Montreal a Cesspool of Corruption

There's really no other way to put it.
After listening to Tuesday's blockbuster testimony by Lino Zambito at the Charbonneau Commission looking into corruption in Quebec's construction industry, it is no overstatement to say that Montreal is a cesspool of corruption.

Although we all had no doubt that this was the case, hearing the scams laid out so neatly, plus the addition of the names of the people involved still comes as quite a shock and eye-opener.

You can read all the sordid details in the newspaper, but it all essentially boils down to a very simple, but nefarious swindle that implicates all the players in the game, including the taxpaying boobs like us, who underwrote everything with our outrageous municipal taxes.

Mr. Zambito described the scam rather simply, though it seemed that the head of the commission Judge Charbonneau, had a bit of trouble understanding, which isn't surprising as most on the bench have lived cloistered lives and understand next to nothing about money and how the real world works.

At any rate I'll save you all the trouble and describe the plot rather simply.

City of Montreal construction contracts were divvied up among construction firms that rigged the bidding process under the auspices and protection of the Mafia, who took a commission of 2.5% of the total value for 'godfathering' (excuse the pun) the scam and keeping everyone in line.

The winning contractor (whose bid was inflated by up to 30%) paid a 3% commission to Montreal's ruling political party, Mayor Tremblay's Union Montreal.
A 1% commission was also paid to Gilles Surprenant, the Montreal bureaucrat who was responsible for the public-works projects for the city of Montreal, as well as creating and overseeing the budgets. Link
Mr Surprenant referred to himself as “Monsieur TPS,” ('Tax pour Surprenant') a play on the French term for the GST tax.

Some of this is not new, back in May, I wrote a lengthy piece about Montreal corruption and if you'd like to refresh your memory read;  Corruption- Montreal Style

Alfred E. Tremblay....What me worry?

In addition to all this, city employees were also on the take, from the very top engineers responsible for the projects, to the overseers in the field who verified the work done by the contractors.

Mr Zambito described another scam between city engineers and the construction companies where the latter would authorize extra bogus payments for unforeseen contingencies, this on top of the tendered price. The proceeds of these phoney bills were split between the engineers who kept 25% and the contractor who kept 75%.
Hmm....Not bad work if you can get it!

These frauds weren't limited to a few bad apples, but were widespread and an open secret among city employees and construction contractors.

The biggest names to be fingered so far by Zambito are Robert Abdallah and Frank Zampino.

Abdallah- Connected to the Prime_Minister?

Abdallah is a former director general of the city and top civil servant, who has denied the allegation that he pocketed $300,000 on a certain project. He is said to be huddling with lawyers preparing a counterattack. Link

Frank Zampino, was  Mayor Tremblay's second in command, until he resigned abruptly, more than four years ago to go work for the infamous Tony Accurso, the top dog in the local construction industry who is currently under indictment after being arrested in April on charges of fraud, conspiracy, influence-peddling and breach of trust.
His companies have in the past pled guilty to income tax evasion and just recently he was arrested once again on charges of federal income-tax evasion. Link
Zambito claimed in his testimony that Zampino, while working for the city, steered a large contract to a company owned by the very same Tony Accurso for whom he later went to work for.
Mr. Zampino is currently under indictment in another case of influence peddling and fraud. Link

According to Zambito, city employees weren't even shy about talking graft openly and even went so far as to demand that Zambito take them on vacation. LINK
Mr. Zambito wasn't even a big player in the industry, yet he admitted  paying one city employee over $200,000 in brides.

At any rate, you've got to admire the guts of Lino Zambito, naming names like that is usually a guarantee that an assassin's bullet is on its way and so his forthrightness can only mean that he's already signed his witness protection contract and that he'll be slinging pizzas in the likes of Wayburn, Saskatchewan, along with his family in no time.
The dead giveaway is that the police are already protecting his family with cruisers parked in front of his ex-wife's home, his father's house and the pizzeria that he owns. That's a lot of resources.
Right, Mister Zambito Peterson?

And you've got to hand it to the Mafia as well, they really seemed to have had things neatly arranged, controlling the construction companies, city of Montreal engineers and inspectors, the political party of mayor Gerald Tremblay and yes, even Canada Revenue Agency agents, who made sure those pesky audits went away.

Now this is just the beginning of the inquiry and since the whole thing is choreographed, I'm sure we'll be treated to more delightful stories of graft and greed that pretty much reaches everywhere public money is spent.
Next on Mr. Zambito's hit list are the politicians that run certain small towns, who act in place of the absent Mafia in the above-mentioned scams.
Boy oh boy, there are a lot of people sleeping poorly tonight!

This morning I heard a so-called expert on TV say that just about all of Quebec' engineering firms are crooked to some extent and that payoffs for contracts at home and abroad is standard-operating-procedure. 

Dr.Porter-Whereabouts unknown

Yesterday a La Presse story alleges, in a roundabout fashion, that Arthur Porter, the disgraced ex-head of Montreal's new super hospital, may have been the beneficiary of a $22 million payment made overseas, allegedly made by SNC Lavelin in relation to winning the contract to build the hospital.  That's what the big raid by anti-corruption police at the hospital's head office, a couple of weeks ago, was all about. Link
By the way, Mr. Porter skipped town and is nowhere to be found. He stills owes McGill for a $500,000 personal loan. Link{Fr} Link2{Fr}

This whole scandal is also about to blow up.

Considering the scope of this alleged fraud, another investigation involving another MUHC employee who is accused of embezzling $1.6 million seems to be chump change. Link

So let's not make this into a French/English thing and come to think of it the Mafia is Italian, but more aligned to the English than the French.

Sgt Tremblay,"I see nuthing!! I know nuthing!!"

And of course, in all this, our idiot Mayor Tremblay stands firmly on his position that he knew nothing at all, which is hard to believe considering that last year he admitted in public that he feared for his life.

But you know, bad as it seems, this whole mess is really not that hard to clean up, mark my words.
The corruption at Montreal City Hall will end, because it isn't that hard to control once you set your mind to it.
Already the inflated portions of the bids are reported to be down by half and will soon disappear.

All that is required is the political will to do so, and whether politicians like it or not, the public will no longer stand for these shenanigans.
The same goes for corruption in the Ministry of Transport and cities and towns across Quebec.

The Charbonneau Commission is a creation of public demand and what we have learned so far is that corruption is everywhere and predates Mr. Charest and the Liberals who were made the fall guys by the voters.

And so, demands for Mayor Tremblays resignation are becoming louder and louder.
Perhaps he can finish his term which ends next year, but if he tries to run again, we will repeat the provincial election fiasco that saw Charest dumped by an unforgiving public. If Tremblay runs we will be faced with the choice a unilingual separatist, Louise Harel, whose party has already been fined for illegal campaign financing, or Projet Montreal, a granola party that has truther Richard Bergeron as it head.

Some choice that is, so perhaps we should just stick with the Mafia;

Here is  Rick Blue's (of Boswer and Blue fame) take on why the Mafia is preferable to separatists, plus a few of my own.

1. The Mafia only wants control over drugs, prostitution and construction..... Separatists want control over everything.
2. The Mafia doesn’t force everyone to speak Italian.
3. The Mafia doesn’t depress housing prices.
4. The Mafia isn’t the reason our children move to Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver.
5. You can reason with the Mafia.
6. The Mafia doesn't care what school you go to.
7. Unlike the police, when the Mafia offers protection, you get it.
8. The Mafia doesn't care about the language of store signs.  

By the way, Montreal's new mayor next year will be none other than Denis Coderre, a federal Liberal. MP.... just a fearless prediction.

PQ Faces Reality Check in First week in Power

Pauline, You've got a lot of splainin' to do!

Let's just say the PQ enjoyed the shortest honeymoon of any newly-elected government in memory, as the government lurched from one disaster to another, proving conclusively that the amateur hour which we witnessed during the election campaign has carried forward into government.

The not ready for prime-time gang had the professional watchers scratching their heads in disbelief as Pauline and her gang made one gaffe after another.

Things started off in the grand PQ tradition of backstabbing as the cabinet named by Marois was deemed unacceptable by a member of her own caucus Noëlla Champagne(who had expected to be named to the cabinet herself) who raised an unseemly ruckus in the Press over the unfairness, in her view, of having no cabinet representation for the Mauricie region, especially since one of Pauline's first moves was the announcement of the closure of Quebec's only nuclear plant which is located in the region.
The loss of 800 direct jobs and perhaps another 1,000 spin off jobs had locals seeing red and the idea that an outsider  from Longueuil, Bernard Drainville would be responsible for economic development in the region was too much of an insult for the local PQ member.
After a public outcry in the region, Pauline backtracked quickly by taking away the responsibility for the  region from Drainville and handing it over to the party whip, Yves-François Blanchet, who doesn't even sit in cabinet.

On Sunday, a protest march was held in support of the nuclear reactor and the mayor of Trois Rivieres denounced the government for making an improvised decision before all the facts were in. Apparently a report is in the process of being prepared dealing with the viability of the plant.

In another mess, the government announced within hours of being elected that the $200 head tax for health services would be abandoned, the shortfall of a billion dollars to be made up by taxing the rich retroactively.

The crap hit the fan when it was revealed that nine months into the year, taxpayers would be required to modify their tax returns to pay for taxes that they never knew were coming.

Now realistically, the hoi-polloi didn't have much sympathy for the richnicks who would have to dig deeper into their pockets to make up the shortfall, but largely ignored in all this were the two other retroactive provisions, that is, the raising of the capital gains tax by 50% and the reduction of tax credits on dividend income. Link

These last two measures, haven't garnered a lot of publicity, but they should, because they affect a lot more people than just the rich. Many retirees live off their investment income that includes dividends paid on the shares that they own in publicly traded companies. Each quarter, when they receive payment from these companies, they dutifully put aside a certain amount of the money they receive to pay the taxes due. Then they are free to spend what is left over.
But now the new government is saying that they owe money because the tax rates have been increased retroactively.
Not really cricket.

As for capital gains, let me make it as simple as possible.

Take the example of a couple which sells a vacation cottage that they own. Because of retirement, it is a luxury they can no longer afford and like most people, they sure could use the money.
The cottage was purchased decades ago at about $10,000 and was sold this last May for $150,000.
According to the old rules, taxes would be owing on 50% of the gain (there are some adjustments to be made, but let's not get complicated.)
In other words the couple would have to add in $70,000 to their income tax return and pay perhaps $30,000 in additional taxes.
After dutifully putting $30,000 aside to pay for the taxes due, they spend the balance fixing up their home, putting on a new roof and making some repairs that have been neglected for too long.
After taking a round-the-world cruise, they gift the balance of the money to their three children, so each can have a little wiggle room in their own family budget.
Life is good....

Imagine their surprise when the accountant phones them in a panic and tells them that due to Madame Marois retroactive increase in taxes on capital gains, they will owe another $15,000 to Quebec come their 2012 tax return in April next year!

"But we spent the money, where are we going to get 15 grand!!"

When all the repercussions became apparent, the financial community went nuts on Nicolas Marceau, the new finance minister, who looked clearly out of his depth.
Our boy wonder finance minister started to back off the retroactive part of his tax hike after both major opposition parties said that they would vote against any such proposal

All this will add a billion dollars to the 2012 deficit, not an auspicious start!

And as Laurel told Hardy throughout their movie franchise;
"Well, here's another fine mess you've gotten me into"

As for following through on the promise to abolish the tuition fee increases, the Marois government didn't think to, or dare to abolish those measures that the previous Liberal government put in place as a carrot for the students to stop their protests.
Those measures increased the amount of money available for bursaries and loans to ease the pain of higher tuition fees, but with no tuition fee increase, the money became just another perk for the students and in the end, the entire fiasco actually puts the government further and further into the hole!

Then of course were two PQ members that got themselves into some controversy, right off the bat.

"André Villeneuve, the Parti Québécois MNA for Berthier, who also owns a construction company, said Friday he has asked the Charbonneau Commission into corruption in Quebec’s construction industry to supply him with the licence plate number and the time a vehicle belonging to Plancher Mirage André Villeneuve inc. was seen parked at the mall where assassinated Mafia kingpin Nicolo Rizzuto would hold court." Read the rest of the story.

While the stunned Villeneuve denied any relationship with the mob, the vehicle in question was far from home, and no explanation was offered as to why it was there.
So far, he is being given the benefit of the doubt, but questions still linger.

In another case of skeletons in the closet, Minister of the Environment Daniel Breton denied being a member of the lobby group Sortons le Québec du nucléaire despite his name being listed as being a member of the advisory board on the group's website .

Within hours of the controversy, his name was removed from the website, but not before I grabbed a Before/After screen shot.

Now the minister vehemently denied his involvement in the group but alas his denials weren't credible.
Michel Duguay, the Sortons le Québec du nucléaire coordinator, gave an impromptu interview to TVA where he asserted that he had been working with Mr. Breton for four years and that Mr. Breton was and still is a member of the group. Link{fr}

Somebody's lying and I don't think it is Mr. Duguay!

In another shot aimed at the new government, the board of directors of the association of Quebec's Chamber of  Commerce blasted the new government in a news release: 

FCCQ calls on Quebec government to open dialogue with business community on economic growth

"The board of directors of the FCCQ finds it regrettable that major decisions made so far by the new government are contrary to this spirit of dialogue and cooperation.

• Major decisions have been announced in a hasty manner, without consultation with the communities or businesses most directly affected and without the least assessment of their effects on the economy.
• A major tax increase has been announced, particularly on capital gains, which is actually an undue tax on success, even for small investors.
• Measures that effectively maintain or increase provincial revenue have been abolished without identifying areas where spending will be reduced.
• Even before the findings of strategic environmental studies are known, major reservations are being expressed about the possible exploitation of natural gas and even certain oil fields, when these sources could create a great many jobs and revenue for the province.
• Draconian changes have been announced to the conditions imposed on natural resource development companies, and there is a good chance that this may halt the economic recovery that has begun in many of Quebec's natural resource regions.
• The Ministry of Economic Development, Innovation and Export, which had succeeded in establishing ongoing communications with companies throughout Quebec in supporting their efforts to promote business growth, both locally and internationally, is being dismantled. Read more

 I think that just about sums it up....

Then there was the partisan appontment of:

"Nicolas Girard, who was Parti Québécois MNA for Montreal’s Gouin riding for nearly eight years until his defeat in the Sept. 4 election by Françoise David, co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire, was named by the PQ cabinet on Wednesday as president and CEO of the Agence métropolitaine de transport....

In order to make room for Mr. Girard, Madame Marois let go Paul Côté, interim president of the AMT, someone described by interim Quebec Liberal leader, Jean-Marc Fournier as “very competent.”

BEFORE: "Partisan nominations by the Charest government are a scandal!" AFTER "Gulp!"

Who says a minority government can't wreak havoc?

All this controversy in the first few days of power.
Is all this just teething problems or a taste of the future and is Pauline destined to follow in the footsteps of France's new president François Hollande, whose popularity has plummeted just four months after the election as voters realize their huge mistake? Link

Time will tell....

French versus English Volume 62

Complaints over Yom Kippur adjournment at Montreal City Hall.

Anie Samson..making mountains out of molehills

Now I'm not going to defend the closing down of the city Montreal council for a day to respect the most important of Jewish holidays, there are those who are for and those against and nobody is a racist based on that opinion.
There are but a few council members who are Jewish, but that being said, it is a tradition in Montreal dating back to Mayor Drapeau, who held that since Christianity is all-encompassing in Quebec, one day of respect for the significant Jewish population of the city was appropriate.
 Readers will remember that back in the day, there weren't many other religions represented in the city. 
Demographically speaking, there were a lot of Catholics, some Protestants and a few Jews.
Every other religion was completely marginal.

At any rate, council doesn't regularly meet on Wednesdays anyway, and Tuesday's session usually wraps up before five PM, so the accommodation not to extend Tuesday's session past sundown wasn't really that big a deal.
It was however too much for one member, Anie Samson of Vision Montreal, who complained that the decision to suspend council meeting for Yom Kippur was wrong because city council is a secular institution that shouldn't be subjected to religious considerations . Link
Asked to comment over the fact that council doesn't meet on Christmas or Easter, she replied that it is another matter completely because those days are statutory holidays.

And that readers is the essential debate over religious accommodation in Quebec and why it's hard to take these secularists seriously.
I'm not even going to insult the intelligence of readers by explaining why.

French receding in Ontario.

"....during this time, English continues to grow, even if immigration has injected a healthy dose of energy to the community. "In Ontario, the rate of anglicization is 40%  and is flirting with the 50% level among young adults, says noted statistician Charles Castonguay, a demographic expert on the Canadian Francophonie. You can open unilingual schools, colleges, and universities, if you want., but it is the  personal attitude that we haven't been successful in changing, unlike in Quebec." Link{Fr}

Note: just for some context, the 'expert' quoted in this article Charles Castonguay is a French language militant, who's work now focuses on the 'sky is falling' theory of French under attack.

Police issue 'BOLO' for serial stop sign defacer

Here is the most bizarre language story of the week.

 "An ardent defender of the French language in the borough of Lennoxville could pay a price for political activism, actions that are deemed criminal, by the police. On Monday, police in Sherbrooke released a photo of the individual who was committing mischief on unilingual anglophone stop signs, that had "STOP" printed on them on Clough and Lennox streets in  the Summer district of the city.

"Capitaine Quebec" affixed stickers bearing the image of a Quebec license plate with the inscription "LOI 101 - Je me Souviens" in a bilingual Sherbrooke district before leaving.  Link{fr}

Incidentally readers, there are two bones to pick with this story, the first being that the Quebec Ministry of Transport recognizes "STOP" as a French word and entirely legal on signs and the second is the creeping use of the word 'Anglophone' to describe signs that are supposedly in English.
For those in the media, I would hope that you needn't be reminded that signs are inanimate objects. 

Quebec Universities begging for students in France

 Francophone universities are so desperate for students that they have taken a road show to France in order to shill for students.

Quebec universities have arrived in Toulouse for the 2nd edition of the special day "Studying in Quebec." Objectives: Inform students applying for international mobility, foster relationships between Toulouse and Quebec universities and increase the two-way number of foreign students in French schools and Quebec.

Organized at the initiative of the Conference of Rectors and Principals of Quebec Universities (CREPUQ), the day will allow candidates to achieve their mobility project and collect all the information needed to continue their education in Quebec:

Which university to choose? How to register? What budget? Link{fr}

Another teen attacked for speaking English.

"A St. Leonard Mother is outraged, after her 17 year old son was viciously attacked because he spoke English.
The family, who wishes to remain anonymous to protect themselves, says last Saturday following supper with visitors, five teenagers, cousins went for a walk.   Around the corner, near a park, a man between 18-20 began hassling them, hurling racist epitaphs their way.
In French that man said, "Ici a Quebec, il faut que tu parles Francais," or something like that, he went up to my son's face and my son just kind of put his hand to his chest and said please move back, in English" Read the story on CJAD

For a more complete version of the story, read Hugo Shebbeare's article, here.

Quebec Corruption 101

Nothing proves the old adage that a picture (or in this case a video) is worth a thousand words.
On Thursday, Quebecers were riveted by a short video shown at the Charbonneau Commission showing some of Quebec's biggest construction magnates making cash payments to Mafia big shots in a Montreal café, a known meeting place for one of Montreal's biggest crime families.

The video, shot secretly by the RCMP was nothing less than shocking, and served as conclusive proof of the link between the construction industry and the Mafia.

The inference is quite simple.
The Mafia controlled which company would be the lowest bidder and thus receive a government construction contract by fixing the bids, which would ultimately be 30% higher than what would be charged without the scheme.
Construction companies would split these contracts under the auspices and control of the Mafia and kickback money.
Pretty neat!
The video showed some of these construction bosses visiting Café Consenza and handing over wads of cash in a back room, some of which was stuffed into the socks of Nicolo Rizzuto Sr. before he left the building.

"Large amounts of cash — in one case up to $20,000 — were shown being pulled out of bags, counted, then stuffed into Rizzuto Sr.’s socks as the commissioners watched, dumbfounded.
“It must have been the end of the fiscal year,” Vecchio joked as tens of thousands of dollars were poured out onto the table in one tape." Read the story

But here readers is what nobody in the mainstream press, or perhaps even in the police don't understand;

This money is chickenfeed!

The police are all gaga over the 20k they saw being passed over to the Mafiosi, and while the video  is useful because a link is finally made between the mafia and the construction companies, it begs the real question;
Where is the real money?

The various governments, municipal and provincial spend billions on these construction projects and if just a small portion of the contracts are subject to fraud it would run into hundreds of millions of dollars in over payments.
If fact, Jacques Duchesneau, in his testimony before the Charbonneau Commission, testified that his anti-collusion task force had already made an impact to the tune of $347 million in lowered bids as companies dumped the bid-fixing.

So where is all the money, you can't very well stuff tens of millions of dollars down your pant leg?

Once again we are subject to smoke and mirrors. The hoopla over the video is but a distraction, entertaining but really just a sideshow.
The real question as to where the big money goes remains unanswered.

I'll be writing a post about this next week.
Maybe the RCMP should read it, they might learn a thing or two.

Founder of vigile.net dies, leaving legacy of hate

The founder of vigile.net, Bernard Frappier died last week leaving the website in the capable hands of other racists and haters.

While I don't usually comment negatively on the recently departed, the accolades thrown about by his admirers is nothing short of sickening.

Bernard Frappier was a racist who hated Anglophones in general and Jews in particular.
He was a defender of genocidal tyrants like Muammar Gaddafi and supported the murderous regime of Bashar Hafez al-Assad of Syria
My only hope is that his legacy be respected and the website continues to ground out racist garbage which serves only to discredit anything at all, published on the site.

Pauline Marois gets "Unliked' by Facebook

 Recently Facebook started removing bogus "LIKES" added to pages of certain people, companies and organizations which hired companies to use bots to create the phony appearance of being more popular than the truth.

A while back I wrote that Pauline Marois was guilty of just such an offence when she added thousands and thousand of 'likes' in a short period of time.

Here's a graph from Pauline Facebook page that attests to the changes.
Thanks to David, for pointing out the story.

BIXI crashing and burning

Driving downtown last week I couldn't help but notice that the BIXI bicycle stands were largely filled to capacity and that riders were few and far between.
I snapped this picture of a Bixi station near Concordia University which was so full, that one rider attached his bike to a parking meter.
I made a mental note, but forgot about the story until I read a story about the dire financial situation of the company running the system.

Read: Bixi company struggles with deficit
It has become clear the project is a financial disaster and will never come close to breaking even.

The company running the system is depending on foreign sales to prop up its finances which is really just a fancy Ponzi scheme, bringing in new suckers to pay off losses higher up the line.

New York City has put its plans to introduce the system on hold and they'd better redo the math before getting involved with this granola boondoggle.

Quebecers a happy bunch

 The happiest Canadians are 12 to 19 years old and Quebeckers, while the least satisfied are seniors, according to the report, based on an analysis of Statistics Canada data from 2003 to 2011.
Among the report’s other key findings:

• Canadian teens are the most satisfied (96.9 per cent) and seniors, the least (89.1 per cent) – a growing gap that suggests a problem for policy makers, Mr. Sharpe said.
• The happiest Canadians are in the Yukon, Quebec, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, while the least satisfied are in Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Ontario and Nunavut.
• The largest increases in satisfaction levels between 2003 and 2011 were in Quebec and the Yukon.
• Four of the five happiest cities are in Quebec – Quebec City, Gatineau, Trois-Rivières and Montreal.
• Rural dwellers are generally happier than city dwellers.

Read the rest of the story

Quebec police strike again

"In what human rights activists are calling a landmark ruling, a south shore man has been cleared of the ticket he got in a case of "driving while black."
Brossard resident Joel Debellefeuille says he can't forget the day he was pulled over by two Longueuil police officers back in July 2009. On that day while driving with his wife and kids in his BMW in Greenfield Park, two officers pulled Debellefeuille over because they thought it was odd that a black man was driving a car registered to someone with a Québecois family name." Read the rest of the story

In another story, funny if not so sad, our Keystone Kops are also being sued for 42k by a Montrealer who was arrested last May during the students riots.
It seems that the Montreal police had cornered students demonstrating illegally and corralled them down a street with no escape.
Some of the demonstrators jumped onto a restaurant terrace and were followed by police who arrested everyone who was not seated at a table.
One of the arrested, Dominique Dion, proclaimed his innocence to no avail and ended up in  jail with everyone else.
Who was the poor shlub? The owner of the restaurant! Link{fr}

English taking over?

The foundation of the CHUM, Montreal's new French super hospital announced an ambitious fundraising campaign which even included an English section to the web site. I guess when these organizations want Anglo money, bilingualism is no longer an issue.
That being said, I can't say I'm impressed with the English translation of patient testimonial.
I dunno, you be the judge. 

Louis Saint-Pierre

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aenean quis nunc sapien, quis eleifend libero. Aenean imperdiet mauris ut nisi pellentesque blandit. Nunc lobortis ligula at augue sodales sed ornare nibh interdum. Praesent tincidunt scelerisque ante, ut ultrices purus viverra ac. Donec non magna quis odio euismod tincidunt a sit amet dolor. Donec blandit sem eget velit sagittis non hendrerit arcu fringilla. Nullam velit leo, condimentum vitae, eleifend sed velit.

Sophie Fauteux

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aenean quis nunc sapien, quis eleifend libero. Aenean imperdiet mauris ut nisi pellentesque blandit. Nunc lobortis ligula at augue sodales sed ornare nibh interdum. Praesent tincidunt scelerisque ante, ut ultrices purus viverra ac. Donec non magna quis odio euismod tincidunt a sit amet dolor. Donec blandit sem eget velit sagittis non hendrerit arcu fringilla. Nullam velit leo, condimentum vitae, eleifend sed velit. Link

Here's another embarrassment, the utter uselessness of some on-air French taking heads who cannot pronounce nary a word in English. Yech!......

And now to finish off the week with a little foolishness;

One of our readers sent in this pic,which he snapped close to home;

Here's a good yuck....

BTW, Note to readers;
I've been told reliably that the CAQ is in the hole for 400k after the election, so despite all the posturing, they aren't in a position to fight a new election.
That being said, the PQ is also broke, but not the Liberals.... go figure!

Anyways,  sometimes, just sometimes, even I have to admit that unilingual English signs can be offensive.
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For your reading pleasure;

One of our readers, Kevin Duska (I publish his name only because it is attached to the story) sent me a link to a story he wrote for Rabble.ca, not exactly one of my favourite websites.

That being said, it's a good weekend read and I'm happy to oblige with a plug.

Read:
When a spade is truly a spade: The PQ's xenophobia in a throwaway election for progressive federalists

Here's another;
Susan Schwartz: Try as I might, the language barrier is perplexing



To all the Frenchies and têtes carrées, please have a good weekend!!!

Pauline's Window of Opportunity

The conventional wisdom in the mainstream press is that the new PQ minority government of Pauline Marois will be hamstrung and unable to bring forward much of the controversial new programs that the party enunciated throughout the election campaign.

We've read countless articles in Quebec and national newspapers assuring us that Ottawa's best course of action is to ignore Marois, since there is no mandate for a referendum or any support for a broad attack on federalism, for that matter.

"Now, once again, we're to be treated to the tedious, deliberate provocations, always delivered in a tone of tragic victimization, that have made Quebec separatists by far our most annoying countrymen (and women) since, oh, 1976.
And yet, what if it doesn't matter?
What if nobody came or even paid much attention?" Michael Den Tandt, Postmedia Newsink

"And that’s precisely why the emerging Conservative and New Democratic approach to provocations by Marois and her cohort of revolutionaries – that is, benign, serene indifference – is the correct one." Link

As is often my case, I remain at odds with the conventional wisdom, it seems to me that the advice to ignore Marois is not only dangerous but gratuitous. Easy for them to say...

Perhaps all that concerns Ottawa and the RoC is the reopening of the sovereignty or national unity debate, something that obviously they don't want to see happen.
But with that danger clearly of no concern, the ROC can safely take Quebec politics off the national stage and whether Madame Marois runs riot over the Quebec economy and whether she imposes more and more restrictions on the Anglo and Ethnic minority is clearly of no import to anybody but ourselves.

I guess there's nothing unexpected or unfair in that, but taking disingenuous advice from those who have no dog in the fight, is the height of folly.
Marois and the PQ remain dangerous, a clear and present danger to our community, even if nobody in Canada seems to care.

While newspapers like the Toronto Sun can write the nastiest and snarkiest articles that dismiss Marois and her government, we Quebecers, especially Anglos and ethnics, can't really afford the luxury of benign indifference,

"It would be safe to conclude that Quebec has a delusional woman as its new premier, who believes she can wield a power that doesn't exist.
Pauline Marois, unlike in The Emperor's New Clothes, is naked as a jaybird except to those equally unfit to run a province so dependent upon the billions in transfer payments that come from federalism.
To them, to all those aging Pequistes and student-movement crybabies, she is dressed to the nines, the belle of the ball, and ready to take on Ottawa with her eyes-wide-shut view of separatism.
If this is the best the Parti Quebecois can muster, it is doomed."  PQ's gong show has just begun

Perhaps it is true, just as the newspaper crows, that the PQ is doomed, but we here in Quebec are along for the disastrous ride, something that those in the RoC who wish separatists ill fortune, don't understand or care.

And so the question to consider, is what sort of damage can Pauline inflict, even in her minority position and readers I am sad to report that the answer is quite a lot.

Obviously the PQ government cannot meet Parliament with an aggressive legislative agenda that would leave the opposition no choice but to defeat the government, damn the consequences. But that being said, there's a lot the PQ can do without ever having to face the National Assembly.

One of the first things that the PQ announced was that is was cancelling the tuition hikes, as well as certain aspects to the controversial Bill 78, the law that put constraints on demonstrations.

All this is to be done by way of 'Decrees' (orders in council) or cabinet-ordained modifications of existing laws, something that defies our democracy, when used abusively.
These 'decrees' are supposed to be minor, non-controversial, re-interpretations or modifications to existing laws, but using them to make fundamental changes in legislation duly passed by the National Assembly, is an attack on our democracy.

Are we back to the days where the King or Queen had the power to accept or reject laws passed by the duly-elected representatives of the people?
If these decrees can be used in such a cavalier manner, does it mean that we are now to be governed by fiat?
This dangerous and undemocratic vehicle, whereby duly passed laws are hacked and butchered by the Premier and her cabinet at will, means that Parliament (National Assembly) is no longer the ultimate authority in our province, something all democrats should oppose.

If Premier Marois decides to use these decrees on a wholesale level, we can expect some of the PQ election promises to pass into law without the consent of the National Assembly.

These election promises, like the imposition of Bill 101 on companies having between eleven and fifty employees and/or the application of eligibility rules for English education in cegeps, can actually be imposed on us without the consent of the National Assembly!

And so the PQ can play footsie with the law, as long as it is not too blatant and as long as the National Assembly allows them to do so.

Already we are hearing that the $200 a head health tax is too be abolished, replaced by a retroactive increase in taxes on the rich. All this through the power of decree!

Aside from that frightening scenario, the PQ government can also avail themselves of simple administrative changes that can also have devastating and lasting effects on our community.

For example, the PQ can easily increase the number of inspectors in the OQLF and set them on a more aggressive campaign of enforcement, no permission needed! 
The government can also impose new changes pertaining to English services at its whim, just by giving instruction to the ministries. It doesn't take an act of the National Assembly, or even a decree to effect these changes.

With the Liberals tied up in a leadership campaign that will last until the beginning of next year and thus loath to bring down the government in the interim, it may just give the PQ a narrow window this Fall to try and pass some of its more controversial legislation.
The question remains as to whether Madame Marois will try to do so, as such a plan would carry an element of risk. Let us not forget Prime Minister Joe Clark's folly, a similar failed gambit in 1979 that saw his minority Conservative government taken down after just seven months in office.
Most likely she will not risk her position, she has worked too hard and waited too long to become Premier to roll the dice.

But while Pauline may be somewhat handicapped in Parliament, it doesn't mean that she cannot or will not wreak separatist havoc upon us.

Make no mistake, we are in for a very rough ride and although no broad, direct and frontal attack is on the horizon, we can surely be just as dead from an attack of a thousand cuts.

She has already shown us just how petty she can be, by removing the Canadian flag from the National Assembly for the swearing in ceremony and I expect her and her ministers to continue the petty minded persecution of anything Anglo or Canadian.

Hold on tight, it's about to get very uncomfortable and nasty.

**************************************** 

NOTE TO READERS

I've been asked to tighten up the comments section and I've heard what you have to say.
Gratuitous insults against other commenters will no longer be tolerated and the rule applies to everyone, not just S.R.

Secondly, I'd like to see readers address the the content of the blog piece of the day.
While all opinions are welcome and it is impossible not to run off on a tangent, it would be interesting if we could focus somewhat on the topic of the today.

Again, it is just a suggestion, no comments will be removed if they are appropriate and follow the rules as listed in the green bar at the top of the page.

Today's question:
How will A&E's (Anglos & Ethnics) fare under Marois and what can we expect?
Are we going to get clobbered or is she going to be respectful?

It's your turn.

Xenophobes and Racists. If the Shoe Fits...

Luce Cloutier & Mario Beaulieu. If the shoe fits, wear it!

On Friday I promised a piece about xenophobia and racism as it pertains to the radical French language and sovereignty movement in Quebec.
This in response to Quebec language militant Mario Beaulieu taking great exception that some in the English mainstream press and within the blogosphere (sites like ours,) had the audacity to use these terms in describing the PQ, Pauline Marois and the radical language movement.

Here is the type of thing Mr. Beaulieu is complaining about;

“Xenophobia” is applicable because it literally refers to a fear of the other. It’s not a pretty word. It pains me to use it when describing those who shape the discourse in my home province. When Quebec nationalists speak incessantly about the “Anglo threat...,” 

There’s no denying the furor that would ensue if Quebec politicians spoke of the “Arab threat,” or the “Chinese threat.” When one of the province’s most popular radio hosts, Benoît Dutrizac, mocks the Anglo accents of veteran, bilingual Montreal city councillors, where is the outrage? And had Charles Adler imitated a Québécois accent; what then? The double-standard is shocking: It is perfectly acceptable in Quebec to demean Anglophones as a form of over-compensation for past abuses. Institutionalizing that debasement is equally tolerated... ”   
Read the rest of the story: Xenophobia and Quebec’s uncomprehending radicals

and here is part of what Beaulieu complained;

"For example, in The Gazette, National Post and the Globe and Mail, Quebec separatists or those who want to strengthen Bill 101 are depicted as Franco-supremacist, intolerant, anglophobes, radicals, close-minded idiots, who want to assimilate, destroy and despise minorities. And spread without restraint, downright hateful comments from readers who are not shy to draw parallels with neo-Nazi and fascist movements. Link{Fr}

"xen-o-pho-bi-a"
-unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange.

French language militants and Peequists are all quick to say that the sovereignty movement is inclusive and is based solely on French as the common language and all who speak it are welcomed wholeheartedly into the fold.
Unfortunately, it just isn't true.

For the last couple of years we have been treated to incessant harangues by these so-called open and inclusive democrats, including Mr. Beaulieu and the PQ's newest minister, Jean-François Lisée, who complain bitterly that the island of Montreal is in danger of being lost because more and more of its citizens have a language other than French as their mother tongue.
In fact, alarm bells were pushed by the above two gentlemen when shock of all shocks, it was revealed that the balance of mother tongues is shifting over to the dark side and soon the majority of Montrealers will have a mother-tongue other than French.
The horrors!

Let us consider the 'problem'
Each year Quebec welcomes about 45,000 immigrants, of which, about 10,000 leave for other provinces leaving 35,000 net newcomers, of which about 30,000 settle in the Montreal area.

About 95% of these people have a language other than French as a mother tongue, so it is easy to understand that slowly but surely the statistic concerning mother tongue will shift away from French (and English).

But so what?

Let us take the example of a Spanish speaking family named Gonzalez who immigrated from El Salvador to Montreal and who speak no English at all.
The family sends their children to French school and the parents learn French quickly and get jobs, working in French. The years go by and the family is firmly rooted into the French side of the language equation, economically, scholastically, socially and culturally. The family still speaks no English and in public all their interaction is in French. That being said, at home, they speak their native Spanish.

And therein lies the rub.
Because they speak Spanish around the dinner table, they are, according to Mr. Lisée and Mr. Beaulieu, a 'problem' and are counted on as being on the wrong side of the equation in the 'mother-tongue' debate.
When militants describe a language problem in Montreal, the Gonzalezes are part of the problem!

"The future of the French language is at risk because of a steady decline in the number of people on the island of Montreal who use it as their main language, Lisée said, citing statistics from the Office québécois de la langue française showing the number of people who speak French at home dropped from 61 per cent in 1971 to 54 per cent in 2006. If nothing is done, Lisée said, it could drop to 47 per cent in less than 20 years.
“The weakening of the francophone majority imperils the ability of new arrivals to integrate in French in the city, and makes the future of the French language extremely fragile,” said Lisée, a former journalist and adviser who worked with former premiers Jacques Parizeau and Lucien Bouchard."-Jean-François Lisée, Link

When militants complain about mother-tongue, they are not only complaining about immigrants who assimilate over to the English side of the language equation, but the Gonzalezes, as well.

But honestly, what more could the Gonzalezes do to satisfy Mr. Beaulieu and Mr. Lisée?

You cannot get around the fact that the 'mother-tongue' debate is ringed by xenophobia, the only 'flaw' that language militants perceive in the Gonzalezes, is where they were born.

Mr. Lisée is particularly galled that 'real' French speaking natives are leaving the island of Montreal and being replaced with the foreigners, many like the French-speaking Gonzalez family.
And so when French language militants, complain about 'mother-tongue,' it is not really a language issue, but largely a foreigner issue, or to put it more bluntly, a 'too many foreigners' issue.

Whenever you hear the militants bring up the 'mother-tongue' debate, alarm bells should go off in your head.
Those who complain are less concerned about the French language and more concerned about who it is speaking French and whether they are 'de souche' or not.
It is no different than complaining about skin colour, religion or ethnicity and no matter how hard all these 'foreigners' try to integrate into francophone Quebec society, according to the language militants, they will always be on the other side of the 'good citizen' ledger.

In the end, there is only one solution to the 'problem' of the shifting away from French as a mother-tongue in Montreal and that is to curb immigration.
So spin it however you want, complaining about mother-tongue is xenophobia, pure and simple, something Mr. Beaulieu, Mr. Lisée and all the other radicals should be called out over.

Now before I go further into this post, I'd like to preface everything I write above and below as applying to a tiny vocal minority of extremists who enjoy a disproportionate amount of media exposure.
The vast majority of francophones in this province (including sovereigntists) are as racist or xenophobic as are their Anglophone counterparts.
Unfortunately for all of us, we are over-exposed to the French language mullahs in the media, who do preach xenophobia and hate.

As an observer, I actually remain pleasantly surprised that in spite of the vast media campaign to demonize English, Quebecers remain unconvinced, much to the frustration of language militants who have no other choice but to ramp up the linguistic pressure and exaggerate problems that do not exist.

Perhaps it is the fact that collectively, francophone Quebecers, who having been led up the garden path by the Church for centuries, are loathe to put too much trust in those telling them how to conduct their lives.

Now let us turn to the racism part of this post and specifically, the most recent campaign of the Mouvement Québec français and an action by its branch in the Lanaudiere region, which recently won a great deal of media attention by compiling 1,000 language complaints for the Office québécois de la langue française.

The thousand complaint story was splashed all around the media with not many reporters bothering to dig into the specifics where they would find that many of the complaints were completely bogus, like those that cited Churches for posting signs in English.
Even the most radical of French language militants knows that religious institutions and not for profit educational institutions are exempted under Bill 101 from the obligation to use French at all.

I'll save all that for another post to concentrate on another big aspect of the complaints, that of English names or trademarks, those that the MQF demand be accompanied by French descriptors.

The very idea that a company like Canadian Tire, an institution that has operated in Quebec for about seventy years, be forced to change its name is galling, considering that the demand has zero to do with familiarizing unilingual Quebecers with what is being sold in the stores, and everything to do with humiliating and showing up those Anglophone companies who dare to trade under a non-French, corporate name or trademark.

According to the MQF, the issue is about respect and that an English name, in and of itself, is offensive and disrespectful to the majority.
Is that not utterly racist?
Imagine the public reaction if all the anglophones in your place of work were obliged to change their names to something more acceptable to the MQF?

The respect that the MQF demands, reminds me of the respect demanded by young King Joffrey in HBO's War of the Thrones, a nasty sort who demands that subjects bow down to him both physically and metaphorically, under pain of certain death.
I don't call that respect, I call it intimidation.

Racism?
Not convinced, let us explore the story just a little further.
Forget about FUTURE SHOP or CANADIAN TIRE for the moment, the MQF and the local windbag, Luce Cloutier, took the debate over English to a whole new level of ugliness, when she included in the 1,000 complaints, stores and businesses that sported English proper names.

"As for complaints about company names, the photos showed not only the usual Canadian Tire and other Pizza Hut, but also several IGA, Bentley and Reitmans, which are not English words but proper names or initials without meaning.

Mr. Beaulieu believes, however, that all these companies should accompany their names with a generic name, according to the law, as did the Second Cup chain, which appears to Quebec under the name 'Les Cafes Second Cup' " . Link{Fr}

"It has become normal in our environment to see store names like Reitmans, Smart Set, Bentley said Ms. Cloutier. Link{Fr}

So let us get this straight, if a store is named after an English founder (Reitmans) it needs a descriptor, but if a store is name after a French founder (Tanguay) it does not.

I'm curious if the cookie store called Monsieur Felix & Mr. Norton, needs half a descriptor?
Such is the utter pettiness and stupidity of these racists.

Madame Luce Cloutier, went on to say that certain English Italian Spanish 'foreign' proper names like 'Quiznos' are also 'unaccetpable'
And so, following the MQF criteria, here is a list of store names that need and don't need descriptors.

Harveys / Lafleurs
HMV / Archambault
Reitmans / Marie Claire
Aldo / Jean-Paul Fortin
Birks / Sebag
Bentley / Fournier
Greiche & Scaff / Antoine Laoun
Rogers / Videotron
Laura Secord / Laura
Ernest / Vincent D'Amérique
Parasuco / Tristan

Many of you readers are looking at the list above and asking yourselves if this is joke, but I assure you, it is not.
This is what the MQF is about....
I've heard some racist crap in my life and this fits right in with the worst.
Demanding that proper names pay 'tribute' to the French language is discrimination pure and simple.

According to the MQF, this sign is offensive

Perhaps Mr. Beaulieu and Madame Cloutier could implore the PQ to host a Wannsee-like conference to figure out rules and regulations pertaining to proper names and what will be permitted with or without descriptors.
After all, there are some thorny issues.
Stores like Ernest can be considered English or French, but considering that Ernest the owner, (who I know personally) is an Anglophone...well...

What about a store like 'Simons?'
Although the family has Scottish roots, the word Simon can actually be considered French.
But then one has to consider pronunciation and alas, the English version prevails (Sigh-mon, and not Cee-mo), so I guess a descriptor is in order.

Ah well, the subject boggles the imagination of any bone fide racist.

Ditto for Reitmans

By the way, I'd like to point out to that miserable piece of hate, Luce Cloutier, that the Reitmans clan (who I also have the honour to know personally) are a fine old Montreal family who run their retail empire from a head office right here in Montreal.
I don't know what her problem is with this Quebecois family.
Is it because they are Jewish, or is it because they are a Anglo?
Like the English, the Scots, the Irish, the Italians and a multitude of of other ethnicities who dominated business and industry in Quebec, are we all disdained for our success?

Back to Reitmans, a company which started with one store on St. Lawrence boulevard in 1928 and now operates close to 1,000 stores with 10,000 employees, across Canada.
For almost eighty-five years the company has provided employment for Quebecers and has paid millions upon millions in corporate taxes here.

Perhaps Madame Cloutier wishes to chase the head office of Reitmans out of Quebec, perhaps to Toronto, where they will be welcomed instead of humiliated.
Such is the depravity of the MQF racists.
For shame.

Incidentally, just in case the MQF doesn't know, there isn't a Quebecer in a gazillion who does not know that you don't go to Canadian Tire to buy a dress and you don't go to Reitmans to buy a hammer.

All the rest is racism, pure and simple.