Bogus Safety Issue Over Turban Blows Up in Quebec's Face

FSQ to turbanites.."GFY..Play in your backyard!"

Here's a brief piece to give readers a chance to sound off over the turban ban, an issue that has spiraled out of control and beyond the pale considering that we are talking about less than 200 children in the whole province.

The Fédération de soccer du Québec has recently upheld the ban on the turban that it put in place, despite being suspended over the issue by the national governing body.

The underhanded and dishonest interpretation of FIFA rules by the Quebec Soccer Federation, seems to have come back and bitten them in the ass, but like so many idiots in high places, faced with their mistake, they'd rather compound the problem by brazening it out, rather than honorably facing the music and admitting a mistake.
Sadly, the longer the FSQ holds out, the harder and more painful it will be to climb down from their position.

The rationale used to ban the turban is so juvenile that it is beyond contempt.
The FSQ actually ruled that since FIFA has no specific rules allowing the turban, then it is perfectly acceptable to ban it.
It's like banning Gatorade because FIFA hasn't specifically said it is legal it to drink on the pitch!
Utter and complete nonsense!

The issue of safety is so bogus that even dedicated nationalists can see through the pretense.
In a blog article in of all places, nationalist website, Ameriquebec.net, the author notes that FIFA allows other soft body coverings;

"Modern protection devices, like head-covers, knee and elbow pads are made of soft material and aren't considered dangerous. They are therefore authorized."

"Thus, the FSQ should have the courage to say that the decision to ban the turban in soccer in Quebec has more to do with "religion" then with player safety."

Truer words were never spoken, the FSQ acted in an underhanded and devious manner to ban the turban by citing safety concerns and laying the blame on FIFA.
Nobody is fooled.

It's a plot!!!!!!

It is perhaps fairer to face the issue squarely and at least one Franco-supremicist Mathieu Bock-Coté is telling it like it is, the real reason for the ban, which is of course a question of religious intolerance, where Quebec nationalists like Mr Coté don't want public spaces polluted with the trappings of anti-Quebecois perceived religion.

He couldn't have been more blunt, telling readers that those who wear the turban or the kippa or the hijab, do so not so much to venerate their religion, but rather as a symbol of their resistance to Quebecois-style assimilation.
I kid you not.
Mr Mathieu Bock-Coté is the epitome of a paranoid Quebec conspiratorialist, where all surrounding events exist only to affect Quebec negatively.

Since the article is behind a paywall, permit me"

"These conspicuous religious symbols are not primarily worn to demonstrate the faith of wearer.  If this were the case, they could be discreet. Rather they have a political impact. They are foremost a  formal symbol of their refusal to integrate, in fact a provocation.  It's a game of tug of war meant to break the host society and force it to capitulate.

The Quebec government yesterday decided to support the FQS, a happy and courageous decision. It is not a case of looking for a fight with Ottawa, but just remember that behind this turban affair, true principles clash. Quebec is right not to be ashamed of itself."

("Car les symboles religieux ostentatoires ne témoignent pas d’abord de la foi de ceux qui les revêtent. Si tel était le cas, ils pourraient être discrets. Ils ont plutôt une portée politique. On les porte justement pour officialiser son refus de s’intégrer, à la manière d’une provocation. Et on joue au bras de fer pour casser la société d’accueil et la forcer à capituler.
Le gouvernement du Québec, hier, a pris la décision de soutenir la FQS. Heureuse et courageuse décision. Il ne cherche pas ainsi la chicane avec Ottawa, mais rappelle simplement que derrière cette affaire de turban, ce sont de véritables principes qui s’affrontent. Le Québec a raison de ne pas avoir honte des siens.")  Link

(I've presented some of the original French because as I said, the article is behind a paywall.)

Unbelievable!
Is this the next battle cry?
That turbans, kippas and hijabs, are ruthless symbols of anti-Quebecism and that six-year old boys and girls wearing the trappings of their religion are the child soldiers in a ruthless assault on the innocent?

This actually represents a nasty turning point, any religious trappings worn in public is to be considered pernicious by Quebec clansman like Bock-Coté.
It is a sick and perverted position and in the best tradition of racists, xenophobes and segregationists.

If Mathieu Bock-Coté is cheering on the Quebec government and the FSQ, I'm not so sure the rest of the public wants to push  the principle of Quebec fundamentalism by harassing children in removing them from the soccer pitch.
As the issue spirals out of control, Quebec faces its second Pastagate in a few short months, ridiculed around the world as petty, intolerant and utterly foolish.
And readers, the story is growing legs.... 

Swedish story on turban ban

Canadian Conflict Grows Out of Quebec Soccer Federation’s Ban on Turbans  New York Times

Quebec soccer federation gets red card for banning turban  BBC

Turban ban: Federation suspended  ESPN  

Sikh community finds Quebec turban-ban puzzling Star Phoenix

Turban ban prompts suspension of Quebec federation Associated Press

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/10/3444205/turban-ban-prompts-suspension.html#storylink=cpy

(This Associated Press story has been picked up by newspapers around North America, including Miami, Seattle, Las Vegas, San Diego, Omaha, Washington, to name just a few. It was also picked up by Salon.com and the Times of India.

Quebec soccer leaders cite safety on turban bans Sports illustrated 

Canadian Soccer Association suspends Quebec federation over turban ban  FOX News

Football :le Canada suspend le Québec pour avoir interdit le turban Le Monde

Le Québec isolé au Canada pour son refus du port du turban sur les terrains de football RFI

Football team in Canada suspended for turban ban Hindustan Times

Setback to Canadian sports body, suspended for turban ban Punjab Newsline

Voetbalbond Quebec geschorst om tulbandverbod   Belgium

Футбольная федерация Квебека подтвердила запрет на тюрбаны Russia

בגלל טורבן: קנדה השעתה את ההתאחדות של קוויבק  Israel

魁北克省足球协会禁止球员包锡克头巾的决定引起争议   China

캐나다 축구협회, 터번 착용 금지한 퀘벡지부 징계  Korea

كندا توقف العمل بقرار حظر "عمامة" اللاعبين "السيخ"  Saudi Arabia

Футбольная федерация Квебека подтвердила запрет на тюрбаны  Kazakhstan

Yup, it's even a story in Borat's homeland!
More worldwide humiliation....

In the end this issue will not be resolved in Quebec or even in Canada.
FIFA, the governing world body will have to take a definitive and official stand, they can either rule in favour of the turban, against the turban or make it a question to be resolved locally by the national federations it sanctions.

The one option that is not available, is the one Quebec wants most, that is to make the issue resolvable by federations sanctioned by the national federations, or more specifically provincial federations.

And so Pauline Marois is trying to make political hay over the issue claiming that the FSQ is not bound by decisions made by the CSA.
Contrary to what she tells us, the Fédération de soccer du Québec is very directly subordinate to the Canada Soccer Association. She and Bernard Drainville who speculated that the Quebec Association is autonomous must be dreaming in colour or smoking crack.

If the FSQ is not bound by the CSA, then how on Earth can the CSA suspend the FSQ and why then would the Quebec federation care!

It is beyond belief stupid.
This is another fine mess she's gotten us into!

P.S.
Readers, I invite you to copy and paste your related comments from the previous thread so that readers can enjoy the turban discussion in one place.

PQ & Péladeau Holding Back NHL Franchise in Quebec.

Bettman: Quebec's Worse Nightmare

For well nigh 40 years, successive Quebec governments, whether Liberal or Pequiste have played the nationalism card in order to extort money from the ROC in the finest tradition of a political blackmailer with a compromising sex tape in hand.
Today we find ourselves in the extraordinary situation where the separatist government of Pauline Marois takes with one hand, sixteen billion dollars a year from Ottawa, while giving the finger to Canadians with the other.
It's a fine and cynical act, like a radical student who spouts Marxism while living in the lap of luxury in his parents million dollar home, all the while threatening to leave.

It's an understandably successful strategy, as Canadian politicians have indulged a petulant Quebec for decades, leaving the impression that the province can spit upon the rest of Canada with utter immunity and without consequences as successive federal governments cave in to the incessant financial demands of Quebec in a vain and impossible effort to buy its love.

But in the private sector this nationalist strategy has not been so successful, actually far from it, where hundreds of thousands of individuals and thousands of companies have abandoned Quebec to the greener pastures of the ROC where they are respected and appreciated.

Those who have left, have no doubt contributed to the economic decline that has seen  Quebec cascade down from the powerhouse province it was forty years ago, to the beggar province that it is today, living on borrowed money and the largess of the very Canadians it so detests.

But because this economic decline has been pasted over by successive Quebec governments with an ever-increasing debt bonanza coupled with financial aid of other wealthy provinces, ordinary Quebecers live with the fantasy that everything's just fine and dandy.

You know the old saying... Denial is not a river in Egypt. 

And so while Quebecers blithely believe that all is hunky-dory and that Ottawa will indulge them forever, what they fail to understand is that ordinary Canadians have not and will not.

Here in Quebec, federalists and separatists live side by side out of necessity, each side making the necessary accommodation to live in peace.

Nobody else will say it in the mainstream press, so it befalls on me to say what few will admit out loud.
Plain and simple, the majority of Canadians dislike or hate Quebec separatists, who are seen as despicable, disloyal, diabolical and dishonest.
I can't be more blunt.

While the percentage of Quebecers who want to separate is going down, the number of Canadians who want Quebec to separate is going up and with the PQ shenanigans of late, that number is going to rise even higher.

I'm not bringing all this up to be cruel, but rather so nationalists reading this understand why Quebec City will never get an NHL franchise as long as the PQ is in power and Pierre-Karl Peladeau is involved with the franchise.

The NHL is an exclusive club and owners get to choose who gets in and who doesn't.
To those who think that business is business and that financial considerations are all that counts, ask blackballed Jim Basillie how things really work in the NHL.

There are almost a dozen billionaire owners in the NHL, the rest hundred millionaires and if you think that they'd hold their nose and vote for a separatist to join their club, you don't know much about the super rich. Many of these guys give tens of millions of dollars away each year in charity, so the idea that money is the motivating factor is utter delusion.
The NHL board of govenors is a club comprised of rich, conservative and wildly patriotic Canadians and Americans, whose politics generally side on the Republican in the USA  and Conservative side in Canada.
Collectively, American NHL owners donated four times as much money to the Republican Party as compared to the Democrats. 

If Bernard Drainville goes ahead with his plan to ban Jewish doctors from wearing a kippah to work, Regis Lebeaume may as well stop building the new arena, Quebec City will be permanently blackballed.

Among the generally ultra-conservative groups that is the NHL board of Governors, count eight Jewish members, including the chairman of the board. It takes just nine "No" votes to scuttle any expansion or relocation.

The iron-fisted president of the league, Gary Bettman enjoys absolute power after his devastatingly powerful win over the hockey players union in this year's lockout.
What Gary wants, Gary gets from a grateful band of owners who rightfully see him as a savior.
Bettman is, as you know Jewish and although he doesn't wear a kippah, his affinity to the tribe is solid and he is particularly sensitive to antisemitism.

"Bettman has confided that his discomfort is increased by the  tinge of anti-Semitism that hovers in the strike rhetoric. Toronto columnists have referred to Bettman as 'nebbish' and complain the league is now run by 'New York lawyers,' and players have joked that Bettman's wife would rather 'go shopping' than watch a hockey game -- all of which can be construed as a code word for 'Jew' ...

Notwithstanding the dollars, if Bettman wants to keep a franchise out of Quebec he can do it himself, that is how much control he exercises.

By the way, it was rumored that Bettman was meeting with the super federalist billionaire Demarais family last year, perhaps with an eye to putting together an alternative ownership group, but this was before the PQ got elected.
Now with a separatist government, all bets are off.

It takes a two-thirds vote to grant an NHL franchise (not the 50% + one that Quebec is so fond of) and there isn't a chance in heck that in the present situation, that Quebec could muster the necessary votes.

Aside from the eight Jews, there's a devout Christian, a fracking king, an Alberta Oil sands developer, and two proud Italians and three Greeks. The others are an assortment of tough guys, used to getting their own way.
The only thing that all these governors have in common, is the English language. The Nordiques have absolutely nobody carrying the ball for them in the boardroom.

Take a closer look at the Board of Govenors of the NHL, the ultimate body that will decide on any potential Quebec franchise.

 And by the way, if the Nordique Nation thinks that they have Geoff Molson's vote in their pocket, they couldn't be more wrong.
The Montreal Canadiens owner may not be bright, but isn't so stupid as to carve up his own market. The closed door vote remains top secret, so how do you think he will really vote?

As long as now, out-of-the-closet separatist Pierre-Karl Péladeau is involved with the team and as long as the PQ keeps threatening minorities and religions, there isn't a chance in heck of them scoring a franchise.

The choice of separatist Péladeau as show-runner was so patently arrogant and stupid, it goes to the utter fantasy under which Quebec lives, whereby they honestly believe that Canadians (and Americans) outside Quebec will give them a fair shake.

For those Quebecers who  choose to ignore this unpleasant reality, just keep voting for the PQ and enjoy the Quebec Remparts. 

And as the venerable Soup Nazi told Georg Costanza in Seinfeld, there's "No soup for you!"

French versus English Volume 86

This week in Quebec corruption

It was the last straw.

The new interim-mayor of Laval, Alexandre Duplessis, who replaced  ex-mayor Gilles Vaillancourt, (who is charged with gangsterism among other charges in relation to graft at city hall,) was fingered by a witness at the Charbonneau corruption inquiry as also being corrupt. In fact the entire ruling party, save a few councillors were accused by the witness of operating an illegal scheme to finance their political party through illegal contributions.

With that accusation, the provincial government was forced to put Quebec's third largest city under trusteeship. Read a story

**********

"A former top-ranking Quebec provincial police officer was arrested this week for allegedly receiving payments from a secret expense fund.
Denis Despelteau, 61, faces counts of fraud, breach of trust, forging documents and theft from the government, according to an arrest warrant obtained by QMI Agency.
Investigators believe Despelteau was paid under the table from the account for consulting work following his retirement." Link

What the Toronto Sun story doesn't say is that the arrest was hurried up because police feared that Despelteau was making arrangements to flee the country for good.

Another strange fact to emerge is that he owed hundreds of thousands of dollars to Revenue Canada.

How can a cop, even a well-paid senior officer owe that much?

Something is veerrrry fishy! Link{fr}

Weekend reading:  The gangster politics of Laval  by Martin Patriquin in Maclean's

Language debates are holding up corporate plans, developer says

"Major corporations are putting expansion, relocations and long-term commitments on hold, because of the “unstable business environment” caused by the Parti Québécois hotly debated Bill 14, Jonathan Wener said Wednesday.
“The market has definitely gotten softer and a lot of people are putting major decisions on hold. It’s basically a wait-and-see attitude,” the head of Canderel Group of Companies, a national real estate development and management company, said.
Wener is the chairman and CEO of Montreal-based Canderel, which manages 9 million square feet of commercial space and has an additional 2 million square feet of residential development under construction nationally.
“I think it is extremely unfortunate that we live in a society that has reduced itself to thinking it needs language police to preserve its culture — point final,” Wener told The Gazette, in a reference to the Office québécois de la langue française. “I’ve travelled a good chunk of the world and when I talk about the fact that we have language police in Quebec they laugh at me.” Link

SSJB makes fools of themselves once again!

I read this story and was reminded of the great Shakespearean line;
"A countenance more in sorrow than in anger."

Click to read the  original story in French

Yes, I don't know whether to laugh or cry at the utter stupidity of the SSJB's local Laurentian region chapter, as well as the rank ignorance of the reporter who wrote this story.

"The Board of Directors of the Mouvement Québec français des Laurentides  (MQFL) welcomes the decision of the directors of Walmart in Saint-Jerome, to display its name with a French generic descriptor.

The company has indeed added the generic French " Super centre Walmart (sic)" as required by the Charter of the French language.

Resistors
The MQFL emphasizes this fact to the many businesses that continue to display English only banners. Moreover, the MQFL hoped that this example will be followed by other leaders in the business environment in large shopping centers and regrets that we see too many "Costco Wholesale", "Payless Shoes Source," "EBGames" and many other unilingual English names.

Réjean Arsenault, president of MQFL laments the resistance of some companies which threaten the French face of our region, names that appear only in English.

According to the president, this lack of respect for Quebec's francophone identity pollutes the visual environment and makes our malls pale copies of those of the United States or the rest of Canada.
The MQFL encourages consumers to act now to counteract this tendency towards an anglicized Laurentian landscape by promoting their disavowal to the offending business leaders."

I translated the whole article because I wanted to share with readers, the absurd mentality of these unilingual country rubes so sorely out of touch with the rest of North America, that they think the world revolves around them.
Let me explain to them that Walmart did not add the word "Supercentre" to satisfy the OQLF, with which they are already in court opposing any notion of French descriptors.

The term refers to a plus-sized store which sells food as well as the hard goods found in regular Walmart store across North America.

CLICK to read about Walmart's 'SUPERCENTRE'

All across Canada, (including Quebec) these expanded stores are differentiated from regular Walmarts with the addition of  'Supercentre' on the masthead, which is the same in English and French.
In the USA these stores are called "Supercenters" as opposed to "Supercentres" because of the difference in Canadian and American English. A shopping mall in Canada is referred to as 'centre.'
Sorry to burst your balloon, but Walmart made zero effort to comply with Quebec's language law.
I don't know which is worse, the foolish self-delusion of the SSJB or the utter ignorance of the journalist who wrote this story.

It reminds me of a story about my nephew, whose birthday fell just about the time the local town in which he lived sent up fireworks for Canada Day, each year.
As the family set up on the back balcony to take in the show, my brother dutifully reminded his son that he arranged the whole fireworks show as a birthday present! ... Call it a happy confluence of events!
Deceitful?...did you never lie about Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy?

More OQLF nonsense

I often listen to selected pieces from Quebec's talk radio, it isn't difficult to find pieces that interest me because  Radio Ego, posts interesting audio clips from the various talk-radio shows across Quebec.
In a clip about the OQLF, Stéphane Dupont went off on the organization telling listeners that it is such an embarrassment, it should just be shut down.
 He told the story about a Quebec truck manufacturer who was visited by the OQLF and received a complaint over a plaque on the wall.
It seems that the company had been cited for excellence by an international organization which issued the plaque to commemorate the achievement.
Readers you know the rest, I don't have to tell you that the OQLF objected because this international award was written in you-know-what. Listen in French

Quebec soccer bans turbans

"The Quebec Soccer Federation is forbidding turbans on the field of play, despite a directive from the Canadian Soccer Association saying turbans are okay.
For years, Sikh soccer players in Quebec were allowed to wear turbans, but last year the province’s soccer federation began to crack down.
At the time, the federation said it was only following the lead of the international soccer governing body FIFA and its Canadian counterpart.
FIFA still has yet to make a clear ruling on the issue.
Last week, the Canadian Soccer Association asked provincial soccer associations to allow turbans on the field.
But Quebec is still refusing to play ball." Read the rest of the story

Reaction is fast and furious with the federal government lodging an objection;

"Telling 5 year old kids they can't play soccer because of bogus safety excuses is not acceptable in any province," Vic Toews tweeted Monday. Read more

Fanned by anti-religious government rhetoric, religious intolerance in Quebec is growing at an alarming rate.

"In the Journal de Montréal, the province’s most-read newspaper, columnist Joseph Facal congratulated the federation for standing up to the “fanaticism” of religious minorities (who are simply defending a freedom promised them by Quebec’s own charter of rights).
And poll results recently published by the government suggest that the federation will have public opinion on its side. In the poll on religious accommodations commissioned by the government in March, one of the questions was whether to allow sports players to modify their uniforms or equipment for religious reasons.
For 81 per cent of all Quebecers — 87 per cent of francophones and 62 per cent of non-francophones— the answer was a resounding no." Read the complete story

Quebec continues to garner bad publicity around the world.
Just read the opening paragraph in this BBC news story;

CLICK to go to the BBC story

"To protect the French language, Quebec must separate from Earth"

"Ground control to Major Pauline...."

National post journalist Matt Gurney wrote a sarcastic, somewhat nasty, tongue in cheek piece that advised Quebecers to move to Jupiter to protect their language.

"Well, it’s come down to this. The only way that Quebec is going to be able to promote and defend its own unique language is to pack up, wish us all well and head out onto the vast depths of space. The future of the French language will be secure only when the Jovian Lunar Colonies of New Quebec (or New New France) are up and running. It won’t be easy. Conditions will be harsh. There’ll be cosmic rays to contend with. Not to mention the debilitating effects of low, or zero, gravity on human physiology. The only thing that will get these brave colonists through all the hardships will be the fact that they’re doing what they have to do to protect their language. And that daycare only costs seven astrocredits a day." 
Read the story

The article drew an angry response from Sophie Durocher of the Journal de Montreal who perhaps didn't find the humor in it at all. Since the piece is behind a pay-wall, I've pulled out the salient sections for translation;

"We know that the English Canadian newspapers regularly take shots at francophones in Quebec and with the ascension to power of Pauline Marois' separatist government, things have frankly gotten worse. But let's say a "new frontier" has been reached with the publication of an incredible text in the National Post on Wednesday....
...Journalist Matt Gurney bluntly tells all francophone Quebecers to embark on a space shuttle called QSS (Quebec Star Ship) Parizeau and depart to live on another planet, called the Lunar Colonies of New Quebec (or New New France).

Good riddance, this is how Quebecers then can speak French, a language that, according to Gurney, is useless.

"Despite  increasingly obnoxious and pathetic efforts by Quebec to erase any trace of this English in its territory, says Gurney, it hasn't happened." The only solution, he said, is that Ms. Marois press the panic button and take all the francophones to a planet where they can finally protect and promote their language without imposing it on the rest of the world, which wants to know nothing about this dead language.....

.....Gurney says the French he learned in school was never useful to him for anything, even after several visits in Quebec and two trips to France. (One also wonders what language he spoke when he was in Paris if it was not  French)....

....Do you think he could have written a story in the National Post with phrases like: 
"If the Jews are not happy, they should therefore go colonize Mars to promote a religion that nobody wants!  
Should blacks, who are whining all the time, be put in a shuttle and  sent to Pluto!  
If gays are so unhappy,  should they be sent to the moon?"...

..Gurney's text caused thousands of reactions and comments. And that of course resulted in venomous rants against Quebecers who still dare to fight for the French language...

..The only thing that francophone Quebecers want, Mr. Gurney, is to live in their own language, in peace with the other communities in the province...

It seems to me that we are not asking for the moon. Link fr-PW

Bits'n Pieces

Sandwich Thrower a no-show in court
The judge called out Evelyn Samantha Donis' name four times but no answer, she wasn't in court, so the judge issued a bench warrant. Donis is charged with aggravated assault with a weapon causing bodily harm.
She's accused of throwing a tuna and tomato sandwich in the face of Alex Montreuil, who had a near fatal allergic reaction to it.
It happened last fall at the cafeteria of the Jewish General Hospital. Read more

The true cost of Food Independance

A few posts back, we discussed the PQ's policy of 'food independence' where the stated goal was to increase the share of Quebec-produced food sold in Quebec stores.
I tried to point out the folly of this program but was roundly rebuked by many in the comments sections that despite the cost, viewed the program as noble. Fair enough.
How much does buying certain food products locally actually cost today?
Here's an example.
In a piece entitled "The Camembert law" journalist Alain Dubuc tells us that in a French supermarket (France) a kilo of Camembert cheese sold for €7.16, equivalent to $9.60, while in Quebec, a kilo of locally produced Camembert is sold between $32.00 and $35.00.
Still think it's a good idea to force consumers to buy locally? Read the story in French

Does French Stand a Chance Against a Global English-language Tsunami?
"French, once the language of high culture, kings and queens, and pin-striped diplomats, is drowning in a global tsunami of English usage in commerce, science, education -- and even at the multilingual United Nations. The United Nations has six official languages but English and French are considered the "working" languages. Yet without fluent English, journalists can't understand press conferences, diplomats can't negotiate resolutions and officials in the field can't file reports.
Still many of the U.N. peacekeeping missions are in Africa -- and in French-speaking lands, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Mali. Too often senior U.N. officials heading these operations, while fluent in French, are not native French speakers.
At a recent session at the Consulate General of France in New York, Stephane Dujarric, director of the U.N.'s News and Media Division, said:
"So my simple answer is: learn English!" Read the rest of the story

Dan Delmar: Parti Quebecois plans to double-down on intolerance
"The PQ hopes to spread the same Francosupremacist mantra to the reasonable accommodation debate, forcing Quebecers to make a false choice between an impartial, secular (read: French-Catholic) public sector and a chaotic multicultural mishmash where menorahs and hijabs are wedged in the spokes of government. It’s not a question of coming to a consensus on what precisely Quebec values are – that would be an exercise in futility since those values are diverse and subjective. It is simply an attempt to take a shortcut to sovereignty by manufacturing conflict, which is the hallmark of a successful Péquiste government.  Read the rest of the story

Britain also concerned about creeping American English
‘If there is a more hideous language on the face of the Earth than the American form of English, I should like to know what it is.’ So said a member of the House of Lords in 1978......

....‘Unstoppable rise of American English: Study shows young Britons copying US writing style’, ran a Daily Mail story last year. The analysis of 74,000 children’s entries to a short story competition found that the written work was littered with such Americanisms as garbage (rubbish), trash can (dustbin), sidewalk (pavement), candy (sweets), sneakers (trainers), soda (fizzy drink), smart (clever), cranky (moody), and flashlight (torch). The Mail prognosticated ominously that the ‘future of written English will owe more to Hollywood films than Dickens or Shakespeare, if the findings of a study into children’s writing are anything to go by’. Read the story
Okay, How many of you knew that the British  version of a cupcake is a 'fairy cake?' Link

What Took the French So Long to Create a Word For "French Kiss?
‘The English refer to “English muffins” simply as “muffins.” The Canadians like to call “Canadian bacon,” “back bacon.” Now, what do the French call a French kiss? If you had asked that question before May 30 of this year, the answer would have been absolutely nothing.

For centuries, there has been no official French word for French kissing. The situation has finally been rectified by the release of the 2014 edition of Le Petit Robert dictionary. When the famous French-language dictionary hit the shelves last Thursday, there were some new additions to the official French vocabulary including the recent slang term “galoche” (French kiss) and its verb form “galocher.” Link

By the way, of the words added to the Le Petit Robert dictionary this year, here is my favorite,
"Patenteux"
"This term is specific to Québécois French and describes a certain type of resourceful person who can fix your sink or repair your carburetor with nothing but the lint in his pocket and a stick of gum. A MacGyver, if you will." More

Tennis star Serena Willaims speaks French.....and Italian!
I bet you didn't know that!
She is a self confessed Francophile and gave this on-court interview after her French Open win.

CLICK TO HEAR INTERVIEW

Here she is speaking Italian. YouTube
Whoda thunk?

Radio Canada drops 'Canada'
"The French-language CBC sought to calm a backlash over its rebranding efforts following complaints from top to bottom within the organization. Radio-Canada issued a statement late Thursday after fielding complaints from the federal cabinet table to the shop floor, with one of its own workers’ unions condemning a move that also drew a fair bit of public ridicule online.
The organization moved to insist its historic name will remain prominent.
The organization’s executive vice-president said in a statement that he wanted to correct “misperceptions” that the organization was changing its name.
Louis Lalande said it’s not. He said the new brand name “Ici” — French for, “Here” — will be part of the identity but the organizational name won’t otherwise change." Link

Video of the week
You've no doubt seen many car chase videos (usually in California) where the entire chase is captured live by helicopter.
Here's one that takes place just north of Montreal, filmed by a news helicopter operated by the TVA network.
Probably the best quality pursuit video I've ever seen, so congrats to the reporter, and crew for being Johnny-on-the-spot.

CLICK to view video

Here's a video by a Longueuil motel promoting this years Fete-St.Jean celebrations and promising customers a pretty good time...er......
Is this what it's come down to????

After viewing the video, the beer company demanded that their name be disassociated.

I wonder why...

This story just broke last night and there was but one comment under the story in Le Journal de Montreal, but very telling.

 "The truth hurts, eh?"

 
Quote of the week
"The linguist Claude Hagège says that “the paradox is that today the people who are responsible for Americanisation and the promotion of English are not American.” Fortunately, people who are not French (notably in Africa and Quebec) have enabled cultural diversity to flourish. Political leaders should be inspired by their tenacity, not by the foolish fatalism of a few academics. Link 

Have a great weekend!

Bonne fin de semaine!

Léger Poll: Smoke, Mirrors and Statistical Errors

I can't say I'm a big fan of the Léger Marketing group, a company that in my opinion, skates awfully close to the offside line in producing opinion polls that are tailored to provide results that clients demand.

Sneaky? Dishonest?
How about the way the company cleverly hides the French accent aigu (é) in their logo, preserving its Quebec pedigree here, while obscuring the fact that it is a Franco-Quebec company to clients in English North America.
There must be some research out there that holds that French diacritical marks on names are a turn-off to Anglophones, even the mighty  Céline Celine Dion caved and got rid of the accent in her name, perhaps like Léger, believing that they would be more presentable to the massive English-language world.

At any rate,  Léger struck out rather badly in the last Quebec election, woefully underestimating Liberal party support, highlighting the fact that the four-percent margin error that they reserve for themselves, is a lot more critical than they intimate.

"With two days until Quebec's provincial election, the  separatist Parti Quebecois remained poised to win a majority government, according to an exclusive Leger Marketing poll conducted for QMI Agency. The last QMI Agency poll before Quebecers vote on Sept. 4 placed the PQ in the lead at 33%, with the CAQ in second at 28% and the Liberals at 27%.
The percentages for all three major parties remained unchanged since the last Leger poll, which was published on Aug. 24." Link

We all know that the results of the election were much closer than Léger predicted and that the six percentage point difference between support for the PQ and the Liberals as predicted, was a far cry from the less than one percent (PQ-31.95%.....Lib -31.20%) which was borne out on election day.
This incidentally was outside the margin of error, although I'm sure Léger would argue that it wasn't because the Liberal party strength was under-reported by about 4% and that the PQ strength was over-reported by 2%, both within the margin of error, when considered individually.
Adding the two numbers together the difference was indeed about 5%-6%, outside the margin, but I guess it's a case on interpretation.
You say ta-may-toe, I say ta-mah-to

Interestingly, when I spoke to Liberal party insiders, they told me that one of the reasons that Jean Charest called the last provincial election was because their own internal party polling numbers showed the Liberals and the PQ neck and neck.

Sadly, I'm pretty sure that the Léger poll actually affected the razor-thin outcome of the election, as some voters, considering the poll in the closing days of the campaign were motivated or demotivated to go out and vote.
There is also a  minority of fence-sitters who actually are swayed to vote for the predicted winner.
Had Léger not published the inaccurate polling projections, we might very well have elected a minority Liberal government!

To be fair, other polling companies have done as abysmally poor of late, wrongly predicting the outcomes in both the recent Alberta and British Columbia provincial elections, in both cases botching the predictions  so badly that they actually projected the wrong party as winners and this, not by a tiny margin. Read a story about these polling failures

All these polling disasters confirm the fact that polling has actually become less and less accurate over the years, something surprising in a world where technological breakthroughs has led to better and more accurate results in just about every field of human endeavor.

There are many reasons for this decline in polling accuracy. The cell phone age makes it harder to contact a targeted sample, where landlines of the past, pinpointed exactly where people lived. People today have also become less and less predictable, often changing their minds often before an election. Also, there is a dramatic drop in the number of people willing to participate in opinion polls, with privacy a very real and modern concern.
And so today, interpreting the shrinking numbers is as important as the numbers themselves.
Given the significantly higher numbers of undecided and non-responders, pollsters can no longer just ignore them and have to 'weigh' their impact, determining if they share a statistically significant disposition, substantially different form those who responded to the poll.

It isn't an easy task and we've seen pollsters in all three provincial elections badly misinterpret what information they had, where the undecided and unresponsive skewed widely towards the party that held power before the election.

Of all types of opinion polls, political polls should be the most accurate, after all, those being questioned are simply asked whether they will vote for party or candidate A, B or C.
Nothing complicated there, or so it seems and yet pollsters are getting it wrong at an alarming and expanding rate.

All this takes me to question the results of a poll that asks much more complicated questions, public perceptions on policy, where the nature of the questions may well determine or 'skew' the outcome itself, which is exactly what happened in the poll commissioned by the PQ and conducted by Léger, to 'determine' Quebecers' position in relation to religious accommodation.

This poll was commissioned by a PQ government with an agenda, wherein the poll is meant to validate and bolster support of their particular point of view over accommodations.
These types of polls are never be published if the conclusions aren't supportive and quite frankly, therein lies the rub.
Pollsters are expected to deliver supporting results and those that do are rewarded with repeat business, those that don't, are cast aside.

More often than not, the actual polling questions are dishonestly skewed to favour an expected result, it is the dirty secret of the industry.

Let us take for example this question;
"Do you agree that immigrants have a negative influence on our economy"

..and lets us compare it to this question;
"Do you agree that immigrants have a positive influence on our economy"

It is basically the same question, asked  from the opposite point of view, but in a perfect world, we could expect that  if 60% of respondents agreed with the first question , then only 40% of respondents should agree with the second.
 But it just doesn't work that way at all, the nature of the question may very well result in 60% of the sample agreeing to both questions!

To be fair, the pollster should actually have asked this question;
"Do you believe that immigrants have a positive or negative influence on our economy"

In polling, the devil is in the question, and asking the right question is the crux of fairness, while asking a loaded question, an exercise in spin.
By the way, I'm not sure that even the third question above is indeed fair as well, because the question implies that immigrants are different.
We can  reference Werner Heisenberg's  Uncertainty Principle which tells us that the very act of observing, changes the result.

In fact a polling question that reflects bias, can never yield meaningful results.

• Do you agree that  Jewish people are by nature controlling? 
• Do you agree that devout Christians are intolerant?
• Do you agree that Pro-Life activists are dangerous?
• Do you agree that Native Canadians are lazy?
• Do you agree that Canadian Muslims pose a threat?

Really?
Can these loaded questions ever yield statistically valid data, or does the very nature of the question skew towards statistical manipulation?

And so we come to the poll commissioned by the Quebec government in respect to the debate over accommodations.
I must say, gentle readers, that I am outraged and furious at the crass manipulation and dishonesty of the entire Léger/Quebec government poll.

The very first question and the keynote of the entire poll is this gem.
Do you agree that:
"Putting an end to unreasonable accommodations favours social cohesion and integration" 

Are you kidding me?
I haven't  seen a more loaded and dishonest query, since the last referendum question.
If I was to answer the question, I would have to respond affirmatively because I don't believe in unreasonable accommodations, in fact who actually does?

Let me rephrase the question a little differently;
"Refusing to give into unreasonable demands by your children builds familial cohesion." 

Who would disagree with that statement?

We all define 'unreasonable accommodations" differently, what is reasonable or unreasonable to one person, may or may not be to another.
But however we define 'unreasonable', we certainly would not be in favour of it!
I'm surprised anybody at all answered the question with a NO!

The rest of the poll builds on the same negative theme and cascades down to the point of ludicrousness where by the end, 60% of those queried, agreed that private schools should be included in provisions of a potential law that limits religious accommodations.

Think of the implications...
It would mean that private Catholic and Jewish schools would not be allowed to teach religion and that a Crucifix or Star of David could not be displayed nor worn by teachers! In a Muslim school, teachers would be barred from wearing a hijab and teaching the Koran!

And by the way, according to the poll, 62% of Francophones and 28% of anglophones believe that doctors should not be allowed to treat patients while wearing a kippa (skullcap) or hijab.
I could only imagine the international scorn such an interdiction would raise. Bizarrely, it would put Quebec in the same class as Iran and Saudi Arabia when it comes to religious tolerance!

How have we arrived at this intolerant juncture.
Well, the PQ has harped on the subject so long and so loudly, that Quebecers are actually now frightened by immigrants, egged on by a public debate over what good Quebecers should or should not tolerate.

Polls like this help fan the flames of intolerance.
Public discussions by politicians about how they are going to come down on Muslims, Jews, Sikhs and other minorities adds fuel to the already toxic level of xenophobia.
It's sad and disgusting.

The entire poll is crafted to yield certain results that the government wants in order to push ahead.
By the way, you can view the entire poll HERE, but it is in French.

......One last comment on the poll.

There appears to be a serious statistical error.
When the responses of 'Anglophones' and 'Allophones' are added to yield a combined percentage called 'Non-Francophones,' the results appear to be erroneous.

Simply put, Léger pollsters forget to put more statistical weight on the more numerous Anglophone responses.

As indicated in the poll, 58% of Anglophones and 70% of Allophones were in agreement with the statement. Combining the two yields, according to the Léger, yields 65%, which is statistically incorrect.

Consider two groups of people.
Group A consists of ten fat people averaging 200 pounds each.
Group B consists of six thin people averaging 150 pounds each.

In order to find the average weight for everybody, you'd have to add up all the pounds and divide by the total number of people.
Group A (10 x 200lbs,=2,000lbs.) + Group B (6x 150lbs=900lbs) = 2,900lbs divided by 16 people=181 lbs. average.

What Léger appears to have done is to just take the average between the 200lbs average of Group A and the 150lbs average of group B, yielding a 175 lbs., an error a first semester statistician would never make!
For those mathematically inclined here's a deeper explanation.
All the following numbers are extrapolated directly from the diagram.

Of the 324 Anglophones who were queried, 12% declined to answer, leaving 285 who did respond, of which 58% or 165 were in agreement with the statement.
Of the 179 Allophones that were queried, 6% declined to answer, leaving 165 who did respond, of which 70% or 116 were in agreement with the statement. 
Between the two groups, 450 people responded, of whom 281 agreed with the statement.
That yields 62% NOT the 65% indicated in the poll.

With the error corrected, the grand total also changes from 70% to 68.2%  By the way, this error is reproduced in every single question.

Readers, I promise you this.
Somebody at Léger is going to read this post and if I am wrong, I will hear about it immediately.
If I am wrong I will apologize.

If I am right, there will be a deathly silence.