French versus English Volume 73

A picture of mental health!

Bain fit to stand trial

As I predicted Richard Bain has been found competent to stand trial.

It made no difference to the court whether Bain was certifiable or not, the public just wouldn't stand for him getting off on the insanity defence à la Guy Turcotte and any shrink who would sign off to the fact that Bain is a nutter and unfit to stand trial, would in all likelihood, be publicly lynched. Read my post The FLQ versus Richard Bain

  ".....psychiatrist Chantal Bouchard told the court that Bain refused to speak with her during two meetings at the Pinel Institute.
She said Bain politely explained to her he would rather have an anglophone psychiatrist.
Bouchard told the court she could not find any reason to declare Bain unfit to stand trial." Link

 Hmmm... that's a novel approach....a psychiatrist who doesn't examine the patient, yet makes a diagnosis attesting to his sanity!

But perhaps the psychiatrist was right and Richard Bain is saner than us all, his wearing of a bathrobe on his political assassination mission a brilliant ruse.
After all, his innovative disguise worked like a charm, Bain sliced through the police cordon like a hot knife through butter and if not for the fact that his rifle jammed, Pauline might very be well be pushing up dasies now.
Perhaps Bain was inspired by the Fredrick Forsythe novel the The Day of the Jackal, a thriller where an assassin takes on the persona of an old, raggedy, ex-soldier amputee in order to get close to his target, the very well protected Charles DeGalle.

All that being said, it shapes up to be an amusing interesting trial, especially if Bain gets to defend himself.

Not withstanding the unlikely and fanciful scenario that I describe above, and the expert psychiatric opinion that confirms that Bain is sane, between you, me and the lamppost, he is nuttier than an Oh Henry! bar.

I'm reminded of the line in the movie Silverado where Sherif Cobb unloaded this memorable line;
"We're gonna give you a fair trial, followed by a first class hanging."

Will the fact that he is an Anglo 'terrorist' instead of a francophone 'terrorist' make a difference in his sentence?

Yup, Bain is going to prison all day, unlike the three FLQ murderers of Pierre Laporte, who served just five, seven and eleven years.

Now I'm going to make a confession, even though I believe Bain is nuttier than a fruitcake, I have no problem sending him to jail forever. That little three-year old girl whose father was killed capriciously, will grow up without a father and the idea that Bain will get out of prison one day to mock her loss is just unacceptable.
Oops, sorry for the mini-rant.

Marois bombs in Europe, tells 2 lies in television interview

First Pauline attended the famous Davos economic conference where she gave a speech to a room empty to all but those from Canada. It seems that every Canadian body available was seconded to duty in order that the room be filled.
Then she had to defend her separatist politics before multinationals;

"Quebec Premier Pauline Marois says she has made an effort to reassure multinational corporations concerned about the policies of her Parti Quebecois government." Link

Then it was her highly touted visit to Scotland that bombed rather badly.
This from The Scotsman.

"Independence: Alex Salmond turns down Quebec offer"

"ALEX Salmond declined an offer from Quebec premier Pauline Marois to share information and documents on the two referendums that narrowly failed to give the province independence from Canada.
Despite suggestions that Ms Marois would be willing to pass on information about the votes with the SNP leader, the Quebec premier last night disclosed that Mr Salmond did not take up the offer.
Yesterday’s meeting in Edinburgh had been dubbed a “separatism summit” by some sections of the Canadian media following Ms Marois, leader of the nationalist Partis Quebecois, when she met Mr Salmond for the first time.
Mr Salmond, on the other hand, appeared to be keen to keep the meeting relatively low key. Television cameras were not allowed access to the meeting and a terse joint statement was issued afterwards." Link

But even worse, was this humiliating assessment of the visit in  The Guardian;

"Alex Salmond takes spotlight away from nationalists' 'summit'"

"It was billed as a "historic meeting" between two senior nationalist leaders, the premiers of Québec and Scotland. So Pauline Marois, leader of the French-speaking province in Canada, arrived in Edinburgh to meet Alex Salmond with great expectations of high political theatre.
Instead, it became, in the words of one mystified Québécois journalist who has followed Marois's short European tour after last week's Davos world summit, "anything but". Their meeting was in private, squeezed between Salmond's existing diary commitments.
The large press corp that had travelled from Canada to Switzerland, then to London and finally Edinburgh, were irritated: they were expecting a public event with both leaders, something with historic significance....

...It seemed that Scotland's first minister, a shrewd political operator with an often exquisite sense of political timing, was far less enthralled. His officials were puzzled by the heavy billing that their meeting was getting in the Québécois and Canadian media.
"It's purely a courtesy event: 'very nice to meet you'," said one bemused civil servant in Edinburgh.
"The Quebecois are making more of this. We've a photographer in there who will take a handshake, [a] greeting; he's meeting her in between running votes, so it will be short." Read the rest of the humiliating story

Marois lies in BBC interview CLICK TO WATCH

Now the CBC and others reviewed an interview she gave to the BBC, but all failed to report that her much improved English was still humiliatingly sub-par. Worse still, nobody reported that in the interview she outright lied.

Watch the interview in halting English 
Some beauties;
"We are very interesting in your festival in Edinburgh (sic)."
"We will split....er partage....informations."
"Scotland is a people with a strange identity ."

At 2:55 minutes into interview Pauline said that the YES side lost the referendum by just 36,000 votes when the real figure was 54,000 vote.

You migh be inclined to pardon this small blunder but how about the whopper where she tells the interviewer that sovereignty support is running at between 44% and 42%. (3:10mins.)

That wasn't a little error, it was a big lie.

 Franco-supremacist gaining influence in PQ government

Up to now Mario Beaulieu, a man who never read or heard an English word he liked, was nothing more than a media personality, the buffoon running the extremist Societe Saint-Jean-Baptiste and Mouvement Québec français, two radical language groups that seek the eradication of English in Quebec.

But with the  new PQ government he is being elevated to a status of outside language advisor and sat in on a meeting with the health minister and hospital officials concerning control of the Lachine hospital, which he and the PQ government want to take control away from the MUHC, in order that a French governing body run the hospital, much to the dismay of patients and doctors

"Health Minister Réjean Hébert met with French-language activist Mario Beaulieu, among others, to discuss Lachine Hospital before deciding to pull it out of the bilingual McGill University Health Centre and reintegrate it into “a local (francophone) health network,” The Gazette has learned....

Saba said he was stunned that Hébert chose to focus on language in justifying a transfer of Lachine Hospital to the Centre de santé et des services sociaux (CSSS) of Dorval-Lachine-LaSalle.

Saba warned the minister at the meeting that doctors at Lachine Hospital did not want to be reintegrated into the CSSS. “It’s like you’re asking me to go back with my ex-wife,” is what Saba recalls telling the minister

Saba noted that under the jurisdiction of the CSSS, Lachine Hospital’s intensive-care unit was going to close and ambulances were no longer allowed to transport patients to its emergency room because of insufficient staffing. Read more

Then Mr. Beaulieu gave lessons to Jean-François Lisée;

"In a recent radio interview, Jean-François Lisée suggested that the STM should make more of an effort to hire bilingual employees. "STM are you listening?" said Lisée on CJAD's Tommy Schnurmacher's show, "simply call the Office Québécoise de la langue française make that case and you will be able to hire bilingual employees."
That statement isn't sitting well with the Société St-Jean-Baptiste, who wrote an open letter to Lisée this week, condemning the PQ minister's push for more English in Montreal's public transit system. "We have the impression Mr. Lisée is going back on his word" said Beaulieu, “it's upsetting because the STM gives a good service to tourists and anglophones”.
Plus, he noted that most complaints over language come from anglophone Montrealers, not out-of-towners." Read the rest of the story

By the way the STM, Montreal's bus and metro company made a strongly worded statement re-iterating that they are vehemly opposed to biligualism.

The STM is currently analyzing the need for bilingual employees and will report to the OQLF in the spring. However, there is no question of plunging into full bilingualism, said spokesperson Odile Paradis. "There is not a single bus driver in Quebec who will be required to have a knowledge of English, not even in Outaouais and Sherbrooke," says Ms. Paradis.

"We are not go towards bilingualism for everyone, but our service has always been exemplary," says she. "Bill 14 will tighten the law even more, she sees it as a an affirmation of the French fact in Quebec. This is not going to open more bilingualism," says Ms. Paradis. The current law makes us demonstrate that the "necessity" of bilingualism for a position.
Link{fr}

In a rare rare language defeat, Metro food chain shareholders voted by a massive 98% not to add an accent to in order to francicize its name. LINK

OQLF Cupcake war

A West Island cupcake shop is the latest small business to have drawn the ire of the province's language watchdog.

For six years, Tanya Bouzaglo has been known as the Crazy About Cupcakes lady, selling her culinary creations from her Pointe Claire village storefront.
But last April, she appeared on the OQLF's radar and a few months later she was hit with four violations, including her company's name which would have to include a French descriptor such as pâtisserie to make it conform. Read more

Pauline buys 200 jobs, misleads the public over subsidy

"Marois also attended an announcement by British special-effects firm Framestore, which says it will create 200 jobs in Montreal.
Quebec will give the firm an interest-free loan of $900,000 over five years and although Marois said it would get no tax credits, company CEO William Sargent said tax credits were one of the reasons Framestone decided to set up in Montreal. " Link

According to Premier Marois, the cost of the interest free loan for the government is about $35,000;

"This is a modest cost for us, but for the company it is the boost that makes the difference," she argued. Link

I've noticed that Marois is fast becoming very adept at misleading the public, if not outright lying, this is just one example of how she doesn't tell the real story.
Do you honestly believe that the company would move to Montreal over a $35,000 yearly subsidy?
 
According to the president of Framestore, Sir William Sargent, tax credits are really the key to the decision to move to Montreal.

"Like all other special effects companies in Quebec, Framestore also benefits from the Quebec tax credit of 45% of the contract value for special effects made ​​in Quebec. Framestore does not directly pocket the tax credit, it is usually reserved for film producers doing business with these Quebec special effects companies (like Framestore). This tax credit makes it possible to reduce the actual cost of special effects for Hollywood producers. "It is important for our customers," said Sir Sargent. Link

So Marois technically told the truth that Framestore won't directly get tax credits, but failed  to mention that its customers will get the tax credit, allowing Framestore to charge more for its services, the bill to the customer subsidized by the government indirectly.
The Quebec government currently spends $117 million a year to finance its refundable tax credit for multimedia firms. Read the story 

Incidentally, Framestore's job-posting website is advertising job openings in Montreal. The web site is entirely in English with the promise that a French version is on its way. (Perhaps after all the jobs are filled!) Framestore career website
Of course the company is setting up in the Mile-End district of Montreal, centre of the video game and special effect industry and perhaps the trendiest, hippest, most dynamically creative neighbourhood in all of Canada. Mile-End is also home to the best bagels in the world.

Minister Diane De Courcy unloads some beauts;

Diane De Courcy, PQ minister in charge of Bill 101  Link{fr}

"At this moment, students go to English cegeps because they believe that English is necessary for employment. We want to change this vision.
(En ce moment, les étudiants vont dans les cégeps anglophones parce qu’ils jugent que l’anglais est nécessaire pour travailler. Nous voulons changer cette vision."


"The population has evolved over the last decades, some municipalities risk losing their bilingual status. To the contrary, other cities could gain this status."
("La population ayant évolué depuis les dernières décennies, certaines municipalités risquent de perdre leur statut bilingue. Au contraire, d’autres villes pourraient se voir attribuer ce statut.")  

Corruption watch this week.

It's almost getting boring, hearing about the thoroughly corrupt nature of Quebec politics, but the hits just keep coming.
This week, it was Michel Lalonde of the consulting/engineering firm, Génius Conseil  to unload, admitting to being a crook and telling all.
(Those who confess are given immunity)

He told the Crime commision that he was in charge of splitting up contracts between the other consulting/engineering firms which oversaw projects on behalf of the government, approving overcharges of up to 30%.
These firms were supposed to act on the government behalf to ensure projects were well run and on budget, but were all thoroughly corrupt approving overcharges of up to 30% and paying off politicians to look the other way.
He also named the various Montreal politicians on the take, including many borough mayors.
You can read the sordid details. HERE

On another front Quebec's powerful SNC-Lavalin, Canada's biggest and most successful consulting/engineering firm is subject to some pretty serious fraud allegations.

"A former SNC-Lavalin executive allegedly paid the son of dictator Moammar Gadhafi $160 million in kickbacks to obtain major contracts in Libya, according to an unsealed affidavit from the RCMP's anti-corruption squad." Link

Readers may recall, that the RCMP is also probing possible bribes paid out by the company, in relation to the awarding of the control for Montreal's superhospital. Police are also interested in the link to the infamous Arthur Porter Link

According to an analyst at Canaccord Genuity, it's only a matter of time before SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. faces criminal charges under Canada’s corruption laws LINK

Mulcair bumps heads with Trudeau over Clarity act.

"Liberal leadership candidate Justin Trudeau slammed NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair's stance on introducing a new bill that would combine the NDP's Sherbrooke Declaration on sovereignty in Quebec with the Clarity Act, keeping the NDP's resolution to recognize a 50-per-cent-plus-one vote in any future referendum. LINK   

It reminds me of a discussion on the The Big Bang Theory where the nerds argue over which superhero is stronger.

The whole subject is a bit tedious and I only included this item because it is something clever that the redoubtable Stéphane Dion contributed to the discussion.

The new bill tabled Monday by the NDP will state that 50-per-cent-plus-one is a clear majority, if the vote count has been done correctly. We all know that the Clarity Act calls for a clear (yet undefined) majority.

"Speaking in defence of the Clarity Act, its author Liberal MP Stéphane Dion asked if 50-per-cent-plus-one is a clear majority, then what could be an unclear majority?" Link

Ha! Touché!

LeavingQuebec.com

The very successful website Quitterlequebec.com now has a sister English site, Leavingquebec.com, dedicated to helping those leave Quebec.
Here's one of the testimonials;

My little story is as follows. I’m Scots, fully bilingual and spent 42 years around St Lambert. I was a school principal in that area for 22 years, and retired in ’97. I spend my winters in S. Carolina.
So I come back from there on April 2 , 2010, and go out to buy some grocery items. I drive down Victoria, St Lambert’s main drag and come past a favourite little restaurant, The Canada Drive -In, there since 19oatcake
And the name has been taped over, nobbled by our language police
I get home and say to my wife “Je m’en calisse! We’re outta here.
She agreed, and by June 11 we were in Brockville Ontario. So, ten grand a year less in taxes, no stupid 30km limits, ardently pursued by blue uniforms with guns, no silly petty nonsense about language, and believe me, I have spent a lot of time in France, and even they laugh about it all.
I golf , at 70, now, at the Brockville Country Club, which is full of “refugees” like me.
Enjoying peace and quiet now
HUGH SUTHERLAND

(credit for the story to UN GARS BIEN SYMPATHIQUE DE CALGARY)

To those militants who wish Mr. Sutherland good riddance, be advised that he and his wife are probably removing twenty thousand in annual Quebec taxes, but as they say....
"We don't need no stinking anglo tax money!"

Impoverished Quebec town rejects prosperity.

The town of Gaspé is a sleepy village at the tip of the Gaspé peninsula and can best be decribed as one of Quebec's premier economic basket cases, with over 50% of househould income dependent on the government,

You'd think that when an energy company partly owned by the Quebec gevernment announcs that quite possibly the town was sitting on a mother lode of oil and gas, the townsfolk would rejoice.

Instead, city council revoked the permits to drill exploratory wells, just in case the wells affected the town's water supply;

"When the Quebec government took a 10% stake in Pétrolia Inc. last year, its chief executive said he expected the move would open doors for the junior exploration company in its bid to become the province’s first major oil producer. He definitely wasn’t expecting a group of city councillors in Gaspé, population: 15,163, to ruin the party.
Pétrolia was surprised to learn on Thursday that the municipality in December voted in new rules banning oil drilling in its proximity, saying it intends to protect its drinking water supply. The company, which has exploration permits validated by the provincial government, was set to begin drilling on its Haldimand site near Gaspé sometime next week." LINK

Perhaps the good townsfolk of Gaspe should read this article, a story of incredible economic revival due to a boom in the discovery of oil and gas in North Dakota;

"Twelve years ago, Williston's population stood at a little more than 12,500 people. Now, officials there estimate the town services 38,000 on a daily basis, based partly on water and sewer use. They expect it could hit 50,000 by 2017...."...But Brevig's enthusiasm trumps his exhaustion. With an economy fueled by new oil-drilling techniques, "It's a land of opportunity, by all means," he said. "You can grow into whatever you want here. 

The Brevigs of the world are flocking to North Dakota in droves, modern frontiersmen transforming this recently dying flyover land into the fastest-growing state in the nation, according to the Census Bureau. Storefront signs scream "now hiring." Pickups and semis jam long stretches of two-lane highways. Backhoes claw the ground even in frozen January. Recreational vehicles occupy former farm field 

North Dakota's population grew 2.2 percent to 699,628 in the year ending July 1, according to the Census Bureau. Many newcomers are from Minnesota. For years, more people moved from North Dakota to Minnesota than vice versa. That trend has changed in recent years, with North Dakota gaining approximately 4,500 to 6,500 Minnesotans each year between 2009 and 2011... 

...Gordon Weyrauch, manager of Williston Home & Lumber, said it's hard to keep good employees even at $16 an hour: "Seems like when you get somebody that's really good, there's always another company stealing them away." A sign outside the local Wal-Mart advertises starting wages of $17 an hour." Read more

That's it for this week, as for a little fun here goes.

Here's a video of the flood that hit Montreal this week because of a broken water main. The water ran down from the mountain and flooded McGill University and caught this unfortunate in its roiling waters.
By the way,  the young lady swept away was a little frozen, but unhurt.

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

On a personal sad note, I played garage league hockey here at the Bonaventure hockey arena at the Côte-de-Liesse arena in St.Laurent for 30 odd years, I even curled there as a lad when it was a curling club.
It was sad to see today's vicious wind storm take down the iconic sign....

Do you have a Google search box in the top right-hand corner of your browser?
Try typing in; “Do a barrel roll”
Cool!
Here's a few more neat tricks for the Google search box. LINK

Bonne fin de Semaine!
Have a good weekend!

What Will Pauline Promise Next?

As you have likely heard, Pauline Marois and the PQ have, for the umpteenth time, promised to make a new push for sovereignty.

Considering the PQ's very minority position in the National Assembly and its standing in the polls, somewhere in the low thirty percents, it's a presumptuous undertaking for a government that is supposed to represent all Quebecers. Perhaps the motivation is nothing more than an attempt to fire up the faithful, to believe otherwise is to accept that the PQ is badly in need of a reality check.

"Pauline Marois' surprise announcement Tuesday that her party is preparing a strategy to push sovereignty has raised eyebrows at the National Assembly......
This newest strategy, Marois says, will be presented at the PQ's convention in Drummondville on February 9th. About 2,000 PQ members will vote on the idea of launching a vast advertising campaign to sell the merits of sovereignty...
Premier Marois will only say the "strategy" she'll unveil will focus on selling the advantages of sovereignty. " Link  

"The advantages of sovereignty?" You've got to be kidding!

On Monday I wrote about the Employment Insurance program, which Marois and the PQ want to repatriate from federal jurisdiction, part of the party's overall strategy to wrest political control from Ottawa, one program at a time.
It came as a surprise to me in researching the blog piece that Quebec contributes about $800 million less to the program than it gets out. The fact that Quebecers make up 40% of EI claimants is another shocking revelation.
The idea of taking over this program from Ottawa is akin to asking to take over your neighbours alimony payments...not too bright.

And yet the PQ persists, the question being , WHY?

In making the electoral promise to repatriate the EI program to Quebec jurisdiction I can think of only three scenarios;

1. Pauline and the PQ made the promise knowing full well that it was just an 'election promise,' something that played well in a sound bite, but something that a reasonable government would never really consider.
2. Pauline and the PQ weighed the consequences of adding at least $800 million to the Quebec deficit and deemed the cost worth the price of winning some power back from Ottawa.
3. The PQ shot their mouth off, without ever considering the consequences.

I'll let readers weigh in on which of the above three options is the most plausible, but before you reject the third option as being too unlikely, I'd remind you that even Jean Charest sometimes went off book in an election campaign, saying something that his political staffers never approved or vetted.
It happened in the 2008 campaign where Charest promised to abolish the provincial sales tax of 7.5% on Quebec culture-related products.
What Charest was unaware of, or ignored, was the fact that this provision would contravene the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA.)
Suffice to say that when his government was elected, the idea was never mentioned again.

So I'm wondering what Pauline can promise Quebecers, reality or fantasy that can make the slightest difference to influence them after all these years of debate, that sovereignty could actually be a viable option.

Let us start with the only thing that has been floated so far, the right of sixteen year-olds to vote in a referendum.
Again I'll let readers chime in as to the appropriateness of children voting, considering that half of them couldn't, in all likelihood, name the ten provinces.
Perhaps Pauline should take on one of the proposals that I read on vigile.net, that only Quebec born natives be allowed to vote in a referendum.
Perhaps she could also consider awarding  two votes per francophone voter to counteract historical injustices.

So what Pauline promises, aside from repatriating the money-pit Employment Insurance program, can she make?
First off, the economics;
No doubt, Pauline will trot out the foundation lie of the sovereignty movement, which is that Quebec sends more taxes to Ottawa than it receives back.
This oft-repeated lie is the hallmark of a PQ campaign touting financial viability, but to those who actually pay taxes, the argument is just plain unbelievable.
Those who want to believe that it so, are the militants that will, quite honestly, believe anything. But for the majority, the idea that Quebec is a net contributor to Canada just doesn't fly, because it is patently untrue.
The big bad equalization payment of close to eight billion dollars is a powerful symbol of Quebec's indebtedness to Canada that the PQ has difficulty explaining away.

As for more generous social programs in an independent Quebec, the idea is laughable.
Just yesterday the minister in charge of higher education rejected the notion of a free education system from kindergarten to university, telling students the truth, that the province cannot possibly afford it.

In terms of promises in relation to more generous social programs, the PQ is actually out of options, there is no money to be had and everybody knows it, even the die-hards.

So what is left?
Clean energy?
A rejection of the Oil Sands?
A new gun registry?
A revised more lenient criminal justice system?

Hardly compelling arguments for the creation of a new and uncertain independent state.
And so I'm going to stop discussing the PQ's nonsensical economic arguments, it is like promoting the health benefits of cancer.

So what is left? What can Pauline promise?
Well readers, unfortunately, quite a lot.
Get ready for an unremitting campaign of disinformation and outright hate.
The PQ will play the only card it has left and it will play it to the hilt.

Language and culture.

Those old enough to remember, will recall Lucien Bouchard's pooh-poohing reports of Quebec's economic ruin during the last referendum in favour of language and culture. It almost worked.

No doubt we are in for an onslaught of dire warnings by the PQ that independence is the last chance for Quebec to save its language and culture.

Franco-supremacists will do the dirty work, reminding Quebecers that they are on the road to irreversible Anglicization and that within a few years they will be subjected to Sharia law, Kosher and Halal food, policeman  in turbans, driving instructors in veils, and minarets, shrines and temples in every neighbourhood.
Worst of all, Quebecers will be warned that they will be overrun with unilingual English bus drivers and ticket sellers in the metro as well as 'speak white' clerks in Eatons Quebec department stores. They'll be reminded that they will face English government and para-public employees who will completely bilingualize the public service, a harbinger of French cultural death.

Quebecers living in the sticks will be told that the Anglo/Ethnic infection that has overtaken Montreal is spreading to the regions and that without independence, the die is cast with French in North America on an inexorable road to destruction.
In essence, francophones will be given the choice between prosperity or cultural and linguistic survival, a battle that the PQ discerns to be their only slim chance of winning.

Using a take on the famous American credo, the cry of "Live French or die" will become the rallying point to which the PQ pins their hopes of success.

An ugly campaign of Us versus Them, is what the PQ is preparing, helped along by bolder proxies like French language linguicist, Mario Beaulieu who is starting to become a force, spearheading campaigns to trump a French language agenda over economic or social benefits, as we have seen in the recent Lachine Hospital debate.  Link

More of the same is coming, it is all that is left for the flickering notion of sovereignty.

It's going to be ugly, brutal and divisive, exactly what the PQ wants...

Quebec's Employment Insurance Nightmare

Somewhere along the line, UI or Unemployment Insurance became the more politically correct Employment Insurance, but just the same, Quebecers haven't given up the term "chômeur" to describe being out of work or 'Assurance chômage' to describe the  government insurance plan that pays benefits related to loss of employment.

The Harper government enacted a massive reform of the system that came into effect early this month, which will have an important impact on Quebec and the Maritimes.
It targets those who repeatedly go on and off benefits, forcing them to seek alternative employment under strict new rules.
It not only seeks to get rid of freeloaders who only work long enough to become eligible for payments, and then return to the workforce to repeat the cycle over and over again, it attacks another big sector of the benefits pie, that of 'seasonal' workers, who legitimately work only part of the year, in industries like fishing or tourism that can't offer steady year-round employment.
For seasonal workers, EI benefits are less an insurance program than an income maintenance plan.

Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party was just such a worker for many years.

Ms. May said that from 1975 to 1980, she received what was then called unemployment insurance during the off-season while working as a waitress and cook at her family’s restaurant and gift shop business in Cape Breton, she says.
Labelling regular users of EI, such as herself, as lazy or abusing the system is unfair, she said.
“I paid into employment insurance. When I needed it, I used it. When I didn’t, I didn’t. I raise my personal experience because I don’t think anyone should be ashamed that seasonal businesses in this country that are big, or small, have benefited from a legal system of insurance that pays for itself....”

“I’m coming out myself and saying this was my life. If you want to say this is a wrong way to live, fine,” she said. “Let’s have that conversation....” Read the whole story

The National Post explains these changes clearly.
Read: What exactly are the changes to the Employment Insurance system?

One thing is painfully clear, the reform will affect seasonal workers in the Quebec fishing industry in the Gaspé and Îles de la Madeleine, where fishermen work about four months and remain on EI the rest of the year.
This has set off a panic in the regions affected with demonstrations protesting the new rules held in several Quebec towns.
One demonstration against these EI changes brought out 4,000 of the 14,000 residents of Îles de la Madeleine, an island in the middle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence that depends on the seasonal fishing and tourist industry to survive. Fully 40% of the workforce collects EI during the 'off' season.
One of the fears is that the changes will lead to an exodus out of the region, something that happened in Newfoundland after the failure of the fishery.

The Quebec minister responsible, Agnes Maltais, in a televised interview was absolutely furious with the Conservatives decision, going so far as calling the changes illegitimate because Ottawa never consulted Quebec.

Why is Quebec so angry?
Because those who will fall off the EI payroll may just fall onto the province's welfare role, a downloading of responsibility that Quebec doesn't want.
How much will all this cost?
Nobody knows, the Marois government hasn't even evaluated the effect of these new changes, another sad remark on its competence.

Before the election that brought Marois to power, Pauline made it an election promise to repatriate the Employment Insurance program from Ottawa to Quebec jurisdiction.

"One of the first battles that a Parti Québécois government will undertake is the return the Employment Insurance program.
On Wednesday, Pauline Marois reiterated its commitment to implement its own Québec program because it believes that the workers are not sufficiently protected.
Marois noted that the reform recently announced by the Conservative government of Stephen Harper on tightening eligibility criteria for EI makes the return even more urgent." Link{Fr}

Not many of us, smart or dumb, will put our hand into a flame. It only takes one bad experience to understand the negative consequences.
Yes, even stupid people can learn from experience, unfortunately Pauline Marois is not one of them.

Let's go back a bit when the Quebec government of Jean Charest followed up on a longtime PQ initiative led by Pauline Marois to repatriate the parental leave program from Ottawa to Quebec jurisdiction.
When Marois was a PQ minister she promised that this eventual transfer would be paid for entirely by the repatriation of the $350 million in annual taxes that Ottawa would forgo in Quebec's favour, for taking the program off it's hands.

In 2009, Quebec's repatriated parental leave program didn't cost the $450 million (adjusted for inflation) that Marois predicted, but rather $1.7 billion, this while taking in only $1.4 billion in premiums.

Today, the cost of the parental leave program run by Quebec has skyrocketed to $1.9 billion dollars.
In the first five years of the program, premiums went up on an average of about 6% a year, but still not high enough to reach an equilibrium between revenues and expenditures.
Despite these massive increases in employer and employee contributions, the program will have accumulated a $713 million dollar deficit by the end of 2013. Link{fr}
Add to this deficit another $349 million that Quebec owes Ottawa for a loan the province made when the program was transferred to its jurisdiction. The money was used to reimburse Ottawa for furture payments owed by Ottawa to claimants that would survive the transfer.
Quebec has never paid back the loan and so has paid about $29 million to Ottawa each year in interest. Link{fr}
That puts the program's deficit to over a billion dollars since the its inception.

You'd think that the debacle would serve as a cautionary tale, but alas, no.

Which brings us to the proposed repatriation of the Employment Insurance program from Ottawa to Quebec, an idea so financially ruinous that any Quebec politician who advocates such folly, should be fitted for a straight jacket and sent to the loony bin.

Quebec with 23.9% of the Canadian population, receives about  40% of the total benefits paid out by the federal program.
In fact Quebec 'chomeurs' and 'chomeuses' receive $800 million more  each year than Quebec workers contribute to the Employment Insurance fund! Link{fr}

If Quebec takes over the program from Ottawa, it would have to double premiums paid by employers and employees just to offer the same benefits.

If as the PQ promises, that its version of EI will be more generous than Ottawa's, it could mean a tripling of premiums!
A transfer of the EI program to Quebec will cost the province close to a billion dollars a year, at a minimum and if the parental leave program is any example it could easily balloon to two billion dollars a year extra.

I'm sure if Pauline makes a formal request to Prime Minister Harper to take over the program, the Conservatives would be fine with it, unlike Pauline and the PQ, federalists can do their sums.

So where does that leave Quebec?
Well, firmly between a rock and a hard place, its only option is to lose with the present cuts or lose more by taking over the program.

Considering that Quebec has a higher percentage of seasonal workers collecting EI benefits than most other provinces, it means that up to half of all those struck from the EI rolls across Canada in relation to the proposed changes, will come from Quebec. That's quite a pill!

Aside from that, the losses will hit certain coastal regions of Quebec especially hard, Gaspé and Îles de la Madeleine where its been a way of life for a couple of generations to combine EI benefits with seasonal work.
As for alternate employment, don't hold your breath finding it in the boonies.
One of the provisions of the new rules is that workers be required to travel up to 60 miles if a job is available, and for those islanders living in Îles de la Madeleine, travelling sixty miles puts them smack dab in the middle of the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence!

For the PQ and the Quebec government this EI debacle is a painful lose/lose situation with Quebec taking  the biggest hit of any province, by far!

One can only wonder if it isn't political payback courtesy one Stephen Harper.

Readers, is the Prime Minister that evil and conniving?

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!