The Trouble with Sovereignty, Part 3....How Many Will Leave?

I'm going to write a slightly different post  today in which I'll make nary a prediction, because anyone who professes to know with any certainty how many Quebecers will leave towards Canada in the event of sovereignty is either deluded, or particularly full of themselves.

I think we can all agree that some Quebecers will choose to move, but there's no accurate way to know how many.
To my knowledge, there's been no real survey polling Quebecers over the issue and even if there was, I can't see it being very accurate because I'm not sure that the majority of people inclined to leave or on the fence have made up their mind with any degree of certainty.

Now those who are working tirelessly towards the goal of Quebec independance have done so with a certain blind faith that things will all work out, all I can say is good luck with that.
The PQ, and other nationalists have never published any sovereignty manifesto in which they outline a formula or plan to make Quebec a financially viable society after the split.

I'll let readers speculate as to why the sovereignty movement has never undertaken such an effort, but suffice to say that sovereigntists probably haven't really given it much thought, leading me to conclude that few have faith in the chances of sovereignty ever happening and hold onto the hope in the same vein as those awaiting the Rapture.
However, of those who are in blindly in favour of sovereignty the details aren't important, and they hope to cross that bridge when the time comes.
Hardly reassuring.

At any rate, let us return to the question about how many Quebecers will leave.

It is reasonable to say that in the event of sovereignty, the new country of Quebec will have some serious belt tightening to do, but unlike others, I'm not so pessimistic that it cannot be done, there remains so much fat in Canadian and Quebec budget that the effort is not impossible.

I'm going to write another post later on describing what Quebec can do to remain solvent post Canada and you'll probably be surprised that it is not mission impossible.
I know most readers will be surprised to read that opinion, but let's reserve judgment and leave that discussion until later.

But the fly in the ointment is the number of people who will leave, because if too many leave, nothing but nothing can be done to save the furniture, as they say in French.

I shall leave readers to speculate in the comments section as to how many Quebecers will go, but one thing we should consider is that after the initial exodus of those who won't stay in an independent Quebec under any circumstances, there'll be more who will stay to see how things work out and there lies the drama to be played out.
Clearly conditions in a post Canada Quebec will be a determining factor.

And so I want to draw your attention to a scenario that absolutely nobody dares discuss, the one in which Canada gives Quebec the ultimate shaft, once the negotiations are said and done and Canada and Quebec part company.

First, let us go back  to the American war of Independence, where after the colony's victory over the British, a certain number of colonists rejected the newly liberated country of the United States and chose to return to Great Britain or Canada, where over 50,000 people immigrated under generous conditions including a gift of 200 acres of farmland for each family.
These people were given the honorific of "United Empire Loyalist' and their Quebec  legacy can be found mostly in the Eastern Townships where many settled and mostly contributed to the Township's English component.

So what if Canada, post independence pulled the same stunt, offering wildly advantageous conditions for Quebecers and more importantly Quebec businesses to relocate to Canada, it would make complete sense, after all, Quebec would now be a foreign country and fair game for a raid.
What if Canada eliminated dual-citizenship, telling Quebecers to either move to Canada or lose their citizenship?

Let us consider the effect of the threat of the loss of citizenship coupled with generous conditions that Canada would bestow upon Quebecers who jumped ship.
If Canada did as the British did in doting entitlements to the United Empire Loyalists, I shudder to think of the consequences.

What if Canada told Quebecers that they could move to Canada and be free of federal taxes for ten years  and what if the provinces did likewise?
It would be a good deal for Canada which could eliminate immigration for a few years in exchange for those productive Quebecers.

Now let us just consider the commercial and business side, where in an effort to lure giant corporations out of Quebec, generous tax advantages and employee re-location plans could wreak havoc on the Quebec economy, regardless of how many actually left.
Bombardier, CAE, CGI, Pratt and Whitney, would be be the first targeted, gutting Quebec's high tech industry.
The much vaunted video-game industry wouldn't be that hard to pry away with the right incentives.

Quebec would be in the unenviable position in having to match the offers, but it would mean a disastrous drop in taxes.
Every company which would leave for Canada would force employees, even those not inclined to move to Canada, to make a difficult choice, that is, to remain in an uncertain Quebec without a job or or move to Canada under generous relocation conditions.

I shudder to think of the devastating consequences and sovereigntists should face this very likely and thoroughly frightening scenario.

It is a sovereigntist tenet that Canada doesn't and never has played fair with Quebec and has in fact callously stabbed Quebec in the back in the past à la Night of the long Knives, so it's hard for them to pooh-pooh the scenario I've outlined above and pretend that Canada will somehow respect Quebec's integrity and not poach.

And so readers, I ask again, how many Quebecers will leave?

And  secondly, at what point will the exodus be fatal?

Charter is First Salvo In Quebec's War On Religion

Like a magician who keeps our concentration riveted on one hand while the other is stealing our watch, there is an unseen political drama that is playing out behind our back that absolutely nobody in the mainstream press has cottoned to.

Everyday our collective attention is glued to stories about the Charter of Values, where we diligently keep a scorecard of those who are for and those who are against, in order to see where we stand.
We are so invested in the utterances of the players on each side of the debate that our concentration has been diverted from the much larger issue playing out before us.

Months ago I watched an interview with Bernard Drainville where in response to a question about whether the Charter would spill over into private industry, he answered that he certainly hoped it would.
It was a short answer that went unnoticed, but sent chills up my spine.

Years ago in charge of over 1,000 employees I fine tuned my listening skills, not only to root out those who were telling lies or colouring the truth to their advantage, but rather the more complicated ability to understand the quiet and understated truths being presented.
And so I'm careful to listen to those quiet comments, sometimes thrown off as a subtle or sarcastic remark or an aside, that tells more about what a person is thinking than any direct question.

When Mr. Drainville answered that he'd he happy to see the Charter rub off on private industry, we should all of taken notice because it describes the government's true motive, which is to eliminate religion not only from government and its related agencies, but from public life in total!

Before I present other clues confirming this agenda, let me tell you why the PQ and sovereigntists are so dead set against religion.

It is simply because religion is an alternate and conflicting philosophy towards sovereignty and language which has in much of Quebec supplanted the dogma of traditional religion.

While there are no hard numbers confirming that people of traditional faith, be it Christianity, Islam, Judaism etc. are overwhelmingly federalist, its a fair assumption that politicians and observers can make.
It is no accident that the preamble of the Canadian Charter of Rights starts off with the statement of the 'supremacy of God' while the PQ is now proposing that the Quebec Charter of rights affirms in its preamble 'the primacy of the French Language as the fundamental value'

«la primauté du français» comme «valeur fondamentale de la nation québécoise».

It couldn't be clearer.

I don't think its a stretch to say that sovereingtists have replaced traditional faith in God and religion with the dogma of French as the Supreme deity with independence, its version of the promised land.

With this theory in hand let us examine for clues and lo and behold, the supporting evidence is not hard to find in the hearings into the Charter of Values being held by the National Assembly

In this well-choreographed assault on religion don't be fooled by the anti-charter speakers which are afforded the chance to speak.  These speakers are window-dressing, useful idiots  giving pretense of impartiality.
It is what is being presented on the PRO side that is intriguing and all telling.

First of all, make no mistake, the PQ is calling the shots as to who testifies and it is no accident that one of the first presenters were a family of redneck hicks who demonized Islam, "Imagine praying on all fours?" Watch the video with subtitles.
Was the appearance of these rubes an accident or a cleverly presented dose of religious hate? One has to consider that these people were thoroughly vetted before hand and therefore picked to say exactly what they said, what no politician on the ANTI side of the debate would dare.

Then further on, another witness was going on and on against ritual Kosher or Halal slaughter, which again has nothing to do with the Charter of Values and is nothing more than an attack on religion.

Further on, a certain Louise Mailloux unloaded on Amir Khadir for attending a rally of Muslims where the women sat apart from men and wore religious headdress, as if this was a violation of the equality of men and women. She then showed a video which depicted young Muslim girls embracing the Hijab in a religious-like ceremony meant to shock ordinary Quebecers as something abhorrent. Link{fr}

So according to this speaker, men and women sitting apart in a private meeting is a violation of the tenet of equality, another straightforward attack on religion.

So in the new Quebec, it would be no longer allowable for private citizens to meet in the manner they choose.
Makes sense right?
I wonder if Madame Mailloux would demand that the CURVES fitness centres reverse the policy of barring men as well?

Soon we will hear from those opposed to ritual circumcision, another bestial practice according to the secular, an unconscionable defilement of the innocent, while I'm sure no one will come forward to complain about parents piercing the ears of underage girls.

The hearings are a theatre of the absurd, meant to persuade and shape the ideas of francophone Quebecers that religion is bad.

Watch the witnesses who are testifying in favour of the Charter, most are really arguing against religion, in all its forms, because religiosity is the enemy of sovereignty, the entire exercise, a process of anti-religious proselytization, the suggestive power of government used to set Quebecers off God for good.

Crazy? Absurd?

First they came after your language, now your religion.
Is it really that big a surprise?

French versus English Volume 101

Who's to blame for tragic Quebec fire?

I want to express my condolences and those of the general community of this blog to the families of those who perished in the tragic fire in a seniors home in the small town of L'ISLE-VERTE, situated on the Gaspe peninsula, between Rivere du Loup and Trois-Pistoles. I've often driven past the town, but never stopped in, it is really just a slip of a town, and even when driving down the coast road (Hwy 132) it's easy to miss.  I don't think I'm being presumptuous in saying that everyone on this blog is saddened by the horrific tragedy. Most of the victims were in their eighties and too feeble to flee. 

There is a story of a man rushing to save his mother who was screaming on a third floor balcony, only to perish before his eyes as his ladder reached only two stories. Read a BBC story on the tragedy

Sadly, it seems that every public issue in Quebec has a federalist or sovereigntist bent to it, no matter how trivial or ridiculous it all seems. If the ceiling fell down in a conference room where Quebec politicians were meeting with their federal counterparts, there's no doubt that the two groups would start blaming each other for the debacle. Such was the case in the Lac Megantic train disaster where separatists railed against Ottawa for its lack of regulation and enforcement of rules, using the tragedy for crass political bashing.

While there's no doubt that the federal Department of Transport was remiss in a number of critical areas, accidents do happen and blaming federalism for the disaster, somehow a little sad and disrespectful to victims.

For months after the train disaster the pages of sovereigntist websites bashed Ottawa and federalism mercilessly, somehow alluding that the disaster is proof that federalism doesn't work.

Now we are faced with another sad disaster, a simple but deadly fire in a senior's residence in a small Quebec town that took the lives of over 30 retirees.

Unlike the Lac Megantic disaster, which was completely out of the ordinary, fire is something that is a recognized danger, something that we can and should plan for.

This doesn't seem to be the case in this fire, where an old wooden building wasn't equipped with sprinklers, a tragic occurrence, considering the lack of mobility of the occupants, most of whom  were over 85 years old.

The residence wasn't obliged by law to have these sprinklers, an egregious regulatory omission. How older buildings that house large numbers of elderly seniors aren't required to be retrofitted with sprinklers is beyond comprehension.

I'm not jumping to conclusions, but as I said, a fire is something that can be planned for and a large body count is almost always attributed to lack of preparedness.

 

Sadly (or happily), the newer section of the building that was built later on as an addition, did have sprinklers and those within survived.  

A clear case of ownership only living up to the letter of the law and a testament to failure in government regulation, if ever there was.

Poor regulations, a dangerously vulnerable building, and seemingly poor preparedness.

Is this the fault of sovereigntists and a clear signal that the Quebec government doesn't serve the interests of Quebecers?

Nonsense.

Clearly both Ottawa and Quebec have been remiss in both these tragedies. 

Ottawa needs to address the very real problem of rail transport of dangerous and highly flammable hydrocarbons.

And clearly, Quebec needs new rules which would impose the retrofitting of seniors homes with sprinklers, as well as creating rules and regulating for the creation of meaningful and effective evacuation and disaster plans for each seniors' home.

If you've ever taken a cruise, the very first thing that is done is life boat drill, where passengers must don their flotation device and muster to their designated rescue stations for a brief safety talk.

We've all sat through the safety drill on the airplane (although how many of us listen) and as students, we've  all taken part in random fire drills.

According to the newspapers, the home hadn't conducted a fire drill since last Spring.

So why are senior residences, which are much, much more vulnerable to fire deaths because to the lack of mobility of the residents, given such a wide path in consideration of safety.

Both Ottawa and Quebec City failed miserably in these cases, both levels of government guilty of a very real dereliction of regulatory oversight.

But please, let's not make it a spitting match over federalism or Quebec nationalism, safety is too important an issue to bog down in petty politics.

Bixi bites the Dust.

"Bixi is Montreal....Yup a perfect metaphor!

Watching the Bixi bicycle program go bankrupt reminds me of the sad ordeal of watching a loved one die of a lingering and terminal disease.
Despite our desire to see the bike-riding program survive, we all new what was to come, it's was only a matter of time, but notwithstanding, the drama sad to watch and painful to endure.

Bixi was actually doomed from the beginning, a bad business plan with no hope of success, foisted upon taxpayers with the seducing caché of being avant-garde.
What can you say about a program that is wildly successful, yet fails on a financial basis.  Had the Bixi proponents just written a business plan before undertaking the project, they'd have realized that in Montreal, the project just couldn't sustain itself.

Here's what I wrote last year.

"The vaunted BIXI bike rental program, a Montreal invention that is sweeping North America turns out to be a giant money-losing fraud with the Mayor now telling us that he expected the service, like public transport, to lose money. Of course he never told us that before the service was installed.  And so taxpayers are on the hook for another 30 million dollar loan to keep the program alive and cyclists continue to get a free ride at the taxpayer's expense.
By the way, if you don't have a sense of what  30 million dollars is, consider that it's enough money to pay cash for a $300 bicycle for 100,000 children!  BIXI has 40,000 members."

Sadly and paradoxically, the Bixi model works elsewhere for a variety of reasons.
The granolas who vandalized Montreal bixi  bikes because they believed that advertising somehow was diminishing the experience, should note that it is advertising that is the key to success as in the citibike program in New York City, where between Citi Bank and Mastercard, the 11 million in annual advertising fees pumped in, makes the program a success before any user gets on the bike.
Give credit to Montreal for inventing something useful, but failing grades once again for making things work.

Montreal Hotels....another one bites the dust

Hotel Renaissance

It seems that Montreal and Quebec are suffering from a hotel crisis with large established hotels re-purposing with alarming regularity, especially in Montreal.
Montreal has lost a bunch of hotels as the tourist  industry in Quebec is receding badly.
The latest victim is the Holiday Inn in downtown Montreal, which follows the Delta Hotel which closed last October.
Both will be turned into student residences.
Just recently another  hotel, the Quality Inn, closed on  Park Avenue in Montreal.
Here's an article written before these closings.

Delta University St

Nine major Montreal hotels that have closed in last few years

Boutique hotels have been on the rise for some time here in Montreal and have taken an increasingly large bite out of the local temporary-lodgings pie, as have other innovations such as AirBnB.
  But they don't meet the needs of conventions and other big ticket tourist draws, so the ongoing failure of hotels here could be problematic. Read the article at Coolopolis

Amir Khadir...Who loves you, baby?

Yalda...A Chip off the old block!

Its been a rough couple of months for Amir Khadir, who up to now has  been the darling of the ultra-left-wing/sovereigntist counter culture crowd.

First he's had to deal with the fact that his daughter is in for a rough ride for her participation in the mayhem that was the student strike. She's already been convicted of one charge and has numerous offences pending. She'll be sentenced in a couple of months, after she faces the other charges in court.
To top it off, She's also being sued for $100,000 in relation to her alleged participation in the vandalization of the Université de Montreal. 

Like father, like daughter, Amir Khadir is himself being sued by Marcel Mélançon, this time for defamation.
Last Fall, Khadir accused the Tony Accurso cohort of being the chief bag man for the Liberal party, a charge that  Mélançon vehemently denied.
Khadir retracted the accusation, but then repeated it again last month on the radio.
It was then that the $300,000 lawsuit dropped and since it is a private matter, the government won't be paying any of the legal bills.
Regular readers of this blog know my advice about suing or getting sued, especially when your opponent is rich.
Good luck with that Mr. Khadir.
I suggest a little grovelling and humble pie and failing that, better get your wealthy Commie father Jafar, to pony up the dough for legal bills.. Link{fr}

But that's not all, no siree.
Amir has fallen out of favour with his sovereigntist friends who are pro-Charter of Values, who are furious at Khadir, Francois David and Quebec Solidaire for their official opposition to the Charter.
And  so various smear campaigns have been undertaken against Khadir, the latest effort one where he's being attacked for attending a conference where Muslim women who attended were veiled and separated from the men.
The radical  (SPQ-Libre) wing of the PQ launched the accusations against Khadir in order to undermine his position and much  as I am no fan of Khadir, the attacks are politically motivated and mean-spirited. Link{fr}

Sophie Durocher, another fundamentalist secularist did a fine hatchet job on Khadir in the Journal de Montreal. Link{fr}

As you can imagine, Khadir is furious at the low blows being heaved and is howling in protest.
But no matter, to this author, the brawl between the ultra-sovereigntists and Khadir is quite entertaining and satisfying, and reminds me of my sentiments in watching the Iran/Iraq war pitting Saddam Hussein and Ayatollah Khomeini.
Fight on gentlemen!

Further Reading

From: Atlantic Magazine
Read: "The Danger of Banning Religious Garb 
"The Canadian province of Quebec is debating whether to prohibit public employees from wearing clothing with "overt" spiritual symbolism.

From: The Link
Read: Is Quebec’s Language Divide Played Up By the Media?"The idea of a language divide in Quebec is nothing new, but it doesn’t have the same momentum as in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, when approximately 130,000 of the province’s English-speakers left for fear of not being served in their language after Bill 101 passed in 1977."


From: (IX) Daily
Read: Montreal Sucks and Everyone Knows It
"Everyone from this once glorious, waste of a cosmopolitan metropolis likes to boast about how there's so much culture here and so many interesting things to do –– but it's all a lie. The only seeming reason why there are unending festivals all year is because people are miserably bored and all they can afford to do is party on weekends to drown their sorrows in booze and drugs. Meanwhile, they're coping with the fact that if they moved to Toronto, they'd make twice as much money and enjoy the same overall cultural joys. Montreal used to be the centre of Canada long ago, but compared to its Western neighbour (which has slowly been luring away multi-national corporation HQs since the 1990s), it has seen little growth in the past fifty years –– save for the golden heydays of 1960 - 1974, when the city was a shining North American jewel and a top destination for worldly travellers." 

From: The Link
Read: Quebec’s culture must be preserved—but I don’t mean the one Pauline Marois has in mind when she says the same.
"Since the days of the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, the Quebec government has worked tirelessly to ensure the vitality of the French language and Québécois—or pure laine— culture in the province. And that’s certainly admirable.
But the way the province has undertaken that task has been to repress its own minority linguistic and cultural communities.
And that’s absolutely wrong."


From: The Economist
Read: Canadian multiculturalism. The more the merrier

"WHEN the government of the French-speaking province of Quebec introduced a bill in November to stop public servants from wearing religious symbols, it gave a community hospital in neighbouring Ontario a chance to grab some new recruits. Lakeridge Health ran an advertisement in a Quebec medical-school newspaper showing a woman wearing a hijab and stethoscope over the caption: “We don’t care what’s on your head, we care what’s in it.” Applications doubled, says Kevin Empey, the hospital’s boss.

The Quebec government’s proposed ban and the Ontario hospital’s welcome illustrate the poles in the Canadian debate on multiculturalism. Public hearings on the law began on January 14th. Supporters say that the ban is needed to enshrine state secularism; opponents that it is a cynical appeal to xenophobia by the minority provincial government of the Parti Québécois (PQ). Either way, the prediction of Jean-François Lisée, a PQ minister, that the Quebec battle could be the last stand in Canada’s multicultural experiment does not stand up to close scrutiny.

Immigration itself is not in question. Canadians, even in Quebec, overwhelmingly back mass immigration, which adds an average of 250,000 newcomers (roughly 0.8% of the population) each year. First-generation immigrants make up a bigger share of Toronto’s and Vancouver’s populations than in many of the world’s great cosmopolitan cities (see chart). Unlike many Europeans, Canadians believe that immigrants create jobs rather than steal them, says Jeffrey Reitz, a sociologist who has surveyed attitudes in Europe and Canada. This view is partly based on history. Modern Canada was built by successive waves of immigrants, first from Europe and more recently from Asia.
It is also a result of policies that since the 1970s have focused on admitting the most employable people. The government constantly tweaks its system of awarding points to prospective immigrants for languages, education and skills, in order to match them with labour-market gaps. Younger applicants currently have an edge. An array of programmes, many of them focused on the ability to speak languages, help immigrants to settle in. 

 ************

Here's a chart which doesn't really need a translation.
It shows the relative position of each province as pertaining to disposable income by family.
Quebec went from 4th place to 9th place in just four years.

For other depressing charts describing the Quebec model follow this link to "L'Antagoniste

For those who missed the latest video I put up on YouTube, here's a family of rednecks giving testimony before the Parliamentary committee looking into the Charter of Values.
It's a bit sad, but altogether funny
With Hard English subtitles.

 

Journal de Montreal Comment of the Week

I must say that of all the mainstream newspapers, the comments section in the Journal de Montreal is the most entertaining, with readers displaying that certain wry sarcasm which is the hallmark Francophone Quebec humour.
So I'd like to share my favourite comment of the week and perhaps it will be regular feature.

Today's comment is in regard to testimony by ex-FTQ union leader Jean Lavallée at the Charbonneau Commission, where he got a rough ride, accused of taking bribes and giving preference to the infamous Tony Accurso in relation to loans provided by the union's investment fund.
During the testimony it was revealed that the FTQ bought out an investor because he had alleged links to organized crime, which was a potential embarrassment. The union paid out $2 million dollars to buy out the position of that certain investor who had invested just $500,000.

Have a great Weekend

Bonne fin de Semaine.

Drainville Leads Quebecers to the Dark Side

Some of you were surprised at my perhaps nasty characterization of Francophone attitudes in regards to the Charter of values whereby I said that many are taking delicious delight sticking it to the Anglos and Ethnics, in a chest-thumping effort to remind us all who is in charge.

Some pointed out that this opinion is at odds with what has been a common theme that I have maintained wherein I've advanced the position that Quebecers are a generally kind, gentle and no more racist than anyone else in Canada.

In this regard it's important to note that racial incidents of all kinds, including overturned gravestones, hateful graffiti, street confrontations or spoken, written or online hate is no more predominant in Quebec than elsewhere in Canada, perhaps less so.
It's hard to make sense of statistics, not many religious or linguistic communities keep good data on the subject, but in terms of prosecutions for hate crimes, Quebec actually has proportionally less.

Again its hard to put these statistics in context. Take for example the fact that there is twice as many antisemitic incidents in Ontario as compared to Quebec, when based on population, there should only be 50% more.
But then consider that there are twice as many Jews to be discriminated against, living in Ontario as in Quebec, so the numbers can be seen to line up pretty evenly.

To say that Quebec is a racist province is to say that Ontario is one as well. It's a cheap shot.

But one thing is evident, that incidents against Muslim women are certainly on the rise, fuelled of course by the PQ government's attempt to ban Muslim religious regalia.

"A network of women's centres says it's seen an alarming rise in intolerance, racism and violence against Muslim women in Quebec, coinciding with the debate over the Parti Québécois government’s proposed Charter of Quebec values. Link

Of course these incidents are the work of a tiny minority of misguided lowbrows, who believe that it's their God-given right to accost perfect strangers in the street to deliver lessons in citizenship.

But in truth, we still live in a province where these incidents are an embarrassment to the majority of citizens of all backgrounds, who condemn these actions unreservedly.

But like it or not, this anti-Muslim crusade has unleashed a barrage of emotion, some of which can only be described as ignorance and hate, aided and abetted by Bernard Drainville and the PQ who and which have made dire warnings of impending doom, without a shred of evidence.

Mr. Drainville cannot tell us how many government employees wear these beastly religious accoutrements or how many 'religious accommodations' are being meted out.
In truth, he hasn't a clue. It is policy based on whim.
Drainville demands that judges across the province be forbidden from wearing religious clothing, when a quick search reveals that not one judge does so today.

But good people can be led astray by con artists, we've seen it before in civilized and democratic countries where unscrupulous politicians  have dragged citizens over to the Dark Side like Darth Vader, in order to maintain or advance their political position.

Making people afraid of the unknown or scapegoating a minority is by no means a new strategy, it  has been practiced  as long as mankind has organized itself into societies.

Drainville has made many of the good people of Quebec (English AND French)  fear Muslims, just because they are Muslims.

Make no mistake about it, this law couldn't pass if it targeted Jews or Sikhs alone, there aren't enough of them.
There are about 8,000 Sikhs in Quebec and if half the men wear turbans, it makes for just 2,000 offenders.
As for the Jews, aside from the Hasids, I don't think 5% of the men wear kippas outside of synagogue, in their daily life, meaning that there is no more than 2,000 Jews who 'offend.' and these gentlemen are hardly a threatening lot.
And truthfully, Jews who are inclined to wear a kippa in a hospital (just about the only place they work for the government) can easily switch to a baseball cap, its effect is the same and who's going to ban baseball caps?

But the Muslims are a different story, aside from being the focus of a considerable fear campaign, whipped up by Darth Drainville, many, many Muslim women wear religious head dress, somewhere in the neighbourhood of 50,000.
It is the fear that Muslims will do here what they did in Europe that drives the Charter of Values debate and that gentle readers is a fear that is hard to be reckoned with.

That the government pretends that the debate can be calm and serene, is at odds with the strategy of creating fear.
How on Earth could the PQ otherwise explain the selection of a family of redneck Muslim-bashers to be one of the first to testify before the Parliamentary hearings into the Charter. Watch the video (with Eng. subs)
It surely set a tone, one which the PQ set in motion.

Every time we hear of an incident of Muslim-bashing, Drainville is first to condemn the incident, claiming that it isn't the Quebec way.
But he understands the essential element in fear-mongering. Always claim the high ground but encourage the nastiness.

If you wonder if my attitudes over the good spirit of Quebecers, their sense of decency and democracy and openness has changed, my answer is NO.

We are being tested by an evil mastermind named Darth Drainville, but in the end, I hope he will suffer a similar fate.

Liberals Should Let Charter of Values Pass

Philippe Coullard..What to do, what to do?

(Note to readers;
This post was written over the weekend before the poll indicating that the PQ is now ahead of the Liberals in the polls. That fact actually reinforces the importance of Liberals charting a new course in regards to the Charter of Values.)

Have you got the feeling lately that Bernard Drainville and the PQ have seized the momentum in regards to the debate over the Charter Of Value, because I certainly have.

There's a clear scenario being played out in front of us, one in which the PQ is engineering an election based on the Charter of Values, where the issue which has so engrossed and dominated our attention of late, will render such an election, a one-issue affair.

What that result would be is up in the air, but in my estimation, it would be a PQ majority government or perhaps a repeat of the status quo, a PQ minority, so badly has Philippe Couillard handled the issue that the Liberals have lost the momentum they had built up before the Charter became a significant issue..

Perhaps it's time for the Liberals to switch strategies and admit that fighting the Charter is a losing battle, at least in consideration of francophone voters who traditionally sit on the fence and switch their votes between the PQ and Liberals based on issues other than sovereignty.

That is the dangerous position in which the Liberals find themselves today and the longer the committee hearings over the Charter continue, the more support will build for the Charter.

Why will support build?
Because for most francophones, even non-separatists, watching the English and Ethnic community squirm and howl over the Charter  is a delicious cocktail of payback and revenge.

Threats of future turmoil and social upheaval are considered by most as nothing more than the desperate machinations of a community on the losing end of a shoving match and the threats as desperate a ploy as the famous 'Brinks Coup', the well-publicized movement of securities out of Quebec on nine Brink's armoured cars on the eve of the 1970 provincial election, meant to frighten Quebecers into voting Liberal. {Link{fr}

Quebecers are on guard against any repetition of the invocation of another  Bonhomme sept heures, so predictions of gloom and doom at the committee hearings by minorities are  counter-productive, actually boosting support for the Charter.

The passage of the charter is also a perceived affirmation that francophones rule this province absolutely and represents a concrete lesson to the Anglos and Ethnics that they are not in charge, not even in the least.

So what can Philippe Couillard and the Liberals do, they are clearly on the losing side of the issue as far as francophones are concerned, and even though the majority of Francophones supporting the charter is not overwhelming, it is enough to give the PQ an election win if those voters base their vote on the one issue.

No doubt, it is a difficult issue to manage and Couillard hasn't done a particularly good job at defining where the Liberals should be. His perceived weakness has hurt the party and its standing, the label of Phillipe-flop  seriously undermining his credibility as a strong leader.

It has become clear that it is well nigh impossible for the Liberals to develop a coherent policy against the Charter, because taking a strong stand against it, is a recipe for disaster, a water-downed stance is viewed as weak and unseemly.
Given the choice between two bad options, sometimes it is better to choose neither. 

Let me propose another strategy....letting the Charter pass unopposed, even though the idea sounds heretical.

Here's my plan....
Philippe Couillard and the Liberals should keep a low profile during the debate, and let the PQ go on with the Gong Show, because any interference in the debate with nothing to offer but lily-livered solutions, will only serve as a detraction to the Liberal brand.

And so the Liberals should lull the PQ into a false sense of security, letting them play out their election stratagem by appearing unsure of what to do and how to react.

After the committee hearings end, and the day the legislation is tabled, Couillard should boldly announce that the Liberals will abstain and allow the legislation to pass, because more important issues are at hand, the budget and the faltering economy in particular and where as the debate on the Charter has distracted Quebecers and stolen their attention from the real issues that matter.

This will send the PQ reeling and dash any hope of a quickie election call or a welcome defeat of the Bill in the Assembly, triggering a new election.

The PQ will have no choice but to pass their Charter and live with the consequences.
The sun will rise the next day, the debate will be over and the harsh realities of  the negative consequences of the newly enacted Charter will begin to manifest rather quickly.
And so the leaders of the Charter lynch mob led by Drainville and championed in the media by Richard Martineau and Mathieu Bock-Cote will suddenly become rebels without a cause.

When doctors start resigning, teachers walk out of classes and day cares, in wildcat actions, when health workers tell residents in government old-age homes to stuff it, reality will set in.

When opponents of the Charter mobilize, it won't be pretty and the PQ will not be able to react.

Now polls showing support for the Charter among francophones also show that two-thirds of them don't want anyone to lose their job over non-compliance, so how will the PQ react when push comes to shove?
What will be the reaction of Drainville,and Pauline when workers perturb the workplace or go out on sick-outs in large numbers.
Students on strike hurt nobody but themselves, but doctors closing their practices, nurses and support workers not showing up to work, or teachers closing down schools forcing parents to miss work and take care of the kids is a situation that can crush society and very quickly.

I've said it before, be careful what you wish for, you might get it.

Coupled with this social unrest, the PQ will also have a budget to table, one that will be nothing less than a disaster, With falling revenues, rising unemployment and increasing expenses, I wouldn't want to be in Nicholas Marceau's shoes, having to deliver a bad news budget extraordinaire.

I can't think of a better scenario for the Liberals.

An election under these circumstances will sweep the Liberals into power with a majority government, free to undo the harsher components of the Charter and creating one that is kinder and gentler, exactly what the Liberals were willing to accept under a proposed Charter compromise offered by the CAQ.
Allowing the PQ chickens to come home to roost, will have the added benefit of thoroughly discrediting Pauline as a leader, hurting the separatist movement for years to come and returning the province to a less toxic government.

Is this scenario far-fetched?
I don't think so, it can all happen within a few short months.

There's an old saying about letting your enemies hang themselves through their own self-destructive actions.
It may be time for Couillard and the Liberals to step back and give Pauline, Drainville and the PQ enough rope to do exactly that.