Pierre-Karl Péladeau Taking Over PQ Reins

Pierre-Karl Péladeau....Eyes firmly on the Premier Prize

I once met a leasing agent at a trade show where she introduced  me to her new young assistant, whose odd but familiar second name, piqued my interest.

Later on I bumped into the agent again, this time without the assistant in tow and asked if the young lady was indeed the daughter of the owner of the company.

"Yes she is" answered the agent sardonically, " I didn't exactly have a choice in taking her on."
To which I inquired of her rather cruelly, (I wasn't a big fan) how it felt to be training her replacement!

And so when Pierre-Karl Péladeau was introduced by Pauline Marois as a PQ candidate in the upcoming election, she was in fact introducing her successor, the only question remaining is how and when that transformation will take place.

Why Pauline would embark on such a course of action, letting an overpowering rival into the party, one she cannot hope to best in any type of leadership fight is another aspect to be considered, because as bad and incompetent she is as a Premier, as a political operator, she is unrivalled.

But first lets review;

Pierre-Karl Péladeau swore up and down over the last year and as recently as last month that he would not be running in the provincial election as a PQ candidate.
But back in December the decidedly lightweight online journal, The Prince Arthur Herald reported that this was not true, scooping everyone when it reported definitively that Péladeau would run in the election and even had correctly predicted the riding in which he was going to run, St. Jerome.

"The Prince Arthur Herald’s French news team has learned that Pierre- Karl Peladeau will most likely run under the PQ banner in the riding of Saint- Jerome. A PQ source familiar with the case confirmed the rumour."  Link

An assertion that Péladeau, through a spokesman, denied vehemently.

"The rumor is totally false, reacted  Quebecor spokesman, Martin Tremblay. Pierre Karl had already denied this rumour two months or so ago, in Quebec . And he used  strong enough words to deny that there isn't any question that he will go into politics."
Quebecor  even felt the need to publish a retraction on his Twitter account, anxious to leave no room for alternative interpretation. "Pierre Karl Peladeau has no intention to stand for election. The rumor @PArthurHerald is totally false, "

Hmmm... So much for the truth.
So lets not fall for the malarkey that Péladeau just changed his mind recently deciding to throw his hat in the ring on a lark, clearly, he was on a track from the very beginning.

Ever since Marois made him chairman of Hydro-Quebec, Péladeau has steadfastly denied all rumours that he had political aspirations and so in light of events, it is reasonable to wonder just how trustworthy and honest he really is, misleading us as to his intention so nakedly, a sad precursor to what we can expect of Péladeau as a leader.

Julie Snyder...Excess baggage on voyage to Premiership

Clearly his resignation from Quebecor and his dumping of his wife Julie Snyder in January, were housecleaning events, clearing the track and leading up to this announcement.
But putting all this aside, one has to ask why Marois, an old political warhorse would make a bargain with the devil, setting the fox into the chicken coop she oversees.
It is only a question of time before Péladeau is given the keys to or grabs the reins of power, clearly he isn't a man ready to play second fiddle and certainly not to someone as incompetent as Pauline Marois.

Should Marois win her majority, Péladeau will become more than her de facto deputy premier, he will no doubt  fill the role of Lord Protector, wielding the real power behind the throne, eventually taking over completely when Pauline has played out her fantasy and retires into the sunset, having fulfilled her lifetime ambition. (being Premier, that is)
I assume that is the plan that Pauline has signed off on, willing to play the role of titular head of state, enjoying the trappings of office while leaving the real work to her new hatchet man.

I can only chuckle at the thought of the hard-nosed, capable and pragmatic Péladeau sitting around the cabinet table and entertaining the idiotic ideas and notions of the PQ idiot-ministers.
How that will play out leaves me wondering, Péladeau doesn't suffer fools easily and there are plenty of fools among his PQ colleagues.
I'm sure that a lot of ministers are quaking in their boots right now at the thought of Péladeau's arrival, but alas, that is the stuff of another post.

Péladeau is a one man show who has ruled Quebecor with an iron fist, successfully smashing unions at his newspapers and this with a malicious and sadistic vengeance, a viciously nasty battle which he enjoyed like a disturbed child pulling wings off a fly.
He is no saviour to the PQ's unionized base or entitled masses, that much is for sure!

His candidacy was roundly condemned Sunday by the FTQ,  Quebec's largest union, as a "catastrophe" for working men and women in Quebec.
"He is probably one of the worst employers that Quebec has ever known," the FTQ said in a news release, citing Péladeau's history of lockouts.

For his potential opponents, both within and without the PQ, I can only warn them that this guy plays super rough, the likes of which ordinary politicians have never seen.
I'm reminded of the old aphorism that reminds us that one should never wrestle with a pig, because you both get dirty, but the pig enjoys it.
 
With the Quebec Liberals a lot closer in the polls than was predicted by the media of late, Péladeau will be the linchpin to an election win or loss for the PQ.

While Pauline sees Péladeau as a necessary component to election victory, she may be making a pact with the devil and the gambit could very well backfire if the Liberals push the notion that Péladeau will usurp the throne and impose his harsh austerity and anti-union and anti-entitlement philosophy, imposing upon the province a punishing economic regimen worthy of an army boot-camp sergeant.

Anybody who is being unfairly rewarded, be it lazy-ass fisherman in the Gaspé, beneficiaries of wasteful electricity projects, welfare recipients and up to and including the entire over-paid and bloated government public service, should be on notice.
Péledeau represents a slash and burn manager, who embraces a take no prisoners economic and business mentality, where the bottom line is more important than people.
It is a philosophy no Quebec political figure would dare enunciate and one that even Francois Legault would be too frightened to even contemplate.

The Liberals could exploit this weakness, because in the end sovereignty aside, people will vote their economic interest if they see it threatened.
While Péladeau may earn votes from middle class voters previously fearful of the economic ramshackle fostered by the PQ, the traditional union and entitled base may be frightened off.

It is fascinating political theatre with an outcome difficult to predict.

Péladeau is everything the province of Quebec needs, a leader willing to make the tough economic decisions that are needed to get Quebec on track, including cutting out entitlements and government waste, no matter the cost it imposes on the entitled.

But Quebec voters are probably too invested in the status quo to abide by the painful dose of economic and political truth that Péladeau would deliver.

To paraphrase the movies, when it comes to Quebec voters.

THEY CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!

Quebec: Is It Time for a Dose of Tough Love?

"Tough love is an expression used when someone treats another person harshly or sternly with the intent to help them in the long run....

In most uses, there must be some actual love or feeling of affection behind the harsh or stern treatment to be defined as tough love. For example, genuinely concerned parents refusing to support their drug-addicted child financially until he or she enters drug rehabilitation would be said to be practising tough love. Athletic coaches who maintain strict rules and highly demanding training regimens, but who care about their players, could also be said to be practising tough love." Link
 
Vacationing here in Florida I've been exposed to the local news and the different take Americans have on general societal principles, an interesting learning experience about how differently public life is ordered here, not better or worse, per se, but different.
Banging around the local channels is a story of an eighteen year-old high school student, Rachel Canning, who is suing her parents for support after she left home in a dispute.

Miss Canning claimed her parents threw her out in November 2013, when she turned 18, because they didn’t like her boyfriend. She said they refused to pay for her higher education, even after she received acceptance letters from several universities. In court filings, she alleged her parents were abusive, contributed to an eating disorder, and pushed her to get a basketball scholarship.
The Cannings, who have two other daughters, said they helped her through the eating disorder and paid for a private school where she would play less basketball than at a state-run school. Retired Lincoln Park police chief Sean Canning and his wife, Elizabeth, said their daughter voluntarily left home because she did not want to abide by reasonable household rules, such as being respectful, keeping a curfew, doing chores and ending a relationship with a boyfriend whom they believe is a bad influence.

“We love our child and miss her”, Mr Canning told New Jersey newspaper the Daily Record before the hearing. “It’s killing me and my wife. We have a child we want home. We’re not draconian and now we’re getting hauled into court. She’s demanding that we pay her bills but she doesn’t want to live at home and she’s saying: ‘I don’t want to live under your rules.’” Link

The judge threw out her request, but as is the norm in the litigious USA, the case is certainly headed for appeal. What else in new?
Incidentally the young lady isn't asking for chump change, she wants nearly $35k a year plus tuition.Yikes!

Somehow, I see an analogy here in this story between Canada's relationship with Quebec, where for forty years Canada has pandered to Quebec nationalism, caving in on myriad of issues both political and financial, in a sadly desperate effort to placate a recalcitrant province which wants the financial benefits of the Canadian home without the obligation to live by 'house rules.'

Now one manifestation of 'tough love' is that in many cases, it is characterized by an abrupt and monumental shift in parenting, from soft and indulgent to harsh and unwavering, literally overnight.
This after painful reflection and soul-searching by parents, leading them to the conclusion that their pandering over the years had the opposite desired effect and where a radical course change is all that is left in order to save the situation.
It happens when exhausted parents are at the end of their rope and see no other alternative, just like Rachel Canning parents who obviously reached their parenting limit, despite their obvious love for their daughter.

So readers, is 'tough love' where we are headed in Canada's relationship with Quebec?.......I think so.

Certainly federal politicians haven't given us any indication that this is the direction they are headed, but there are clear and meaningful indications that this is the case.

In the end, politicians take the lead from the public they represent and get in front of the gathering wave of public opinion.
While we haven't heard a peep about 'tough love' from any elected federal politician yet, it  will break out spontaneously, like a case of chicken pox, if and when Pauline wins her majority.

For a while now, the likes of Mario Beaulieu and company have been whining that Canadian media has undertaken a savage campaign of 'Quebec-bashing',  an unfair and racially motivated attack on Quebec.
Of course this isn't entirely true, not the bashing part, which actually is bang on, but rather the contention that the denigration is racially motivated, because it isn't.
The attacks on Quebec are strictly targeted at separatists and the Parti Quebecois, something Beaulieu understands, but attempts to spin, hoping to characterize the attacks as an affront to all Quebecers

But if Beaulieu is perturbed by the mild criticism of the past, he and his minion are in for a rude shock, one coming very soon should Pauline attain her majority government(not a sure thing by a long shot)
While we've been slowly working our way towards this new 'tough love' approach to Quebec relations, the dam finally burst with an article by Jonathan Kay in the National Post.

The no-holds-barred screed was ground-breaking because it pulled no punches and dealt directly with the  sovereignty issue from a Canadian standpoint.  A watershed moment or  'tipping point' in the more modern vernacular, it marked that from this day forward, the PQ and the separatists will no longer control the conversation and indeed the agenda.
While Ottawa has steadfastly refused to discuss sovereignty in any meaningful way, the Canadian media has finally put post-sovereignty borders and the question of partition itself (gasp!) clearly on the table.

Issues long settled in separatists' mind are now open for discussion, and the debate will blow apart the PQ's rose-tinted promise of an easy road to independence.

Michael Den Tandt; (National Post)

"As we head into a Quebec provincial election, with the separatist Parti Quebecois in a position to win a majority, this much can be taken as given; the response in the rest of Canada to any resulting new push for independence will be quite different from last time, or the time before that. There will be no candle in the window — no heartfelt plea from Main Street Ontario, imploring Quebecers to vote “Non.” If anything, the opposite could occur....

In the face of a third referendum, the political pressure from Main Street in the rest of Canada to push back — possibly even via a movement for a nationwide referendum on whether Quebec should be handed its hat, and don’t let the door hit you on the way out — would be impossible to ignore. Read more

Jonathan Kay; (National Post)

"During the 1995 referendum campaign, the federalist forces held a downtown Montreal rally that drew an estimated 100,000 participants. But as Michael Den Tandt reported in Wednesday’s edition of the National Post, such scenes are unlikely to be repeated this time around.... 

So how should our federal government respond if a referendum is called by a re-elected Parti Québécois? Here are four suggestions:
First, don’t act as if Quebec separation would be some kind of apocalypse. Acting as if Quebec’s departure from Canada is unthinkable destroys our bargaining position on a hundred different issues once the referendum fails. Indeed, such hysteria is a major reason Quebec has built up that annual $16.3-billion bribe.

Second, notwithstanding the paragraph above, let’s not waste our breath lecturing Quebec about the economic fallout of separation. Like all sentimental nationalists, Quebec separatists see independence as a sort of magical elixir. Warning them about dollars and cents is like warning teenage poker players that all those cigars might eventually give them gum cancer.

Third, make NDP leader Thomas Mulcair — and every other soft federalist — tell us clearly whether he or she respects Canadian law. Specifically, the Clarity Act, which defines a valid referendum result as one based on “a clear expression of the will of the population,” expressed through “a clear majority” of voters — as opposed to the bare-bones majority standard of 50%-plus-one, which the NDP has supported since the Jack Layton era.

Fourth, and this is the big one: Have the courage to tell Quebec, flat out, that if Canada is divisible, so is Quebec. And whatever clear voting standard is used to adjudicate the overall result of the province’s referendum will be the same result used to adjudicate the status of the province’s northern Cree regions, the Eastern Townships, and, most importantly, Montreal. Read more 

Wow!
Them's fighting words, something Quebec has never heard before and as large a dose of 'tough love' as it comes, as unexpected and inconceivable to sovereigntists as were the newly found parenting skills to Rachel Canning.

The Conservatives are itching to get into the act and Maxime Bernier warned that while Ottawa will keep silent in the Quebec election debate, that if federalism becomes an issue, the Conservatives intend on speaking out.

But living in the past, most Quebecers still believe that Canada will bend over backwards to accommodate their enfant gâté act and that Ottawa will continue its forty year policy of appeasement.
Those days are gone and if Mario Beaulieu thinks the media has been overly harsh towards Quebec, he hasn't seen anything yet!

While the PQ and Quebec sovereigntists remain blithely unaware of the tectonic shift in the ground below their feet, there are some francophone journalists who very well read the writing on the wall and are sounding the alarm.

Benoît Aubin (Le Journal de Montreal)

"The ambiguity of a possible referendum is deeply ingrained in our political fibre and doesn't seem to bother Quebec.

But it is different on the other side of the Ottawa River. The National Post is already campaigning to press the Harper government to hold a referendum the day after the Quebec election, to force Quebec to choose, right now, once and for all, hoping that Quebec says yes, killing off bilingual cereal boxes, official bilingualism, equalization and transfers ... a beautiful and prosperous Canada purring along in English while Quebec chokes on poutine. Link{fr}

So it's gratifying to see that somebody in the French press recognizes the gathering storm!

The question isn't how sovereigntists react to this new political reality, but rather how the unpoliticized man and woman in the street will.
The nasty and unexpected debate over the 'day after' is something Quebecers never really expected, convinced by separatist leaders that the road to sovereignty is as simple as a YES vote, after which all would unfurl seamlessly.

This debate will be devastating.
As Mr. Aubin explains, Quebecers have been content in the past to have the referendum question kick around eternally, enjoying the annoyance it represents for Canada as much as a teenager enjoys sticking it to her parents by sporting a nose piercing or an outrageous punk hairdo.

From now on the sovereignty debate will be as painful and insufferable in Quebec as it has always been in Canada. For Quebec, wrestling with the newly emboldened Canada, will be something unexpected and unpleasant, like discovering rodent at the bottom of the box of cereal.
It changes everything.

Pauline Marois warned Quebecers that part of her sovereigntist plan was to goad Canada into endless squabbles that would raise the enmity between Quebec and Canada and push soft nationalists over the line.
She is going to get her wish, the fight is on, but she'll probably not get the result she anticipated.
In fact she and Quebec are going to get mauled like the foolhardy idiot wading into shark infested waters on a lark and she's going to take Quebecers along for the nasty ride.

And so separatists who spout nonsense and who sell fantasies are going to be rudely challenged firstly by bloggers, then journalists in the mainstream press and ultimately by federal politicians.
The childlike arguments and nonsensical assumptions about sovereignty are finally going to be demolished and for separatists, it isn't going to be a pleasant experience.

For those who believe that in response to a ferocious federalist attack, Quebecers will somehow stand up and grow a pair, don't count on it......but that is the stuff for another post.

Let me re-iterate my position, that is that I do not want Montreal separated from Quebec, but I do not want Quebec separated from Canada.
But given one, I'll accept the other and I think that is where the debate is going.

So let me begin countering separatist arguments, starting with a missive from the insufferable pseudo-intellectual Mathieu Bock-Coté who warns us that the deconstruction of the Ukraine is inevitable, obviously because it serves as an analogy to his separatist agenda.

"One thing is clear:  Toxic borders are bad. The western part of the country is inhabited by Ukrainians. The east of the country is inhabited by Russians. And in a world that sees relations between Western Europe and Russia as fragile, the country is torn. Ukrainians want to get closer to Europe, largely to protect themselves from Russia. Russians in Ukraine want to get closer to their mother country.
History catches up with us: old conflicts end up mostly reborn. Geopolitics has its laws which we are foolish to ignore. Basic lesson: an artificial country will eventually burst. We can not force people to live together who do not share the same identity references of civilization. Link

 Of course one can just smell the argument here, that Quebec is somehow in the same boat as Ukraine with it artificial borders holding back a frustrated and put upon people, well-deserving of independence.

But if Mr. Bock-Coté can make the analogy that Quebec is Ukraine, so too can the argument be made that an independent Quebec cannot force Montreal from seeking its own destiny, based on the very same argument that it does not share the same values or vision as the rest of Quebec.

Mr. Kay rightly argues that if Quebec breaks away from Canada, so too can Montreal from Quebec.
No doubt separatists like Bock-Coté will turn cartwheels to counter this notion, but the damaging debate itself is actually what we federalists desire.

For forty years separatist have controlled the debate, the hour of the referendum and the question, as well as the presumptions as to what an independent Quebec will look like.
Presenting the Canadian point of view that the breakup is not at all as separatists promise, is a useful and sobering exercise that just might convince Quebecers to abandon the self-destructive and childish path similar to that of sad sack Rachel Canning.

PQ Majority Government Harper's Sweetest Dream

With the federal Conservative party's fortunes decidedly on the decline and the Liberals of Justin Trudeau in ascension, a PQ majority victory would be a fortuitous turn of events, a political godsend of monumental proportion for Stephen Harper who under those circumstances would likely be returned to power with his own majority government.

Should the PQ win its majority, (by no means a done deal) one can only imagine the insufferable bravado and Canada bashing that will come out of Marois and her gang of pit bulls, a government which will elevate the art of confrontation to the nth degree, anxious to create havoc between itself and Ottawa in a cynical attempt to massage Quebecers' eternal persecution complex.

Like it or not, dealing with a separatist government in Quebec will become the federal government's most important preoccupation and who exactly Canadians will want to fulfill the role of negotiator clearly works in Harper's favour.

I can't imagine many Canadians choosing Justin Trudeau or Thomas Mulcair as their designated negotiator, a frightful notion akin to sending England's Neville Chamberlin to negotiate with Hitler, a naïve appeaser who promised 'peace in our time' only to be hoodwinked, plunging Europe into the Second World War.
Nope, Justin is a lightweight and Mulcair, well a political opportunist with a base in Quebec that he needs to defend.
One can only imagine Justin getting negotiated out of his shorts  because of his naive inexperience, while Mulcair would give away the farm to Quebec in order to keep the province in Canada at any and all costs.

With conciliation and appeasement, no longer on the menu as far as the majority of Canadians in the ROC are concerned, it's likely they will turn to the toughest and biggest sonovabitch they can muster to represent them in  the expected political death match and the experienced and nasty Harper, no friend of Quebec to begin with, the logical choice.

As for the coming election I remain flabbergasted that the CAQ and the Liberals couldn't get together to form a coalition government in the face of the PQ dissolution of the National Assembly.

In fighting an election from way behind, both Couillard and Legault displayed a remarkable lack of political savvy.

Utter foolhardiness, to this observer's view.

And so as the old biblical proverb goes "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall" so too are the Liberals and the CAQ, too proud to compromise and in the process, consign themselves to an uncertain future.
A LIB/CAQ coalition government would ensure at least another year of breathing room, one in which they could pass a less draconian version of the Charter of Values, thus robbing the PQ of its one sure election plank.

I'll let readers comment on the election announcement and upon my return next week to Quebec, delve into some nuts and bolts.....

Quebec Language Police...Life Imitates Art

Quebec store owner ordered to change Facebook page to French

"Eva Cooper argues that Quebec's language law, Bill 101, doesn't cover social media

The owner of a store in Chelsea, Que., says she has been inundated with calls of support since the Quebec government ordered her to change the language on her store’s Facebook page to French.
Eva Cooper owns the women’s clothing boutique store, Delilah (in the Parc), with locations in Ottawa’s Glebe neighbourhood and in Chelsea, just north of Gatineau

• CBC Community: readers mock Quebec's Facebook language complaint
• Speaking out: Quebec's debate over language law

The Facebook page is only in English, though the store's pamphlets and signs are in French. (CBC)
Cooper said she serves customers in both languages, but her Facebook posts are mostly in English.
“I was a little bit in shock. I was a bit taken aback,” Cooper said regarding the request to change her Facebook page.
“It’s not like I’ve ever not followed the law with my businesses on the Quebec side.”

Customer complaint prompted order;
Cooper said she received a letter from the provincial government after a customer complained the page did not meet the requirements of Bill 101, the main legislation in Quebec’s language policy.

Bill 101: Chapter VII
Language of Commerce and Business52. Catalogues, brochures, folders, commercial directories and any similar publications must be drawn up in French.

Cooper has been ordered to translate her page by March 10 or she could face legal action.
Jean-Pierre Leblanc, a spokesman with Quebec's French-language office, said any promotional material from a business must be written in French, including posts on Facebook and Twitter.
"It's not the media itself, it's the use of it, so when you use it for commercial purpose, advertising, you are selling product or you are advertising for a service, it's applied," said Leblanc.
But Cooper argues there are blurred lines because the law does not mention social media."

Read the rest of the story at CBC

 How many of you remember this scene from the movie Canadian Bacon?;

It is a little funny and a lot sad. Ridiculous, and vindictive. 
As Oscar Wilde reminded us so eloquently, "Life imitates art." (the notion that an event in the real world is inspired by a creative work.)

I wonder what kind of hateful mind one must possess to work at the OQLF and thrive in such an atmosphere of intolerance. Like Iran's dogmatic and fanatical religious police the Basiji, who scour the streets in search of immodestly dressed women, so too does the OQLF, which views itself as the protector of all things linguistically pure and chaste.
When Quebec militants observe that religious zealots are unwelcome in Quebec, they conveniently ignore that the only ones terrorizing the public over morality and language are they themselves.
While the PQ and its followers hold that extremists who demand religious piety from those disinclined represent a dangerous affront on freedom, they hold that extremists who demand language compliance, honourable instruments of legitimate public policy.

The reality is that the OQLF, Quebec's language police, is a chickenshit outfit, prone to terrorizing and bullying mom and pop businesses, but utterly afraid of the big boys.

Humourless and faceless ideologues who can actually make sense of demanding English television and radio stations to advertise their wares in French on billboards....Mais Oui!

But when faced with the harsh reality that some big companies will leave Quebec rather then operate in French, the solution is to offer waivers.
Think the OQLF will offer small boutiques, whose clientele is foreign or exclusively English the same opportunity?

I repeat what I've always said, why is it that toy cars must be labeled in French, yet real cars continue to have English dashboards?

Quebec language laws are morally reprehensible because they are enforced selectively.
How would we react if police stood on a busy downtown corner in any Quebec city and ticketed jaywalkers selectively, that is, picking out only those who are people of colour, ignoring the whites. (Oh wait, this actually happens in Montreal.)

And so why do Quebec casinos, owned and operated by a government of Quebec agency, flout the language laws with impunity. How is it they are given a pass, while small fry shopkeepers are terrorized?

The below screenshot comes directly from Loto-Quebec's French language website, proudly showing off all the wonderful slot machines offered in its Quebec casinos, with nary a word in French;

Take note that not only is the artwork in English only, but the instructions as well!

You can visit Loto-Quebec's webpage that proudly introduces all its exclusively English slot machines through a well produced slideshow. HERE

Why do the Quebec casinos, own and operated by a government of Quebec  agency, flout the language laws with impunity?

So I repeat what I've always said, why is it that toy cars must be labeled in French, yet real cars continue to have English dashboards?

I'm going to say this again, that we as a targeted minority shouldn't complain if we are not willing to make any effort to resist.

Most businesses just cave in to the pressure in order to buy their peace, it is sad, but true. 

 “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”- Ben Franklin

If every targeted business would invest a thousand dollars and would committ its time to drag the OQLF in a time-consuming and bitter legal battle, the wheels of the OQLF would fall off.

If every OQLF inspector understood that he or she was walking into a hornet's nest instead of a fearful and compliant victim and every single file would be a bloody battle royale, things would change.

Like a bully who finds that his victims are fighting back and with effect, attitudes quickly change.

Each case can easily be dragged out for years and years and this at almost no cost. Most cases will be dropped anyways because for the OQLF, pursuing tiny cases costs an enormous amount of money and so tying up legal resources, a legitimate act of social defiance.

If Eva Cooper just says no to the OQLF over the Facebook page, it will mean a lengthy delay (years) before the issue is decided in court (and there is absolutely no overwhelming expectation that the OQLF will win.)

In the meantime, the OQLF will send out hundreds of letters pretending that the issue is cut and dried, when clearly it is not.

If everyone who received such a letter refused to comply based on the position that the request is beyond the scope of the law, it will be the OQLF which will be perturbed.

Every OQLF employee who is required to spend loads of time on the most obscure offences, it means that he or she cannot terrorize someone else.

Legal resistance is not only a viable defence, but an obligation in the face of collective oppression.

For our community, it is time to put up or shut up. The OQLF cannot flourish unless we blindly obey their every caprice.
Nobody is asking you to take a truncheon in the noggin or face a jail term for resistance, as did many who fought for their human rights.
If we aren't willing to spend a few dollars and expend a little effort we absolutely deserve what we get.

Fight back or shut up, which will it be?

****** UPDATE ********

****** LANGUAGE COPS CAVE UNDER PRESSURE! ******** 

March 3, 2014;
"Quebec’s language police have beaten a hasty retreat in their fight with a Chelsea businesswoman they’d targeted for supposedly violating provincial language laws.“I think I can do what I was doing before,” Eva Cooper, owner of a specialty clothing shop, Delilah (in the Parc), said Monday as she explained that officials with the Office québécois de la langue française — more contemptuously known as the language gendarmes — are no longer insisting her store’s Facebook postings be equally French and English" Link

Quebec's Most Dangerous Fool

Martine Ouellet, smiling us right into the poor house

Most people wouldn't recognize her photo, nor could they put a name to Martine Ouellet, Quebec's Minister of Natural Resources, yet they should.

Few articles are written about her and her fantastical energy policies in the English media, but they should.

Martine Ouellet represents one of the biggest threats to Quebec prosperity, with ideas and  policies so bizarre that it begs the question as to her mental capacity to understand the most basic principles of public policy.

In her brief tenure as Resource Minister she has single-handedly frightened the resource industry into retraction with her pie in the sky idea of reform which would ramp up the tax the industry pays to the government, while increasing environmental costs, this in the face of declining metal prices.

"Preliminary numbers suggest investments in the sector fell to $3.25 billion from $5.13 billion a year earlier, due largely to lower gold prices and softer demand in China and emerging markets.
In October, the agency forecast a drop of at least 10 per cent in 2013 based on surveys of mining companies completed during the summer." Link

This coupled with an insane electricity policy that produces more electricity than can be sold, with new projects being created every day, producing more electricity at a higher production cost than mothballed facilities shuttered because of a lack of demand.

It doesn't take a genius to understand that if you run a doughnut shop and are producing more doughnuts than you can possibly sell, you need to limit production, not increase it.

According to Pauline Marois the electricity surplus is an advantage, but how that is, I don't really understand. It's like saying it's good to have cancer because it provides an opportunity to find a cure.
At any rate, electricity doesn't have a shelf life, you either use it or lose it, at least doughnuts can be frozen.

But the economic lessons that the rest of the world lives by, make no sense to Madame Ouellet, who believes that it is important to bake more doughnuts, because it keeps the bakers employed, regardless of the waste.

The frightening thing about Madame Ouellet and I don't say this lightly, is that she's an idiot, plain and simple. She hasn't the brains for the job.

Think I'm being cruel.
Watch this video of her being destroyed by an incredulous Radio-Canada interviewer who is mocking her over her utter misunderstanding of what a loan is, as opposed to a loan guarantee.

Perhaps someone should have explained to Madame Ouellet in terms that she could understand, so here goes.
Imagine your brother asks you to sign for him at the bank for a car loan because his credit is iffy. Because of your guarantee, your brother benefits from a preferred rate and saves on interest payments.
If he pays back the loan as per the agreement, your guarantee costs you exactly nothing....
Capisce, Madame Ouellet?

It's utterly fantastic that a Cabinet Minister can be so badly misinformed and it leads one to imagine where that lack of sophistication takes us.
This is a minister who has said in the past that there can never be a safe way to extract gas through fracking.
It's the type of attitude that has Quebec on the outside of the gas bonanza that has lifted the United States right out of recession and on the course to energy self-sufficiency.
In fact, American success via fracking has left Hydro-Quebec in the lurch, as the cost of electricity produced by gas produced by fracking is much cheaper than what Quebec is selling.

At any rate Martine Ouellet is once again using her prodigious mental acumen to lead us into another fine mess, this time by way of her unwavering support of alternative energy projects like wind power and co-generation, which remains Quebec's biggest boondoggle.

On the eve of the tabling of a report commissioned by the Quebec government itself which recommends shutting down these costly mistakes, our fair minister has already announced that she will ignore the recommendations, because she knows better.

"Over  the past ten years, the situation has radically changed. Electricity demand peaked and then decreased both in Quebec and its export markets .

The price of electricity produced in the United States by power plants fueled by shale gas has dropped dramatically. Nevertheless, Quebec has added significant new ways of generating electricity: wind capacity, mini-plants hydro-power, biomass power plants, in addition to new hydroelectric  projects

....The Commission is making  a series recommendations, including the following;
That consideration be given without delay to suspend investments in the Romaine-3 and Romaine-4, and stop or suspend supply contracts wind in co-generation and small hydro projects not yet built."....

...."The strategy focused on building new projects (hydroelectric or wind generation, in particular) is ruinous for Quebec."  Read the entire report in French

Yet none of this advice makes any sense to the intrepid minister.

"Minister of Natural Resources, Martine Ouellet, recognized that Quebec is struggling with surplus electricity. "But on the other hand, there are other considerations, such as the 5000 Quebec jobs related to wind power, including 800 in the Gaspé and Lower St. Lawrence. We can not act unilaterally without thinking that there are consequences, "said the minister during a meeting with Le Devoir." Link

Now how much does all this job creation cost Quebec taxpayers?
Quite a lot, in fact between $1.2 an $2 billion dollars a year.
All this for five thousand jobs.

Now I didn't even need to get out my calculator, a reader commenting under the above story laid it all out.

Yup, according to this reader, who did his sums quite correctly, each job created by these 'projects' that produce electricity that we throw away, costs taxpayers between $240,000 to $400,000 per.
And this every single year.

You read that right.
Martine Ouellet thinks it's reasonable to waste all that much money to create these 5,000 jobs producing a product that nobody is buying.

Actually, if she took the cash that the project wastes each year, she could just about pay THE ENTIRE GASPÉ PENINSULA WORKFORCE of about 60,000 workers (10,000 presently unemployed,) the tidy sum of  $30,000 per year to dig holes in the ground and then fill them up again.
Madame Ouellet could then boast of having created 100% employment in the region!!

Such is the state of affairs in Quebec, where the media spends all its capital discussing the idiotic Charter of Values, instead of the very real disaster that is the mismanagement of the public purse.

Martine Ouellet is responsible for blowing between $1 billion and $2 billion of public money each year because she doesn't understand basic math or basic economics. She is directly responsible for the rumoured upcoming rate hike at Hydro-Quebec of some 6%, needed to fund all of this.

This is who is running the province, it's sad, but even sadder that nobody cares.