Language Insensitivity Plays Both Ways

I'd like to thank readers for their kind words in regards to our 1000th post.

As longtime readers know, I am not using the "Royal We" in describing myself and this blog, I use the term 'our' in acknowledging that this blog is collaborative, with a lively discussion every day in the comments section that most everyone finds satisfying or infuriating but not often dull.

Our 1000th post generated thousands of pageviews, so it is pretty clear that many readers drop by without commenting and that is just fine.

I do not get to see IP addresses and cannot identify anyone, but I do see what city people are coming from, whether they came directly or via a link from another website and what blog piece they are reading and whether they click on any of the links provided in our blog. 
As I said, it is strange to see a reader from say Perth, Australia visit our blog and leave via a French language link, but it happens all the time.
This week I noticed an uptick in readers arriving from vigile.net, so no doubt NoDogsOrAnglophones was mentioned in a recent blog piece, not in a particularly flattering manner, I imagine.
As you know, I often provide links for words or phrases that may be unfamiliar to readers for whom English is not their mother tongue. Some say it is annoying, but I see many, many of these links being clicked on every day, so I will continue to provide them.

Many Some francophones who visit this blog accuse me of being a Quebec-basher, an angryphone who hates Quebec.
Nothing could be farther from the truth, I love this province, just as many of you 'complaining' Anglos and Ethnics do as well.
I  enjoy speaking French, having spent a thirty year career travelling Eastern Canada and speaking French most of the time. I co-owned and helped manage a company which was staffed with employees who were 70% unilingually French.

By the way, many of my experiences that I write about have been been shaped not by my political involvement, but rather my professional career, travelling on a daily basis to the four corners of eastern Canada, working perhaps one day in the Saguenay region, visiting company installations in Dolbeau, Jonquière and Alma, to be followed the next day, perhaps by a trip to Fredericton, Moncton and Saint John in New Brunswick. Then it might be off on flight to the GTA, where I always made sure to dine at my favourite Chinese restaurant on Spadina, down the street from our company location.

I'd come back to my Montreal office for a day of office work, perhaps followed by a road trip down Highway 20, stopping perhaps in Beloeil, St. Hyacinthe, Drummondville and finally on to Quebec City.
I also did trips to Sandy Beach, Rimouski, Rivière-du-Loup in the Gaspé peninsula and visited Granby and Sherbrooke and Magog in the Townships on other days. Another day it would be a road trip to Ste. Agathe in the Laurentians, with stops in Laval, Rosemere, St. Sauver, St. Adele, with very occasional jaunt all the way up Highway 117 to Mont Laurier.

Let's not forget Eastern Ontario, Cornwall, Kingston and Ottawa as well trips to Abitibi visiting Val D'Or, Rouyn Noranda, LaSarre, Kirkland Lake and Timmins. And let me not forget to mention Halifax and environs.

Over those thirty years I think I got a sense of the locals, I knew these towns and cities like the back of my hand. Each was fascinating. I cherished my time on the road, the greatest learning experience of my life.

I liked my employees as well as the locals that I interacted with. Everyone knew I was a Anglophone boss from Montreal who spoke pretty good French and that seemed to make all the difference.  I was always treated with courtesy and respect. I made many friends, separatists as well.
It's hard to spend that many decades in the field and not learn a thing or two. Most of my memories are fond.
So why on Earth would I dislike Francophones or Quebec, I spent an entire lifetime interacting here on a most satisfactory level?

Quebec-Basher...me really?

I understand and respect Quebecers' right to speak and live French, I just have a difference of opinion with French language radicals who use the issue to divide and inflame based on a well-defined separatist agenda. If calling them out on their duplicity and dishonesty makes me an angryphone, so be it, I'll wear the badge with honour.

The truth is that I like francophones a whole lot and I particularly like the French language, it is quite simply beautiful, especially classically written French, which is simply delicious. Those who have the ability to read and understand Marcel Proust in classic French and William Shakespeare in old English, understand that languages are like flavours, the more you are familiar with, the more you enjoy life.
But even modern day French is wonderful, the blog pieces I read on French web sites, even amateur ones like vigile.net are chock full of literate and skillful writers, anyone who says different doesn't know what they are talking about.

At any rate for this 1001th  post, I am going to do something different, I'm going to play the 'l'avocat du diable' and I hope you indulge me. You might be surprised...

On Wednesday, I was watching a portion of the Charbonneau corruption commission on the French language news channel LCN, when a commercial appeared that had me scratching my head.

I recorded it and present it here, in accordance with fair use doctrine.

I don't know what the car company was thinking about in presenting a commercial on a French television channel that is essentially all in English.
The song, as you can hear, centers the commercial and sets the tone for what the company wants consumers to feel about the product, which is I imagine, the feeling of freedom to roam the countryside in their wonderful Dodge SUV.

If you are a native English speaker, the commercial is effective, the song, powerful and evoking, but if you are French....well that's another story.

More than half of Quebec francophones don't really speak English and I imagine that of the bilinguals, or semi-bilinguals, there aren't many who could understand the message or the mood that the commercial was trying to set. Music lyrics in a foreign language are always difficult to understand and even then, who of us concentrates on commercials anyways?
Commercials have but thirty seconds to catch our attention and make a point. For francophones I can't imagine the impact of this lame attempt.

So why not translate the lyrics into French to make the message more effective? This is not a political issue, it is a business issue.
I'm not proposing that the company use a different song, but hey, even Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer has a French version. Here's something sung by Dean Martin and Mireille Mathieu that is not quite a French version, but demonstrates the possibilities. Youtube

The idea is to sell trucks and I cannot imagine the message being more effective presented  in English than in French, to a francophone audience.

Now I'm not suggesting that the Bell Centre adopt an all French musical program during Montreal Canadiens hockey games, that is another case all together.
At the hockey arena, it is hit songs that the fans want to hear (I imagine) and all of the vast majority are sung in English, that is just the way it is.
I guess the days of a dreary organist playing old standards, lame renditions of Hava Nagila or NaNa Hey Hey are gone, but that being said, I do remember getting stirred up (like Pavlov's Dog) when the timeless Les Canadiens Sont là! struck up as the Canadiens jumped onto the ice to start the game.... but I digress.

In a letter to LE DEVOIR, a reader complains about English Christmas music in a Montreal shopping mall and I cannot help but agree.

"I just returned from Sears, the department store in Galeries d'Anjou in the east of Montreal. As you know, the east is the last refuge of "pures laines" francophones on the island of Montreal. The magic of Christmas was in full swing, but particularly in English. During the two hours I spent there, Christmas carols and holiday rigadoons echoed exclusively in the  language of Mordecai Richler.  
It seems that the magic of Christmas is now programmed directly from Chicago (or Toronto ...).  
But Sears is not the only culprit. In the mall, it's the same scenario, we hear but Bing Crosby and Nate King Cole. No Tino Rossi or Marie-Michèle Desrosiers, this in spite of being deep in the east end, with 90% of customers speaking French ...  
Another sign of the decline of French as I mentioned earlier?

Of course, the example is  trivial. We won't mount a battle for a few Christmas carols ... Far be it from me to suggest that we should regulate the music in shops and malls. Seriously ... But the example is instructive...." Link{Fr}

There is absolutely no excuse for not playing French Christmas music in the mall.
French Christmas carols are every bit as good as English ones, so it isn't a choice of quality. Christmas music is played in shopping centres to set a mood, it gets clients feeling good about the season and ultimately gets them into the spending mood.
Again, a good business decision would be to play French Christmas music, it resonates with French clients more so than does English music.
This isn't brain surgery, nor should it be a big political issue.
Those who program English Christmas music in a French-speaking area are lazy, stupid and not particularly adept at their job.

So should people complain, as this letter writer did?
They should, but they don't because most have busy lives to lead and so as the situation degenerates, it is up to the language hawks to make a big stink, which is unfortunate, but lazy and insensitive anglophones who make these bad decisions have to accept a measure of the blame.

I know most English Canadians believe that Quebecers are big complainers but the opposite is true. We hear the vocal minority, but the majority usually just grin and bear language slights.
I defend my francophone compatriots because they are my friends and I can't abide the injustices that they do suffer, deliberate or by accident.

How many products in our store have garbage French translations that should be insulting to all Canadians.

I'll let readers in the comment section explain the unfortunate translations above to those without French.

So I do support playing English music when francophones want to hear English hits (Bell Centre), but I cannot abide by English music being played when the francophones prefer to hear French  (shopping mall). Again, not brain surgery.

The language debate, whether it be signs or music, is complicated, in that everybody has a valid opinion, even if those that are diametrically opposed.

I'm reminded of one of my favourite scenes from Fiddler on the Roof wherein the main character, Tevye, is called upon to mediate a dispute.
He listens to the story told by the first of the disputees and promptly agrees that he is in the right. He then listens to the second story told by the opponent and agrees that he is also in the right.
When an onlooker reminds Tevye that they both can't be right, he agrees, telling the kibitzer that he is right as well!
Or as the old CERTS commercial told us...."Stop, You're both right!"

Such is our language debate.

Here is an article that I found online, that has nothing and everything to do with our Quebec language debate, from all places...Israel.

"Others like Haifa’s mayor, Yona Yahav, are fighting to prevent the English language from taking over both the municipality and from appearing on business signs across the city.

Yahav, who was born in Haifa before Israel became a state, has had enough with English dominating the coastal city and has banned municipal employees from using English words such as global, audition, fine-tuning, test, and project in official documents, in order to encourage Hebrew word usage.

Likewise, the Haifa mayor is trying to stop businesses from using only English signs to market their services.

It all started when Yahav went to get his haircut at his favourite barber and discovered to his dismay that the barbershop had a huge sign with the word, "Hair Stylist," printed on it. The Haifa mayor asked the young owner to switch the sign into Hebrew, and when the owner refused, the mayor decided that he would start a campaign against the overuse of English in his city.  Link

Language will always be an issue, such is our destiny in Quebec.

As for music in the Bell Centre, one final note.
When that day comes that the Habs win another the Stanley Cup on home ice(cough, cough!..) I know one English song that will be played that not even the staunchest of French language militants will complain about.

"We are the Champions."....by Queen.


Readers, it's Friday and I like to finish with a smile.
This is what made me laugh this week, I hope you get a chuckle.

and finally....

Have a great weekend!
Bonne  fin de semaine!

One Thousandth Post

It's hard to believe that we've gotten this far, but as I look down on the statistics page attached to this blog it tells me that this is the 1,000th post, which actually surprises me because I never thought I would stick with it this long.

In those 1,000 posts, I've written somewhere in the neighborhood of a million and a half words garnering some 35,000 comments!

Considering that in the first year I was basically writing to myself, excited to see a comment or two, we've come a long way.
This year we've approached, but not quite reached a million pageviews, something again I never believed could happen given the narrow scope of this blog.

It never was and remains today my intention to preach, I've realized that it is almost impossible to change somebody's mind when that person has firmly decided on a position.
My main goal is to call out separatist politicians and militants for misleading, lying and otherwise using dirty tricks to dishonestly advance their separatist agenda.

The militant separatists who come to our site do so to either troll or to recharge their separatist batteries by observing we, their 'enemies,' in our natural and unbridled element. To them I say, Welcome aboard, we aren't going anywhere.

I sum up their attitude with a paraphrased line that I repeated in a blog post a while back from the classic movie, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. When Humphrey Bogart asks an obviously phoney policeman for identification, the bandit answers;
"We don't need no stinkin' badges" (actually the line is a little different, but has become popular in this form)

Why this line?
Because it is the answer that separatists give every time they are reminded what their radicalism costs.

We don't need no stinkin' Walmart.
We don't need no stinkin' jobs. 
We don't need no stinkin' investment. 
We don't need no stinkin' head offices. 
We don't need no stinkin' skyscrapers.
We don't need no stinkin' Anglos.

This morning I read this story in Le Devoir
 "Air Canada hurts Montreal's growth"
(Air Canada nuit à la croissance de Montréal)
The story goes on to say that Air Canada is hurting Montreal by making Toronto its hub for international flights.
The truth is that Montreal will soon slip to fourth place in terms of air traffic behind Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto. Of course the writer of that article blames the sorry state of affairs on Air Canada, for being a bad corporate citizen.
In his opinion the airline shouldn't arrange its affairs to maximize profits, if it hurts Quebec!
The separatist response?;
"We don't need no stinkin' Air Canada"

Sadly, Air Canada's gradual shift away from Montreal is an allegorical description as to what has happened to our province. Link {fr} 

How many companies have said no to Montreal because of high taxes and prohibitive language laws?
What right-thinking international foreign company would choose Montreal as a location for their head-office when they conduct their business in North America in English and must afford employees the right to work in  French?
Waivers you say? That is what the separatists will answer, to which these companies reply;
We don't want no stinkin' waivers! We're going somewhere more hospitable"

When it comes to a list for possible location, be it a multimillion dollar corporation or an NHL free agent, Montreal and Quebec are generally struck from the list of possibilities, with good reason. Call it the "Lindros Effect."
Watch this old video from the CBC and tell me that Quebec's sour grapes attitude isn't exactly what I describe above.
Readers, I guarantee someone in the comments section will point out that Lindros was a bust, so no great loss. In other words;
"We don't want no stinkin' Lindros!

The dirty secret is that in order to attract any foreign investment that creates jobs, the Quebec government has to offer massive amounts of tax breaks, six times more than Ontario does per capita.
The hidden cost of these forgone taxes costs the Quebec treasury billions, but the figure never shows up because it is money never received.
But in Quebec, these facts aren't important.
When you are a separatist, you can explain anything away.

Remember the righteous outrage when Maclean's magazine called Quebec the most corrupt province? When it turned out to be true, the narrative changed.
Today the separatist line is that the corruption is due to federalists and at any rate, all the other provinces are just as corrupt, only Quebec has the courage to face it down. Hmmmmm.....

So that is why I don't bother arguing with separatists, they will never, ever believe that the sovereignty or language issue has been and remains detrimental to Quebec's growth and prosperity, this despite the clear evidence staring them in the face.

There are enough separatist charlatans on the airwaves telling us that an independent Quebec will be a paradise and that the repatriated taxes sent to Ottawa will be enough to make Quebec a gloriously successful and economically sound country. People believe what they want to believe, damn the evidence.
But the harm that these separatist con artists have brought down onto our economy is devastatingly real, sending Quebecers on an ever-downward spiral to economic disaster.
This week, my favourite Montreal city councillor Marvin Rotrand proposed hiking parking meter fees to match those in Toronto, Calgary or Vancouver, a reasonable argument until one takes into consideration that Montrealers are at least 25% poorer than citizens in those boom towns, when one considers income and personal and consumption taxes.
We have become little league, courtesy of language militants and separatists and that's the plain truth.

Sadly all this is done for no good reason, the French language in Quebec is in as much danger as Danish in Denmark or Hebrew in Israel.

The language issue is manufactured to boost support for sovereignty and nothing else.
Back in the days of the FLQ, Montreal was ten times as bilingual as it is now and yet language was never even brought up in the FLQ famous manifesto and nobody on the French side was 'anglicized' because of signs and store names.

Back then, the sovereignty issue was economic, the fact that francophones didn't control the economic levers of society.
We all know that the situation changed over the last forty years and now francophones are truly masters in their own domain.
But this left separatists without a burning issue to fire up the independence movement and so the phoney language issue was invented.

Every time you hear the language debate brought up, it is just a separatist wanting to drum up support for sovereignty. The unintended consequence of this underhanded, phoney separatist issue is that it hurts the economic well-being of our province, but to separatists it cannot be true, because they don't want it to be true.

The separatist/language flirtation has turned Quebec into a basket case, deep in debt and beholding to other Canadiens for its yearly allowance. We have gone from being a powerhouse to living in the poor house.

When Sun Life of Canada  told the PQ government that Bill 101 made Quebec an inhospitable home back in 1978 and moved to Toronto, it marked a watershed moment in Quebec economic history, the province set on a course of economic decline that still hasn't run it course.
Do Quebecers realize or care that the jobs provided by that one company, would support a town of 40,000-60,000 people?
Think of all the other head offices that left, perhaps less flamboyantly, but nonetheless taking tens of thousands of jobs with them.
But the separatist response now, is the same that we heard back then.

"We don't need no stinkin' Sun Life!
  
Today we are caught in an unenviable Catch-22 situation, ruled by separatists who don't and never will have enough support to separate.
Like a child playing house, it is all make believe, except that the damage caused by pretending that this province is on the march to sovereignty, is oh so real.

And so I shall continue to write about the lies, misinformation and cruel manipulation that is the separatist/language movement and hope that some of the facts that I point out will become part of the debate.
I'm not hopeful, but try I must.
Try we all must.

A note to readers.
I have heard the call about the comments section becoming unwieldy and promise to move to a new platform like Disqus or Facebook commenting as soon as I find someone able to help me with the migration.
It has become practically impossible to follow a discussion or train of thought when there are 300 comments.

I believe that BLOGGER isn't really designed for so many comments, as they don't seem to make updating the comment section a priority.

The new comment section will probably be a lot smaller, but more readable and interesting.
I promise to enact more control on trolls and eliminate one line comments that don't add anything to the conversation.

It is an evolution that is necessary, like a tree in need of pruning.
I know the regular contributors will come along, making the necessary effort to participate and that  is probably all that counts

As always, I want to thank you the readers without which I would have been long gone before this 1000th  post.
Best regards!

Quebec Equality Party Re-Forming

Equality Party Facebook Page

It seems to be semi-official, the Quebec Equality Party is re-forming and plans to be up and running within a couple of months.

As the old party seems to have lapsed in the eyes of the Director General of Elections, it means starting over from scratch, collecting names and members and reconstituting itself with a new leader.

There are many reasons, in my opinion that Quebec anglos, ethnics and francophone federalists need the party, but before I go on I want to address all of you who believe that the party would somehow be ineffective and that vote splitting would cause more harm than good.

The reality is that we are up against the wall, all the provincial parties have in place policies that will see the destruction of our community, some sooner, others later.

As per-vote subsidy will come into effect soon, a vote for the Equality Party, even without electing anybody, could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in money that can be used to defend our rights.

An official party would get exposure and like it or not, television and radio stations would have to offer on air time that would let us rebut separatist propaganda.

But the Equality Party could be much more.

It could serve to organize legal resources for those facing down the OQLF.

It could create fundraising apparatus to challenge Quebec language laws all the way to the Supreme Court.

It could lobby Ottawa politicians to enact federal laws to protect English in Quebec via amendments to the Official Languages Act.

The Equality Party can serve, not only as a political party, but as a resource centre to counter the onslaught of French language/separatist militancy.

The Equality Party doesn't even have to elect anybody to be relevant, but if just one member was elected he or she could prove to be a powerful voice of dissent.

Remember that Amir Khadir stood alone in the National Assembly for years and who can doubt his effectiveness.
Today, Quebec Solidaire, with just two members remains a force in Quebec politics.

Lastly, the Equality Party should work to expose nationally those who oppress Anglo and Ethnic rights as well as the right of Francophones not to be treated as second class citizens as they are under Bill 101.

I have mentioned before that for English rights and personal choice to be preserved in Quebec, the fight must be taken outside the province.

For the cynics who say the Equality Party won't be effective, I promise them that they are wrong.
With the right strategies, an activist Equality Party can be devastatingly effective, but more on that later, it is not my place to speak for the party.

Temporarily, the Equality Party has a Facebook page up, but is preparing a full-scale website and membership drive. LINK
I certainly will be taking out membership and be making a political contribution as I hope you will as well.

Most importantly, for many of you, the Equality Party can be the vehicle you are looking for to get back involved in defence of our rights.


For the cynics, my advice is to stay on the sideline, the Equality Party is looking for men and women determined to stand up for themselves, their community and their province.

Are you that person?

OQLF Demands Descriptors, the World Laughs

When the OQLF tells us, with the rabid support of militant separatist organizations, that it is only 'natural' and 'reasonable' that companies operating in Quebec use a modifying French descriptor on logos and trademarks to pay respect to the francophone majority, it begs the question;

What does the rest of the world do?

And so we are fed the line that this demand for descriptors is one made all around the world and Quebec is no different from other jurisdictions that demand companies 'localize' their names.

I know this to be a lie, because the concept is utterly laughable, no sane government would ever demand that "Cirque de Soleil" change its name "Cirque de Soleil Circus"

Militant language groups have been front and centre spreading the misinformation (especially the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste) about foreign descriptors, mostly by repeating facts that are clearly  not facts and  propagating the falsehood that descriptors are commonplace around the world.

Here is an example of one of the outright lies being peddled by the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste de la Mauricie (SSJB), a regional offshoot of the SSJB. Spokesmen Jean Breton and Guy Rousseau held a news conference to demand that companies which sound 'too English,' add a French descriptor to 'respect' the locals.

Toy R Us in Norway (above) and in Japan (below.)

"The OQLF requires merchants whose image is English, to add a generic term or slogan in French.
For example, "Toys 'R' Us" could become '"Toys 'R' Us Magasin pour enfants'" (store for children..ed)
"If you're in Norway, it is normal to display in Norwegian, likewise in Japan. Why would it be different here? Because we are only eight million? "Asks Mr. Rousseau. "We must stop denying our roots and show a little pride," he adds. Link{fr}

The reality is that in Norway and in Japan, contrary to what Mr. Rousseau tells us, Toys R Us does not use any descriptor, nor does it translate its name into Japanese or Norwegian.

In fact the one person who commented under the story, said this;

"Before commenting, Mr. Rousseau would do well to check the facts... It's funny, we spent 17 days last summer in the Scandinavian countries, including Norway. One thing that struck us was the number of Burger King, Subway, McDonalds we saw, all displaying the name in English. In Copenhagen we even saw the prestigious Royal Copenhagen - more English than that ... Also, I'm sure that Mr. Rousseau would be disappointed to learn that in all the shops we visited, staff were happy to serve us In English." Link{fr}

Not only does the chain not provide descriptors, nor a translation into Japanese or Norwegian, a visit to a Toys R Us store in Japan would give our language inspectors an instant heart attack.
Take this tour on Youtube and count the number of language infractions that would be found by an OQLF inspector if Japan applied Quebec rules to its retailers. YouTube

By the way France doesn't demand descriptors as well.

Interestingly, a visit to the Norwegian Toy R Us website (written in Norwegian) shows that packaging for many toys are in English only.  Link

Readers, come with me for a world tour where we shall investigate the world of descriptors. We don't need an airline or train ticket, we shall stay in the comfort of home, making use of this newfangled internet to visit those international stores around the world.

So here are a bunch of signs from around the world that would have Camille Laurin rolling over in his grave.
Attention OQLF, SSJB, this post is for you;

From France, here's an advertisement that will curl your toes. Also nooooo descriptor!

Subway menu in Hong Kong.

ISRAEL.....That's some Descriptor! 'Kosher 'in English and Hebrew! Notice the 'OPEN' sign strictly in English

Subway in PORTUGAL. Fresh and tasty, but no descriptor

Subway in Bulgaria. Notice the  "OPEN" sign

Subway in Romania. 

Now readers lets us not confuse descriptors with translations.
Some countries who do not use the western alphabet translate the business name into something locals can understand.

This is not a descriptor, just a phonetic translation which reads BURGER KING

BURGER KING returns to  Marseilles France.

 Whats on the menu at this new Burger King in France?
"Whopper, SteakHouse, Chilicheese Burger, Big King, Tendergrill.."...Hmmmm.  Link

Descriptors in  Italy?  Nope, just an 'OPEN' sign

Here's a Walmart in Mexico that does have a descriptor. I wonder if this is what Mario Beaulieu is talking about!

Footlocker and No Descriptors 

This is not a Chinese descriptor, strictly a translation of the letters K-F-C into Chinese, which is often the case where the local population doesn't understand the western alphabet.

In Quebec KFC is PFK, as for the rest of the world, KFC is KFC...

 It's catchphrase translated, but not a descriptor...

Walmart in Mexico City

Best Buy in Mexico

 Banana Republic in Paris

 Gap on the Champs-Elysées in Paris 


How about some menus and how the local language is respected

If this menu from the French website of KFC was offered in Quebec, there would be riots. 

The logo in the top left corner has an English catchphrase.

The buckets are not called 'Barils' as in Quebec and the name of the product is the completely English expression..."2'GETHER BUCKET"

Other products include "Hot Wings" and "Crispy Tenders"

How about this online menu in Italy, not much effort to Italianize anything. Anyone for a "Crispy Chicken Deluxe"?

and finally this;

It seems as highlighted above, companies go beyond what they do in other countries to accommodate francophone Quebeckers, but it seems that it is never enough.

All in all, this whole issue of descriptors seems to be a  'Quebec versus the world' thing.

While the entire world embraces foreign logos and trademarks, Quebec whines that they are a threat.

When it comes to descriptors, Quebec is just about alone in the civilized world in its demand that corporate names be localized.

It isn't normal or par for the course.

It is just plain hatred of anything English, pure and simple,

Descriptors aren't a matter of respect, they are a matter humiliation, something to be resisted at all costs and giving in to the blackmail is akin to allowing a petulant child get his way just because he will not stop whinging.

Next time French language militants make outrageous claims, let's call them out.

The FLQ versus Richard Bain

Richard Bane, the murderer alleged shooter and murderer of stage worker Denis Blanchette at the Metroplis theatre the night of the PQ's election may be sane or he may be slightly daft, we haven't been apprised of the contents of the psychiatric report because Bain has objected that the document be deposited with the court in English at his trial.

Let me preface this blog piece by saying that unlike the jury who in the trial of Guy Turcotte acquitted the good doctor by reason of insanity in the murder of his two young children, I hope that Bain gets the max and rots in jail for the rest of his life for depriving a three year-old girl of her father just because the unlucky sap, her father, got in Bain's way on his way to kill Pauline Marois.

If Bain is found to be 100% nuts, it wouldn't change my mind, the consequence of being found not criminally responsible via the insanity defence is too high a price for society and more importantly, the family of the victim to pay.

In advancing the so-called right of the criminally insane to an acquittal, we hinder  the grieving family from achieving closure and healing, the idea that the murderer will be walking around society, free as a jaybird, because he is somehow 'cured' is akin to imposing upon the aggrieved family a lifetime sentence of pain and suffering.

So I'm not much interested if Bain is certifiable, I've no interest in seeing him acquitted via the insanity defence. That's just an opinion, you may or may not agree.

That being said, it isn't going to happen, unlike Guy Turcotte, no Quebec jury will ever let him skate on the murder, the idea of him eventually getting out after a couple of years in a prison hospital, amazingly cured, is a cup of poison that nobody, English or French will tolerate.

That being said, who can deny that Bain lost his marbles that night when he tried to kill Marois and truth be told, he actually has a better case of temporary insanity than did Turcotte.
Up to the incident at the Metropolis, Bain seemed to function reasonably well, providing for himself and keeping out of trouble, a seemingly productive member of society.

Who but a seriously afflicted person goes on a political assassination mission dressed in a bathrobe. I think that this fact alone speaks for his deranged mental condition, Res ipsa loquitur .

At his preliminary hearings, Bain probably said it best, joking that he was "75% sane, not bad" according to him, "considering that the 'separatists' who want to separate need only 50% of the vote."
Very clever...er.... Link

But in the end Bain isn't going to get to enjoy the compassionate side of Quebec justice, it's already in the cards.
He's going to be found competent and guilty, and will be sent down for the maximum, anything less would have the militants leading marches in the streets.

And so it brings me to ask the question that nobody will ask, that is, will Bain enjoy the relative light hand of the justice system that the murderers of the FLQ enjoyed?

You might recall that the FLQ was responsible for over 160 terrorist attacks resulting in eight deaths and a multitude of injured.
The entire terrorist group numbering around thirty was treated rather gingerly by the justice system, starting with  Gabriel Hudon and Raymond Villeneuve who were sentenced to 12 years in prison after their bomb killed Wilfred O'Neill, a watchman at Montreal's Canadian Army Recruitment Centre. Wikipedia  The two were paroled after just four years.

The murderers of Pierre Laporte, Francis Simard and Paul Rose received a life sentence but were paroled after 11 years.

 Jacques Lanctôt,  Yves Langlois,, Jacques Cossette-Trudel and his wife, Louise Lanctôt the kidnappers of James Cross, were allowed to flee to Cuba in return for his release.
They all returned to Canada a few years later and received ridiculously low jail sentences, most about two years with parole after just eight months.

The most notorious FLQ terrorist is Pierre-Paul Geoffroy, an unrepentant bomber who received the harshest jail sentence for his various terrorist crimes ever handed out by a judge in the Commonwealth, 124 life sentences. He was paroled just ten years later. Link{Fr}

The longest jail sentence ever served by a Felkist was that of François Schirm who was actually sentenced to death for a murder committed during a robbery at an armoury in an attempt to secure weapons for the FLQ. In the end, he served 14 years before being released. 

So the question begs, will an Anglo terrorist be treated as tenderly as these FLQ terrorists?

I somehow feel that Bain is going to pay a price that no FLQ murderer ever paid. As for public sentiment towards Bain, I'm reminded of the old movie line from Silverado;

"We're gonna give you a fair trial, followed by a first class hanging."

Already the media has created a cordon sanitaire, refusing to let Mr. Bain tell his side of the story and explain exactly what he did and why he did it.

Against legal advice Bain called English radio station CJAD in Montreal where he gave a thirty-eight minute interview, of which only two minutes were aired, which caused a firestorm of criticism in the French press for allowing Bain a tribune to push his partitionist views 

So I wasn't surprised that in another interview he gave, this time with Claude Poirer, Quebec's veteran crime reporter, Bain was treated as if he was radio-active.
Usually these calls are a reporter's wet dream, a scoop of inestimable value, but Porier on advice from his bosses, danced around the interview like a child licking icing off a cake, trying hard not to disturb its appearance, lest she be caught.

It seems that the word is out in the media (anglo + Franco) not to let Bain speak his mind when he phones media outlets (against his lawyer's instructions)

I certainly would like to hear what he has to say, just like I'd like to hear an interview with Luka Magnotta.
Doesn't the public have a right to hear to the story directly from the horse's mouth?

At any rate, I don't think Bain will be treated as well as the ex-FLQ terrorists who have largely been re-integrated into Quebec society, many quite successfully.
As for being murdering terrorists, they hardly seemed stigmatized and enjoy very open public careers like Pierre Schneider and Raymond Villeneuve.
For Quebecers, its largely forgive and forget.

Do you think the media and the public will ever forgive Richard Bain to the extent of those in the FLQ?