Sovereignist Support For Israel?

Tonight is New Year's eve for the many Jewish readers of this blog and I'd like to take this opportunity to wish them a healthy and happy New Year.

This blog has little to do with religion and nothing to do with the middle-east situation, but I've seen some anti-Israel-bashing posts creep into the Comments section which is unfortunate.

It is true that Quebec is a hotbed of Israel-bashing, where left wing unionists like Gérald Larose and communist sympathizers like  Amir Khadir perpetuate a campaign of vilification of Israel in the media as if the rest of the world was a Garden of Eden and Israel was the only thorny bush.

One of my favourite bloggers wrote a rather interesting rebuttal. Lifelong sovereignist and ex-MP and PQ cabinet minister, Jacques Brassard who hails from the Saguenay region wrote a rather stinging blog piece, one where he pulls no punches.

Among sovereignists, he's a bit of an anomaly, a free thinker who was sacked from his newspaper job at Le Quotidien du Saguenay-lac-St-Jean, as a columnist for writing an unflattering piece denigrating the Quebec environmental movement and its messiah Steven Guilbeault. He continues to pontificate on his own blog which is one of the most important and interesting examples of free-thinkers, unbound by party politics and loyalties.

Here he takes on the 500 Quebec artists who signed a letter condemning Israel and calling for a boycott;

"A call from Montreal artists to support the international campaign for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israeli apartheid…" LINK

Mr. Brassard replies;
For those who read French find the original post HERE

The ZARTISTES Furious Over Israel
(note: 'zartistes'- a disparaging term for 'artists')


Ah, these sweet, left wing Quebecois zartistes, how predictable they are!!

How constant and unequivocal is their indignation! How eminently selective!

If Israel were to disappear (as desired so ardently by these Teherani stools), where would our leftist zartistes, so sensitive to human suffering, manifest their compassion for human misery?

Fortunately feeding their compassion, is the oppressed Palestinians, massacred, starved, locked up ... and to stimulate their indignation even further, there are the Jewish oppressors, murderers, starvers and jailers!

But tell me, what do you do for the Tibetans, Sudanese, Tamil, Congolese, the North Koreans, Burmese, Zimbabweans, the Copts, the Christians of Iraq and Pakistan, all persecuted, bullied and murdered?

They're nothing but 'Small Fry!' Our zartistes will not be distracted by these lowly whiners!

Their job, their mission, is to defend the Palestinians, victims 'par excellence' of the entire galaxy, and especially those in Gaza.
500 of them have signed an open letter expressing solidarity with the Palestinians, mistreated by the "Jews-with-no-heart-and-no-soul", calling for a boycott of Israeli products and calling for sanctions against the Jewish state.

I went through the list of the 500. Almost all are zartistic 'nobodies.' Except a few. As Richard Desjardins, for example. This is hardly surprising since the Guru of Abitibi is a well known leftist, eco-pacifist, anti-globalization, anti-American, pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist.

But what saddened me is to see the name of Gilles Vigneault among the petitioners.

Gilles Vigneault! How Sad!

How can he ignore that the people of Gaza are in no way subjected to "a chronic shortage of electricity, fuel,  food and other commodities?" Even during the military operation of 'Cast Lead,' against Hamas terrorists, the supply line to the Gaza Strip never really stopped.

Gilles Vigneault. How can he say that Israel has turned Gaza into a giant prison? Has he forgotten that the Israeli army left the Gaza Strip in 2005?
And if Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are in prison, it is the one established by the Hamas extremist fanatics who impose a bloody tyranny steeped in hateful antisemitism so vicious that it is surprising that the 500 freedom-loving zartiste petitioners, never noticed?

Gilles Vigneault must be aware that he utters a horrible lie and demonstrates an appalling intellectual dishonesty when he proclaims that Israel has created "a system of institutionalized racism and segregation that resembles apartheid South Africa"

This is a charge so vile and so villainous that only the demonization of Israel can explain its presence in the cultural, media, politicians and intellectuals in the West.

"Israel," writes Pierre-Andre Taguieff, embodies the West for anti-Westerners, imperialism for anti-imperialists, infidels for the Islamists and racism for pro-Palestinians. It combines all the negative stereotypes. It is seen as the ultimate state, which should disappear so that man can be delivered from evil. "
How, exactly does Israel impose apartheid in the Gaza Strip, where it exercises no authority?

On its own territory, there is no racist policy, no discriminatory system. The State of Israel is a democratic state where Arab Muslims are full citizens, enjoying all the rights and fundamental freedoms for all and are represented in the Knesset, Israel's parliament. 

But, the anti-Zionists scream- "There is the Wall! The security fence! How horrible! What a disgrace!" Even the Pope is upset.

Before they choke with indignation, they should ask themselves this one simple question: why is there a fence?

Benedict XVI, during his trip to the Middle East, saw fit not to raise this essential issue because the answer is as simple as the question.

Before the "Israeli apartheid wall," as the beautiful souls of the petitioners describe, the terrorists crossed the border easily, wrapped with explosives and would blow themselves up on the terraces of cafes, buses, cafeterias of universities, public places, in the middle of bustling markets. After the construction of the fence (a fence because it is more than a wall), the aim has been largely achieved: the level of security for Israeli civilians, has increased considerably.

It is true that terrorists now favour rockets fired indiscriminately at Israeli towns. This has compelled the Jewish state to resort to other means of protection that include sirens and shelters.

How is it that the security fence Israel has become the "Wall of Shame" 'par excellence'? Because it is far from alone. There are many others, the walls of separation between the U.S. and Mexico, between Morocco and the Sahara between India and Pakistan, between Botswana and Zimbabwe, between Saudi Arabia and Yemen, Cyprus, Ireland, and between Thailand and Malaysia.

Why is the indignation of the Western left exclusively focused on the 'monstrous Israeli Wall ?

Because they are Jews who have erected it to protect themselves from Islamist terrorism. And because the Western left is anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic.

Dear Gilles Vigneault, if Gaza is hell now, know that it is the rotten fruit of the culture of hatred and violence in which the Palestinian population have swam in, over the ages.

Palestinian youth are indoctrinated, fanatisized, and fuel the hatred of the Jews, while worshipping a pathological version of Islamist terror.

Know that  Hamas and other Islamist hordes are solely responsible for the confinement of Palestinians in Gaza.

By signing this petition, you behave as useful idiot (in the words of Lenin), "idiot" because you do not comprehend the fundamentally totalitarian, obscurantist, terrorist, barbaric, draconian nature of the nazislamism of Hamas. "Useful," because you are a cog in the machinery of propaganda and disinformation of the Islamofascist Caliphate of Gaza. It's deplorable and pathetic on behalf of a great poet like you.

-Jacques Brassard

Hmmm. That was certainly unexpected!
It's not that often a sovereignist takes such a public stance in favour of Israel and it's not often that anyone uses such strong language in doing so.

Now before we all get into a pro-Israel/anti-Israel slug fest, the point of this post is not really about Israel.

It is about the labeling of sovereignists as left-wingers and federalists as conservatives.

The sovereignty debate in Quebec has redefined people as what they may or may not be, based solely on their position on sovereignty.

But the reality is a little different, within the two camps there lies conservatives and liberals.

We federalists are certainly not a homogeneous lot marching in lockstep with the policies of the Quebec Liberals and the federal Tories. Far from it. We are a diverse group that share a fundamental belief in Canada, but the similarities probably ends there.

The same truths applies to sovereignists, who are also tarred by the same brush and considered radical leftists by most in the English media. It is not true.

A group of famous Quebec conservatives who are generally aligned with the sovereignist camp  known as the "Lucides'  wrote a devastating indictment of Quebec society in an open letter that demonstrated that there is no consensus among sovereignists over liberal/conservative values.

We Quebeckers, whether sovereignists or federalists cannot be defined by one issue alone, even if it is the biggest issue.

But we are.

Editors Note. Gratuitous comments in support of Israel or Palestine, unrelated to the article above will not be posted. This blog is not about the Middle East.

Ouch!!!!! Friday's Blog Piece Hits a Nerve

My piece on Friday provoked some strong reaction by French language militants, some even rising to the level of hate. I've printed a couple of these comments so that readers can get an understanding of the level of malevolence, language militants bear to those who disagree with them. I didn't print a slew of others, all bearing the same theme theme of "Get the "F" out of Quebec , if you don't like it.' and other racist missives.

Of course none of those comments offered any sort of rebuttal to the piece that I wrote, the premise being that hysteria by French language militants over English and Bill 101, are driving francophones and allophones towards English education.

Instead, the comments included the obligatory ad hominem attacks on myself for blogging anonymously, coupled with a rehash of the same-old/same-old hackneyed ideas and misleading statistics that are the bread and butter of the French language/sovereignist militant machine.

I'm not sure what these militants want to accomplish by posting their nonsense to our little blog, if they're not going to make any rational arguments, their hysterical anglophobia is mis-directed.
I guess I must have pushed a button that triggered a certain wave of frustration and anger which bubbled over. All I can say is, tough noogis...

There is nothing these militants hate worse than being called out on the facts, they are used to preaching to the converted. They pump out falsehoods and use misleading and doctored statistics as a matter of course  and are outraged when these myths are challenged by skeptics.

Readers on this blog, I'm glad to say, are not the saps who lap up the lame hysterical mantra passed off as fact by the Mario Beaulieus and Louis Prefontaines of the militant sovereignist movement. We remain unimpressed and defiant. I myself have felt the sharp end of a criticism from readers and that's a good thing!

Readers have already offered some interesting critiques of the nonsense spouted by Mr. Prefontaine.
Congratualtions! 'Adski' , 'Appatchik' and 'Troy' and others! You have given me one less column to write!

BTW, Mr. Prefontaine, as adski pointed pointed out, I have already written about  The Myth of the Overfinancing of English Universities.

I will however add this;

By claiming that Anglophone schools are over-financed, you intimate that francophone schools are under-financed.

This simply isn't true.
Francophone education is in a catastrophic state of decline that has nothing to do with anglos, ethnics or allophones, or financing, for that matter.

If anglophone institutions are over-financed (and they are not) it is because francophones just don't go to cegep and university in the same proportion as anglos and allos. 
Those francophones and allophones who go to anglo institutions are numerically insignificant in comparison with the simple fact that francophones are just less interested in higher eduction.

Now I know this is hard to swallow, so let me back it up with facts.

First of all, francophones value education less than Anglophones. 

Read a highly interesting report on this and other problems in the Quebec educational system.

REPORT OF THE ACTION GROUP ON STUDENT RETENTION AND SUCCESS IN QUEBEC

It's hard to fill universities and cegeps when students don't finish high school. The high school dropout rate amongst francophones, especially boys has become a critical indictment  of the francophone educational system.
In a letter to the Journal de Montreal former sovereignist Premier Jacques Parizeau was 'scandalized' by the poor performance of francophone high schoolers as compared to their anglophone counterparts.

"Premier Jacques Parizeau wrote a newspaper article drawing attention to the high dropout rate among among boys. He cited government statistics on high-school completion rates as of 2007, showing that in Montréal French-language public schools 63 percent of girls and only 49 percent of boys had graduated seven years after entering secondary studies. The comparable statistics in Montreal English- language public schools were 86 percent for girls and 79 percent for boys. “Why,” he asked, “are the results of [Quebec’s] English-language school system so much better than those of the French-language system?” 

read;  Dropouts: The Achilles' Heel of Canada's High-School System

I wonder if Mr. Prefontaine will blame the poor performance of francophone high school students on the over-financing of the the English high school boards?

Finally one last sad  piece of evidence, here's a bar graph indicating the different graduation rates from university:

Yup, Anglos earn almost 50% more university degrees than francophones, per capita. Allophones do even better!

I know it's sad and I know it's infuriating to have an anglo like myself bring these facts to light. There is a problem in the French educational system but it hasn't got anything to do with money or anglos.

To my francophone friends, I tell you that I take no pleasure in revealing this sad state of affairs.
Something has to be done pro-actively to get francophones back in school where they belong. Other studies show that when they do stay in university, they do just as well as anglophones.

Perpetuating myths and spreading falsehoods is what language militants do, blaming anglos and Canada for everything under the sun, instead of looking at the unvarnished truth that faces them in the mirror.

I know that in reaction to this piece, someone, somewhere is trying to spin the facts to prove otherwise, but the truth is, the Anglo education system is infinitely more successful, to the point that the very best francophone students want in.

Instead of trying to destroy the Anglo system, perhaps it would be better to try and emulate it, but alas it's easier to whine.

If you don't like my words, then debate them. If you can't or won't, well.... bring on the racist anti-English rants, we're all used to them. But I won't be printing any more of your crap.

PS. Note to Louis Prefontaine;
That was your one free shot.
Don't ever think that you can come around again and insult me like a moronic twit on my own blog.... If you want to slag me, do it on your own blog.

Militants Boost Demand for English

Every Christmas, toy manufacturers try their darnedest to create a buzz around one of their toys in the faint hope of creating a commercial run on the product.
Not often, but sometimes, they succeed and we are reminded by scenes of desperate parents lining up in front of department stores and then elbowing competitors, in the hope of securing a Cabbage Patch or a Tickle Me Elmo doll so that their child could have what others can't.

Wanting what we can't have is as human an emotion as love or hate, we just can't control it. Psychologists tell us that there are three contributing factors to the condition;

Heightened attention: When something is hard to get (or forbidden) you immediately pay more attention to it.  

Perceived scarcity: When something is scarce or in short supply, its perceived value increases. You want it more because you think other people also want it.

“Psychological Reactance”: People don’t like to be told they can’t have or can’t do something. It’s related to not wanting to be controlled by others, especially if the situation feels unfair or arbitrary.  From SELF-GROWTH.COM 

Last week, an ex-employee came to visit us at the office to reminisce and show off her three-year old daughter. She had gone off to start a family and was now pregnant with her second. During lunch she mentioned that she was sending her daughter to an English pre-kindergarten, in order to get her started on English, since later, the girl would be forced into French school, being the child of two francophones. I was a bit surprised to hear this news since the employee was unilingual and came from outside Montreal where English is not as big an issue.

It seems that her desire to give her child an English boost is not isolated. In fact, it has become somewhat of an obsession among Francophone parents, who want for their children, what the government refuses them.

It's a story as old as Adam and Eve and the relentless attraction of the 'forbidden fruit' 

The more that the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste, the Mouvement Montréal français militate in favour of restricting access to English schools, the more demand there is for it among francophones!

Deliciously ironic eh?

And so Francophone parents who can afford it, are turning to private schools, which in spite of being forced to teach in French are making dramatic efforts to teach more English.
Of course this is completely opposite to what is happening in the French public schools, where the teaching of English is delayed until the third or fourth grade, ostensibly to avoid 'confusing' the children, but in actuality, an effort to retard their English skills.

This pro-active action by concerned parents to seek out English instruction has the government and French language militants even more determined to stamp it out. Already the government is looking to de-fund private schools. Recently, the education department fired the first shot to limit the spread of private schools by refusing funding to a newly built French private school, Collège Boisbriand, despite it being in complete legality. LINK (French)

Parents of French/English marriages are increasingly sending their kids to English schools so that they can retain their rights to English education later on in life, reversing a trend where most went to French schools before.
Parent who can't afford private schools are looking at part-time English courses and other option like sending their kids to summer "English Camps" which are becoming popular, of late.

A while back, I wrote about the Académie Lavalloise, a private French school in the Montreal suburb of Laval that was threatened with closure for teaching too much English. LINK
I daresay that the attack by the education department made the parents even more determined to save their school and even more convinced of the importance of English. Despite the demand to reduce English instruction, the school will find a way, perhaps by extending the school day to teach English outside the normal curriculum or some other device. Where there's a will-there's a way, and there certainly appears to be a willingness by parents to fight for their children's future.

If parents are willing to line up and battle crowds for a Christmas toy, what lengths will they go to insure that their children are outfitted with the best educational skills, with English as a keystone?

Quite far, I suppose....

So thank you to Louis Prefontaine,  Mario Beaulieu and all the other shrieking fanatics who are warning francophones of the dire consequences of learning English. Thanks for driving Quebeckers towards the forbidden fruit of English and keep up the good work.
Their monotonous harangues fit neatly the above-mentioned formula for getting people to crave what they cannot have!

We anglos couldn't have done a better job promoting our language.

And so English universities and Cegeps(colleges) are full to over-capacity with temporary classrooms required to handle the overflow.  Dawson college has rented out extra classroom space in the Pepsi Forum (the old Montreal Forum of Canadiens fame) and John Abbott College has announced a $30 million expansion out in the west island.

While the numbers of Quebec Anglos remains stable,  English cegep enrolment is up by about 15% this year, the increase coming from an unprecedented demand by francophones and allophones. Pressure on enrolment has been so high that entrance requirements have been stiffened and many decent students have been disappointed that they haven't made the cut. Ironically, some English students are being denied entry in favour of better performing francophones!  LINK 

Sadly over, on the French side, schools remain underpopulated and in consequence, entrance standards have fallen so low that you can actually get into cegep without finishing high school.
Yup......you really can. LINK (French)

What is the reaction to all this by French language militants?

What else, a demand that a law be imposed, refusing entrance to non-anglophones to English cegeps, this despite the fact that two-thirds of Quebeckers believe in free choice when it comes to the language of education.

How would the public react to any such law?
Likely by building more private cegeps that the government can't control. Already Quebec has a robust network of private colleges that cater to technical students. Schools like the Herzing Institute boast excellent results and an out-placement service that provides good jobs to over ninety percent of graduates.

If students have to pay for an English Cegep education, they will, it's only two years and should cost under twenty thousand dollars, a fee easy to recoup by the benefits of the higher earning power of those who are bilingual. Studies show that bilingual Quebeckers earn about 7.5% more than those who speak just French or English.

English remains the world's most powerful social force and banning Quebeckers from embracing it, is an effort destined to the same success as the Berlin wall.

Perhaps the Quebec education department should make a better effort to teach French than they are presently doing and stop worrying so much about English.

Here's a scene on the importance of teaching proper every day use of French as seen in the comedy TV show, "Les Bougon.

Danny Williams Shows His True Colours

For all you staunch defenders of Danny Williams, who made your opinion known commenting to last week's post, Danny Williams Bashes Quebec, I direct your attention to last Wednesday's announcement that Ottawa is forking out a $130 million dollar settlement in relation to Newfoundlands rash and indefensible expropriation of property belonging to defunct AbitibiBowater. Read 'Ottawa to pay for Williams' asset seizure'

The federal government is making this payment after being sued for 500 million by trustees of the bankrupt company under NAFTA rules. The Feds realized that they really hadn't much chance of winning in court. Under NAFTA rules, the feds can be sued for any illegal expropriation made by any level of government.

Once again the Newfoundland government shows its brilliant business acumen and just like the Upper Churchill power deal, is refusing to take responsibility for its actions. Once more, it's everybody's fault but their own, so I guess it's time once again, for Danny Williams to break out the violin fiddle and whine.

The province seized the property of the AbitibiBowater when it closed a sawmill and rushed legislation through Parliament so fast, that they actually expropriated a mill that they legally weren't entitled to.
Of course the defiant Danny Williams, remains the arrogant prince, promising that his province won't kick in a nickel to pay for the settlement. After all that's what the Canadian taxpaying suckers are for.

To add insult to injury, he said that he'd do it all over again. Illegal or not.
And why not, he's not writing any cheques!

When asked why his province is sticking Ottawa with the bill, he enumerated his province's many contributions to Canada since it joined Canada in 1949. These include fish, minerals, offshore oil and other natural resources. arghhhh.......LINK

While some may excuse Danny Williams on the basis that he is just trying to do the very best he can for his own province, damn the others, let's bear that in mind the next time he throws a tantrum demanding that Quebec 'play fair' and re-negotiate the Upper Churchill deal.

So in the end, Danny Boy also believes that it's every man province for itself and damn any sense of fairness.
It seems that Newfoundland and Quebec are birds of a feather, both with an outrageous sense of entitlement and both prone to sanctimonious outbursts of hyperbole.

I hope you all see Danny Williams for what he really is... a nasty little whining hypocrite.

Gilles Duceppe Queers Any Chance of Arena Subsidy

Years ago, I met a young employee of mine while visiting one of the retail locations that I supervised in eastern Ontario. The young lady, who was no more than sixteen or seventeen, seemed remarkably happy to have a minimum wage, part-time job and I asked her why. She explained that her father was a Jehovah's Witness and for as long as she could remember he dragged her door to door like an ornament, trying to convince people to embrace the faith, hoping that the little girl would stop people from cursing him out and slamming the door in his face. Having a real job liberated her from this humiliating obligation and she was mightily pleased. Yikes!
When I asked her what drove her father to do what he does, in the face of so much hostility, she had but one word to offer- "Faith."
To her father, she explained,  it didn't matter haw many people slammed the door in his face or cursed him out, it was a mission of love, misguided or not.

Gilles Duceppe reminds me of this fellow. It doesn't matter how many people tell him he's an idiot, he merrily goes on his way, unperturbed, preaching the gospel of Quebec sovereignty to people who are as sorely annoyed with him as they are at those who ring their doorbell on a Sunday morning to preach the gospel of Jehovah.

Now, hot on the heels of his wildly successful trip across Canada (sarcasm,) he's announced that he's undertaking another similar trip to the USA and destinations afar. Ding dong!  LINK

It's hard to imagine what he intends to accomplish and after playing to empty halls across Canada, one can only imagine what his reception will be in the likes of Plano, Texas. 

No matter, Mr. Duceppe is the 'Jehovah's Witness' of the sovereignty movement and regardless of the rough reception he may receive, the obligation to proselytize is deeply seated and primal.

One can only stand back and watch with a morbid fascination, the scorn and disdain that he embraces in a pointless quest to convince the unconvincables.

I never realized to what extent his fantasy manifested itself until his suggestion this week that Stephen Harper help fund a new arena in Quebec City in  order to attract the return of an NHL franchise.

Now the idea, might make quite a bit of sense politically. Since Quebec City  is the last bastion of Conservative support in Quebec, an arena project can actually bring in an additional three or four seats and maintain what the Conservatives already hold in Quebec.
Hockey is that important.

But perhaps Gilles Duceppe should have read my "Opposite" piece to understand that in order to get Harper to support an arena project, he would have been better off to have argued against any federal participation. LINK

In spite of all the abuse he has heaped on Canadians, day in and day out, these past twenty years, he still believes that he can influence Stephen Harper and the Conservatives on behalf of Quebec.

Like all dreamers, Duceppe shrugs off negative criticism and Stephen Harper's mocking portrayal of him in the press, on the campaign trail and even in Parliament itself. As the saying goes, it is like 'water off a duck's back.'

Duceppe's fantasy is such that he has no idea that he has likely queered any chance of federal aid in relation to a new arena in Quebec City, because it would be seen in English Canada as pandering to Duceppe and the Quebec first lobby.

Wait! Perhaps that's what he wants and he's cleverly alienating Harper from Quebeckers?

Nah.....on second thought, he's not that smart, just deluded.