Cowardly Premier Legault invokes "Jim Crow" English CEGEP rule

For those who take offence to the harshness of the title of this blog piece and the reference to the infamous Jim Crow laws prevalent in the southern United States in the last century, let us consider that these laws were put in place to limit rights, and to segregate blacks from whites through regulation, despite emancipation and equality being the law of the land.

Limiting admission to English CEGEPS through regulation while purportedly allowing full legal access is no different than voter suppression in America where minorities, particularly blacks are subject to regulations that hinder them from participation.

In the simplest of terms, it is like begrudgingly allowing Blacks to attend historically all-white schools, but limiting enrolment size and giving priority to white students.

Premier Legault proposes the exact same thing, which is allowing francophones to legally attend English CEGEP but limiting enrolment and giving priority to English students. It's called (or should be) 'Educational choice suppression'

That gentle reader is the very definition of a "Jim Crow" law.

Most francophones reluctantly agree that their children entering primary school should be streamed into the French side. While not all agree, educating primary and secondary students in French in the formative years is largely accepted as a way to protect the French language and culture on the majority.
But that support collapses when the children grow up and are ready for CEGEP (Quebec's version of grade 12 and 13 or junior college, so to speak,)
Here parents and voters harshly disagree and view it as a freedom of choice issue that discriminates against young francophone adults, rendering them second-class citizens because Anglos are the only citizens with full language options.

I haven't seen the polling results because none is made available, but believe me when I say that every government has polled on the issue and has been frightened by a result that indicates that imposing Bill 101 language rules on CEGEP would be wildly unpopular and cost them dearly in electorial support.

It's a situation, that the public won't abide by and despite good intentions (saving the French language), discrimination is discrimination.
And so because imposing Bill 101 to CEGEP is a no-go, as separatist government after government has confirmed (despite calls to action by militant nationalist and language fanatics,) regulation is the workaround answer in the hope that the public will be hoodwinked into believing that choice has been maintained when it decidedly has not.
As Alabama Blacks in the last century found out, while they had the official right to vote, precious few actually could. 

Jim Crow is alive and well in Quebec.

I cannot underscore the pure hate, jealousy and opportunism that drove this gutless and nefariously cruel decision because its real effect will also be devastating on anglophone students applying to English language CEGEPS.
It's hard to believe the Premier when he says that he will give priority to English students for enrolment in  English CEGEPS. Will schools actually enforce an entrance quota system? It's already notoriously difficult to score a place even with stellar grades. I can't imagine things could improve unless the government puts down a quota system that guarantees English students priority.

Jim Crow sounding more like the case now?

And limiting the availability of enrolment to English CEGEP will drive demand among francophones because there is nothing so desired as the forbidden fruit.

Will it be that an excellent English student with a 75% grade average will be accepted before a phenomenal francophone candidate with a 95% average?

Now the government has crowed that its cap of English places in CEGEP is 17% of all admissions, a generous percentage given that native anglos make up about 8% of the population.
But Anglos have historically a much higher rate of attendance in college and university compared to francophones, up to 50% more.
If Anglos are given priority as the Premier promised then it leaves precious few places that francophones have available in English CEGEP.

And by the way, the 33,000 students enrolled in the five English public CEGEPS make up about 20% of the Quebec CEGEP population. The 17% cap means that the government is planning to cut that number by 15% or about 2,500 students.

Right now, of the 33,000 students in English CEGEP, about 8,000 are French-speaking, not an astronomical number compared to the 130,000 francophone students attending French CEGEP.
But 8,000 is too much for a government concerned with appearances and cutting that number seems a priority that makes a mountain out of a molehill.

For francophones, getting into an English CEGEP will simply be a case of la creme de la creme. 
It reminds me of an old saying among francophone Quebecers;

"He was so sick he had to go to a Jewish doctor!"

The new saying may well be;

"She was such a brilliant student, she got into an English CEGEP,"

I mostly supported Legault and the CAQ believing that it was a better alternative to the PQ, seeing that the Liberals had corrupted their way out of public favour, but while the PQ was and is honest of its intentions, making the public wary, the CAQ is stealthily doing what the PQ could not.

But Legault's tone has been decidedly confrontational with the Premier going out of his way to remind us that he is the Premier of francophones first and foremost. He isn't even shy about it.

He did well to hide his animosity towards Anglos and Canada in his run-up to the election but perhaps there were not so subtle hints that I should have picked up on.

In the election campaign event, his wife made some disparaging comments about Anglophone culture and perpetrated the nonsense of the superiority of Quebec culture.

"On the tape, Brais also praised Quebec as a jewel in North America, with a European-style culture distinct from the rest of Canada.

We are different, we are not coming from Saskatchewan .... Have you been to Saskatchewan? It's almost the United States,'' Brais said.

She also denounced Ontarians as people who only watch American TV."

I excused Legault for defending his wife's independence and right to an opinion out of marital fidelity but now conclude that it's a family position. Madame Legault apologized for her insult but not for her beliefs.

At any rate, the entire language issue is rooted on the language militant side as being a problem caused by the English, while conveniently ignoring the fact that the majority of francophones only care about protecting their language if someone else is to be shamed, blamed.
For me, I'm actually astonished that so few francophones opt for English CEGEP with only about 6% of francophone students choosing an English CEGEP.
While the rest of the world tries desperately to learn English, not to abandon their native language, but to enhance their professional prospects and personal fulfillment, Quebec pedals the fiction that having a second language is dangerous.
It is incredible that North Korea does a better job of teaching English to students than Quebec, with most North Korean high schoolers able to carry on a decent conversation in English. Not so in Quebec, where teaching English is seen as taking a bite out of the forbidden fruit. 
How sad.  

As for the argument that attending an English CEGEP leads to assimilation because it is a time where young adults choose a mate, it is a fact that in two out of three English/French marriages or partnerships, the resulting children are sent to French schools.

Legault continues to pedal a false language narrative that has the effect of casting blame on the English community for the lack of effort in Quebec's francophone community to safeguard its own language.
Taking a page out of the propagandist playbook, repeating this big lie over and over again has given it a legitimacy that it does not deserve.

Court Deals Quebec Nationalists Painful Reminder that They Still Live in Canada

The definition of a non-news story is one that garners tremendous media attention while remaining of little interest to the general public.

The furor in the francophone media in regards to the latest court ruling over Quebec's Bill 21 law (which bans certain religious wear in certain public and para-public jobs) is just such a case.
A media tempest in a teapot.

While the ruling mostly supports the use of the famous opting-out 'notwithstanding clause' and allowed the government to move forward with the restrictions, it did make an exception for those serving in the National Assembly and likewise for the minority English-language school boards of Quebec.
In other words, the court ruled that the government could ban Hijabs, kippahs and other religious regalia in certain occupations, like teachers, judges and others in positions of authority.
But an exception was made on constitutional grounds that the ban cannot apply to English school boards or elected officials because the notwithstanding clause cannot override constitutional guarantees.
This ruling sent French language nationalists off the rails, with the usual gang of whingers raising holy Hell.

The arguments offered to oppose this court ruling are the same tired ones used to sell sovereignty for the last 50 years, that is, the old canard of the supposed collective humiliation inflicted upon Quebec by a vengeful and evil federal government, out of touch with Quebec language and cultural aspirations.
These tired and repetitive arguments have faded into banality and insignificance over the decades. One would think the proponents of a sovereign Quebec would adopt a new tack, given the failure to launch of the old. Replaying the humiliation card is desperate and sad, the very definition of insanity is repeating the same hackneyed monologue over and over again and expecting a different result.

I get that militant nationalists are furious over the court ruling, it describes a different society than what they support. Some people like the colour red while others blue, no justifications or explanations needed.  

But making illogical and incoherent arguments against the ruling, such as those made by the likes of Mathieu Bock Coté and company is sadly comical, the crux of that argument is that the court ruling makes for two classes of citizens and that the idea that a law can apply to some but not others is inconsistent with democracy.

"Il s’agit désormais de découper le Québec en communautés rivales et de créer deux catégories de citoyens." Mathieu Bock-Coté
("From now on, it's a question of dividing Quebec into rival communities and creating two categories of citizens.)

Really?
And what exactly does Bill 101 do if not that?
The essence of Quebec's language law does exactly what Bock-Coté decries, that is, the creation of different categories of citizens depending on language.

Arguing that the two aren't the same because Bill 101 applies to everyone and now Bill 21 does not, is splitting hairs.

Imagine a law that mandates that all schools must teach students to use only their right hand to write. While that law may satisfy Monsieur Bock-Coté's criterion that law must apply equally to all, it is in fact, only the lefties who are adversely affected!

At any rate, practically all laws, rules and regulations have exceptions and to pretend otherwise is nonsense.

Once again, I repeat, Sovereigntists have every right to decry the court ruling because it doesn't suit them and their grand design for an independent Quebec. Fair enough.

What galls them the most I assume is that the ruling is a stark reminder that Quebec remains part of Canada and that it cannot through its National Assembly create a world of its own design, divorced from the essence of Canada.

As for rising up in rage and defiance in the face of this insulting court ruling, many nationalist pundits have reminded Quebecers that this is the price they are paying for not voting for independence and that perhaps they should now show some backbone.

Really?

Most Quebecers don't give a hoot for this ruling. The francophones majority is technically unaffected by its application since their children go to French schools.
This non-news story is a lesson on how divorced from reality these entitled and cloistered journalists remain.  Making a mountain out of a molehill is a just description of the fantasy world within which they reside. While these entitled pundits cash paycheque after paycheque while living comfortably in their Plateau oasis, they are out of touch with the people of Quebec who are in fact suffering. Not from language oppression but Covid-19 related financial difficulties and mind-numbing mobility restrictions.

I'll leave the last word to one of these furious nationalists;

"Many Quebecers endure these humiliating follies because Canada is relatively prosperous and comfortable. How sad ! A comfortable mental asylum remains a mental asylum."  Joseph Facal

Yup....

Desperate PQ Embraces Anti-English CEGEP Fantasy

Hypocritical PQ leader educated at McGill

With the PQ facing an existential crisis, it isn't surprising that desperation has dictated an attack on English CEGEPS, cast as the latest English bogeyman in another vain attempt to generate some sort of political traction.

The Parti Quebecois isn't in danger of disappearing, there will always be a core of militant separatists who although ageing, still endure, albeit in smaller and smaller numbers.
But the PQ actually faces a future that may be sadder than its actual demise, that is to remain what it has become... sad and irrelevant.

With sovereignty unachievable, the PQ has had to carve out another role for itself, and so now defines itself as the defender of Quebec's 'pur laine' society..
So we can expect the continued and constant harangue of 'Chicken Little' warnings of imminent linguistic and cultural doom.
It is tiresome and sad.

With zero chance of gaining power, the party has been freed up to embrace a more radical platform which includes a proposed referendum and more language militancy. The leadership, which has always tempered the hubris and excess of the militant base no longer has anything to lose.

And so the PQ leader, who opposed the idea of banning English CEGEP for francophones when he ran for the leadership has abruptly changed positions.
As they say, desperate times call for desperate measures.

"Plamondon started his academic studies at Collège André-Grasset, which he graduated from in 1997. He would later receive a bachelor's degree in civil and common law from McGill University in 2001, a diploma in International Law from Lund University in 2001, and an MBA from Oxford University in 2006." Wikipedia

By the way, Lund University is in Sweden and offers Law courses in Swedish and English. The website doesn't list a course in International law, but rather International Human Rights law, a course taught in English.
I don't begrudge Monsieur Plamondon an English education, I actually applaud it. An English education opened up the world to him, as too it would for francophone CEGEP students.
It's a bit sad that he's now defending an anti-English education platform for political expediency because he always seemed to be a realistic straight-shooter. It's sad how politics and the pressure of leadership in a dogmatic party bring out the worst.
Just ask Thomas Mulcair whose leadership was brought down for his lack of enthusiasm for moronic radical policies.

I'm reminded of the 1950's musical gem "The Music Man" where a flimflam artist tells the townsfolk that a pool hall is threatening their community and that the only cure is to set up a marching band with him conveniently selling them the instruments.

"Friend, either you're closing your eyes
To a situation you do not wish to acknowledge
Or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated
By the presence of a pool table English CEGEP in your community

Well, Ya got trouble, my friend, right here
I say, trouble right here in River City Quebec"

The threat of English CEGEP  is as simplistic and just as stupid.
When I first watched the movie I wondered out loud how the townsfolk could be so gullibly stupid.
Now I know.

Motive aside, let us examine the so-called threat that English language CEGEP poses to Quebec's francophone majority because after all, every policy should address a specific issue or problem or a semblance thereof.
Saying that francophones and Allophones attending English CEGEP is a threat to French Quebec may be easy to do, but not so easy to prove because frankly it is, just more separatist smoke and mirrors, a fantasy woven to fire up the moribund apathetic Francophone electorate.
You got trouble....

I usually try to make a researched and thoughtful (in my opinion) rebuttal of the issue I address but in this case, I will not attempt to disprove this nonsense. It is like arguing against the idea of a flat Earth.

Suffice to say that there isn't a study or reference or published fact that would support the idea that English CEGEP is a threat. Everybody who has led any political party knows this truth, including the current PQ leadership.

The only point I wish to make is to address the fantasy that those who go to English CEGEP are somehow magically transformed into anglophones.
Francophones schooled in French and who were brought up in a French home remain Francophones even if they attend English CEGEP.(just like the PQ leader.)
Allophones who absorb themselves into the English community have made that choice long before CEGEP. Most who do have been brought up in an English milieu at home, despite being schooled in French
I have heard the racist argument that Francophones who go to English CEGEP are in danger of marrying or partnering with a dreaded Anglophone and are lost to the francophone nation.
The only fact in this article that I do cite is that in the case of an Anglophone/Francophone union, two-thirds of the children are sent to French primary schools.

Most francophone parents are alright with their children being forced into French primary and high schools.
But for parents of highly gifted and motivated children who want to round out their education and life prospects by attending English CEGEP and university, denying them the opportunity is akin to telling them that they are second-class citizens.
It is political dynamite that no party which actually aspires to power would embrace.

And finally, until the PQ provides some facts and figures to support their anglicization fantasy we should not engage them in useless and silly debate.
The mainstream media, both English and French fail miserably to call out the PQ on this nonsense.

It isn't incumbent on those who believe that the Earth is a sphere to disprove that the Earth is flat, it is the other way around.

Is Quebec Racist? ....Is the Pope Catholic?

              "This isn't racism, it's mosquito protection"           

I can't say I am surprised at the virulent reaction by Quebec politicians and its like-minded francophone media both of which went ballistic over an anti-Quebec tweet by an obscure University of Ottawa professor, Amir Attaran.

"Amir Attaran has written on his personal Twitter account that Quebec’s culture is racist, that the Quebec government is being run by white supremacists, called the province the Alabama of the north and accused Quebec nurses of medical lynching and killing Joyce Echaquan, a 37-year-old Atikamekw woman who died in a hospital in 2020".

As one might expect, the province didn't take kindly to the perceived attack on its good name and reputation.
While Quebec brushes off complaints of language discrimination from its native anglo community and charges of racism by its ethnic minorities with nary a shrug, criticism by 'outsiders' is met with righteous indignation and vigorous pushback when complaints or accusations are made in the ROC or worse still, in the USA.
These attacks in the  'international' community are somehow particularly galling and incredibly stinging, accusations to which Quebec remains extra sensitive and prickly.

When Mordechai Richler wrote a particularly unflattering and somewhat devastating portrait of Quebec society in New Yorker magazine back in 1991, it sent apoplectic Quebec nationalists off the rails. Richler is to this day branded a cruel and malevolent defamer by nationalists, considered the prototypical 'Quebec-basher,' perhaps the evil spawn of the legendary fat matronly Eaton's sales clerk, who is accused of making it a condition of service that francophone customers "Speak White!" back in the day of wretched colonialism.

But I digress.
The idea advanced by Professor Attaran that Quebec society is 'racist' is somewhat problematic as there is no objective standard or metric by which to measure how racist a particular society is and there is no accurate opinion poll on the subject to be trusted.
After all who would tell a pollster that Yes, I am a proud racist.

So I have to question how the professor came to his conclusions without a detailed and academically legitimate study. He sounds like a blowhard and publicity hound, bereft of rigour and honesty. 
Citing a couple of cases of overt racism to assert his conclusion that Quebec society is racist is lazy and unworthy of his title as a professor.

But still, he may be right..... 

In the United States, militants in the Black Lives Matter movement label America as a racist society, but in a nation where the majority elected a Black president, it is hard to accept as credible. While there are many racists in the USA, there are many, many more who are not.
So what exactly is the demarcation line for declaring an entire society racist?
The easiest barometer would be to label a society racist where certain groups based on colour, race or religion are officially barred from participation in public life, be it government, the military or law enforcement, the civil service or the education system and most importantly restrictions on housing.  A society that places employment or participation limits based on these criteria can be confidently labelled as racist.
However, such is not the case anywhere in the developed and democratic western world. Not any more. Official discrimination is verboten and those still discriminated against have legal redress.
Both private and public institutions across the western world have overwhelmingly evolved to where minorities are consciously included and indeed promoted in order to repair the historical injustice.
But that doesn't necessarily stop racism.

There remains a certain minority of citizens who quietly maintain their racist beliefs and who quietly and discreetly continue to discriminate against minorities in their personal and even in their professional or work life. These racists continue to exist and thrive in government jobs, law enforcement and the public service, where they quietly deny rights and opportunities to minorities on the down-low.

The question to be considered is not whether Quebec is a racist society, which it is not, but whether Quebec harbours a greater number of citizens who are racist than say other provinces.
In this respect, I would answer in the affirmative based only on my observations of over thirty years travelling the length and breadth of this province as an operator of a chain store with locations across eastern Canada and with almost 50 locations across Quebec. Because my career was largely conducted in French and 90% of my employees francophone, I think I am much more qualified to offer an opinion on the subject compared to an outsider like the good professor who tossed out his charges of racism rather gratuitously.

Before I describe my observations, a paragraph or two on the statistical support for racism in Quebec.
After much study, I sadly conclude that statistics on the subject are scattered and not very useful . Let me briefly explore with you the problem with just one example of just how problematic they can be.

The Bnai Brith, a Jewish lobby organization keeps statistics on antisemitic incidents across Canada, one of the few minority organizations to do so.
Let's examine just what those stats tell us.

According to the collected statistics, there were 2,041 antisemitic incidents in Canada last year, with 34% of the total occurring in Quebec a province that accounts for about 22% of Canada's population. or 50% more than the Canadian average.

Digging deeper we can see that Ontario had about 4 times as many acts of vandalism and violence, certainly more serious incidents.
But it's certainly not the whole story because we need to consider how many Jews live in the province where the incidents took place. Divide the incidents by the number of Jews and we can level the playing field to account for differences in population and demographics. 

The numbers are quite different when taken in context.

As you can see, dividing the antisemitic incidents by the population of Jews in each jurisdiction paints a startling picture of who in Canada is the most and least antisemitic, that is, if we were to use antisemitic incidents as the criterion.
In Atlantic Canada, where there are few Jews, there are proportionally many more antisemitic incidents and actually,  three times more compared to Quebec.
But Ontario is actually 4 times less antisemitic than Quebec and 9 times less so than Atlantic Canada.

Hmmm?? What conclusion can we draw?
Only that the fewer Jews in a community, the higher the incidence of antisemitism.
That might be important in understanding racism in Canada and in Quebec in particular.
Also of interest is Quebec's proportionally very large ultra-orthodox community which garners much resentment for their scofflaw attitude, especially apparent recently in their refusal to obey Covid regulations. This resentment leads to an increase in antisemitism here in Quebec, but also in New York City and in fact, Israel itself. This one fact skews the results and makes comparisons relatively impossible.

Now my opinion.....

The scourge of heightened racism in Quebec may be linked to the very nature of its tribal society.
It seems that societies that are homogeneous, insular and who have a common language not shared internationally may tend to be more racist.
This applies neatly to societies in  China, Japan, Korea and so too I believe, in Quebec.
If you think I am being harsh in labelling these far eastern countries as racist, please follow the links. If anything I am underplaying the situation by not labelling these countries as 'extremely' racist.

In many respects, Quebec's francophone majority lives in a bubble, an outlier society that develops differently, just as the above-mentioned countries do so and which leads to a divergent set of common values developed in an alternate world.
Sometimes I shrug my head in utter disbelief in regards to news stories that demonstrate how out of step Quebec is in regards to racism as compared to Canada or the USA.
While Quebec is proud of this difference and balks at being judged on Canadian or American standards, it allows racism to persist on a level not tolerated elsewhere

Quebec's heightened level of racism is rooted in its fanatical obsession to protect not only its language but its culture as well. 
I'm reminded of the statuesque African woman who testified at the Bouchard-Taylor Commission who in her testimony in perfect French complained that for immigrants like herself, speaking French isn't enough and where she is expected to eat maple syrup and poutine. 
Watch this hilarious video of those testifying

In Quebec, immigrants, anglos, minorities and outsiders, whether they speak French or not are looked upon as a cultural threat. The Quebec media, nationalists, and politicians hammer home the theme of language as a guise or smokescreen for attacking those not of tribal Quebec.  

In Quebec,  a certain level of racism is silently accepted as necessary to supposedly maintain the survival of the collective tribal culture, which is seen to be under attack by 'les autres'. 

I'm not going to enumerate a long list of the racist incidents that highlight the problem, there are too many. The examples I do cite speak to the underlying culture that exists where the differences between the 'real' Quebecois are revealed rather tellingly.

Let's start with the police across Quebec whose racist treatment of natives and Blacks is legendary. 

The Montreal police have forever used the tactic of 'Rousting' which is the policy of stopping targets on a pretext to undergo a search which is really nothing more than a fishing expedition meant to intimidate.
While all police forces used this tactic in the past, it is no longer employed because of its uneven targetting of minorities. New York City had discontinued and famously apologized for its program known as  'Stop & Frisk."
To this day, the Montreal police are infamous for stopping Blacks for no good reason other than to harass. The phenomenon has spawned the uniquely Montreal crime of  "Driving while Black"
Police famously use every excuse on the book (broken taillight, jaywalking etc.) to skirt the law and justify the harassment. 
I give this example because no law or regulation can stop this type of racism because no law or regulation has technically been broken. This is the pernicious racism of Quebec police where all the laws on the books that outlaw racism are ignored with a wink, wink, nod, nod.

The cartoon above lampoons the Quebec provincial police's abysmal and degrading treatment of local native women in the Abitibi region. The police of course were absolved of wrongdoing as per usual by a commission looking into the allegations. The cartoon is rather poignant in underlining how any flimsy excuse is accepted in Quebec to whitewash the racism. 

When the police are dragged before the Quebec Human rights tribunal they are invariably found guilty of racism and ordered to pay but a paltry few thousand dollars in damages. They pay reluctantly and never apologize. This is the reality of Quebec.

Underscoring this blatant yet unvoiced racism are two stories that hit the media this week.

The first was a story about an interview by TVA news' Mario Dumont and the head of the border guards union who complained Hasidic Jews were crossing into Canada by the droves. He told the interviewer that it was chaos at the border with about 8,000 people crossing one border in over two days.
Somehow a TVA editor put up the graphic that 8,000 Jews were entering Quebec a fact not even the racist union leader made. Mr. Dumont was alarmed and offered that perhaps ten or twelve thousand might cross over the next days.
The story was 100% fake news, untrue on every level. The entire Hasidic community in Quebec is less than 10,000, so the numbers are ridiculous. Canadian Border services felt compelled to deny the story completely in a press release,  The agency said that less than 8,000 people crossed ALL THE LAND BORDERS in Quebec that day and that the vast majority were essential workers.
But the fictional narrative played well, pedalled by an ignorant and racist union rep, an out-of-touch interviewer and an inept editor. 
In the end, nobody apologized because, well, I would ask readers to draw their own conclusions.

Last month a legendary racist sportswriter Rejean Tremblay wrote two articles that could never appear anywhere else but Quebec. Mr. Tremblay lives in the past where all the players on the Habs were French and yearns for the good old days. He complained that players without French names and heritage could never be successful 'old-timers' because of their foreign surnames (of which he gave two examples.)  A second racist article actually had to be spiked after the blatantly racist insult on Chinese.

"Everything is going well because we are winning .. The Habs could play 20 Chinese players and it would be okay.
If the KHL convinced the Chinese to embrace hockey, we'd find ourselves with 20 Fang Wongs in 20 years. 

An article was written by Pierre-Oliver Zappa in where else, the Journal du Montreal,  about street gangs taking advantage of the federal government's lax enforcement of those receiving Covid benefits turned into a nightmare for the journalist.
Unbeknownst to him, an editor inserted a photo along with the story of a group of Blacks lining up, a racist implication that they were the guilty party.
The problem was that the photo, selected by the unnamed editor was a years-old stock photo of Black high school students lining up to attend church. I'm not kidding.

Not everyone in Quebec is racist and the mortified journalist made an immediate apology and YouTube video denouncing the photo, even though he had nothing to do with it.

An example of the underlying racism is a story from earlier this year about the town of St. Jean sur Richelieu. It seems that a farmer sold his property for land development many years ago with the condition that no homes be sold to Jews. When the servitude came to light last year it was disqualified by an outraged judge who ordered the exclusionary clause removed from future acts of sale.
That isn't the story.
It seems that some citizens demanded that the street and a park named for the racist farmer be changed and the city said it would study the issue.  You can imagine where that discussion went.
But the icing on the cake is the unabashed son of the racist farmer who proudly defended his father  in an interview;  Link{fr}

"My father got along with everyone, but you see, Jews, they become masters of just about everything and that's what he didn't like"

And lastly is the story of a hospital in Quebec which recently advertised for an employee with white skin.
Really.

"The regional health authority of the Laurentians has opened an investigation into an incident in which one of its departments posted job openings for female orderlies at St-Eustache Hospital that stipulated candidates have “white skin.” 

The story erupted following a report in La Presse Wednesday, which said the postings were made because a resident, described as difficult and suffering from dementia, refused to be aided by a person of colour. 

According to the report, 10 emails sent to placement agencies in November variously specified that the candidate sought to work with a patient in the hospital’s “green” (non-COVID-19) zone must be a “white woman only,” be a “white coloured (orderly),” “must be a white woman” and “must have white skin.” Link

This incident is perhaps the most telling argument that Quebec is more racist than the rest of Canada because it wasn't the work of a rogue idiot or racist. The ad passed through many hands before being sent to placement agencies, none of which complained. This story may represent the smoking gun.

And by the way, as racist as Alabama is, this job posting would never have seen the light of day.
I'd bet on it.

Open Letter on Language to Premier Legault, the OQLF and other Haters

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Sorry for the nasty tone this letter will take but like so many Anglos and ethnics in Quebec, we are utterly fed up with the nasty and cruel assault on our communities. It behooves me to point out the obvious painful truth in a rather frank and perhaps unkind manner in response to the unacceptable scapegoating that we have borne with too much silence, dignity and sadly, acquiescence.

Once again, for political reasons,  the harping has been raised over language and sadly, the feds are jumping over hoops to see how high each party can reach to placate the unplacatable.

While your demand that living and working in French in Canada be an established right, you continue to argue that living in English in Quebec is but a privilege, one accorded, as we are constantly reminded, by the grace and generosity of the benevolent francophone majority.

While you demand that every airplane flying between Vancouver and Victoria have a French-speaking cabin crew member with francophone passengers but a rarity, you defend as reasonable and fair, the right of a bus driver in West Island Montreal not to answer a passenger's question in English even though the makeup of the riders may be 70% English.
It is the same mean-spirited policy that posts a police resource officer who cannot speak English to serve in a 1,500 student English language high school in Laval. This in a police force of 800 officers.

Let me blunt.

It isn't the job of Anglos and ethnics to protect the French language in Quebec while Quebec francophones make zero effort to protect their own language.
It is that simple.

Every proposal to safeguard the French language in Quebec that has been enacted or proposed is targeted at our community, giving life to the lie that we are responsible for the fictitious demise of the French language in Quebec.

If francophones want to protect their language they can do so themselves.
We are not the cause of its perceived and sadly exaggerated demise. We have become a political football no different from other minorities in other countries scapegoated and blamed for the failings of the majority.

It is a convenient political lie that must be denounced.
So let me get to the point.  

Fix your own language problems within your own community before knocking on our door.

If you don't want immigrants and especially French-speaking Muslim immigrants because they won't 'assimilate' and adopt Quebec cultural practices, then stop immigration.

Let every 'pur laine' family adopt a policy of three children instead of the under two that is presently the case. I know that it is an effort and perhaps an imposition in this modern world but if protecting French is so important, I'm sure the effort is merited.

Instead of consuming English culture, how about absorbing Quebec French artists and television programs instead of Netflix and English artists.
As it is, the under-watched French version of the CBC, Radio-Canada, is over-funded by English Canada, all without a thank-you very much.
How about stopping the practice of dubbing Anglophone shows like Brokenwood, Grantchester, Downton Abbey and a myriad of others in favour of French-language shows from Belgium and France.
Hmmm. Not interested?

The Quebec film industry consists of but a handful of decent films a year, despite a robust subsidy program with Quebecers seemingly more attuned to Hollywood blockbusters.  STOP GOING!!

Unlike the dozens of anglophone artists who perform successfully in Quebec City and Montreal to mostly francophone audiences, the same is not the case for Quebecois francophone artists who struggle to attract paying customers. No Quebec Francophone artist can sell out the Bell Centre in Montreal except perhaps Celine Dion, who in reality ceased being a francophone artist when she consciously removed the accent on her name (Céline) and embraced English music as her mainstay.  

As the organizers readily admit, the annual summertime Quebec music festival would not be able to sell a fraction of the tickets were it not for the headline English artists who actually draw the patrons. And these patrons are almost all francophone.

As for English CEGEPS and universities drawing too many francophone students, another red-herring complaint, I couldn't care less if francophones were banned, but the government won't adopt this measure because francophone families would rebel.
Preserving the French language seems less important when it is francophones who need to make the effort and sacrifice.
The absurd debate in Quebec as to the danger of teaching English in Quebec public schools is a sad testament of how out of touch with reality language militants are  In fact, North Korea understands better the importance of English and does a better job of teaching it in public schools than francophone schools in Quebec.
Can you think of anything sadder?

And lastly, if the French language is in such dire straits and if it is so important, just call another referendum and convince 63% of francophones to vote to leave Canada. It isn't a magical percentage that is absurd, but alas, it is easier to blame 'les autres' for sovereignty's unattainability.

How is it that every language militant, sovereigntist organization and whinging journalist never propose that Francophones make any real effort or sacrifice to save their so-called endangered language?
Is it because they know they'll get no support because the issue is actually just phony or is it because francophones don't really care and prefer to pay lip service by blaming and scapegoating us, the anglophone and ethnic community. 

The great language lie is not that French is in danger, (which it is not,) but rather the lie that Anglos and Ethnics are responsible to fix someone else's mess.