French versus English Volume 93

PQ's Andre Boisclair accused of steering contract to friend

André Boisclair: You've got a lot of 'splaining to do!

In a revelation at Quebec's Charbonneau crime commission, an entrepreneur, Paul Sauvé, who had ties to the Hells Angels revealed that he received the go-ahead for a $2.5 million contract by his friend, the then PQ minister André Boisclair, just four days  before the provincial election that would see the PQ defeated by Jean Charest's Liberals. Link

What's wrong with this?
Once an election is called it is traditional for ministers to act as caretakers and refrain from making any new undertaking that would bind the future government.

When the CAQ got a hold of the letter confirming that the subsidy to renovate a historic downtown church in Montreal, all Hell broke lose with the CAQ's Jacques Duchesneau accusing Boisclair, now Quebec's delegate-general in New York, of directing a lucrative contract to his friend in the dying days of the PQ government, a government that at that point was trailing badly in the polls and was sure to lose the general election to be held a few days later.

But Duchesneau went farther, questioning publicly if Boisclair's admitted cocaine use had anything to do with his decision to grant the contract. He then made a dubious connection over the fact that the entrepreneur was connected to the Hell's Angles.

It was a classic smear attack, framed in the innocent 'I'm just asking' context' which may or may not have backfired because it gave Boisclair and the PQ a different set of talking points.

An indignant Boisclair fired off a legal letter to Duchesneau threatening legal action for defamation, but Duchesneau seems unperturbed, he doesn't threaten easily as demonstrated in the past.

Boisclair really didn't have any choice but to react forcefully, but the prospect of a lawsuit  would be devastating to him and his office. Any  subsequent lawsuit would revisit his cocaine use in painful detail, something he has never done. Boisclair has admitted using cocaine while a minister but has successfully put that chapter in his life behind him.

Taking the witness stand, facing an aggressive cross examination by a shark lawyer over his cocaine use would be humiliating and possibly ruinous.

Here's the type of questions he might expect.

"How many times did you do cocaine?"
"Describe the circumstances"
"With whom?"
"Who was your dealer and how much was your habit costing"
"Were you ever blackmailed or threatened by anyone relating to your addiction?"
"Did the entrepreneur in question know about your cocaine use and did you give him the contract to shut him up?"
"Tell us about the people you did cocaine with?"

Readers, you've seen enough TV court room drama to understand that Boisclair would be dragged through the mud, very publicly,  guilty or innocent. The process would be devastating.

Duchesneau displays letter confirming subsidy

The truth is that Boisclair wants to shut down the debate and nothing does it better or faster than a lawsuit.
Once the lawyers get involved, litigants are forced to cease debating the issue in public and if in a year or so Boisclair drops the suit, it will have served its purpose.
Let us remember the infamous Tony Accurso and how he used this exact strategy to shut up Radio-Canada reporters who he also sued for defamation.  Link

In a desperate and utterly pathetic move, Boisclair started an online petition denouncing Duchesneau, urging citizens to support him.

In the back of everyone's mind, is the fact that  Duchesneau has made some pretty outrageous accusations in the past, for one, claiming that 70% of political donations were 'dirty,' a shocking allegation at the time, which ultimately turned out to be completely true.

Duchesneau has been the go-to guy for whistle blowers, a political version of Claude Poirier, Quebec's most famous crime reporter.
If there is dirt on Boisclair, (and I'm sure there is) Duchesneau knows of it or will know of it.
For Mr. Boisclair, all I can say is be afraid, be very afraid.

Late developing.....
It's started already, Eric Caire a member of the CAQ is demanding that Boisclair reveal who supplied him with cocaine.

"Me, I went shopping to Métro yesterday and didn't see any cocaine on the shelves, so I imagine that if one wants to buy cocaine it has to come from an illegal source, regardless of whether you're a minister or a junkie.. Link{fr}

Sheesh!......

Why did police really visit Liberal leader Philippe Couillard's home?

I've thought long and hard about publishing this piece of speculation, because I very much want the Liberals and the Philippe Couillard to succeed.
But in the end, it would be hypocritical to hold back and so here goes.

I don't have any inside knowledge about fraud, influence peddling or the culpability of any members of the Liberal party or the attendant entourage.
The only political personality I can comment upon is ex-Premier Jean Charest who will never be implicated in any question of corruption because he wasn't corrupt.  I know this personally and from my experiences with him.
You can believe me or not.

Now recently we heard about UPAC raiding the Quebec Liberal party headquarters and so there is little doubt that some sort of investigation is going on.
Leaks in the press indicate that certain ex-Liberal MPs are under investigation, including ex-minister Nathalie Normandeau.
Last week UPAC, the anti-corruption unit met with Marie-Ève Ringuette, the directer-general of the Quebec liberal party.
The interview took place  at the offices of the Sûreté du Québec in Montreal, which is significant because it tells me that Madame Ringuette is not the subject of the investigation and is providing background or explanations about how things work within the party.
How do I know this?
Because targets of criminal investigations aren't usually called in, they are surprised at their homes, usually early in the morning by investigators who don't want to give the suspect time to consult with a lawyer or cohorts in order to get their stories straight.

And that readers, is exactly what happened to Phillippe Couillard, who had a visit to his home, early in the morning, not by UPAC investigators, but by two policeman attached to the 'Marteau Squad' the police arm attached to UPAC.
Mr. Couillard described the visit as 'a disagreeable human experience' I would imagine it was... Link{fr}

Given the fact that Mr. Coulliard is a new leader and that the supposed investigation he refers to hearkens back to a time when he was out of politics, (he retired in June 2008,) one can only speculate on exactly how Mr. Couillard can help police with the current investigation.

It is not unfair to speculate that the visit actually had to do with another investigation, that of the famous Arthur Porter/SNC-Lavalin affair, where it is alleged that the engineering firm paid about $22 million in bribes to hospital officials.
Given Coullard's very close relationship with Porter at that time and his position as Minister of Health, it would be remiss of police not to interview Couillard.
I earnestly hope that Couillard is as innocent as a jaybird in all this, but ignoring the fact that he was interviewed aggressively in his home, cannot be ignored or passed over as trivial.
So that's all I'm saying.

Arthur Porter could make a lot of people happy by dying quickly

Reports in the press indicate that Arthur Porter won't live out the year, so serious is his metastasized cancer.
If the reports are true, and he delays his extradition for a couple more months, he will never see the inside of a court room and believe me, a lot of people are crossing their fingers for exactly that to happen.

The players involved are charged with offering and accepting $22 million in bribes allegedly paid by engineering firm SNC-Lavalin  to Arthur Porter and friends, in order to secure the contract to build the billion dollar super hospital, presently under construction in Montreal.

It was revealed this week that Riadh Ben Aissa, the SNC-Lavalin executive who is the alleged facilitator in the deal is to be returned to Canada from Switzerland where he has been in detention over the affair for the last 17 months.

"Canadian investigators allege that Mr. Ben Aissa “orchestrated the transfer” of $22.5-million from SNC-Lavalin to a company called Sierra Asset Management in the Bahamas, according to a police affidavit. Investigators suspect the money was used to bribe public officials in order to win the hospital contract." National Post

Those charged along with Arthur Porter, the former chief executive of the MUHC, were Yanaï Elbaz, the former MUHC executive in charge of the real estate deal, as well as former SNC-Lavalin CEO Pierre Duhaime and SNC-Lavalin, executive Riadh Ben Aissa.
As well as the above gentlemen, Jeremy Morris, believed to be a principal with Bahamas-based Sierra Asset Management was also arrested when he voluntarily returned to Canada to face charges as did Arthur Porter's wife Pamela, charged with money-laundering.

But central to the investigation is Arthur Porter who like the proverbial keystone, holds everything together.
If he dies the case will become infinitely harder to prosecute and these sophisticated players are not likely to crack.

Quebecers across the entire province are going to the polls this November to elect local city councils and mayors.Of course the long shadow of corruption is casting quite the pall and many of those mayors under investigation for corruption are actually running for office once again.

There are 55 current investigations of sitting and former mayors underway and of these, of the 27 mayors that are still in power, 16 are re-running for office again. Link[fr}
Perhaps they can use this campaign slogan;

"Vote for me, I haven't been convicted yet!" 

The strangest case of all is that of Guy Landry,  the head of the Parti des Lavallois, running for mayor in Quebec's third largest city, Laval.
Mr. Landry is accused of accepting welfare payments illegally, between 2005 and 2009. He is contesting the $40,000 that the welfare department wants back. Link{fr}

Ritalin use in Quebec skyrockets

In 2010, Quebec children consumed 35% of all the Ritalin (attention deficit disorder medication.) prescribed in Canada.

It seems that this trend is only getting worse, with usage up by 25% since then, from $25 million worth of pills in 2010 to $30 million in 2012, rising a staggering 12% and 13% in the last two years.

Why the increase"
According to an expert, quoted in the article,  it's all caused by video games... Link {fr}

SSJB launches mobile app to fight English in stores

" If you've ever wanted to know which stores and businesses in town are considered "franco-responsible" — well, there's an app for that.
Montreal's Société St-Jean-Baptiste has launched a mobile app called "Moi, j'achète en français", which identifies businesses the group says does its business in French." CJAD

 

Employer Council publishes dismal 2013 report on Quebec prosperity

"For the fourth consecutive year, the Employers Council has released its Report Card on Quebec Prosperity, which aims to evaluate and compare Quebec's economic positioning in terms of prosperity and wealth creation.

At today's press conference announcing details of the 2013 Report Card, Employers Council president Yves-Thomas Dorval, appealed to members of the National Assembly - from every political party - to act diligently, in tandem with businesses and other vital forces in society, to help Quebec meet the many challenges it currently faces, in a concerted effort to improve the province's economic performance.

"As clearly noted in the 2013 Report Card on Quebec Prosperity and in many other more recent economic indicators, as well as in some of the news headlines of late, there is an urgency to collectively combine our efforts so that Quebecers can aspire to a better long-term future," stated Mr. Dorval. "Courageous and responsible decisions must be made today to ensure sustainable prosperity for future generations, enabling them to continue to enjoy an unequalled quality of life. Accordingly, we believe attacks against business investment projects, or adopting moratoriums or holding debates that aren't a priority should be avoided. Instead, there should be an encouragement of constructive action, whether it pertains to manpower, taxation, or business environment regulations. Quebec also needs to implement a business plan that would enable the province to excel in the global market." Link

Odds'n Ends

A Montrealer, Alexandre Paul,  has been arrested in Russia in relation to a Greenpeace stunt meant to embarrass Russia over drilling in the Arctic, by scaling a drilling platform. Link{fr}
The Russians don't take kindly to these efforts and have charged him along with others with piracy and I don't mean downloading Lady Gaga illegally.
Piracy as in 'shiver me timbers,' which carries a penalty of up to 15 years in jail.

Mr. Paul should have realized that the Russians have no use for Greenpeace and that they would deal as harshly as they have with the organization.
Check out this Moscow arrest;

The Canadian Press has erroneously reported that the activists were sentenced to two months in jail, when in fact they were ordered held for two months, while prosecutors mulled piracy charges.
It was an amateur mistake for a national news agency.

Russian photographer Denis Sinyakov was remanded

Canadian Press;
"As of noon Thursday, Paul had yet to be seen by a judge, but seven other militants and members of the Arctic Sunrise environmental team had been judged by a tribunal and each sentenced to two months in jail on charges of piracy." Link

New York Times:

A Russian court ordered on Thursday that 10 Greenpeace activists, including an American ship captain and a photographer who was accompanying the group, be held in custody for two months while the authorities investigate whether a demonstration at an offshore oil rig in the Arctic was an act of piracy. Link

BBC

A Russian court has remanded 20 activists from a Greenpeace ship in custody for two months for allegedly trying to seize an oil platform.

 Under Russian law the prosecution can ask a judge to detain people pending further investigation...

...The charge of piracy carries a prison term of up to 15 years in Russia. Link

RT (Russian news service)

Eleven people who were aboard Greenpeace’s ship Arctic Sunrise will spend two months in pre-trial detention, a Murmansk court ruled. The ship's crew faces charges of piracy for boarding an Arctic oil rig.
In addition, five activists are to be held for three days ahead of a new hearing.
The 30 defendants in the dock include four Russians and foreigners from 19 countries, including the US and Canada. Link

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

The Canada Revenue Agency is acknowledging that it “incorrectly” sent a $382,000 tax refund to mob boss Nicolo Rizzuto in 2007, vowing to crack down on any wrongdoing inside the tax-collection agency.

The Minister of National Revenue, Kerry-Lynne Findlay, refused on Thursday to directly address statements by retired CRA officials who said the cheque raised questions about the integrity of the tax system, and questioned the CRA’s decision to shut down a unit that specifically audited criminal figures. Link

 ******************

A report from the Canadian Institute (CIHI) states that a quarter (24.9%) of the approximately 75,000 doctors in the country earned a doctorate in medicine from abroad. Saskatchewan has the highest in this area with 46.5% of the actual proportion.
Physicians practicing in Quebec, but trained elsewhere, come mainly from France (411), Lebanon (156), Vietnam (126), Egypt (109) and United States (91).

Quebec with 18,990 doctors, has a proportion of only 10.9% of foreign trained doctors. In the 1980s, the proportion was about 16%. Link{fr}

I wonder why?

 ******************

Quebec City may step in over Bixi money woes

Here's two strange ones;

Mouvement Québec français denies supporting the Charter of Quebec values

Former SSJB president slams values charter


Seen at a pro Hijab rally:

"My veil ...or welfare"...yikes   More pics here

Finally Some good news..sort of!

"Montreal's subway system may end up with one the most advanced wireless networks in the world, equipped with state-of-the-art technology that allows commuters to use cellphones, laptops and tablets.
Four major telecom companies announced jointly on Wednesday a $50 million project to provide wireless communications for the Montreal subway, including in stations and tunnels, within seven years. Read more:

Seven years....really?

I bet the average techie could set up a WiFi router in an afternoon.
How about contracting out to  the Geek Squad?

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

Some real good news:

McGill students win $1-million prize for idea of using insects to battle hunger

"..a team of MBA students from McGill University has won a $1-million dollar prize for trying to advance this idea. The Hult Prize, handed out Monday by former U.S. president Bill Clinton, is the culmination of a year long social-entrepreneurship competition involving thousands of students.The McGill team, consisting of Mohammed Ashour, Gabe Mott, Jesse Pearlstein, Shobhita Soor and Zev Thompson – won for their plan to produce and promote insect farming for food consumption in urban slums.."  Read more

Some real good news:

Breakfast television hits Montreal

We are so used to seeing things leaving Montreal that it is refreshing to welcome the  new Montreal  TV affiliate of CITY TV in Montreal.

I particularly like the newest version of Montreal's version of Breakfast Television with ex-Olympian Alexandre Despatie and veteran Joanne Vrakas.

Vrakas sparkles, exuding that certain sophisticated Montreal dry humour, playing off straight man Despatie. It works!

Here's a bit of unsolicited advice, lose the orange juice or take a sip now and then or alternately spill a bit out off camera. ITS CHEESY, but perhaps necessary.Try to be a bit more subtle with product placement.
Also a bit more content would be nice, but I imagine the show is a work in progress, but one  which I give an enthusiastic thumbs up.

I particularly like the music at fade in or out, but I would recommend a bit more caution on the part of the musical director.
Sitting at the breakfast table with BTV playing on the TV in the background, my daughter eyes lit up.
"What the Hell is that !" she asked.

She grabbed the remote control, rewound a bit and sure enough the explicit lyrics of a song by Mackeore & Ryan Lewis' "Thriftshop" boomed out over the airwaves.

"♪ ♫ This is F**king Awesome!" ♪ ♫ "

Yikes!

Final laugh of the week

..and the moral of the story in this picture?.....

Have a great weekend!

Bonne fin de semaine!

Poll Exposes Sad Truth about Race Attitudes in Quebec

A new poll conducted by Radio-Canada and the CBC puts paid to the notion advanced by the PQ that Quebecers are for a secular society that equally bans all visible religious symbols from being worn by public and para-public employees.

The poll, a logical extension of the debate was the first to ask ' la question qui tue  'a phrase which simply describes an uncomfortable question that begs a response.

And so we get to the heart of the issue.
Is the public against all religious symbols or just some. Link{fr}

"Elsewhere, 90 per cent of Quebecers said they’d be at ease with a doctor wearing a cross, while only 65 per cent of them said they’d be equally at ease with a doctor wearing a kippa.
The disparity could be owed to confusion about what a kippa actually is, said SOM Research Vice-President Éric Lacroix.
Considering that the kippa, a skullcap worn by Orthodox Jewish men, is actually the least visible of the headwear mentioned in the poll, Lacroix said it’s possible some respondents confused it with “kirpan.”: Link

 Confused? I don't know whether to laugh or cry...

Let's just consider the first figure, the one that indicates that 90% of Quebecers are fine being treated by a doctor wearing a crucifix.
All of a sudden the rationale that it is all religious symbols that upsets people is utter hogwash. It is the non-Christian symbols that are in dispute.

Let me wade in on the comment by the SOM researcher who seemed a little embarrassed by the fact that the kippah came in dead last, saying that perhaps those questioned mixed up the kippah and the kirpan.
It's not as stupid as it sounds, voters are notoriously opinionated and stupid at the same time.
Let us remember a recent story that indicated that almost half of Quebecers are functionally illiterate.
I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that 50% of the people being polled never saw a kippah or kirpan in their life or for that matter met a Jew or a Sikh in person, I'm not exaggerating.

Back in the day, as a political organizer, over many campaigns, I developed a 'dirty' polling technique whereby I would organize four or five campaign workers to poll nightly, to see where our candidate stood.
Obviously we couldn't get a large sample and so we carefully targeted those who were representative AND WHO INTENDED ON VOTING.
We'd pick from the voting list a fair sample of names that represented the ethnic and linguistic and as well as a socioeconomic cross section of the riding.

It's a fancy way of saying that in a riding like Westmount we'd poll voters in the poorer areas in proportion to their numbers as well as language.

Our pollsters would first qualify those they called with a first important question.

"There is an election coming up. How would you rate the chances of you voting?"
"Probably not - Maybe - Probably -Very likely."

If the caller answered anything but 'Very Likely,' the pollster terminated the call, experience has taught me that the caller would not be voting and therefore his or her opinion was moot.

If the caller told us that she or he was very likely to vote, we'd ask for which party, not which candidate they'd be voting for. Some people vote for the candidate, but all vote for a specific party.
This rule has been validated in the last federal election where NDP nobodies were elected in Quebec on the basis of party affiliation.

CBC Internet Poll about Montreal as a City State- Reliable?...err.

At the end of the night, after three or four hours of calls, we'd tally up the total, but also by voter category.
If we didn't have enough of say, francophone responses, we'd go back to the phones and interview francophones until our ratios were complete.

We'd sometimes have as little as a hundred responses, but they were quality responses and I'd put up my system any day over lazy Internet polls that get a thousand responses but are  completely unreliable.

So my problem with the SOM poll is that it is a lazy poll.

Only real pollsters on the phone can ascertain the intentions of the responder.

If the person hasn't seen or doesn't understand what a kippah or kirpan is, the opinion should be ignored.
As John Diefenbaker said... "Polls are for dogs"

By the way, the lazy polling techniques used today make results completely unreliable, as we've seen in many, many of the last elections.

Give me a small team of trained and dedicated pollsters and I'll out-poll the big boys any day of the week.
At any rate, the only thing we can take away from this poll,  is that the public has a problem with religious symbols, as long as they are not Christian.

That is where we are, not a pretty place.

One last thing, I'd like to touch on what is what I call the polling 'uncertainty principle," whereby asking a question has a unintended effect on the answer.
An example: "Did man really land on the Moon?"
Just asking the question makes the responder consider what he or she would perhaps never have considered as a possibility in the first place.
So asking a responder if they objected to being treated by a doctor wearing a kippah, falls directly in this category. The question itself will skew the results.
Perhaps we should delve into  the work of Werner Heisenberg, to see how he dealt with this quantum mechanics dilemma.

At any rate, we are plowing into dangerous territory, but for the PQ it is a question of damn the torpedoes, they have nothing to lose, while we have everything to lose ...

Quebec Charter of Rights....'panem et circenses'

Robert Heinlin

For those without Latin, the phrase translates as 'Bread and Circuses" a metaphor that describes superficial means of appeasement.
"In the case of politics, the phrase is used to describe the creation of public approval, not through exemplary or excellent public service or public policy, but through diversion; distraction; or the mere satisfaction of the immediate, shallow requirements of a populace, as an offered "palliative." Juvenal decried it as a simplistic motivation of common people.The phrase also implies the erosion or ignorance of civic duty amongst the concerns of the common man."  Wikipedia

Perhaps the simplest example of 'bread and circuses' was the action of Emperor Nero who blamed the Christians for a fire in Rome which he himself started. He then arrested the Christians and fed them to the lions in a public spectacle known as Damnatio ad bestias ('condemnation to beasts") which was for all intents and purposes was a simple distraction, one that blinded the public from the truth that in fact, their city had been destroyed.
No different than a preschool teacher who runs her students ragged in a series of high energy games in an effort to tire them out and calm them before nap time.

It pains me to write about Quebec's Charter of Stupidity at all, because to do so falls into the neatly laid trap set by the PQ to shift focus away from a dysfunctional province with a dismal record of failure, dishonesty and shiftlessness, led by an incompetent government of self-important, yet witless fools.

Given the dismal state of affairs, it is easy enough to understand why the government would choose to switch focus away from the real problems which are hard to solve, to imaginary problems with the attendant simple solutions.
Because the government occupies so high a public profile, it can easily spread any message it wishes, all with an air of authority,  and so the PQ is filling the airwaves with nonsense, paranoia and fear. It is not a particularly difficult feat, but a horrific betrayal of our Western values.
Any decent and honourable government resists the very real temptation to descend into the fiery cauldron of demagoguery and manipulation, usually out of self-respect, pride,  decency and the dedication to the democratic principle that was instilled in all of us.

It is no different than deviant parents who school their offspring in racist, cruel, evil and dishonest values, a dubious yet not particularly difficult accomplishment,  something no self-respecting parent  or decent citizen would do.
Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should.

But the PQ has decided in selfish pursuit of power and sovereignty to cross the line of decency, playing the race religious card in order to create a panic where none exisits.
And so the ends justify the means.

In this respect the PQ is traveling down the same line as the Germans and the Russians who blamed the Jews for economic woes, as did Uganda's Idi Amin who scapegoated the Asians as well as Robert Mugabe who blamed the Whites. It goes on and on, today  Christians are blamed for the fall of Mosrsi in Egypt today.

Scapegoating is a game that's been played for time immemorial and ever since Adam blamed Eve,  scapegoating had been a consistent human trait.

"The scapegoat, Campbell suggests, tends to be an outsider, someone we believe to be “incapable of suffering” and who can be readily dehumanized."  -Scapegoat, by Charlie Campell 

And so Quebec's campaign against the religious symbols can be judged in the same light, quite simply because it is a non-issue, turned into a raging problem for crass politcal gain. Curiously, we've never been told how many individuals actually wear the dastardly symbols, probably because there are so few.

But the reality is that the civil service is less that 7% minority and  of that minority, only a mere fraction wear religious symbols. The problem, if a problem at all, is but a trifle.

The same goes for religious 'accommodations.' The PQ has never really detailed the problem or spelled out the instances of religious confrontation in any detail.
Independent verification by journalists reveal that there are less than half a dozens complaints lodged with the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal over accommodations per year.
And so the government proposes a solution to problems that don't exist.

Let's look a little more closely at those civil servants and the problem of religious headwear.
The chart  over here indicates that the civil service is 91.5% white francophones, 2% Anglophone and 7.1% visible minorities.

So how many of these visible minorities wear religious headwear?
Let's do some sums, I'm pretty sure you won't find too many Jews in kippahs, dishing out licenses at the SAAQ , the same for Sikhs with turbans.

This issue is about Muslim women who wear the Hijab, who have been roundly vilified in the separatist media, portrayed as medieval oppressed objective lackeys.

So it boils down to figuring out how many of these Muslim women wear the hijab to work at their government job. 

Muslims make up about 25% of Quebec's visible minorities, so 7.1% divided by 25%= 1.77% of which, about 60% are women, or 2.4% x 60% = 1%
Of the 1% of Muslim women who work for the government, about (20%) according to Minister Drainville actually wear the hijab, leaving a grand total of less than ⅓ of one percent or about 220 of Quebec's 78,000 civil servants.

A veritable crisis....
This is called 'manufacturing dissent,' creating an issue out of a non-issue.

Now for another argument put forward by the PQ, the one that says  that state employees in positions of power, including police, guards, judges and teachers can give the impression of partiality.

Cases in point, a young Muslim appears in court charged in the firebombing of a Jewish school and who faces a judge who is wearing a kippah.
 or...
A Hasid car accident victim is treated by a turban wearing emergency room doctor.
 or...
A young mother who is concerned that the daycare teacher  is  wearing a hijab and may be inclined to fill her daughter with non-Christian nonsense.

How will making these people remove their religious symbols change the fact that if they are so inclined, they will change their attitude because they've been stripped of a religious symbol?

If the Jewish judge has it in for the school bomber based on his religious convictions, then kippah or not, he shouldn't be  a judge.
If a turbaned Sikh doctor who removes his turban during work hours, harbours certain prejudices and lets it affect his work, he shouldn't be a doctor.
And a teacher who removes her hijab during class, but continues to proselytize in favour of Allah, shouldn't be allowed to teach.
By the logic above, a white driver given a speeding ticket by a black policeman could wonder as to the motives of the policeman.
Should a divorced judge who was badly beaten in his own divorce be allowed to decide a divorce case?
Should a female judge physically battered by her husband in the past be allowed to hear a domestic dispute case?

The government's logic in all this is that those who wear kippahs, hijabs or turbans are by nature partial and unfit for certain positions of power.
Magically taking off their hats, doesn't change who they are. It is preposterous.

People who are unprofessional should be weeded out of the system, but not based on their skin colour, sex or religious affiliation, overtly demonstrated or not.

We all bring our personal feelings and history to work, it remains that we do our jobs impartially and whether our personal baggage is hidden or plain to see, is of  no matter.

But in telling Quebecers that religious symbols are unacceptable, the government is telling the public that the wearers of those symbols are unworthy and that signal is a dangerous sign that cannot but lead to  discrimination, dangerous confrontation and polarizing ostracization .

A big ado about nothing.....
A crisis that isn't a crisis and a circus led by  ringmaster Drainville  who will say and do anything to distract the public from the sad reality at hand.

If a few Muslims suffer the consequences, well.... you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.

In the meantime the mayor of Quebec Regis Lebaeume unloaded on Minister Agnes Maltais  demanding that she face the $5 billion shortfall that cities face in relation to their municipal employees pensions plans. Madame Maltais wasn't overly concerned, telling the mayor (as the school boards were told before) to just increase taxes.
A furious Leabeaume was forced to admit this week, that the PQ government gave in to the union demands and put the issue on hold once again.

How serious is the pension debacle?
I was at a family BBQ and met an ex-fireman from the city of Montreal who retired at the sweet age of fifty.
I imagine he started working at eighteen and had 32 years on the job.
But taking a pension at fifty means he could collect until he's ninety, an impossible burden for the taxpayer.
The very able fireman now works as a salesman while collecting his pension, all the time reminding us that 'them's the rules.'

I bet you haven't even heard of the explosive pension issue, because the media is obssessed with Hijabs and Kippahs.

Lebaume is looking to change the rules that dictate when one can retire and when one can collect, pushing the notion that no government or municipal pension can kick in before 65 years old.

It's an important hot button issue that deserves our attention, but alas, let us by all means put these discussions to the side and face off with nonsensical issues of distraction.


Welcome to the circus, pass the bread.

French versus English Volume 92

First reaction... Maka is looking very svelte!

Minister advises immigrants to leave native dress behind

"Minister Maka Kotto asked immigrants to act like him and to "adopt" the values ​​of the host society.

"If I was going to play the mystical, I could walk with a panther skull on my chest, because it is my family emblem. But I do not do it because I agree to adopt the values of the host society, "commented the Minister of Culture and Communications. Link

Dunno....I think it'd be kind of cool to give an interview in a native outfit!

 

PQ's hilarious flip-flop on school taxes

The Bobbsy twins!

In order to balance the budget, the PQ did an interesting sleight of hand, cutting tens of millions of dollars in financing from Quebec's school boards, with the advice that they should make up the difference by dipping into reserve funds, cutting expenses or increasing school taxes, (which they can do.)  The school boards opted to impose tax increases and the public hit the roof. Link

Here is a translation on a French article over at Antagoniste.net. If you read 'French, do the author the courtesy of reading the story HERE.

Here's what was said Feb 13, 1013
"The Minister of Education, Marie Malavoy encourages school boards to raise taxes to mitigate the impact of the cuts she imposed upon them.... Ms. Malavoy believes that school boards therefore have a "flexibility" and invites them to use the power of taxation."

Here's what was said Aug 4 2013: 

The Minister of Education, Marie Malavoy, refuses to criticize the decision of several school boards to increase school taxes on their territory. Responding to widespread criticism denouncing these increases, Ms. Malavoy argued that she did not want to judge the school boards in relation to the government cuts in aid.. She reported that in some areas, although the increase was 40 percent, it amounted to an increase of only twenty dollars. Ms. Malavoy believes that school boards have nevertheless remained within the reasonable bounds and have not imposed ​​excessive increases.

Here's what was said  Sept 11 2013:
According to Ms. Malavoy, the government wants the school boards to freeze their taxes where they are unable to reduce their spending, increase revenue other than by taxing or dipping into their surplus. "We, especially in August, made a detailed analysis of the situation of school boards, and indeed there are many who have not taken their responsibilities as they were invited to do so," she said.

Here's what was said  September 16 2013:
The increase in school taxes  for many homeowners shall not be allowed. The Premier Pauline Marois therefore is requiring school boards to redo their calculations within 15 days. Eventually, the homeowners who paid may be able to receive a credit, rather than direct payments. The government, which met with the school board Monday, believes that they have abused their power of taxation.


Another flip-flopper is PQ Minister Jean-François Lisée, who upon his return from pressing government business in Africa rushed into the Charter debate.

"A Parti Quebecois minister says his party is willing to change or replace some institutions' ability to opt-out of the Quebec charter of values.
When the proposal was first unveiled, the Marois government said hospitals, universities, CEGEPs and municipalities would be able to withdraw for a renewable five-year period.
Now, minister Jean-François Lisée says this mechanism is up for discussion, adding that it would not be scrapped entirely.
"The opting-out clause has been debated. Is it the right tool? Is it correctly fine-tuned? Are there other ways we could manage the transition?' he says.
The entire island of Montreal has said it would pull-out of a charter that would ban its employees from wearing religious headgear.
But, Lisée says Montreal can't be allowed to run indefinitely under a different set of rules." Link

PQ = Incoherence

Montreal unites against Charter of Quebec values

"MONTREAL—The municipalities that make up the island of Montreal have united against the Quebec government’s proposed charter of values and intend to opt out of the divisive program if the minority Parti Québécois government ever succeeds in passing it into law.

The rebuke comes from a group of 15 suburban mayors and the main candidates currently running to become the next mayor of the City of Montreal. It pits the representatives of more than 1.8-million Quebecers — more than one-fifth of the province’s population — against a contentious proposal from Premier Pauline Marois’ party to ban the wearing of religious symbols like hijabs, turbans, kippas and large crucifixes by public-sector employees.

Phillipe Roy, the mayor of the town of Mount Royal and the representative of the Association of Suburban Municipalities, said their 15-city organization intends to opt out en masse. “The Marois government needs to go back and do its homework,” Roy told La Presse. “They never consulted with us Montrealers.”" Link

Both McGill University and the Université de Montréal, have both announced that given the option they will opt out of the Charter. Link{fr}

And so the PQ falls victim to its very own 'Notwithstanding Clause'

You say 'Tow-may-toe,' I say 'Ta-mah-toe'

It seems that Quebec politicians can't even agree over facts. In a farcical article in a Montreal French language newspaper, the leaders disagreed about the job situation in a debate in the National Assembly.

Francois Legault was reduced to holding up a big chart indicating that Quebec has lost a considerable amount of jobs in the last year of the PQ reign.

Nonesense retorted Marois, the province actually  gained jobs! Link{fr}

So according to who you believe, Quebec either gained 15,000 jobs(PQ), lost 4,000 jobs(CAQ) or lost 45,000 jobs(Lib).

Denial is not a River in Egypt

Charter apologists are working overtime in defending the good name of Quebecers over several instances of intolerance in regards to Muslims being targeted by bigoted Quebecers.

Some of the incidents can't be explained away, like this video of a Hijab clad woman being berated by a francophone intellectual on a Montreal bus.

There seems to be a recurring theme that these incidents are really phoney and created by anti-charter forces bent on humiliating Quebecers over the Charter.
Here's a picture of  'a person of interest' who may or may not be the person who  delivered that manifesto sent to a radio station concerning the pig's blood incident at a mosque in Chicoutimi.

Hmmm....doesn't look like a Muslim to me!!!

In the comments section of this very blog we've heard the same refrain over and over again.
IT'S A PLOT!!!
 
Here's a video produced by Montreal's blue collar workers protesting the corruption surrounding the construction industry.

Xxxx

When the blue collars were accused of casting aspersions on the Italian community, the union asked... Whatever gave that impression?

Two other incidents are being shrugged off as the work of anti-charter forces.

This next one is particularly strange because the Church isn't Greek, the congregation is composed of mostly  Blacks from the Islands. Link

Curiouser and curiouser....

Now here is a special treat for those who understand French. It is a radio interview with a woman who accuses a veiled Muslim woman of reverse discrimination. The radio interviewer agrees, failing to see the fly in the ointment.

It seems that the woman witnessed an incident wherein a passerby stopped two Muslim shoppers and asked politely why they were wearing a veil.

It seems the two Muslims took exception (I daresay it happens often enough) and unleashed a nasty verbal assault on their interlocutor, at which point the witness to the story intervened and told the Muslims that it was just an innocent question that deserved a fair response.

The scene degenerated, into name-calling,  proof positive that the confrontation was the fault of the Muslims!

Give a listen Radio EGO

Open letter to Pauline from a Montreal expat

"Allow me to begin by apologizing for writing in English. I know that you speak and read English very well and though I am a fluent speaker of French, I have lost some of my fluency in the written language after spending eight years in an entirely English-speaking professional and academic environment. I write to you in English because I can best express myself on the subject of an extremely complex issue in my first language. Please feel free to respond in French.
I am un Québécois errant. I left Québec in 2005 to pursue my doctorate in history, and I am now teaching at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Like Québécois scholars who have trod this path before me, such as Daniel Turp and Jacques Parizeau, I feel a constant and deep longing for ma patrie. It is my greatest desire to someday return home.
My family has deep roots in Québec. My grandfather arrived as an immigrant from Central Europe in 1912. In his early days in Montréal, he worked clearing snow from the street of Sainte-Cunegonde Ward in Saint-Henri. Later, he moved his family to the old Jewish neighbourhood in the Plateau Mont-Royal, where he worked in the garment industry and managed a shop for many years. Read the rest of the letter

In passing

Click to view video

I laughed out loud when I read a story in a Montreal newspaper that the city of Montreal is going to spend another $1.2 million on a new feasibility study about connecting the southern portion of Cavendish Boulevard in Cote-St. Luc with the northern  portion in Ville St. Laurent. Link{fr}

This project has been kicking around for over forty years and I'm sure that the city already has countless studies up the wazoo.

Call it a Montreal's version of New York city's  2nd avenue subway project which has been planned since 1929 and is still not complete.
Here's a hilarious video sendup of the project in AMC's Mad Men, a television series based in the sixties.
Remember, the project is still nor completed.
(Shout out to R/W/B for the subway story)

It's been 50 years since the FLQ launched its first bomb. Link{fr}

Of all the images published in relation to the concerning  Charter of Values debate, this one caught my eye.
Why? ....Dunno...maybe you can explain it.

Talk about thin skin, the  Mouvement Québec français is complaining about this soup can label;

It seems the organization is perplexed by the connotation of "French Canadian Pea Soup" while in French, the label says just Pea Soup. Link{fr}

Allow me to help.
French Canadian Pea soup is off-white in colour as opposed to green pea soup. I guess, it's a question of the beans....

By the way, here's another anomaly. Here in Canada we do not refer to back bacon as;

Here's a complete shocker:
"Half of Quebec adults lack sufficient literacy skills to function easily in everyday life, a new study by the province’s Conseil supérieur de l’éducation says" Link

I've held off publishing this comparison of the heroic mayor of Lac Megantic out of respect for the dead.

I often watch the news in split screen and was shocked to see the difference in appearance of the mayor as portrayed on two French language news stations.

I swear I haven't retouched these images and can now understand that lighting technicians can make a huge difference!!!
YIKES!

Have a great weekend!

Bonne fin de semaine!

Dear Pauline..."It's the Economy, Stupid!"

I wonder how many of us took note of a newsworthy business event that took place this past week.

It was an event that every Canadian and Quebecer should be proud of, the maiden flight of Bombardier's new passenger jet, the CS100.

Now Canadians have invested upwards of $350 million in the project and have a vested interest in its success. The jet will consolidate Bombardier's position as the third largest producer of commercial passenger aircraft in the world.
Yup, Bombardier stands third, behind Boeing and Airbus. I bet most Canadians didn't know that because success stories don't make the news.
Aside from airplanes, Bombardier is a giant in the world train business as well. Good for them, good for us.

The new jet is more fuel efficient and quieter than anything in its class and has a two year lead on the field.
While many clients took a wait and see attitude, the successful maiden flight will (cross your fingers)
hopefully trigger an avalanche of orders.
If Toronto's Billy Bishop airport is permitted a runway extension, the CS100 is the logical choice of Porter Airlines and with that, Air Canada should not be far behind.

Why should you care about the long term success of the CS100?  Because it is a vehicle of wealth creation, something this province is in dire need of.

Thousands of high paying jobs, plus the ripple effect through sub-contractors and support industry that creates the wealth to finance the rest of the nanny state.
 
Too many Quebecers are divorced from the notion that in order to spend money, one has to make money.
Having an airplane factory with thousands of workers in Mirabel will give a needed shot in the arm to our economy, but it doesn't seem to be a big deal, the newspapers would rather devote their resources on the tiresome Charter of Chicane, because that is what interests Quebecers or the media at least.

It is also what obsesses the PQ  and while it would be easy to say that the PQ is using the Charter to distract Quebecers from the moribund economy, the truth is even sadder than that.

The PQ is not trying to deflect attention away from the economy, it just has different priorities, where language, culture and independence trump economic prosperity by far.

The same with immigration, where language trumps quality.
The PQ obsession with sovereignty, language and culture is its raison d'etre and sadly, it is the fault of the ROC for financing this dangerous and unrealistic fantasy.

Therapists tell  us that every serious drug addict has to crash and burn before he or she can ever begin to recover and enablers do more harm than good. Junkies whose loved ones cover up and finance the addiction are actually delaying the inevitable. So to is Canada financing Quebec's money addicted flirtation with independence, only delaying the inevitable meltdown.

Even though Quebec has sunk economically and fallen from being one of the richest provinces to one of the poorest, it hasn't sunk to the bottom and isn't yet prepared to face the monkey on  its back.

But readers, the day of reckoning will soon be upon Quebec.

There was a time that Quebec banked on the limitless reservoirs of hydroelectricity to power its economy, but that ship has sailed.
The demand for Quebec electricity has plummeted due to conservation and shale gas power generating stations in the USA.
While spanking new generating plants are mothballed by Hydro-Quebec because of low demand, the PQ has extended new contracts for wind generating power that cost almost double what the idle plants can produce.
It's like ordering more pizza at the restaurant, when the table is piled high with uneaten pies, under the rational that the cook needs the work.

The shock of the hydroelectricity meltdown has the government reeling, with absolutely no plan for economic recovery.

Taking stock of the situation, a prudent government would look at all aspects of wealth creation and conclude, even reluctantly, that resource development is the only feasible plan to follow.

But resource development has a foul connotation in Quebec, as if despoiling the Earth of its treasures is dishonest and destructive.

While all of North America is cashing in on the shale gas boom, it is of course too dirty and dangerous for haughty Quebecers.

The same with oil development, where a test well in the desperately poor Gaspe was stopped because the locals didn't like the idea of polluting their pristine welfare financed Shangrila.

It is reported that the uninhabited Anticosti Island is a reservoir of gazillions of barrels of oil, but at the rate the environmental studies take to complete, oil will no longer be a factor and we'll all be driving cars equipped with warp drive engines powered by dilithium crystals.

A Montreal newspaper is reporting that the Plan Nord, Jean Charest's dream to open Northern Quebec to resource development is dead.

"Of the 11 major mining projects announced above the 49th parallel, the total value of tens of billions of dollars, more than half  are now under review or have undergone major negative revisions , according to data compiled by our Bureau investigation.

Projects have altogether been abandoned . Mineral exploration, which is the essential step for launching projects, suffered a sharp decline  in the territory covered by the Plan Nord (which excludes the Abitibi-Témiscamingue).

The project to make the infrastructure more accessible in the Far North,  (pipeline, rail, roads) has been put on ice.

"The slowdown is significant," says Normand Champigny, President of Minalliance, a group of mining companies.

Lower metal prices, multiple draft revisions to the mining law in recent years, increased mining royalties, difficulty in obtaining financing, all of which have contributed to deflate the enthusiasm of mines for two years, according to M. Champigny. Link{fr}

All of this is of no never mind to the PQ, because the very essence of resource development goes against the grain of Quebecers and as long as Ottawa pays, why get off the couch?

The opposition, hasn't really anything to offer.
Francois Legault, the head of the CAQ is proposing creating a 'Silicon Valley' in Laval, another idiotic pipe dream.
As for recruiting the engineers and scientists to fill the job vacancies, the PQ would have to hand out a boatload of OQLF waivers, because the 'Valle de silicone' would  have to operate in English.

Let us remember that CS100 was developed in Quebec but in ENGLISH, with the grudging endorsement of the OQLF.

Also remember the video game industry which was established in Montreal with the OQLF blessing operates in English with the further encouragement of millions in Quebec government subsidies.

That is the Quebec reality, in order to attract worldwide business, OQLF waivers and government subsidies are the order of the day.

Quebec gives up three times as much revenue by way of direct subsidies or tax breaks than does Ontario, almost four billion dollars more.

As for the economy, there is no PQ plan because it is frankly out of options.
It won't open up the resource sector and Quebec can't really compete in anything else.

Bombardier, CGI and SNC-Lavalin are perhaps the exceptions that prove the rule that Quebec cannot compete worldwide.
But let us also remember that these companies are essentially English, wrapped up in a thin veneer of French.

And so for Marois and the PQ the economy is irrelevant, unfixable and as long as the suckers across the Ottawa river and points beyond pay to keep the separatist habit going, well...who really can blame them?