Fears of Equality Party Vote Split Unfounded

I want to devote a post over the issue of vote-splitting as it pertains to the Equality Party.
There is a concern, which I've seen expressed in the comments sections more often than not, that a vote for the Equality Party will lead to the Parti Quebecois winning seats that would otherwise go Liberal.

I've taken the liberty of digging up some voting numbers from the last election and present eighteen ridings where the Equality Party can safely run and perhaps win a couple of seats without any danger of contributing to a PQ victory.

In every single riding below there is no amount of votes that the Equality Party may garner that would lead to a PQ or CAQ victory.

Either the Liberals would hold the riding or the Equality party would overturn them, but the PQ or CAQ could not possibly win.
That is because even if the Liberal Party lost half its vote to the Equality Party, it would still mean that the PQ or CAQ would lose.

It would make sense that the Equality Party would run in these ridings BUT forgo running candidates in other ridings where Liberals or CAQ  have small majorities, ridings where they could affect the outcome negatively.

I've spoken to the leadership of the Equality party and am assured that they are not Hell-bent on running candidates everywhere, just to make a showing.
They aren't that dumb or destructive.

The Equality Party could also run candidates in ridings where the PQ has a large majority, again where the outcome could not be affected.

Should the government decide to publicly fund political parties through a per-vote subsidy, every vote cast would mean additional funding to the Equality Party.

Let me be unequivocal, if you live in one of the above ridings, a vote for the Equality Party CANNOT in any way, shape or form contribute to a PQ or CAQ victory.

So why is it important for our community to elect one or more members of the Equality Party to Quebec's legislature?

Firstly, it is quite simply a question of pride.
If mainstream parties refuse to represent our interests and assume we will vote for what we consider the lesser of evils, we debase ourselves.
It's like choosing to live with one certain parent in a martial breakup, because he or she beats us up less the other. It's shameful.

Secondly, having just one member in the legislature sends a powerful signal that we do not accept the status quo and to borrow from Robert Browning we send the message that; 
"God's is not his Heaven/All is not right with the world!" 

Just one elected member  can make all the difference, believe me.
Symbols are important. It would represent a symbol of resistance that could ignite a movement across Canada to support our cause.

I'm not a dreamer, most of you who come to this blog regularly know me as cynical , but I promise you that just one elected member of the Equality Party would be a game-changer.

Ask yourself... What do you have to lose? 

Coalition Government Cure For what Ails Quebec

The PQ's inauspicious eight-month tenure as government hasn't exactly inspired a rousing vote of confidence from the public, even amongst supporters, who like the rest of us are somewhat dismayed by the amateur hour performance of those charge with directing the ship of state.

Watching Pauline lead a sad-sack, not-ready-for-prime time gaggle of under-performing ragamuffins, lurching from one disaster to another, has led Quebecers to wonder when their province will finally be afforded the competent leadership so desperately in need.

The PQ's ascension to power narrowly follows that of the NDP's Quebec federal election breakthrough and it neatly underscores the electorate's desperate attempt to try something new, anything new, that would potentially break this cycle of incompetence.

But Quebecers have been sadly dismayed to see that the more things change, the more they stay the same.  The NDP in Ottawa has done nothing to reverse the sad state of affairs engendered by the Bloc Quebecois during their tenure as Quebec's representation in Parliament, wherein the province's interests have been largely forsaken. The NDP has done nothing to advance Quebec's situation, remaining the petulant whiner, forever doomed to observer status, offering nothing more than empty threats and promises hurled from the peanut gallery, as Shakespeare so eloquently described as;
"Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"

In Quebec, Pauline and her new PQ government have fared even worse. The province has endured eight months of disastrous improvisation, the result of ill-conceived policies and initiatives created by a cabinet composed talentless political neophytes, union hacks, also-rans and never-weres, all living in a fantastical world of make believe.

And so we witness the too often repeated cycle of the PQ government proposing one nonsensical initiative after another, most of them blowing-up rather messily, leaving to the government to beat an inevitable humiliating retreat in the face of overwhelming opposition.
One step forward, two steps back. Spin your partner and a dosey-doe.

Instead of trying to fix what is wrong with present day Quebec by repairing the basics, the PQ decided to initiate  a host new programs and initiatives built upon an unstable and failing foundation, akin to adding new bucket seats and a nifty tail fin on a clunker desperately in need of an engine re-build.

From tax reform to welfare reform to educational reform, the PQ has butted up against the hard truth that taking away long-entrenched entitlements from any Quebecer is easier said than done.
To make matters worse, the Harper government has cut the legs from under Employment Insurance, a program on which Quebec so desperately depends to keep the habitually unemployed inhabiting the boonies  'in poutine.' The PQ government has shown itself utterly without influence, totally powerless to reverse or even mitigate the decision by Ottawa and finds itself in the unenviable position of holding the dirty end of the political payback stick.
Those facing a chop in benefits are not amused and are holding the Marois government to task, since ironically, there are no Conservatives around to blame.   

And so in the face of so much failure, the PQ has fallen back on the old standard, the question of language, where cracking down on the evil Anglos and Ethnics at least helps shore up support in the base.
If the PQ cannot win on jobs or the economy, if it cannot win on education or government reform and if it cannot win on the sovereignty issue, at least it can appear decisive and effective in dealing with the petulant English by imposing more stringent language restrictions in the form of Bill 14, a device meant to deflect attention from what has become the most incompetent government in the history of Quebec.

Clearly the PQ must go, but how?

Voters remain divided and as of yet are unable to choose between the CAQ or the Liberals as a viable alternative.
A new election, would most likely result in a similar result as what we have now, something that the opposition parties are not willing to chance, leaving them with little choice but to grin and bear the hapless status quo.

But there is a third choice, a reasonable and viable alternative.....

Perhaps a coalition government, an idea which actually makes a great deal of sense, if one stops to consider it.

Why doesn't Phillippe Couillard have one of those secret tête-à-têtes with Francois Legault and come to a power-sharing arrangement wherein the PQ government can be defeated, replaced by a CAQ/Liberal coalition, all this without the need for an election.

All that is required is for the CAQ and the Liberals to defeat a government sponsored bill on an issue of confidence, while informing the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec that an alternative coalition government is ready, willing and able to meet the National Assembly in a vote of confidence.
It hasn't happened often, but is absolutely part of our Parliamentary tradition.

As for the voters, I can't think of a better solution, considering that we'd finally have a government that the MAJORITY of electors voted for.

The term of the deal could be predetermined, perhaps two years, a suitable period in which we can judge the performance of all the players involved and help us decide whether the new Liberals are trustworthy, whether the CAQ has what it takes, or whether the PQ is the best of a bad lot.

It is not a hair-brained scheme.

Mr Couillard by virtue of being the larger coalition partner would become Premier with Mr. Legault acting as finance Minister and deputy-Premier.
The cabinet would be composed of a proportional cast of ministers drawn from each party. Between both parties there is a wealth of talent and the addition of Eric Caire, Jacques Duchesneau Gérard Deltell and Sylvie Roy would do wonders for a Liberal-led cabinet.

The most important thing is that the new government would work on the real and basic problems of Quebec, things that they could all agree on.

• Re-engagement with Ottawa on a non-confrontational basis in order to better secure consideration.
• Fair and reasonable development of natural resources.
• Educational reform including the rationalization of school boards and issue of university funding.
• Welfare reform. 
• Regional development without welfare or Employment insurance as the answer.
• Re-establishment of linguistic harmony by abandoning punitive language policies.
• Smart assimilation of new immigrants.
• Re-organization of public institutions.
• A freeze of new spending programs and entitlements.
• Pension and civil service reform

The list goes on and on....
On the most pressing issues there is no reason to believe that both parties cannot find common ground as long as good intentions remain.

Most importantly, a coalition government would never have the power to put forward vanity or politically motivated legislation that panders to one special interest or another.
A coalition government could get down to the basics and work to solve the problems we have now, not ones we invent.

It is perhaps the most realistic solution to Quebec's lingering problem of governance and it's certainly worth looking at, nothing else seems to work.

New Vigile.net Management Maintains Fine Tradition of Hate

vigile.net.... New face/same racism

Readers might remember two years ago when the separatist website vigile.net (which includes aggregated stories from the mainstream press as well as original contributions from readers) came under fire for printing a series of antisemitic pieces. It led to a firestorm of criticism and condemnation from politicians and media and the affair frightened the PQ into abandoning its support of the website both financially and editorially as some sovereigntist writers went so far as to demand that their archived pieces be removed from the site, lest they be tainted by association.

I'm not going to re-visit this story, the then editor and chief cook and bottle washer of the website, Bernard Frappier is departed and beating a dead horse serves no purpose.
I wrote these articles a couple of years ago and for those of you relatively new to this website, you can take advantage of the weekend to catch up.

Read:
Is Vigile.net Racist? -Is the Pope Catholic?

Vigile.net and Me       
Vigile.net - We Love You!  
Sovereignists Flee Vigile.net   

After the death of Bernard Frappier, Richard Le Hir, has since become the big kahuna at the website and as such I imagine, along with the editorial board, helps select those reader submissions to be published.

In no way do I assert that Mr. Le Hir necessarily ascribes to the many divergent opinions presented, but the decision as to what to publish remains a collective responsibility by those in charge, one that cannot be shirked.

Now back when the first vigile.net controversy struck, Mr. Le Hir accused enemies of the website of using certain antisemitic remarks published on vigile.net as a smokescreen to diminish whatever prestige and legitimacy the website maintained.

Here's just a small sample of what readers were treated to;

"I'm sure if one of my grand-sons died in Lebanon or Palestine, I would spend the rest of my days trying to blow up every Jew in the world, and even the children of  each Jew, so it would make them feel as bad as I."  -André Vincent

"...the very history of the Hebrews, the ancestors of the Jews and later the Israelis, is one of massacres, killings, genocide under divine inspiration of their god Yahweh"- Ivan Parent

"...The Anglos are no more at home in Quebec than Jews living in settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip"... - Simon Girard

"When I hear my fellow Quebeckers say they will vote for the ADQ because they want change, I feel like running away to Palestine to become a suicide bomber." Redacted

Mr. Le Hir characterized certain antisemitic remarks made by two specific contributors as nothing more than 'unwise,' in other words a trifle, used by enemies as a battering ram to beat down a legitimate avenue of opinion.

Well, perhaps that is all behind us and I for one was certainly willing to give vigile.net a chance to redeem itself under new management.

Before I continue, let me say that the very large majority of original articles offered by vigile.net are nothing like the above.
In fact most are well-thought out opinion pieces which you may or may not agree with, but are as legitimate as anything you will read in the mainstream press.

Also published are some strident or poorly written diatribes and rants, but almost all, well within the bounds of legitimate free speech and opinion. 

Vigile.net remains a website that is run by non-professionals and as such should be given a little latitude. If something is published that perhaps should not have been, a simple acknowledgement of a mistake should suffice.

Unfortunately, that seems not to be the case and one gets the feeling that in fact vigile.net is actually holding back its true sentiments.

Last week, the website published another unfortunate screed, which can only be described as just one more racist rant against immigrants by the indomitable Réjean Labrie, perhaps vigile.net's most prolific xenophobe.

Once more we are treated to an orgy of immigrant-bashing, this time a contention that there is a vast federalist plot to depict Quebec as multicultural, all because of the disproportionate amount of minorities shown on television commercials and advertisements. A distorting mirror: "biased" advertising{fr}

In the article Mr. Labrie is offended by Quebec television being saturated with visible minorities, his first target, an advertisement, that according to the author, features a 'veiled clerk' with an 'unpronounceable name,' presuming to offer advice about art supplies.
By the way, I'm pretty sure the actor wasn't wearing a veil (which covers or obscures the whole face,) but rather, a Hijab an innocuous headscarf which nonetheless I imagine, is as offensive to Mr. Labrie as a kippah or a turban.

In the second example he complains of a commercial that features an African couple (which I imagine again is offensive in and of itself) while the third example is a complaint that gangster movies shown on Quebec television feature too many 'non-white' gangsters, a word he advises readers that he uses to be 'politically correct,' implying obliquely that the criminals are Black.

All this is underscored by a picture of an advertisement that features a Black actor in sunglasses, reinforcing Mr. Labrie's objection to minorities being so prominent in advertising.

What is offensive? The fact that the actor is Black or the gaudy sunglasses?

 Mr Labrie's underlying argument; 

"In any country, in the name of social harmony, there must be only one collective identity to which everyone adheres voluntarily and positively, it is the basis of the concept of nation."

 Sounds like something you're likely to read on an 'Aryan Nation' website!
And by the way, how does Mr. Labrie know, without speaking or interacting with the actor above that he isn't part of the 'collective identity.'
Is it because he excludes all Blacks automatically? I'll let readers draw their own conclusion.

He then goes on to tell readers that if minorities are to be depicted in such numbers, then by right, the same should go for mental patients, those in  wheelchairs, blind people and stutterers, dwarfs, gays, lesbians and ugly people, etc. etc.
And then this; 

"....the purpose of this unhealthy propaganda, this excessive multiculturalism in the media is to reduce the importance of the native population and relegate it to the status of a minority just like the others, which, as we know, is part of their overall plan for our decimation. It is an aberration, as well as the pro-ethnic positive discrimination in hiring, which prioritizes employment to foreigners rather than to us and our own children."

Yikes!!

credit... antagoniste.com

Now before I let readers have their two cents in the comments section, I would like to comment on the last paragraph where Mr. Parent actually proposes that in Quebec, foreigners are taking over the jobs rightfully belonging to native born Francophones.

For Mr. Labrie's information, no province does as poorly in assimilating immigrants into the work force as Quebec and the contention that the good jobs are being gobbled up by these 'furiners' would be laughable if not so sad.

So on what basis exactly does vigile.net choose to print this offensive tommyrot?
It is for Mr. Le Hir and his editorial board to answer.

One has to be surprised over the lack of condemnation in the comments section below the story.
With just two supporting comments, either not many people read Mr. Labrie and vigile.net or many agree but are embarrassed to admit it in the open,  or the article didn't garner much interest.
Probably it's a combination of all of the above, plus the fact that vigile.net has a reputation for deleting unfavorable comments. ...whatever.

It's too bad nobody made a big deal over the story, because someone should have.
Somebody has to call out vigile.net for publishing something that is so offensive, either for its lack of judgement or its racism.

If such an article appeared in any English website with the readership of vigile.net, all Hell would have broken loose, of that I'm sure.

Few would assert that Mr. Labrie's attitude is representative of mainstream Quebec Francophones, but has language and culture extremism in Quebec led to a spike in intolerance?

That readers is a question for you to discuss in the comments section..

Have a good weekend!
Bonne fin de Semaine!

Immigrant Threat to French Language Just More Fear-Mongering

Immigrant hordes threatening Quebec...bah humbug!

Every good salesperson needs a good 'spiel,' a well rehearsed story or pitch, which can engage and hook a potential client.
Of course, it doesn't mean that it needs to be true, just convincing enough, agreeable enough or plain frightening enough to manipulate.

My favorite example is the 1957 Broadway musical production of "The Music Man" wherein a con man comes to a naïve small-time, mid-west American town and frightens the locals with talk of impending doom. He frightens the elders by playing up the dangerous influence of the town's new pool hall on local teenagers and offers an alternative, a marching band that could otherwise keep them occupied.
Of course it is the flimflam artist himself who will supply the instruments and the uniforms, the whole affair a device to swindle the town out of their hard-earned money.

♫ ♬ "Ya got trouble, my friend, right here,
I say, trouble right here in River City. ....♩ ♪ ♫

And so the fear of the local children succumbing to the scourge of the evil corrupting influence of pool frightens the townsfolk into paying the snake-oil salesman for a solution to a problem that never existed.

If you have a few minutes, watch the video below and marvel at the talent of an expert manipulator.
Substitute 'pool' for 'English,' and tell me this cynical con artist doesn't remind you of Mario Beaulieu.

It's a premise so stupid that its hard to believe the exact same thing is going on here in Quebec where French language militants like Mr. Beaulieu, are frightening francophone Quebecers over language, in order to create a panic that can only be assuaged by sovereignty.

According to the latest iteration of the separatist spiel, the mongrel horde of immigrants coming to Quebec threatens the very nature of Quebec society because they are adopting English at an alarming rate.
It's important to note that sometimes Mr. Beaulieu complains about the high ratio of immigrants adopting English and sometimes he complains about immigrants in general, touching base with those who are fearful of assimilation as well as xenophobes in general.

In this radio interview, two hostile interviewers scoff at Beaulieu's contention that Quebec is in danger of anglicization with one actually calling him a 'loser.'
In reaction Beaulieu, loses his cool and warns the interviewer and listeners that over the next 10 years, the province will be invaded by 500,000 immigrants, as many people as presently live in Quebec City! Link{fr}

Before I deconstruct the current separatist immigrant scare story, I'd like to remind readers that this spiel is an evolution, in the past, the separatist mantra was that Quebecers were exploited economically by the English and needed sovereignty to prosper. That argument fell by the wayside and into disfavor as Quebecers assumed the levers of their own economic prosperity.

The next spiel offered by language militants was that learning English was in and of itself an act of assimilation, and the only way to protect Quebec from  the scourge of bilingualism was Independence.
But that argument too has been rendered ineffective as most Quebecers have decided, that in a shrinking world of interdependence, English is not only desirable but vitally necessary, at least for themselves and their own families.

And so the evolution of the spiel continues where now it is the immigrants and their propensity towards English that is sending Quebec careening wildly down the inevitable road of linguistic destruction.

Put simply, the new message is that because immigrants are choosing to assimilate into the English community, within a few short years, Quebec will become anglicized.
This is the new Bonhomme sept-heures, the linguistic bogeyman that is supposed to frighten francophone Quebecers towards linguistic intolerance, leading to sovereignty.

So let's crack the numbers and take a look at reality, do the immigrants really threaten the nature of Quebec's French society?
As usual, a cold hearted look at the facts tells a remarkably different story.

We first have to get the numbers straight, Quebec has a population of about eight million people, 87% of whom are on the francophone side of the language equation. It includes those whose mother tongue is French and those who have adopted French as their language of daily use. The 13% balance includes English native speakers and those who have adopted English as their language of daily use.

That is the linguistic reality of Quebec, notwithstanding what separatist and language militants peddle about mother tongue, historical English, blah. blah..blah.

Each year Quebec greets about 49,000 immigrants, but also loses 10,000 to 12,000 immigrants, who abandon Quebec for the greener pastures in the ROC.
Why they leave is the great unanswered question, nobody has dared to stir that pot, but I have my own suspicions where family, language difficulties and better employment opportunities are the principal reasons.

So the statement by Mario Beaulieu that we are being invaded by half a million immigrants over ten years is dishonest right off the bat, the number is under 400,000.

Mr Beaulieu's contention that twenty years ago, 90% of these immigrants assimilated into the English side of the language equation, doesn't reflect today's reality where the majority, or about 55% become part of the French-speaking majority,

So of the 39,000 net immigrants that come to Quebec each year, about 22,000 assimilate into the francophone majority. The 17,000 net immigrants per year that assimilate into the English side is what, according to militants, will transform Quebec into an Anglophone empire.

Now in order to maintain the present linguist lines of 87% French / 13% English, the number of those immigrants choosing English should be should be about 7,000.
In other words, the English community is growing by about 10,000 per year in relation to the French community.
This only holds true if the present trend is frozen and is perhaps unrealistic considering that over the years the number of immigrants choosing French is rising. As I mentioned before, over the last twenty years the percentage of immigrants choosing French has risen from 10% to 55%.

At any rate, this massive Anglicization, even in the worst case scenario will likely amount to about no more than 100,000 new Anglos over ten years.

This in a province of 8 million.

It means a linguistic shift of about 1 to 1½ percent, certainly not an Earth shattering change.

But to Mario Beaulieu and his merry men of Chicken Littles it is enough to make hay.

Like the flimflam artist in the Broadway play, Mario Beaulieu doesn't really have to believe in the spiel, he just has to sell it.

He isn't a necessarily racist, he isn't necessarily a xenophobe, he's just a cheap huckster trying to sell sovereignty like band instruments, by any means he can.

Language Militants- Tea and Other Things They Hate

Brooklyn's very own DavidsTea in Park Slope 

I don't know what Oprah Winfrey has to offer as a motivational speaker, but apparently many people believe it's substantial.
She packed the house at Montreal's Bell Centre last Thursday with tickets ranging from a $100 to an astounding $355.

During her presentation, she gave a shout out to a Montreal tea retailer,  DAVIDsTEA which may well be on its way to becoming the next Canadian North American superstar à la Starbucks.

Well perhaps that's a bit of an exaggeration, but the retail newcomer is a neat hybrid that combines an expensive tea experience with related gift  products.

After sending Oprah a loot bag of goodies, the company hit the jackpot with a priceless celebrity endorsement.

"Imagine, if you can, America’s most influential celebrity telling the world that she loves you and she loves your product.
And all of this, at the low price of next-to-nothing.
That’s the shorthand version of what happened Thursday and Friday to David’s Tea, a Montreal-based retailer of fine teas and tea-related products.
Oprah Winfrey told a sold-out crowd at the Bell Centre Thursday night that David’s was her new favourite tea. Several times.
It was a shout-out that sent shivers down the spine of audience member Melanie Barbusci, a David’s Tea employee heavily involved in the public-relations coup.
“We were so excited,” Barbusci said Friday, admitting that she came close to hyperventilating several times just by recalling the evening’s events for various media outlets.
Oprah mentioned Melanie by name from the Bell Centre stage, telling 15,000 frenzied fans that she had been delighted with the David’s Tea gift bag sent to her hotel by the younger woman whose passion was tea.
(For the few who don’t know, Oprah has a passion for people possessed of passion.)
“It was just a great moment that I will definitely remember,” Barbusci said.
If that was not enough of a brouhaha for the tea retailer, on Friday Oprah told her millions of followers on social media about her new favourite tea, via Twitter and Instagram.
All in all, David’s Tea “hit the jackpot,” marketing expert Demetrios Vakratsas concluded Friday. Read more

I hope this Montreal company does well, it has all the elements for success, a unique product that has a markup that would make a drug dealer blush, a young entrepreneur named David Segal who is backed by the solid management and financing provided by his uncle, veteran Canadian retailer Hershey Herschel Segal, founder of the legendary LE CHATEAU clothing chain.

Last month while driving through the tony Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope, I saw my first DAVIDsTEA outside of Canada. I've no doubt that the retailer will be successful in the high-falutin' neighborhood where $1,000 baby strollers are de rigueur and where shelling out $6 for a coffee is no big deal.
Despite hard times, there are plenty Park Slopes in the USA, neighborhoods where DAVIDsTEA can find success.

Build a unique or better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.

This company has all the elements for success and can avoid the pitfalls of other Canadian retailers who expanded to the US, only to meet with disaster because they offered nothing new or innovative. 

I'm reminded of this after checking out a Tim Hortons location, again in Brooklyn, behind the stately courthouse just off of the Brooklyn Bridge, in a dreary and unappetizing food court, offering that particular blend of low-priced pedestrian food, washed down with bland coffee, that has inexplicably made it a powerhouse in Canada.
To this bloggers mind, it's not a formula for success in a city where most street vendors can offer cheaper and better.

As the old song goes;

"If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere… It's up to you New York, New York!"

So I'm happy for DAVIDsTEA's success and I hope that they keep their head office in Montreal, reminding Canada that our fair city, battered and bruised, remains the creative capital of Canada.

But like everything in Quebec, the dark side of language rears its ugly head and trumps economic and creative concerns.
DavidsTea has been castigated by the language militants as a bad corporate citizen because it doesn't have a French name.
For them, an English name is hard to take, but an English name on a retailer, born, bred and based in Quebec, is even harder to swallow, if you will allow me the pun.

Read Sophie Durocher's article in Le Journal de Montreal, where she tells readers that it may be okay for international American giants to keep their English name, but not for Quebec bred companies, who in her eyes have no right to trade under an English banner.

 "To have  English names imposed on use by multinationals, is one thing. All major cities are experiencing the same thing. But retailers and artists from here who give themselves an English identity, are a sign of colonization that worries me much more."
(Qu’on se fasse imposer des noms anglais de multinationales, c’est une chose. Toutes les grandes villes vivent la même chose. Mais que les commercants et les artisans de chez nous se donnent eux-mêmes une identité anglaise, c’est un signe de colonisation qui m’inquiète bien plus.) Link{fr}

And so Davids Tea is on the wrong side of the language ledger, another insult to Quebec pasta-chasers who see one more betrayal in a paranoid world of Anglo persecution.

But why the big deal over a name? To paraphrase Shakespeare,
"A tea by any other name would taste as sweet."

The Mario Beaulieus of Quebec drone on about the need for 'outsiders,' Anglos and Ethnics to respect Quebec's francophone majority and that for a retailer, having French employees, French signage, and otherwise all things French, is not enough.

To be blunt, that is just plain poppycock.

By that same logic, English and ethnic Quebec parents would be advised to give their offspring a French name in respect to the francophone majority..... What utter rubbish!
Since when and where in the world and in what country or jurisdiction is a name, in and of itself, insulting and disrespectful?

The  campaign against English language signage and English store names has more to do with an attempt by language militants and separatists to create an altered reality, rather than any question of respect.

In removing English from public display, militants hope to persuade Quebecers that the English and Ethnic communities are irrelevant to the Quebec experience, like ants at a picnic, nothing more than a nuisance.

Like the mom who places her hands over her eyes and lyrically shouts "I CAN'T SEE YOU, I CAN'T SEE YOU!" to her toddler, the children's game is meaningful only to those with an infantile mind.

The old saying, 'Out of sight, out of mind,' is a most appropriate description of French language militants ploy to portray Quebec as a French only affair, despite the truth that it most certainly is not.

Removing English signs and store names from public display conveys the fantastical message that the non-French elements of society are either nonexistent, minor or irrelevant, and so, anything that serves to disrupt that fantasy must be attacked and destroyed, including DavidsTea.
And so it follows that militants don't want to see and don't want to hear of Quebec Anglo or Ethnic success, because it distorts the fictitious narrative.
Think I'm exaggerating?

While francophone Quebecers are infinitely familiar with iconic business names like, Peladeau, Bombardier, Coutu, Laliberté, and Demarais, how many have ever heard of Stroll,  Jarislowsky, Azrieli, Adams,  Bensadoun, Rossy and Miller, who are among Quebec's richest and most successful entrepreneurs, but decidedly not pur-laine.  Link
And by the way, all of them made their fortunes in post Bill-101 Quebec, so let's not argue about colonialism.

Language militants aren't interested in the success of McGill university, Arcade Fire, Montreal bagels and smoked meat, because to them, they aren't representative of the real Quebec and if the Francophone public embraces them as their own...well, bilingualism wins.

That is why there's nary a mention of Quebec's latest success story, DAVIDsTEA, in the francophone press and that is why it's up to the Globe and Mail to report on this Montreal success story. Link

The complaints about English signage and names is an Orwellian voyage of the absurd, where a store name like 'REITMANS' irritates militants because it doesn't sound French while 'SIMON' is okay because it does, notwithstanding the fact that both stores are named after non-francophone founders.

Language militants have been demonizing English for so long that even people like Sophie Durocher have been brain-washed into making a distinction over a name.
She as well as all of us need to understand the underlining racist basis of the attacks.
Shame on all mainstream francophones who have fallen into the extremist trap of condemning a business based on a name rather than the measure of its service.

I can only imagine the outrage in Quebec if a journalist in Calgary or Toronto demanded in print that LE CHATEAU or CIRQUE  DE SOLEIL be condemned because those companies refuse to modify their name, whilst operating in an English province, realistically, a scenario that is so nonsensical, it is beneath discussion.

Condemning businesses or individuals based on the linguistic, religious or ethnic basis of their name is behavior that is unbecoming and vulgar in a modern democratic society and should be condemned by every fair-minded person across all lines.

It's actually shocking and sad that we are having this debate.