Language Sniping Starts Early For the Habs

In my Saturday post I mentioned that the Montreal Canadiens are down to just three francophone players and that if Bob Gainey's team doesn't show a lot of improvement this season, that fact would haunt him as the public and media play the inevitable language card as the reason for the team's failure.

I was wrong.....It's started already.

Pierre Trudel, who now writes for fanatique.com, after coming over from La Presse, got the ball rolling quickly. I don't know if he's trying to make a splash at his new job by writing something inflammatory, but nonetheless, here it is;

"Bienvenue chez The Montreal Canadiens. Au rythme où le français régresse à Montréal, on n'est pas loin du jour où l'hymne national ne sera chanté que dans une langue, la présentation des joueurs faite dans une seule langue, l'annonce des buts dans une seule langue. J'exagère? Bien sûr. C'est un peu caricatural. Mais toute caricature a un fond de vérité"

"Welcome to the Montreal Canadiens. At the rate at which French is regressing in Montreal, it won't be long before the national anthem will be sung in just one language, the players lineup announced in just one language and the public address announcement of goals in just one language. Exaggerating?...Surely. It's somewhat caricatural. But all caricatures have a foundation of truth."

Let the fun begin.

Weekly Anglo Quebec News June 27-July 03

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Montreal Jazzfest kicked off Tuesday. The thirtieth edition opened with a free concert headlined by Stevie Wonder which celebrated the new permanent headquarters of the festival in the city's new 'Quartier des spectacles'. Over 200,000 people attended in spite of the threat of rain. By many accounts the show was uneven and suffered some sound problems. Wonder also played some Michael Jackson tunes as a tribute, something that didn't go over well with the crowd. At least he didn't break down in grief over Jackson's death as he did in a concert in Milwaukee last Sunday.
For the first time a Klezmer, (traditional Jewish/Russian music) element will be added to the festival. A student run synagogue, located in the McGill Ghetto neighborhood, is presenting eight bands performing at the 'Ghetto Shul.'
Unfortunately the weather continues to look poor and may play havoc with the outdoor events.

Montreal's annual moving day took place on Wednesday. The only major city in North America where the vast majority of leases ends (and begins) on one day (July 1) and where a great big game of musical chairs plays out in the streets with movers rushing about. At the end of the day after all was said and done, 71 families were left homeless.
A new 'green' professional moving service utilising bicycle instead of moving vans to made it's first appearance in Montreal.

Montreal Canadiens made wholesale changes to it's hockey team, dumping a slew of veterans and signing several free agents. The team however failed to secure a marquis type player and settled for second tier players. It remains to be see if they improve. The loss of some francophone players doesn't sit well with the press, with the team boasting just 3 French speakers on the team. If the team doesn't perform, it will be become a huge issue.

Mystery surrounds the death of four Montrealers who died in a bizarre incident Kingston, Ontario. The car in which they were returning home to Montreal was found at the bottom of a canal with all the occupants dead, inside. Police have yet to figure out how the car ended up there as the area where the car was found has no road access and there were no obvious tire tracks in the adjacent grassy area. The women were all Afghanis who immigrated to Canada less than two years ago. All sorts of rumours are floating out there, it's a real mystery.... Perhaps we need to call in Detective Columbo....
Read the details.


Montreal tourism down big-time. Notwithstanding the Jazz Festival, the tourist season is suffering a meltdown this summer. A calèche driver driver reported that business was off 50% compared to last year and that he hadn't seen a American tourist fare in three weeks. The association of merchants in Old Montreal reports that there's a 35% drop traffic. Other restaurateurs are reporting drops between 25%-35%. Coupled with the loss of the Grand Prix, it pretty much spells disaster for a sector of the economy that generates $2.5 billion. Ouch! A Tourist Montreal official tried to put on a brave face but admitted that the recession, the rising Canadian dollar, the price of gasoline all contributed to the 'perfect storm'.

Montreal Nord's reputation finally catches up. People are moving out of this 'problem' neighbourhood, scene of several riots and ongoing problems with street crime and gang activities. A real estate agent reported that when of the 40 people who answered his internet ad for a four and a half on Pascal street, found out where it was located, they all said - 'no thank you'.

Right turn on red leads to more Quebec accidents according to the Quebec Transport Department. Ever since the province allowed right turns on red (everywhere except on the island of Montreal) five years ago, related accidents have gone up about 46%. How did the CAA- Quebec react to this news?.... They suggesested that Montrealers also be allowed to make right turns on red! Huh?

CRIME & PUNISHEMENT

(NEW!-weekly review of interesting crime stories and court room antics)

COP KILLER GETS PAROLE. The man who beat a murder rap of a cop in relation to the shooting at his home in a botched drug raid, has been paroled for the related gun charges after serving only 6 months! Read the unbelievable story.

WOMEN GETS 15 YEARS FOR DROWNING HER SON. Her big mistake was doing the crime in the USA, where being cuckoo is no excuse. Had she done the deed in Beaver Lake, she'd already be in a halfway house. Despite the harsh sentence, 64% of Quebeckers agreed with the punishment, according to the Journal de Montreal. Read the story. Read a piece I wrote about the difffences in Canadian versus American sentences.

Montrealers Still Eating Poorly

According to the 'Direction de santé publique' (l'Agence de la santé et des services sociaux de Montréal) less than 30% of those over fifteen years old are getting enough fruit and vegetables in their diet.
The report about eating habits of Montrealers doesn't paint a rosy picture.

Mindful of the article, I snapped this photo in the food fair of Place Angrignon in LaSalle. The menu of the KFC outlet is the epitome of unhealthy eating.

The only thing on the menu that was remotely healthy (comparatively) was a Caesar Salad which was ironically 'non-disponible.' Argh.....

Click on the image to review the wonderful eating choices offered!

There's little doubt that good eating starts early in life and habits are formed before kids get to kindergarten.

When high schools get rid of fast food, kids go out of school to get their fix of greasy fries and burgers. Such is the experience of the La Commission scolaire des Patriotes when it switched over to a healthier menu.

Some officials are now talking about putting a 'malbouffe zone libre' (fast-food free zone) around schools. Yikes!

Will BIXI Go the Way Of Vélib'?

Sadly, it seems that the Montreal BIXI program may be going down the path of Paris' Vélib', the bicycle rental program that served as it's model.

The Vélib' program has been decimated by vandalism and the theft of thousands of bicycles. The Globe and Mail has a depressing article about it.

Over 8,000 of the 20,000 bicycles in Paris have been stolen and thousands more vandalized.
Now BIXI honchos are reporting that they are starting to see similar problems, albeit in much diminished proportions.... so far.
To date, over 40 of the 2,ooo BIXI bikes have been stolen. LINK

Since BIXIs and Vélib's have virtually no value to thieves, it's maddening that people would sabotage such a wonderfully communal idea. Those who do, are cut from the same cloth as computer virus propagators. Evil for evil's sake. Bah!

The Vélib' program is in such trouble that the city of Paris plastered posters around the city in an effort to humiliate the guilty.


Here's a sad pictorial of what the vandalism looks like;

Drunk-Driving Roadblocks Catch Very Few

You'd think that those drunk driver roadblocks put in place by the police would nab a lot of people, especially when they are set up late on a Saturday night.

Apparently that really isn't the case.

Two Saturday nights ago, police did a blitz in Montenergie region of Quebec (an area just south of the Island of Montreal ). Over 130 police from several municipalities including Longueuil, du Roussillon, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Kahnawake (peacekeepers), as well as the Sureté du Quebec set up 22 roadblocks.

They stopped about 8,000 cars and submitted about a hundred drivers to the Breathalyzer type test.

19 people were over the limit and arrested.
Now that's 19 too many drunks on the road, but nonetheless a pretty small number if all things are considered.

Let's break it down.

First of all, there were 22 roadblocks and only nineteen arrests. That means that a minimum of three and probably more roadblocks yielded not one single drunk, over the whole operation!

If these numbers are typical, it means that on any particular Saturday late night, we can expect 1 out of every 400 cars to be driven by a drunk driver.

It seems like an awfully small number, but nonetheless drunk drivers still manage to kill over 200 Quebeckers each year.

It seems that the barricades are more useful as a deterrent, rather than a device to get drunks off the road.

A personal story;

Many years ago my mother (in her 70's) went out to a restaurant for dinner with my aunt and split a bottle of wine between them. On their way home, they found themselves stopped in a drunk-driving barricade. A young policewomen stuck a flashlight into the car and when she saw the two gray-haired seniors decided to have a little fun with them.

"You young ladies haven't been out parting and drinking tonight, have you?" she asked in mock seriousness.
The two seniors shook their heads vigorously from side to side.
"You wouldn't lie to me now, would you?"
"Nooo!" they answered.
"Well..... I think I'll let you go this time..." and then with smile and a pleasant wave she called off the charade and wished them a good evening.

YIKES!
My mother told me the story the next day and swore she'd never drink again. Even though she didn't think she was over the limit, she was seriously freaked out!

Yup, those barricades are are effective!