In the midst of a deadly pandemic exacerbated by poor planning by the government which has and continues to lead to the wholesale slaughter of seniors in Quebec-run nursing homes, some French language fanatics are complaining about the lack of French on emergency protective equipment being brought in on an urgent and ad hoc basis by a desperate government.I'm not kidding.
If not so sad, it would be amusing, another humorous incident of language excess like "Pastagate."
But it's not amusing on any level, it's a disgusting display of the out-of-touch fantasy world in which they live where scoring cheap political points trumps public safety.
"I think this information should have been communicated to Quebecers. A government that says it is concerned about the linguistic situation in Quebec authorizes the purchase of equipment that does not respect the Charter of the French language. An explanation by Minister Simon Jolin-Barette is essential."
Christine St. Pierre, Liberal party MNA
"It makes no sense! It is contempt for French speakers and a real danger to public health. Ottawa must correct the situation," Alexandre Boulerice- NDP MP Link{fr}
"Nothing justifies the non-respect of our two official languages". "It is a public health and safety issue," - Senator René Cormier.
"If we accept it, we open the door to the fact that once the crisis has passed, the authorities tell us that ultimately bilingual labelling is not that necessary. The COVID-19 crisis should not be used as an excuse to throw our values on the back burner..."- Jean Johnson (president, Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne (FCFA) Link{fr}Writing in the Canadian Journal of Political Science,
Talk COVID to Me: Language Rights and Canadian Government Responses to the Pandemic
"Since the COVID-19 outbreak, a gradual loosening of linguistic obligations in public institutions and governments has been observed in various jurisdictions in Canada. This paper argues that in addition to legal requirements to provide minority language services, it is not justifiable for governments to suspend or curtail such services in an emergency situation, for reasons pertaining to public safety and public health."
by Professor Stéphanie Chouinard and Martin Normand
Now I've combed through the comment sections under the various articles that did have one and was a bit surprised to find that about one-third of the commenters shared the above views that the situation whereby emergency personal protective equipment is allowed into Quebec (even under a temporary and emergency basis) is unacceptable.Wow!
I guess this comment which I found summed it up best.
"So do you prefer to face a Covid positive patient without a mask rather than wear an English-language N95 mask?"I would ask all of those language fanatics above the same question.
If a partner, parent or child of yours was in the intensive care unit stricken with Covid-19 and the only ventilator available was a loaner from Alberta with English only labelling, would you refuse service?
O-boy-o-boy-o-boy...another opportunity to drive a grizhe* into the fanatical Francophone fascist loser state!!! Yes, I heard an anglophobe reporter ask Trudope about the English-only medical apparatus after the PM's address, and I'm sure the whole continent heard my eyes roll...just not knowing what the sound was.
ReplyDeleteHé Québec: Why didn't you just confiscate the whole shipment of said apparatus à la Matzogate circa 25 years ago? Better still, why don't you stamp them Return to Sender (in French, of course) and have them shipped back right where they came from? Demand unilingual French replacements! Of course, to meet that special order you'd likely have to wait 4-8 weeks for delivery not to mention the restocking and customized product costs!
We're in our 46th year of Affirmative Action--Quebec style. That's what all this language legislation is going back to Bou-bou's attack on minorities back in mid-summer 1974. Affirmative Action was a big deal back in the States when Quebec language legislation started. How well has that gone? All this pro-French language legislation has done is display French Quebec's never-ending inferiority complex.
If French Quebec constantly acts inferior, that's exactly how they're going to behave. Too, they see themselves as this "distinct society" that puts them above everybody else. I like to think the post-Quiet Revolution generations have gotten past the hatred, but clearly, a significant number haven't, and petty complaints like too much English and no French on medical equipment, pasta and matzo packaging makes them look like complete idiots. They foolish get themselves up to their asses in alligators forgetting their raison d'être was to drain the swamp. This B.S. should hit the international wire because every time Quebec gets its stupidity exposed outside Canada, the end up looking like the nincompoops and jackanapes that they are. This is just another chapter in the book that will probably never get finished!
French Quebec: Going on a half century after your attempt at Affirmative Action started, you're still 80% of the population yet carry only about 60% of the wealth. Your grade for attempting Affirmative action: F. Go choke on it! Y'all deserve to be berated. After all, that's the spirit in which this comment was made.
*A Yiddish word meaning to annoy (verb) or be an annoyance (noun)
I find it interesting, Mr. Sauga, that you invoke Affirmative Action as a perceived justification for why repressive language legislation was put in place. It is certainly something that I have heard over the years by people attempting to justify laws such as Bill 101, as in: "oh, French Quebecers have been so disadvantaged and repressed over the years and now they need something to balance the field out."
DeleteInteresting because both the Canadian and Quebec charters of rights have clauses for affirmative action; that is, escape valves for government to invoke in court in order to justify rights violations in legislation such as Bill 101.
Now, my research could be incomplete, but I have never seen any court challenge to Bill 101 in which the A-G of Quebec has invoked either charters' affirmative action clauses in their attempts to justify their legislation.
I think it has to do with the fact that these clauses lay down specific qualifications that have to be met in order for affirmative action to serve as a justification for rights violations. For example, the Canadian charter's section 15(2) reads:
"(2) Subsection (1) does not preclude any law, program or activity that has as its object the amelioration of conditions of disadvantaged individuals or groups including those that are disadvantaged because of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability."
I think the Quebec A-G would have a hard time convincing any judge that francophone Quebecers who have had the vote in Quebec for some 200 years and who have always made up a clear majority of the province's population were a "disadvantaged...group." If this tactic was ever tried, I think they would be laughed out of court...and the lawyers representing Quebec know that.
Whoa Tony, Whoa! Rest assured I am not trying in any way, shape, or form to advocate any of the language legislation passed in the last half century...far from it! Between the "Notwithstanding" clause (Section 33, I believe?) and the above subsection you quoted there certainly is enough support to render Quebec immune from the ramifications of any anti-minority legislation (i.e., the minorities in Quebec). You've taken my macro view of the situation and turned it into a micro analysis. That's OK, it's just I've analyzed the situation differently from you.
DeleteEarly this millennium, the late Claude Ryan came out with a blueprint on Quebec Liberal Party values and in there he insinuated a chapter that at least perceptively advocates the tyranny of the majority (i.e., the Quebec majority). I perceive that as counterintuitive to the objectives in the rest of Canada where protection of minority rights holds plenty of weight.
Wouldn't you agree that at least my perception of the situation holds water? The Roman Catholic Church screwed their French speaking parishioners for 200 years. Their schools filled the children's skulls with nothing but mush. I read about this in a book written several years ago by journalist Michel Gratton entitled French Canadians: An Outsider's Inside Look at Quebec. He is actually a Franco Ontarian (from the très français Ottawa suburb of Vanier) who faced terrible persecution and ridicule from his Québécois brethren while attending a French boarding school on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River. That was not only from his fellow students, but the teachers (Catholic brothers) as well. On a side note, I personally met a Franco Ontarian from North Bay who got into fistfights with his supposed confrères on the "other side of the river" who considered him a lesser form of life.
In a separate chapter, Gratton also took quite the scathing swipe at education in the French Roman Catholic schools, as well as at people like Paul-Émile Cardinal Léger whom he perceived as more feared than revered.
Based on just two aspects of his book, I think M. Gratton is trying to tell us that the French Quebec population suffers from some kind of complex. Because my education in psychology is limited to an introductory course I had to take for my program in uni, I'll leave the reader to decide if it's a superiority complex or an inferiority complex. One thing is for sure: At least a portion of the French Quebec majority has a complex!
Every time I see these idiots in action in "la belle province" I thank god that I possessed an American birth certificate and was able to escape. I spoke with a Francophone last year who assured me that they were past all that and even her parti affiliated friends "on n'ont parle plus de ca" - I on the other hand have the voices of other Anglophones saying resoundingly in my ears - they have not, nor will they ever get over it. It's like a 2 year old that never grows up and continues to have little public hissy fits. Oh! to be so used and abused and misunderstood and "Hello! do you think you're the ones being treated like third rate citizens? Everyone grow up, tired of hearing how dissed you are, how tough life is for you - and that goes for you damn Indians too (since my grand parents claim to be Mohawks I can shame you all equally) there's a bigger picture going on here! On second though keep yelling (without your masks on) about having your language rights squashed - a couple more long months with this infectious virus and the whole thing will work itself out. RIP!
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