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[Polémix]

doublon

[Polémix]

Ha ! C'est pénible, entre ce nationalisme ethnique extrémiste et l'islam radical ..

[Delenda]

Combat that evil
Letter
Published: 7 hours ago
Never mind that we have potholes large enough to swallow minivans, a severe shortage of medical professionals, no textbooks available for some English students and unreliable public transportation, to name but a few of our deficiencies.

We can feel safe in the knowledge that our officials will be spending 12 million of our hard-earned tax dollars to combat that most vile evil ... too much English.

Donna Salzman

Dollard des Ormeaux

[Delenda]

Muslim immigrants are getting a raw deal
The Gazette
Published: 5 hours ago
Quebec wants French-speaking immigrants with up-to-date skills that can be put to use immediately in the knowledge economy. Enter Abdelmajid, 35, a Moroccan-born computer-systems technician - fluently French-speaking, young, energetic, motivated to succeed in his new country.

A match made in heaven? Not for Abdelmajid. Like countless others in his situation, he is still looking for work four months after he arrived here, our Jan Ravensbergen reported this week.

Many others have been here four years, and longer, still trying to get their credentials acknowledged or even to find any kind of work. In the post-9/11 world, immigrants with Arab backgrounds are struggling with an unspoken, unacknowledged reluctance to accept them.

Abdelmajid, who asked that his family name not be published, said he has sent out more than 300 detailed resumés but has been called to only four interviews. Quebec's unemployment rate for Arabic-speaking immigrants is over 30 per cent.

This waste of manpower is more than an economic inefficiency. It represents a human tragedy that is being played out wherever democracies accept Muslim immigrants. It is no fault of his that terrorists continue to kill in the name of Islam and that as a result it has become common, almost acceptable, to question the loyalty and legitimacy of Arab immigrants to the West.

Last year, an opinion poll for Sun Media found that Canadians held Arab Canadians in the lowest esteem of all minority communities. And as Khaled Mouammar, president of the Canadian Arab Federation, told the Toronto Sun in an interview, when "people have low esteem of an ethnic group, they're not going to hire them, or socialize with them."

Jobs are of inestimable importance in the process of integration. People left to flounder and fail at the margins of society are not going to integrate. Everyone loses.

In Quebec, the trends are all pointing the wrong way. The unemployment rate among all immigrants has jumped to 17.3 per cent, triple the overall provincial rate.

Immigration Minister Yolande James plans to inject $68 million over three years to help immigrants find work. Well, something has to be done and the money is a start.

But what should it be spent on? Public reminders to private employers not to let irrational fears stand in the way of all the talent and energy that immigrants offer? It's an idea. The government should also look to itself; its track record in hiring anybody other than old-stock francophones is a disgrace.
If we want to attract skilled, educated people from around the world, Canada owes them fair treatment.

What is required is a sustained, intelligent effort to help such immigrants integrate into the workforce. Once someone has a job, good things tend to follow: social integration, skills upgrading, freedom, self-esteem and participation in the wider community.

These things are worth every cent of that

$68 million the government has just devoted to the problem - and more.




© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008

[Delenda]

La bull shit habituelle:

Liberals are right to ignore calls for strengthening Bill 101
But the rookie language minister stumbled when she agreed to act on phone calls
DON MACPHERSON, The Gazette
Published: 4 hours ago
"If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs ... you'll be a man, my son." Those words are from Rudyard Kipling's poem If, which Premier Jean Charest quoted to delegates at the Quebec Liberal convention last month on the eve of his confidence vote.

In spite of the Liberals' need to appeal to francophone voters, Charest and his government have resisted the pressure to be stampeded by those calling for the strengthening of Bill 101.

And they're right, for two reasons. One is that, as the data from the 2006 census show, the position of French in Quebec is strong, and has been getting stronger. The use of French in the workplace has increased slightly. And for the first time in history, more allophones - people with mother tongues other than French or English - are adopting French rather than English as their home language.

The second reason is that the practical limits of what can be accomplished through coercive pro-French measures have been reached. New measures can always be imagined, but the small benefits for French that could be expected to result would not be worth the costs they would entail - financial, economic, social and political.

So instead, the Charest government has recently announced a number of language measures that, for the most part, are positive rather than negative, offering support for French rather than imposing restrictions on English and other languages.

Their objectives are to improve the teaching of French in schools, teach it to more immigrants before as well as after their arrival and increase its use by small businesses through persuasion.

This approach appears to have paid off politically for the government. Its language measures were announced during the polling period for the latest CROP-La Presse survey. The results showed that the government's satisfaction rating hit 61 per cent, the highest for any Quebec government in a CROP poll in at least 10 years. And the Parti Québécois, which should have benefited from any linguistic insecurity among francophones, declined slightly in popularity.

But the Liberals remain vulnerable on language. One reason is that, where former Liberal premier Robert Bourassa entrusted this most delicate file to his most sure-handed minister, Claude Ryan, Charest handed it to a political rookie who has often looked shaky.

This week, Culture Minister Christine St. Pierre hastily reacted to a newspaper story by promising to stop the government from continuing indefinitely to communicate with allophone immigrants in English.

This practice appears contrary to the spirit of the government's language policy, which is to integrate allophones into the French-speaking community. Pro-French hawks had already mounted what they called a "press-nine" campaign, against government telephone messages offering service in English if the caller pressed nine, which they said encouraged immigrants to believe they don't need to learn French.

But the practice conforms with the government's internal language policy, which allows the public administration to communicate in English with individuals at their request. (One of the people who has complained about the practice is Louise Beaudoin, the former PQ minister who introduced the policy that allows it.) And if immigrants at least initially prefer to communicate in English, it's usually because they need to.

St. Pierre promised to come up with a "mechanism" to stop the practice. But unless the government chooses simply to stop communicating with anybody in English, it might not be easy to determine which Quebecers aren't entitled to continue receive communications in English, and when they should no longer receive it.

The opposition parties, which were quick to decry the government's "laxity" in not halting a practice that has been allowed for the last 12 years, weren't much help.

So here's a suggestion for the "mechanism" that St-Pierre wants to introduce:
Welcome every new immigrant to Quebec with a gift of a telephone - on which there is no number nine.




© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008

[Delenda]

Map is hostage to politics
The Gazette
Published: 5 hours ago
There was literally nothing that Quebec's director general of elections, Marcel Blanchet, failed to take into account when he redrew the province's latest electoral map.

As befits an exercise meant to buttress the fundamental democratic principle of one person, one vote, he redistributed ridings according to population movement. This meant, at a minimum, that there had to be three fewer ridings in Quebec's depopulated hinterlands and three more in the increasingly populated region around Montreal.

Then, because Quebec's electoral law allows ridings to reflect regional and historical anomalies, an unseemly number of ridings still are allowed to diverge from the 45,207 average number of electors as much as 25 per cent.

By unseemly, we mean 20 out of 75, an exorbitant number. Seven ridings on Montreal's outer rim count at least 56,000 voters. In Quebec's farther flung areas, there are 13 ridings that have 34,000 or fewer voters.

In what should have been the coup de grâce to any opposition to a fairer redistribution, Blanchet managed to find a way to cut ridings so that each of Quebec's main parties would suffer equally: The Liberals would lose Kamouraska-Témiscouta, the Parti Québécois would lose the Gaspé and Action démocratique du Québec, Beauce-Nord.

Was everyone happy? Absolutely not. Blanchet's map has been peremptorily tossed in the garbage. The score: Democracy 0; political expediency 1.

All the tax money wasted on coming up with an equitable riding distribution will be overshadowed by the tax money about to be frittered away on a series of hearings across Quebec, starting April 21 and ending in mid-June. The Commission de la représentation électorale has been sent off by Benoît Pelletier, minister responsible for the reform of democratic institutions, to seek advice on redrawing the electoral map.

This is lunacy. It is also political cowardice of the highest order. Rather than face up to having to cut ridings, Quebec deputies are gambling they can keep adding to their numbers. Quebec, long home to one of the highest tax burdens on the continent, already has far more provincial politicians on the public payroll than Ontario.

Ontario's legislative assembly numbers 107 members, who represent 12.5 million people. In contrast, for a population of 7.6 million, Quebec's National Assembly counts 125 deputies. A Quebecer therefore has double the "representation" that an Ontario resident has. Double the representation is already too much. We don't need more MNAs.

Pelletier has thrown everything out for consideration; Expanding the number of Assembly ridings, adding to the number of "protected" ridings like the Îles de la Madeleine and doing nothing.

Doing nothing means that voting inequality will get worse in a province that already has just about the poorest record in that regard in the country. Democracy is predicated on one person one vote. Not, we repeat, one and a half persons, one vote, or, worse, two people, one vote.

Let's have a show of courage in Quebec City: Adopt the revised map as is. There's no need for further study.




© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008

[Delenda]

Jobs, not language, will integrate immigrants
The Gazette
Published: 3 hours ago
In recent years, Quebecers have taken to viewing immigrants as the solution to a surprising number of their problems. Low birth rate? Bring in more immigrants. Depopulation in the hinterlands? Send more immigrants out there. Shortage of skilled workers? Pick and choose among the world's migrants.

But immigrants have not proven to be the answer to the province's perennial problems - through no fault of the immigrants.

Given the high unemployment rate among educated French-speaking newcomers, it is not clear that Quebecers are really very enthusiastic about immigrants. Before the Charest government goes ahead with a planned $24-million project to help newcomers learn French, it should pay attention to a new study by Jack Jedwab of the Association for Canadian Studies.

The findings indicate some rather disturbing trends to light: Across Quebec, among allophones who speak French but not English, the unemployment rate was nearly 10 times as high as among native Quebecers who speak only French, 23 per cent compared to 2.6 per cent. Among French-speaking allophones who live outside the Montreal area, the jobless rate hit 30 per cent.

However, the jobless rate was much lower for allophones who speak both French and English. In Sherbrooke, among residents who know French and English, the unemployment rate was three per cent for francophones, 6.1 per cent for anglophones and 14 per cent for allophones.

The tenaciously-held theory of the Parti Québécois, that all it will take for immigrants to fit seamlessly into Quebec society is knowledge of French, doesn't hold up, especially given the qualifications and age of the immigrants in question. The group Jedwab studied is university-educated and between the ages of 35 and 44, people in the prime of their lives - people Quebec should know how to put to good use after accepting them.

Yet allophones fared badly in the regions and worse if they didn't know English. That means that factors other than knowledge of French are at play here. It's time Quebec gave up on the idea that language is the only impediment of any consequence to allophones' integration into the Quebec workforce and society. So it is encouraging that language minister Christine St. Pierre is already responding to Jedwab's findings.

Integration takes place mainly through work. If no one is hiring educated, French-speaking allophones, there's no point wondering why they aren't fitting in. They can't. That $24 million would be better spent telling Quebecers the truth: We have to hire our newcomers, or lose them.




© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008

Évidemment, le Canada anglais ne sera satisfait que lorsqu'il n'y aura plus de français au Québec... :evil:

[Delenda]

A plan to get past "Vive le Québec libre"
The Gazette
Published: 3 hours ago
Over the last 30 years or so, supporters of Quebec sovereignty have become expert observers of every hint of a nuance in French government policy. Like the western "Kremlinologists" of the Cold War era, they analyze every detail for shreds of meaning. How warmly were Quebec representatives greeted by the French leader? Were sovereignists treated to a longer lunch than federalists? Did the president of the republic accompany a Parti Québécois premier out the door, or not?

Now, happily, such fevered analysis sems likely to fade into the mists of history, like Kremlinology. France is poised to move beyond its traditional attitude to Quebec, known colloquially as "ni-ni," for "non-ingérence et non-indifférence," neither meddling nor indifference.

To be honest, the only way we know this change is afoot is that France's minister for the francophonie, Alain Joyandet, refused recently to repeat the "ni-ni" formula. He said France would keep "direct and preferential" relations with Quebec, but would also develop its relations with the rest of Canada. France, he signalled, wants a policy in line with a "new reality," one which would add to, rather than subtract from, its dealings within Canada.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is a close friend of Montreal's Power Corp. chairman Paul Desmarais; the two say "tu" to each other, highly unusual at that rarefied level. In February Sarkozy awarded his friend the grand-croix de la Légion d'honneur, the highest distinction in France. Most observers see the staunchly federalist businessman's hand behind the sea-change in relations.

This is excellent news. Finally, "Vive le Québec libre!" can be put to rest. That empty, irritating call to arms from Gen. Charles de Gaulle has weighed too heavily and for too long on Canada's relationship with France since 1967.

Ever since, separatist politicians have counted on France. Jacques Parizeau, writing two years after the 1995 referendum, said, "The only way to get the Americans to accept Quebec's new status would be by getting France to quickly recognize Quebec as a country."

Given that dynamic, it has been impossible for Canada to treat France as a friend, ally and, recently in Afghanistan, as a comrade-in-arms. No country could maintain cordial international relations with another it suspects of undermining its very integrity.

By finally moving away from its straitjacket of a policy, France has opened the door to better relations with Ottawa, and with all Canadians.




© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008

[Delenda]

Marois's anglo-bashing is crass and tawdry
The Gazette
Published: 3 hours ago
In February we noted with approval Pauline Marois's open-minded public musings that students should be bilingual by the time they finish school. Had the Parti Québécois leader really moved beyond the frayed, discredited nostrum that bilingualism-equals-assimilation-equals-disappearance?

It turns out that she had not. Pur-et-dur nationalists, discomfited after Marois manoeuvred to drop her party's commitment to a referendum in a hypothetical first term in office, need not have feared that she has turned to common sense. Now she is back to anglo-bashing, once again riding that essential, all-purpose hobby horse, Bill 101.

In a transparent effort to outflank Mario Dumont's Action démocratique du Québec, which has been melding immigration with perceived threats to the French language, Marois has picked up on the same theme.

Although she grandly absolves immigrants of blame for failing to take state-approved French lessons, she has now issued a call for "a new Bill 101," citing "the need to reinforce Bill 101" to counter the alleged language dilution caused by immigration.

How tawdry. Trying to steal votes from Dumont and the ADQ on the backs of immigrants will never be a respectable way to win votes. Bullying businesses that need some English to operate in world markets is equally crass. And if we hear once more about the decline of French in Montreal, we'll scream. Thousands and thousands of francophones have moved off-island, that's all.

Why doesn't Marois just advocate making French courses more easily available? And some help for Montreal so young families will be less eager to move away? And more hiring of allophones into French-speaking civil-service jobs?

French remains vibrantly and overwhelmingly Quebec's language of interaction. New measures to support it should be enticing, not coercive.

Marois's willingness to re-open the language law reveals that she's ready to play fast and loose with the linguistic peace of recent years, just to win a handful more votes. Shame on her.




© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008

[Delenda]

Marois is making promises she knows she can't keep
PQ is playing party supporters for suckers by promising to expand the reach of Bill 101
DON MACPHERSON, The Gazette
Published: 5 hours ago
It's bad enough when politicians contribute to public cynicism about themselves by not keeping their promises. It's even worse when they make promises they know they won't be able to keep.

In promising that a Parti Québécois government would bring in a radical new Bill 101, PQ leader Pauline Marois is duping the members of her own party in particular.

That's because with her considerable experience in government, Marois should know that as pleasing as her proposed new language restrictions might sound to Péquiste ears, they are unworkable.

Marois would subject all Quebec businesses, not only those with at least 50 employees, to some form of "francization."

Even a business with only one employee would have to use French to some unspecified extent in its operations, depending upon the number of employees and their "direct relations" with consumers.

Marois proposes to use incentives such as tax credits at first to persuade the smaller businesses to use French. But, she said on the weekend, her new law "will have teeth," and "we won't hesitate to impose fines, if things don't change."

By subjecting firms with fewer than 50 employees to some form of francization, Marois would go where no previous PQ government has dared to go since the first one adopted the original French Language Charter in 1977.

Even PQ governments of which Marois was a member realized it would be too costly for smaller businesses to comply with the requirements, and too difficult for the government to enforce them.

According to the most recent annual report of the Office québécois de la langue française, in 2006-07 there were 5,640 businesses with 50 or more employees that were subject to the francization requirements. And even nearly 30 years after the introduction of the requirements, nearly 20 per cent of these larger firms were not yet in full compliance.

The OQLF estimates there are at least 175,000 businesses in Quebec with fewer than 50 employees - of which at least 150,000 have fewer than 10.

So Marois would multiply the number of private businesses subjected to some form of francization by more than 30 times. If the OQLF's francization and complaints branch expanded to keep pace with its increased workload and ensure compliance, its staff would grow from about 100 in 2007 to more than 3,000. And its budget would swell by more than a quarter billion dollars.

And that's not all. In addition to the francization requirements, "every employer" that requires the knowledge of a language other than French for a job would have to "demonstrate" its necessity.

Marois hasn't said where she'd get the money to pay for this, or for the French courses that she would make "available and compulsory" for all "newcomers" (not immigrants) to Quebec. And that's only one of the questions about her new language policy that she has yet to address.

She would also make French the language of relations between the government and individuals as well as businesses.

Marois has already become the first PQ leader to propose to punish individuals explicitly for not speaking French, by denying newcomers who don't the right to seek electionm even to an English school board. Would she also deny government services in English to those who need them?



Or would she deny them only to non-anglophones? If so, how would a civil servant know whether an individual is entitled to be served in English? Marois hasn't said.

It's probably not a coincidence that Marois promised her new Bill 101 at a rally for her party's candidates in three by-elections to be held May 12. Having indefinitely shelved sovereignty, she is left with only language with which to mobilize PQ supporters.

If anything, Marois's proposals demonstrate that the practical limits of language legislation have already been reached. But that's something PQ members don't want to hear. So instead, Marois raises expectations she can't fulfill. And it's mainly her own followers that are being played for suckers.



© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008

[Delenda]

Referendum-ballots case is about the future, not the past
The 1995 campaign legitimized the biased, partisan way of conducting a vote
MICHAEL N. BERGMAN, Freelance

Published: 5 hours ago

During the 13 years that I have been the lawyer on the 1995 referendum ballots case, the question I am most frequently asked is, "Why bother? The referendum is history, isn't it time to forget about it?" The answer I always give is, "The referendum is not about the past, it is about the future." Let me explain.

The events of the 1995 referendum are taboo. With the exception of Tom Mulcair, former Liberal MNA and now NDP MP, no politician at any level of government of any party wants to touch it. The courts in reasoned judicial findings have studiously avoided the merits of any inquiry. In 2006, when considering whether or not the courts even had the authority to entertain the issue, the Court of Appeal of Quebec ruled that yes it could, but in an exceptional commentary strongly advised the lawyers that the case was hopeless and the file should be closed.

The entire referendum campaign was chockablock with gross irregularities, focused in ridings of obvious federalist, non-francophone voters. It is difficult to imagine how multiple incidents including line-ups, voter-registration problems, rejected ballots and the like, could simply be the acts of random and partisan zealotry. So many incidents in so many places strongly suggest a concerted, controlled attempt to thwart the federalist vote. These acts represent the worst in Quebec nationalism.

In the last 40 years, federalists have permitted Quebec nationalists to seize the lexicon of the discussion and define the terminology, themes and concepts of the debate. There are no more separatists, only sovereignists. There are no more French Canadians only Québécois. There are no more Canadians, only federalists.

The 1995 referendum campaign is one of the culminating benchmarks in the revision of who we are in Quebec. Quebec nationalism is generally considered to be acting in the best interest of most Quebecers. Quebec nationalism is a marginalizing force for those who do not agree with its themes, means and credos.

Take for example the universally accepted idea that in the sea of English North America, Quebec is chronically on the defensive and weak.

This credo is accepted by all participants in Canadian politics. Even the Supreme Court of Canada, in various judgments, pays service to this concept. No amount of historical fact that demonstrates the vibrancy and dynamism of Quebec's society can dislodge this idea.

The opponents in the 1995 referendum campaigned on two ideas: Quebec was too weak to leave Canada and Quebec was too weak to stay in Canada. Societies that define themselves as chronically weak justify all manner of responses in the face of a perceived onslaught. In Quebec, a polite, civilized and hospitable society, the response to perceived weakness is to blame the federal system, colouring federalism as being an inadequate and restraining hierarchy of interests in progressive confrontation with the interests of Quebec.

In this type of atmosphere, which the 1995 referendum testifies to, the federal authorities can do no right. Federal advertising, unity marches, expressions of federal commitment are evidence of intrusive and manipulative behaviour designed to thwart the will of Quebec. However, any number of shenanigans perpetuated by the nationalist cause areunderstood as a justifiable response to the overbearing federal presence.

These attitudes are precisely why it is imperative that there be a full public investigation into the 1995 referendum, especially, but not only the spoiled ballots. The investigation conducted at the time was made in private, under a constraining and limited mandate, performed in a fragmentary manner without calling witnesses or hearing any testimony.

Such an investigation could not possibly determine whether or not there was a controlled and widespread co-ordinated effort to thwart the federal vote by improper means. In the annals of Quebec and Canadian scandals, none have been so poorly examined as the 1995 referendum. If the Gomery Commission on the sponsorship scandal had been conducted in the same manner as the spoiled ballots investigation, Gomery would have found no sponsorship wrong-doing.

Since the 2006 Court of Appeal decision in the referendum matter, any possibility that a court would grant access to the referendum materials has been virtually nil. The hope remained that by delaying any further court proceedings, time could be bought to persuade political leaders to put the materials into archives for future research. These efforts failed. Considering the seriousness of the matter and the principles involved, I could not, as a lawyer and Canadian, recommend to the plaintiffs that they accede to the request by the authorities to consent to the destruction of the ballots. This was left to the court on April 30.

The failure to examine the reality of the 1995 referendum will haunt us in the future. The 1995 referendum legitimized for the future a partisan and biased process for which pointed questions are not permitted.

Michael N. Bergman is the lawyer for plaintiffs in the referendum ballots access case.




© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008

[Delenda]

La Gâzette aime bien les petits francophones colonisés jusqu'à la moelle:
Protect ballots here
Letter
Published: 5 hours ago
Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier is encouraging the UN to send a special envoy to Zimbabwe to recount the ballots.

He should take the opportunity to request the same for our 1995 referendum ballots before they are shredded.

Charity begins at home.


Email to a friend

Jean Dandurand

Dorval

[Delenda]

France welcomes our G-G - to the dismay of some
The Gazette
Published: 6 hours ago

Memo to Gilles Duceppe and Pauline Marois: Grumbling that Quebec is part of Canada makes you look ridiculous. Win a referendum, or at least form a government, before you complain about France giving a proper diplomatic reception to the governor-general of Canada.

It's quite a spectacle, Marois and Duceppe popping and fizzing over Michaëlle Jean's conquest of official Paris this week. It seems to be more than they can bear. No wonder: That a francophone immigrant woman can hold the vice-regal office is an eloquent testimonial to the openness, inclusiveness and flexibility of Canadian federal democracy. (erreur. Elle a été mise là pour tenter de mater le Québec). le Marois and Duceppe might have preferred a slap in the face with a dead fish to the enthusiasm for Her Excellency, and for Canada, reflected in the news from Paris.

Look closely at that news. The G-G is greeted with high honours, takes the media by storm, has a long chat with President Nicolas Sarkozy, reminds him of one million francophones in Canada outside Quebec "fighting to save their language and their culture" and invites him to remember them in his dealings with Canada.

This affair cuts to the core of sovereignist mythology: France is our overseas friend, our ace in the hole. When the Glorious Day dawns, France will quickly rally to our cause, and the rest of the world will follow. This has been an article of sovereignist faith ever since Charles de Gaulle's pompous pronunciamento at Montreal City Hall.

To see this cherished belief punctured by Sarkozy's new orientation in relations with Canada, and that change marked by a Quebecer in federal office, must be bitter. Nor does it help that Her Excellency has displayed her usual grace and charm. (Canada is lucky to have her in the job. Paul Martin, who had her appointed, deserves credit for an inspired choice.)

Duceppe and Marois claim that celebrating the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec is an event purely for Quebec and France, in which Canada should have no role, except of course to pay many of the bills.

Nonsense. As Stephen Harper noted, "the founding of Quebec City is also the founding of the Canadian state. The governor-general is today's successor of Samuel de Champlain, the first governor of Canada."

That Quebec is part of Canada, and an important part, is anathema to sovereignists. But we can't help it if reality is federalist.




© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008

[Delenda]

Qu'elle en revienne, la Gâzette!

A new era
Sarkozy's speech signals a sea change in the relationship among France, Canada and Quebec
l. Ian MacDonald, The Gazette
Published: 4 hours ago
Nicolas Sarkozy, president of the Fifth Republic of France, was at the Canadian military cemetery in Normandy last Thursday, accompanied by his prime minister, the president of the Senate, the president of the National Assembly, and the Canadian governor-general, Michäelle Jean.

It was an extraordinary occasion in two respects. First, the French president usually spends May 8, the anniversary of Victory Day in Europe, in Paris. That he would instead observe the occasion at the Canadian cemetery at Bény-sur-Mer, is a remarkable gesture in itself.

But it was his speech, and his extemporaneous remarks in departing from his text, that signalled a new era in relations between Canada and France, and turned the page from France's decades-old policy of "non-interference and non-indifference" as to the constitutional future of Quebec.

We love Quebec but we love Canada," he declared. "We love both. And of those who died here, we didn't ask what region they came from. We knew what country they came from. We didn't even ask what language they spoke. Those who are buried here, even if they didn't speak our language, saved us and helped us."

For anyone who has ever set foot at Bény-sur-Mer, Sarkozy spontaneously captured the meaning of that hallowed ground. English- and French-speaking Canadians are buried there, without distinction as to language or rank. They came ashore at Juno Beach on a certain morning in June 1944, the foot soldiers who liberated France and saved a continent from tyranny.

Sarkozy also declared: "You know that we are very close to Quebec, but I tell you that we also love Canada very much. Our two friendships and fidelities are not opposed. We bring them together so that each can understand what we have in common, and we're going to turn toward the future so that the future of Canada and France will be a future of two countries that are not only allies but friends."

And just to personalize his comments, he turned to the governor-general and said: "You have to know that France loves Canada very much."

Which, altogether, made an historically bad day for the sovereignty movement. Had any other French personality, other than the president, made what Le Devoir called such as "glowing declaration of love for Canada," the sovereignty leaders in Quebec and Ottawa would have denounced it as an affront and an unacceptable intrusion in the affairs of Quebec.

But it's pretty hard to denounce the president of France, without looking like a pathetic country cousin. Sarko loves America. He also loves Canada. He has friends here, notably Paul Desmarias Sr., who has received him as a guest at his country estate near La Malbaie. Sarkozy sees France's role as not making trouble for Quebec or Canada, but encouraging all of Canada's francophones, in other provinces as well as Quebec, to come together.

This is pretty much what the governor-general was saying in Paris at the start of what became a rather triumphal visit to France. Jean became a bit of a rock star in France last week. A leading French paper called her "Canada's almost queen." The French were somewhat caught up in her compelling personal narrative, the descendant of slaves and the daughter of immigrants, an immigrant herself who now represents the head of state.

As well as attending with Sarkozy at Bény-sur-Mer, the governor-general saluted the sailing of the Grande Traversée, the crossing of ships from La Rochelle to Quebec City to mark the 400th anniversary of its founding by Samuel de Champlain.

Instead of celebrating her role in these events as a Quebecer and a Canadian, the separatist leaders took great offence.

In the House last week, Gilles Duceppe had smoke coming out his ears, calling her visit "an insult to the Quebec nation," accusing Ottawa of trying to "usurp the celebrations" of Quebec 400. As for the constitutional monarchy she represents, he derided it as "archaic, folkloric, and ridiculous." Actually it was Duceppe who looked ridiculous.

The separatists were further offended when Stephen Harper said Canada was founded at Quebec, and Champlain was the first governor of Canada. No, no, it was New France of which he was the first governor.

In strategic terms, Duceppe was trying to gain traction on an important identity issue. The fact is, he has been losing altitude ever since the House adopted Harper's motion recognizing the existence of the "Québécois nation within a united Canada" in November 2005. Duceppe's 24-hour campaign for the PQ leadership wasn't a great moment for him, either. Since the 2006 election, the Bloc has lost a third of its support, and is polling in the 20s for the first time.

Duceppe in Ottawa, and to a lesser extent the opposition parties in Quebec City, are trying to create a sense of grievance where none exists, and to provoke a war of red carpets nobody wants any more.

The world has moved on. As difficult as that might be for the sovereignty movement to accept, its leaders should show at least show a touch of class. Spitting on the governor-general is really quite disgusting.

http://www.lianmacdonald.ca




© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008

[Delenda]

Without sovereignty debate, PQ beats drum for identity

Marois's comments about Bill 101 are about political, not linguistic, concerns
DON MACPHERSON, The Gazette
Published: 5 hours ago

The current edition of the newsmagazine L'actualité contains a column that is remarkable not so much for what it says as for what it doesn't say.

The column is by a prominent sovereignist, Jean-François Lisée, a former adviser to Parti Québécois premiers Jacques Parizeau and Lucien Bouchard.

As are other sovereignists, Lisée is concerned that people whose mother tongue is French are no longer in the majority on Montreal Island.

What's remarkable is that unlike other sovereignists, Lisée does not exhibit the kneejerk reaction of calling for the strengthening of Bill 101 through the addition of coercive measures or stricter enforcement of the existing ones.

Rather, he proposes to give preference in the selection of immigrants to those who have French as a language of use, and to use incentives (and disincentives) to reverse the exodus of francophones from the island to the mainland suburbs.

It's not that Lisée is soft on language. It was he who suggested to PQ leader Pauline Marois that new arrivals in Quebec, including Canadian citizens, who lack an "appropriate knowledge" of French be barred from running in provincial, municipal or school-board elections.

In fact, Lisée would go even farther than Marois did in her bill to establish a Quebec citizenship. In his book Nous, published last year, Lisée also proposed that newcomers be denied the right to vote in those elections if they couldn't pass tests of their understanding of French as well as of their basic knowledge of Quebec history and culture.

Still, it is refreshingly original for a sovereignist to address the language question without reflexively calling for the strengthening of Bill 101.

Marois, however, is in the always precarious position of being a PQ leader not named Jacques Parizeau. And having already shelved the PQ's primary objective of sovereignty, she cannot afford the luxury of further originality - or realism.

So recently, to mobilize PQ supporters for yesterday's by-elections, she called for a radical "new Bill 101."

She would subject all Quebec businesses, not only those with at least 50 employees, to some form of "francization," so that even a business with only one employee would have to use French to some unspecified extent in its operations.

Also, every business, no matter how small, that requires an employee to know a language other than French would have to "demonstrate" the necessity.

French courses would be compulsory for all "newcomers," not just immigrants. And French would be the language of relations between the government and individuals as well as businesses, which implies that at least some would no longer be entitled to receive service in English.

In the two weeks since Marois announced her "new" French language charter, the PQ hasn't explained how it would work, how much it would cost or how many additional inspectors would have to be hired to enforce it.

Still, in an interview with the Presse Canadienne news agency, an account of which was published on the weekend, PQ language critic Pierre Curzi said he was "enraged" by criticism that the new francization requirement, in particular, is impractical.

The Office québécois de la langue française estimates that there are at least 175,000 businesses in Quebec with fewer than 50 employees - of which at least 150,000 have fewer than 10.

"We won't impose French on 200,000 businesses next year," he said. The new requirement would be phased in, through "applicable" measures, in "key sectors," over "a certain number of years." What measures, which sectors, how many years? Curzi didn't say.

If anything is clear, it's that language and identity now are the PQ's priorities. Marois confirmed as much in an interview in the same edition of L'actualité as Lisée's column, admitting that Action démocratique du Québec "pulled the rug out from under us" in last year's election because the PQ had stopped talking about identity.

So her new Bill 101 seems to be a response to a political need rather than a linguistic one.

dmacpher@thegazette.canwest.com




© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008

[Delenda]

Francophones' response is what matters
The Gazette
Published: 10 hours ago
The anger of some Quebec nationalists at Charles Taylor and Gérard Bouchard is misplaced and a little premature. Mario Beaulieu of the Mouvement Montréal français, for example, is just dead wrong to accuse the co-chairs of Quebec's commission on reasonable accommodation of targeting French Canadians as being responsible for the province's inter-ethnic tensions.

The commissioners did no such thing. What they did argue in their report - parts of which The Gazette's Jeff Heinrich has obtained - was that francophone Quebecers bear the main responsibility for making Quebec more open-minded. But that's not a matter of targeting; it's simply a matter of common sense.

Anyone who has spent any time reading the letters to the editor that pour into this office, both those that make it into the paper and those that don't, know that intolerance and bigotry know no linguistic, ethnic or geographical boundaries. People with anglo names and Pointe Claire addresses are as capable of writing the most appallingly ignorant drivel as a Tremblay or a Tanguay from Notre Dame de Nulle Part. (bien sûr, l'anglo au Québec ne vient pas de whatever de Nulle Part)

But people with anglo and ethnic names don't set the tone in Quebec. Francophones do - or, as the Bouchard Taylor Commission seems to prefer to call them, Québécois of French-Canadian descent. That's especially true beyond the Montreal region where anglophones and allophones simply don't have the numbers to play any significant role in setting the tone for good or bad.

So it's hardly surprising that Taylor and Bouchard would emphasize measures francophones should consider to make the province more welcoming for immigrants. And apart from a suggestion that Quebecers learn more English, their advice was hardly controversial: Get better informed, learn about your Muslim neighbours, overcome your fears.

The good news is, it shouldn't be that difficult. Quebec is a remarkably tolerant place to live, despite francophones' understandable anxiety about preserving their language and culture. Since the Quiet Revolution than most other Canadians, Quebecers have adapted, sometimes with difficulty but more often with grace, to seismic changes in the way they live. In fact, a little "change overload" might help explain the odd obsession some Quebecers on both sides of the linguistic divide seem to have with such trivial matters as hijabs and turbans.

If Quebec is to be a more welcoming and just home for the immigrants we need, we'll all have to make an effort to overcome our prejudices. But in the end, what matters most is how francophones rise to the challenge.




© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008

[Delenda]

The woman they love to hate
Sovereignists despise Michaëlle Jean, perhaps because she is so good at her job
DON MACPHERSON, The Gazette
Published: 9 hours ago
There have been two surefire ways recently for somebody in Quebec to get his name in the papers.

One is to be named in an interview by Julie Couillard, giving the papers an excuse to run one of those photos of her arriving at Rideau Hall with Maxime Bernier for his swearing-in one more time.

When Liberal Michael Ignatieff staked his claim for political quote of the year by declaring, "I don't care about her cleavage," he was not speaking for the media, here or abroad.

Yesterday, the Montreal-based media-monitoring firm Influence Communication reported that the Couillard-Bernier affair had received more coverage in Quebec this year than any other story except the Roy family hockey brawl, and was the story of the year in English Canada.

The firm also reported that the photos of Couillard and Bernier at his swearing-in were being "widely used" in the foreign press, which must have assumed that any connection between Canadian politics and sex ended forever when Pierre Trudeau retired.

The other way to get one's name in the Quebec papers, at least, was either to attack Bernier's and Couillard's hostess at Rideau Hall that day or to defend Governor-General Michaëlle Jean against attack.

Maybe it's because sovereignists thought Jean was once one of them, or maybe it's because she's so good at her job of selling Canada, or maybe it's both. Whatever the reason, no previous governor-general in modern times has received the amount of public abuse that Jean has.

Sovereignists have attacked her so often since her appointment was announced three years ago that they've made the position of queen's representative in Canada seem politically relevant.

The latest salvo was fired by author Victor-Lévy Beaulieu, who seems to be vying to replace apparently-retired filmmaker Pierre Falardeau as the sovereignty movement's leading insult artist, its answer to radio shock jock Jeff Fillion.

Already this year, Beaulieu has called for a "war without mercy" against Parti Québécois leader Pauline Marois "by all means possible" for saying all Quebecers should be bilingual. And he has burned a copy of his new book to protest against Marois's supposed betrayal of the sovereignist cause.

Last week, in an article published in the sovereignist monthly L'Aut'Journal, Beaulieu criticized Jean for her successful recent official visit to France and called her a sellout to federalism.

But it was his repeated reference to Jean, who is black, as "la reine-nègre" - literally, the Negro Queen, a variation on "negro kings," a term once used to describe African puppet rulers chosen by European colonial powers - that offended many.

For as a French-language author must surely know, the word "nègre" now is generally considered a racial slur. Beaulieu's use of it was at least a deliberately provocative play on words.

Falardeau was slower off the mark. He also called Jean a "feminine negro king," among other allusions to Jean's colour, but his article, in the sovereignist bimonthly Le Québécois, didn't appear until three days later.

And Beaulieu wasn't done. Keeping the controversy alive with a letter of "clarification" published in the major French-language dailies on Thursday, Beaulieu said Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe, who was among those who had criticized him, "increasingly resembles Marshal Pétain." The latter was head of the Vichy regime that collaborated with the Nazis during their occupation of France.

But sovereignists weren't the only ones using the governor-general to draw attention to themselves.

Among Jean's defenders was one Emmanuel Dubourg, a Liberal member of the National Assembly of Haitian descent who had attracted so little notice in the year since his election that he could be called the invisible minority.

Dubourg made his mark by telling reporters that freedom of expression should be restricted by law to forbid remarks as "hurtful" as Beaulieu's.

But if, as Dubourg said, Beaulieu is like someone who enters a school armed with a rifle, the only person shot in this case was Beaulieu himself, in the foot.

As for Jean herself, she was able to maintain a dignified silence, declining to comment. She wasn't the one harmed by the attack, and she wasn't among those who needed to use it to draw attention to themselves.

dmacpher@ thegazette.canwest.com




© The Gazette (Montreal) 20

[Polémix]

Et bien, VLB a attiré l'attention de Don McPherson qui le blâme pour autant !

[Delenda]

On se demande pourquoi ces anglophone haineux habitent enore au Québec

Not the only scandal
Letter
Published: 5 hours ago
Norman Webster makes interesting points about the referendum fraud. But while it might be the most important example, there are quite a few others that demonstrate this province's democratic shortcomings.

Lucien Bouchard and Bernard Landry have said many times that Quebec has nothing to learn about democracy. Perhaps closer to the truth is that Quebec can't learn.

Our political elite and media have always been quick to circle the wagons in such cases. It is as if laying bare the truth about the emperor's having no clothes brings shame to "the nation" as a whole. So it just gets ignored. The greater the misdeed, the more that can be learned from it, the less that is said.

The only remedy would be an exposé in the New York Times - the only thing that strikes fear in the heart of our politicos - our dirty little secrets escaping abroad.

As worthy of Zimbabwe as the referendum fraud was, it certainly was not the only example of a lack of respect for democratic principles in Quebec. The overrepresentation of rural areas in the National Assembly is another. But the most obvious, of course, were the municipal mergers. I believe the mergers were sparked when a few West Island municipalities passed resolutions stating that if Quebec has the right to secede unilaterally from Canada, municipalities also have that right. It turns out that defective voting lists worked solely against those wanting demergers, and were allowed to go virtually unchallenged.

Democracy indeed. It's a good thing that we already know everything there is to know about it. Imagine how bad things would be if we still had things to learn.

Anyway, thanks to Webster. But if he is expecting some kind of reaction, I suggest The Gazette fax his column to the New York Times.

Allan Tanny

Montreal

[Delenda]

Imagine shoe on other foot
Letter
Published: 8 hours ago
Imagine that on referendum night, there had been complaints from voters in predominantly separatist areas that they didn't get a chance to vote for various reasons and that an inordinate number of Yes votes had been unaccountably refused.

Can you imagine how quickly an investigation would have been called and organized? Imagine suggesting that those ballots be destroyed. What an outrage it would have been.

Democracy works in Quebec, so long as it benefits the separatist side.

Brian Lashta

Île Perrot

[Delenda]

Cet imbécile semble ignorer que l'Islande est un pays souverain:
Quebec could learn from Iceland
Letter
Published: 6 hours ago
I feel compelled to add my two cents to the endless debate in Quebec regarding what is termed "reasonable accommodation." On Saturday, Ron Bercovitch suggested that as a result of Quebec's "attitudes," people with real skills, money and education, whether immigrants or not, have left the province ("Debate misguided," Letters).

Interestingly, in the Friday issue of the Guardian Weekly, there's a story about how Icelanders (the happiest people in the world, according to the latest UN rankings), don't care if many of their fellow Icelanders speak "excellent English."

In fact, the rector of the leading Icelandic university, and a successful businessman, says emphatically, "our language is safe. We are into brain gain, not brain drain," prompting the Guardian, to observe: "Iceland's obsession is with embracing the world, not fearing it."


Richard Orlando

Montreal

[Delenda]

Basically unequal
Letter
Published: 4 hours ago
It was appropriate for The Gazette to write "separate but not equal" ("Textbook foulup penalizes anglophone students, Editorial, June 16) referring to the lack of new textbooks for anglo students.

If this happened in South Africa or the U.S., we would talk about boycotts, an embargo or a rock concert to protest against this discrimination.

But in Quebec, this basic equality principle is suspended, and we sweep it under the rug, pretending nothing is wrong. A lot is wrong, both with the education system in Quebec and linguistic apartheid. When will Quebec politicians have the courage to stand up to radicals and nationalists and ensure equal rights for all Quebecers?


Zbig Jasiukajc

St. Lazare


Personne ne te force à vivre au Québec...va-t-en à Toronto!

[Delenda]

Merci Québec for the welcome
Letter
Published: 8 hours ago
Many years ago, my sister (French-speaking) and I (non-French-speaking) visited Montreal. I swore I'd never visit again. I found the people rude and unfriendly. We also noticed a difference between the way I was treated versus my sister.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to take my friend from Edmonton to Montreal and Quebec City. This time I found the people warm and welcoming. Each time we opened our city map, someone stopped to offer help. I also found many more people spoke English than on my previous trip. Those who didn't, tried their best to accommodate us. We had a wonderful time.

Kudos to the people of Montreal and Quebec City for changing their attitude toward visitors. I'd like to thank them for their kindness and hospitality. I'll definitely visit again.

Sapphire Chow

Belleville, Ont.


La morale de l'histoire: Le Québec ne trouvera grâce auprès de ce torchon que lorsqu'il aura été complètement anglicisé.`

[Delenda]

La supériorité anlo-saxonne:


The plan isn't working
Letter
Published: 6 hours ago
Re: "Anglo schools are doing just fine" (Letters, July 12).

Perhaps someone can explain how anglophone students, who work with badly translated books and exams or no books at all are graduating at such a high rate while francophone students, who work with all original materials, have a 50-per-cent dropout rate.

I guess all the efforts to put our kids at a disadvantage just aren't working. Bravo to our teachers for working so hard to make sure our kids succeed regardless of what our government presents them with.

Laynie Seligman

Laval

[Polémix]

Ben oui, tout le monde sait que les enfants dans les écoles publiques ont tout ce qu'il y a de mieux. Y a juste les tits anglos là qui ont pas toute parfait.

N'importe quelle connasse peut dire n'importe quelle connerie mais rien n'excuse The Gazette de la publier.

[Delenda]

All we are saying is give Paul a chance
The Gazette
Published: 6 hours ago
It can be safely predicted even now that a British knight will take Quebec City by storm on Sunday. That's when Sir Paul McCartney will unleash what promises to be the rockingest show the storied Plains of Abraham have seen since the one staged at the same venue by generals named Wolfe and Montcalm.

That's a joke, OK? But it seems some people take the McCartney-Wolfe connection very seriously indeed.

By some people we mean the few dozen separatists, including two Parti Québécois front- benchers, Pierre Curzi and Daniel Turp, who have worked themselves into a froth of indignation over the former Beatle's big show.

These zealots even cranked up a petition alleging that Quebec's 400th-anniversary celebration, of which the McCartney show is a towering highlight, is being blighted by the prominence being accorded to what they call an "Anglo-Saxon idol."

"We can never erase that we were conquered by the British," said sculptor Luc Archambault, the petition instigator. So much, we guess, for Paul's old bandmate's sentiment, "Give peace a chance."

The protest certainly hasn't put McCartney and his band on the run, nor do we suspect it's likely to discourage many of the expected crowd of up to 200,000.

Paul's mission, he said in a Radio-Canada interview, is strictly friendly. "I want to give those people the best night of their lives."

As for General Wolfe, McCartney claimed to have remembered him from history-exam questions, but said still hasn't quite figured out exactly who he was. And Sir Paul assured the interviewer that of course he would speak some French. (He would not, however, promise to sing Michelle (ma belle). Still, it wouldn't surprise us if he did.

Even more reassuring was the overwhelming ridicule heaped on this stillborn protest in francophone quarters. "Would they ban Shakespeare because he's English?" wondered leading Quebec songwriter (and avowed sovereignist) Stéphane Venne. He went on to lecture the petition people, noting that McCartney is an artist whose appeal and influence transcend borders and ethnic lines. Venne added that he and many prominent Quebec musicians have drawn inspiration from him.

Philippe Navarro, a former PQ political staffer and now a full-time musician, pointed out that what really decided the fate of Quebec was not the Battle of the Plains in 1759, but France's decision four years later to give up Quebec in a trade for Guadeloupe - an outcome that would probably have been the same had Montcalm won the battle (bon,un peu plus et le torchon affirmerait qu'on n'a jamais été conquis...seulement abandonnés par la France)

The only thing being tarnished here is the image of the PQ and the sovereignist movement when prominent figures in its ranks indulge in such ludicrous displays of nationalist pique. Curzi and Turp really should know better than to stoop to this. They're making it bad, mostly for themselves.




© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008

[Delenda]

No 'us' in 'nous'
Letter
Published: 6 hours ago
Re: "There really is a 'nous,' and it includes us" (Editorial, July 12).

There is no "nous," and we are definitely not included. What more proof do you need?

Do you not hear the constant, loud, and clear message of Quebec nationalists?

When did you last see Pauline Marois, the Parti Québécois, Imperatif francais, les Jeunes patriots du Québec, the Mouvement Montréal français or the Société St Jean Baptiste include "us" in a positive or inclusive way? And please show us where the words of Liberal Premier Jean Charest and the four English MNAs are any more than lip service to the more than one million members of Quebec's minority cultural communities.

Where is the positive action on full Canadian rights? Thanks for letting us pay our fair share of excessive Quebec taxes! And what percentage of public-service jobs in Quebec did you note we have?

Six hundred thousand of us have already left Quebec, with more of us leaving (and dying) on a regular basis, with very few of us coming or returning.

Anglophones, allophones and other minorities in Quebec live under an undeclared but open system of state-sponsored discrimination that is so clear you would have to be blind not to see it.

Allen E. Nutik

Leader, Affiliation Quebec

[El Kabong]

Je suis curieux de savoir QUI finance Affiliation Québec?

[Lachapelle]

There really is a 'nous,' and it includes us
The Gazette
Published: Saturday, July 12
Summer is a much-longed-for season in Quebec, but one that is rarely productive from the point of view of fraternal feeling.

By the time we get past St. Jean Baptiste day and July 1, whatever communal spirit the hockey playoffs have generated between francophones and anglophones has become a little frayed. Competitive parade-going is not an exercise calculated to bind a society closer together.

This year had additional challenges to solidarity, with the tensions aroused by the Bouchard-Taylor Commission report and that stylized politicians' re-enactment of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham over the federal role in the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City.

So it was a remarkable pleasure to learn, this week, that the linguistic, cultural and social divergences that seem to flare up so often are, according to academic researchers, basically insignificant. A new study has found that there are very few important differences in attitudes between francophones and anglophones in Quebec. Anglos here are far more like francophones than we are like anglophones in the rest of Canada or in the United States.

Writing in the U.S. Journal of Social Psychology, researchers from Bishop's University conclude that Quebecers, no matter what their mother tongue, show comparable open mindedness and emotional stability and are equally productive on the job, careful, attentive and agreeable.

A couple of stereotypes do remain true to some degree, the psychologists said of their sample of 50 francophones and 50 anglophones: anglophones are slightly more conservative.

But centuries of living together have not only made us similar, but have also given us something of a distinct personality. That's a real "us," all of us, francophone and anglophone alike.

The study authors say there are three distinct personality/culture areas in North America: Quebec; the U.S. South; the rest of Canada and the U.S. combined. In Quebec, we have opted for a system of social solidarity. Elsewhere, the preference is for a more individualistic, free-market approach to building a society.

Quebec anglophones are not different from their francophone compatriots in that regard. The researchers think that because we share the same physical place and same lifestyle, we have come to share similar attitudes in many matters.

This is good news, if only we could hear it. It means the weary identity politics which some use in an effort to divide us have little firm foundation. We can all get along

[Polémix]

Le gouvernement du Canada, la Royal Bank, ..