Bill 101- You Can't always Get What You Want

I am always amused by those who deem that it is not only reasonable but desirable to legislate social behaviour, as if personal choice is something repugnant, and that the public, like an untamed horse, needs to be whipped into submission and obedience for the greater societal good.

Much to the consternation of these social engineers, state intervention into social issues and personal choice seldom works. As Woody Allen told us about falling in love with his step-daughter,... The  heart wants what the heart wants.

Perhaps the best example of misguided social engineering is the desire by environmentalists to ban the sale of bottled water, despite the fact that people want to buy the product.
To social engineers, the product is stupid and environmentally wasteful and as such should be banned.
But what would be the reaction to such a ban?
Would consumers run to the water fountains instead?
Would they accept as an alternative, begging at the fast food counter for a Styrofoam cup of tepid tap water, in lieu of a sanitary and perfectly chilled bottle of purchased water?
The reality is that such a ban would probably increase the amount of soft drinks or juices sold, a disastrous and unintended consequence of deciding for others how they must act.

No society in North America compares with Quebec when it come to government social engineers telling citizens how they must act, think and function.  Front and center in the pursuit of state mandated behaviour is the foulest of all agencies, the Office québécois de la langue française, otherwise known as the OQLF.

Last week an article published in La Presse complained that certain retailers were contravening Bill 101 by not offering a French language website comparable to that offered in English. Link{Fr} .

The article named a few companies but particularly singled out Urban Outfitters because it services Canadian customers from an American website which is unilingually English, something that Bill 101 forbids. (or so the newspaper article concludes)

So why has the company not been fined or otherwise punished by the OQLF over the last four or five years?

Quite simply, (contrary to what the newspaper article tells us,) it is because the company hasn't  broken any law or regulation, much to the outrage of the OQLF, which is powerless to do anything about it.

Somewhere along the line, Urban Outfitters deemed it too expensive or inconvenient to open a website exclusively for francophone customers and as I told you before, Canadian customers are directed to the English website based in the USA.

In order to comply with Quebec law that demands that French customers be treated equally to English customers, Urban Outfitters decided (quite bizarrely) to treat English customers from Quebec as badly as it treats French customers!
What they have done, is to ban any online sales to Quebec from their English website, an embarrassing work-around copied and repeated by other American retailers.

If you go online to Urban Outfitters, don't bother trying to order something to a Quebec address, it isn't possible and for consumers, both English and French it is quite galling.

No QC -Quebec

Notwithstanding what La Presse or the OQLF says, Urban Outfitters is actually following the letter of the law, so what's the beef?

The problem is that it's a bit humiliating that the OQLF cannot force a company to offer French online shopping based on the fact that such a service is available to customers in California or Ontario.
So to retaliate, the OQLF, (instead of just admitting it is powerless,) has organized an underhanded intimidation and smear campaign, by falsely suggesting that Urban Outfitters is acting illegally.

CLICK photo to enlarge

Recently I received an offer from Costco in my inbox for a home telephone system at a substantial discount if I ordered online.
I was interested and went to the checkout page only to be informed that the product was not available in Quebec. The notice didn't say why, but I can imagine it was because the product did not have French instructions.
The same goes for Canadian online websites that have toys or other products that only interact in English, you have to buy them through US based online retailers.
Read my previous post  Buzz Lightyear -Parlez-vous Francais?

French language militants will tell you that this is only fair, that because a French customer cannot buy a product in French, an English customer shouldn't be allowed to buy the product in English...Hmm....

The politics of Bill 101 are strangely paradoxical, forcing some areas of the marketplace to comply with French language requirements while ignoring others.

Take for example, books, which may be sold in English in Quebec without a French version.
Why is this?
You may think that cultural products are exempt from the law, but Hollywood movies may not be shown in Quebec without a French dubbed version being available at the same time.
Not so for coffee house movies or foreign language movies (other than English) , probably because nobody cares.

How is it that Lady Gaga or Taylor Swift, aren't required to record French lyrics for Quebec?
Why do real cars have dashboards with English words only, yet toy cars must be French or bilingual at the least?

The truth is that if French were required in the above examples, Lady Gaga or Taylor Swift wouldn't bother selling their product in Quebec, a humiliating situation that the OQLF recognizes and avoids by remaining silent. By the way, even the English only packaging is allowed. 

As for cars, it would be easy enough to add French to the dashboard, but the car companies wouldn't pass off the added cost to customers across North America, the additional expense would be added to the sticker price in Quebec only, (like higher car prices in California because of tougher emission standards) making cars more expensive in Quebec than in Ontario, something francophone consumers would be up in arms over.

The reality is that the OQLF is fine with forcing French onto businesses as long as the additional cost of the French is passed on to the greater English market, as is the case with dubbed movies, which moviegoers across Canada pay for.
Could you imagine the outrage if theatres in Quebec charged an additional dollar or so for French language version movies versus their English counterparts, to reflect the added expense of dubbing?

These are the anomalies of Bill 101 that intrigue me. It is a law that does what it can to socially engineer society, but fails because of certain economic and social realities and constraints.

While Bill 101 tells French Quebecers and Allophones that they must attend French school as a child, it dares not forbid them from watching English TV or attending English language movies.
Believe me that there are militants out there who would see English TV and movies banned, just like the social engineers who want bottled water bottles gone from the marketplace.
Again, could you imagine the riot in front of a theatre, if ticket sellers refused entrance to Francophones attempting to watch an English film. It may sound North Korean, but it is done in our schools every day.

When it comes to online sales, the legal choice in Quebec is clear, retailers must offer equivalent French services or not offer them at all.
It is when companies choose the latter alternative that the hackles of the OQLF are raised and where in response the agency reacts with an calculated smear campaign that intimates that the retailers are acting illegally, a shameful practice unbecoming to any reputable government agency.

And so, the OQLF, the guardian of the French language has evolved into a slimy, deceitful and underhanded organization that is not averse to intimidation, misdirection, lying and coercion, when faced with the limitations of its own law.

Such is the lesson of Urban Outfitters.

For the OQLF, the choice by this company and other American retailers to forgo online sales because of French language requirements should be a choice to be respected, if not appreciated. In other words, tough noogies.

Unfortunately, like dirty cops, the OQLF enforces the law where it can and uses underhanded frame tactics where it can't.
What better example of going outside the law is the agency telling the public that even though certain bilingual practices (like greeting customers with a Bonjour/Hi) may be legal, they are socially unacceptable.
Here is a quote about bilingual greetings in stores, from Louise Marchand,  head of the OQLF;.

 "It is not a violation of the Charter, but it can contribute to the feeling that Montreal is anglicized" Link{Fr}

The effect of statements like these is to encourage French language militants to intimidate those who use English quite legally and to frighten company executives from offering English services as the law provides.

How many retailers have given up posting signs in English, even though the law allows for it, this even in towns and cities that are overwhelmingly English?

You know the answer as well as I.

Quebec's Annus Horribilus

A small break away from the blog is always a pause that reinvigorates the creative juices, but let's face it, those of us so inclined to blog are badly infected with what is described in Latin as....Cacoethes scribendi, so it's good to be back. 

At any rate, here we go....

"May you live in interesting times."

Although the above aphorism is attributed to the ancient Chinese, the origin, as well the meaning, is probably not what we have come to understand.

Today we use the phrase to wish upon the beneficiary some positive excitement or new and happy experiences, but in reality, the phrase means quite the opposite...

"May you experience much disorder and trouble in your life." Link

And so, 2012 was certainly a year where Quebecers 'lived in interesting times' and not in the good sense. For old-timers like myself it's hard to remember so disastrous a year for our dear province.

As I search for the right words to describe last year, I have come up with but one that succinctly sums it all up ..."Bizarre!"

It was a year that challenged our deepest faith and convictions about who and what our society really is.
The public revelations of shocking and pervasive corruption of too many public and elected officials rocked our world and had us collectively confronting issues of trust. The number of public miscreants and delinquents rose to a level where we now wonder, not which officials are dirty, but which few are actually clean.

The middle of the year was dominated by an incredibly naive and patently stupid and disruptive  student revolt over rising tuition fees, which ironically remains the cheapest in Canada.
The decision by students to put their school year at risk over a couple of hundred dollars, baffled ordinary Quebecers and for good reason. When push came to shove, the student radicals opted to lose their year of school, demonstrating that they essentially placed no value on their time.
When classes resumed on an accelerated basis, meant  to perhaps save the semester, many students chose to forgo the onerous effort and opted to repeat the year, demonstrating no particular rush to get on with their lives.
Strangely, for these students who lost a year over the proposed tuition hikes, a lost year meant a repeated round of tuition fees, the irony of which went unnoticed by most.

Then there was the election of the PQ, which because of vote-splitting by federalists, backed into a minority government and proved within a few short months to be a group of utter incompetents and fools, unable and incapable to govern responsibly, looking like the rank amateurs that they are.

And so both separatists and federalists are faced with the worst case scenario, for the separatists, a government which won't promote or attempt to move the sovereignty file forward because of the lack of real support.
And for federalists a government incapable of dealing with the financial complexities of a province strapped for cash and unable to pay for its election promises.
Not much of this and not much of that, a veritable pig's breakfast.

As I think of the disappointing year we experienced, I'm reminded of the story of Shoeless Joe Jackson, an American baseball icon who was exposed as one of the crooked team members of the Chicago "White Sox" who collectively fixed the 1919 World Series for gamblers.

"Legend has it that as Jackson was leaving the courthouse during the trial, a young boy begged of him, "Say it ain't so, Joe,..." Wikipedia

In regards to the revelations emanating out of the Charbonneau crime commission, I too found myself muttering that same phrase, 'Say it ain't so,' because so shocking were the allegations being bandied about, that for the sake of our society, I honestly wished that the witnesses were lying or embellishing for effect.
But as the year rolled by, most Quebecers also came to feel this same sense of betrayal, the daily reports of malfeasance and corruption exposed at the Charbonneau commission, made it seem that the mob run city of Chicago of the '20s and '30s was a prim and proper Mormon town, in comparison to us.

This year I was captivated by two television mini-series, both with the subject of public corruption as its centrepiece. One is called "Boardwalk Empire," detailing the criminal goings on in a prohibition era Atlantic City and the other entitled "The Boss" starring Kelsey Grammer as a modern-day mostly corrupt Chicago mayor.

Compared to the corrupt goings on in our province, these two shows seemed mild in comparison! 

It all started just over a year ago when Maclean's magazine wrote a story labelling Quebec as the most corrupt province in Canada, which understandably raised indignant howls of protestation at the perceived Quebec-bashing in the local media. Link
The powers that be in the media were so outraged at the article that Quebec's Press Council unanimously reprimanded the magazine for poor reporting;

"......Mr. Patriquin displayed a lack of journalistic rigour.
"We are forced to conclude that they (the comments) reveal prejudice and are all the more condemnable under the circumstances as they carry prejudices against all Quebecers," the council wrote.
That lack of rigour was also attributed to a column by Mr. Coyne." Link

When events over the next year proved that if anything, Maclean's understated the length and breadth of Quebec corruption, one might have expected the Press Council to rescind that reprimand and apologize to the two wronged journalists, but alas this is Quebec, where covering one's own ass always trumps doing the right thing.

When my old friend Jacques Duchesneau, Quebec's newest version of Elliot Ness announced that 70% of political financing is illegal and that the mob had infiltrated the construction industry, the press and the public chalked it up as exaggeration, too impossible to believe, likely a case of hyperbolic politicking.

"Duchesneau detailed what he called “an entrenched, clandestine universe of an unheard-of size that is harmful to society in terms of security and the economy, as well as justice and democracy.” His report described how a tiny group of construction and engineering firms—“an oligarchy,” .....
.....Transport Québec has become the cash-generating and laundering outfit of choice for Quebec’s formidable organized crime network. “There are groups of general contractors who work as cartels, organizing to collude the tenders process to protect their members, eliminate competition and to get contracts at the price they want. Though they are legal themselves, some of these firms have silent partners, thus increasing organized crime’s presence in the legal economy.” Link

But alas, all the stunning revelations, as impossible as they sounded, were proven entirely true, with elected officials, public servants, mafia dons, construction magnates, engineering firms and yes even RevCan employees all discovered to be feasting at an epic Bacchanalian orgy of greed, paid out of the generosity of the public purse, funded by sad sack taxpayers like you.

It is almost impossible for an honest citizen to make sense of it, or yet come to terms with the depths and depravity of the betrayal of corruption that was so deeply entrenched and undeclared, for so many years, with nary a peep from a single whistle blower.

The discovery of this corruption beast living within the body politic of our society is as shocking and painful as having your doctor tell you that a pernicious tapeworm has made a home within your intestines and has lived there for years and years, slowly eating your guts from the inside out, with the most debilitating and disastrous health implications now manifesting overtly.
And so our collective societal panic is understandable, where the one and only maddening obsession is to kill and remove the accursed beast.

I wish I could predict a better year for us all, but in truth I cannot. We haved lived through a vertible Annus horribilis, with 2013 auguring no better.
Unfortunately, the corruption scandal has not yet reached it zenith, we've got a lot more crooks to uncover and politicians to chase from power.
Police are slowly getting through dozens and dozens of investigations and my most flamboyant prediction is that some of these crooks will flee the jurisdiction à la Arthur Porter.

There are a least five high-profile trials coming up this year and at least a dozen in 2014.
The economy, already on shaky ground will likely deteriorate as America comes to grip with its huge debt with another recession possibly around the bend.

The PQ will continue to fiddle while the province's finances melt down. When the next budget is to be tabled the phoney revenue predictions that we were fed this year, will come back to haunt the PQ, resulting in a three to eight billion dollar shortfall, even after all the tax increases.
And this time they won't be able to blame anyone but themselves.

And so, the PQ will raise the language debate to distract the masses from the financial disaster. I am sadly afraid that the big bad anglo devil will be trotted out once again,(as was the case during the September election) in another desperate attempt of ad captandum vulgus or if you like, the more familiar panem et circenses  

I apologize for my decidedly negative assessment, it is just the way I see it, I wish I could be more upbeat.

The one and only thing to hope for is that with a little luck, the Liberal Party will choose a leader who inspires the people just enough to cause the PQ government to fall, leading to a minority Liberal government.
It is just about the best we can hope for.

My New Year's Resolution....... to remain a thorn in side of the militant French language movement and to denounce their many lies, distortions and overt racism.
For your information, I haven't gotten around yet to reading the comments regarding the possible  re-formation of the Equality Party and promise to do so this weekend, with a blog piece concerning the subject soon after.By the way that blog piece resulted in over 600 comments and over 65,000 words!

PS....If you haven't had enough Latin for a day, I will leave you with my favourite quote concerning gun control ...enjoy!

Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt

5 Reasons to Relaunch the Equality Party .. Part Deux!!

I've received some feed back about comments not registering, perhaps because of the volume,,,


So I've opened up a new thread.....

5 Reasons to Relaunch the Equality Party

As we look around our federalist community, not just the English, but the Ethnics and real Francophone federalists, it's clear that we suffer from a lack of leadership and coordinated effort.

The old guard has largely retired or scaled back their involvement, there is a limit to the time and effort any one individual can contribute to voluntary community service and the effective shelf life of those who served us so well, has clearly passed beyond the expiry date.

The political vacuum that exists in the federalist community has been filled is by the Liberal Party, which while not sovereigntist, has largely abandoned the fight to preserve English language rights, coldly calculating that the votes in our community aren't there to justify the political capital.
This reality is exacerbated by the fact that the Liberals know that without a viable option, federalists will vote for them, the choice obviously the lesser of three evils.

But was the Equality Party a worthwhile endeavour back when our numbers were more numerous and when we had the demographic weight to send four members to the National Assembly?

It remains true that the party imploded under the weight of divergent opinions and never attained any sort of effectiveness, that is the unfortunate truth that the Anglo community recognized and thus moved on.
The problem of the old Equality Party is that it saw itself and acted as an established political party, something that it could never be and thus was doomed to failure.

But I do believe that a reborn Equality party can become relevant if it recognizes what it must become, given the limited size it can attain based on the demographic reality.
And so I'd like to use this last post of the year to discuss the concept.

FULL DISCLOSURE:
I've been asked to offer some advice, perhaps get involved with a small group of people who are contemplating just that, the rebirth of the Equality party.

To that end, I am writing this piece in an effort to see if there is a basis of support in our community, without which we can go no further.

Here are five reasons why I believe federalists should support an Equality Party 2.0.

1) Our community remains leaderless. There is nobody who speaks for real Quebec federalists on any official or semi-official basis. 

2) Although the chances of electing more than one or two members is slim, it is not insignificant. Look at the impact that Amir Khadir had on the National Assembly sitting as the lone member of Quebec solidaire. 

3) Without pushback, our community will be nickel and dimed to death. The threat to remove bilingual status from our towns is no hollow threat. To our fragile community, it means the beginning of the end of English as a fact in Quebec.

4) For better or worse, public funding for political parties is coming and even if the Equality party doesn't elect anyone, it can be the beneficiary of hundreds of thousands of dollars, based on a per vote subsidy.
This money can be used to mount constitutional challenges and to purchase advertising to defend our cause.

Can you imagine the effect of the Equality Party picketing Pauline Marois at her recent speaking engagement in New York?
Just five people carrying placards and handing out flyers in front of the St. Regis hotel would have rocked Quebec and rained on the separatist parade. The fiction of a Premier having the support of Quebecers would be utterly dashed and the separatist government, so deathly afraid of bad publicity in the US, would be put on notice that trifling with our rights will have consequences.
The entire operation of sending demonstrators to New York would have cost under $1,000, but it takes organization.
The Equality Party will give spokesman and demonstrators legitimacy, and a soapbox to speak to Quebecers, Canadians and Americans under the auspices of a political party that has members.

5) For those of you who think an Equality Party will be necessarily ineffective, I beg to differ. Using the Press, social media and clever tactics, our effect can be massive. 

And so we need to abandon the traditional political tactics that had but one goal, that of electing members to the National Assembly. It is not necessary for our purposes.
Our goal is to effect political change and so, electing members to the Assembly, while a nice side benefit, is not the be all and end all.
We can do much more outside Parliament, where no matter how many members we elect, our effectiveness is limited by the rules of the game..
And so we need to create our own game, with our own rules. Here is but one example of direct political action that can be effective.

An Equality Party can embark on a campaign to implore those in the RoC to demand that Ottawa tie Equalization payments to the preservation of English language rights in Quebec, specifically through the Official Language Act, which could be modified to force towns and cities to provide bilingual services when the English or French minority reaches 10%, or better still, a modification that allows towns and cities to declare themselves bilingual based on a majority vote in town council.

Unfortunately, it has come down to this..... political action.

I can think of dozens of other things we can do that can be effective, but I don't want to give away the playbook.
We need to organize, this time thinking outside the box.

I want to remind you all about the success of the pea-fart Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste, which punches way above its weight, imposing a separatist influence on Quebec politics beyond its demographic weight.
I believe that a renewed Equality Party 2.0 which focuses on fighting for our rights using smart tactics will be incredibly effective.

We don't have to do anything illegal like the students, it is not our way.
Our belief in law, order and good government is too ingrained in us to proceed on the wrong side of the law, but that doesn't mean we can't fight.
We can can set up legal committees, organize letter-writing campaigns, lobby federal politicians across Canada, prepare strategic advertising campaigns and organize small, yet powerfully effective demonstrations, as I described above.

We don't need to take our message to Quebec City, we need to take it to New York, Toronto, Washington and Ottawa.
By acting strategically, we can bring pressure on those who wish to see our community destroyed, even if our numbers are relatively small.
Until Quebec linguicists understand that there will be a financial cost attached to their persecution of our community, there can be no gains.

So let's be creative, we have nothing to lose.

I propose a party where activist members, not the leaders, are the ones doing the heavy lifting.
If all the energy of readers of this one blog went into an organized defence of our community, we would already be seeing the fruits of our efforts.

I bet reading this, you've all got tons of ideas bubbling in your head. Ideas that don't cost a lot or need a lot of manpower.
Ideas that can and will effect a change of attitude.

Let us remember what the separatists always tell us, that is, that there are over 300 million anglos around us.
If we can't think of what to do with that support, we are not worthy of preserving our language and culture in Quebec.

I ask readers to use the comment section to voice your opinion.
Can this project be viable?
Are you willing to help?

A special plea to those who read this blog but don't comment.  Isn't it time to get involved? How about one small comment to have your position known.
Honestly if we can't speak out in the comments section here, it augers poorly for the project.
Please speak up now.

For too long our community has been systematically punched around by language militants and separatist forces that have visited body blow after body blow on our community. They have done so with impunity and without riposte.

It's time for that to change. Time for us to throw a spanner in the grand separatist design.
As Mike Tyson said;
"Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth"

It's time for our community to get off the ropes and fight back.

Readers, this is my take on the re-establishment of the Equality Party and I'm sure some of you might agree with me while others might have a different idea, so let's hear from you.

I going to leave this piece open until the New Year and consequently, this is my last post of 2012. I shall return on Wednesday, January 2, 2013.
I await your reactions in the comment section......

To everyone reading this blog, friend or foe, I wish you a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.
To those Christians of Russian, Greek, Armenian origin, or otherwise Orthodox Christian origin, who will be celebrating Christmas on January 6th or 7th, I wish you all a Happy New Year first and then a Merry Christmas!


A very special year-end thanks to my wife for correcting my many typos and repairing faulty sentence construction, as well as acting as a the fact-checker of last resort. (Yes dear, Guy Turcotte did kill two, not three children.)

A very special thanks goes out to the prolific readers writers who fill the comment section with their wisdom, nonsense and irreverence, on a daily basis, without your participation, I'd never soldier on...

...all the best!

French versus English Volume 71

Quebec Corruption... just this week

"A study on the inflated cost of construction projects in Montreal was kept from former mayor Gérald Tremblay and members of the executive committee, said Mayor Michael Applebaum.
The internal study, published in February 2004, found construction contracts were inflated by 30 to 40 per cent due to collusion in the industry.
Alain Bond, the city's comptroller, said former city director general Robert Abdallah and former head of the executive committee, Frank Zampino, kept that report under wraps." Link

"Quebec's court of appeal has rejected the bid of former lieutenant-governor Lise Thibault to have her fraud trial scrapped because she claims that as the Queen's representative, she wasn't subject to the court system.The 73-year-old is accused of using taxpayer dollars as her personal spending account. She allegedly bilked taxpayers of $700,000 from April 1997 to March 2007.
But the former Quebec viceroy claims the case should be scrapped because of royal prerogative, which is the collection of rights held by the Queen or her designates — the governor general and lieutenant-governors — that can technically override Canadian law." Link

Municipal officials in the Quebec town of Saint-Rémi say they are standing behind Mayor Michel Lavoie, who was arrested along with his son and a business partner this morning on charges of fraud and conspiracy.

Investigators with the province's anti-corruption unit (UPAC) allege Lavoie used his position to ensure public building projects were developed and built by family members or business partners. Link

"Quebec’s anti-corruption squad is investigating allegations against a member of the Lachine borough’s urban-planning committee for possible links to various real-estate developers, opposition borough councillor Jean-François Cloutier says ...
...A citizen then asked the borough council to name the two elected officials who sit on the committee along with representatives of the public.
Dauphin responded by naming himself and councillor Bernard Blanchet.
“It’s not me,” Dauphin added." Link .

"Quebec’s permanent anti-corruption unit wrapped up 2012 on Wednesday morning with a tightly scripted rundown of its accomplishments over the past 12 months, giving few hints about where it might be headed in 2013.
The numbers for 2012 — and there were a lot of them — were impressive.
The unit, known by the French acronym UPAC, put 49 people in handcuffs this year. It laid a total of 177 criminal charges, and executed 450 search warrants and other court orders. Read the rest of the story.    Alternate Link 

A witness at the Charbonneau inquiry has been arrested for lying before the commission.

François Thériault a work site inspector for the city of Montreal testified that he never received an illegal benefit in relation to his job authorizing 'extra' payments for construction projects. Investigators allege that he did indeed benefit from a $30,000 discount on his home purchased from one of these construction entrepreneurs. Link

Martin Patrquin has a great article on Quebec construction corruption in Maclean's this week

Hydro-Quebec a dog

During the election campaign last September the CAQ leader Francois Legault demanded that Hydro-Quebec make some essential cuts, cutting ineffectiveness and over-staffing in order to realize a 600 million saving.
It seems that the assessment was woefully understated.

For the average Quebecois, Hydro is seen as a national treasure, a symbol of Quebec's maturity, our ability to run things without foreign, Canadian or Anglophone interference.

In an article in L'Actuualite, Pierre Fortin writes that the $600 million demanded by Legault is but a pittance and the state electricity producer is actually wasting over 2 billion dollars a year.

According to the table on the right, the utility has 60 employees for every 10,000 customers, compared to the North American industry average of just 32.

Are Quebecers outraged?
At the time of publishing not one reader bothered to remark on the author's conclusions in the comment section!
Read the entire article in French

et cetera;

Guy Turcotte the cardiologist who murdered his two children was found to be not criminally responsible due to a mental defect, was let out of a mental institution, after just four years, apparently cured, according to his doctors.
This so outraged ordinary citizens that there is talk of reviewing the law by which he was released. Link
The mother of the murdered children was interviewed on CNN by none other than Anderson Cooper about the whole sordid affair. Read the story and watch the interview on CNN here: Canadian child-killer's release draws outrage.

Here's an unrelated story but an interesting one. An ex-Quebecer committed the same type of crime in Texas, murdering his son and injuring his daughter. Check out how the American justice system reacted: Ex-Montrealer gets 99 years for shooting his children in Texas

Pauline in New York promises Americans that Quebec is open for business

"A fictitious story about a controversial Montreal bylaw proposal requiring dogs to be comfortable in the country's two official languages has rippled through the realms of social media and fooled even some seasoned news sites." Link

"A mother of two is still in shock after her family was egged while she was parked on a residential street in Montreal - apparently for speaking English" Link

"For 20 years, St-Lazare had offered services in both English and French to its residents, but according to the French language charter the city didn’t meet the criteria for bilingual status.
On Tuesday night, St-Lazare city council said au revoir to English and voted to become a French-only town." Link

"The Ontario Provincial Police Hawkesbury detachment is the first in the province to become fully bilingual.
All of the 66 positions at the OPP’s Hawkesbury detachment were designated bilingual Dec. 1 by the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services and the Office of Francophone Affairs.
“French language services remain a critical operational component to providing exemplary policing services to the citizens and visitors of Hawkesbury and the surrounding area,” OPP Commissioner Chris Lewis said in a statement. “Ensuring that all members of Hawkesbury OPP detachment are bilingual addresses the needs of this community. This is a proud moment.” Link

On Saturday, December 8th, the Mouvement Québec français was to hold demonstrations across the province in front of Walmart stores, to protest the fact that the company as well as five others were going to court to defend their right to use their trademark without a French descriptor.
I looked high and low for any mention of the event in the press after the fact.
Strangely,  the MQF was silent, nary a word or picture mentioned on their website and no Youtube video to be found.
My only conclusion was that the event was an incredible bust.

>>>>>>>>>LATE BREAKING<<<<<<<<<< 

Late yesterday the MQF finally reported on the event and published a picture of the 'massive' demonstration that they held in front of Best Buy in LaSalle.

After weeks of exhortations for the faithful to attend, the event went off like the proverbial wet firecracker.

Go ahead readers, count up the participants of this vast outpouring of linguistic rage. In a region of over three million people, you can count the demonstrators on your fingers and toes.
Who knows, perhaps they had to bus some of them in as well!
How's that boycott working out Mario?

In other news, the bufoons of the MQF  proudly announced that they are forming a regional committee in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region to defend the 99% francophone residents from the impending Anglophone and English invasion.

The leader of the  preppers told reporters that he had a list of about 100 people, some of whom he was sure  might be interested in joining.
The founding meeting occurred on December 12th, with four people attending. Link{fr}

Richard Bain, the Anglo alleged shooter in the election night Metropolis incident has a knack for infuriating.

Bain evoked a furious reaction from the French media when he made an impromptu phone call to an English radio station while being locked up and now has unleashed another scornful gesture towards francophones.

"The man charged in Quebec's election-night shooting has refused to speak to a French-speaking psychiatrist, causing a delay in his case.

Richard Henry Bain was expected to receive the results of his assessment on Monday to determine whether he was fit to stand trial.

But the case was put off until Jan. 11 while the hospital that conducts the evaluation finds a different doctor. Bain will remain at Montreal's Pinel Institute until then." Link

Some other stories of interest;

- No, dogs don't have to be bilingual in Montreal; Link

- The OQLF wants the public to stop using the term "Boxing Day" Link {Fr}

- Montreal dog adoption service 'hounded' by Quebec's language police Link 

- OLF Orders Pharmacist's English Warning Posters And Flyers Removed  Link 

- Quebec coddled over other provinces: Survey  Link

Weekend reading:

From Coolopolis;

Maurice Duplessis: the reason people thought his death was faked 
Quebec's corner stores: disappearing neighbourhood heroes coping with government attack 
Streetcars - time to give up the dream

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 I received this Domino's Pizza menu in the mailbox and was amused to see that that the term "Canadian" pizza was replaced withe the term "Quebecoise"
At least there was an English text, even if it was smaller than the French! 
My question to readers is why 'Canadian'  is unacceptable as a name for a pizza, requiring rebranding, while "Philly' is perfectly acceptable in French?
And oh yes...the advertisement includes another great tribute to 'Engrish' ...."Feast Pizzas"
Good fun or am I being overly pedantic?

Do any of you have a sharp enough eye to pick out the Photoshop disaster in this Quebec government advertisement below? Who will be the first to claim the credit?

Missing Hockey, this will cheer you up.... I promise.

Can I entice you to  CLICK on this link?

Have a great weekend!
Bonne Fin de Semaine!