secularists take their cue from the government and ratchet up the anti-English, anti-immigrant and anti-religion rhetoric, it is inevitable that the intolerance practised by the government will spread throughout Quebec society in general and very sadly we are already seeing those seeds of hate sprouting across the province.

Many posts ago I told about a silverhaired senior citizen haranguing a young Muslim cashier in a Canadian Tire store over the fact that she was wearing a hijab, according to the lecturer, a symbol of enslavement and subjugation.
All this in the checkout line in Canadian Tire!

A one-off?  Hardly.

As the rhetoric of intolerance is ratcheted up by the PQ and language and secular militants, so too is the societal effect.

Speak French, this is Quebec!
Don't wear a Hijab, this is Quebec!
Don't wear a turban in public, this is Quebec!
Don't' you dare wear traditional dress in public, this is Quebec!

Here is an excerpt from a story about the subject that might interest you.

But the real story is a comment written in French under the story, read both;

"Where are Quebec’s progressives? Where are they when Marois suggests we completely overhaul our democracy to prevent people who don't speak the majority language from running for office? Where are they when Marois argues in favor of secularism for all — except those who practice the majority religion? Where is the progressive left when Saguenay mayor Jean Tremblay says:
"It's not the [secular] charter in and out of itself. It's having someone whose name I can't even pronounce come from Algeria, who doesn't understand our culture at all, but she's going to make the rules. And I know how soft Quebecers are — they'll all give in to her."
What is left when Marois backpedals because of pressure from some aboriginal rights groups, and somehow, remarkably, manages to be even more offensive, by singling out only newcomers to Quebec for her repressive, exclusionary legislation?
Imagine if Dalton McGuinty tried to pass a law saying only people proficient in English can run for office. Or worse, what if Harper tried to do the same? People would be losing their minds.
Didn't Jean Chrétien correctly state (in the context of the gay marriage debate), "The majority should never determine the rights of the minority"? The PQ completely ignores that fundamental ethical principle. She is promoting a Quebec where majority (mob) rules.
Marois and her party are unique political animals in Canada; parasitic, fear mongering, opportunistic chameleons whose favorite political weapon is inflaming the most base, carnal and grotesque instincts of the populace. Theirs is the politics of divine right, of L'Appel de la Race — the politics of who you are, not the more aspirational politics of where you want to go"

and now a translation of a comment left by reader Joanne Bonnici in French under the story.

As my first language is French, and many of my friends are "Quebecois de souche," I understand and feel as well as them, the love and pride for this beautiful language and cultural heritage. Moreover, I was delighted to produce several movies and music CDs  to present to my friends abroad. I thought the Quebecois culture and arts had greatly been refined in recent years and I'd feel great joy  bragging about my surroundings internationally. What made me even more proud of our society, was the cultural diversity that we know to Montreal, we had evolved to preserve the French culture while living in harmony with people of all kinds of origins. I was so in love with my city of Montreal that I convinced friends to immigrate. I told them that the people here were friendly, open and warm. Upon arrival here, I invited these friends to celebrate the national holiday. I was surprised to see that when they spoke a few words in English, they were immediately greeted with comments like: "We are here in Quebec, French is spoken!" My friends are people with excellent French skills, they have completed their doctorate in Paris. They also speak Spanish and English. So I do not understand where this hostile comment came from, it is not an offense to speak more than one language.

You may think that this is an exceptional situation. Unfortunately not. As I mentioned at the beginning, most of my friends are native French-speakers, but I also have many friends from different cultural backgrounds. Unfortunately, I witnessed such an attitude many times. I will always remember the incident  concerning a friend from Australia who had decided to come and stay in Quebec. We were at a show and she told us something in her native language. A stranger turned and yelled at us  like we were rotten fish, because she spoke English. The reason she came to Quebec was to learn French because she had married a Parisian. After a few such incidents, she left this country, finding people here rather hostile.

When I lived in Japan, my friend from Scotland thought to come to Quebec to improve his French, once she completed the acquisition of Japanese. I was encouraged. When she spoke to other Scottish friends, they advised her against the idea,  explaining that Quebecers were hostile to the natives of the English language. I had to admit that this problem exists unfortunately.The truth is that I really thought the Quebec mentality had changed. I thought cases like those I just mentioned were the exception. When I came back here after my many years abroad, I was shocked to find that the problem had not disappeared, it had transformed, ... blown up I expect,  over those dear 'reasonable accommodations." Link

Here is a video taken this weekend of a couple being accosted in the street for doing nothing else but speaking English.
Two francophones acting as a Quebec's version of the Iranian Basiji correct a couple for having the audacity of speaking English in the street.

It is chilling and it is here.

Welcome to Quebekistan.

I've never encouraged anyone to vote before, but will make an exception.
Vote for the Liberals or CAQ, even if you are in a lost cause riding, it's important to keep the popular vote up.

Did you know that if every anglo and ethnic voted, instead of the 55% level as in the last election, the PQ could not win.
Do your part!

ATTENTION READERS!! **********************************************************************************

I will be opening a special post tonight under which you can make comments in real time as the election progresses.

I know this is not a perfect chat room, you'll have to refresh, but it will give our community a place to interact just the same.

I will be moderating and jumping in from time to time. Starts  8:00 PM

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

How to Ruin a Long Weekend

Will Pauline be smiling on Tuesday?

For many of us, it will be hard to enjoy this long weekend as we face down with grim acceptance the election coming up on Tuesday.

Usually Labour Day signifies the end of summer and perhaps it is prescient and symbolic that the glory days of summer are ending, morphing into Fall and onto the dreary days of Winter.

It's always sad when the summer ends, it's even sadder when political uncertainty becomes a certainty.

I don't know what a prisoner feels as he shuffles off to the gallows, but it must be emotions like these.
The palpable sense of doom, a stomach wrenching pit that is shared by most of us, making us feel as if we are that infernal 'Dead man walking.'

I shudder to think what five years of Pauline Marois will bring. Think of the idiots she brings along, like Drainville and Lisée, two fools who couldn't run a deppaneur.

Imagine these idiots trifling with your lives, it's enough to make one vomit.

The sad truth of the matter is that all the corruption in the world cannot hold a match to the financial disaster that awaits us as the unions, the students, and government workers run riot as Pauline empties the public purse to satisfy her constituency of takers.

One thing an election campaign provides, is a window where we can look in and see how extraordinarily stupid our politicians are, operating without the support of the real people who operate the government, the deputy ministers who wave their political bosses off one bonehead move from another.
The opposition doesn't even benefit from this sage advice and so, are ever more so prone to uttering political non sequiturs as demonstrated by Pauline, who delivered one stupidity after another.

And so it is always dangerous when politicians veer off from the neatly prepared text that their handlers work so diligently to prepare and ad lib their own thoughts, which more often than not,  shows them to be even more dimwitted than we thought.

Even Jean Charest, who I personally know to be highly intelligent with a fearsome memory is not immune to fits of fancy.

Every time a major politician speaks, there is a handler standing in the back, crossing his or her fingers that the candidate not speak their mind.

Mr Charest's desperate attempt to shore up support by proposing to apply Bill 101 to federal institutions was sadly transparent and Francois Legault has his moments of rank stupidity as well, just a few days ago, calling on doctors who leave the province to reimburse the government for the education that Quebecers paid for.
A wonderful idea if the government actually offered each of these doctors a job and I'm not talking about a job in Ungava Bay.
Most doctors leave BECAUSE THEY CANNOT GET A JOB!
It is sad that someone running for the top job does not know this.

And so we are faced with how to vote and for those off the island, voting for the CAQ may mean the difference between a PQ seat or CAQ seat.
On the island it doesn't make a difference as the Liberal puppets will be re-elected no matter what.

If federalist forces realize that the Liberal's goose is cooked, then a switch to the CAQ is merited, it may be the only strategy left.

Let us run down Tuesday's possibilities; 

SCENARIO #1 - A PQ MAJORITY
No doubt, the worst case scenario for us, but one where the Peekists will find in short order that while language issues got them elected, economic issues will be their undoing.
Once they get their oats off passing restrictive language legislation, the true disaster of Quebec's financial situation will bear down.
The elephant in the room is not only the debt, but the deficit.
While every political party based their budgetary program on the prediction that Quebec's economy would grow at about 2.5%, it isn't happening.
This year's predicted deficit of under two billion is close to being reached, this just four months into the year, as economic growth is actually in negative territory, something nobody will admit.
This means an additional two to three billion added to the deficit and if the PQ follows through with its election promises, another one or two billion would be added, bringing the total up to around six or seven billion, this year.

Like every incoming government before them, Pauline will take one look at the books and renege on the financial goodies package, claiming quite rightly that the Charest government lied about the finances and that the government cannot afford new spending.

As she seeks confrontation with Harper in the hope of riling up Quebecers and push them towards sovereignty, she will find  the PM to be polite, but non-committal and as the old saying goes, it takes two to tango.

The real test will come in 2013 when the Equaliztion program is up for renegotiation. If the feds scrap the program it would mean another five or six billion dollar loss to the budget, meaning that Quebec may very well be faced with running a ten billion deficit and no Pauline, even taxing the rich people at 100% of their income won't fill that gap.

How Montreal's real estate market will react remains to be seen, but over the near term I can see the condo market collapsing and I wouldn't want to be in the shoes of the developers bringing all those new buildings to market over the next two years.
If the PQ is elected your west island home will be worth 25% less on Wednesday.

It'll be worse than all this, but more another time.


SCENARIO #2 - A PQ MINORITY
Here things get interesting.
A PQ minority could easily be defeated by a CAQ /Liberal coalition, a more likely scenario than the CAQ supporting the PQ for very long. Under the CAQ/Liberal coalition, Legault would become the PM as he'd likely be the leader of the party that has the most seats between the two, notwithstanding the fact that Jean Charest may well be defeated in his own riding.

A CAQ/Liberal coalition would probably string the PQ government along for a few months before pulling the plug over a budget, so as to be seen as trying to work with the government and not to appear arrogantly setting aside a PQ government chosen by the people.
Defeating the government would not result in a new election as long as the coalition advises the Lieutenant-Governor that there is a coalition that is prepared to form a government and able to face the National Assembly.

SCENARIO #3 - A CAQ MINORITY
A CAQ minority government would be akin to a CAQ majority government with the Liberals having no other choice but to support the government at all costs and for many years.
This is the position that Michael Ignatieff and the federal Liberals found themselves in, before the last federal election, which they foolishly triggered themselves.
The lessons of that election and the utter decimation of the Liberals will be a sharp reminder to Charest or his successor not to trifle with elections when you are on a downward spiral.

If things pan out as predicted in the polls, the Liberals will remain with a dozen or so seats, half of them English/Allo.
If that happens, it would be natural that they defect to the CAQ, or form a splinter Anglo/Allo rights party, thus finishing off the Liberal party once and for all, something that is needed if we want to avoid electing a separatist government with 30% of the vote.

SCENARIO #4 - A LIBERAL MINORITY
The most unlikely of all the possibilities but one that may very well happen.
If so, The Liberals would need to seek a solid partnership with the CAQ in order to preserve any semblance of sustainability.
In the end, this government can't last that long, the ambitious CAQ has nowhere to go but up.


By the way, if the PQ wins a majority government it will certainly be because of the split federalist vote, but a special honourable mention must go to Prime Minister Harper who went out of his way these last few years to alienate Quebec and punish Mr. Charest.

There are many Quebecois soft nationalists who feel abandoned and pushed around  by Ottawa, discarded by Mr. Harper and it isn't just about money.
They may not want a referendum, but they do want someone to defend Quebec, something neither the Bloc or the Ndp were and are able to do.

If this view is shared by just 3-5 % of Quebec voters, it may be enough to give the PQ the victory.

Here's a ditty by Bowser and Blue, which has incorporated a couple of this blog's artwork.

I'm very proud; Please enjoy;

thanks to 'The Cat' for pointing the link out!