French versus English Volume 89

This week in Quebec Corruption

This week we heard about large payouts to the two disgraced ex-Mayors of Montreal and Laval.

"After seven months on the job, the ex-interim mayor of Laval Alexandre Duplessis will be walking away from his post with a severance package of $170,378.
The cheque was cut from the city Tuesday, with the 43-year-old Duplessis receiving a $134,975 “transition allowance” and a severance package of $35,403.
The severance was calculated using guidelines under a provincial law on remuneration of elected officials — the Loi sur le traitement des élus municipaux — said the city. The allowance is a payment some city workers get to help find other employment, and eligibility for the severance is normally determined by factoring in the years of service and the pay grade of the individual leaving office. Link

The City of Montreal has confirmed that former mayor Michael Applebaum has received more than $267,000 in severance pay.
Applebaum resigned from office after being arrested in June on 14 charges including fraud and conspiracy.
He was selected as mayor by Montreal city council on Nov. 16, 2012, following the resignation of Gérald Tremblay amid allegations of corruption.
Applebaum's payout is over $50,000 more than his predecessor, who received a total of $216,000 after holding the mayor's office for more than a decade. Link

Up to now, the corruption scandals enveloping Quebec have implicated politicians and public servants, but now the police that are investigating these scandals have a whopper of its own.

"Three former high-ranking Quebec police officers are the subjects of an investigation into allegations of criminal activity.

Jean Audette, Steven Chabot and Richard Deschênes

"The investigation involves former Quebec provincial police director Richard Deschênes, as well as Jean Audette and Steven Chabot, who were responsible for criminal investigations for the Sûreté du Québec.
Chabot is retired, but Deschênes and Audette were both relieved of their duties when provincial police head Mario Laprise alerted Public Security Minister Stéphane Bergeron.
Bergeron told a news conference Wednesday that the allegations came to light when Laprise was doing a routine check of the accounting books, and discovered some unaccounted money.
According to the minister, the money was in a fund set up to discreetly pay police informants or cover the cost of drugs in undercover operations.
He said a high-ranking officer authorized the use of money from that fund to pay someone's retirement bonus. Bergeron would not name the individual who benefited from the alleged bonus." Link

In recent developments; 
(translation)  "According to information obtained by La Presse, it's because  Denis Despelteau was planning to flee the country, the crown decided  to rush  his arrest by quickly filing charges against him. Sources revealed that there were no plans to make any arrests in the matter before September Link{fr}

Mr. Despelteau was an ex-cop turned consultant and has a suspicious and checkered past, twice declaring bankruptcy in the face of hundreds of thousands of dollars owed to the tax department.

Pauline reminds us just what a petty and nasty piece of work she really is.

This one story illustrates just what a nasty, public money-waster and utterly predictable idiot our Premier really is.

"Trust the Parti Québécois government to seize every opportunity to rain on a royal parade.
It was in the hours after it was reported that Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, had gone into labour leading to Monday’s birth of a royal son that the Quebec government announced it will join in a constitutional challenge to a federal law amending the rules governing succession to the titular post of Canadian head of state.
The holder of that post also occupies the British throne, and the law in question, the Succession to the Throne Act, 2013, essentially gave Canadian consent to a British law that abolished the rule of male primogeniture in the royal line of succession.
It means that male children will no longer take precedence over their sisters, no matter what their age, as had been the case up to then. The revision also removed the age-old interdiction that an heir to the throne may not marry someone of the Catholic faith.
The constitutional challenge was mounted by a pair of busybody Université Laval law professors whose objection is not the change in the line of succession or the liberalization of a royal heir’s marriage prospects, but the fact that the Conservative government passed the law approving the change without seeking formal endorsement from provincial governments." Read more

Sadly the PQ actually has a good case, but so what?

If the challenge is successful, Ottawa will have to go back and ask for permission from each province to allow for a change in the rules for Royal succession.

If that is the case, even the PQ would be forced to give that consent, the public would not stand for the government opposing a law that guarantees equality of genders in the Royal succession.
It would appear really low to oppose such a consent.

End result..... Money-wasting gamesmanship that serves no purpose.

By the way, the case will take years to litigate and Marois and her gang will be long gone. Any new Quebec government will certainly withdraw the petition.
And let's not forget that the birth of the latest male heir to the British throne has placed the whole issue on the back burner, one that can be safely put off for thirty or forty years.

So what's a few more million down the drain?
After all Quebec taxpayers are a generous and docile lot....

The gift that keeps taking

If there is any symbol of the decline of Quebec it may very well be the disaster that is the Olympic Stadium. Wikipedia
A monumental disaster of design and engineering, the stadium is a painful reminder of failure.
The white elephant known unaffectionately as the 'Big Owe' wasn't even completed in time for the Olympic games and its unfinished tower, a humiliating reminder and symbol of Quebec incompetence, and corruption.
It's $1.6 billion price tag haunted Montrealers for decades, and it took until 2006, to pay off the monumental debt.

Roof collapse in 1999

The tower and retractable roof weren't completed until 1987, fifteen years late and almost immediately, trouble with the retractable roof became evident.

By 1992 the roof was destined never to open again. The sad fiasco of the Kevlar roof has been an ongoing nightmare with one failure after another.

Today the government body that runs the stadium revealed that the roof is just about finished with a costly $200-$500 million rebuild an imperative. The way things go in Quebec that $rebuild will definitely be on the higher side of the estimate, all to preserve a venue that is substandard in every respect, primarily it's location out in East Montreal, far from those with the money to spend on tickets.

Read" Rips in Olympic Stadium roof scare away event organizers
Three years ago, we were warned about the impending disaster, but like usual, nothing is to be done, no decision taken, until a new disaster unfolds.
Let's be done with it. Major league baseball is never returning to Montreal and the stadium is just not needed. Even the Alouettes refuse to play there outside the playoffs and a Grey Cup every decade isn't enough to warrant the expense.

Ottawa-bashing ramped up by Quebec in Lac-Megantic tragedy

In Quebec, holding Ottawa responsible for every ill that strikes Quebec is a lugubrious and long-standing tradition and in the sad aftermath of the Lac-Mégantic tragedy the blame game shifted into high gear, with the responsibility for the accident placed squarely on the regulations and oversight of the federal regulators, with deregulation of the industry made out as the villain in the whole affair.
The Ottawa-bashing was not exclusively a Quebec only affair, with the insufferable Tom Mulcair blaming Ottawa for the perceived failure of deregulation and its impact on the tragedy, without a shadow of evidence.

Now there's no doubt that regulations need to be tightened so that when humans fail, the consequences are not as disastrous as the experience of Lac-Mégantic, but truth be told, the disaster was caused by someone doing his job badly or irresponsibly.

The same happened in San Francisco as two pilots landed their aircraft short of the runway for no apparent good reason. Without passing premature judgement, if that was the case , there's not a lot the airline manufacturer or the FAA could do about it.

The rail disaster in Spain that took so many lives can probably be attributed once more, to human error or dereliction of duty, where clearly the train was speeding, causing it to derail.

Here is an amazing video, witnessing clearly that the train was travelling too fast.

I don't think the government had much to do with that disaster and while regulations and oversight can always be improved, you just can't eliminate accidents when humans are in involved.

The advantage pressed by Quebec nationalists over the incident is disrespectful to the dead and injured, a sad powerplay on the backs of a town which has become a pawn, in the never-ending political chess match that is Quebec/Ottawa relations.

If the Conservatives are responsible for the disaster, because of deregulation, as we are told over and over again in Le Devoir and vigile.net, should these mighty organs of truth logically congratulate the Conservatives for Canada's falling crime rate (announced Thursday)  as a result of the Conservative's get tough on crime bill?
Not likely....

Young entrepreneur does a YouTube rant over the Quebec government's refusal to allow registration of an English business name.

"A Quebec-based startup is complaining after officials rejected his company based on its English name, Rob Lurie reports."

Watch the CTV news story in English HERE.

 Here is the original YouTube rant in French;

Mouvement Québec français wants language to be central issue in Montreal election campaign

"The Mouvement Québec français plans to become involved in Montreal’s municipal election campaign this fall.The president of the MQF, Mario Beaulieu, wants to ensure that language is one of the issues for mayoral candidates.
Beaulieu said he’s targetting the mayor’s race in Quebec’s largest city because more than 85 per cent of the 50,000 immigrants each year in Quebec settle there. According to him, Montreal is becoming more and more anglicized, and he denounces the fact that no municipal party has proposed solutions to counter this phenomenon." Read the rest of the story

Of course to Mr. Mario Blowhard, the issues of corruption, finances, unemployment and job opportunity, skyrocketing taxes and a collapsing infrastructure, are all small potatoes compared to language.

Vigile.net's most overt xenophobe outshines himself.

In a post that even astounds me, vigile.net's most overt and prolific xenophobe, Rejean LaBrie, delivered a beauty of a screed in which he rants against 'foreigners' playing for the Montreal Canadiens or the mythical Nordiques, who perhaps like the Phoneix, might one day rise again, to compete, according to Mr. LaBrie, without resorting to those nasty strangers.

If you read French, go over there and see why vigile.net has been roundly condemned as a first class purveyor of hate.
Jusqu’où ira la négation des identités nationales dans le sport ?

For those without French, Mr. LaBrie first complains that the French national soccer team has too many Black foreign players on the team.
He offers this photo to prove his point that the team is unrepresentative of French society.

I suppose Mr. LaBrie would also advise the NBA to limit Black participation to 10%, the demographic percentage of Blacks in America.
The league would be eminently less talented, but no matter, according to Mr. LaBrie, it is worth the sacrifice to see more white faces!

Think I'm exaggerating his position? Here is a translated quote from the article.

"Furthermore, assuming that the Canadiens or the Nordiques finally returned to the fold, composed exclusively of native Quebecers, we would have to accept that the teams would probably occupy last in the league, but  honorably, with the advantage of having valiantly competed with courage,....
...At any rate, that may be better than a victory gained by outsiders, better than the glory gained by impersonation."

Readers, I can assure that this ultra xenophobia is extremely rare, so let's not generalize.
I think a reader in the comments section said it best;

"But to whom and what end, Mr. Labrie,  do your posts on people of other ethnic groups than whites, actually serve.
I wonder if you do not purposely make we independentists and "vigiliens," out as a gang of racist or mental defectives, unable to accept people from different backgrounds on our TV!

Weekend Reading

YES side got illegal donations: engineer

(translation) “The Yes camp received illegal funding during the 1995 sovereignty referendum , according to testimony gathered by the police who investigated the alleged criminal network headed by the former mayor of Laval, Gilles Vaillancourt.

An engineer, Claude Vallée, a former partner at Valley Lefebvre, provided the information found in the complaints. that led to the ongoing anti-corruption unit (UPAC) to conduct searches in Laval.

In 1980 and 1990, Vallée was involved in various political organizations in order to procure government contracts. He worked at the municipal and in the entourage of the Bloc Quebecois and the Parti Quebecois, we read in the papers.”" 
He collected large sums of cash for the Parti Quebecois, mainly for the referendum, ," noted police following a meeting with Vallée.
These sums "were laundered by militants without anyone knowing the origin of the funds and there were no repercussions," it said. Link{fr}

English-speaking nannies hot property in France

“Don’t believe all that you hear about French people's resistance to English. The language police at the Académie Française might be against the invasion of anything Anglo but the same cannot be said for French parents.
More and more of them appear to be waking up to the fact that their child’s future may depend on their grasp of English, which of course is good news for Anglophones looking for work in France.” Link

At Tour De France, Default Language Now Is English

“French is disappearing here,” said Pascale Schyns, the Tour’s official translator. “It wasn’t too long ago that we could say that French was the predominant language, but now there’s more English.” Link

English terms the French want barred

“When it comes to fighting off the invasion of English words the French Resistance has had mixed fortunes over the years. Nevertheless the fight goes on. With the help of the Ministry of Culture here's a list of the latest English terms that French authorities want deported.
The reality is the French language police have long been fighting an uphill battle to stem the invasion of English words into the language of Moliere.” Link to Story   Link to see those Terms

Why French immersion should be in all schools – or none at all

 “This streaming has lead some critics to suggest that French Immersion programs are less about educational benefits and more about providing school choice in Canadian public schools. They allege that parents enroll their children in French Immersion to ensure that they’re placed in classrooms with students from higher socioeconomic groups and with teachers that aren’t distracted by higher needs students.” Link

Have a laugh...

Composting in Montreal.

When a Montreal woman was told by a neighbor that her efforts at composting were going for naught, she decided to follow the composting truck to see if it was true.
Here's a video that she shot showing the garbage man sanitation worker, throwing all sorts of crap into the truck, which is supposed to pick up compostables only.

 The furious woman confronts the worker, who blows her off.

The video made quite an impression, with the city forced to admit the error, but responding as is usual in cases like these, that it was an isolated incident.... Hmmm...

Here's more municipal workers doing what they do, this time in Buckingham, Quebec.

And no need to have good French to understand this gaffe;

I wonder what the OQLF has to say about this FAIL;

And here is my favorite summer picture. BTW, it's Dustin Brown, of the Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings, taken year  last ..

Have a great weekend!

Bonne fin de semaine!

Canada's Value-for-Money Monarchy

Royal baby: Kate gives birth to boy

Formal announcement of the Royal birth

It is a particular bugbear amongst the sophisticates and separatists to disdain the monarchy as an archaic institution that has no place in our modern society.

Survey after survey indicates that Canadians are a disinterested bunch when it comes to the House of Windsor, but to this observer that fact is the proof that in many cases, polls outright lie, where responders answer what they believe they should say, instead of what they feel.

I'm not a royalist by any stretch of the imagination, but for that matter, would oppose the abolition of the institution of the monarchy on a variety of grounds.

It would in all likelihood cost more to abolish the monarchy than to keep  it, but that is hardly the point.

There is a reality that we don't like to admit, the desire to to venerate our supposed  betters, whether they be Hollywood film stars, pop stars, entertainers and royalty of all manner.

How else to explain the near obsession by fans to Justin Bieber or Angelina Jolie, or George Clooney.  Entire industries exist, be it magazines, radio, television or Internet which report on every move these stars make, professionally and more importantly their personal lives, to a rabidly hungry audience of admirers who for but a moment, live viscerally in a make believe world of glamor and wealth.

It's fun to be a fan, otherwise people wouldn't waste their leisure time on star-gazing.

And to those males who venerate sports stars, wasting interminable time discussing mundane statistics, they are no one to criticize, they are no better or worse, than the star-gazers.

And so it is for the monarchy, we love to observe, dream and fantasize of the life we see them live and wish that was ours.

In this regard, our monarchy is value for money like no other.

The naysayers complain that Canada wastes about $2.50 a year per citizen supporting Queen Elizabeth and her extended entourage, but it is perhaps the very best entertainment dollar that we spend.
There are Canadians who remain uninterested, but a lot less than they would have us believe.

Undeniably popular...even in Quebec City!

Even in Quebec, when William and Kate visited last year, thousands upon thousands turned up to greet them on the streets and hundreds of thousands more watched on television.

To those who oppose spending money on the monarchy, let me say that it is a pittance compared to what the government spends on crap that is a lot less satisfying.

The fact is, that we get value for our money, not all of us, but enough to make the entire endeavor worthwhile.

To many, the monarchy, like an obsession with fan magazines and shows, is an overt hobby, while to others a guilty pleasure, enjoyed on the down-low.

As for Great Britain, the monarchy is the greatest value-for-money in terms of tourism which is inestimable, as foreigners flock to London to witness the pomp and circumstance that is the changing of the guard in front of Buckingham Palace, a visit the Tower of London, or to witness a royal wedding or the birth of an heir.
Any talk of the monarchy being a financial drag on the British economy is outright poppycock, the monetary value in tourism dwarfs any outlay by the public purse.

A high point of my sojourn to London was a visit to the utterly fantastic Buckingham Palace, an adventure that I won't soon forget, and if truth be told, far outranks those visits I made to the Great Wall of China, the Eiffel Tower or the Leaning Tower of Pisa, those most highly regarded of tourist attractions worldwide.

For great entertainment value I can't recommend enough a visit to the Palace of Versailles or other castles and palaces of Europe. It is an experience that you'll never forget, the breathtaking opulence and beauty not soon forgotten.
True, all of this was built on the backs of the common man, but so were the Pyramids or the Great Wall of China, but that doesn't stop us from visiting, so no carping from the holier than thou crowd.

There is a reality, yet a mystery about our human existence.
Why do little girls dream of being swept away by knights in shining armor or handsome princes in dazzling regalia.
Why do little boys dream of glory in battle or the sports pitch?

Why do none dream of winning a Nobel prize or discovering a cure for cancer?

There is a beauty in dreams that only the Grinches among us can deny.

And so to all of you who are watching with outright ebullience, the goings on surrounding the birth of the next Royal, or to those slipping in a surreptitious  and stole moment before the television coverage, all I can say is enjoy.

Nobody can tell you what to enjoy and to the spoil-sport anti-monarchists and nasty separatists, all I can say is to piss off.

For those who complain about the pittance the government spends on the monarchy it is important to understand that there are plenty of things the government spends money on that the overwhelming majority of Canadians disagree with, like the $20 billion that is shoveled to Quebec each year by taxpayers in the rest of Canada.

For Quebec nationalist who oppose the money spent on the monarchy, I propose a deal....you can imagine what it is.

Congratulations to the Windsors on the birth of the baby royal.

We wish him long life and success and look forward to following his every move.

Dear readers, please take advantage of the comments sections to offer your congratulations or to voice your displeasure....after all we still live in a free country, the legacy of our British heritage!

Pauline and Hubby......Another Fine Quebec Mess

The last time the PQ was in power, it sponsored a paper mill project in the money pit that is the Gaspé peninsula, the sinkhole that keeps swallowing Quebec taxpayer dollars without shame or remorse.

The 2001 project that sought to reopen a pulp and paper mill in Chandler, financed by the government, sunk like the proverbial lead balloon, costing about half a billion dollars with nothing to show for it.

The PQ government was blamed harshly by the commissioner appointed to inquire into the fiasco,

"In its report released Friday, Justice Robert Lesage denounced political pressure by the Parti Québécois to revive the paper mill in Chandler."
Judge Lesage blamed mainly the former PQ government for the failure of the project, accusing it of the sin of electioneering under the impulse of an interventionist ideology."  Link{fr}

If you've got a lot of time, read the complete report on the Gaspésia fiasco by commissioner Robert Lesage;

Rapport d’enquête sur les dépassements de coûts et de délais du chantier de la Société Papiers Gaspésia de Chandler {fr}

Pauline Marois and her husband Claude Blanchet were the showrunners of the project and never fully managed to wash the stink of the disaster off.
You'd think Pauline would have learned from that disaster, that fooling around with public money on a whim is not exactly the best of ideas, but alas she is at it again throwing good money after bad in the province's reckless pursuit of wind power, another billion dollar boondoggle.

Of course the people of the Gaspé live in a fantasy world where they actually believe they are innovators and pioneers in wind power and organic waste electric generation, instead of the panhandlers and beggars that they always were.

"This third contract with Hydro-Quebec confirms the leadership of Innoventé in the power production from organic waste. We rejoice that a community such as Matane has chosen the technology of Innoventé to revive the plant and implement a new viable, green and sustainable industry, declares Mr. Richard Painchaud, President of Innoventé. We are happy to be able to count on the collaboration of all stakeholders in the field".

For the mayor of Matane, Mr. Claude Canuel, who views his city as the Mecca of the wind power industry in Quebec, Innoventé's project will have a positive impact in strengthening the role of Matane in the field of renewable energy, rationalization of the forestry sector, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and achieving the City of Matane's objectives regarding sustainable development. Mr. Mayor Canuel went further by affirming: "I want to emphasize the determination of the President of Innoventé, Mr. Richard Painchaud, without which the revival of the RockTenn plant would not have been impossible". Link

Here's a blog piece on another fine French blog Agora.com entitled  Après Gaspésia, Éolia ?

I've taken the liberty to translate the piece because it is something that you won't find in the mainstream press and is well-written and of utmost interest.

If you read French please do the author the courtesy of reading the piece on his blog and if so inclined please leave a comment there.

In 2001, when the PQ was in power it had on the drawing board an ambitious project called 'Gaspésia', a plan to reopen a paper mill in the Gaspé:'' On 17 December 2001, the former premier Bernard Landry, Claude Blanchet and President of Tembec, Frank Dottori, announced the revival of Gaspésia, a $463 million project. The Solidarity Fund of the QFL would own 50% shares of Gaspésia Paper, Tembec and SGF (Qc government investment arm run by Pauline's Hubby ..editor)  splitting the rest of the shares. In front of 500 people, Mr. Blanchet hyped the presence of a partner "with deep pockets" as Tembec's Dottori hid his face in his hands, making the crowd laugh. During their press conference, Mr. Dottori said that "this is a high-risk project."'

The project was in fact a total fiasco, with refitting costs exploding by some $200 million. But the plant never opened its doors, and a total loss of $500 million was written off . At that time the finance minister was ... Pauline Marois.

Judge Lesage, analyzing this fiasco inculps Claude Blanchet and indirectly Pauline Marois:'' In his report, Judge Lesage takes Bernard Landry to task, but rips violently into Claude Blanchet, former CEO of General Finance Corporation. Between these two, Pauline Marois is not blameless, as finance minister at the time.

Everyone also remembers the press conference where Mr. Blanchet revealed that pressure had been put upon him to commit the SGF financially to the project. This pressure came not only from Premier Landry, but also "dear Pauline," his wife.''

To our great misfortune, there are similarities between the development of wind power as proposed by the current government and that disastrous Gaspesia plan: Both projects claim to help create jobs in disadvantaged regions and both  projects relate to industries in deep difficulty, with diminishing demand for paper products with the development of electronic media for Gaspésia and wind power too expensive to compete with the natural gas produced by our southern neighbors.

Even more disturbing is what Pauline Marois said in August 2012:'' The Parti Quebecois leader told us that she wants to "turn the page" on the fiasco that was Gaspésia. But she said she did not have any regrets.

''Her greenish Minister of natural resources, Martine Ouellet doesn't seem aware of the statistics released this week by the MEI in regards to the wind industry:'' For the Montreal Economic Institute, it is clear that the industry receives an implicit subsidy of $700 million per year, paid for by all Quebec consumers through their electricity bill'' For those less familiar with the matter, let me summarize it this way: the cost of generating electricity with wind power is 14¢ per KWH while the sale price on the export market (since we already have a surplus of elecvctricity) is ...6¢ per KWH. No private company would proceed in light of such figures!

Therefore, each Quebecer who pays taxes  donates $180 to the wind industry (each year..editor) . Yet despite these figures Minister Ouellet is convinced that the wind industry does not have to worry about its future! One of the problems in the Gaspésia project was the hyper-unionisation  that added to the cost of production. To build a Quebec wind turbine costs about 70% more than anywhere in North America, which adds more to the similarities between these two famous projects!

While in his tenure as prime minister, Bernard Landry cost this province one disastrous project, now Pauline Marois intends to make us relive the same type of fiasco, but  annually!

Worst in all this, is that her own party is more concerned with duplication of services with the federal  government. In this case one political party seems to have its eyes open, the Conservative Party of Quebec and its leaders who penned this opinion piece: Scandale éolien 

In that article, Adrien Pouliet, head of the fledgling Quebec conservative party made it painfully clear;

"Quebec wind turbines generate losses estimated at nearly $ 700 million per year according to the Montreal Economic Institute. The importance of these staggering losses deserves an explanation from the PQ government as to how such financial mismanagement has occurred and especially, why it persists and worse still, encourages more wind generation losses." Read more{fr}

Of course, Pauline dodged responsibility for the Gaspesia affair, choosing to blame the Liberal government which was forced to clean up the mess, after the PQ government fell.
 
For a definitive review of the folly of wind power read  The Growing Cost of Electricity Production in Quebec by the Montreal Economic Institute.

And so Pauline and the PQ go merrily rolling along, confident that she and her party can bamboozle Quebecers into paying $700 million a year to support  her fading dream of getting the Gaspé sinkhole off the dole, thus fulfilling her dream of keeping the area economically alive.

But not so fast.....

Unlike the Gaspésia disaster or the Caisse de dépôt $39 billion meltdown, news of which was sprung upon hapless taxpayers after the fact, the ongoing financial disaster in relation to wind power is drawing attention, a lot of attention, and I'm not sure that Marois and company can face the music of a concerted political campaign by both the press and the opposition.

Here is just a sample of what the Press is saying;
Blowing our tax dollars on windmills
"Who doesn't love windmills? The very word conjures up nostalgic images of solitary brick or wooden towers with vanes set against picturesque fields. Of course, wind farms nowadays are filled with row upon row of tall, steel tube towers, but even these wind turbines have a sparse, modern beauty to them.
The thing is, wind power is also expensive. In Quebec, it's about 2.5 times more expensive to produce than hydroelectricity from large dams in the James Bay area (roughly 14¢ versus 5.5¢ per kWh), which accounts for most of the electricity produced by Hydro-Quebec.
Moreover, the province has more energy than it needs, which is why the government cancelled six small hydroelectric projects earlier this year. If that's the case, why are Quebec taxpayers still indirectly subsidizing the wind power industry to the tune of $695 million a year? And why is the government announcing new supply contracts for wind power? " Link

Hadekel: Politics raising Quebec energy costs 
 Quebecers pay literally hundreds of millions of dollars a year to produce electricity from wind turbines that they don’t need,” economist Youri Chassin says in a note published by the Montreal Economic Institute. “This energy is 2.5 times more expensive than hydroelectricity.”
He figures the net cost of wind power, including transportation, distribution and integration into the grid, is a little more than 14 cents a kilowatt hour, compared with small hydro power at 11.5 cents and legacy installations like the La Grande and Manic dams at 5.5 cents.
The implicit subsidy to wind production works out to $695 million a year.
Now, you might have political reasons to favour wind if you think it’s a better source of energy at a time of climate change.
However, both wind and hydro are clean and renewable and hydro dams have a longer lifespan than wind turbines, which must be decommissioned after 20 or 25 years. Link

More and more articles are starting to be published in both the French and English press and a din of protest is rising. When the Fall session of the Parliament begins, it is likely that all Hell will break loose and with no defensible position,  Pauline is going to have to shuck and jive.

And so it is no surprise that the PQ government is making noises about creating a consultative commission to gather public opinion in relation to energy policies, perhaps a way to wriggle out of the ongoing disaster by shifting the blame.

After all, it's a Pauline specialty.

Lac Megantic...Another Tragedy Surrounds the Disaster.......

Any disaster, especially one close to home is an excellent chance for local media to cash in as the public scrambles to the news channels and newspapers for information, gripped by a morbid fascination of the unfolding calamity of death and destruction.
The specter of so many dead and the images of utter destruction makes for a summer blockbuster that even Hollywood is hard up to provide.

And so the media gears up, I mean it really gears up, rushing multiple reporters and equipment to the scene, with all hands mustered to fish for any scrap of information to advance the story and where failing real developments, idle speculation and willful manipulation are the order of the day, to keep the pot boiling.
This is what the media lives for. If you think I'm exaggerating, ask yourself who is really watching television news channels on a beautiful summer day with temperature approaching 30 degrees and the sun glaring down.

The first casualty in any such newsworthy disaster is journalistic integrity, as the story is fitted along the lines that the public is most in tune with.

It was no surprise that the chairman of the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway was made out to be a modern version of Simon Legree. He was practically cast for the part as the local media crafted a narrative of evil greed and malfeasance, before any real facts could be established.

And so the media weaved a story of an accident caused by willful neglect, callous cost-cutting and abject indifference and dereliction of duty. It was of course what the public wanted to hear, a story that best suited the enraged emotions, the need to hate and the need to blame.

What glorious fun it was for the media to pounce on the unfortunate Ed Burkhardt a media-challenged yutz, who didn't understand the importance in appearing humble, contrite and deferential.

Instead the idiot offered some injudicious opinions better left unsaid, galvanizing his position as an unrepentant money-grubber, indifferent to the suffering of the locals, intent on saving his own skin and wallet.
How much wiser it would have been to leave it to the spin-masters to bob and weave in his staid, saying all the right things, but nothing really at all.

And then there are the language fanatics, who could not resist demanding that the American company adopt a French demeanor and where every French grammatical error was elevated to a deliberate slap to the face of the francophone collective.
And this not only in the fringe press, with "Speak White' echoing through the pages of the Journal de Montreal, as journo after journo took language potshots at the hapless Burkhardt.

Then there were the shameful politicians seeking to make political points on the backs of the dead and the attached media spotlight, the egregious Thomas Mulcair leading the way, blaming the entire fiasco on his political opponent as if Stephan Harper ordered the train to crash.

Stand back gentle readers, and look at the idiots, the fools, the greedy manipulators, be it railroad apologists, conservationists, separatists and the pipeline proponents all trying to spin the disaster to best further their interests.

And now, it is the turn of the shysters to have their go. Already an Ontario lawyer has announced a class-action lawsuit against the company, its president and the hapless train conductor, all without a shred of evidence.
But no matter, the evidence will come later, after the clients have been bagged and tagged.

And so the media continues to paint a fantastical picture, partly true, partly what we wish it to be and partly make-believe.

Even the stately Montreal Gazette couldn't resist with this sappy editorial, one with absolutely no basis in fact.

"This outpouring of support for those afflicted by a disaster such as this can be explained in part by the culture of solidarity and strong sense of collectivity prevalent in Quebec society."

'Culture of Solidarity?'....... Arrgghhh..... what a crock!

When it comes to charity, Quebecers have always been the least generous of Canadians, whether it be with their money or their donated time and this disaster underlines that fact better than ever.

So far the Red Cross has collected a paltry $3.5 million dollars towards the disaster, and this from across Canada.
But even if we considered that all the money came from Quebecers (which it didn't)  it would amount to less than 50¢ per person, not exactly a Herculean effort.

As for corporate donations, how is it that companies based outside of Quebec are infinitely more generous than Quebec based companies?
So far as I can see, here is a list of corporate donations so far. I'm sure it's not complete, but you get the picture..

Companies based outside Quebec

RBC....................$50,000
Bell......................$25,000
CAW...................$25,000
Manulife.............$50,000
Sun Life..............$50,000
CIBC..................$50,000
Standard Life.....$50,000
Hudson's Bay.....$50,000
 TD Bank ..........$50,000
Tim Hortons.......$100,000
Intact Insurance..$100,000
Target..................$25,000

Total Canada..............$675,000


Desjardin....................$100,000
Industrielle Alliance...$50,000
Promutue....................$50,000
National Bank.............$25,000
Laurentan Bank..........$25,000
CGI.............................$100,000

Total Quebec.................$350,000

Once, again is the ROC carrying the freight?  (Apologies,  that was an extremely bad pun.)

And let us not forget the most generous contribution of Quebec's very own Celine Dion who made sure her $100,000 contribution was splashed all over the media.
But consider this, after a deduction for taxes the donation represented no more than 50K, this from someone worth $400 million.
It's equivalent to someone worth $250,000 donating $62 and receiving a $20- $30 tax discount.
Not particularly impressive.

And how about those mandatory benefit concerts put on to show solidarity with the victims and raise money and awareness.
Not one real headliner has signed on to the scheduled event at the 'Lac-Megantic relief at Le Monument National'' as yet, but hey, it's the summer and people have plans... (more solidarity?)
(Maybe Celine donated the cash so she wouldn't have to show?) Link

At any rate, I remain thoroughly disgusted with events surrounding the Lac Megantic nightmare.
While the media portrays the public reaction as something heroic, I see it as the theater of the absurd, where most everyone involved  is seeking something for themselves.

By the way, I can't resist publishing this news report aired by an important Los Angeles television station eager to 'scoop' everyone with the names of the pilots of the Korean Asiana airliner that went down in San Francisco.
The names of the pilots had been withheld by authorities, but with the information in hand, the station couldn't resist beating the competition to the story.  It just shows how crazy the media becomes around these disasters.

I hope they are good and embarrassed.

Slimy Politicans Make Hay Over Rail Disaster

" To critics of Stephen Harper’s government, it was evidence of the costs of deregulation; to pipeline advocates, proof that we should be moving oil underground rather than by rail; to some environmentalists, yet another sign that we need to slow down resource development until we better know how to manage it. Link

I've never been a fan of politicians, whatever the political stripe. By nature they are conniving and cynical, often dishonest and almost universally self-centered and paranoid.

In any crisis, disaster or life-changing event, their inevitable first reaction is to ask how exactly all this affects THEM and their political party and how they can limit the damage or press the advantage.

How many politicians in deep political trouble, long for a headline grabbing story to wrest away the attention of the public and shift the spotlight to something or someone other than themselves.

Politician to self; "Oh boy, maybe a plane will crash or a train derail with lots of death. Anything to take the heat off!"

And so the disaster in Lac Megantic is another lesson in  realpolitik, a case study if you will, in using a tragic event and the deaths of so many people to further a political goal or injure a political opponent.

By the way politicians aren't the only cynical bastards that seek to benefit from such disasters.
The media just salivates at the thought of a good disaster, a surefire formula to goose ratings.

It's nothing less than sickening....

As the investigation unfolds, all indications are that human error was to blame. The fact that the train involved suffered a fire on one of the locomotives just an hour before, is just too big a coincidence to accept as non-contributory.
Obviously the train was incorrectly secured, the company blaming the  fireman, the firemen the company.
More often than not, major rail and air accidents are a combination of unfortunate and cascading events, piled on top of each other ultimately leading to disaster.
The fact that both brake systems failed in an inopportune moment on an inopportune location led to a fantastic tragedy.
It happens, and although tragic, these types of accidents and loss of life will occur again, hopefully not too often.

Watching the television coverage of the Asiana air disaster in San Francisco, it appears likely that human error was the cause of the accident, but I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that more than one error was committed by more than one  crew member and that perhaps there might have been a mitigating  technical glitch. Again a story of cascading events.
It's hard to believe that only one pilot made a mistake and that the other had no responsibility.

There isn't much a government can do to regulate human error, it is part of our human experience and that is why the law demands two pilots in a commercial airliner, a sage precaution that precludes what would probably be a vastly increased number of accidents. It is called redundancy and that is why trains have multiple layers of brakes.
Why all the brakes failed is hard to chalk up to technical problems, the more likely scenario is that the first set of air brakes were damaged in the locomotive fire and that human error in setting the manual brakes occurred.
The nature of the accidents in San Francisco and in Lac Megantic point clearly to human error, although an investigation will obviously determine the actual cause.

But interestingly, in San Francisco, there are few or no  voices complaining about weak federal regulations, lack of inspections, poor equipment or runway maintenance.
With human error the likely culprit of the accident, it would be unwise and irresponsible to cast aspersions wildly and without basis in fact.

But such is not the case in the Lac Megantic disaster, as politicians and the media have been lightning quick to find fault, either with the federal government, inspectors, rules and regulations and even the rolling stock.

The Slimeballs.

'Uncle Tom' Mulcair 
"Mulcair, who visited Lac-Megantic following the derailment, said the accident was “another case where government is cutting in the wrong area.”
“We are seeing more and more petroleum products being transported by rail, and there are attendant dangers involved in that. And at the same time, the Conservative government is cutting transport safety in Canada, cutting back the budgets in that area,” said Mulcair, who pointed to decreased transportation checks on petroleum at a time when production was increasing.
“When we have a discussion about these things in the coming months or years let’s remember this day. We are watching a magnificent little village being burned to the ground by toxic products that were being transported through it,” Mulcair said. Link

I don't know where Mr.Mulcair gets his facts, but one blogger has actually checked to see if accidents are on the rise after deregulation.

Sorry to sat, the facts don't fit Mr. Mulcair's agenda;

The number of rail accidents as calculated by DAVID over at  l'antagoniste website.

The accident rate over the last five years has dropped by 30% while the transport of petroleum products by rail has skyrocketed by 28,000%.

MR. MULCAIR!!!... check your facts.

Daniel Paillé (Bloc Q leader)

According to Daniel Paillé, waiting for the results of the investigation doesn't make sense and he demanded that the federal government take action immediately by calling a Parliamentary Commission..

{T}"I want to remind the government in Ottawa that it has a responsibility starting with the gravel found between the railway ties, up until the rules that regulate inter-provincial rail transport." Link{fr}

He then blasted everyone in sight for not flying flags at half mast until he was reminded that not all the bodies have been found yet.

And in an orgy of political one-upmanship , the Prime Minister's office got into a pissing contest with the NDP trying to paint Thomas Mulcair as insensitive.

Mulcair was adamant in denying that he ever said that the tragedy was a result of government de-regulation, but a video tells another story.

"CTV News reported that "Mulcair, who visited Lac-Mégantic following the derailment, said the accident was 'another case where government is cutting in the wrong area.'" Mulcair was in Lac-Mégantic on Sunday.
 

"In the video, Mulcair is seen saying: "We've got to get beyond this new system that they seem to be wanting to put in place of self-regulation. Governments have to regulate in the public interest, nothing more important in what governments do than taking care of the safety of the public."
"And this is another case where the government has been cutting in the wrong area," Mulcair said in the video.".....
....Andrew MacDougall, the director of communications for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, took to Twitter on Sunday following Mulcair's comments saying: "The people of Lac Mégantic have experienced an unspeakable tragedy and we do not yet know its cause. It is grossly inappropriate for Mr. Mulcair to put politics ahead of the people of Lac Mégantic."

....Former interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae also took to Twitter to show his disapproval with the NDP leader's comments saying: "Tom Mulcair blaming Harper for the tragedy at Lac Mégantic is a new low. And as you know, I'm no fan of Mr. Harper's politics." Link

In another story;

"Within hours of the accident, NDP leader Tom Mulcair had already blamed cuts to Transport Canada, saying the increase in transporting dangerous goods via rail was accompanied by less regulation and inspectors..

...NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus cited funding and environmental assessment cuts in his criticism and defended Mulcair's initial assessment, saying Mulcair was only asking "honest" questions." Link

In another story;

"I think most Canadians would be surprised to hear that rail companies are left to inspect themselves and Transport Canada goes over the paperwork," says Olivia Chow, NDP transportation critic.
"Shouldn't there be spot-checks by the government to see whether what is on paper is actually what's happening in the field?" Link

There it is, the Conservatives, the Liberals and the NDP all trying to make political points on the back of the dead in Lac Megantic!    

Of all the quotes, this one by Thomas Mulcair turns my stomach. A cleverly crafted political message wrapped up in crocodile tears and mock concern;

"My thoughts and prayers are with those families — that's our first priority today — but there's still lots of questions and those same families deserve answers to those questions," Mulcair, who represents the Quebec riding of Outremont, said Sunday.

Are all politicians rats like the ones above?

I was duly impressed by one Justin Trudeau, leader of the Liberals who said this;

"I'm blown away, obviously by the terrible destruction ... but also by the strength and the courage of the people who have come from across the country to help out," Trudeau said.
"It's still too early to try to formulate theories on why or how it happened. Today and for the coming days, we will be occupied with residents, families who lost everything in certain cases, to help them and support them." 

 ...finally

Trudeau may be a neophyte, according to his political detractors, but he's the one leader who has demonstrated that making political hay over a disaster of this magnitude, just isn't cricket.

Let me take this opportunity to offer my sincere condolences to the families of victims and wishes of good fortune to the survivors of Canada' worst rail disaster.
I hope both levels of government leave politics aside and work to restore this town sooner than later.
With good intentions and coöperation, it isn't conceivable to have the town rehabilitated within eighteen months.
The townsfolk deserve nothing less.

Note to readers;
The followup post about electricity, Hydro-Quebec and the disastrous management of the file by Pauline Marois, that was supposed to appear today, will be published next week.