A letter to the Editor

Here's an interesting letter to the editor published in the LE DEVOIR on July 19, 2009
You can find the original French version at this LINK.

Here is my translation;

"After a family discussion, we decided never to set foot in the Place Laurier mall in Quebec City.

Reason? The insidious anglicization and bilingualism that's become more and more pronounced over the years. First because of the signage and then because of the choice of music (abominably banal, commercial and heavily if not exclusively Anglo-American, which is in itself an assault on the senses), in some shops (systematic bilingualism in the 'Lush Vancouver' shop, for example, is an incredible violation of the Frenchness of Quebec, all the while the same stores in Canada, are surprisingly English only ...
But the list would be long, from 'Future Shop' to 'Body and Beach' through 'Second Cup,' stores that stubbornly refuse to give a French name in Quebec.
But I'm not ignorant of the fact that on this last point Place Laurier doesn't really have control.

But it even goes to the 'internet sans-fils" access system which is identified as "Wi-Fi! That was too much.

For us, the use of the term "Wi-Fi" was the drop of water that made the the already too full bucket overflow!

And so we say adieu..."

Marie-Louise Lacroix

Wow!
The letter as it stands is creepy enough, but even more disturbing because it's basic premise is just plain wrong.
How does a newspaper print a letter with such a flawed arguement?

Wi-Fi is the modern term (of English origin) that refers to wireless access to internet. It's a shortened version of 'Wireless Fidelity'. The letter writer insists that the correct French term for Wi-Fi is 'internet sans-fil' but she is wrong.

"Wi-Fi" or "WiFi" has entered the popular French lexicon in France and Quebec. Googling 'Wi-Fi' or 'WiFi' coupled with the word 'FRANCE' will reveal that the term is well entrenched in that country.
I would refer the Mme. Lacroix to this web page describing the WiFi coverage offered by ORANGE the giant French wireless operator.
Here in Quebec, she can also click on the web page entitled Points d’accès Wi-Fi de Cogeco

At any rate, could you imagine boycotting a mall because of the the background music?

If Barry Manilow is playing in the elevator, does it mean the stairs?

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Kingston Police to Drop Bombshell in Drowning Case

Watch for a news conference to be held later this afternoon by Kingston police, it'll be a doosey.

They'll announce the arrest of family members in the murder of the four Montreal Afghani women who drowned when their car plunged into a canal in Kingston, Ontario last month.

Turns out that the 'aunt', Rona Amir Mohammed, who died alongside the three girls, is no aunt at all.

She is the father's first wife, who was rejected because she couldn't bear children. She continued to live with the husband and his new wife and acted as a guardian to the new wife's children. The 'old couple' never divorced.

Recently she felt her life in danger, reports a sister in Paris who sent an email to police which sent the investigation in the direction it has now taken.

Police in Montreal spent hours yesterday interviewing the Shafia family and when the police left, the family made a break for the airport. They were intercepted and arrested by police.

An honour killing seems to be the likeliest answer to this puzzle.

Montreal Police Unveil New Weapon

Montreal Police have unveiled a new tool in their never-ending quest to give out more tickets.

This stealth mobile is the latest high tech gadget. The car has a special paint job that is virtually invisible during the daytime as you can see in the top photo.

At night the lettering reacts to artificial light and the car is a bit more revealing.
The flashing lights are mounted within the car.

So now we have to be on the lookout for all white cars...

aaaaaaaarrgggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

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Earl Jones' Family also Feels the Heat

Cartoon credit Chapleau- La Presse

It seems that the public is in no mood to listen to the phony and slick apology crafted by media consultant Jonathan Goldbloom, that was published by the family of master thief Earl Jones, 10 days after his disappearance was first exposed.

"We are devastated by what has happened to all who put their trust in Earl Jones as a financial adviser but also as a friend, neighbour and community leader. We want to express our profound regret for the pain and suffering that he has caused and state our own sense of deception.

Over the past days since becoming aware of the situation we too have experienced a wide range of emotions, from anger to despair and disillusionment.

The Earl Jones we knew was a loving husband, a devoted father and grandfather, and a respected member of the community. The Earl Jones who has been revealed in recent days is a man we can scarcely believe exists.

Earl's daughter and her husband are also financially exposed and now fear that they will never recover their funds. The family was in the dark about his business activities but will of course co-operate fully with the authorities. We are anxious for Earl to come forward and provide an explanation.

Once again, we wish to express our heartfelt regret to those who have been hurt by Earl Jones. At the same time we hope that you will recognize the sense of shock, grief, shame and outrage that we are experiencing, and we plead that our family's privacy be respected in this very difficult."

Those who knew the Jones' family intimately can attest to how dishonest a portrayal the above statement is. For one thing, Earl was far from being a loving husband. He was was a philanderer extraordinaire, boasting of his many conquests. He had been booted out of the matrimonial home by Maxime on at least one occasion, using his prodigious charm to win her back.

The hired media consultant let it slip that he was engaged by a law firm retained by the family.

Those hurt by the scam artist are not impressed and are demanding answers from Maxime, Earl's wife.

"Despite claims from Earl Jones’s family members that they were “in the dark about his business activities,” Jones’s wife, Maxine, recorded a phone message to his clients saying: “The company is not in a position to remit your funds at this time. You will hear from them within 30 days. In the meantime, phone calls and mail cannot be answered.” Montreal Gazette

Many of the victims believe that the family knows where Jones is hiding.

It hasn't been widely reported that Earl Jones' tentacles spread far across the Quebec border and investors outside the province are asking questions.

"Jerry Coughlan, a Boston banker whose mother, Mary, had entrusted her retirement money to Mr. Jones, said he carefully examined the family's short statement and wonders whether they know where Mr. Jones is hiding.

“I've considered it and the family was silent on the issue of whether they know where he is,” Mr. Coughlan said. “They've got a moral obligation to plead with him in much stronger terms to come forward and co-operate.” Link

"A Halifax man who fears he has been swindled out of thousands of dollars he invested with a Montreal businessman says it is likely that Earl Jones had other clients in Nova Scotia. Dave Hayden says Mr. Jones flew to Halifax several times to meet with him about financial matters." Link

Forget Carmen Sandiego. Where in the world is Earl Jones? "I keep asking myself, why, why, why don't they have a warrant out?" said Mary Jane Taylor of Ingleside, Ont., near Cornwall. "I don't understand why he's a free man." Taylor, 62, and her 69-year-old common-law husband, Kent Hill, who has known Jones since childhood, say they invested $450,000 with him and are now in financial dire straits. Link

Here are some of my favorite comments left by readers related to the various related articles ;

Family is probably in on it. Once the dust settles, they'll all join up and have a heck of a good time on some Island somewhere (tax free of course). Or he took off with a young bimbo and is having a whale of a time.

Seize their assets, and put the family in a shelter. Right they didn't know. Do not let them fool you. - Gino Grimaldi

To all you fools out there claiming the wife had nothing to do with this as well I hope you are able to READ. Drag them from their luxury house(s) and put them in the street. They're nothing but dogs anyways to me.

"If Jones is the pathological liar that he appears to be, then it stands to reason that he lived his whole life lying to everyone he met, regardless of his relationship with them. You don't just turn a personality disorder, of criminal proportions, off and on - its a way of being."

"get Dog the bounty hunter on the case!" - Doug

"I wish these weasels would come up with Fonzy schemes instead. Nobody gets hurt, bunch of leather jackets get stolen, maybe you get a date or 2 with the Tuscadero sisters. "

"Unlike the US...this guy will get away with it b/c of the Canadian Justice system...that's what infuriates the Canadian people as much as what has been done..."

"The government of Quebec isn't doing anything about Earl Jones and his victims is because its anglophone money and the french establishment doesn't care about anglophones being ripped off."


and to sum it up all.......

"There will be no good ending to this story, ever. What fate Earl Jones will suffer will not compensate for all the hurt he has caused."

AMEN....



LATE BREAKING NEWS>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

According to reports Earl Jones is still in Canada. He is in touch with his lawyer who claims that he is contact with police.

There's a lot not being said.... PEOPLE HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW!!!!!!

For God's sake reveal what you know and get the bastard into custody!!

Anglo Press Silent on Theater Controversy

Perhaps the story isn't deemed as newsworthy as it is in the French press or maybe editorialists are taking their time before crafting a position on Eric Amber's vulgar response to a demand by a recipient of an English-only mass email. The complainer demanded that he be addressed in the French language or be removed from the mailing list.

The story certainly has legs in the French media and I wrote about it yesterday. On Sunday the radical French rights group Jeunes Patriotes du Québec ( an organization described in the Montreal Gazette as a sovereignist 'goon squad') picketed the theater in a demonstration that consisted of less than thirty people and again today the story continues to create ink.

In defending Mr. Amber I knew that there wouldn't be anyone in the mainstream English media that would dare to offer him support and I assumed that the same would certainly hold true in the French media.

How wrong I was on the second assumption.

A post by Mathieu Turbide on mechant blogue entitled "The other, less pretty side of the coin' complained that the reaction to the insult was way out of proportion.

Mais menacer quelqu'un physiquement parce qu'il a été con et qu'il a manqué de respect par courriel à deux personnes? Je ne sais pas pour vous, mais j'ai l'impression que certains dépassent les bornes.

But to threaten someone physically because he was an idiot and that he showed disprespect in an email to two people. I don't know about you, but it gives me the impression that they went too far.

Today in La Press in an article written by Marc Cassivi, he wasn't afraid to offer an alternate view, one that largely agrees with what I said yesterday.

"Il y avait dans le temps un joueur des Bruins et des Flyers, Ken Linseman, que l'on appelait le rat. Il faisait rager ses adversaires, par de petits coups vicieux, jusqu'à ce qu'il y en ait un qui lui sacre un coup de poing au visage. Évidemment, l'arbitre punissait la réplique bien plus souvent que la provocation. M'est avis que Les Sages fous sont moins sages qu'on le pense. Et qu'il y a dans leur courriel «innocent» une pointe de Ken Linseman, un soupçon de Marco Materazzi. Ils l'ont un peu cherché, ce coup de boule."

"There was a time when the Boston Bruins had a player, Ken Linesman, who was nicknamed the 'rat'. He enraged his adversaries with little vicious shots, up to the point where they clocked him in the face. As you can imagine, more often than not the referee punished the responder." Undestand that the 'Sages Fou" are less sage than then we think. And in the 'innocent' email there's a bit of Ken Linseman, a touch of Mario Materazzi (the Italian soccer player who goaded France's Zinedine Zidane's into a costly head-butt in the World cup finals.) They were looking to provoke.

Next

"Un théâtre anglo fait par courriel de la promo en anglais pour des spectacles en anglais destinés à un public anglo. Il en a parfaitement le droit, même si, stratégiquement, il se coupe d'un public potentiel."

"When an Anglo theater sends a promotional email in English for an English show destined for an English audience, they have the perfect right to do so, even if it strategically cuts down the potential audience."

The only editorial opinion offered by the Montreal Gazette was that of a reader, in a weak-assed letter to the editor;

"As an anglo-Quebec theatre artist, I was deeply offended by Théatre Ste. Catherine founder Eric Amber's derogatory comments toward francophone artists and his view that "francophone Quebec society in general" is racist and intolerant toward "minorities and non-francophone cultures."As someone who works in the theatre in both languages, I can attest that this is simply not true." Donovan King

.....argh!!!