French versus English Volume 80

This week in Corruption

Francois Legault, head of the opposition CAQ party held a news conference to demand that the PQ government take legal action against companies whose senior members admitted to collusion and price-fixing at the Charbonneau Construction/Crime commission.

Lamenting that only a few engineers were forced to resign and that nothing has been done against the companies themselves, Legault demanded that the province take legal action to punish and recover the ill-gotten gains.

It occurs to me that if the government pursues all the executives that were involved and moved to recover the funds, the provinces consulting/engineering firms would collapse, even the mighty SNC-Lavalin who is as wrapped up in all this corruption as any other.

Last week the city of Montreal faced a difficult conundrum;
How to fix the city's many potholes when all the companies that do the work have been named at the commission as crooked.
The city council told the mayor that he could not hire any of them and so the frustrated mayor asked citizens to voice their opinions, in fact asking them to choose the lesser of the two evils.

The reality is, that if all the bosses, the politicians and civil employees who are guilty of corruption were to be fired tomorrow and the crooked companies made to pay for their crimes, the province would grind to a halt, our very own Quebec version of "Too Big to Fail"

"My battle with the language police as an anglo professional in Quebec"

"At first things went well. I made some francophone friends, and the shopkeepers in our part of town did not switch to English. I understood my francophone patients, and they politely corrected language mistakes to help the new doctor learn.
I watched Tout le monde en parle on TV, took French classes and read L’actualité magazine, whose subscription department was so flummoxed by a common anglophone name in a doctor’s handwriting that my issues arrived addressed to “Jamos Rosi.”
I thought I had found my French groove. Near the end of my residency, a temporary staff position in Quebec’s Kafkaesque health system appeared possible.
People warned me about the exam administered by l’Office Québécois de la langue français. Doctors must pass it within four years to keep their licence in Quebec. Many of my “Rest of Canada” colleagues had failed it several times. Anglophones from Quebec, some of whom do not speak French well, are not subjected to the exam...". Read the rest of the story in the Globe & Mail

Thanks to the many readers who sent a link to this story.

Equality Party 2.0 membership drive.

It's finally happening.
After organizing itself, it's time to get up and running for the Equality Party 2.0.
On Monday the party will be holding a meet and greet in NDG, with an eye to signing up members, the lifeblood of a party.

If you have questions about the program, issues like vote-splitting, or positions on anything that concerns you, here's an opportunity to scratch that itch.

In the comments section of this blog, we hear "What can I do?" quite a lot.
Here is an opportunity to show up and be counted.

 Make an effort to  be there if you can!

CLICK PICTURE TO ENLARGE

By the way, Equality Party 2.0 Leader Mark S. Bergeron will appear on the Barry Morgan Show today, Friday April 5, at 7pm on CJAD Radio 800 in Montreal. You can also listen on the web at cjad.com.
READ: 5 REASONS TO RE-LAUNCH THE EQUALITY PARTY

Followup on Chinese signs in BC.

A little while back I wrote about complaints about Chinese only signs in Richmond BC. Apparently two women were offended and took up a campaign against them.
Here's some of what I wrote;

"I was asked for my opinion about this story in an email by a reader and can answer with a phrase that I recall using as a kid.
You can like it or lump it, which sums up my feelings rather succinctly and my advice to the women offended by the Chinese only signs with another phrase from my childhood...tough noogies." Link

It doesn't surprise me that the whole thing was a tempest in a teapot.
Here is an excerpt from a followup article;

"Out of 869 businesses, they found a total of 12 (one of which appeared to have recently gone bankrupt) with Chinese-only signs. That comes to 1.4 per cent of the shops in Richmond's business core.
Is that what "many residents are upset" about? Is that why Ms. Starchuk (whom I've never met but is no doubt a lovely person in her own right) has been "writing letters to the editor and buttonholing politicians?" according to the Sun story.
Eleven businesses with Chinese-only signs?
The gentlemen asked the shopkeepers with no English on their signs why that was the case. One was a bookstore that sold books only in Chinese.
What would his sign say, one wonders - Chinese Books. Not for You." Read a great story

Quebec planning sovereigntist assault on Canada

"It seems that Pauline is putting her foot down, the next time she sends ministers to Ottawa begging for money, they will do it in French only.
And if the feds don't like it they can lump it!

"The Quebec government has introduced a new initiative that encourages cabinet ministers to speak only French to their counterparts from other provinces and Ottawa.
The strategy is part of the Parti Quebecois’ plan to push its sovereigntist agenda and prevent what it sees as intrusions by Ottawa in Quebec’s jurisdictions.
Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Alexandre Cloutier told a news conference Wednesday that Quebec’s initiative to limit English usage by its ministers is only a guideline, not a restriction.
“The official language in Quebec is French and all the papers being prepared are in French, all documentation is in French, and we think it’s necessary to use the same language that it is written (in),” Cloutier said in Quebec City." Link

Kim-Jong-Pol to Canada... "We are in a STATE OF WAR!!"

"The small-mindedness of Pauline Marois’ policy of “sovereigntist governance” is most recently shown in a directive that Quebec cabinet ministers should speak only French in federal-provincial discussions and meetings – to the accompaniment of simultaneous translation. The idea seems to be that Quebec cabinet ministers have to play a kind of children’s game in which they pretend not to be able to speak English, in order to also pretend that Canada is a foreign country." Link

Yves Michaud's long march to oblivion

For those of you who need to be reminded, Yves Michaud was a militant Peequist who was in December 2000 unanimously condemned in the National Assembly for making some injudicious remarks about ethnics and particularly Jewish Quebecers, railing against the fact that none voted for sovereignty.
Mr. Michaud was deeply stung by the motion which basically branded him a racist, this in the highest legislative body in Quebec.
Since then he has worked tirelessly and obsessively to get the motion reversed and failing that, an apology from every member who voted for the motion.
His story reminds me of the painful journey embarked upon by Jesus on the Way of the Cross, a long and painful ordeal leading to his ultimate crucifixion.
During last September's provincial election he ran a newspaper advertisement asking electors not to vote for the surviving thirteen members who were running, who still hadn't apologized. See the advertisement

But according to election law, it's illegal for individuals to spend money to influence voters in an election campaign outside of a controlled political party.

And so the hapless Michaud has been slapped with a $6,000 fine by the Director General of Elections, something that set him off once again.
Mr Michaud is once again tilting at windmills, telling reporters that he will sue the DGEQ for $100,000 as well as militate for his removal. Link{fr}
When I think of Michaud, I'm reminded of Brian Mulroney's most famous remark that "there's no whore like an old whore"

Lobby group says Bill 14 too weak

"The official advisors for Quebec on linguistic matters say the province is not doing enough to promote the French language, even if every measure in Bill 14 is passed.

Winston Chan & Robert Vezina of the Conseil superieur de la langue francaise

In a report released Wednesday,  The Conseil superieur de la langue francaise, the official advisory body for the Minister of Language, said it has no doubt that the use of French is declining in Quebec. In fact, it said everyone in the province, including native francophones, would do well to brush up on their French language skills.
"The level of literacy in Quebec is pretty low in general," said Winston Chan.

"The bureaucrats say the quality of French spoken by anglophones is of particular concern, and generally not good enough to let them work in Quebec.
"One of the challenges for English students... is the immersion skills are lower and we see that difficulty in the workplace later on," said Chan.
Bill 101 badly needs updating, said the CSLF.
“Now there are new challenges. New immigrants, and allophones taking their place in our society. We have to make sure that French is the language of social cohesion,” he said. Link

...but Bill 14 appears doomed to defeat

"The Parti Quebecois’s plan to toughen Bill 101 could be in trouble.
The Coalition Avenir Quebec confirmed Wednesday the existence of a draft of a letter stating it will oppose the most controversial aspects of Bill 14, the proposed legislation to beef up Quebec's French language law.
In the letter, the CAQ stated it is opposed to the following provisions of Bill 14:

• The right to remove a municipality's existing bilingual status
• Removal of the right of children of francophone military parents to attend English school
• New measures forcing companies with 26 to 50 employees to conduct their internal communications in French
• Measures to restrict francophone and allophone students from attending Anglophone CEGEPS." Read more

Duceppe to lead Employment Insurance Commission

"Quebec Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Alexandre Cloutier unveiled the Parti Quebecois government’s long-awaited sovereignist governance plan Wednesday in Quebec City, and it involves relying on a familiar face.
Former Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe will lead a four-person commission into changes the federal government is making to Employment Insurance.
The commission is just one aspect of a multi-part plan which involves being more assertive with the federal government -- a necessity, Cloutier explains, because the federal government has made unilateral decisions that harm Quebecers, with the EI changes being a perfect example." Link

Controversial mayor gives BBC interview

"Huntingdon’s mayor, Stéphane Gendron oversees a mixed community of French and English speakers. “When we have our meetings, we usually switch from French to English in the same sentence,” said Gendron. “It’s like breathing air, we don’t care.”
Sounds reasonable, but that linguistic back-and-forth in Huntingdon is technically against Quebec’s law.
Gendron recalled receiving an email last year from the Office québécois de la langue française. He said the email informed him that he and his administration are “not authorized to communicate in English with our citizens.” Read the story

Listen to the  interview he gave to the BBC;

Language and the Habs

Last week, I highlighted this picture of a unilingual sign in the Montreal Canadiens dressing room in their practice facility in south shore Brossard.

I'm not sure if complaints about language influenced the team to change the sign in the Bell Centre dressing room or if it was there before;

But then again it's a different story when the Canadiens go on the road. Apparently the sign is a fixture in their dressing room and part of the team culture and so the Canadiens paste up the sign in all the dressings rooms they visit while on the road

Hmmmmm.... Repeat after me....."Lip Service"

Here's a message that some fan held up in Pittsburgh to make fun of Michel Therrien's inability to pronounce the hard 'T.'
He was a coach there for some time and I guess fans remember....ouch!

Read a story about it in French HERE

And for no other reason than it's Friday and we are on the subject of hockey, I include this animated GIF of Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask reacting to an improbable and infuriating loss to the Habs. Sweet!

 

It's the weekend, so how about enjoying the best gin in the world. From Quebec!

Have a good weekend!
Bonne Fin de Semaine!