Why Sovereigntists Should Consider Partition

In many respects I have a great deal of sympathy for sovereigntists who have taken it on the chin and remained democrats throughout the painful referendum process, a thirty year ordeal that can only be described as devastating to those who passionately believe in creating an independent state.

So close and yet so far.

There seems to be something inherently unfair about a winner take all process that perpetually leaves almost one-third to almost half the population out in the cold, politically speaking, on such an important issue.

It's not something we consider, those of us who are federalists and who have won both referendums and in almost all likelihood would win any referendum in the foreseeable future.

But sometimes winning is losing, especially when the victory resolves nothing. The NO victories of the last two referendums left Quebec in eternal limbo and where no full and final reckoning seems to be possible.

While sovereigntists accepted defeat graciously, they didn't accept giving up their dream or abandoning their efforts to militate for sovereignty and so we survive these referendums, committed federalists and committed sovereigntists, in a perpetual state of angst.

As an Anglo, you can well understand that I am not a sovereigntist, but I have no quarrel with those who want Quebec to secede from Canada, they are not Nazis, they are not xenophobes and they aren't all that hateful, believe me.
Not to say that there aren't idiots and extremists among them, as there is in our own community. 

Most Canadians outside Quebec, as well many Anglos within, cannot truck sovereigntists on any level and take an aggressive and hostile attitude towards anyone who has the impertinence and the audacity to militate in favour of a new country.

But there is another reality which I have lived (and many of you) where federalists and sovereigntists live and work side by side, respecting each other's politics and sometimes, more often than you think, maintaining friendships across what one would think is an insurmountable political and philosophical divide.

Years ago I went on my first fishing trip, invited by a friend I had made while conducting business over the years, in the Lac-Saint-Jean region.
Jean-Pierre, is a couple years older than I, a calm, deeply spiritual gentleman who just happened to be a passionate sovereigntist.
On the trip we got around to talking politics where he explained that he didn't hate Canada or Anglophones, he just wanted his own country where he could enjoy a francophone Quebecois brand of culture without the imposition of anglophone politics, values and culture.
He used the analogy of a teen growing up and moving out of his parents' home, a case of personal growth, not a rejection of family.

I came to realize two things on that trip, the first, that I hated fishing and would never go again, and the second, that sovereigntist had a valid and legitimate dream, and although it is one that I didn't share, it was one that I could never again reject as illegitimate.

But for sovereigntists, holding onto this dream is no longer realistic, and Quebec independence is fading quickly from the realm of possibility.

Most watershed moments in history are hard to appreciate at the time. 
Sometimes the impact of historical events can only be properly recognized at an indefinable point in the future, a time where we can look back and clearly see how an event marked or changed the course of history.
Such an event was the 1995 referendum which the sovereignty side lost by a whisker. The disappointed losers made brave declarations that the momentum towards sovereignty would be maintained, ultimately leading to victory, but looking back, it is clear that on the night of the referendum in 1995, the Quebec sovereignty movement had 'jumped the shark.'

Perhaps the diehards should consider what the ex-PQ Premier of Quebec, Lucien Bouchard said about the issue of sovereignty in a newspaper interview that was quite revealing;

"Pauline Marois, needs to say no to the concept of a popular initiative referendum on sovereignty, because Quebecers do not want it. They are not there," said Bouchard.
Especially because a third defeat would be inevitable. 
Pay careful attention to what follows;
After the referendum defeat of 1995, Ottawa imposed the Clarity Act and Lucien Bouchard thought he could get Quebecers to repudiate the law by asking them to hold a referendum on the subject. Well, guess what! It turned out that Quebecers were not opposed to the Clarity Act! 
"We would have lost the referendum, and it would have been in fact, a public endorsement of the Clarity Act!" said the  the former Prime Minister, yesterday, still disappointed with this disarming observation.
Imagine a referendum today imposed by a minority of 'caribou!' A third defeat would have dramatic and lasting consequences. Better not even to think about ..."  Link{Fr}

While aging sovereigntists rage on in the pages of vigile.net, demanding a referendum that they will no doubt lose, the more practicable nationalists seek to develop a de facto autonomous province that barely operates within the confines of the Canadian federation.
And so, for real sovereigntists and federalists, the status quo is not a solution, each remain unhappy with a province that is neither here nor there.

So perhaps it time for sovereigntists to consider the unthinkable, the partition of Quebec in a process somewhat like that which took apart Czechoslavakia, a process that concentrated on creating winners and not losers.

Before we do that,  let us consider another aspect to the debate, that is the widening chasm to what Montreal is and always was, and what sovereigntist wish it to be.

The sovereigntist dream of an independent Quebec is based on the notion of a French-speaking country that has a homogeneous culture based on a narrowly defined set of ideals that are as foreign to Montreal as hijabs in Sept-Iles.

Montreal has always been a bilingual and ethnically diverse city, nothing has really changed, yet  the sovereigntist fantasy remains that Montreal was once an all French city and can return to something it never was and therein lies the rub.
It is like a parent deciding that their child is not really gay and can be returned to the fold of heterosexuality through discipline, re-education, repression and brute force.

Good luck with that.

The sovereigntists should well consider letting go of Montreal. For them, it is a lost cause, not only does its soul swim in an opposite direction to what sovereigntists want Quebec to be, its voting bloc remains the last stumbling block holding back sovereigntists from achieving their goal.

Give up Montreal and sovereignty is a reality for the rest of Quebec, not in thirty years or 50 years or a hundred, but now.

A sovereignty referendum that included leaving Montreal out, allowing it to become a Canadian city-province would be approved by a majority of Quebecers because Anglos and ethnics would vote in favour of such an arrangement by a wide margin.

Sovereignty based on a such a wide consensus would likely be successful. This type of arrangement would also likely be very acceptable to Canada.
If such a friendly divorce could be adopted, a free trade agreement would likely work, where the free flow of people and goods and services between Canada (the province of Montreal) and the country of Quebec would be realistic.

For sovereigntists today, there is a real question to face and a realistic and honest assessment to be made.
With the prospects of achieving a winner-take-all referendum unlikely, is it better to wait for an eternity for a miracle or is it better to put some water in the wine and accept less now.

The reality is that Quebec can become a country within a year or two if separatists are willing to give up Montreal.

The question for them to consider is whether settling for three-quarters of a loaf is preferable to having none and is holding out for a miracle really in their best interest.

French versus English Volume 65

OQLF targets American companies

Radicals propose another laughable boycott.. Good Luck!!

A couple of months ago I told you that a lawsuit was brewing in regards to the OQLF demand that companies sporting English names be required to add a French descriptor.
As you all must know by now, that lawsuit has been  deposited with six very large retailers (Costco, Best Buy, Gap, Guess, Old Navy and Wal-Mart) banding together to defend their right to use their trademark to identify their business in the marketplace.  Link

When I first saw the list of stores, I was actually disappointed at how few decided to fight, but after closer consideration, a different picture emerged.

My ennui was caused by the absence of Canada's biggest powerhouse retailer "Canadian Tire" from among the group taking on the OQLF in court.

Why?
Because of any firm that has a chance to win its case in court, it is Canadian Tire, a Canadian company that has operated successfully across Quebec for over seventy-five years.
Unlike the upstarts suing the OQLF, it would be almost impossible to rule against a company that has been so firmly established in Quebec for so long and in fact even if the court ruled in favour of the OQLF in law, the principle of an acquired right would apply as surely as in the case where your neighbour asks you to move your thirty-year old fence because it encroaches a few feet on his land.
Ain't going to happen, ask any lawyer.

And so, if Canadian Tire was on the list, the case would be a slam dunk and that readers is exactly the point.

It appears that the OQLF has targeted American companies alone, perhaps making the decision that to take on Canadian icons would be suicidal.

Yup, it isn't a coincidence that there isn't one Canadian retailer on the list, no Brick, Canadian Tire, Roots, Smart Set, Scores ,Winners, Homesense, etc, etc.

Hmmm... I'm sure that when the U.S State Department gets wind that American companies are being singled-out, they will not be pleased. They clearly can intervene if they so choose to.
If you think the American government is unaware or uninterested as to what is going on here, I can assure that is not the case and this I speak of with direct personal knowledge.

Clearly the OQLF is picking its fight with American companies because in their estimation, they have less public support and more importantly, less judicial support, especially in the Supreme Court.

Now French language militants have been whinging for years that the Supreme Court has 'butchered' Bill 101, ruling unconstitutional, clause after clause, but it really isn't true.

In almost all cases, all the Supreme Court did was to confirm 'unfavourable' decisions that were decided in lower courts in Quebec and finally in the highest court in Quebec, the Court of Appeal.

If the six litigants win their case in the highest Court in Quebec and the OQLF decides to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, before accepting to hear the case, the Supremos should consider saying 'No Thanks" leaving the Quebec government and militants with an unfavourable decision 'made exclusively in Quebec.'
What will the language militants say then?
Actually they have said it already, that is that the Quebec Court of Appeal is a federalist bastion, where separatists can never get a fair shake.
Boohoo!.......

Now readers, here is an interesting case study in the stupidities of descriptors;

Does the pictogram above representing APPLE need a descriptor?
It is not as stupid as it sounds.
Clearly the trademark represents an English word, nobody could pretend otherwise.
Maybe Apple will start a trend?
Can anybody guess the name of one Canadian retailer who may opt for the Apple solution if and when it is forced to adopt a French descriptor?

  

Charbonneau commision follies

Most of us don't have the time nor the inclination to devote hours and hours to watch the daily goings on at the Charbonneau commission and so we depend on summaries and commentaries offered by analysts in the media, whose summations and conclusions are usually pretty good....but not always.

Having been involved in the fundraising process, the revelations about illegal campaign contributions didn't surprise me much, but one part of Mr. Zambito's testimony did come as quite a surprise and shock.

It wasn't the fact that he claimed that he made a $30,000 cash contribution to the Liberal Party of
Quebec, what shocks me is how the payment was made.

Mr. Zambito claimed that he made the payoff directly to Pierre Bibeau, a Liberal party fundraiser and at the time, husband of Nathalie Normandeau, a member of Jean Charest's cabinet. Mr. Zambito made the alleged delivery of his 'brown envelope' in Mr. Bibeau's office in  the Loto-Quebec building in downtown Montreal, where Mr. Bibeau worked as a VP for the provincial lottery corporation.

Whaaat????
This is where my eyebrows were raised.

Only an idiot or an arrogant bastard would allow a transaction like that to take place at his office, especially at the Loto-Quebec building in downtown Montreal, where visitors are logged in and names recorded. If Zambito did in fact visit Bibeau's office, it is all in the record. I've visited the offices of Loto-Quebec and can confirm that you can't get in without an appointment. Visitors are issued a badge and in some cases escorted up the elevator.

What a fool!
Now everybody who I know in the fundraising business, understands that these types of meetings should never take place in your home or office.  
NEVER!!! NEVER!!
 
Why, because people in your office or at home are witnesses, they know you and probably who you are meeting.
Why on Earth put your employees or family in a position where they may have to confirm that a meeting took place to investigators?

In fact Mr. Zambito explained that all his other 'transactions' took place in public, as in fast food restaurants. This is how it is supposed to be.

Now after the revelation about the alleged meeting at the Loto-Quebec between Zambito and Bibeau, a panel on television were discussing the situation.
Quebec's media wunderkind, Mathieu Bock-Côté commented that it didn't seem too bright an idea to have meetings in public places like fast food restaurants, where money was to be exchanged and further commented that those criminals who did so, were stupid.

Readers, only an idiot comments on things he knows nothing about and believe me on this subject Mr. Côté is about as conversant as Judge Charbonneau, the head of the inquiry and another woefully uninformed, when it comes to these things.
I seriously doubt if either of them ever saw a stack of $10,000 in cash.

So let me help Mr. Côté understand and perhaps readers will appreciate a lesson in what I would call 'Bagman 101.'

Mr Côté couldn't be more wrong, a fast food restaurant is a perfect spot for an exchange of the infamous 'brown envelope'

It is called hiding in plain view.
The two parties involved in the transaction meet at a busy McDonalds at lunchtime where the place is full of hungry people each concentrating on their Big Macs, oblivious to who is seated beside them.
Both parties check out the restaurant for the fluke chance that someone there knows them, but the restaurant is usually chosen for its off the beaten track location.

The giver and the receiver sit down and consume a meal like any two colleagues out for a fast lunch.
The 'giver' has the brown envelope hidden between the pages of a Journal de Montreal which he places on the table and which he forgets when he leaves first. The 'receiver' leaves several minutes later, carefully scooping up the newspaper.
There is never any need to count money, the giver and the receiver both have a vested interest in making the transaction work.
The parties can choose a different restaurant each time, insuring that family, friends, employees and co-workers are ignorant of what transpired.
My God, Mr. Bock-Côté , don't you ever watch spy shows!

Now as I remember there were times when lengthy discussions had to take place, not necessarily transfers of money and in these cases, a quiet yet discreet location was required.
Nothing beats a Chinese restaurant in the afternoon, well after the lunch hour rush and well before the dinnertime crowd arrives. Chinatown in any major or medium-sized Canadian city is ideal and whether it is on Spadina, Sumerset or la Gauchetière, it is always pretty much the same.

The restaurant is usually deserted and so it's easy to secure a quiet table in an inauspicious back corner. The server, who is probably the only waiter covering the moribund afternoon shift, is usually an uninterested middle-aged Chinese who is more interested in the poker game going on in the kitchen than fussing over you.
It is easy to have an hour long meeting, completely private.

As a now deceased senator and mentor of mine explained to me, getting identified by the staff in a Chinese restaurant is almost impossible,
"To the Chinese, we white people all look alike" and on top of it, he continued,
"A Cop could show a Chinese waiter a picture of his own mother and he would deny knowing her nine times out of ten"

Ha! Ha! Ha!

Pay in cash, leave a decent tip, not too big or small to call attention and you are good to go.

Now how do politicians, who are recognizable have clandestine meetings (and yes they do.)

Hotel rooms, where a third party rents the room and the politicians meet in private.
Remember the story of Brian Mulroney meeting lobbyist Karl Heinz Schreiber in a hotel room in Mirabel?
Textbook.. Link

Pay attention and learn something, Mr. Mathieu Bock-Côté!

7 out of 10 PQ cabinet ministers send their children to private school

Reaction to Quebec education minister Marie Malavoy's attack on private schools was swift and furious, eliciting a firestorm of criticism in the press. In an altogether familiar refrain Premier Marois was forced once again to correct a minister publicly telling reporters that the government has no intention of cutting subsidies to private schools that require students to take entrance exams. Link{Fr}
Reporters couldn't resist and launched an investigation as to how many ministers in Pauline's cabinet with school age children, send them to private school;

"By sending his children to private school, the Minister of Higher Education, Pierre Duchesne, contradicts the principles defended publicly by the government of Pauline Marois.

During the election campaign Marois said this;

"I believe that the Minister of Health has the duty to be exemplary. As for me, a Minister of Education has the duty to be exemplary (and should) send their children to public school, "Pauline Marois said during the election campaign in August.

She was nastily referring to the portly ADQ candidate, Dr. Gaeten Barrete, whose girth, in her opinion, disqualified him for the position of Health minister.  Link

However, two of Pierre Duchesne's three children go to private school and the children of the Minister of Education, Marie Malavoy, also spent several years in a private school.

During the election campaign, Marois also attacked  François Legault for having sent his children to private school.

Oh the hypocrisy!

PQ would apply French-language laws to daycares

"Immigrants to Quebec who want to send their children to daycare will soon have to look into finding a French-language centre, the government said Wednesday, outlining the latest plank in its plan to overhaul the province's language laws.
The measure will be part of legislation to be tabled this fall that is aimed at toughening Bill 101, formally known as the French Language Charter, Families Minister Nicole Léger said.

"Bill 101 is going to be changed," Léger said in an interview. "I will have plenty of support as family minister to make sure it also extends to daycares."

Quebec has various types of child-care centres and it is not immediately clear whether the new legislation would apply to all of them — if the bill even passed in the legislature, where the Parti Québécois government has a minority. But it appears that the new rules would at least apply to children up to age five who attend publicly run or subsidized daycares and early-childhood centres."  LRead the rest of the story

Lost in all this is a conclusion that nobody in the mainstream media picked up.

Had the PQ intended to apply the Bill 101 to cegeps, it would have been included in this proposal and so it seems that idea is off the table.

Radio-Canada too Quebec-centric

"A long-standing complaint concerning Quebec navel-gazing by the CBC’s French-language news service has been revived as the national broadcast regulator considers Radio-Canada’s licence renewal. Sen. Pierre de Bane, a former Liberal cabinet minister under prime minister Pierre Trudeau, commissioned an exhaustive research study that suggests Quebec television viewers may be getting an “unrepresentative image of the Canadian reality.”
A scientifically vigorous sample of 2010 newscasts on Le Telejournal, taken by a Carleton University researcher, found that 42% of the coverage focused on Quebec, a third dealt with international news and just 20% covered Canadian “national” news.
Regional stories focusing on the other 11 provinces and territories comprised less than six per cent of Le Telejournal’s coverage over a month-long period.
By contrast, CBC’s The National focused 37% of its newscast on Canadian national news, 36% on international events and the remaining 27% on the provinces and territories." Read the rest of the story

Quebec continues to decline

Here is a chart prepared by DAVID, at republique de bananes, reflecting a sad decline in Quebec's relative weight in Canada. Read the original story in French

The red line is the demographic proportion of Quebec's population in Canada and the blue line, Quebec's portion of the Gross Domestic Product.

etc. etc.

David Hague: Time for some Anglo push-back in Quebec (good read)

Montreal engineer first to admit he took kickbacks

After furious French lobbying, CRTC blocks Bell bid to take over Astral

Quebec companies most heavily taxed

Budget cuts hurting bilingualism 

Canadian flag rally set for Quebec city


Attention readers:

I would have liked to offer a longer post for this weekend, however I was preoccupied and so cut things short.
On Thursday morning my son and daughter-in-law presented us with a little baby granddaughter and as you can imagine, our family is as excited as can be.

Since my son and his family are expats, we are hopping in the car to visit the newest addition to our family and so, I beg readers indulgence if posting  is disrupted over the beginning of next week.

Have a very good weekend, I'll know I will!!

Marois Embarrasses Canada Abroad

You'd think that with her government reeling after just a few short weeks in power, Pauline Marois would be hard at work behind her desk in Quebec, trying to figure out how to get things back on track, this while minister after minster continues to make a mockery of the concept of competence.

But to Pauline, driving around Paris in a fancy limousine, decorated with a little Quebec flag flapping about in the wind and being received by the President of France with all the trappings of a head of state, is her definition of success, a personal dream come true.

Notwithstanding, it is a fantasy, no different than Joe Sixpack going to fantasy baseball camp, donning the uniform of his favourite baseball team and pretending for just a few days that he is, what clearly he is not, a big leaguer.

Perhaps one should pardon her enthusiasm, like a trip to fantasy baseball camp it is usually a once in a lifetime affair and the way things are going, it is likely that this was her one golden opportunity, certainly not something to be passed up.
After this, there is no where else to to go, nowhere else to visit where she will be received as a head of state with all the related pomp and circumstance.

And so it was now or never for Pauline, an opportunity to trash talk Canada internationally and even though the speech was an embarrassment for all professional diplomats, for Pauline and her supporters at home, it was supremely delicious and like hitting a home run off a forty year-old pot-bellied accountant at fantasy camp, she can pretend it mattered.
 
For those who are unaware, and I assume it is most of you (the story was just that important) Pauline gave a speech in France where she took pot shots at Canada's foreign policy;

"Pauline Marois continued her first official visit to France Tuesday as Quebec premier, criticizing the direction Canada’s diplomacy has taken under the Harper government....
...The present foreign policy of Canada does not correspond to our values or our interests,” Marois said, citing differences between Quebec and Canada on climate change....." Link

 Once again, YGRECK, Quebec's Canada's most talented political cartoonist, has hit the nail on the head with a satirical, biting and so on the point cartoon, mocking Pauline and French president François Hollande;

Marois meets Hollande... "We've got so much in common.

So good for Pauline!
She has crossed the number two and number three items off her bucket list, and considering that with zero likelihood that her number one goal, that of being president of an independent Quebec can ever be achieved, she has done pretty well, on a personal level, at least.

As for the rest of  Quebecers, I can't say we are doing so well and so it is hard to match Pauline's enthusiasm.
Back at home, far away from Pauline's fantasy world, Quebecers have been rocked by more devastating testimony at the Charbonneau inquiry, which if the allegations are to be believed, confirms that ;

• The PQ, the ADQ,  as well as the Liberaals all took illegal campaign contributions.
• The mayor of the provinces second largest city Laval, Gilles Vaillancourt was getting a two and a half percent kickback on construction projects within his city
• Another half a dozen towns were named as corrupt, including Mascouche, Boisbriand and St. Jerome.
• An investigator from the DGE (the office that is in charge of enforcing campaign financing laws) advised Lino Zambito to rewrite his deposition because he was implicating himself in election financing fraud. Link
• That almost all the consulting-engineering firms, charged with the responsibility to monitor construction projects on behalf of the government, were they themselves corrupt and served as the go-between between construction companies and the political parties who were being funneled illegal contributions..

All this in a couple of days of testimony!

If we are to believe Mr, Zambito, just about  every level of Quebec society that deals with public finances is  corrupt and almost all Quebecers, regardless of political stripe are convinced this to be true.
Who can blame us, we've been subject to the most distressing stories of public corruption for over three years.

The only saving grace for the Liberal party is that everyone else is being tarred with the same dirty brush, but it is cold comfort to taxpayers who now understand the depth of the betrayal..

As Pauline gallivants around Europe on her Cinderella trip, she is in for a rude awakening.
Her clock is about to strike twelve and she is about to turn back into the sad sack she was before she left.

The Press is waiting for her and like sharks smelling blood in the water, they are about to take a serious bite out of her.

On Friday readers, I will be telling you a few things about the corruption inquiry that haven't been mentioned in the press and I promise it will be interesting...

Marie Malavoy is Quebec's Worst Nightmare

"I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog too...ha ha ha!"

There's nothing more dangerous than entrusting  political power to the dogmatically driven, those special ideologues who believes with the conviction of a born again preacher that theirs is the only true and righteous path to salvation. 

In keeping with the fledgling Marois government's policy of leaping before looking, education minister Marie Malavoy decided to propose sweeping changes to the education system, without as much as a  how-do-dee to those in the education ministry and without  the slightest consideration for what parents want.

You'd think that after the disastrous spectacle of Finance Minister Nicolas Marceau's political cha-cha-cha (one step forward, two steps back) wherein he jumped the gun by introducing an ill-conceived plan to eliminate the Health tax, only to completely backtrack, Pauline would instruct her ministers to cool it until they better understood the consequences of the proposed policy.

But improvisation seems to suit Marois and it seems that no such instruction has been given to ministers, including Malavoy who will most likely suffer the same fate as the finance minister, when the public roars its disapproval.

Already howls of resistance are being raised and this on the francophone side where Malavoy is trying to put a sovereigntist and anti-English bent in the education of francophone children, despite overwhelming parental support for the wider teaching of English.

And so Madame Malavoy is rushing to restrict English in the early grades and is set to re-examine (and likely reverse) the not-yet implemented plan to give grade six students a half year taught exclusively in English as well as implementing other measures meant to indoctrinate and politicize students towards the PQ way of thinking.

Parents are not at all amused and the media is giving her a thorough and ferocious lashing, concluding quite rightly that Malavoy is setting the education department to a partisan separatist agenda.

This cartoon by the talented political cartoonist YGRECK says it all;

"Repeat after me : We Salute you Pauline"          Thanks to R.S. for the link.

Now if there is any doubt we are witnessing the imposition of a separatist school agenda, Malavoy was quite blunt in setting us straight. She didn't even mince words or try to soft peddle the notion, telling reporters that the curriculum should be modified to expose children to the ''national question' and that schools should be emphasizing Quebec history more.

The subject of broaching the 'national question' in class evoked quite a reaction in the press, so much so that the question of the new emphasis on Quebec history was largely overshadowed.

When I saw our good friend Gilles Proulx railing on television, the very next day, that students know nothing of Quebec history, I realized exactly what Madame Malavoy's intentions were in bringing history to the forefront.

Madame Malavoy and Mr. Proulx remain disappointed that students do not suffer from the victimization syndrome that characterizes old time separatists, who look at history as one defeat after another and  one humiliation after another.

That is what they want to teach, the idea of Quebecers as the oppressed victims of the English.

According to their calculations students aren't sufficiently averse to the evils of the English and need a dose of slanted history that depicts francophones suffering at the hands of the evil colonialists including the Plains of Abraham, Lord Durham, General Amhearst, Meech Lake, the night of the long knives, persecution, domination, assimilation, etc. etc.
That is the plan...

But when I say Malavoy is Quebec's worst nightmare it is not because of her sovereignty pipe dreams, it is her desire to impose her dangerous bankrupt ultra left-wing wing agenda.

The shuddering policy proposal that Malavoy hopes to impose is the dumbing down of the private school system where she wants to do what that the government has done on the public system, that is to transform a decently functioning education system into something mediocre and dysfunctional.

The great reform that Quebec implemented years ago transformed the education system into a touchy-feely exercise that emphasised participation, empathy and non-competition.

Grades were replaced by cycles and report cards no longer 'judged' students harshly, so as not to undermine their egos, much to the consternation of parents who could no longer follow the progress of their children.

"The way the subjects in the program are taught is designed to enable your child to master them, and also to acquire, and then develop, certain competencies:

• Intellectual Competencies
• Personal and Social Competencies
• Competencies Related to Working Methods
• Communication-Related Competencies

The competencies addressed in the program will be useful to your child throughout his or her life.

Your child will learn not only by memorizing, but also by working on concrete activities or projects that draw on or develop his or her abilities. Thus, in addition to drawing 'a' or 'o' in an exercise book or counting imaginary apples and pears, your child may learn to read or add by participating in a group project." Link

Hmmm....
But the very worst of the reform was the elimination of the 'special ed' class, which dumped the academically challenged into regular classes in order to become more inclusive, with the predictable result that the whole class was retarded (pardon the very bad pun) as teachers were forced to slow down progress to the lowest common denominator.

This is what Malavoy wants to see in the private schools, the elimination of elite programs that demand elite students, which goes against her left-wing dogma of equality.

What she seems to forget is that there are some elite public schools (known as 'international schools) that also demand competency tests for students wishing to score a coveted place.

And so Malavoy is demanding that the private schools eliminate competency entrance exams and incorporate special education students as in the public system, or else she will cut the subsidy that these schools receive.
By the way, private schools receive public money to the tune of 60% of what is spent per student in the public sector, so that each student in the private system represents a 40% saving to the government.

It is important to understand that the PQ's constituency is largely against the very idea of private schools on principle, and want the government to eliminate the subsidy completely.
The unions, the public service and the education department cannot stand the competition and would like nothing more than the demise of the private school system, which is tiny to begin with, educating around 6% of the student population.

It is the very notion of egalitarianism that drives the opponents of private schools who find the idea of 'elitism' offensive.

Soon Madame Malavoy will demand that high school sports teams refrain from selecting the best athletes and accept all who apply, perhaps preparing students for the real world, a world where the Montreal Canadiens accept a few handicapped players in order to remain inclusive.

That is not where we are going, we are already there.
It has gotten to the point where you don't even need to graduate high school to be accepted into cegep.


The French have a phrase for it, 'niveler par le bas.' in English we say 'the lowest common denominator.

Welcome to Marie Malavoy's brave new world.

French versus English Volume 64

PQ set to roll back English instruction and promote sovereignty in school

Marie Malavoy, the new Minister of Education wants to scale back the teaching of English in French primary schools.

First she wants to delay the implementation of the as yet not installed program of intensive English instruction in Grade six and also wants to stop the introduction of English in Grade one, because, according to her, she believes it to be to confusing to students who need to master French first.

In regards to English, which Malavoy now refers to as a 'foreign language,' she told reporters that it can be learned in 'other ways.'

“My party was very critical of the idea of ​​introducing a foreign language as you begin to master concepts, grammar, syntax and vocabulary of one's mother tongue,” says Malavoy.

“I will respect what is there this year, but I've asked the Ministry to follow the situation for now, and  that we talk about what is to be done next year,”  she said, proposing to push the teaching of that second language to the fourth or fifth grade.

Shades of the Taliban.

Another matter that needs to be reviewed, according to the PQ is the history taught in high school. In addition to increasing the number of hours devoted to it, Marie Malavoy believes the content to be changed.

“There are all kinds of schools of thought such as capitalism, feminism, and all of them are part of the curriculum. There is also a school of thought called nationalism. And I think we have to give a special place to the debate that has taken place here in Quebec over the last 50 years,” Ms. Malavoy said. ” Read more

“Education Minister Marie Malavoy angrily rejected accusations Thursday that she is politicizing the province’s education system with her proposals to abolish obligatory English classes in Grades 1 and 2, hold off on intensive English classes in Grade 6 and make sure the independence question is highlighted in the province’s high-school history courses.
Malavoy made the suggestions in an interview published Thursday by Le Soleil in Quebec City, headlined “Less English in school and more room for the sovereignty question in history courses.” Read the rest of the story

Madame Malavoy is a great fan of sovereignty, so much so that she  actually voted in the referendum without being a citizen of this country! Come to think of it she voted in provincial and federal elections while being a non-Canadian.
After that was exposed, she was forced out of the PQ cabinet of Jacques Parizeau in 1994 and left politics for eight years.
But all is forgiven, welcome aboard!!!

Hilarious Facebook exchange highlights Quebec Chasm

 I must say that after reexamining the exchange on Collossus' Facebook page (since deleted) about the "If ur not happy, go to Guzzo:)" exchange, I couldn't help but shake my head at how low we have sunk.

First was Celyne Lessard complaining about the fact that the newer screening rooms were being used for English movies, rather than the dubbed French versions. The complaint was rather polite, if I do say so myself.

The dismissive reply, from what had to be a low level employee was insulting, but absolutely hilarious.

But then language blowhard Louis Prefontaine steps in to demand a boycott.
Question: How does he arrive on the scene so fast? He must have some special sort of radar.
Of course he demands a BOYCOTT as usual, his go-to plan for every language slight, perceived or real.. As I recall some of his targets in the past were Air Transat and the Quebec summer music festival.

Then two kibitzers pipe in, the first complaining that when French people tell English people to move to Ontario, they get their head ripped off.

But, nothing beats the last comment by Philippe Laurent Secord, who offered this priceless bon mots that I will not translate, because I don't want to spoil it for French/bilingual readers.

You'll have to wait for someone in the comments section to explain.

French flee Montreal?

"In their more candid moments, nationalists admit that if indeed there is a “decline” of French on Montreal Island, it’s not because immigrants go to English-language CEGEPs.
Rather, it’s because French-speakers have been moving from the island to the mainland suburbs.
The reason most commonly offered for this migration is that young families are seeking housing that is both suitable and more affordable than that available on the island.
But an article by a well-known linguistic demographer published on the editorial page of Le Devoir on Tuesday suggests an additional, possible reason: a phenomenon similar to the “white flight” from American cities after the Second World War.
Simply put, the article by Michel Paillé suggests that some francophones are moving off Montreal Island to get away from immigrants.
Let’s call it “franco flight.”
Paillé quotes from a recent article in Le Devoir:
“Francophones are abandoning Montreal as a losing battle, unable as they have been to put their stamp on it after a half-century of Quiet Revolution.” Read the rest of the story

Vigile.watch

I came across this story because a newscrawler picked up mention of this blog on a story published on vigile.net where the author makes the suggestion that Richard Bain's alleged attempt on Pauline Marois Life is directly linked to comments on blogs like ours as well as other 'hateful' messages on mainstream media.

This author is the same person who once wrote to me complaining that my article ridiculing him was unfair because it is actually a fact that Jewish citizens in Montreal refuse to be served in restaurants by French Canadian waitresses.
He also complained that rich Jews in Montreal and Laval are persecuting francophones as well as controlling the world.
Rich Jews in Laval? Hmmm......Read my post.

He is one of the few contributors on vigile.net who actually had stories redacted by the editor because of racist content. Redactions

It's always rich when a racist and a linguicist attempts to call other people racist, especially when his screeds are so full of laughable mistakes and urban myths, errors that could only be created in the delusional mind of a fantasist.

To see what we are dealing with, we need look no farther than the headline to his latest story.

Lemme see.....
"A complaint by an allophone against a Quebecois who stands up for French."

Notice that the headline did not say:
"A complaint by an allophone against a francophone who stands up for  French."

 nor did it say;
"A complaint by a Quebecois against another Quebecois who stands up for French."

You see, to Mr. Barberis-Gervais an allophone could never in his wildest imagination be considered a Quebecois"

 CHECKMATE!

MQF  stages another 'massive' demonstration'

The Mouvement quebec francais held another tedious demonstration, this time about not enough French.....blah....blah....blah!
The newspaper article reported that about fifty demonstrators participated but the picture accompanying the story tells a different story Link{FR}

Two flags, five placards and about a dozen demonstrators.

Another smashing success CONGRATULATIONS.
As thy say in French... Loosers!!!


Now to be fair.....

A protest by an English group protesting that now infamous sign in the Villa Maria metro was just about as successful, a pitiful turnout I am forced to admit.

"Following last week’s incident in which a STM (Société des Transports de Montréal) employee placed a sign which read “Au Québec, c’est en Français que ça se passe” against the window of his ticket booth, it didn’t take long for the sign to make its way through the city’s social media before it finally made the evening news.
“You can think what you want in whatever language that pleases you,” said Sonya Mullins, “…but this is just too damn much.”
 Within hours after the story found its way through the internet, activists within Québec’s Office Québecois de la Langue Anglaise, a minority language rights organization, posted their own message in which they announced that they would be holding a demonstration outside the STM’s Villa Marie Metro Station where the sign incident occurred.
Several dozen people, including Mullins, showed up for last week’s rush-hour protest, but they were well received as many passing commuters stopped to have a chat and describe their own experience with rude and surly STM ticket agents who took exception to their language or even their accent. " Link

"Several dozen" Hmm......doesn't look like it?
Sorry Hugo.

 

Francophonie meets amid turmoil

The conference celebrating French language and culture is playing out this week in the Democratic Republic of Congo, under  surreal circumstances where many participants are decidedly uncomfortable holding such a 'prestigious' meeting in your basic run-of-the-mill banana republic, a country under extreme criticism by opposition forces for the litany of abuses all banana republics are known for....human rights abuses, fixed elections, unfair imprisonment, etc.etc.

Pauline Marois, eager to make her big international debut, decided that discretion was the better part of valour and refused to meet, be seen with or photographed with the host, Joseph Kabila.

"The Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie's decision to hold its 14th summit in Kinshasa raised eyebrows given the government's poor democratic credentials and human rights record.

French President Francois Hollande scolded his Congolese counterpart Joseph Kabila and could meet his opposition rival on the sidelines of the summit, setting a tense political backdrop for the three-day meeting." Link

"Prime Minister Stephen Harper is planning to raise Canada's concerns about human rights abuse and violence against women plaguing the Democratic Republic of Congo when he arrives there this week for an international summit, said his spokesman Tuesday." Link

In another blow the African nation of Gabon is set to make English an official language;

"The French-speaking African country of Gabon is moving on from the language of its former colonizers and introducing English across the nation.
Gabon's President Ali Bongo Odimba spent last week in Rwanda, where a similar move has proved a success.
Rwanda is now part of both the Francophonie (French-speaking) community and the Commonwealth.
President Bongo Odimba has made his move just ahead of the 14th summit of the Francophonie, which will see 56 countries' representatives descend on the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon's next-door neighbour." Link

Etc. Etc.

Talk about paranoia, there are some in the media wondering if the small earthquake that hit in the Monteregie region on Wednesday was caused by, you guessed it, shale gas test wells.
The quake was felt in Montreal, but didn't do any damage and most people slept through it.
But it goes to underscore how frightened ordinary Quebecers are in terms of shale gas exploration.
David McCormack of Resources Canada explained that it was impossible, the quake happened 27 miles beneath the surface.

In a province where many people oppose intelligent electrical meters because of the  'dangerous waves' it is to be expected. Link{FR}

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

Here's a story that will stick in the craw of French language boosters.
It seems that Alex Kovalev unable to secure employment in the NHL will pursue his career in Switzerland where he told reporters that he will learn French in order to connect with the fans.
This after five years with the Montreal Canadiens in which time he never even learned to say 'Bonjour!" Link{Fr}

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

"The NDP Member of Parliament for the Gaspé and Magdalene Islands, Philip Toone, said the lives of French-speaking mariners are at risk if the Maritime Rescue Sub-Centre in Quebec City closes.
The centre takes distress calls and helps manage search-and-rescue operations for mariners in Quebec.
The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans plans to close the centre next spring, saving an estimated $1 million per year by sending distress calls from Quebec waters to centres in Halifax, N.S. and Trenton, Ont.
Some people are worried the French-language skills of dispatchers in those centres won't be adequate, putting lives at risk." Read the rest of the story

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Watch the news report ...Bad Constable 728

Out of Control Police officer
Here's a late story that will be making quite a splash over the next little while. It seems that a female Montreal police officer with badge number 728, is one mean bad ass and was caught on video and in a recorded telephone conversation abusing citizens.
Stéphanie Trudeau  was already the subject of a complaint, backed up by video footage, of her gratuitously spraying people with pepper spray.

But what really got her in trouble was an altercation over a minor incident which exploded into a full-blown police beat down.
It seems that a musician in the Plateau district of Montreal went to the lobby of his apartment building to hold open the front door in order to assist his musician friends laden with equipment.
The unfortunate was holding a beer in his hand which set of Officer 728, who made a big deal about it to the point that four people were manhandled viciously and carted off to jail after a dozen police cars were called to the scene.
Much of it was filmed and Officer 728 was clearly shown to be choking one of the four rather dangerously.
To top it all off, Officer 728 confiscated the cellphones of the four while conducting them to the station, but unluckily for her, pocket-dialed someone who recorded her using abusive language towards the suspects and describing herunprofessional behaviour  to a supervisor.
It was all played on TV and as you can guess she was suspended immediately.
Great entertainment, if it isn't you being manhandled!

Yesterday afternoon, the Chief of Police threw her under the bus.
For the first time in my memory the head of the Montreal police apologized for the actions of one of his officers.

So long, sweetie...your police career is over!

Watch the YouTube video and a story in French about the violent incident YouTube

Read a great story and see the previous pepper spray story in English by Global Montreal 

You can listen to the pocket-dialed call, but you need really need good French to understand Link{fr}

Best TWITTER comment;

"EAT YOUR BROCCOLI, OR I'LL CALL OFFICER 728!"

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Weekend reading'

Opinion: Let Detroit's decline serve as a warning.  

by Kathryn Markwick

"MONTREAL — If our new premier, Pauline Marois, wants to do a road trip outside of Quebec, I suggest she visit my hometown, Detroit, Michigan.
She surely knows of Detroit, founded in 1701 by Antoine de la Mothe, sieur de Cadillac whose original home in Old Montreal now serves Big Macs.
Marois shouldn’t go to Europe; they’ve just started to fail there. Go see real failure; go see Detroit. It is one of the most jarring, jaw-dropping unimaginable sights in North America. In fact, she wouldn’t believe she’s still in North America. Once a great city, Detroit has experienced a complete economic and political meltdown. The media has begun to talk about Detroit’s renaissance, but their stories are overblown. At best, the recovery is only a sparrow rising from the ashes; it’s no phoenix.
Those who don’t know the whole story claim that Detroit’s woes are the consequence of having been a one-industry town. That’s far too pedantic. Destruction of this magnitude has been the confluence of many factors. Certainly, The Big Three automakers were major culprits, starting with Henry Ford. Although his assembly line transformed production, the fault was in his wage structure. He promised far too much into the future, so he wouldn’t have to pay more cash up front. This created the unsustainable, modern-day legacy costs that helped drive the industry into the tank.
Big Three design also became lazy, spitting out cars that few wanted, and opening the doors to foreign entry.
Then, we had the race riots of 1967, a shameful and dark mark on our city’s history, after which whites moved from the city to the suburbs, generally north of Eminem’s “8 Mile” divide. After that came Coleman Young, revered mayor of Detroit, who practised what I term Evangelical Politics. Evangelical Politics, to me, was about promising the world and delivering nothing, while preying on the passion and fervour of the constituency. Years later, many black brethren who were able to move said, “To hell with this. We have the poorest schools, bare-bones police and fire services, and dangerous streets. We’re getting out of here, too.”
Do you think that 50 years ago, Detroiters could have imagined the degree of devastation that lay ahead?
As I look at Montreal and Quebec today, do you think I say, ‘It can’t happen here?’ Read the rest of the story

Conrad Black: As Quebec decays, Toronto seizes greatness

The announcement this week of an effort spearheaded by art collector and impresario David Mirvish, international architect Frank Gehry and innovative developer Peter Kofman to provide Toronto with a novel vertical, arts-based downtown residential complex is potentially a big step in Toronto’s quest to vault itself into the front ranks of the world’s cities — where it has sometimes prematurely claimed to belong. Whether Canadians from other centres like it or not, Toronto is now and will remain the comparative metropolis of the country, having surged past Montreal after that city entered into a sustained suicide attempt based on separatist agitation and accompanying racial and cultural discrimination.

Behind the pretenses to egalitarianism that dress up confiscatory Quebec tax laws and repressive language laws, the real driving ambition has been to push the non-French out of Quebec, buy up the real assets they cannot physically take with them, especially their mansions and office buildings in Montreal, and eliminate up to half the emphatically federalist votes in the province. Montreal’s loss has proven to be Toronto’s gain.
Historically, almost all Quebec’s non-French (comprising about 20% of the provincial population) are anti-separatist; and about an equal number of Quebec federalists are authentic French-Canadians who have thrown in their lot with the pan-Canadian option, and are routinely reviled by their peppier Quebec nationalist compatriots as vendus, sell-outs. (In my recent debut as a co-host with Amanda Lang on her CBC news program, the only line of mine that was excised was to this effect — so squeamish does the CBC remain about calling Quebec nationalism what it is: outright racism, at least in the worst cases. Radio Canada, the French CBC, is a notorious infestation of separatists.)
The principal bulwark of federalism in Quebec, and therefore in Canada, has been the English-Canadians, who have habitually voted Liberal, and have been shamefully neglected by the Liberal Parties of Canada and Quebec (the first now eviscerated and reduced to the unimaginably dubious expedient of elevating a leader whose sole qualification for high public office was surviving childbirth, and the second defeated and discredited, and now about half English, despite all its ingratitude). But 50 years of nationalist pressure in Quebec, uncompetitively high tax-rates on upper income groups and the endless redefinition of the use of English as a “privilege” that can be whittled down and compromised, have driven over 500,000 people out of Quebec, most of them to the Toronto area.
These former Quebecers, and the comparative welcome that Toronto has given external immigration (unlike the Québécois, who are generally hostile to any non-French immigration and none too accommodating even to ostensibly francophone immigrants who don’t speak like Québécois and aren’t too preoccupied with Quebec nationalism), has made Toronto an unusually, almost uniquely multi-cultural city. In fact, Toronto is one of the few jurisdictions where multi-culturalism has not been a disaster. Read the rest of the story

Question of the weekend

As we head into the weekend I would propose the following discussion point;

As we read in two stories above, neither the English side or the French side seems to be able to muster much of a turnout for demonstrations in defence of language issues..

Why?

Is the whole issue just overblown?
Do we really not care?
Are we just too complacent or lazy?

Think about your answer and let us know your opinion in the comments section....


Have a good weekend!