Habs Owner Masterfully Sidesteps Language Issue

Geoff Molson skates effortlessly around language issue.

It seems that Geoff Molson has invented a neat language workaround for companies wanting to employ a non-French-speaking boss.

Air Canada should take note of how companies can hire whom they want to the top job without the blowback associated with the hiring of a unilingual anglo boss in a French province.

For those who don't follow hockey in general or the Habs in particular Geoff Molson fired the General-manager of the team Marc Bergevin, a long-overdue sacking made urgent by the Montreal Canadiens disastrous on-ice results this season.

Quite simply, Molson hired an anglo Jeff Gorton, a unilingual American, to replace Bergervin but re-defined his title as senior vice president, while committing to hiring a new French-speaking general manager. The two will work together but in reality, the new general manager will be a de facto assistant general manager with a general manager title.

A clever workaround.

The new 'general manager' who will work under Gorton will be the face of the team, dealing with the media while the real boss will be quietly squirrelled away in his ivory tower, making all the real decisions.

 It's a solution that is painfully transparent and I was interested if the French hockey media would go along with the charade.

After watching Molson's press conference where he breathlessly confessed that the job of leading the team is more than a one-man job in Montreal and where the necessity of working in two languages made the hiring a duo necessary, I wondered if the charade would pass muster.

It certainly did.

The commentators attending the news conference played along because that's what hockey journalists do. Not one dared ask Molson the obvious question about his hiring of the unilingual Gorton and nobody asked why Gorton did not attend the news conference.
I predict Mr. Gorton will be extremely camera-shy, understandable in the circumstances.

Bravo! Well-done. 

Mr. Molson serves us with a useful lesson in that as long as the language issue is somehow addressed, even though fakery, the public and media will go along with any charade.

But alas not everyone will accept the misdirection and already language fanatics are crying murder most foul.
It didn't take long for the anglophobes to come out of the woodwork as the insufferable  Rejean Tremblay in Journal de Montreal

"Gorton, an American, doesn't speak a word of French, but is now the vice-president of hockey, which is in fact, the real general manager of the Canadiens.
He's another Michael Rousseau, the president of Air Canada who doesn't speak a word of French.
What a sinister insult! And what cowardice.

So They're going to hire a 'frog' lap-dog to talk to the public and also to make the job easy.  

But we all understood that Gorton will have the final say when the discussions get tough"

The question is who would want such a job, a marionette required to repeat in French what is already decided in English??

Answer: Lots of people.

As fpr Air Canada, they need to hire a new French-speaking CEO while simultaneously promoting unlingual Michael Rousseau to the newly-created position of SUPER-CEO.

In Quebec, that'll work....

Anglo-Bashing Replaces Hockey as Quebec's National Sport

With the unprecedented collapse of the Montreal Canadiens, out of the playoffs before the snow even falls, a dejected and angry Quebec media has turned instead its attention to the blood sport of bashing Anglophones, which has reached a dangerous tipping point sparked by the CEO of Air Canada's lack of French during a yearly review.

The visceral outrage in the French media is wholly disproportionate to the slight and has engendered nothing less than mass language hysteria.

Politicians have piled onto  the wagon of righteous indignation led by our illustrious Prime Minister calling it "an unacceptable situation,'' noting that the minister in charge of official languages is ''following up.''

The irony of Trudeau's complaint represents the ultimate hypocrisy, having himself appointed a Governor-General who cannot speak French either.
Why a non-French-speaking CEO of a for-profit company is less acceptable than a non-French-speaking Governor-General begs a response.

The apoplectic French Quebec media reaction can be understood by the very painful truth that was laid bare by Mr. Rousseau,
Firstly, that Air Canada is an English corporation, run completely in English and a company that would have decamped its head office to Toronto years ago had it not been blackmailed into staying in Montreal by the Caisse de Depot.
The second painful truth laid bare is that yes, you still can live and work in Montreal without speaking French.

The Horror of Horrors.
Mr. Rousseau can be credited, like the fabled little boy who declared "that the emperor hath no clothes" in exposing the obvious language reality, one that nationalists refuse to face by pretending it isn't true.
It is the same nonsense whereby eliminating English signage in Montreal is meant to foster the fiction that Montreal is other than a bilingual city.

The echo chamber nature of Francophone media is best demonstrated by the universal adoption  of the word "Rhodesian" to describe Anglos like Mr. Rousseau who don't speak French or activists like myself who speak French perfectly but who reject the notion that Quebec is a "nation," and that Quebec is a "French Nation" or that everyone living in Quebec is "obliged to "Respect the French majority"

Journalists and opinion writers have invoked the scourge of  "Rhodesian" an alternate term for "White Supremacist" to describe Anglos and ethnics who don't abide.

Michel David

Patrick Lagacé

 

Emmanuelle Latraverse

 

My favourite "Rhodesian" reference comes from the tiresome ethnocentric blowhard Mathieu Bock-Coté, who referred to the black Mayoral candidate Balarama Holness as a white supremacist... "a Neo-Rhodesian." no less!  He also wrote this:

"Sadly, it is an old habit among radical Anglos, who have always behaved like local Rhodesians, to criminalize our collective aspiration to protect our language and place it at the heart of collective life." 

All of these journalists have no problem describing Quebec Anglos as toxic white supremacists but paradoxically whine about Quebec-bashing in the English media.
I wonder if they'd be okay with the Montreal Gazette or the National Post publishing an opinion piece where Quebec language militants were described as "fanatical language Nazis"

Quebec is living a language fantasy, one woven by nationalists and sovereigntists which the media and its populist politicians have wholeheartedly embraced.

Quebec is a nation
Quebec is a French nation
Minorities owe the francophone majority respect
The French language is in decline.
Not speaking French is contemptuous of the majority
Ottawa mistreats and disrespects Quebec
Quebec culture is superior.
The English media bashes Quebec
blah...blah blah. 

I'll counter these arguments in a future post but let me leave with a fanciful opinion piece written by Marc Bellemare, an ex-Justice minister under Jean Charest who demonstrates the ability to completely spin reality.

After  1976, several Quebecers boycotted Sun Life, which had announced the transfer of its head office to Ontario in response to René Lévesque's rise to power. In 1978, the boycott of confectioner Cadbury, who moved production to Ontario after 60 years in Montreal, hurt and served as a warning to many others.
Like me, will you dare to boycott Air Canada whenever you have the chance? Marc Bellemare

No, Mr. Bellemare, nobody is boycotting Air Canada or Cadbury or Sun Life or the hundreds of other companies that quit Quebec.
Unlike Sun Life most slinked out of the province quietly and without fanfare, unnoticed and unremarked upon by a government and media that wished to whitewash the exodus.
The next time a language hardliner takes a less convenient or more expensive airplane to Miami in order to boycott Air Canada, they'll be doing it board an airline that cares even less about French.
And we all know, it ain't gonna happen, anyways because talk is cheap.

At any rate, the language delirium has struck our Premier rather hard.
Buoyed by the enthusiastic embrace of his hard-line and discriminatory policies Legault has lost his marbles and channelled the mythical King Canute who set his throne by the seashore and commanded the incoming tide to halt and not wet his feet and robes.
Our illustrious Premier has complained that there aren't enough Quebecers (read-Francophone Quebecers) in the National Hockey League and has hatched a plan to change the situation.

Why not? This is Quebec

Air Canada Boss Enrages Quebec....Too Bad

Air Canada Boss... Let them Eat Cake!!!

I don't know if it is sad or funny to hear the Quebec political class and its lackey media tout the sudden importance of bilingualism, the hypocrisy boggles the mind.

All this outrage over the unilingual boss of Air Canada giving a speech in English and admitting that although he lives and works in Montreal and is married to a francophone, he cannot speak French.

“I’ve been able to live in Montreal without speaking French, and I think that’s a testament to the city of Montreal,” Michael Rousseau said after making a major speech to the city's business community.  Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau 

Oh my....

The shrill and hysterical outrage is comical because it showcases a reality that language militants pretend isn't there.
Air Canada and just about every single big corporation in Canada operate in English. Period.
The need for a bilingual CEO is an unneeded handicap and limits the pool of potential candidates by at least 95%.
Quebec politicians can huff and puff about language but shareholders demand the most capable person for the job and speaking French isn't even on the radar when hiring. 

Air Canada's rarefied boardroom may be located in the head office in Montreal but it operates in English without a whimper of a complaint by the OLF.

In the asymmetric world of language politics, it's important for you to speak French but not for them to speak English.
The idea that an anglophone can live in Quebec without French is outrageous while it makes perfect sense for a francophone to live in Canada without any English.
The argument made is that in Quebec there's really no need or requirement to speak English because everything is available in French. But that of course can be said of English in the downtown and western half of Montreal.
Deux poids deux measures.

Those who call for Mr. Rousseau's resignation because of his lack of French and apparent indifference need to understand that Air Canada is a for-profit corporation whose president and CEO owe loyalty to shareholders only.

Of course, Air Canada is subject to the Official languages Act because when the government privatized it, that condition was embedded. Paradoxically it means that unilingual French-speaking employees must be able to work in their language, but for militants, this should not apply to Mr. Rousseau.
In fact, the proposed Quebec language law that the government is trying to pass making a company prove that another language is necessary before making it a condition of employment can apply to Mr. Rousseau explicitly who is unilingual and has no need to speak another language. Ha!

Language militants are making all sorts of nonsense and desperate arguments, like the fact that Air Canada received a lot of government aid during the pandemic, so the CEO must speak French because Quebec taxpayers helped foot the bill.

Does it mean that those same taxpayers must speak English because they receive equalization payments from English Alberta? 

Nonsense.

Militants also demand that the CEO speaks French because the head office is in Montreal, a situation with an easy solution à la Sun Life.
The very idea that Air Canada's head office remains in Montreal is absurd, with Toronto the hub of its corporate and business life. Quebec remains a tiny part of Air Canada's business and should be treated as such.

You know what else is nonsense?
Forcing Air Canada to have a French-speaking cabin crew on every flight, even local ones in BC where the chances are overwhelming that nobody on the flight is francophone.
In the asymmetric world of Quebec language militancy, this makes perfect sense, a bus driver on a route in the west island of Montreal where perhaps 75% of the passengers are English need not answer a question in English.

It is time to update the Official LAnguages act to make forced bilingualism apply to all or none.

Quebec cannot have its cake and eat it too. 

Mr. Rousseau should have not apologized (which he did) and rather should have told Quebec to like it or lump it.

As for rumblings of a boycott... another farcical joke.
There are only two criteria for choosing an airline, price and convenience. 

Montreal Special Language Status Is Inevitable

The recent pronouncement of Montreal longshot mayoral candidate Balorama Holness on language dropped onto the Quebec political landscape like the proverbial bombshell.

Mr. Holness had the temerity to suggest that Montreal could possibly hold a referendum seeking bilingual status which if successful would create a city that would effectively opt-out of Quebec's persecutory language laws like Bill 101 and the proposed Bill 96. 

The reaction amongst language militants was swift and furious, dripping with palpable rage and visceral scorn, the very idea of 'special status' deemed an existential threat to the very essence of Quebec.

It is a reaction to be anticipated, Quebec nationalists have been demanding and receiving exceptional and special treatment from Canada for decades and the idea that they themselves will have to consider a little water in their wine, an unacceptable affront.

I read with a measure of schadenfreude a noted nationalist who raged that bilingual status for Montreal would rip the heart out of Quebec.
Hmmm...

Let us start by exploding the myth that Montreal is and always was a French city. The lie is boldly proclaimed in nothing less than the Constitution of the City of <Montreal which proudly proclaims,

CHAPTER I

CONSTITUTION OF THE MUNICIPALITY

1. A city is hereby constituted under the name “Ville de Montréal” .

Montréal is a French-speaking city.

Now the majority of Montrealers are native French speakers as well as immigrants who identify as Neo-francophones, but around 35% of Montrealers are Anglophones as well as immigrants who identify as neo-Anglophones,

Article 1 of the City constitution smacks of hubris in declaring Montreal a 'French city,' akin to a medieval king declaring himself ruler of the universe

By the same objective standard perhaps the drafters could have added a second clause declaring Montreal a 'White' city and perhaps a third article declaring Montreal a 'Christian' city because the same threshold exists.

I wonder how language militants would react if the City of Westmount issued a declaration that it is an "English City' because Anglos are in the majority with francophones constituting only 22%  of its population

By this same rationale, the Towns of Montreal West, Cote Saint-Luc and another half-dozen towns on the island of Montreal could also declare themselves "English Cities"
By the same standard, the Town of Hampstead could even declare itself an 'English-Jewish Town.' 

 

Of course, such declarations would be seen by French language militants as a racist or colonial provocation because Quebec nationalists simply use an asymmetrical counting method to determine fairness.
To them having Montreal declare itself French is fair while considering it unfair for other towns to declare themselves English.
It is the same rationale whereby Quebec whines that it is an endangered minority while simultaneously declaring itself a proud and robust nation.
On and on it goes....

As for Montreal being historically a French city, I would remind nationalists that nothing could be farther from the truth.

Montreal was literally built by the English and Scots, with much of the heavy-lifting done by the Irish.

Look at the downtown names of streets bisecting the main drag of St. Catherine.
Simpson...Redpath.. Musée(Museum), Mountain, Drummond, Stanley, Peele, Metcalf, Mansfield, McGill College, Victoria, University, Union, and Aylmer.
Almost the entire skyline and historical infrastructure  of Montreal is an Anglo achievement.

The banks, universities, colleges, businesses, museums, libraries, waterworks, rail network were largely built by non-francophones.

Until the 1960's Montreal was an Anglo achievement, even nationalists know this.

"Before 1977, for historical reasons, Montreal was a predominantly English-speaking metropolis. French was practiced in a very minor mode." Josée Legault, Journal de Montreal 

But none of this really is important. 
Montreal's present situation is all that matters and it's strange that on the issue of Montreal's identity, language nationalists and anglo defenders agree on the most important aspect, that is that Montreal and the rest of Quebec are two different animals.

 "In the last thirty years Montreal has experienced a demographic revolution, with the massive arrival of immigrants far exceeding our capacity for integration. In the metropolis, the Quebec identity has become an identity among others, and certainly not the most powerful."   Mathieu Bock-Coté,

"French, as the official language in Montreal? No, that's over!" Richard Martineau,

In Montreal, English was the dominant language of work. Social mobility. Integration of immigrants. Commercial signage. Education for over 85% of newcomers. Etc. French was seen as the language of the "poor"  Josée Legault, Journal de Montreal .

Politically, culturally and linguistically, Montreal stands out more and more from the rest of Quebec. Joeseph Facal

Future laws that aim to protect French will not change demography. The "Revenge of the Cradles," which explains our long survival in North America, is well and truly over. Denise Bombardier,

"An anti-nationalist coalition in the making. There will certainly be no referendum on the bilingual status of the city of Montreal during the next term. The fruit is not yet ripe enough. But if there was one, what would be the result? A survey on this subject was conducted by Léger three years ago for the Association for Canadian Studies. The question was both simple and ambiguous.
In your opinion, is Montreal a bilingual city?
The sample....offered an impressive answer of clarity: a massive yes. By group: 86% among allos, 83% among Anglos, 80% among French people.
The referendum proposed by Mr. Holness would ask: Do you want the city of Montreal to have bilingual status?

The No camp would make a point of emphasizing the distinction between the real city, which has a majority of bilingual inhabitants, and its legal status, which must remain French-speaking. I would gladly participate in this effort. But I owe it to lucidity to say that the Yes would win.
Montreal would claim to be officially bilingual. Jean-François Lisée

 So it's clear from the above that French-language nationalists understand what Montreal is and though thoroughly freaked out by the reality, they clearly see the handwriting on the wall.

The language situation in Montreal is irrefutably moving towards bilingualism.

The immigration influx, characterized by language nationalists as the chief villain in the decline of French in Montreal shows no sign of abating.

The CAQ government is caught between a rock and a hard place, a labour market desperate for workers versus the inevitable demographic shift away from French on the island of Montreal with increased immigration.

During the election campaign Mr. Legault promised to reduce by 20% the 40,000 number annual immigrants welcomed to Quebec each year.
In fact, in 2022, the CAQ just announced rather quietly that Quebec will welcome 70,000 new immigrants in 2022. Link[fr}

As Mr. Lisée said in his piece, the time is not yet ripe for a head-on political fight for bilingual stats in Montreal, but it is coming.

Mr. Holness serves a usual purpose if he can play spoiler in the Montreal mayoral debate by siphoning votes away from Denis Coderre, returning Valerie Plante to the office of mayor and thus setting up the real battle for bilingualism for Montreal four years from now.
Madame Plante will be the perfect foil and easy to beat. 

With another 200,000 immigrants and an emboldened and maturing bilingualism movement in Montreal, four years hence we can expect a real mayoral race between two opposing views, that is a candidate proposing bilingual status versus a candidate who proposes the status quo.
Even language nationalists knows who will win.

As for the Quebec government who will threaten and bluster, in the end, political expediency will bring them to the table because the threat of bilingual status is a lot less frightening than a referendum on Montreal succession.

Alea iacta est

Threat of Montreal Partition Driving Quebec Language Militants Mad

I told you before that a partition movement for the island of Montreal, whether ultimately successful or not is the only strategy that can lead to any sort of satisfactory outcome for minority communities in Quebec.

All the good intentions and lobbying by Anglo and ethnic community leaders intended to attenuate the precepts of Bill 96 are doomed to failure because for French-language militants and the CAQ government itself, punishing our communities, either for political gain or sport, is more important than the phony and unneeded protection of the French language that the law would purportedly provide.
The more we howl and complain the more they enjoy inflicting the pain, like a demon child sadistically roasting ants with a magnifying glass.
Too graphic?
How about a snarly Mexican bandito gleefully shooting bullets around the feet of his prisoner shouting.."Dance! Dance!"
Get the picture.

They are not indifferent to our pain and suffering, they are in fact revelling in it. That is what we are up against and the sooner we accept this reality, the sooner we can pivot..

This last week something happened that I've been waiting impatiently for.
A political voice has spoken the unspeakable in public, firing the first real and effective salvo in protecting and defending our linguistic rights.

For all those organizing a futile lobbying effort to soften the harsh elements of Bill 96, it is time to embrace the reality that polite dissent will not be effective. We need to embrace a different tact, and as the old saying goes...the best defence is a good offence.

Balarama Holness: Daring to go where no man has gone before.

Longshot Mayoral candidate Balarma Holness finally brooched the subject of Montreal seeking its own path in the language debate, rocking the political status quo, sending French language militants into an apoplectic rage-fest.

“Balarma Holness said he’d ask the Office de consultation publique de Montréal to hold a one-year consultation on the status of English and French in the city’s public and private institutions. During the hearings, he would also consult Montrealers on whether they wanted the city to hold a referendum on language. The outcome of that referendum, which would not be held during his first mandate, would determine whether French remains Montreal’s only official language, he said — even if the mayor of Montreal does not actually have the power to declare the city bilingual.

“The National Assembly will not determine the character and the nature of the city of Montreal. Montrealers will determine that,” he declared.
“If Montrealers want to hold a referendum … we will do so and we will be asking both the provincial and federal governments to respect the democratic willingness of Montrealers,” he added.
Should citizens want bilingual status for Montreal, Bill 96, overhauling Quebec’s French language Charter, would not apply to the city, he said. Montreal Gazette

“In 2018, Holness argued that if Quebec became a country, Montreal would have the right to separate from it. He even pleaded for the organization of a Montreal referendum to allow the separation of the metropolis. Holness is what we call a partitionist” Journal de Montreal {fr}

Now if I was a consultant for the other side I'd advise them to ignore Mr. Holness because he has little chance of winning and almost no profile in the French community.
His missive on special status or partition would go largely unnoticed.

BUT of course, rabid protectors of the faith could not resist engaging and unloaded a barrage of hate and criticism via the francophone media that was so vitriolic it spawned a campaign of hate against Mr. Holness that included death threats and hate mail so bad that he reported it to the police.

Here's one such fan mail;

" In the name of proud Quebecers, I am telling you that you are an effing dirty nigger. A bastard immigrant who needs to be killed. Do us a favour Dolarama, kill yourself, otherwise ask someone to shoot you. Dammed shitty nigger, fuck you motherfucker" 

Hmmm......

While this hateful reaction is unacceptable, it does demonstrate the fear we can strike into the hearts of our tormentors. 

I promised you in many previous posts that this would happen, that the mere mention by someone of substance the possibility of Montreal going its own way would spark the reaction we need to bring our issues front and center and force a real debate.
It would eliminate the free ride the CAQ is enjoying in bashing our community.

Here are a few samples of the furious reaction in the French media.

“Those who believed in a credible 3rd voice for Montreal will be disappointed. Balarama Holness has just made a totally irresponsible decision by promising to hold a referendum on the linguistic status of Montreal. 

He is playing with fire. 

As if we needed an open war between French and English in Montreal on the status of French city or bilingual of the metropolis when French is already faltering. What a lack of judgment!” ELSIE LEFEBVRE 

I most enjoyed the ugly screed written by ethnocentric Mathieu Bock-Coté who went apeshit over the pronouncement made by Mr. Holness, reminding readers that he is a black activist who had the temerity to complain that the person named by the government to combat racism "wasn't the right colour."

Mr. Bock-Coté likes to label those who oppose his views on Quebec society as "White Rhodesians," but since Mr. Holness is Black he had to settle on 'neo-Rhodesian'
Like many of Mr. Coté's posts, this one was quickly scrubbed of the slur, but not before being published.

“Please understand and forgive me for insisting: I am not talking here of all those who reclaim “diversity”, but rather a radical multiculturalist movement that instrumentalizes the reference to diversity in order to reject our people. in our own country.

This agenda will find an ever greater echo in the years to come. It expresses a real contempt for Quebeckers, who are presented as a bunch of rednecks, hicks, filthy, intolerant people behind the times regarding modern diversity. This ethnic supremacism is hidden behind the banner of diversity and inclusion.” Journal du Montreal

Another famous Anglophobe, Normand Lister in a sarcastic piece, hits the nail on the head with this observation:

“.... the other reason for the Anglos to vote overwhelmingly for Balarama is that they could them intimidate the Legault government, which is already uncomfortable in regards to  language reform.” Link{fr} 

In a radio interview, Jean-François Lisée warned that the movement to free Montreal from the clutches of an inconsiderate Quebec government is serious and may already enjoy 30-40% support on the island of Montreal. 

That's much more support than Brexit enjoyed in the infancy of the movement.

Let us be inspired by the American Declaration of Independence which in part states;

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

Let us therefore declare;

“That the adoption of Bill 96 requires the island of Montreal be afforded 'special status' vis-a-vis the law and failing such, a referendum will be organized to seek sovereignty from Quebec with the goal of becoming the eleventh Canadian province”

If our leaders and journalists adopt this confrontational line we can achieve much more than by grovelling.

Of course, the idea of a referendum will be rejected out of hand by the CAQ and the media, but given the manifest support on the island, politicians will have to deal with it.

More importantly is the man in the street, especially in the rest of the province,  who will be frightened over a looming political referendum that just might go the other way.
Possibly losing the island of Montreal over Bill 96 seems a poor bargain not to be chanced when a compromise is there to be had.

For them, blowing off Bill 96 seems infinitely preferable to the scenario described above.
Politicians will pay heed and likely do an about-face.

I am reminded about other famous about-faces including the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who was forced to accept a cease-fire with Iraq after stating he never would with the words,  “I drink this chalice of poison.”

To which I say to Mr. Legault...bottoms up.