Mario Beaulieu...The Pot Calling the Kettle Black

Watching Mario Beaulieu rail on about how the English media bashes Quebec has me a bit annoyed at our English journalists for engaging Mr. Beaulieu in useless debate which has the effect of increasing his exposure.

Mr. Beaulieu has devilishly opened a  conversation by trapping the media into defending itself, where the effect of the debate, regardless where it goes, is to legitimize Mr. Beaulieu and his ilk of linguicistic haters.

I am reminded of one of my favourite movie scenes from 'The Exorcist' where the experienced Father Merrin tells a young priest exactly how to deal with the devil;

 "Especially important is the warning to avoid conversations with the demon. We may ask what is relevant but anything beyond that is dangerous. He is a liar. The demon is a liar. He will lie to confuse us. But he will also mix lies with the truth to attack us. The attack is psychological, Damien, and powerful. So don't listen to him. Remember that - do not listen."

I cannot think of better advice in dealing with Mario Beaulieu.
The effrontery of Quebec's most important Anglophobic hater in calling out the English media over Quebec-bashing is galling to say the least.

Pot calling the kettle black 
 This is a phrase that states that the person you are talking to is calling you something that they themselves are (and generally in abundance).  

This comes from old times when pots and pans were generally black and kettles were generally metallic and reflective. Therefore the pot sees its black reflection in the kettle and thinks that the kettle is black.

Mario Beaulieu is a consummate spinner, fact inventer, con artist, linguicist and Anglophobe extraordinaire. But like the Devil as described above, he hides his true feelings and motives well in the media, playing the part of a poor injured and downtrodden victim of evil Anglo oppression.

Mr. Beaulieu has made the assertion often enough, that the so-called 'Quebec-bashing' by the English media has contributed to a climate conducive to Richard Bain's actions.
Really?
I wonder if Beaulieu would then concede that it was the French media's bashing of the English that contributed to the atmosphere that led FLQ extremists to the 160 acts of violence that killed eight people and maimed many more.
I doubt it...
Mr. Beaulieu has championed the idea that Anglophones and ethnics owe respect to the French language and Quebec Francophones by virtue of the fact that French is in the majority in Quebec.
....So I wonder if he would then concede that francophones, as a minority in Canada, owe a commensurate measure of respect to the English and its dominant culture.
Hmmm....
Nobody ever seems to challenge Mr. Beaulieu on his assertions, because we are so busy defending ourselves over his brazen and moronic attacks on our good name.

Mr. Beaulieu has been treated with kid gloves by the French media, as if it is somehow disloyal to call him out on his hatred for all things English and his disdain for all things not French.
Separatists who are not racists, generally wince at his antics, but remain silent because it wouldn't be right to attack one of their own, like a hockey goon whose teammates feel obligated to support him.

At any rate, I've taken a video shot by supporters of Beaulieu from a while back in which he paraded downtown complaining about the Anglicization of Montreal, a nonsensical and completely absurd contention.
In these video highlights, to which I added subtitles so that everyone can understand the depth of his hatred of the English, Beaulieu, in a jovial mood amongst friends, cannot help himself and thus,  his true nature emerges... that of a hater, but hey....you be the judge.
I've also added some historical photos at the end, to rebut his nonsensical assertion that Montreal is getting 'more' English. 

Safely surrounded among supporters, Beaulieu cannot help but let his true personality emerge.
He calls on loyalists to avoid shopping in stores with English names, like STYLEXCHANGE and even encourages them to boycott stores that have the audacity to use the founders  English family names on the masthead, like 'BIRKS.'
He even demands French pronunciation of English names, no matter how ridiculous, like LEE-VEE instead of LEVIS.

For those who think that Beaulieu is a ridiculous and harmless twit heading a clownish organization, nothing could be farther from the truth.
Mr. Beaulieu should be taken seriously despite his well deserved image as a buffoon because of the massive media attention he is afforded.

His plan is simple, spreading hatred in order to sow the seeds of discord between Francophones and minorities in order to pave the way to sovereignty and his agenda couldn't be less opaque.

At the end of the demonstration Beaulieu calls for Quebec independence, his true goal, where demonizing the English and Canada while proclaiming an imaginary Anglo-Saxon invasion, just part of a malicious deception.

Looking back to 2013...Looking forward to 2014

Happy New year to y'all.

I hope your holiday season was everything you hoped it would be, despite the fact that it rarely is and that the traditional January letdown is a bit disconcerting considering the intense cold, darkness and the inevitable dread of the December credit card bill coming due.

Here in Montreal, thoughts of global warming could not be farther from mind as a particularly intense cold snap has those of us who have not escaped to sunnier climes, fearfully restricted to the safety of our over-heated homes, while those in Toronto, still reeling after the nastiest, costliest and most bothersome ice storm to ever hit that city, reminded as well, that Mother Nature still rules.

There's little doubt that this last year was a humbling affair for Quebecers as the stench of pervasive and entrenched corruption reached into almost every domain and aspect of society, where even the manufactured issue of those so-called 'Quebec Values' could not displace the ubiquitous and over-powering issue of corruption as dominant news story of 2013.

From crooked mayors to crooked city halls and from corrupt police in high places to a business and professional community exposed as cheap crooks in bespoke attire, bereft of morals, integrity and decency.
Where the largest and most prestigious corporations of Quebec were exposed as two-bit bribers and where dubious and shamefully illegal practices were exposed as de rigueur or standard operating procedures and where collusion, corruption and banditry were more the practice than the exception.

The open sore that was the Charbonneau Commission laid bare the depth of that depravity which made Quebec look no better than a corrupt third world banana republic.

Years ago I travelled to Mexico on business and hired a driver to ferry our group around town, a bit frightened to rent a car  myself in fearful consideration of the lawlessness that gripped the country.
I cannot tell you of my surprise at the audacity of a certain member of the Policía Federal who demanded from our driver a small fee in order to park our car in an open spot by the curb in 'his' protected street over which he seemed to hold dominion.
I remember thinking to myself how uncivilized the brazen and open corruption was, only to realize now that it was a foolish assumption that we here in Quebec had evolved as a society beyond such dubious practices.
I reflected back to that naive assumption this year, as I took in the news that the three of the former highest members of the Sureté du Quebec (provincial police) were being investigated for dipping into a secret slush fund (used to pay informers) for their own benefit. Add to that, two highly placed moles were exposed, one on active duty in the Montreal police, the other an ex cop, who is accused of selling information to the Hell's Angels and pocketing up to $500,000 in payoffs. The first killed himself in a Laval motel in light of his arrest, a scenario right out of a cheap crime movie.

Nope, it's hard to write up 2013 as a banner year for Quebec, no matter how you slice it, but for the self-delusional, Quebec's problem's can be described away as nothing too spectacular, the problems overblown and over-stated by federalists, eager to tarnish and sully the hitherto shiny reputation of Quebec's distinct society.

And so for these 'optimists', the Charbonneau commission isn't an embarrassment, it is a heroic effort by Quebecers to come to grips with corruption, something no other province has the courage to do.

It is a province that despite being named, for the umpteenth year  in a row, as the absolute cheapest Scrooge in regards to personal charity, can be portrayed as kinder and more socially responsible, the lack of giving merely a measure of Quebec's different path, where in consideration of the higher taxes paid by Quebec taxpayers, the government is charged with the task of helping those in need, rather than the public.
For these self-deniers, the economy isn't great, but no worse than elsewhere and the debt as well as the deficit, well under control, both exaggerated by enemies of the state, just ask Jacques Parizeau, who gave us an outstanding lesson in spin..

It is a place where immigrants are expressly blamed for not assimilating and for not finding jobs in sufficient numbers and where Quebec society, described as kind and open to foreigners, abused for its hospitality.........Yikes!  

At any rate, rather then make some fearless predictions for 2014, let me just make a few observations about events to unfold.

A 2014 provincial election
Almost a certainty, because two out of the three major political parties want it.
The PQ is keen to roll the dice over the Charter of Values issue, there's only so long that the pot can be kept boiling.
While the chance of a majority PQ government is slim, for Pauline, another minority government is acceptable, buying her another two years in power, something she can certainly live with.
And so to allow a watered-down Charter of Values law to pass, with enough amendments to satisfy the CAQ and buy its support, doesn't make sense to the PQ on any level.
With the charter issue safely put to bed, the PQ will have played the only trump card they possess and with that, the public debate would return to the economy and the deficit, a suicide debate that would only lead to ignominious defeat at the polls.

The economy
No rosy forecast here, but not a reach as a prediction.
The PQ will continue to offer subsidies for companies to invest here, giving the self-delusionists the appearance that jobs are being created and that the PQ is working hard on the economic front.
In fact, if one does the sums correctly, the entire Quebec deficit can be blamed on these subsidies which takes billions and billions of dollars out of the public purse each year.
Quebec spends about six times as much as Ontario (per capita) on buying and preserving jobs through these dubious programs.
A good example of this perverse interference of the free market system, is the entire Montreal based video game industry, a creation of public money, the gift that keeps giving this industry life and it's raison d'etre to locate in Montreal.
As for these subsides, have you noticed that they are directed almost exclusively at American and European concerns?
Is it because the PQ is leery of offering Canadian companies a shot at these programs or is it because Canadian companies are just too fed up or fearful in invest in Quebec?

The Deficit
Another $2-5 billion for sure, and this with increased payments from Ottawa for equalization. The economy will continue to weaken as Hydro-Quebec stumbles over low international electricity prices as well as reduced activity in resource based industries.
The housing market is receding and private investment drying up. Quebec's economy is growing half as fast as Canada's and as long as the PQ remains in power, the future cannot be rosy.

Justice
The Charbonneau Commission will roll on but with diminishing returns. The promised and highly anticipated appearance of the keystone player in all this, Tony Accurso, will likely not happen as he uses the courts as a delaying tactic to avoid testifying.
Speaking of the courts, I'd implore readers to pay attention to the debacle that our criminal justice system has become.
Of all those lawyers, politicians, businessmen and professionals arrested and charged with corruption in 2013, not one will actually have a trial where they plead innocent, in 2014.
That is how slow our criminal justice system has become and how inherently vulnerable to interminable delaying tactics.
Big shots can use high priced legal talent to draw out proceedings with agonizing delays and one should note the marked difference between the Canadian and American justice system, where in the latter, you can only do so much to delay the inevitable.
From the time Conrad Black was first charged with fraud in the United States to the time he was convicted and sent to jail was about a year and a half, this despite all his legal manoeuvring.
Compare that to Garth Drabinsky of Livenet who was charged with fraud in Ontario in 2002 and did not go to jail for another seven years and that was in Ontario where trials are speedy compared to Quebec.

While all of Quebec celebrated over the David versus Goliath Supreme Court victory of Claude Robinson over Cinar in a case of plagiarism, the eighteen year long battle resulting in the long anticipated win, can best be described as a Pyrrhic Victory.
It remains to be seen if the author can get any of the $4 million award as Cinar is bankrupt and the other defenders spread across Europe.
I've already described, in a previous piece, how ridiculous and futile it is in Canada to sue over these types of issues, as is the idiotic and futile case of André Boisclair.

So if Quebecers are anxious to see these criminals finally face justice, they will need a bucket load of patience, because in Canada and particularly Quebec, the wheels of justice grind slowly.

I'd like to close by naming my biggest villain of the year and I invite you to use the comment section to name your biggest villain of 2013.

Stephen Harper?...Pauline Marois?...Tony Accurso?....Mike Duffy?.....Arthur Porter?.....Gilles Vaillancourt?

Let's hear from you.

For me, the biggest villain of 2013 is Michael Applebaum, for two very important reasons. 
First it is always easy to point fingers at someone other than 'your own' but betrayal from within one's community is all the more painful.
It is true that what Applebaum is charged with, accepting bribes of $50k or so, is rather small potatoes or chump change when compared to the alleged systemic looting of Laval by ex-mayor Gilles Vaillancourt, but for me, Applebaum was the bigger villain.

Applebaum had the interminable chutzpah to get himself appointed mayor of Montreal on an anti-corruption platform, only to be charged with accepting bribes in relation permits and zoning changes. 

The last idiot to try that in Montreal was Benoit Labonte, a mayoral candidate running on an anti-corruption platform, who also suffered a Humpty-Dumpty fall from grace when it was revealed that he was accepting money under the table from the infamous Tony Accurso. Read the story

At any rate, All during the long and not so secret investigation of Applebaum by police, he cynically assured us on several occasions that he wasn't the target but rather just providing information to police, this in an effort to preserve his position should the investigation not have resulted in his arrest.
Talk about brazening it out...

Applebaum humiliated the Anglo community, but particularly Montreal's Jewish community, who were thrilled to have the city's first Jewish mayor and then deeply humiliated by his arrest, which was, to say the least, a powerful deception.

But Applebaum did demonstrate one thing, that corruption in Quebec isn't a French, English or an ethnic thing....it is a Quebec 'thing' that transgresses all lines and showed us that we of different backgrounds and ethnicity can work together in harmony.... at least in the commission of felonious crimes!..

And so in Quebec, it is fair to predict that 2014 will be interesting, but I remain mindful of that old Chinese  proverb, "May you live in interesting times' which is actually a curse.

Merry Christmas and an Awesome New Year!

I'll be back after New Year's and until then I want to thank readers for making this blog a small part of your life.

Without you, this blog would have ended a long time ago...

On a positive note, I'd like to remind those who call me a Francophobe and label this blog as hateful, that nothing could be further than the truth.

I like and admire francophones, their industry, their humour, talent, and their sense of fair play and respect for democracy.

In forty years of travelling this province I have never been insulted over language or race.

We tend to focus on the negative because that's what people want to talk about, but in truth we live in a wonderful environment,  even though talking about the positive interests few.

Here's a couple of videos which will warm your heart and perhaps convince sceptics that most Quebecers are not afraid to embrace the world.

Medical students from University of Sherbrooke proposal for  'sexy' calendar for charity shot down.

ET TU, MARIA?

"Et tu, Brute?"  [(et tooh brooh -tay)]

A Latin sentence meaning “Even you, Brutus?” from the play Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare. Caesar utters these words as he is being stabbed to death, having recognized his friend Brutus among the assassins. 

For we on the anglophone/federalist/anti side of the Charter of Values debate, the reaction of Maria Mourani in changing sides was a nice boost to the morale, a vindication of the principle that Ethnic Quebecers have nothing to gain and everything to lose from embracing the sovereignty movement or the Charter or Values, for that matter.

While not quite as miraculous as the Conversion of Paul the Apostle, who embraced Jesus after a life of persecuting Christians, the reversal of Mourani was a lot more significant than just one politician, jumping ship to embrace the enemy.

We've had a myriad of federalists who went sovereigntist and vice-versa, including Lucien Bouchard and the newest member of the National Assembly, David Heurtel, who won his seat as a Liberal.

"Heurtel, once an adviser to former Parti Québécois leader Bernard Landry, said his thinking has evolved. He said he opposes the PQ’s Bill 60, a secularism charter that would make a ban on the wearing of religious symbols a condition of employment for Quebec’s 600,000 public sector jobs." Link

But for many of the sovereigntist pur et dur,  the Mourani defection is a bitter pill to swallow, made all the more unpalatable by her contention that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms offers a greater protection to the Quebec heritage than does the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.

That contention is what has rendered hardliners livid, as if Stephen Harper suddenly embraced the Communist Manifesto.

For as long as the Canadian Charter has existed, it has for separatists, remained the ultimate symbol of Quebec's betrayal and humiliation at the hands of the devious and scheming Anglos.
The story of the Night of the long Knives has gone down in separatist lore as a turning point, as momentous as the hanging of Louis Real or the razor thin referendum loss in 1995, ascribed to federalist scheming and cheating.

"The new deal was signed by Trudeau and nine of the premiers that morning. Only Lévesque refused to endorse it. Lévesque didn't say anything. He just got up from his chair, spun around, and walked out.
"Behind his Oriental impassivity," Lévesque observed, "One could feel Trudeau literally rejoicing. He had put one over on us."
There are conflicting interpretations of what had happened. Trudeau supporters argued that Lévesque was committed to separation and would not have accepted any agreement to patriate the Constitution.
But Lévesque and his supporters saw the agreement as a betrayal, one in which English politicians had conspired against Quebec. Lévesque left the conference, denouncing the premiers and their role in what would be characterized as "The Night of the Long Knives."" Link

As Jews repeat the story of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt each year on the celebration of their Passover holiday, so do Separatists keep alive the saga of their betrayal at the hands of the dastardly English, searing those events into the collective memory, lest that ultimate betrayal be forgotten, remain unresolved or un-avenged.

And so in this context, for Maria Mourani to embrace the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom is just too much to take and as such, just as I promised you, reactions in the separatists blogs and indeed the  mainstream press were dripping with rage.

My favourite reaction comes from Sol Zanetti, the newest leader of the hardline Option National political party, who wrote in the National Post that there should be rules for switching sides.

"Being deeply democratic is to accept this fact. (that people switch sides..ed.) However, this can be done in a noble manner and not so as to feed cynicism.....
.....One may no longer agree they want it (sovereignty..ed), but cannot begin actively fighting against it. A separatist member who changes his mind should have the decency to withdraw completely from partisan politics.... Link

How about a federalist politician who changes sides like Lucien Bouchard, should he too have withdrawn from politics, respecting the federalists he left behind?
Ha!.... that notion is just frustration talking and I must admit to a delicious case of schadenfreude, delighting in the palpable agony that has manifested itself in articles such as Mr. Zanetti's.

Here's a collection of rants and frustrated raves that makes it all more enjoyable.

"By any measure of loyalty, she should have warned me before sending this amalgam of lame and demagogic slander to Le Devoir." The Treason of Maria MAourani{fr}

"We are in mourning for our Bloc member, we mourn our dedicated, committed and intelligent member, Maria Mourani , ."  Lettre à Maria Mourani{fr}.

She publicly crucified the draft charter in the most violent terms, got excluded from the Bloc Quebecois and then took time "reflecting on her future" and returned, stating that the Canadian Charter of Rights is better protection  than the Quebec Charter and at the same time is no longer an independentist, happily throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Link{fr}

"This is a childish betrayal, selfish, irrational and disgusting." Link{fr}

"So Maria Mourani, the new darling of the Federalists is treacherous, one who is willing to do anything to get re-elected." Link{fr}

"It therefore seems paradoxical and incongruous that the member for Ahuntsic quotes a French text from the national anthem in praise of the colonial order of  this anti-Bill 101, Canadian Charter of Rights, deliberately imposed upon Quebecers, together with the adoption of the 1982 Constitution without Quebec's consent - the worst colonialist insult in our recent history. Link{fr}

"She has demonstrated her incoherence and how little it is based on principles, which she changes as it suits her. " Gilles Duceppe{fr} 

Your arguments are worse than your gesture and contemptuous of Quebecers" Bernard Landry{fr}

The reaction by militants isn't surprising, Mourani's reversal is a rather heavy body blow, a warning to other Ethnics that flirting with sovereignty is a dead end, a fact not lost on the movement.

The militants would be advised to take a page from Pauline's playbook and move on quickly, letting the Maria Mourani affair pass into ignominious oblivion.
In other words, the less said about Mourani, the better, and feeding the news cycle, an act of self-humiliation.

Although it makes good political sense to let the matter of Maria Mourani drop, it will not happen.
The rage and sense of betrayal is too intense to be assuaged by time alone and so  the enemies of Mourani will continue to empower her, creating a monster, the very public symbol of the sovereignty movement's inherent rejection of ethnics.

The wishful thinking described by Sol Zanetti in hoping that Mourani would retire from the political scene is perhaps telling.
He understands the clear and present danger Mourani represents.

Mourani is certainly up to the task.
She brooks criticism with aplomb and is composed, unfazed and unbowed in the face of opposition. She is an excellent debater and has shown herself to be media savvy, a formidable political personality who would be a great addition to the Liberal or NDP party.

Indeed the PQ  and the Bloc have created a monster in Maria Mourani and like Dr. Frankenstein, will ultimately pay the price for building her up, when it would have been easier to put a little water in their wine and contain her, as did Quebec Liberal leader, Philippe Couillard, when a caucus member Fatima Houde-Pépin, came out on favour of the Charter publicly.

But the hardliners are enraged and like an angry bull, cannot be stopped, even if the course of action is unwise.


I hate to admit it, but it is fun to watch.

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?