Quebec Pasta-Chasers Hall of Shame

Pasta-Chaser
 pästə-ˈCHāsər     Noun
A humorous yet derogatory term borne out of the infamous Pastagate affair describing;
1. A Quebec politician obsessed with curbing minority language rights.
2. A public servant working in the OQLF charged with enforcing language laws.
3. A member of a French language lobby group or media personality obsessed with curbing minority language rights.
Synonyms
Language police, language cop, 

10- Benoît Dutrizac -radio personality

Unlike the other nine personalities that follow, Benoît Dutrizac is actually highly intelligent, lucid and remarkably talented. He differs from them in that he probably doesn't really believe half the bullshit he spouts on the radio, but rather is obsessed with the accrued ratings that language conflict produces.
And so, Dutrizac knowingly panders to language hotheads encouraging them to take direct action in defense of the true Quebec nation.

He once urged listeners to invade the tiny Anglo/Jewish enclave of Hampstead, in order to disturb the peace by loudly honking horns and making all manner of noise, protesting a town bylaw that forbids noise (gardeners mowing the lawn..e.g) on two of the Jewish religions holiest days.
Protesters took him up on the challenge and did exactly that, parading through the town in a provocative show of force, supported by an escort of police who made sure that the demonstrators had free passage.
What Dutrizac failed to tell listeners is that the town, which is about 80% Jewish, also forbids noise on Sunday (not the Jewish sabbath) and on Christian holidays as well. This willful misrepresentation  and his willingness to never let the facts get in the way of a good story speaks to his cynicism and contempt.

"In August, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council found that another 98.5 FM host – Benoît Dutrizac – breached its code of ethics when he called on listeners passing through the predominantly Jewish neighbourhood of Hampstead to honk and make as much noise as possible to protest a bylaw against noisy outdoor activity on Rosh Hashanah.
On another occasion Dutrizac also railed against an African depanneur owner who made some injudicious remarks after being accosted for not speaking French." Link

As to that second reference, Dutrizac took aim at a hapless African depanneur owner, who made some injudicious remarks after being goaded by a Dutrizac producer for not speaking French in a secretly recorded conversation.

"Williams is the dépanneur owner in Verdun who found himself at the centre of a Bill 101 debate after a producer from 98.5 FM’s Dutrizac called him anonymously, speaking to him only in French. When asked why he was not speaking French and citing Bill 101, Williams erupted into a tirade.
“You claim you are Quebecois but what do you contribute to Quebec? You stay at home, you drink beer, you smoke cigarettes, you take welfare. I am an immigrant, yes… I take care of your people… you have no right to question my language background.”
The comments caused a fury. The Jeunes patriotes nationalist group held a protest at the store on Saturday. About 30 protesters stood outside the store, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes; a reply to the store owner’s comments." Link

 Incidentally the tirade by the convenience store depanneur owner is enshrined in the annals of the French language debate, fitting in somewhere between the fictional  story of the parrot who was not allowed to speak English and the Mordechai Richler interview on 60 Minutes. 


9- Rejean Tremblay -sportscaster and journalist

Rejean Tremblay may be one of Quebec's most respected sportscasters, but he's a man who holds a lifelong grudge against Anglos and Canada, one who wears his utter disdain like a badge of honour.

Whether it is the Canadian Olympic Committee or the NHL, Tremblay sees plots against francophone athletes everywhere.
Last year, he raged publicly over the Canadiens hiring of unilingual Randy Cunneyworth and was instrumental in putting the language debate into the sports pages.

Tremblay has in the past conducted a long and virulent public campaign against ex-Habs captain Saku Koivu because he never learned to speak French and so sought every opportunity to denigrate his hockey and leadership skills.

His most famous assertion is that the Montreal Canadiens have a sacred duty to hire more French-speaking players, so that the team can better represent the city and province for which they play for.
Mr. Tremblay actually believes the romantic notion that French Canadian hockey players try harder than Anglos or Eurpoeans because they are playing at 'home'

"The less French-Canadian players there are," he argued, "the less problems (the owners) will have with the media, the more (the owners) will be able to control information and the team's image."

"The Canadiens are the blood and oxygen of an entire part of Quebec society," Tremblay continued. "In normal times, from what I have observed in the last 40 years, is that the Canadiens precede what happens in Quebec society." Link

Mr. Tremblay also believes that the rest of the NHL discriminates against Francophone players, preferring to hire Anglos instead.
It's hard to jive the two theories, on one hand holding that the Canadians should discriminate in favour of French players, but that English teams should not discriminate in favour of Anglos.

At any rate, it makes sense to Tremblay because Quebec and Francophones are in his opinion, 'special' and have inalienable rights to affirmative treatment.
The whole thing is paranoid nonsense, typical of the persecution complex that typifies Quebec's legion of Pasta-chasers.

8- Denis Trudel -failed artist
The hapless Denis Trudel makes the list not for any of his achievements, nor his impact in the language debate.
He is like Robin to Batman, the hapless sidekick, to the heavyweight president of the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste and the Mouvement Québec français, Mario Beaulieu.

But he is the representative of crappy and failed arteests who seek to revive or extend their careers by hitching their stars to the language movement.
The list is long including Luck Merville, the dreary Loco Locass and super-actor Maka Kotto, for example.


7- Louise Marchand -ex-chief of the OQLF

Had Louise Marchand remained in place as the head of the OQLF she would have surely made the list in first place.
Now that she's gone, we can safely ignore her, but must recognize the profound impact this anglo-hater had during her reign of terror at Quebec's language agency.
As the most powerful Pasta-chaser in the province, she led her agency to an unprecedented mean-spirited application of the language laws, setting policy that encouraged language inspectors to lay the most trivial of complaints like English on/off switches which ultimately led to Pastagate and her Humpty-Dumpty fall from grace.
While the French media tried to portray Pastagate as an unfortunate result of the act of an over-zealous inspector, it was nothing of the sort.
The OQLF, under Madame Marchand became a shrill, dogmatic and vengeful agency of repression. Like religious police in radically Islamized countries, the minion of OQLF inspectors roamed the streets, measuring English on shop signs instead of the length of women's skirts.
Madame Marchand once remarked that clerks who spoke English weren't doing anything illegal, but annoying because its effect was to anglicize Quebec.
While it is a case of good riddance to bad rubbish, Marchand remains the poster girl of a government bureaucrat filled with hate towards Anglos and Ethnics, who sadly was given the power to wreak havoc.


6- Louis Prefontaine -French language militant
Louis Prefontaine stands head and shoulders above the other self-appointed  pompous defenders of the faith, a blowhard pseudo-intellectual who uses the fire and brimstone of televangelists to preach the gospel of fear, hate and oppression.
Never failing to remind francophones that they are the colonized victims of Anglo repression, his victimization spiel is as tired as is his persecution complex.

When not writing hilariously childish anti-English screeds, Mr. Prefontaine occupies his time filling out endless complaints over English signs, a preoccupation that borders on the obsessive-compulsive.

His statistical razzle-dazzle, using such inventive terms like 'historical English community' can only be inspired by the equally insipid Claude Castonguay, another pasta-chaser that sees the francophone world collapsing under the interminable steamroller of English.


He actually took the time to photograph and complain about this sign in the back of a car.
Does the term Get a life mean anything?

If this sign offends him, there is no shortage of material in Montreal and poor Louis is doomed to a life of eternal disappointment. I can't say that I feel bad for him.

I enjoy his essays because they are filled with so much ennui, outrage and angst that it actually brightens my day to know that we anglos and Ethnics can inflict so much pain by the simple fact of our existence.


5- Gilles Proulx-longtime radio shock-jock and Media personality

Gilles Proulx reminds me of that stereotypical southern cracker, an old-timer who sits on his hillbilly porch, whittling away on a stick of wood like Jed Clampett, occasionally pulling on a jug of 'shine, whilst railing against 'dem niggers.'
When it comes to pasta-chasing, there's no whore like an old whore.
Proulx is an expert communicator, the consummate francophone victim, blending humorous righteous outrage with annoying whinging.

Proulx's dislike of anglos and Canada is absolute, but actually pales in comparison with his enmity towards natives. Listen to a radio screed {fr}
In regards to Quebec's Oka crisis, he inflamed listeners who were already fuming over the closure of the Mercier bridge in a radio tirade laced with derogatory descriptions of the natives, including the fact that they didn't speak French. It may very well have led to the shameful rock-throwing attack on a native convoy including women and children. Youtube

Mr Proulx continues his decades long battle against the English, getting away with using pejoratives on television while making fantastical complaints about Anglos. Youtube {fr}

One of the more humorous battles he has waged concerns a local auto repair shop located close to his home.
For years he has hissed and moaned against his nemesis, "BT AUTO REPAIR LTD." in Greenfield Park. He's ranted about the sign on so many occasions, I truly lost count.




4-  Jean-Paul Perreault.-president of Impératif français

Jean-Paul Perreault is the indomitable leader of the Gatineau based Impératif français, an organization dedicated to the defense and preservation of the French language.

Based across the river from Ottawa, trapped in the midst of a the only real Anglo bastion in Quebec outside of Montreal, Perreault has no shortage of battles to fight.

A dedicated uber-separatist, he has a visceral hatred of all things English and while making all sorts of French demands on the Ottawa side of the river, seeks to remove every last word of English from Quebec.

He is so militant that he objects to Gatineau being included in the National Capital region.

Mr. Perreault reminds me of the Energizer Bunny, he just keeps going and going and going, year after a year.
Like all true pasta-chasers he is a dedicated perseverer, going from one battle on to the next, never losing his zeal or religion.

His organization's website is a humorous collection of screeds and rants, written by whinging pasta chasers, bathed in self-pity and paranoia.
My favorite photo from the gallery of language offenses on the website is this one which serves as sad indictment of the ideological rigidity of the organization.
Instead of lamenting over one more casualty of the Quebec economic reality, a bankrupt store is chastised for its bilingual sign.

3- Réjean Labrie- frequent contributor vigile.net.

If anyone stands as a shining example of the mentality of those who contribute to the separatist website, it is the prolific writer (240 texts) named Réjean Labrie.

I have read his work over the years and remain stunned at how backward, racist and downright xenophobic Quebecers like him remain.

 "The culture of Quebec is  firstly language, but also a way of thinking, reasoning, expressing,  creating, building and seeing the world, in short, a way of life that depends ... part in language and part  in history. Link{fr}

My favorite pieces are two contributions that define his vision of which traits  make up a 'good' Quebecer.

And so, according to this pasta-chaser, Good Quebecers; 

• ...Clap when the pilot lands the airplane
• ...Have an above-ground pool in the backyard and a BBQ on the balcony
• ...Celebrate Christmas in a camper
• ...Eat at least one poutine a year.
• ..Venerate Frere Andre
• ...Baptize their children, even if they believe less than their parents
• ...Use all-terrain vehicles in the summer and snowmobiles in the winter
• ...Attend midnight mass
• ...Wait for the French version of an English film to come out before attending
• ...Go to Las Vegas to see Celine Dion and the Cirque de Soleil
• ...Read nationalist articles in the newspapers
• ...Copy American music but pay for Quebec music
• ...Take the children to eat at the Roi du Patate on Sunday.
• ...Dream of a cabin by the lake.
• ...Know the names of the contestants on Star Académie
• ...Voted YES in the referendums... There's more Here{fr} and Here{fr}

......and no, he wasn't being tongue in cheek. 

After defining how a Quebecer must live he reminds us that;
"In Quebec we live this way, not differently."

Some of his other musings are less humorous.

"Indeed, in radio, commercials, we present too high a percentage of visible minorities who do not correspond to the reality of Quebec. The world of television has become a propaganda tool for the minority status of the Quebec nation...
....Even a television program as innocuous as "Just for Laughs" projects a distorted image of Québec to the world. .... the majority of people in the Montreal based show are visible minorities, and in doing so, we give the false impression that the entire province is composed of people of the third world..."   Link{Fr}

(On immigrants)   
A minority prevents a majority from achieving its legitimate objectives, that is to say, the recognition of it's aspirations to become a nation recognized as such internationally.
More than ever, it is a priority to not let people into Quebec who don't want to assist us in our business of making a country freed from the dominance of Canada. Link{fr}

In another piece he complains that francophones shouldn't marry or partner with Anglophones.   Link{fr} 

"After decades of having our head in the sand, our wonderful PQ will finally talk about demographics and immigration at the end of next week. So let's talk about it because it is finally permitted ...

Kirpan, turban, Sharia, Ramadan, circumcision, polygamy, honour killings, gangs, Jamaican posses, Chinese triads, Russian and Italian mafia. Since the beginning of the 21st century Quebecers find this on the corner of their street, the limits of Canadian multiculturalism and the Trudeau Charter ."

Living in Quebec doesn't make you a Quebecer Link{fr}

2- Mario Beaulieu- president of the SSJB and Mouvement Quebec Francais

Mario Beaulieu is the hardest working pasta-chaser in Quebec and it makes sense since he is just about the only one paid a full-time salary to wage a never-ending war against the forces of English and Anglicization.
Of the entire group, he may be enterprising, but he is probably the dumbest, spouting off nonsense after foolishness, using misinterpreted statistics and bad sums, while passing off facts that are not facts.
Mr. Beaulieu doesn't like to be called a Franco-supremacist but that's what he is and when he asks for a respectful debate about language, he means that the Anglo media should shut up.

 Mr. Beaulieu wants us to believe that he isn't radical, but his pronouncements tell another story.
In the past he has actually demanded that English Churches add French to the bulletin boards on the front lawn, in order to show 'respect' to the majority, even while the law provides an exemption for religious establishments.
He continues to maintain that not only should stores that use English trademarks be required to use French descriptors, but also those stores that use proper names that don't sound French enough, like REITMANS or BENTLEY.

He also demanded in the past that English artists be barred from the annual Quebec Day celebration if they were to present their work in English.

Everyday he wakes up looking for another language battle where he can in the best tradition of pasta-chasers, let loose a torrent of righteous indignation, followed by dire Chicken Little warnings of impending gloom and doom.

Beaulieu is an ignorant blowhard who gets all too much airtime, incommensurate with his support. The demonstrations he and his groups mount, rarely draw more than a hundred or two of the faithful, usually silver-haired separatist veterans,  manning the barricades in thinning numbers as they die off.
All this with hundreds of thousands of dollars in free publicity, courtesy of an accommodating press.

1- Diane de Courcy- PQ minister of Education

Diane de Courcy gets first place, not for a history of anti-English/ethnic activism, but rather because of her unique political position which allows her to actually effect legislative change, something that none of the above-mentioned pasta-chasers can do.

Her latest legislative foray, the egregious Bill 14, is an attack on everything not French in Quebec, a mean-spirited law meant to discriminate and marginalize everybody but the French majority.

The proposed law is a frontal attack on Anglos, an attempt to apply a coup de grace to the community, taking away any notion that English and Anglos are valued members of the Quebec mosaic.
Actually the law is intended to dash any concept of a mosaic at all, making French the only official language and culture of Quebec.

De Courcy is more than a pasta-chaser, she is nothing less than a devoted ethnic cleanser, bound and determined to  inflict the most pain she can with the resources she has. Such is the case with her determination to remove the exemption for military families who wish to choose English for their children's education while posted in Quebec.

She is the reincarnation of Camille Laurin, Quebec's most revered ethnic cleanser and has inherited his mean-spiritedness as well.
De Courcy is a committed pasta-chaser extraordinaire, full of hate and contempt on the prowl looking to skin the English cat and exact a measure of revenge for all manner of imagined slights.

There it is, Quebec's greatest pasta-chasers, any comments?