Confessions of a Nitpicker

"A nitpicker is a person who finds faults, however small or unimportant, everywhere they look. After seeing a movie, a nitpicker lists every tiny thing he or she didn't like about it. Use the informal nitpicker when you're talking about someone who is extremely critical, even when those criticisms seem inconsequential."

One of the things I am most proud about my blog, No Dogs or Anglophones, is the fact that through more than a thousand posts, readers have written less than a dozen times to point out a factual error. I take great pride and expend a great deal of time and effort meticulously fact-checking the content.
In fact, I daresay that I spend more time on the effort than mainstream media do on the stuff they publish, the constraints of a deadline and economic pressure limit the amount of time and resources devoted to keeping those articles absolutely clean of factual errors.

For that reason, I have developed an unforgiving rage when mainstream media either through laziness or ignorance publish stuff that is just plain not true, based on the facts.

Let me give you an egregious example of incompetent reporting that I spotted last week involving a study that rated passports according to the number of countries that were available to holders, visa-free.
Here from Global News; 

"Canada has the world’s fifth most powerful passport, new ranking says"

"The Henley Passport Index measures how powerful the national identifications are based on how many countries citizens can access without a visa.......     Canada is in fifth place at 185, and tied with Belgium, Denmark, Ireland and Switzerland.
These are the countries that made the top 10 list:

1. Japan (189)
2. Germany, Singapore (188)
3. Finland, France, Italy, South Korea, Spain, Sweden (187)
4. Austria, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom, United States (186)
5. Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Switzerland (185)
6. Greece, Australia (183)
7. Czech Republic, Malta, New Zealand (182)
8. Iceland (181)
9. Hungary, Slovenia, Malaysia (180)
10. Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia (179)"

Really?.....
I cannot think of a stupider conclusion, one that actually skewers the truth and fosters the myth that Canada has the fifth most powerful passport in the world when nothing could be farther from the truth.
For the idiots at Global and CTV and a dozen other websites who got it painfully wrong, let me explain.

You enter a bridge tournament and at the conclusion of play one team is at the top with 189 points. It is followed by a group of two teams with 188 points, followed by a group of six teams with 187 points, followed by another group of seven teams tied at 186 points and finally a group of five teams (of which you are a member) with 185 points.
In fact, there are sixteen teams that have more points than you, but you go home and tell your family that you finished fifth.
Such is the logic of Globalnews, CTV and others which would have us believe that with seventeen players ahead of us in the point standings, we finished fifth.

This error is disturbing because it shows either an appalling lapse of analysis or perhaps worse, a desire to justify a false story that  puts Canada in a favourable light, which in that case, rates as "Fake News."
Let me further explain for the thick-head writers and editors.

When Canada's Penny Oleksiak tied with American Simone Manuel for first place with identical times in the 100-metre freestyle swimming event in Rio, two gold medals were issued, but no silver medal was awarded. The third-place finisher (who finished with the second best time) was awarded a bronze medal.
If you find this concept hard to understand, you shouldn't be writing for a national news organization, let alone be entrusted to edit articles.

For most of us, asking ourselves if what we are reading or watching actually represents truth is an unreasonable burden. If we doubted everything we see on TV or on the web we couldn't enjoy surfing the web, watching television or reading.
For me, doubting everything I see is a condition I cannot control.
When a TV weatherperson announces that we'll have bright blue sky's this afternoon, I ask myself if the sky will really be blue or is it a case of our human eyes perceiving it as such.
In other words ... a nitpicker.

I see errors everywhere, on national television as well as local. Some errors are big some are small, but the most irksome are those that just get the facts wrong or worse, invent facts to suit a point of view as in the case of the phony passport story above.

I have long given up attacking the plot loopholes and obvious errors in episodic television but even there, cannot resist when the mistake is egregious, committed by reputable writers who should know better.
Last week Barbara and I devoted three hours to an HBO series called "Cormoran Strike" about a less than successful gruff, one-legged British detective. The series was based on the work of the celebrated JK Rowling of Harry Potter fame who wrote the detective series under a pseudonym and who consulted on the show.
To make a long story short, the detective is asked to investigate the death of a supermodel by her brother, who appears upset that the police have closed the case and judged it as a suicide.
After three episodes totalling some three hours, Cormoran confronts the complaining brother as the murderer.
Whaat????
Why on Earth would a murderer want to reopen a closed case when he, in fact, is guilty?

It was a patently unacceptable conclusion that basically scoffed at the intelligence of viewers and considering the reputation of Ms. Rowling, wholly unacceptable, leaving me in a classic funk because I thought I was watching a quality program. Link
Shame on you J K Rowling!!!!

While I do try to leave fictional television and movies out of my nitpicking, I do take offence when stupid period errors like using words that weren't commonly in use in the era are employed.  This week I cringed at the use of  "Do me a Solid" in Showtime's "I'm Dying Up Here, a show about the comedy scene in Los Angeles in the seventies and the use of the word "Newbie" in an Amazon series about the personal and professional lives of employees at an American news magazine in the late 1960s.
And how about this gaffe in the period show "Magic City"about a Miami hotel magnate which takes place around 1959.

Did you see the error?

Jeopardy is a quiz show in which smarty-pants contestants phrase their answer in the form of a question.
 (Question: Young Prime Minister of Canada. Answer "Who is Justin Trudeau")

The show prides itself on being very finicky and precise, so any answer that isn't exactly right is rejected.
This leads to many answers initially deemed correct or incorrect by host Alex Trebek being reversed later on in the show when contestants are either docked or awarded points after the judges' review, similar to video-replay in hockey.
Sometimes the judges miss an error or reject an unanticipated but acceptable answer.  When the error goes undetected and has the effect of penalizing a losing player to the point of affecting the outcome, that player is invited back to compete again in a do-over appearance.

So Jeopardy is more than fair game when the show inadvertently misses a mistake that affects the game.
As a nitpicker, I love spotting these errors and find myself shouting "AHA!"  at the TV several times a week over just such a situation.

That happened last week when a returning champion was back for a do-over because just such an error and as the game played out another undetected error emerged.
The category was a word puzzle whereby words are presented to convey a message.
For example;
Question: "A legal doctrine overturned in the 1950's"

Answer: "What is 'Separate but Equal'."

The error that slipped by Alex and all the judges occurred on this question;
Question: "This familiar phrase originates from Tennyson's 'Charge of the Light Brigade'."

The contestant answered " What is 'Cannons to the left of them, cannons to the right of them!'"
Trebek awarded the contestant a right answer despite the erroneous answer.

Of course, I shouted out at the TV that the answer was wrong, much to the annoyance of my wife, who rightly claims that all my nitpicking ruins the shows which we're watching.

Since I can recite the poem off-by-heart, I knew that the contestant reversed the two lines, a clear Jeopardy No/No.
As you can see, the clue's first line is indicating "Cannon to the right of them." not left. Reversing the order makes the answers incorrect according to Jeopardy standards.

"Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon in front of them

   Volleyed and thundered;

Stormed at with shot and shell,"

Since the mistake didn't affect the outcome, no later action was required and as Alex likes to remind us.... "No harm, no foul."
.....But the judges absolutely missed the error.

You can watch the exchange at the 9:00-minute mark on the tape below.

Now Jeopardy has a bunch of judges who have the added luxury of producing the show on tape. They still get it wrong plenty of times a week. Can you imagine the number of mistakes that occur in live TV news coverage?

I do... and it's appaling.

I have tried and failed to give up the habit of nitpicking and it is well-nigh impossible. So I will ask readers to indulge me and suffer through the nitpicks I present on an ongoing basis.

I'll let you go with this final nitpick, a photo of the then US secretary of State Rex Tillerson meeting with Canada's foreign minister Chrystia Freeland in Washington.

This nitpick is only for ultra-professionals and the only hint I'll give is that it has to do with the flags.

Consider yourself a nitpicker if you can find it..
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. This will help you see the mistake;

 On the left is a knock-off Canadian flag displayed in China (where else?) and a correct version displayed in Japan.

Still not seeing the difference???

Look at the deep sharp angle on both sides of the center shaft Maple leaf compared to the correct soft corners on the right.

The Chinese version and the American version are both wrong. It's comforting to know that the two most important countries in the world buy cheap knock-off versions of our flag for official use.

Quebecer Asserts Privelege for Cuban Misadventure

I  read with utter astonishment the story in La Journal de Montreal of a Quebec man held in Cuba over an incident in which the motor craft he was piloting struck another boat and killed an Ontario tourist.
Kahina Bensaadi was sentenced to four years in prison for his actions deemed negligent by a Cuban court. For some reason, likely pressure brought to bear by Canadian forces, the verdict was overturned and a new investigation ordered.
According to the Canadian 'human rights' lawyer Julius Grey hired by the family, this investigation and the potential trial could take up to two years and so forcing his client to remain in Cuba awaiting the outcome is contrary to Canadian custom whereby the accused is freed pending the trial.

Did I get that right????
Mr. Grey is complaining that Cuba is not following Canadian jurisprudence in detaining Mr. Bensaadi and thus indignantly demands that the Canadian government intervene on his behalf to set him free.

Just as an aside.... What would be the chances that the accused returned to Cuba for trial if he was set free?

The Journal de Montreal story is rife with outrageous Canadian and Quebec privilege, sometimes bordering on the comical and absurd.

"Toufik Bensaadi, an engineer for the city of Laval is stuck in Cuba under the charge of "homicide by imprudence", a charge that doesn't exist in Canada.

And so according to Anne Caroline Desplanques, the author of the story, Canadian law instead of Cuban law should prevail because the defendant is Canadian.
And to intimate that Canadian law doesn't provide for criminal sanctions in the negligent operation of a motor craft is patently false and the author of the story displays a pitiful level of ignorance or willful deception that no reputable newspaper with fact-checkers should tolerate.
Regarding dangerous operation, §249 of the Criminal Code states:

"...everyone commits an offence who operates a vessel.... in a manner that is dangerous to the public, having regard to all the circumstances, including the nature and condition of those waters or sea and the use that at the time is or might reasonably be expected to be made of those waters or sea."

The more serious offence, criminal negligence, comes from §219 of the Criminal Code:

"Everyone is criminally negligent who in doing anything, or in omitting to do anything that it is his duty to do, shows wanton or reckless disregard for the lives or safety of other persons."

The lawyer also complains the Cuban government cannot fairly adjudicate the case.

“It’s not just a foreign tribunal, it’s a tribunal that’s in a conflict of interest, because what they’re trying to do is relieve a Cuban company from a potentially high liability,” he said Wednesday. because it is in a conflict of interest, protecting its own.”

Again I can't believe the chutzpah, I've followed Mr. Grey's career for years, he's a smart fellow and how he can assert that a Cuban tribunal in Cuba is 'foreign' is beyond the pale. He intimates that nobody can get a fair trial in Cuba because it is an illegitimate government that will inevitably protect local business' from foreign redress and thus Canadians shouldn't be subject to its laws.

Privilege anyone???

Mr. Bensaadi also asserts that he shouldn't be held liable because the rudimentary safety instructions were given in English and that those instructions were incomplete. Horror of Horrors!
Quebec privilege???

As for responsibility, let us imagine that you go to Rio on vacation and rent a motorcycle to tour the city. Whether the instructions given by the renter is complete or rudimentary is beside the point because those instructions are given in Portuguese, a language you don't understand.
No matter, even though you've never driven a motorcycle and haven't benefitted from any safety instructions you set out foolishly and drive straight into an outdoor café killing another Canadian tourist.
The Brazilians arrest you and hold you for trial according to their laws.
You engage a Canadian lawyer who demands that the locals let you return to Canada because Brazil is a shithole country with an unfair justice system.

Am I hearing privilege again?

Mr. Grey has promised to sue the Canadian tour company for failing to make sure that  Canadian standards are upheld by the company that provides the boating experience. Of course!

All this privileged howling is aimed at the Canadian government which the defendant and his lawyer demand take action to extricate him from Cuban justice.

And in the dozen or so stories that were written about the case in Canada, not one went into detail about the victim killed by Mr. Bensaadi, as if her death was irrelevant.

"In the meantime, Bensaadi says the wait is overwhelming: facing the financial responsibility, taking care of two daughters, continuing to work, and working to defend her husband all at once, she says."

I would remind Mr. Grey and all would be tourist daredevils to screen the chilling "Midnight Express" film before undertaking foolhardy adventures or criminal activities in a foreign land.

Just recently a bunch of Quebec tourists in Cuba were stranded when the Cubana airplane that was to ferry them home crashed, killing100 people.
The stranded Canadians demanded action from their government to repatriate them, without any regard to their own stupidity in choosing a dangerous third world air carrier.

I suppose they will sue the Canadian tour operator, unwilling to accept responsibility for their choice of visiting a country with non-Canadian standards via a checkered airline.

Privilege.....

Oh Quebec!.....Say It Ain't So..

I'm no longer writing my French versus English posts but will periodically bring you the bizarre, lighthearted, stupid, inane and downright perplexing stories that make living in Quebec so much fun.

I'm not particularly bashing francophones or Quebec, Anglos in other provinces are just as wasteful and stupid, governed by idiot politicians and clueless civil servants.
But Quebec is my home and that's what this blog is about.
Let's start with a doozy....

World's most moronic fine

I guess the police have too much time on their hands in a tiny town near Quebec City, so police are trolling for obscure infractions to fill their time and perhaps their quota of tickets.
Here's a $107 ticket issued by the Sureté du Quebec, the provincial police.
The infraction?
Not having a little plastic stem covering the valve on a tire.
I'll bet dollars to doughnuts not one in a thousand of you thought that this is a thing.
Now I actually checked as to why the valve stem cap is so important and it comes down to car maintenance and nothing to do with road safety. It's like the cops giving you a ticket for not changing your oil. ...sigh.
$107 bucks...Sheesh!

PQ leader sets bar low, fails anyways...

There's a certain sadness learning that Bloc Quebecois leader Martine Ouellet has resigned in the face of a confidence vote that saw the sad-sack separatist get just 32% of the party members' vote in favour of her leadership.

Caption: "As soon as she's finished her speech, light the fire!"

These type of leadership confidence votes usually happen after an election loss and where leaders usually resign should they not achieve at least 70% support.
Bernard Landry of the PQ  resigned after getting close to 75% of the vote and Thomas Mulcair left after 52% of the NDP members voted for a leadership review.

Ouellet set the bar low, telling all that if she garnered 50%+1 (the infamous separatist referendum threshold) she'd stay on.
Alas, it was not to be and in a long blistering farewell speech, she called out the media and settled accounts with her 'betrayers' in the party, thus inspiring the above cartoon drawn by famed Quebec caricaturist Chapleau.
At any rate, Ouellet returned to Quebec's National Assembly to run out her term as an independent MNA, where she promptly announced that she might deny the unanimous consent required to transform the moribund La Presse newspaper into a non-profit.

Now everyone in the media is discussing the schism between Ouellet and her ex-caucus members who supposedly quit over the principle of whether the role of the Bloc is primarily to promote sovereignty or to defend Quebec rights in Ottawa.
All this is a smokescreen because the real reason that the BQ caucus bolted was because Ouellet is actually bat-shit crazy, a complete shrew who created a toxic work environment. This is widely confirmed by those who worked for her before in the PQ.
Think I'm exaggerating?
The current leader of the PQ, Jean-François Lisée breathed a huge sigh of relief at her defeat and when asked if she'd would be welcome to run for the PQ in the upcoming provincial election, skilfully dodged the question, leaving his position eminently clear.
Bye-bye Martine and don't let the door hit you in the ass..

I've teased in the past over her incredible gaff in a Radio-Canada interview where she displayed an utter lack of understanding between a loan and a loan guarantee, even though the incredulous interviewer tried her best to explain the difference.
Watch the interview HERE for a good laugh if you haven't seen it.

Hydro-Quebec pisses away billions on alternative energy

No surprise that a new report claims that Hydro-Quebec has blown $2.5 billion on alternative energy like wind farms and co-generation over the past few years and will blow another  $10 billion over the next several years. The government with its sound management policy forced Hydro-Quebec to enter into contracts with alternative energy sources that cost at least 9 cents a kilowatt hour to produce while being forced to mothball its own hydro-electric plants because of poor demand. These mothballed plants produce energy at 3 cents a kilowatt hour so it makes eminent sense to our politicians  to buy overpriced energy that is 'green,' 

This is what happens when politicians mix politics with business.

Have politicians learned their lesson? What do you think?

Premier Couillard is pushing a brand new wind farm in Port-Cartier that will produce electricity at 11½ cents, which will then be resold to consumers for 7 cents with a predicted loss of another $1.5 billion over the next few years.

Quebec bar Association Claims all Quebec laws illegal

"The controversy arose from a lawsuit filed in April by the provincial and Montreal bar associations. The aim of the lawsuit is to eliminate confusion arising from differences between the French and English versions of Quebec legal texts, which have equal weight.
The two professional associations have asked Quebec Superior Court to invalidate the province’s existing laws and regulations unless the National Assembly complies with a constitutional requirement that the two versions be identical.
This provoked an uproar among the associations’ members and in the media. A request signed by 118 of the Quebec bar’s nearly 27,000 lawyers forced the association to hold a special meeting on resolutions opposing the lawsuit. The meeting, held last week in Montreal, was attended by about 740 members.
Before the meeting, the dissenters had complained that the midweek meeting would be unrepresentative, since it would be difficult for members from across the province to attend. They abruptly dropped that complaint, however, when the meeting went in their favour.
The resolution to withdraw the lawsuit is not binding on the association, and it passed by only 37 votes, for a narrow majority of 52.5 per cent of voting members, or one per cent of the whole membership.
Still, that amounts to nearly 400 Quebec lawyers voting in favour of ignoring the Constitution, the fundamental law of the land." Read More in the Montreal Gazette

Quebec teachers pressured to inflate test results

"If your school-aged child barely gets a passing grade this year, chances are, he or she may have actually failed the year. Yesterday, the education minister admitted during question period that indeed, if you get a 57, 58 or 59 on a provincial exam, a piece of software automatically rounds the mark up to 60.

The PQ's education critic, Alexandre Cloutier, grilled Sebastien Proulx on the subject yesterday, and eventually forced the ministry's staff to inform Proulx that indeed, 57s, 58s, and 59s were turned into passing grades.
And reports are also suggesting borderline fails on final report cards sometimes also get changed to minimal passes — without the teacher's consent." Read more

Complaints about French at Montreal Grand Prix

At a press conference during Montreal's Formula 1 race a reporter asked driver Lance Stroll a question in French, only to be shot down by organizers.
Before Stroll could answer, the organizer stopped the response and asked the reporter to repeat the question in English because all news conferences in relation to F1 are by policy to be conducted in English only.
The reporter was, of course, indignant that in Montreal, questions had to be asked in English, when the driver spoke French. All this is more of the same, not particularly newsworthy, but this next bit offered by the reporter definitely raised my eyebrows.

"We are in Montreal, a French-speaking city, and I put my question to a francophone driver, so the question is in French," said the representative of the Journal. Link

 Lance Stroll a francophone??????

Lance may speak a passable anglophone French, but a francophone he is not.
This same excess happened when Eugenie Bouchard popped onto the scene and was claimed by the Quebec media as a francophone because she spoke French. The media went so far as to add an accent to her name "Eugénie" before realizing that although she had a French father, she was brought up as an English Montrealer with very good French.
Off the subject, I'll remind readers that in a press conference in Paris at the French Open, a French reporter remarked that he much preferred Eugenie's anglophone accent to that of the native Quebecois. Ha! Ha!

No Sympathy for disgraced Liberal MP

You might remember the story of ex-Liberal MP Gerry Sklavounos who was accused of rape by a woman who had sex with him in his hotel room on more than one occasion. The police investigated and concluded that the rape part of the allegation never happened but for the married politician, the jig was up and he was excluded from the Liberal caucus.   Some of us felt that he was unfairly treated because no crime occurred, other than cheating on his wife and family.

I was somewhat ambivalent about the story, he made his own mess and suffered the consequences, even if he didn't break the law.

But now a story has cast a new light on why the Liberals were so quick to usher him out of caucus.

The story is about a fifteen-year-old who was hit upon by Sklavounos and the story is completely credible.

The girl never complained to officials, wishing to put the incident behind her and it only came out in the investigation the Liberals held in relation to the rape allegation.

The victim told reporters; 

I don't need the weight of a court process now in my life. I have other things  to manage and I need to focus on the positive. I do not want to go there. - Maude-Félixe Gagnon

Not the words of a false accuser, that's for sure.

If you had any sympathy for Gerry Sklavounos, keep reading..

Here's a partial translation of a La Presse  article written by Tommy Chouinard and if you read French, please do him the courtesy of reading the original article HERE

"Maude-Félixe Gagnon became known in the political world in 2013, at the age of 13 years. She announced on social networks her change of allegiance, from the Parti Quebecois to the Liberal Party of Quebec. She said she was disappointed by decisions of the Marois government...
By the end of April 2015, Maude-Félix Gagnon went with a friend to the National Assembly, as she occasionally did, to attend Question Period. She reportedly met Gerry Sklavounos in the lobby of the Parliament Building near the cafeteria. She had already spoken to him at partisan events, starting in 2013. "He said," It would be nice if you came to see the office of the deputy [government] leader."
She went to the MP's office late in the afternoon, alone. Her friend had "gone to take the train back to Montreal," she says. A journalist confirmed this fact, adding that Maude-Félixe Gagnon had told her about her misadventure with the member.In his office at the end of April 2015, the member invited Maude-Félixe Gagnon, a fourth-year high school student, to dinner. "I told him," It would be fun but that I had to ask my mother before. "
The remark did not cool his ardour, she said. He suggested that after dinner, she go  to his apartment located above the restaurant Louis-Hébert on Grande Allée. "We could play chess in my room," he said. She told him in splendid naivety that she did not know how to play chess.
"He's a handsome gentleman, he's imposing, he has a sense, but I was far from thinking about that," she says. Then the member "put his hand on my thigh." "It was unwanted physical contact," she says. "He asked  personal, very personal questions about my emotional life, about my experiences, about what I had previously experienced, perhaps, with boys," she alleges. "He ended up asking me," Have you ever slept with anyone? "

He  then approached me, I froze and he kissed me on the mouth. "It was unwanted. ..."....She have finally returned home. "I pretended that nothing had happened. "

NHL to Quebec city: No soup for you!

Much to the chagrin of local Quebec city hockey fans, it doesn't look like Quebec city will get an NHL team in the foreseeable future.
According to comments made by Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, there simply isn't a market for an NHL team in Quebec City.

“Quebec is challenged, I’ll put it nicely,” Jacobs said as per The Athletic. “Look at the income base and the population base and there probably isn’t a smaller market, so they’re really going to have to distinguish themselves in some other way. You look at Houston, and it’s the fifth-largest market in North America versus the 105th(market), let’s say. They have a different situation there. Economically they’re challenged and numerically they’re challenged. They just don’t have the numbers. We have enthusiastic fans there – there’s no doubt about that.”   Link

Not helping the situation is the fact that the pre-season game held last year between the Habs and the Bruins in the new Centre Videotron attracted only about 9,000 fans, less than half of capacity.

In fact, the Centre Videotron is becoming quite the white elephant, losing millions because of the lack of activity.
The arena is having trouble attracting fans and concerts by The Weeknd and the Red Hot Chili were cancelled due to poor ticket sales.
How bad is it?
There are just two events scheduled in June, none in July and four in August. The arena is losing money on operations, that is to say, the operators were given a free $400 million taxpayer paid built arena and still cannot make money operating it.

CAQ proposes "Values" test for immigrants

"Choose your Quebec"

"The party leading the race to form Quebec’s next government is doubling down on a controversial policy that would test immigrants for Quebec values before allowing them to stay in the province permanently.

The Coalition Avenir Québec also now says it would rely on Ottawa’s co-operation to expel or relocate undesirable immigrants to ensure compliance with the policy. However, the federal government seems unlikely to support the plan....

...Immigrants would have to pass the values, language and employment test within four years to receive a Quebec selection certificate – a document that is the first step to gaining permanent residence in the province under the immigration program it shares with Ottawa. Those who flunk would be handed off to Ottawa for relocation or expulsion under the CAQ proposal." Read the rest of the story

So what would this values test look like?
I turned to Vigile.dreck for some guidance from its resident enthno-centric hater Raymond Labrie who has some clever ideas.

1- In Quebec, the laws of the country take precedence over the precepts of religions. What do you think of this statement?

2- In Quebec, parents do not choose the spouse of their minor daughter several years in advance (arranged marriages). Are you OK with that?

3- In Quebec, there is equality between men and women. The veil is generally perceived as a desire to inferiorize women. Are you ready to adopt the Quebec vision and give up wearing the veil?

4- Sharia court is considered bad in Quebec. Are you ready to fight its implementation and its application?

5- Abuse of children and one's spouse is condemned in Quebec.

6- If your child wants to marry someone of another religion or ethnicity, do you have the authority to oppose it and do anything to stop it?

7- Do immigrants have to adapt to our customs and ways of doing things, or must they force us to adapt to their own ways through requests for accommodation and legal recourse?

8- In Quebec, there is freedom of expression. Everyone can challenge or oppose an ideology, a religion, an idea, a political party, to elected officials. Do you agree with this statement?

9- In Quebec, a child can freely choose his future job. What do you think?

10- In Quebec, there is equality between men and women.
  a) Can a wife stand up to her husband and not obey him?
  b) Can she make her own choices, make her own decisions?
  c) Can she keep the money she earns and make the use she wants?

11- Does the husband know better than the woman what is good for her?

12- In Quebec, there is democracy. Can someone dictate to his relatives whom to vote for?

13- In Quebec, homosexuals are accepted. Is it good or bad?

14- At the hospital, can a woman be examined by a male doctor without the presence of her husband?

15- In the hospital, can a man refuse to be treated by a female doctor?

16- In Quebec, we advocate the religious neutrality of the employees of the state. Is that good or bad?

17- In Quebec, there is the principle of secularism, the separation of state and religion. Is this a good thing?

18- Is it an acceptable practice for a woman to walk behind her husband on the sidewalk?

19- Can a woman refuse to have another child?

20- Can a woman use contraception without her husband's knowledge?

21- Quebecers love to eat the tasty pork produced in Quebec and which is sought throughout the world for its quality. Would it be better to dissuade us from eating it?

22- Dogs are greatly appreciated as pets. They are considered man's best friend.  Is it a good thing that you approve wholeheartedly?

23- Are you open to changing those practices that hurt us and are poorly viewed in Quebec in order to prove your desire for integration?

24- Quebeckers have a system of values ​​that they favour. Are you ready to adopt as many as you can?

25- Are you ready to condemn and fight animal cruelty like halal, kosher or others?  Link{fr}

No racism here....

In another story of no-racism in Quebec...

"Members of the Maghrebian (North African Muslims) community are less than twice as likely to be interviewed for a job in Quebec, according to the first study of its kind in the region.

Quebeckers of Maghrebian origin who are looking for work in the Quebec City region must send twice as many résumés to get a job as native Quebecers 'du souche," according to a study done by a doctoral student in sociology at the University Laval, Jean-Philippe Beauregard....

..."Equally competent, they are ignored. They do not have the same chance to present themselves in an interview, "says Beauregard. Link[{fr}

Quelle surprise!

Oh well....

Karma's a bitch!  Link

Montreal police crash retro-theme car.

In honour of Montreal F1 race, Ferrari puts out a tribute to our fair city..... Sheesh???

It seems that Quebec laws have been amended to hit offending cyclists with demerit points as well as a fine for riding contraventions, like stop signs and red lights.
This women in Sorel received 3 demerit points as well as a $48 ticket for not stopping at a stop sign.

So here's the thing that cyclists should remember.
It isn't required by law to carry a driver's license when riding your bike.

So be smart LEAVE YOUR DRIVING LICENSE AT HOME while bike riding and keep another form of identification on you.
Actually, you need no ID to ride your bike but must provide your name and address to police upon being stopped.
While police can track down your license with the information provided, they are probably too lazy to go through the work.
You've been warned!!

zz

Hilarious and sarcastic commentary by furious motorist as cyclists ignore bike path.  

Where's that cop who gave out the ticket for the tire cap when you need him?

Further reading...

Quebec's biggest rental scofflaw strikes again. Twenty years of not paying rent.  IN FRENCH 

Government agency spends $100,000 on a conference room table and chairs. Boss tells reporters that it's a solid table. IN FRENCH 

Corruption cops complain Quebec justice slow to prosecute Liberal party fundraisers IN FRENCH 

Nothing to do with Quebec, but I couldn't resist....

NAFTA...Time To Throw Mexico Under the Bus

Yes, I know, it isn't the Canadian way to abandon friends and allies but sometimes national self-interest is more important.

Nobody in the docile Canadian media is saying what is painfully obvious, that is that it is time to admit that Mexico is holding Canada back from a successful re-negotiation of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Donald Trump could not have been clearer in outlining his position that he would prefer his to sink NAFTA as it stands and re-negotiate separate trade agreements with Canada and Mexico.

"To be honest with you, I wouldn't mind seeing NAFTA where you'd go by a different name, where you'd make a separate deal with Canada and a separate deal with Mexico.....You're talking about a very different two countries."- President Trump

It's time for Canada to embrace this idea because it's painfully clear that Mexico is going down and will no doubt drag Canada with it, if we stick around.

Let's face it, making common cause with Mexico isn't in Canada's interest anymore. Donald Trump has made no bones about his disdain for Mexico and border jumpers and has promised to take action during his campaign for the presidency.
Media mavens and pundits have continually misunderstood Trump's obsession with doing what he promised.
Upon election, he immediately scuttled American participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trading agreement, exactly as he promised.
Much to the shock of seasoned pundits, he moved the American embassy to Jerusalem, exactly as he promised.
Readers should note that moving the embassy was a promise that Presidents Obama, Clinton and  Bush all made, all of whom who reneged.
When Trump made that same promise, it was widely expected that he too would renege, but he did not, even in the face of tremendous criticism and pressure.

Canadian negotiators should understand his morbid obsession with fulfilling campaign promises will mean that ultimately NAFTA, as it stands, will have to go.

Instead of trying to save the doomed NAFTA agreement, Canada should set itself apart from Mexico and indeed from Europe, Japan and China in negotiating a favourable trade agreement.
Why?
Because Canada isn't in the same boat as the other countries that do trade unfairly and which do actually take advantage of America's trade largess.

Europe, China and Mexico all share obscene trade imbalances with America, while Canada does not. Canada doesn't put up as many phony trade barriers against America's goods as does Europe, Japan and China.

Canada/US trade accounts for a staggering US$582 billion dollars with Canada sending the United States US$299 billion and America sending us US$282 billion, a trade difference in Canada's favour of just 3%.
Considering that much of what Canada sends the US is raw materials and oil and that the United States sends us manufactured goods and food, it means that the US enjoys a large advantage in actual jobs related to the trade.
It is perhaps the fairest bilateral trade situation in the world.

But such is not the case with the other trading partners.
Here are the actual trade numbers with the other trading partners, all of which enjoy huge trade imbalances.

1. China - $636 billion traded with a $375 billion deficit with a 60% trade advantage
2. Mexico - $314 billion traded with a $71 billion deficit with a 23% trade advantage
3. Japan - $204 billion traded with a $69 billion deficit with a 30% trade advantage
4. Germany - $171 billion traded with a $65 billion deficit with a 38% trade advantage

Many of these so-called free-trading partners put up artificial tariffs and barriers against American goods, especially in the automotive sector and Trump is justified in attacking them over protectionist trading practices.

Canada isn't in the same boat as the other countries and shouldn't be lumped in among them.

It's time to make this point and to negotiate a deal that is fair to us and America and if it requires dumping Mexico to do so, we should not hesitate.

The deal is there for the taking, Trump has already said so in no uncertain words. We'd be idiots to ignore his resolve, otherwise, we might find ourselves without a vital trade agreement and perhaps the US embassy in Ottawa moved to Cornwall.