Quebec Government's Medical Malpractice

When car manufacturers produce cars that nobody wants or needs, it's inevitable that they go out of business, just as the once mighty General Motors went broke ignoring market realities by refusing to adapt to changing demand.

The private market works efficiently at rewarding those companies that provide products and services that customers want and need and punishes mercilessly, those who ignore market reality.

The danger when governments get into business is that these rules don't seem to apply, as they are insulated from the consequences of bad decisions by taxpayers who are forced to underwrite poor business practices and outright incompetence.

And so the Quebec government continues to produce doctors which they themselves have determined that they don't need and cannot use, at an astronomical cost, with no plans in sight to end this overproduction.

The Quebec health care crisis is much more than a lack of resources. The sad state of affairs can be traced to an egregious lack of planning and sound business practices as well as a bureaucratic nightmare that has by some estimates put the number of pencil-pushers in the system equalling the number of those involved in direct medical care, be they doctors, nurses, medical technicians, and ancillary support staff.

Nothing but nothing can better highlight the utter incompetence of those running the system than the debacle that is the production of the most basic and elemental part of the health system, the doctor.

In a closed system as we have here in Quebec (and all the other provinces), the government underwrites the universities which produces the doctors that flow into the health-care system.

It isn't that complicated an affair, the government is free to determine how many doctors are produced and what type of specialties they take up.

Like car company executives, who determine how many cars and what type of vehicles are produced in consideration of market conditions, so too government planners are supposed to produce doctors in direct relation to need.

But somewhere along the line the government of Quebec got things wildly out of whack and continues to produce doctors that it does not want. Incredibly, there is also no plan to fix this problem and like a tap that is left running for no reason, these surplus doctors are being flushed down the drain, at great expense to taxpayers.

"Since 2003, (the government) has doubled the enrolment in medical schools, but it continues to limit the opportunities for employment at the end of the residency training for doctors. ...

"...According to figures provided by the FMRQ, 22 radiation oncologists are projected to complete their residency training by July 2011. But the government only has seven positions available. A total of 44 doctors are expected to complete their cardiology residency training, but there are 21 positions available."  Link

It has been reported in the Press that it costs upwards of $250,000 to produce a doctor, but when all things are considered, the cost of a Quebec-born doctor who leaves the province after his or her medical training is completed, is infinitely higher.

Add to the cost of the actual medical degree, the cost of a lifetime of education, from kindergarten to high school, to cegep and then undergraduate studies in university. Add twenty to twenty five years of free health-care, baby bonus payments and subsidized daycare and the price easily adds up to another $250,000.

A doctor who remains in Quebec can be expected to pay over his or her lifetime, over two million dollars in taxes, aside from the incalculable benefit he or she provides the community in general and patients in particular!

It is an unconscionable loss.

For the past couple of years, certain medical specialists have been subject to a hiring freeze in Quebec.
While medical schools continue to produce these highly trained professionals, they cannot be hired in Quebec because the government has deemed those specialties redundant.

Each year at least one hundred specialists, even francophones, are given no option but to leave.

Read this story: Even francophone medical grads are leaving Quebec
Read this story: Have medical degree, must travel

Each doctor who leaves is a gift to another province or state.

The cost related to this loss, each year, can be compared to the price of two Ferrari automobiles, each with a price tag of $250,000, for each doctor lost.

That is the economic cost of incompetence and it doesn't even start to measure the human price that is a by-product of giving up so many doctors.

Imagine Premier Charest in a telephone conversation with New Jersey Governor Chris Christi

Premier Charest: 
Hi Chris, How's it going? I hear things are tough down there.

Gov. Christie
Tough isn't the word. I don't know about you guys up there, but we're swimming in a sea of debt. I've just cancelled a big roads projects and I'm going to cut back expenses like crazy. Civil servants, teachers, government employees, entitlements, everything is going to take a hit. The voters are screaming, but what can I do, we are broke. How's it going up there?

Premier Charest:

Can't complain. We've got labour peace and we haven't really made any cutbacks. For us, it's business as usual

Gov. Christie
Lucky Bastard! How do you do it?

Premier Charest:
Oh just sound management, I guess. Listen Chris, the reason I phoned is to ask you if you'd like a Ferrari. We're giving them away.

Gov. Christie
What? You're giving away Ferraris? FOR FREE??? 

Premier Charest:
Yup. For free. 

Gov. Christie
Why? 

Premier Charest:
Because we've got a surplus of them!  

Gov. Christie
Wow I better jump on this fast, it can't last!

Premier Charest:
Nope we do it every year. Maybe you'd like a Bentley next year!! Listen Chris, not to be rude, but I've got to go. I've got another hundred and ninety-nine calls just like this to make!!

Ridiculous? You bet.....

By the way Governor Chris Christie is the most fiscally responsible Governor that I know of, one of the few to face the debt crisis that plagues his state, head on.
If you want to hear a politician dish out a dose of reality, I beg you to watch this inspiring video..... Governor Christie: Day of Reckoning

In Quebec, the ratio between family doctors and specialists is decidedly out of proportion. That isn't to say that we don't need more specialists, it's just that we need family doctors much more.

Over two million Quebeckers don't have and can't get a family doctor. 

It isn't rare to find GP's whose practice services over 6,000 patients and this even on the island of Montreal where the government is refusing to hire more doctors on the basis that the shortage is more acute in the boonies.

It's hard to get a handle on a number like 6,000 patients, but consider that in order to do an annual checkup for each patient, the doctor must see 20 patients each day. Even at fifteen minutes (an average patient visit,) it represents over four hours per day before the doctor can attend to the sick!
The average patient visits his family doctor three times a year, so that means that some doctors are seeing up to 50 or 60 patients a day! Ideally doctors should see no more than 25 patients per day and should work about 210 days a year. LINK
Seeing 6,000 patients a years is unsustainable and leads to burnout as well as inferior treatment.

The reality is that the problem of matching doctors to patient needs is a question of sound management and a commitment to fix what is broken.

A good start would be to tell medical schools to produce doctors that we need, not ones that we don't want.
It's no different from adjusting an ice cream factory production line to produce the right ratio between strawberry and chocolate.

It isn't (pardon the expression) brain surgery.

Academic Fraud at Concordia University!

If you're not particularly familiar with Concordia University, don't feel bad, the school is nothing more than Glendale Community College on steroids, with a worse looking campus.
Concordia is the poor cousin to McGill University, whose shadow casts a mighty pall over everything that Concordia tries to be.

From its ignoble roots as a small night school run by the YMCA called Sir George Williams University, the school is the result of the merger with the Jesuit College of Loyola, way off in the west end of the city and today has grown to become one of the largest second tier universities in Canada.

The school's central campus is the ground floor in a singularly ugly Stalanist looking building in downtown Montreal that enjoys a much deserved reputation as dreary and soulless.

Much as it tries to aspire to greatness, the school will be forever known as the place where you go to earn a degree when you cannot get into McGill.

Now I know there are those who will angrily reply that they did indeed have the qualifications to get into McGill but chose Concordia, for whatever reason. 

It's like choosing to visit the Wax Museum while in Paris instead of the Louvre.

The current board of directors, rubber stamps decisions taken by the elite executive committee, which actually runs the university by fiat. This group is made up, with the exception of one, of a group of business tycoons, representing a who's who of powerful Quebec CEO's.

It's clear that the goal of these rich gentlemen is to play catch-up with McGill and somehow enhance the reputation of the school. They are obsessed with growing the school bigger and have embarked on an impressive building program. Try as they may, the school remains the Hamilton Bulldogs to the Montreal Canadiens. You can dress the team up in new uniforms and build a nicer arena, but they still play hockey in a bush league.

The difference between McGill and Concordia is the qualitative difference in staff and students and that will never change. There are not enough good quality English students to fill two massive universities in Montreal.

Poor staff relations and high turnover have always been the hallmark of Concordia which can best be illustrated by the unfortunate  Dr. Valery Fabrikant, who in a burst of rage over apparent slights by superiors, went on a shooting spree in 1992 that forever stained the University.

Screaming bloody murder about academic fraud and threats against his life by his Concordia superiors, who he claimed stole credit for his work, Fabrikant was branded insane and bundled off to jail forever.

It now appears, nutty as he was, that his charges of academic fraud were actually true! Read this.

Since the university has no interest in pursuing the truth in defence of a murderer, the motives for the murders will forever be chalked up to unprovoked acts of a madman.

Cover-up and misinformation has always been the hallmark of the Concordia board of directors and the shameful circumstances of the firing of the current Chancellor Judith Woodsworth has finally got those outside the school demanding an explanation.
The sacking of the chancellor midway through her five year term and the golden parachute of 700k awarded to her, was a bit hard to take considering that the Board of Directors announced that she had left for 'personal reasons.' The press release, announcing her departure was issued just before the Christmas break, causing many to believe that a cover-up was afoot. Link

“Gazette sources say members of the board’s elite executive committee made the decision to let Woodsworth go. This group includes the board’s chair, Peter Kruyt, as well as James Cherry, Brian Edwards, Jonathan Wener and Annie Tobias.” Link

Faced with a barrage of criticism and Ms. Woodsworth's reluctant admission later that she was sacked,

 “I would have been happy to continue as president, but some board members said that they had lost confidence and they felt I should step down,” she said. “I was not given the reasons, so that's all I can tell you.” LINK

In the face of the truth, The board continued to maintain the lie and arrogantly told all who'd listen -"That's my story and I'm sticking to it"

As with Martha Stewart and Richard Nixon, it's the cover-up that will be the downfall of the school.

Ms.Woodsworth's firing may have very well have been justified.
Certainly there is turmoil in the upper hierarchy of senior management with many recent departures costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in severance. Her decision to fire  two senior members of the audit staff, Ted Nowak and Saad Zubair over a wrongly expensed $250 restaurant bill is going to cost the school hundreds of thousands of dollars. Both men made some startling accusations in labour court over unjustified expenses claimed by Woodsworth, where they are disputing the firings. LINK

Ms. Woodsworth is accused of attending the Olympic Games in Vancouver as a guest of Bell Canada, just months before the school awarded the company a huge contract. Link fr

Revelations over huge salaries, lavish spending and obscene benefits accorded to higher ups is being splashed all over the Press with the Journal de Montreal taking extreme delight in exposing 'English' abuse in academia. Link fr

A  'Professional Development' fund of a $150,000 seems to be nothing more than a slush fund used by executives to pay for personal items. No rules exist other than the expenses should somehow be related to work. So personal computers and telephones are all included. Link 

For a long version of events, read the excellently prepared blog piece by Steve Faguy, entitled  The Clique de Concordia

While the media has covered the story admirably, perhaps they are too afraid of the powerful members of the Executive Council to say what should be said.

It's time for all of them to be gone. Telling a bold face lie to the public and refusing to retract it in the face of exposure is unacceptable.

Perhaps in the rough and tumble world of business, lying to shareholders is an acceptable practice, but running a university under that model is not.

Late yesterday, in the face of pressure, Mr. Kruyt finally issued a statement which reaffirmed that the Board of Directors is standing by the ridiculous fiction that Ms. Woodsworth resigned of her own accord.

“It was in this context and following discussions with members of the board during the month of December that Dr. Woodsworth made the decision to resign.”

He said confidentiality agreements limit what he can say publicly about the issue. LINK

DISGRACEFUL.......

I wonder if Power Corporation pays out the balance of employment contracts to people who quit of their own accord. 
It's time for the Minister of Education to react. The millions of dollars in golden parachutes, the inflated salaries and expenses is not something the public should be asked to finance.

As it stands, the actions of the Board of Directors of Concordia University is humiliating the entire Anglo community, which cannot nor should not abide by the continuing cover-up.

No donor should give a dime to the university until things improve.

Its time to clean up Concordia and it starts at the top.

Mr. Kruyt and his posse, need to do the honourable thing and resign. We'll send you a plaque.

Conservative Majority will Crush Quebec

While Quebec voters continue to delude themselves that it's in their best interest to vote massively for the Bloc Quebecois, the penny has finally dropped on Quebec commentators who are starting to widely report what I've been saying for almost a year now, that Harper has more or less abandoned the interests of Quebec in favour of an English only based majority government.

“...Mr. Harper, utterly frustrated by the betrayal, decided to write off Quebec for good and rule with a minority, while seeking a majority, outside the borders of  Quebec.” NoDogsOrAnglophones- April 2, 2010

“Quebeckers have finally convinced Stephen Harper that Quebec is a dead end, a place where governments go to die, not to find majorities. Coldly turning his back on the Province, Harper is slowly and deliberately setting out to take Quebec out of the Canada equation and like the oblivious frog in the pot of cold water, the heat is being turned up.” NoDogsOrAnglophones- May 17, 2010

 A realistic analysis of the death of 'Quebec Power" in Ottawa, was written last week  by commentator Joël-Denis Bellavance in La Presse

 "Mr. Harper and his senior aides were so firmly convinced that further gains in Quebec would allow them to gain a majority in Parliament...

But the results of the federal election of October 2008 shattered that belief. After a difficult electoral campaign and despite a respectable record in Quebec, the Conservatives won only 10 seats (they have since made a gain at the expense of the Bloc in Montmagny-L'Islet-Kamouraska-Rivière-du-Loup). At the same time, they won a dozen more seats in Ontario without a campaign of seduction.

Since then, the political Quebec-Alberta axis has officially been replaced by a new coalition: Ontario/Alberta. For conservatives, obtaining a majority in the House of Commons passes through Ontario." Read the full story (fr)

Last week's cabinet shuffle underscored this Alberta/Ontario axis, with those promoted to the cabinet representing Albertan and suburban Toronto area ridings. The promotion of Peter Kent, a unilingual Torontonian was particularly galling to Quebec as well as the newly-elected Julian Fantino, a "big C" conservative who is also no friend of the province.
No Quebec minister lost their job, but none were promoted. For hard-working Steve Blaney, of Levis, Quebec, it's a bit of a disappointment. Link fr

It's clear that Harper is looking to high-profile candidates to knock off Liberals in the riding rich suburbs of Toronto, known colloquially as the the 905's (after the area code.) Building a conservative majority now runs through southern Ontario and while nothing is sure, it is the only viable option left to the Conservatives.

That's because in Quebec, the Conservatives realize that they are dead.

The Bloc Quebecois MP summed it up neatly, not realizing that his analysis, underscore why Quebeckers shouldn't vote for the Bloc;

"They're picking people from Ontario because we are possibly on the eve of a federal election. There is a political message here. He's winking  at Ontario, noting that he obviously cannot improve his score in Quebec . Mario Laframboise, Bloc québécois

For separatist journalist Josée Legault, it's somehow unfair that the Prime Minister has turned his back on Quebec.
As a longtime advocate of squeezing Ottawa for whatever Quebec can get, whilst pursuing a sovereignist agenda, a policy that has been quite successful over the years, the fact that the gravy train has pulled into the station and parked, is particularly hard to take.
In a blog piece appropriately entitled Bye Bye Québec, Ms Legault reports rather bitterly that Quebec no longer figures in Harper's plans.

Whether Harper can actually pull off a majority government is debatable, he certainly can't do it today. Most likely Harper will work on southern Ontario over the next months and recruit more 'star' candidates with promises of cabinet positions.

If the Conservatives do achieve a majority, it will be nothing less than apocalyptic for Quebec.

Free from a large Quebec presence in the caucus or the cabinet, Harper will get down to payback, punishing Quebec for turning its back on the Conservatives.
Quebec can expect him to follow through on all those ant-Quebec legislative initiatives that have been impossible to pass under a minority government.

First he will finally add those thirty seats to parliament, diluting Quebec and the Maritimes political weight in Parliament. Out of those thirty seats, the Conservatives will probably win about two-thirds.

Next he'll pass legislation removing federal subsidies to political parties, a move which will cripple the Bloc Quebecois, since they don't really raise any money on their own. Quebeckers have shown themselves the least generous Canadians when it comes to reaching in their pocket and so the next time Mr. Duceppe wishes to visit Washington to speak, he'll be riding a Greyhound bus.

Most importantly, Harper will curry favour in the ethnic communities of Toronto and that means no decrease in immigration levels, which stands at a devastatingly high level, that is slowly, but surely eroding Quebec's demographic position.

These policies are a given, but it could get worse if the Conservatives decide to 're-work' equalization payments or fiddle with bilingualism.  

For Quebec, a Conservative majority government represents a grave threat, one that is starting to scare the crap out of political commentators in Quebec.

But oblivious as usual, expect Quebec voters to send the Bloc back to Ottawa in force, not believing or realizing that four or five years of a majority Conservative government will destroy what is left of 'Quebec Power' and change this country forever. 

Quebec may react by voting in a separatist government, but without enough votes for independence, it will be another case of the worst possible outcome.

For Quebec there's nothing left to do but to cross their fingers and pray for the good fortunes of the federal Liberals., otherwise......

PAJU Continues Boycott of Shoe Store!

As I mentioned in a recent post the last thing Amir Khadir needs is the boycott of LE MARCHEUR to continue.
I also predicted that the masochists at PAJU would continue the boycott despite the fact that it has blown up in their face and actually increased sales in the store.

The PAJU boycott continues tomorrow at 1:00PM

Boycott Israeli apartheid!!

We are drawing a line in the sand : NO MORE ASSOCIATION WITH ISRAELI APARTHEID!!!
Invite the owner of the boutique Le Marcheur to take the moral decision to remove the shoes made in Apartheid Israel !
Saturday, January 8th 2011
Between 1PM and 3PM, corner Duluth and St-Denis

If you wish to confront them or buy shoes tomorrow is a good opportunity.

If you are a St. Denis merchant and would like PAJU to boycott your store as well, you can make this request tomorrow.
Remember stores lucky enough to be targeted will see sales swell to unprecedented levels!

Who is the Real Terrorist?

 I thought I'd point out a reader comment left on an older post, because not many of us follow older threads and this one is definitely worth viewing;

"My father's uncle is Wilfred Vincent O'Neil who was killed by the FLQ! It's too bad what happen back then as our family still misses him yet today! "

Posted by Crystal O'Neil (Gaspesie,QC)  Jan.05/11     The War Measures Act- 40 Years Later

It's been forty years since the deadly FLQ attacks took place, but for the families of those murdered, time doesn't erase the pain of having lost a loved one. For those who suffered through injuries and amputations, the reality of those barbaric acts linger. The FLQ perpetrated over 170 acts of violence which resulted in eight deaths and a multitude of injured.

Sgt. Wilfred V. O'Neil, was the first fatal casualty of the FLQ reign of terror. A night watchman at the Canadian Army Recruiting Centre in Montreal, he was killed in January 1963, when he tried to remove 10 sticks of dynamite from a container.
"In February 1969 - the FLQ set off a powerful bomb that ripped through the Montreal Stock Exchange causing massive destruction and seriously injuring twenty-seven people." Link 

"The FLQ sent a bomb to a Quebec shoe manufacturer, to show their solidarity with the union. Therese Morin, 64, the secretary to the general manager was killed when it exploded in the office May 5, 1965. She had just returned from lunch .....
.....On April 19, 1964, some of the FLQ raided a gun shop in Montreal for weapons. They murdered store manager Leslie MacWilliams, 56.
....Sgt. Major Walter Leja, 42, had both hands blown off as he was trying to defuse the last of three FLQ bombs in a mailbox in the Westmount region of Montreal. The bombers were just warming up." LINK

Today these deaths are largely forgotten and even Quebec schools make sure to gloss over the FLQ.
It's little wonder, as the author of the actual book used to teach history has characterized the death of Pierre Laporte at the hands of the terrorists 'accidental' and that the other deaths were 'collateral damage.' LINK
In Quebec, especially among  young francophones, the FLQ is nothing more than folklore, it's barbaric image successfully rehabilitated by sympathetic journalists who have contributed to a historical makeover par excellence.

A review of the French press will reveal that the word 'terrorist' is never used to describe the members of the FLQ, with the sanitized term of 'Felkist,' (FLQer) much preferred.

The political revisionism is reminiscent of Stalinist apologists who created the myth for decades that 'Uncle Joe' was a swell guy.
The success of the campaign to rehabilitate the reputation of the FLQ is underlined by the welcoming arms that accepted the terrorists  back into mainstream Quebec society, where many of the terrorists have worked  for unions, government and as esteemed journalists, their terrorist past, never much of an issue.

Many will say that it is fit and proper that those who commit crimes be re-integrated back into society once the offender has paid his debt.
But the fact remains that the FLQ terrorists were treated rather lightly, with some receiving nothing more than a slap on the wrist or a couple of years in the pen. The largest sentence served was but eleven years, and the majority of the terrorists never apologized to the families of the victims, nor expressed any remorse whatsoever.

Many went back to a life of activism and in the case of Rhéal Mathieu, a return to terrorism itself, when he was convicted of involvement in the firebombing of a Second Cup coffee shop in 2001. LINK

Mr. Mathieu remains a prolific and honoured contributor to vigile.net as well as convicted FLQ terrorist Pierre Schneider who also writes for the militant website and who signs his articles with this beauty (proud member of the 1st FLQ-1963)

Click to see article

Mr. Schneider, according to Wikipedia remains a member of the Réseau de résistance du Québécois.


So it was with utter disgust that I witnessed the forces of order move at light speed in reaction to a complaint  by the Parti Quebecois against Colonel James Angus Brown over 'terrorist threats' over his blog posts at Parkavenuegazette.com.

Read my post my Anglo Website Triggers Charges of Racism

Had the blog posts called for the death of, say, Jewish Imperialists or Anglo Imperialists or Christians of any sort, we'd be looking at a three year wait for the police to even consider any action.

Think I'm joking?
Read an account here of the pursuit of an Internet hate-monger from Toronto that has taken years to prosecute. LINK

So the poor colonel is a threat to society.... Hmmmm

In a recent post on vigile.net, convicted terrorist Rhéal Mathieu reprinted a hate letter which was sent to homes in Westmount threatening all sorts of hell in the case of partition, including the burning of Westmount Square. LINK

Did the police pick up Mathieu or force him to remove the offending article?
When a twice convicted terrorist makes a threat, shouldn't the police take it seriously?

Colonel James Angus Brown a terrorist?  Hardly....

Only in Quebec can real terrorists be labelled harmless and the bombastic as terrorists.

It's  a question of what language the threatener speaks.

Even Separatists Agree. Montreal is English!

After yesterday's post, which seemed to push a particularly angry button among readers, let's do something a little on the humorous side today.

But before I continue,  I want to congratulate those readers who enriched the debate with a plethora of thoughtful comments yesterday. I do believe it was the best batch of comments ever written on this blog and no, it had nothing to do with the fact that 'ALLCAPS' was silent!!

Unfortunately I deleted an important comment from 'Appartchick' by accident. Too bad, it was excellent. How about a re-post?

Onward!
I read with amusement a post by Quebec City blowhard Rejean Labrie on vigile.net who wrote a pathetic lament about what he perceives as the sad reality of English in Montreal. He reluctantly admits that Montreal is what it always was, a bilingual city, something he abhors.
Read;

"Come and  settle in Montreal where you can live exclusively in English"

"Venez vous établir à Montréal, où l’on peut vivre exclusivement en anglais"

Perhaps the language militants are finally accepting reality.

He makes the point that immigrants can easily assimilate into the English cultural community without any difficulty and that they can successfully function without French.
While it isn't easy for anyone to function without French in Quebec, his point about many immigrants adopting the English culture is quite valid and while for him it represents a sad reality, I'm reminded of the old adage- 'One man's meat is another man's poison.'

"...you can never count on these people to join the nationalist cause that drives us, this is a very unfortunate fact, but a fact. And it's not because we haven't reached out to them generously. No, they have no intention of joining the majority culture of Quebec, it's just that there's no incentive for them to do so. In one word or a thousand, they couldn't care less about preserving our culture."

As for our English community, which has lost 300,000 members through emigration over the last forty years, survival is based in renewal. It's a fact that immigrants have rallied to help save the English community. As a grateful anglophone, I welcome them to our ranks!

As for Mr. Labrie, I'm sure he was rubbing his hands in glee, all those years, watching the anglos leave his beloved Quebec, purifying the population as they left.  

The pain that he manifests so clearly in his post, over those cursed immigrants that ruined his separatist plans, can only bring a smile to my face and perhaps to yours.....

But enough of that, I said humorous!.....

Mr. Labrie added a photo collage of store signs showing an arrogant use of English to the exclusion of French.
Yup, never mind bilingual, these signs showed an utter contempt for Bill 101 in that nary a word of French was to be found.

But there's something wrong!

The longer I looked at the pictures, the more I believe them to be fraudulent.

Can you play detective and spot the giveaways?

Here's some 'think music' to help you concentrate, click on the arrow and study the pictures. Then scroll down to compare thoughts!

spoiler alert.....scroll down..
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• The bottom right hand photo is what got me started. It has a date of 2004, indicating that these photos are seven years old! Who uses seven year old pictures to prove a point about today?

• It also seems that all the photos seven years old, too. Why? Because two of the signs have a 473-XXXX telephone number, indicating that they were both taken in the same neighbourhood. Then there is no area code in front of the telephone number. Today we use 10 digit dialling in Quebec, so these pictures are were probably snapped at the same time and place as the photo with the 2004 date.

• The "473=XXXX numbers would put the business' in the francophone dominated town of St. Eustache, Quebec, where trust me, no business would dare post in English exclusively.

•  In Quebec, even in English the word is spelled "CENTRE" when referring to a place (Shopping centre) and "CENTER" when referring to the middle of something (like a target.) The use of "Center" to denote a place is used in the USA and in the Maritime provinces in Canada.

• The signage is just too amateurish or corny to come from Montreal. 

In fact none of these pictures were taken in Montreal!

At little research shows that most or all the photos were all taken in Grand Falls, New Brunswick.

The giveaway was the phone number and business name, "473-4644 +Speedy Auto Glass" which is easily be traced back to Grand Falls via a simple Google search. Some of the businesses seem to be closed, but at least two others also trace back to Grand Falls!

Mr. Labrie you are so BUSTED!!!

$2,000 Fine for Speaking English?

There's a certain amount of anglo-bashing that one can expect when perusing fringe website sites such as vigile.net where every crackpot, racist, separatist, terrorist and language extremist can have his or her say.
It's part of the package that freedom of expression provides and something we've all learned to accept.

That being said, the mainstream press is supposed to be responsible. Editors monitor content to make sure that racism, sexism, hate material and all the other bad 'isms' stay where they belong.
Like porn, hate literature remains available if one wants it, but common convention and good sense keeps it out of the mainstream press.

So the fact that English and anglos get bashed rather cruelly in some web sites is of no never mind, but when it crosses over to regular television or the mainstream press, it's time to denounce these racist attacks in no uncertain terms.

I nearly fell out of my chair, watching an episode of conservative Mario Dumont's television show, where he interviewed fellow journalist Martin Pelletier, who decried the fact that there are too many anglos in Laval, a Montreal suburb and second largest city in Quebec.
Too many anglos in Laval. Oh my!

Mr Pelletier presented some statistics showing that the anglo population is growing at an 'alarming' rate and that soon it will 'threaten' the francophone majority.

Between 1996 and 2006, the city saw a 35% increase in anglophones, which he blamed largely on the anglicized Greek and Italian communities who have created 'ethnic' neighbourhoods, in the hitherto linguistically pure Laval.

As the interview progressed, his rage grew to a boil, as he recounted the story that in Carrefour Laval, a mega shopping center, English was being spoken quite openly and that merchants had the audacity to greet customers in English. Horrors!!!!

Disparaging the mall by calling it "Crossroads Laval,'  Mr. Pelletier was outraged that such a terrible catastrophe could happen. He then actually proposed that English be banned in the mall, as well as other retail establishments! 

You heard me, I'm not making this up, I couldn't, even if I tried.

Martin Pelletier called for a $2,000 fine for merchants who greet customers in English.

 Even Mario Dupont, conservative in every aspect, every aspect except language, that is, didn't think it appropriate or necessary to call him out. Shame!

I wonder if Mr. Pelletier was caught up in the moment or actually believes that in this country of Canada, of which as I last checked, Quebec remains a part of, one should be fined for speaking English!

I'm sure if you ask Mr. Pelletier if he is a racist, he will be insulted.
I'm sure he'll tell you that he has nothing against the English and is merely defending the French language and culture.
But racism is racism, no matter the motivation.

And so, the hysteria vis-a-vis English and Anglos has transcended the lunatic websites into mainstream television and media.

The above video is by no means an isolated event, it is the current vogue in anglo-bashing.

Discussing Anglos as if they are some sort of a problem, is too reminiscent of other historical racist attacks on minorities.

Think I'm exaggerating?

What if the word 'anglophone' would be interchanged with 'Black," "Jew" or "Native." Imagine a television graphic showing that the Black, Jewish or Native population had grown by 35% in a town or city.
Imagine a commentator sounding the alarm that too many Jews/Blacks/Natives is affecting the social 'balance!'

The sad part of it all, is that Quebeckers still perceive Western Canadians as rednecks.

Could you imagine a Saskatchewan television commentator, decrying the fact that too many natives are moving into Regina? Could you imagine a television producer allowing a graphic to appear on the screen denoting this rise in the numbers of this native community? ...I don't think so.

Led by noted anglo-basher Louis Prefontaine, whose moronic and self-serving anglo-bashing statistics are now quoted as a legitimate source of data in the mainstream media, the attack on Anglos continues unashamedly. LINK

The real question is where all this is going... I wonder.

The fear of an English Laval has spawned groups like the Mouvement Laval français, whose stated goal is to check and reverse the creeping English influence in city.

Groups like these always claim that they are not anti-English, just pro-French. They claim that they are defending a heritage in danger of being lost to Mongol hordes,  outside influences.

We've all heard these ethnic 'purity' arguments before, be it in Germany, Bosnia or Afghanistan.  I shall let readers draw their own analogies.

My question is this. How exactly are militants going to defend French? How is this modern Barbarian Invasion to be confronted?

Mr. Pelttier's answer to fine people for speaking English in public may be a start, but it won't do anything to keep the Greeks and the Italians out of Laval.

Perhaps a letter should go out to all property developers reminding them that it's their responsibility not to sell new homes to these  'undesirables'.

Perhaps Laval should change its welcoming road sign to read;

"Population 400,000 Quebecois,  60,000 Anglaises/Ethnies"

Presque tout les monde Bienvenu!

Perhaps the Mouvement Laval français  should advise real estate agents and those wishing to sell their homes of the Francophone 'first' policy.
Perhaps Catholic priests should be encouraged to advise their congregations against fraternization and above all, horrors of horrors, inter-marriage.
Perhaps the cable companies should be forced to remove English and ethnic channels from their grid and perhaps English newspapers and magazines should be banned.

Of course English schools would be banned, that's a no-brainer.

Perhaps those persons who show up to an emergency room describing their injury in English should be refused admission or fined $2,000.

Perhaps Mr. Pelltier or Mr. Prefontaine would suggest Laval, in order to maintain its francophone purity, open German style concentration camps for recalcitrant anglos or send those with
some hope of rehabilitation to Ho-Chi-Minh style re-education camps.

Perhaps Laval can set-up a Soviet-style Gulag for English refusniks on the grounds of the defunct  St-Vincent-de- Paul Penitentiary, where dangerous multi-cultural politicos can be safely ensconced so as not to infect the purity of the francophone majority.

Perhaps a clandestine group of francophone radicals can don white-hooded costumes and burn crosses in front of Laval synagogues and mosques, hoping to drive the impure back across the river to the heathen land of Montreal. 

Ridiculous?..damn right.

Almost every major city in North America has had to deal with the reality of immigration and the changing face of citizens.

Only in Quebec do people believe they can arrest reality and wind back the clock to a time of ethnic purity.

As for English in Carrefour Laval, too effing bad!

Quebec Summer Festival Stands Firm - English Stays

You've got to give credit to the head honchos of the Quebec Summer Festival, Daniel Gélinas and his PDG Dominique Goulet, who are shrugging off as insignificant complaints that the festival is a betrayal of French music and artists.

As you may have read in a previous post, the summer festival is a monstrous success, which follows a Woodstock like formula, where a pass allows you to see all the performances, held outdoors on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City during the summer. Quebec Music Festival Hits the Right Note

The two week festival has been growing each year, bursting out from a 'local' affair, to become a national and international event that attracts tourists from across Canada and the United States.

The formula used by the festival is to bring world class talent, such as the Black-Eyed Peas, Santana Ramstein, Iron Maiden, etc, etc. which drives attendance, subsidizing the less popular shows, mostly local francophone acts.

Last years event played before 1.5 million concert-goers, 75% more than in 2006, a remarkable achievement for a city of 400,000 people.

French nationalists have been squealing for years that the event should restrict itself to Quebec talent only, in order to promote culture and offer support financially to local artists.
The case has been made, that since the festival receives a government subsidy, French language restrictions should apply.

Festival directors deflected these arguments by pointing out that without the international English artists, the deficit would skyrocket. The jam packed audiences for name acts, contrasts sharply with the more restrained crowds that greet Francophone headliners.

The people have spoken.

Recently windbag Louis Plamondon has called for the firing of Dominique Goulet for her unwavering support of excellence over language. For Prefontaine, ramming francophone artists down the throat of an unwilling public is more about a language crusade, than entertainment.

Ms. Goulet shocked language sensibilities by making some provocative statements which disparaged Quebec talent, sending militants into  a letter-writing frenzy.
She had stated in the past that there is not one Francophone artist who could fill the massive outside venue at the Plains of Abraham. She further shocked the francophone artistic world by opining that modern groups, regardless of their native tongue need to sing in English if they want to achieve international success.
Quebec's hottest artist is Bobby Bazini, a francophone who sings exclusively in English and who is building an international reputation and is typical of this phenomenon. Barzini was excluded from running for an industry prize for best Quebec artist because he sings in English.
So groups like Arcade Fire are also banned, leaving the floor to mediocre groups like Loco Locass

That's what militants want. French at any cost. Too bad for them the public is of another mind.

The latest flap comes from the over-the-hill and decidedly passé, singer MARJO who demanded that festival organizers give her a firm commitment and date for next summer's show. When the festival demurred, claiming it was too early in the game, her agent hit the roof and accused the organizers of firming up the English talent before they would make commitments to the francophones.

Very likely true.....

Nathalie Petrowski, writing La Presse, tells the story of how she dragged her offspring to see Marjo perform at the Bell Centre, in order to expose her son to a little Quebec culture. In a venue where he had seen Lady Gaga and Madonna, it was no contest. He left at intermission.....

Now before everyone jumps on me, telling me I'm a racist, let me say that there's some very good talent coming out of Quebec.

Trouble is,  there's not enough to fill a first class festival. It's just a question of numbers. Quebec's eight million in population cannot hope to compete against the world, but fans who shell out hard-earned money aren't expecting, nor will they pay for second class acts. They can get that for free at any St.Jean Baptiste concert!

Many Quebec artists enjoy more success than they deserve and it's based solely on language.

If you need convincing try watching this dreadful rap song by Loco Locass celebrating the Montreal Canadiens. It's a hit! No way can you finish watching it to the end, it really sucks! YouTube

Compare that to this bunch of Anglo amateur nobodies. Link.

The stink put up by the Montreal artistic community is strange, given that the Montreal Jazz festival is not targeted in the same way. Many are calling it a Montreal/Quebec thing, but it just comes down to money, not language.
Quebec artists have had their hands out for years, blackmailing authorities to pay up in order to protect Quebec culture. They don't want to, nor can they compete on a talent level with the world, so they  play the culture card.
This time it didn't work.

Quebeckers have voted with their wallets, so bring on the Black-Eyed Peas!!

Amir Khadir Has Jumped the Shark!

"It's a moment. A defining moment when you know that your favourite television program has reached its peak. That instant that you know from now on...it's all downhill. Some call it the climax. We call it 'Jumping the Shark." -Jon Hein

Click to watch the Fonz "Jump the Shark"

Ever since the 'Fonz' jumped over a shark on water skis, in a television episode of 'Happy Days', the term has come to describe a moment when something or someone that was once great has reached a point where it stops getting better and starts getting worse.

And so Quebec's most popular politician, Amir Khadir, has found his very own shark in the the name of a shoe store called 'Le Marcheur.' Read Story

A week after a survey declared him the most popular politician in Quebec, his boycott actions on one cold December afternoon has set all of that good will asunder.

He should have known better than to participate in a boycott of a honest, hard-working Quebecois, but obviously, he couldn't resist.

You see, protest is in Amir's blood.
Ever since he was a boy, his communist/activist father dragged him from one demonstration to another. While most families went to Church  or to visit grandma on Sunday, Amir was off to protest. Flogging Israel, America, Canada, capitalists and the bourgeoisies was a family tradition. Old habits are hard to change and so it seems that while you can take the boy out of the communist party, apparently you can't take the communist party out of the boy.
....TO THE BARRICADES!

When the negative reaction to his boycott support became overwhelming, Khadir was confident that he could charm his way out of the situation, after all, he's a master bullshitter.

Had he sized up the situation accurately, he would have realized that a quick apology for his actions was the politic thing to do. It probably would have been forgiven.

Instead, he tried to weasel his way out by the tried and true political strategy of lying and spinnng.

When he told reporters that what happened was just a simple misunderstanding and that he never  called for a boycott of the store, just the the Israeli products, he was contradicted rather publicly by the store owner who said in no uncertain terms that Khadir had been encouraging shoppers not to go into the store.

Frustrated that he was losing the argument, he then foolishly asserted his right as a private citizen to demonstrate as he sees fit.
That is when, as we say in politics, 'he lost the room.'

And that bell, cannot be unrung.

No amount of spinning, would help Khadir change the public perception that he was terrorizing an innocent 'Quebecois.' Had the merchant involved, been an Anglo or Ethnic, perhaps the story would never have achieved the media attention it did, but the David and Goliath tussle pushed a decidedly hot button and the story resonated throughout the province.

Not even his friends in the 'Clique du Plateau,' could save Khadir from the thrashing he took in the media. While most on the left, sensing the  mood of the public, wisely kept quiet, a notable exception was Radio Canada's Michel Labrecque whose interview of Khadir was more like a socialist conclave. During the interview Labreque offered this gentle rebuttal to Khadir's boycott "It's not the principle, but the method" arrgggh.......
When Khadir compared the shoe salesman to a merchant of land mines, the host remained respectfully silent.   
VIVE LA CLIQUE DU PLATEAU!     Listen to the interview

It was quite a different story when Khadir tried to defend himself in front of conservatives like Mario Dumont. His charm was lost on the hard-nosed conservative, who wouldn't allow Khadir to skate.
Khadir begged the audience to believe him that it was all a misunderstanding and it would be all put right after Khadir talked to the merchant, to convince him of the error of his ways.
Dumont was having none of it and attacked Khadir viciously by asking about his and his father's communist connection, to which Khadir, off guard,  answered rather clumsily, telling the whopper that his father, only joined the communist party because of pressure from the right.

The bashing continued when Khadir tried to defend himself on Benoît Dutrizac's radio show.
If you understand French, listen to the interview and hear Dutrizac, like Dumont, sneer  at Khadir, condescendingly, advising him to lay off a simple merchant and then asking why he can't criticize any  country, other than Israel. 
Khadir repeated the lie that he never meant to chase customers from the shoe store, a fact repudiated by those on the scene. He then repeated his shop-worn mantra that the boycott was justified because Desmond Tutu and Jimmy Carter are supporters. LISTEN HERE

What is most interesting is the tone of the interviews.
Both Dumont and Dutrizac made no bones about their distaste of Khadir. They sneered and mocked him rather rudely.
This is a game-changer. Journalists on the right sense a vulnerability that wasn't there before and are determined to press ahead with the attacks.

Up until now, Khadir was the Teflon man. As long as he attacked the old guard of Quebec politics and the rich, his radical socialist agenda was ignored.

No more.

Khadir himself has done what Eric Duhaime and Jeff Fillion could not, that is, to get the public to confront his deep communist radicalism and his hidden socialist agenda.

As Khadir tries to put this episode behind him, his communist friends will make sure that it remains squarely in the public limelight.

Unfortunately for Khadir, PAJU is likely to continue their boycott of 'Le Marcheur,' despite the ongoing fiasco. Those involved are lifelong masochists who embrace failure. Being a communist today, appeals only to those who adore punishment.

And so, for opponents of Khadir, the boycott is the gift that keeps giving.

How will all this affect Khadir politically?

There's little chance that his re-election is in jeopardy.
The socialist, granolas, separatists and eco-warriors of the Clique du Plateau will re-elect him, no matter what.

But the party is over for Khadir and Quebec solidaire in the rest of Quebec. They have been exposed for what they are....finally.

They both have jumped the shark