French versus English Volume 60

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Dear Readers,I've reversed the order of posts so that on Friday, I can offer an election wrap-up, for whatever it's worth.

Facebook Campaign to save English cegep goes viral 

Days after Pauline Marois announced her party would block access to English CEGEPs for most francophone and allophone high school students if elected, Tania Lefrançois sent the Parti Québécois leader a message via Facebook.
“I am proud to have done my studies in English at CEGEP St. Lawrence,” she wrote in French. “It’s one of the best decisions that I took for my professional future and for my openness to the world. I think that every Quebecer should be bilingual or at least understand English, because it’s our SECOND OFFICIAL LANGUAGE and because this language is necessary as soon as you put one foot outside of Quebec.”
Marois’s “so-called measures” to promote French, prove that voting for her is a big mistake, she wrote.
Lefrançois is apparently not the only person to share the sentiment. In the week since she posted it, her message had been “Liked” on Facebook 42,330 times as of Monday, and generated 5,400 comments, most of them supportive and most in French, much to Lefrançois’ amazement. Read More

Pauline tells another whopper 

It's a little disconcerting when the next potential Premier of Quebec makes statements that are patently false.
Pauline has given wings to the next great urban myth, that 25% of stores in downtown Montreal don't offer service in French.
Cobbling together and misinterpreting facts is the bane of separatists like Mario Beaulieu, the worst offender of the lot, mixing lies with twisted statistics, to misinform in an effort to fool the people.

Nowhere in the OLF report does it say how many stores refuse to offer French service, probably because the number is minuscule and limited to Ma and Pa operations when there is one clerk in the store.
Of the 25% of stores that 'violate' Bill 101, three-quarters of the offences are because their corporate name is English, something that remains a bone of contention.
According to Marois, if all of the thousands of signs, product labels, bills, etc., in the store are in complete agreement with the law, the store is still an offender because of its English name.

That is what this blueneck is telling us..

Trying to rehabilitate his name Michaud runs afoul of the law 

There was a bit of sweet karma this week as blowhard Yves Michaud continues his Don Quixotesque quest, a sad attempt to clear his name in regards to a unanimous 2000 National Assembly motion, that basically branded him as a racist. Read about the Michaud Affair.

Michaud reminds me of that sweet old cracker down in the deep south, who tells the family at the dinner table that he isn't a racist, it's just a fact that the 'darkies' are thick.

Michaud was cited for his remarks in a radio interview where he complained that the Jews voted against sovereignty en masse and intimated that they were bad citizens of Quebec for doing so. According to Michaud, if they were good citizens, a good number of them would have voted for sovereignty.

Nope, he's definitely not a racist...hmm.

At any rate he's been trying to get that motion overturned, without much success for over the last twelve years.
His latest gambit is to implore voters not to support the dozen or so members of the National Assembly, who voted for the motion and who are running in the current election

He placed an advertisement in Le Devoir encouraging voters not to vote for these 'enemies,' but along the way, he broke the election law by paying for a political ad outside the election rules.

It is an open and shut case and when he is found guilty and fined, he'll probably have as much success overturning his conviction as he has had in overturning the National Assembly censure! Link{Fr}

My advice; Do a Lance Armstrong...

French parents forced to speak English to their children

Parents in certain Ontario jurisdictions are being told to speak English while being supervised by government workers during custody visits.

Because the case workers don't speak French, they cannot monitor what is being said between parent and child, part of their mandate to make sure there is nothing untoward being said.
Some affected parents have offered to bring along an interpreter at their own expense but have been denied the right based of the principle that the interpreter might be in cahoots with the parent. Link{Fr}
The reporter who wrote the story refers to it as a case of 'Speak White,' a term I dislike but admit is appropriate in this case.

The view from Algeria 

You are not doubt familiar with the story of the Saguenay mayor who insulted a PQ candidate who opined that the crucifix in the National Assembly be removed. The good mayor fumed that the foreign born Djemila Benhabib with an unpronounceable name, had no business telling 'real' Quebecers how to live. Link

Well, the story was picked up across the world and was the subject of a story in a French language Algerian newspaper.

The story was run of mill, but the comments were rather amusing.

Here's my favourite;

"I lived in Montreal for nearly ten years (what a waste!)
Fellow citizens, understand that Canada/Quebec is a utopia where as soon as you put your foot down, you don't have long to wait to see the evidence that discrimination is palpable and no matter what your qualifications, there is no work for you. Work is reserved for the locals.
The Quebecois do not like immigrants, nor the English nor Americans, in short they like nobody. 
I heard the expression: "go home," often.
As soon as you arrive, you are fitted in to the process of becoming completely and totally dependent on the Quebec government, which provides a monthly check, just shabby enough not to die from hunger." Link{Fr}

Stephen Harper won't help Charest

Is Stephen Harper exacting a measure of political revenge at the expense of the Quebec Premier for past snubs, or is he exercising his keen political instinct in refusing to endorse the only true federalist leader in the Quebec provincial election?
Well, it probably is a little or rather a lot of both.

It's easy to see that in the face of a separatist Quebec government, Canadians would turn to somebody solid and rock hard to face off with a separatist Premier.
Nobody fits the bill better than Stephen Harper.

Would anybody really trust 'Uncle Tom' Mulcair to defend the interests of the ROC?
Harper must be whistling in the shower these days!

Charest does his own spinnerama

Much to the consternation of Anglos, Jean Charest, in a desperate bid to shore up support, told reporters that he planned to ask the federal government to apply Bill 101 to federally chartered companies as well as to federal government offices in Quebec. Link

Like the good Pauline who was forced to retract some foolish remarks she made concerning Quebec citizenship, Charest climbed down from that position, less than 48 hours later. Link

Ex-MP Marlene Jennings told Anglos that perhaps it was time to vote CAQ, something that caught Charest by surprise, as if Anglos don't read the French Press and were somehow unaware of the betrayal.
Yesterday he clarified things by saying he'd ask the Feds to increase the use of French, not to impose Bill 101.
Well, that made everything clear!

Odds'n Ends

Official Languages Commissioner Graham Fraser says his office will conduct more than 1,500 anonymous observations this fall at airports in Halifax, Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver, to check on bilingualism. Link

Pauline is upset that the next Supreme Court judge will be picked by Stephen Harper and that the committee helping him make the selection includes notorious separatist-bater Stephane Dion.
Madame Marois would like a veto over any such choice. Link{Fr}

Some Francophones are complaining that they are paying for the education of Anglophones because many Anglophones take their education and promptly quit the province, in other words doing what I have dubbed as a 'mistersauga'  Link{Fr}

Jacques Parizeau continues the fine tradition of PQ infighting:
"Former Parti Québécois premier Jacques Parizeau’s has publicly endorsed Jean-Martin Aussant, the Globe and Mail reports. Mr. Aussant is the leader of the Option Nationale, a newly-founded sovereigntist party that is challenging the PQ in a number of “blue” ridings, by snubbing Pauline and the PQ, supporting the Option Nationale. LINK

I really don't know what to make of the Quebec solidaire candidate Christian Bibeau, running in Sherbrooke, who pointed out that 5,000 people living in that city don't have Canadian citizenship and that 10% of them don't speak French.
Sherbrooke and vicinity has a population of around two-hundred thousand, making those who aren't 'Canadian' about 2½% of the population and those that can't speak French at .025% or about 500 out of the the 200,000 citizens.
Hardly a crisis, one would think.. Link{Fr}

Quebecers as lousy tippers?
According to ABC News, some restaurants in Burlington, Vt., are tacking on at least 18 per cent to the food bills of diners who speak a foreign language – and by foreign language, they mean French. As the broadcaster points out, the Vermont town is less than 160 kilometres from Montreal and attracts plenty of Canadian visitors each summer. And it appears we Canadians are considered lousy tippers.

English CEO makes waves
"Quebec’s language hawks are bearing down on the selection of a non-French speaker to lead SNC-Lavalin Inc., barely three days after he was named to the job.
American Robert Card, an engineering veteran with almost 40 years experience, was announced as SNC’s new chief executive after markets closed Friday. He starts on October 1.French language rights group Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste denounced the selection, calling it “deplorable” that Mr. Card, an American who doesn’t speak French, was chosen to lead one of Quebec’s largest and most storied companies." Link

Here's an article that isn't about Quebec or Canada, but is extremely pertinent;
Can speaking a second language make you a better leader?



ATTENTION: If you read French please do the author the courtesy of reading the original work;
Détester l’anglais: l’obsession de la pureté linguistique

HATING ENGLISH by Joanne Marcotte

In his column: CEGEP? It’s urgent!, Bock-Côté once again demonstrates his deep aversion to English... as well as to anglophones. 

Oh yes. He is quite right when he stresses that some people "accuse others of practising anglophobia." And if such is the case, dear Mathieu, it is because we are reduced to this. No other justification can explain such hysterical comments.

According to Bock-Côté, extending Bill 101 to CEGEPs is a result of “Quebecers’ assertion of their identity."

Umm ... is “Quebecers’ identity” now defined as 'unilingual French?'

Sorry, but suppressing the freedom of young adults to attend English CEGEPs has nothing to do with "identity assertion". It has to do with typically tribal behaviour. It has to do with fear and especially with the contempt and the intrinsic lack of confidence towards allophones, who have already done all of their primary and secondary education in French, thanks to Bill 101.

According to Bock-Côté, "CEGEP is no longer simply an additional step in the schooling of youth. One does not simply select an occupation there. One selects a social environment there. "

Umm ... no....

In real life, last time I checked, when students choose a CEGEP and a study program, they are choosing an occupation. And if they happen to choose an English CEGEP, it's probably because they want to increase their chances of social mobility, to access better jobs.

Oh, I well know where this idea that CEGEP attendance constitutes a threat to French linguistic purity comes from (see here what I think of this supposed study). But coming from someone like Bock-Côté, who so loudly criticized the way the Ministry of Education technocrats have appropriated the educational system, one can only deplore that this same man now appropriates the powers of the state to convert the francophones and allophones of Quebec into unilingual francophones!

According to Bock-Côté, "this is a case of adapting Bill 101 to the demands of our times"!

Umm ... no. If we wanted to "adapt Bill 101 to the demands of our times", we should rather leave it alone. In the real world, especially that in which people work in private companies with customers outside Quebec, English is not only necessary but is absolutely required for the survival of the company.

Finally, for Bock-Côté, "hysterical anti-nationalism is back in fashion", “English threatens French” (as opposed to the poor quality of the teaching of French that is taught in our public schools ...), "the multicultural ideology discredits the Quebec identity", and brace yourselves, we are witnessing the "return of an old fad: Speak White, boy! And don’t you dare complain! "

HATING QUEBECERS
But what is most distressing in all of this, is the unfairness of this tightening of Bill 101, primarily towards the regions but also towards low-income families. Indeed, while opportunities to learn English may be greater in Montreal (which is debatable), in the regions, it is a whole other story.

And then, there is little doubt that parents with solid incomes will find a way around the new ban, perhaps by English immersion, for example.

"Born without a pot to piss in”, or the stoic acceptance of one's modest circumstances and the idea not to aspire above one's station in life is what we used to say once upon a time. Such is what linguistic obsessions are all about. Stifling Quebecers, making their lives harder than need be, harming their potential for social mobility ... that is what truly self-loathing Quebecers are all about!

"Sacrificing all for the country", as Bock-Côté states from his ivory tower.

HATING FREEDOM and HARMING ONE’S CAUSE 

Bock-Côté wrote a whole essay that demonstrates how separatists have hurt their own cause by associating themselves with the obsolete concept of social democracy. Well, I'll let him in on a little secret. There is another reason for this that is just as important and it is this obsession with linguistic purity that francophones have. It’s tedious ... honestly. And it certainly doesn’t give any confidence to those who are planning a new imaginary country for us.

Thank-you to 'THE CAT' for contributing this translation.

How about this ad from the fledgling Conservative party of Quebec?;

 
You gotta love the welfare bum!!!