Meet Quebec's Nastiest Racist!

 I'm going to start this post with a bit of a preamble because of the nature of the inflammatory, racist and ethnocentric ramblings of the quoted articles.

I'll bet that when you read the translated passages below you'll agree that I wasn't exaggerating with the title of this blog post., but I'm not offering these translations as any proof that Quebecers are in general more racist than Canadians.
And so, are Quebecers more racist than Canadians?
I actually think not. 

I've spent my entire 35-year career travelling the province of Quebec from one end to another managing a chain of retail stores, working and interacting almost exclusively in French in communities large and small from La Sarre in the northwest to Sandy Beach in the Southeast.
As an anglophone and a Jew, you'd think I'd encounter a lot of racism and mistrust but the opposite is actually true. I have always been treated with respect and can honestly say that racism was never a concern.
So for me, the idea that Quebec is the most racist province doesn't ring true. In fact, my first incident of racism occurred not in my home province, but actually on a business trip to Alberta. While these interactions are anecdotal, they do form the basis of my conclusions.

What is true is that Quebec is, or more to the point was an insular sort of society, formed by a government and a powerful church that reinforced and consolidated its power by instilling a fear and loathing of forces outside the majority.

It would be normal and understandable that Quebec society, bathed in this sort of propaganda and conditioning would become xenophobic and racist, which it actually was to some extent. 
But the rapid modernization of society that occurred in the sixties with the rejection of the Church and reactionary politics of the Duplessis era style politics changed all that rather quickly.

So is Quebec racist?
Of course, but I don't think it is more racist than anywhere else in the country and this despite an organized effort to demonize anglos and ethnics by the French press and our own provincial government.
While running ads decrying racism, our Premier acts and speaks like an ethnocentric racist to the applause and support of a sycophant media.

But I remain pleasantly surprised that considering Quebec's nationalist media and populist politicians' obsession with culture, race, immigration and anglos, that there isn't more racism in general.
It's a testament to the nature of Quebec's francophones, who generally distrust their own leaders who lecture and hector them on how to act and what to think. They remain defiantly independent in thought, perhaps a product of their past betrayal, by not Anglos, but rather their own Church and government.

Quebecers' view of racism mirror
Canada's closely

That being said, there remain pockets of extreme racism and xenophobia, mostly in the older generation yearning for the good old days and in the ranks of some devoted sovereigntists that see minorities and anglos as an obstacle to independence.

Sadly the sovereigntist media has invoked the spectre of cultural and French language destruction as the last issue to militate for sovereignty, a pivot made necessary ever since the economic argument for independence collapsed with Quebecers coming to the overall conclusion that Canada represents a good financial deal.

A lot of hate, racist screeds, ethnocentric rants in Quebec's official and unofficial media go mostly without reply or rebuttal because few on the English side pay much attention to the garbage being spewed in both the mainstream French media and blogosphere.
I remain dumbfounded at the nasty, racist and ethnocentric themes and opinions that are being propagated not only on websites like vigile.quebec but in the mainstream media which allows commentaries and insults by nationalists that clearly cross the line of honest debate.

In this and hopefully more following posts I'll give you a glimpse of the most egregious examples of excess, allowing you to make your own judgments and come to your own conclusions.

Let me start with whom I consider to be Quebec's most racist xenophobe, a certain Réjean Labrie who writes the most egregious screeds on the website Vigile.quebec an ultra Quebec nationalist website, long associated with racism and xenophobia.
Mr. Labrie subscribes to the Nazi doctrine of ethnic purity, denouncing and  threatening all who are not  'pur laine' He unashamedly calls for Quebec anglophones to be deported from Quebec and demands that "impure" immigrants be banned,
If you think I'm exaggerating, I encourage you to read some of his hundreds of articles, most tinged with racism, ethnocentrism and unabashed depravity.

I'm sure that there are some equally vile websites in the ROC, but I'm not sure any have the reach of the above-mentioned Vigile.quebec. Mr. Labrie boasts of having over a million views of his some 600 hundred articles.

Now there are countless Quebecers named Réjean Labrie, throughout the province, it is a not uncommon name, so do not make the mistake of drawing conclusions to others who share the name.
This certain scoundrel, a retired civil servant according to his bio comes from Quebec City and proudly proclaims to be a pure eleventh-generation Quebecer. 

Here is but a snippet of what he has to say;
All the translations are mine.

“Non-Western immigration destroys the Identity of Nations”

“Let's start by defining what authentic Quebecers are not:  

Quebecers are not Muslim Arabs, so why would we let Muslim Arabs into Quebec by the tens of thousands? 

Quebecers are not Africans, so why would we let tens of thousands of Africans and Haitians into Quebec? 

Quebecers are not Hindus, so why would we let tens of thousands of Hindus into Quebec? 

Quebecers are not Asians, so why would we let tens of thousands of Asians into Quebec? 

Quebecers are not Latinos, so why would we let tens of thousands of Latinos into Quebec? 

No, Quebec is not their country, and it never will be, because they will never succeed in blending harmoniously with the rest of the population.
We see this very clearly in the overly cosmopolitan metropolis, which no longer resembles the Quebec outside of Montreal.
Authentic Quebecers desert it, and certainly not just because of the orange cones (and who said anything about the daily ethnic shootouts?). 

 

Here are 13 solid reasons to oppose it;

1- Their cultures are too distant from ours. They never end up adopting ours and remain confined to their own. Far from enriching us, these remote cultures impoverish us. There are not enough points in common for it to be possible to get along well. 

 

2- Many have mores and customs that clash with ours and which we do not want spread here. Their value system contradicts with ours. 

 

 3- Often the influence of their religion controls them to the point that they are incapable of adopting our superior and more advanced values ​​than theirs. They show themselves incapable of separating the spiritual life from the civil life as we conceive it for the proper functioning of things (one need only think of their negative reaction to Bill 21, however desired and supported by the population). 

 

4- Many come to join a community that has opted for English, jeopardizing the survival of the French language. 

 

 5- Many have a galloping demography, which has the effect of gradually replacing the historic Quebec nation with the appearance of a destitute Third World.

 

 6- Several of these communities practice communitarianism and live voluntarily cut off from our world, on the margins of our society. They are only there to take advantage of social benefits paid by the State. 

 

7- Nationals of the most underdeveloped countries on the planet display a higher rate of crime, fraud, corruption and violence per capita, causing the enslavement of society, the multiplication of barbaric acts and the general insecurity of our good people. 

 

8- Several ethnic groups resentful of our way of life and our choices of society have taken the bad habit of systematically contesting in court all the laws supported by the people and the government which represents them, even pushing the insult by being financed by funds from the anti-Quebec federal Liberal government. 

 

9- Several third world ethnic groups do not correspond to the historical face of the population, which is one of the integral characteristics of each nation. The general appearance of a people is part of its assets and which, as such, must be protected. A country is made up of people who look alike. If you go to Scotland, you naturally expect Scots to look like Scots, not Tamils ​​or Taliban. If you go to Corsica, you naturally expect Corsicans to look like Corsicans, not Senegalese or Congolese. 

 

10- Several ethnic groups bring the current home-country conflicts here, and spread them in the public square by making noisy demonstrations which do not concern us and which poison our lives in an unjustified way. 

 

11- Excessive cosmopolitanism unravels the host nation, it shrinks us, turning us into a minority in our own country. We no longer feel at home, a basic condition for the feeling of collective well-being and security. 

 

 12- Several of these ethnic groups do not show any kind of solidarity with we the people of Quebec by helping us achieve our major objectives: the birth of a country of our own, the consolidation of the French fact, more equality for all . 

 

13- The mixture of foreign races and ethnic groups gradually destroys the historical collective identity of the nation. The established society is divided and scattered, it is moving away from its roots, from its secular foundations which have enabled it to successfully face the trials over time. It loses its bearings, becomes different, empties itself of its contents of its nourishing sap; in short, it dries up like a dry spring.”

 

(AND TO TOP IT OFF )

.....It is up to us not to allow ourselves to be de-civilized by massive Third World immigration. Western societies have been able to progress and maintain their high standards of civilization and advanced society by keeping the Third World at a distance. 

 

.... Speaking of uninvited immigration, we cannot avoid the analogy: you've seen the recent ravages committed by the monstrous Asian hornet which arrived here in containers imported from where certain viruses also come from...

 

...It is in no one's interest to encourage overpopulated peoples to come and overpopulate western countries. Do not let them come to propagate the state of constant stagnation and renewed conflicts that they maintain at home.  

 

....Quebecers are of Western, European and Caucasian extraction. Hence the vital importance that this element be part of the priority selection criteria for any candidate for immigration. We are not just anyone from anywhere, and we take just pride in that. 

 You can read the original French post HERE

Mr. Labrie may also be the most vocal ethnic cleanser in Quebec, proposing that Anglos be deported in another missive published on vigil.net

“In Montreal,  to hear less English, we require fewer Anglos.”

“We do not want a Quebec with Anglos capable of speaking French to the Francos when necessary, but who speak in English and live in English in their English culture the rest of the time. 

It's not living the Quebec way, it's continuing to live the Canadian way.

No, we want everyone in Quebec to speak French and live in French in Quebec culture, all the time. 

As a result, Anglophones (and allophones who opt for English - basically they all would like to) must be considered too numerous and must for this reason be encouraged to leave Quebec to settle somewhere in Justin Trudeau's vast Canada. 

Government and citizen measures must be taken so that this series of moves is initiated with the aim of reducing the number of Anglos in Montreal by 90% within 10 years. ”

He goes on to suggest Quebecers adopt these slogans which even if you don't understand French you can surmise

   “Alcool au volant, tolérance zéro. Anglais à Montréal, tolérance zéro”

“ Tous ensemble, combattons les gangs de rue, le crime organisé, l'anglais à Montréal ”

   “By the way, did you know that at the end of the 19th century, the majority of the inhabitants of Quebec City were English-speaking? Mind-boggling, isn't it? But despite such a handicap, we finally managed to get rid of them to make the national capital the most proudly French-speaking city in America. So, let's roll up our sleeves and do the same for Montreal. If it worked then, it could work now. ”

Not making this up. Here's the LINK

And here is his solution to the immigration 'problem"

“Immigration quotas for harmful minorities.”

1- We could establish that Quebec should not be made up of more than 2% Africans, 2% Hindus, 2% Arabs, 2% Asians, 2% Latinos, etc. As soon as we reach this maximum percentage in relation to the total population, we close the floodgates.

2- We could establish a maximum of 15% of non-Westerners in Quebec in order to preserve the historical face of the nation, its natural demography, and the aspect of its native population

3- We could establish  a maximum of 3% Muslims in Quebec, the only effective way to counter the hegemonic will of conquering Islam

4- We could establish a maximum of 10% of allophones of the total population for the sustainability of our official French national language

5- We could establish a maximum of 10% of native English speakers in Quebec, the excess being relocated to other provinces

6- We could establish a maximum of a total of 15% of people not born in Quebec at all times 

Again, not making this up. Here's the LINK 

Are you shaking your head yet?

Racist Anti-Chinese Screed on QUB Radio... Just Par for the Course

It was a meeting of the minds of two of Quebec's most popular haters on a radio segment that illustrates the comfortable and natural state of racism in Quebec.

Gilles Proulx and Richard Martineau went off on the Chinese community in Brossard, Quebec, a Montreal suburban enclave that hosts a significant Asian community.

Gilles Proulx is an old-time hater who unabashedly unloads on everything Canadian, native and the non-pur-laine element of Quebec, making frenzied racist characterizations that I must admit are sometimes entertaining.
His paranoia, pain, outrage and hatred is all-consuming and watching him or listening to him 'lose it' over language or anglo oppression or native indulgence is sometimes entertaining in a schadenfreude sort of way 
What he says on the air has me shuddering to think what he says off the air.

To his credit, he also unloads à la Mordechai Richler on his own francophone community sparing them no quarter with his acerbic and nasty characterizations of a people too weak to defend their culture and society in the face of this perceived Anglo oppression. 

But Richard Martineau has none of the flair, charisma or smarts of Gilles Proulx. He is just plain nasty, racist and simplistic.
I don't know if he dumbs down his columns in the Journal de Montreal to suit his low-brow audience or if he is a product thereof.
His one-dimensional racist screeds offer no subtlety or nuance and his simplistic view of Quebec as under mortal attack by Anglos, ethnics and Canadians are tinged with a Trumpian sense of enemies and us/ them themes.
However, putting the two together on a radio show is a recipe for excess and believe me if their exchange would take place in English, there isn't a media outlet in North America that would air it.

For those who have French, take a listen to the gratuitously racist exchange about Quebec's Chinese community that includes insult after insult, including Mr. Proulx using a hideous and mocking Chinese accent to make his point. Who actually does that today?
I'm sure Proulx would take offence at being called a racist. "I no tinkee so, me likeee them" 
but if the shoe fits....

....  ....

Here are some of the highlights translated.

Martineau: 

Oh, Gilles, you're gonna flip out over this...... From a flyer from Royal-Lepage in Brossard. (Now speaking in English) On one side is a picture of the agent,"Buying or Selling Your house? I can help" The other side is in Mandarin so it's in two languages Mandarin and English.

Proulx: 

It's not the first time I've seen this on the south shore of Montreal, which is a Chinese kingdom. Brossard has completely transformed itself and there's nobody in charge like an elite or the OQLF to intervene when you complain. A friend of mine got into a dispute over a cancelled transaction. The Chinese seller sent him a letter in English. I told him to complain which was a waste of time he explained because the OLF wouldn't intervene, which we can call  a 'death by a thousand cuts'....
...The good little Chinese are now our dominators and future dominators of the Earth..

(Proulx continues in an demeaning and burlesque Chinese English accent.)

"Chicken Fried Rice, chicken pineapple wit dat?"

Martineau:  (laughing at Proulx's mocking)

Ha! Ha! The lady is named (doxxing removed) who writes (now speaking in mocking English)  "I am here to help you find the perfect house'

Proulx:  (In mocking English)
Yes I am here to help you, you fucken French-Canadian! You're a bunch of idiots and cannot stand on your legs.

Martineau: 

Royal Lepage will say that it's a private enterprise and we're here to make money. Our future customers are Chinese and English, so we don't give a hoot about French.
(now in mocking English) They don't give a flying fuck!

Proulx: 
I'll repeat what I said before, Canada is a racist country. which I accuse of trying to destroy this tiny village of Quebec.

These are the same hypocrites who complain about the Canadian media's so-called Quebec-Bashing.

Making insulting fun of ethnics and Anglos is par for the course in the Quebec media which is shielded from scrutiny because nobody in the rest of Canada or North America pays any attention to what is said in Quebec's French media. The CRTC is too timid and intimidated to intervene and since nobody in the ROC listens or hears the racism spewed, considers that it's better not to rock the boat.

The basis of this racism is the underlying notion that Quebec belongs to old stock French-Canadians alone with minorities, anglos and even natives considered interlopers with no legitimate right to help shape society.
The idea remains that these 'foreign' elements in Quebec society owe fealty and respect to the French Canadian majority and are obliged to mimic and integrate, abandoning their religion, language and heritage in order to satisfy the will of the majority.

That dear readers is the definition of ethnocentric racism ...

Five Lies Separatists Spread about Bill 21

I've watched the unfolding drama of the debate over Bill 21 with abject fascination. The separatist media is conducting a  dishonest and surreptitious disinformation campaign, an attempt to ignite an internecine war between Quebec and Canada, all in the promotion of the sovereignty option.
Bill 21 itself is of no matter, it is just a phony excuse to mount another battle against Canada in the ongoing war for sovereignty.

For years the argument that Quebec was disadvantaged economically by remaining in Canada was the plan, concocted and promoted to convince Quebecers that their interest lay outside of Canada. 
It took years, but in the end, the gambit failed as evidence mounted and the public realized, perhaps begrudgingly, that the opposite was true and that Canada represented a good economic deal.
A deal too good to give up.

So sovereigntist militants needed a new tack, clearly, it was time for a 'Plan B.'
That coalesced around the idea that Canada represented an existential threat to the French language and Quebec culture.
And so here we are, facing off over a manufactured conflict and confrontation over identity.

For sovereigntists, the debate over Bill 21 is a Christmas present wrapped neatly in a bow, an issue that checks all the boxes meant to raise the enmity between Canada and Quebec.
The few Muslim women who will lose their jobs or be refused a chance to teach because of the hijab interdiction, are but inconsequential collateral damage.

And in order to keep the fires of this manufactured controversy and the Canada/Quebec head-butting going, sovereigntist journalists have mounted a ferocious disinformation blitz that includes these five pernicious lies that I'd like to examine.

1. Hijabs are a problem

Your neighbour knocks on your door and asks you to sign a petition to place a traffic light on the corner of your street because it's dangerous.
"Really," you ask, "What's the problem?"
"Too many pedestrians struck by cars"
"I haven't heard of any accidents. How many have happened exactly?"
"Er...I can't really say."
"Then piss off with your petition!"

The government, the school boards and the media have never explained the amplitude of the so-called Hijab 'problem.'
Are there 10, 100, 1,000 or ten thousand evil hijabs being flaunted in the schools?
Why haven't we been told?
Likely because if we were told, we'd realize that it is but a trifling number leading us to conclude that with so few cases, a draconian law that contravenes both the Quebec Charter and the Federal Charter of Rights would not be in order, especially if it entailed the invocation of the dastardly "notwithstanding clause" 
In other words, the cure is worse than the disease,

2. 70% of Quebecers support Bill 21

Utter nonsense pedalled by dishonest and frustrated separatists like Richard Martineau who sell this assertion in print in the Journal de Montreal and on QUB radio as if it's an uncontested fact.
Mr. Martineau never provides links or attribution to the poll, but I found some mention of an internal CAQ web poll that indicated 65% of Quebecers supported the bill. Here
Web polls are utter garbage that no legitimate politicians or journalist should use seriously and which the public should take as seriously as horoscopes.

How accurate are online polls?

"At worst, online polls can be seriously biased if people who hold a particular point of view are more motivated to participate than those with a different point of view. A good example of this was seen in 1998 when AOL posted an online poll asking if President Clinton should resign because of his relationship with a White House intern. The online poll found that 52% of the more than 100,000 respondents said he should. Telephone polls conducted at the same time with much smaller but representative samples of the public found far fewer saying the president should resign (21% in a CBS poll, 23% in a Gallup poll, and 36% in an ABC poll). The president’s critics were highly motivated to register their disapproval of his behaviour, and this resulted in a biased measurement of public opinion in the AOL online poll."Pew Research

 Online polls rely on highly-motivated internet users to answer the question and therefore have thoroughly under-weighted 'undecided' element to the poll.

Readers should always be wary of polls created by political parties or special interest groups because they are notoriously easy to fix.

Pollster: "Madam, are you in favour or opposed to Bill 21?
Mada:     "Er, never heard of it"
Pollster: "It's an anti-Muslim law.
Madam:  "Then I'm in FAVOUR!!"

By the way, in the radio discussion, Mr. Martineau likened a teacher who wears a hijab to that of a teacher wearing an FLQ T-shirt....yup!

3. The Government must remain 'neutral' with regards to religion in public institutions.

On one side you have those who want to wear religious-type clothing in schools and on the other side, there are those opposed to all religious symbols in school.
The government claims to be "neutral" but bans religious articles, clearly siding with one side.
Pretending that banning hijabs demonstrates neutrality is a farce.

A mother is faced with a question from her two daughters.
The first daughter proposes that all the women in the family wear red dresses to the family Christmas party.
The second daughter suggests that all the girls should wear blue dresses.
The Mother looks at them both and with the judgment of Solomon replies;
"Girls, as your mother, I need to remain strictly 'neutral,' so we're going to wear red dresses...

Uggghhh!!.

4. Using the "Notwithstanding Clause" is legitimate because Quebec never consented to a Constitution that was imposed upon it by the ROC

But Quebec did create its very own Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms which pretty much says the same thing as the national version.

3. Every person is the possessor of the fundamental freedoms, including freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, freedom of opinion, freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association.

 

10. Every person has a right to full and equal recognition and exercise of his human rights and freedoms, without distinction, exclusion or preference based on race, colour, sex, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, sexual orientation, civil status, age except as provided by law, religion, political convictions, language, ethnic or national origin, social condition, a handicap or the use of any means to palliate a handicap.

Discrimination exists where such a distinction, exclusion or preference has the effect of nullifying or impairing such right.

 

13. No one may in a juridical act stipulate a clause involving discrimination.

 

16. No one may practise discrimination in respect of the hiring, apprenticeship, duration of the probationary period, vocational training, promotion, transfer, displacement, laying-off, suspension, dismissal or conditions of employment of a person or in the establishment of categories or classes of employment.

While the defenders of Bill 21 attack the Canadian Charter of Rights and freedoms as illegitimate, have you ever heard any of them comment on the fact that the law contravenes Quebec's own charter?

5. Canada unfairly "Bashes" Quebec

This is my favourite nose stretcher because it is meant to feed and nourish Quebec's general paranoia, hopefully raising resentment of Canada.
In the debate over Bill 21, it is actually Quebec doing the bashing of Canada with journalist after journalist describing Canada in the most unflattering and insulting terms.
Aside from one University of Ottawa professor who was quite mean in his assessment of Quebec's Bill 21, the articles written attacking the law in Canada's mainstream newspaper have been pretty much respectful.
Compare that the vicious attacks made against Canada and Canadians by Quebec journalists using insulting terms like "Rhodesians, " "Colonizers" "Colonialists" "Enemies"

“ This is what Quebec has become in the eyes of many of our compatriots in the ROC. A scarecrow that they wave to avoid questioning the excesses of their crazy multiculturalism.” Link{fr}

When English Canada enters a debate like this with its big boots and its money, it damages the quality of the debate in Quebec.  Link{fr}

“Quebec is alone. We will have to fight with uncompromising and fearless energy and will. We must admit that our enemies are more devious and more hypocritical than we are inclined to believe.”   Link{fr}

“Canada is no longer a country culturally distinct from the United States.

The violent reactions of English Canada should hardly surprise us.” Link{fr}

“ The Rhodesian spirit once fought against by René Lévesque wears the face of militant multiculturalism.”    Link{fr}

“It is an old habit among radical Anglos, who have always behaved like local Rhodesians, criminalizing our collective aspiration to protect our language and to place it at the heart of collective life.”   Link{fr}

“The clash of values between English Canada and  us is massive and frontal.” 
“ There are two countries in this country.”  Link

 And as firebrand anglophobe Gilles Proulx wrote in Le Journal; 

“ English Canada wants a fight. It will happen.

What are we still doing in this madhouse?” 

The recurring theme in all these articles is the disparagement of Canada and Canadians meant to paint Quebec as a victim, unloved and misunderstood with a not so oblique subtext that Quebec has no place in Canada.

At any rate, not everyone is drinking the Kool-Aid.

I'll leave with some words of sanity by Quebec journalist Michel C. Auger,

“ Does a single case in two years pass the test of a "real and urgent goal"? Was Bill 21 intended to solve a major and urgent problem or was it not rather a fairly transparent attempt to gain political capital? Prime Minister François Legault certainly does not help himself by often repeating the fact that Bill 21 is popular.”   

“ The fact is that the Charters of Rights exists precisely to protect minorities against unjust laws but which are popular with the majority. An opinion  poll, in court does not weigh very heavily. Meanwhile, in Ottawa, there is mounting pressure on the Trudeau government to intervene in court, which it will no doubt do when the case goes to the Supreme Court. But what is certain is that the legal debate is far from over and that new players and arguments will be added in the coming months. And these will not necessarily be twists and turns that will go in the direction that the Legault government wants.”  Link{fr}

If you read French read this thoughtful piece from La Nouvelliste;

Bill 21: A retreat and a denial of the achievements of the Quiet Revolution

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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