French versus English Volume 106

Brent Tyler Challenges Bill 101 in Court

By Joel Goldenberg, May 21st, 2014

French is not vulnerable in Quebec in general and in Montreal, sociologist and demographer Calvin Veltman said in Quebec Court last Thursday via video hookup from Amsterdam.
Veltman, who used to work at the Université du Québec à Montréal, was providing expert testimony in rights lawyer Brent Tyler’s case challenging the constitutionality of Quebec’s sign laws and those regarding commercial websites. Tyler’s seven-day court case, involving 27 clients, is expected to be completed today. Judge Salvatore Mascia is presiding.
Veltman, along with the Association of Quebec demographers, strongly supported the “main elements” of Charter of the French Language (Bill 101) regarding the language of work and language of education based on past fears of vulnerability of the French language, coming from the reduced francophone birth rate and the “anglicization” of third language groups by the early 1970s.
But in 2014, with immigrants forced to send their children to French schools and most immigrants speaking French, the fear of vulnerability is no longer valid, Veltman added.
“Obviously, for a community that has added 336,000 people since 1971, it’s difficult to imagine that they’re more vulnerable now than in 1971,” he said. “It would be difficult to make that case... We need to understand that if there’s competition between languages in Montreal, it’s between English and French. It’s not between French and other languages. Read more at The Suburban

Original judgment correct in English trademark case: Tyler

By Joel Goldenberg, May 14th, 2014

The Superior Court judge who ruled in favour of stores like Best Buy and Old Navy was correct in stating they do not have to add French descriptors to their names in Quebec, lawyer Brent Tyler said Friday.
According to media reports, the judge ruled that names like Best Buy are trademarks, as opposed to business names, and are not subject to Quebec’s language laws.The Office Québécois de la Langue Française had demanded that the French descriptors be added.
“Trademarks are an exclusively federal jurisdiction,” Tyler said. “What the government is saying is that the obligation to add a French descriptor applies to business names, and they’re saying because trademarks are also business names, it applies to trademarks, ignoring completely that trademarks have special protection, and this goes back to 1977,” when bill 101 was first passed.
“Without any legislative change, the OQLF, under the Charest Liberals, changed their interpretation of the law requiring a French descriptor to trademarks. As the judge in the Superior Court case rightly pointed out, in a French expression, ‘you can’t change the gun from the shoulder you normally have it on.’ And that’s what the government did here with its interpretation of the statute itself.”
Tyler explained that a business name is a name that is incorporated provincially or federally, registered in Quebec, and the “official name that counts is the French version, but you can have an English version.” A trademark is the name of a store that involves specific artwork and a visual image, he explained.
“The law is very clear, the right to use the trademark includes the right to use it alone,” the lawyer said. “I have an idea that the reason the government is appealing is that this case touches on the visage linguistique of Quebec. The central issue is the vulnerability of the French language — It all comes  down to that — and on what basis can it be considered vulnerable.
In Tyler’s own language cases, “we maintain it’s not vulnerable by any meaningful definition of the word.” Read more at The Suburban

Harper travels with US style security

Rushing home from New York to catch Game two in the Rangers Canadiens series turned out to be somewhat of a disappointment, to say the least.

Half way during the first period my wife looked up and back and pointed out that Jacques Demers, the ex-Habs coach and now Conservative senator was in the house.

"Are you kidding me I answered, Jacques Demers? Look who he is sitting with, non other than Stephan Harper and not so recognizable cabinet minister Denis Lebel."

At any rate, Harper made the whole thing into a media event, taking pictures with fans between periods, even bringing along his own photographer for the occasion.

Now here's a picture of him doing the honours, which I snapped between periods, where I couldn't help but notice the massive security surrounding him that included to my eye, at least two different teams.
The last time I saw a PM at a sporting event was Paul Martin at a tennis match in Jarry Park and he had but three security agents placed at least fifty feet from him during the action.

I thought about adding some arrows to the above picture indicating just how many security guards were protecting our PM but thought better of it, I don't need any calls from the Prime Minister Protection Detail service, but suffice to say that there's been a big increase since Harper took office.
The budget for protecting our PM has shot up from 6 million in 2006 to about $20 million today.
Link
If you are a curious type, click on the above picture to enlarge it and see how many agents you can spot. Here's a hint, not all are wearing ties, but all are wearing jackets.

Pettiness surrounds extreme French language movement

It borders on the absurd, the obtuse pettiness of the extreme French language movement in Quebec where the basic truth that Quebec is a province in a country called Canada that is majorly English speaking is roundly ignored by language militants who fantasize that Quebec is an independent state.
First is the myth, oft repeated that French is the only official language of Quebec, which of course it is not, where not even the infamous Bill 101 dares say that it is exclusively so.

And so nut bar groups like Impératif français act as guardians of the faith,  sniffing out offending English whether it be legal or not with the evangelical zeal of the Jehovah's Witnesses.

The latest nonsense is the organization's outrage over the proposed name of the new hockey arena in  the Montreal suburb of Laval.....
The offensive name......"Place Bell"
Yup, according to IF, the name is an insult to all Quebecers, because it isn't proper French.

Now this story is hilarious for a couple of reasons, first and foremost because of the OQLF's decision not to  react to the silly complaint made by "ASSOCIATION POUR LE SOUTIEN ET L’USAGE DE LA LANGUE FRANÇAISE".

If you read French, read the delicious account of the whole affair through the eyes of the complainer.

My favourite part of the saga is the association's whinging that the OQLF responded anonymously to the complaint, not signing the letter of reply. Isn't that just deliciously ironic since the whole OQLF complaint system is based on anonymous complaints!  Link{fr}

Moving along, LE DEVOIR published a letter from a disgruntled fan who complains that O Canada should not be sung in any part in English because French is the only official language in Quebec and because French is omitted in other arenas. Link{fr}

First of all, the letter writer is wrong that French is never sung elsewhere, it is in Ottawa, every game and in many places when the Canadiens are the guests.
Here is Alanis Morissette singing a bilingual version before a Senators game  Link

In fact, many cities do offer O Canada in French, the problem is that RDS, the French broadcaster has a policy not to broadcast national anthems (unless it is Ginette Reno.)

Nothing and nobody beats the Chicago Blackhawks Jim Cornelison for pure talent and performance. Listen to a bit to his version of O Canada in French . Magnifique!

By the way, I've heard O Canada sung in French in other NHL cities, New Jersey coming to mind, off the bat.
I hate when newspapers publish nonsense because they are too lazy to check the facts. Shame on LE DEVOIR.

Speaking of hockey, Impératif français is also demanding that NHL referees announce their on ice decisions in French. Link{fr}
I'm surprised that they haven't demanded that English artists like Justin Bieber or Beyoncé sing in French when performing in Montreal.
Not everyone is prepared to indulge the nonsense that the IF spouts and the government of Quebec knows it, treading very lightly where it knows it cannot impose its will.

I remain surprised how out of touch unilingual francophones really are about the rest of Canada or the United States, with so many misconceptions based on a language handicap. It's the same misconception most have about Canadian culture, believing that there is none, just a pale imitation of America.
Even the editors of the French press have a poor understanding of English, with those purporting to be bilingual, nothing of the sort.

Here is something from La Presse that caught my eye a while back, Patrick Lagacé trying to be cute in English with disastrous results.
How on Earth did editors ever let the horrific English go to Press and embarrass the reporter and the newspaper as well?
One thing I learned in business is that it takes a native speaker to vet translations, a fact that the French media are oblivious to, with humiliating results.

 This is by no means atypical.

Which brings us to another separatist pipe dream;

"An organization called the Fondation Équipe-Québec is advocating for separate teams to represent the province at athletic competitions. But critics are saying this is a divisive move that would politicize sports" Link


The organization behind all this was funded by the late PQ government which asked Quebec sports advocate Bob Sirois to do a feasibility study, which I imagine is now being filed directly into the trash can along with the Ménard report on the student rebellion, by the new Liberal government.

At any rate, I pulled this quote off the CBC story and can't for the life of me figure it out.
Can anyone help?

Order of Engineers ripped apart by dishonesty

So many Quebec engineers are being investigated in relation to the Charbonneau Commission, that the professional order was forced to increase member fees to pay for the over 180 investigations into  misdeeds by its own members.
This isn't sitting well with some members who are in open revolt, with one member so incensed that he made some incendiary remarks on Linkedin, leading to a $700,000 defamation suit brought against him by the order.

Of all the guilty parties in the sad fiasco that is corruption in the construction industry, it is the engineering firms that perhaps are the most to blame, creating, coordinating and corrupting officials and politicians without a whiff of regret.
This includes just about every major engineering consulting firm in the province, with the level of dishonest practices utterly stunning.

When you think of Quebec corruption, think of the engineers and the engineering firms that put most of the criminal conspiracies together.

As yet nobody has gone to jail, and in the great tradition of Canadian justice it may be ten years before anyone sees the inside of a jail cell.
So boo-hoo for the professional organization which failed so miserably to police its own members who made a mockery of the concept of professional conduct.  Link

French newspaper falls for practical joke

It's a little out of the ordinary to have a obese corpulent health minister, but such is the case in Quebec with Dr. Gaetan Barrette who was until his election, the head of the specialist doctor's order. He was the person who negotiated a big increase in their salary scale with the government, something that as minister he'll have to try to undo.
Strange enough?

Well a mean-spirited petition has been launched online asking him to lose weight, with the French title roughly entitled "For a Health minister in good Health"

 Le Journaldemourreal is a satirical website that takes on the appearance of the Journal de Montreal, but publishes absurd articles in the style of The Onion.
 
Here is a bit of the satirical article translated;

"It is time to open our eyes: Quebec has become obese, "says the former president of the Federation of Medical Specialists of Quebec. "We must now, for the future of the province, find a drastic way to combat this scourge. We cannot continue to let our children become fat without doing anything. It is essential to put Quebec on ​​a diet! "

When confronted by our reporter on the fact that he himself suffers from being slight overweight, the radiologist made ​​a surprising promise where he formally committed himself to set an example, promising to lose more than 100 kilograms during his first term, if he was elected. Link{fr}

The funny part wasn't so much the article, but the fact that it was picked up as legitimate by LE FIGARO in France which thought the story was somehow real. Link{fr}

I wonder if it's OK to refer to Barrette as a barrel of laughs, or is that a fat joke?

Incidentally, another great Quebec satire website is Le Navet.
Here's one of my favourite pieces entitled;
PQ Defeated: Millions of radical Islamists set to come to Quebec to impose their beliefs (translation) 
This website is particularly clever. 

Maxime Bernier speech rocks Quebec separatists

This is the text of the speech I delivered this morning in Montreal before an audience of the Regroupement des jeunes chambres de commerce du Québec.- Maxime Lapierrre

How to reclaim our place within Canada

Maxime Bernier, MP for Beauce
As was probably the case for many of you, when I reflected on the results of Quebec’s April 7 election, I got the sense that Quebec had reached a turning point in its history. Following a campaign haunted by the spectre of another referendum, the Parti québécois suffered its worst defeat since 1970 and the two federalist parties took home two thirds of the vote. Once again, Quebecers clearly rejected separation and embraced a stable future within the Canadian confederation.
Since the election, the media has devoted a lot of space to the uncertain future of the Parti québécois, and how it might bring young people back into the fold. But given the election results, there is a much more pressing and relevant matter to address, one that has received hardly any attention: How are we, as Quebecers, going to reclaim our place in Canada?
  Obviously, this question matters deeply to me, as a federal politician from Quebec. But I am here today, not as a member of the Canadian government, but as a Quebecer wondering what we can do to move our society forward.
The sovereignty issue has monopolized political debate in Quebec for decades. It’s a legitimate debate, but it’s one that just keeps going around in circles.
In the meantime, Quebec must continue to develop. We have serious problems that need fixing. Our public finances are in a sorry state. Ours is one of the most heavily taxed regions in North America, and one of the least wealthy. We need to make massive investments in our crumbling infrastructure. And as our population is aging quickly, we have particular challenges to face when it comes to integrating immigrants and keeping our social programs solvent.
If we are to meet these challenges, we need governments, both in Quebec City and in Ottawa, that are focused on the real issues at hand, not on identity crises, referendum dilemmas and constitutional debates that create uncertainty. What we needs is stability, and not just for the next four years, but for the long term.
As I see it, that stability hinges on three major changes in attitude, all of which are related to Quebec reclaiming its place in Canada.
First of all, we must come to terms with who and what we are, we Quebecers.
Throughout the election campaign, Parti québécois politicians kept repeating that we need to defend our identity and values. And they did this by playing on the fear of the other: fear of immigrants, fear of anglophones, and fear of the rest of Canada.
The truth is, they refuse to accept what Quebec is today. They have always been obsessed with changing it. They aren’t interested in defending OUR identity and OUR values. They want to defend THEIR very narrow view of what our identity and values SHOULD be. Read the rest of the speech

Further reading

Quebec language watchdog apologizes over Montreal bar sign mix-up, owner says

Europe: The globish-speaking union

US state wants road signs displayed in French

BC: Students immersed in French language, culture at Pitt Meadows Elementary

French need subtitles for Quebec film at Cannes Film Festival

London: Enrolment hike in public French-language board creates need for school

Selfie, hashtag and troll are now officially in French dictionary 

What are the most popular languages in your province?