French versus English Volume 110

Honeymoon over for new PQ leader

Perhaps that headline is not exactly right, because for newly elected PQ leader Jean-François Lisée, there was no honeymoon at all.
New leaders usually get a novelty bump, but not so in this case.
Six weeks after taking over the leadership, Lisée and the PQ have seen support drop from 30% to 24%, a rather precipitous decline.
As for his personal brand, just 16% of Quebecers see him as a good premier.
The dastardly Liberals, the party of "who else is there" remains steady at 36% and would likely form another majority government, this despite having a 56% dissatisfaction rating by Quebecers.

As for sovereignty, a new poll suggest that 70% of Quebecers now reject the notion, a number I've never seen before and surely a historical low.

Open Table reservation site humiliates Quebec, itself and its users with 100 Best restaurant list

The restaurant reservation website issued its100 best restaurant list and all I can say is that either the diners are idiots or the list is a joke.
Either way, publishing this list is about as useful as asking vegetarians to rate their favourite steakhouse.
How utterly presumptuous to issue a list that is so clearly out of touch with reality.

Only five provinces were included with Ontario taking 45 places, British Columbia taking 25 places and Quebec a meager 11 places, which says more about where this website does business than about the restaurants themselves.
You think this website and its users are a savvy lot?
Well in its report on the 10 best places to eat in Montreal as chosen by users "THE KEG" came in second place with a whopping 4½ stars,  I'M NOT KIDDING!!

I would have to classify this news story as "fake news" designed to attract readers to the website.
It is an embarrassment.

PQ leadership loser contemplates taking over Bloc Quebec while retaining her seat in Quebec legislature

 My favourite PQ politician is Martine Ouellet who I've teased in the past over her incredible gaff in a Radio-Canada interview where she displayed an utter lack of understanding between a loan and a loan guarantee, even though the incredulous interviewer tried her best to explain the difference.
Watch the interview HERE for a good laugh.

She has run unsuccessfully for the PQ leadership twice and now is contemplating the Bloc Quebecois leadership, where she'll probably have better luck since absolutely nobody wants the top job.

All of this is not news in of itself, but what is interesting is that she says that if she does get the job, she won't quit her day job, that is a sitting PQ member in the Quebec legislature.
In a French language radio interview she stated that the two jobs are not mutually incompatible and that she'll have plenty of time to do both.
Since opposition MPs generally do nothing, she's probably right!

Petition requesting English or pictograms on Quebec road signs

Here's an email I received from Harold Stavis about a petition requesting  bilingual or pictograms on Quebec road signs;

"As we all know, all traffic signs on Quebec highways are solely in French. When driving, do you know what «Respectez les feux de voies», «Risque d’aquaplanage», «Dégel», «Ralentir», «Allumez vos phares», «Voie cahoteuse» and «Incident voie droite bloquée» mean? Are you aware that according to the Charter of the French Language (“Charter”), the French inscription on traffic signs may be complemented or replaced by symbols or pictographs, and another language may be used where no symbol or pictograph exists? Seeing that the aforementioned phrases have to deal with one’s safety, why are they not in English as well, as the Charter clearly provides?  It absolutely makes no sense whatsoever that the protection of the French Language is more important than one’s safety. Shouldn’t the safety of everyone, whether French speaking or English speaking, be of prime importance? That is precisely why we have presented a petition to the National Assembly through our MNA David Birnbaum."

Please sign the petition at www.assnat.qc.ca/en/exprimez-votre-opinion/petition/Petition-6407/index.html and make sure you share it with your friends, family and acquaintances. Numbers do speak volumes…

 The French version  of the Huffington Post did a story on the petition and took a non scientific poll of readers indicating that 74% of readers were against the idea. Link{fr}

A visit to the comments section under the story demonstrated that most commenters were also quite opposed to the idea.
My favourite comment.....

"I propose a petition demanding that they learn French!"

Now I applaud the petition effort, but sadly, it came at the same time that the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF)  forced a hospital in the Gaspé to remove bilingual signs in favour of all-French signs, this despite the fact that the English lettering is smaller than the French.
The Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux de la Gaspésie (CISSSG) has historically and continues to serve a small English community, but since that community is about 15% of the population served by the hospital, the OQLF has come down hard on the hospital.

Progress in Quebec!!

Monreal's sub-par Xmas tree reverberates around the world

Almost 2 million viewers got to watch ABC's Today show which bashed Montreal's Christmas tree rather painfully

Montreal's scrawny, lopsided Christmas tree is just like Charlie Brown's

The Huffington Post couldn't resist either. Link

$15 minimum wage would be catastrophic to Quebec boonies...NOT

I'm actually in favour of the $15 minimum wage, it seems fair to pay a living wage to workers and complaints by companies, (mostly retailers and fast food) against such a pay raise fall on my deaf ear.

Now according to Stats Can only about 7% of workers make minimum wage, but 45% of these minimum wage jobs occur in retail and fast food.
Those making minimum wage are heavily weighted on women and the young.

So an increase in the minimum wage might mean that a 'Happy Meal' would cost a buck more in McDonalds and that Wal-Mart might make a billion less.  Seems a fair trade-off.
Today a full-time minimum wage worker makes about $22,000 a year and for a single parent with one child, it means working and living in poverty, not abject poverty, but poverty just the same.
A $15 minimum wage would bring the income up to about $31,000, which is by the way, the poverty line for that category.

BUT..........
According to the Journal de Montreal a $15 minimum wage would wipe out 160,000 jobs in Quebec, mostly in the boonies. Link{fr}
This nugget of information was pulled  from a study created by the Institut économique de Montréal.
I wonder how many people who read the Journal de Montreal story went to the source material.
I did?
Now the source IEDM  quotes is a story in Le Devoir that references a possible 160,000 job loss as a result of the higher minimum wage, but the comments section of that article takes umbrage with the assumptions, conclusions and methodology. It was a very good read.

At ant rate, the IEDM study that the Journal de Montreal referenced for the story also states that some economists believe that the job loss would be in the 20,000 area, but that fact doesn't fit in with the alarmist story and so is conveniently s left out.

I still think that working towards a higher minimum wage would have the benefit of reducing workers temptation to remain idle and on welfare or unemployment insurance.
While products like fast food might cost more, workers would have more money to spend.
It's a complicated subject, but underpaying workers because it is economically necessary makes the same sense as reducing safety or environmental standards because it makes businesses uncompetitive.

I will remind readers that car companies fought tooth and nail against seat belts and airbags based on the notion that the higher prices for cars would destroy the market....
As I said...deaf ears.

Conservative leadership race debate en français: Ouch!!!!

It was an unpleasant and painful experience to suffer through the "bilingual" Conservative party debate in Moncton, where even the moderator's French was painfully inadequate.

While the candidates looked utterly helpless and comical, nothing beats Kellie Leitch's French, like fingernails scratching a blackboard.

 

et cetera...

You've probably seen this video of Carey Price pummeling a hapless New Jersey Devil over a perceived unfair hit.

But the real treat is the subtitles provided by YouTube.  Link

Turn the subtitle icon [cc] in the bottom right hand corner below the video before running the video .

"CHRIST TAKES EXCEPTION!"    Have a good laugh...

CTV Montreal would have us believe that thinking about committing a crime is a crime itself!

Montreal Casino Gambles Away Your Money

The provincially-run casino in Montreal was a big success when it opened in 1993, but has since declined to a degree with adjusted revenue falling over time and for managers of the enterprise a distressing state of affairs, where executive bonus' and indeed job security is based on increased profits.

I cannot say that that lower sales and profits are a bad thing, just as I wouldn't complain over falling alcohol sales at provincially-run liquor stores. Declines such as these should be seen as a positive societal tendency, just as falling cigarette sales, even with the loss of the massive taxes attached is also a good thing.

But the reduced popularity of these "sins" certainly has a negative effect on government revenues and while it would be unconscionable for the government to encourage more smoking or drinking in an attempt to boost tax revenue, somehow encouraging people to gamble away their pay-cheque seems more palatable.

The Montreal casino was and remains a particularly grim place, patronized mostly with hardened gambling addicts, almost all locals with a particular over-representation of Montreal's Asian and Hassidic communities.
There's a palpable pall of sadness and desperation in the atmosphere where unsmiling pensioners feed the slot machines like zombies and gambling addicts of various degrees, toss good money after bad, unable to stop themselves, never quite able to sate the urge to lose. 

As for tourists coming to town and making big donations, the options for real gamblers outside Quebec are much more inviting, and no sophisticated gambler or "whale" would consider Montreal as a destination because of it's long gaming odds and smoke-free policy. Tourists do make up almost a quarter of visitors, but they are there for one-night's entertainment and are not particularly big contributors.

The Montreal casino is a far cry from the glitzy entertainment and gambling centres of Las Vegas, which make their money equally from lodging and entertainment, with nightclubs, restaurants, pool parties making up a significant part of the revenue stream.

But the casino as a gambling centre does serve a purpose, it relieves local gambling addicts of money that would otherwise be lost to out-of-province casinos and that is hundreds of millions in revenue best kept in Quebec.

The casino has tried to widen its customer base (something that we all should object to) by promoting entertainment and has failed miserably, clearly its clientele is not the carefree vacationers looking for a good time as is the case of Las Vegas.

Desperate to boost it's appeal the casino recently spent some $300 million sprucing itself up in the hope of re-inspiring customers, but so far the plan has failed to bear fruit.

Now the casino is taking another expensive gamble, opening up the glitziest of glitziest of restaurants and has imported a French master chef to oversee the project, one that will cost untold millions in the vain attempt to lure the rich and carefree to a world class restaurant that runs patrons upwards of $500 per couple.

This plan is, in gambling jargon, a longshot and will likely be another financial fiasco when all is said and done, whether the restaurant eventually shutters or survives.

Casino Restaurant to cost taxpayers big $$$

The local culinary community is furious over the importation of a famous French brand, complaining bitterly that a local chef could do as well, but that fact, true or false, is thoroughly beside the point.

The restaurant Atelier de Joël Robuchon  can never make money, even at capacity, the expenses are just too ridiculously high.
Those in the industry know that with the vast investment and publicity campaign (at public expense), coupled with overpaid unionized cooking and wait staff, plus the enormous fee to the celebrity chef, the restaurant is at best a device meant to drive attendance into the casino.

Clients who do patronize the casino restaurant as a destination, rather than an adjunct to gambling, do so at the expense of our small exclusive community of expensive French restaurants in the greater Montreal area. It is the ultimate example of unfair competition, the government pirating clients away using the restaurant as a loss leader.

I wonder what Montreal area car dealers would think of a government run car dealership that ignored the laws of business, stole clients via massive advertising, plus promotions and loss leaders, all paid for by taxpayers?

Read an excellent article over at EATER.MONTREAL

When governments run restaurants or any business that compete with private enterprise, can they ever be successful?

Let us examine the case of the Hélène-de-Champlain on  St. Helen's Island, a historic building owned by the City of Montreal and leased out to a private restaurateur successfully for 27 years.
When the lease ran out a few years ago, the historic building was shuttered and a $7 million dollar renovation undertaken, which ballooned up to $16 million, all at public expense, with the auditor general characterizing the overspending as"catastrophic."
That renovation was finished last year, but the building remains unused because as a restaurant the project made no sense considering the investment.
So what does the City of Montreal do?... It comes up with a new plan and invests another 10 million dollars to convert the place into four banquet halls, something that might work if the $26 million investment is written off.
And who is to say that cost for this new fantasy project won't balloon as well. Link

But no matter, even with writing off the investment, the project won't work because as we all understand, the government cannot compete with private industry in the hospitality industry, nor come to think of it, in any industry at all.
And then again if the city runs a banquet hall facility at a loss, all it does is hurt those in the legitimate banquet hall business. Perhaps the government might abide by the old medical adage to "Do no harm"

And so the misguided folks at Loto-Quebec view their mission as making the casino more successful by augmenting gambling, when the real goal of the agency should be to control gambling and to provide just enough opportunity to those Quebecers so inclined to gamble, but nothing more.
The same for the SAQ, which should not be promoting more alcohol consumption by attempting to draw in new customers, or boost consumption via promotions and loss leaders..

A few years ago the SAQ was persuaded to abandon the sale of alcohol related products such as glassware and decanters, because of the direct competition with the private industry and the casino should be held to the same standard.

As for celebrity chef Joël Robuchon I'm quite sure he negotiated himself a sweet deal and win or lose, success or failure, he'll come out well-compensated for his efforts, unlike celebrity chef Mike Ramsey whose private industry venture at the old Laurier BBQ restaurant in Montreal flamed out brilliantly with lawsuits abounding.

If the new casino restaurant fails, taxpayers are losers.
If the restaurant succeeds in luring more Quebecers to the casino, to gamble away their money, then we as a society lose as well.

Hypocrisy, thy Name is Quebec!

When one sees the pictures in the news, time to time, of Beijing blanketed by a thick, choking layer of suffocating smog, we can only shake our heads in righteous indignation at the utter lack of responsibility of the Chinese government towards the environment or the well-being of its own citizens.

 But like it or not, we here in Quebec also display a reckless disregard for the environment, perhaps not on the Chinese scale, but reckless just the same.

Yes, a smog alert was issued Tuesday for Montreal and southern Quebec, something that happens up to 20 times throughout the winter when the weather gets cold and Quebecers, even in big population centres like Montreal, crank up their wood-burning stoves to heat their homes, a practice that can best be described as environmentally barbaric.

-Montreal Gazette

There are perhaps 85,000 wood-burning stoves and fireplaces on the Island of Montreal, churning out particulates in the atmosphere in an amount that is almost comparable to all the gas-burning vehicles plying our streets.
On top of this, most of the wood-burning devices aren't even up to standard, thus producing up to ten times more pollution than those stoves built  to modern standards.

Montreal has been slow to implement changes, preferring to impose the implementation of higher standards until after the next municipal election.
But those standards will still allow for devices, albeit cleaner, something that strikes me as absurd.

Here in Quebec, environmentalists and indeed regular citizens preach about global warming and the dangers of pipelines and fossil fuels.
Yet we blindly allow for wood-burning stoves, a totally unnecessary and destructive force on the environment, where the clean alternative readily available is electricity, something Quebec is awash in surplus capacity.

Let me ask you, how you'd feel stuck in one of Montreal's proverbial traffic jams, right behind some jalopy that was belching out thick black smoke from its exhaust continuously.
What might go through your mind?
That the driver of this vehicle is an irresponsible and selfish jerk?
That the police should ticket the offender and that the vehicle should be pulled from the road?
Probably and rightfully so.
If the driver of that vehicle explained that he couldn't afford a new car or even to fix the pollution problem, would you accept his defense and excuse his behaviour?
 Like me, I think you wouldn't, there can be no excuse for such reckless disregard.
So why any difference with wood-burning stoves?

While Mayor Coderre blathers on about going green with electric cars, he wilfully closes his eyes to reality of wood-burning stoves for the sake of expediency.
We as citizens are no better, we are in fact collective hypocrites.
Quebecers are the highest per capita users of wood-burning stoves and have the highest level of car ownership.
We don't need new, glitzy and expensive projects to combat global warming, we need to clean up our mess where it is easiest.

And here is a messages to Justin Trudeau, Denis Coderre and the Premier of Quebec....
How about imposing a carbon tax on wood-burning stoves before penalizing companies.
Perhaps a $3,000 a year carbon tax on wood-burnnig stoves would seriously reduce the use of these pollution engines, a carbon tax which would be effective and one that wouldn't cost jobs.

But can this makes-sense approach happen when the hundreds of thousands of owners of wood-burning devices have a vote, unlike companies where the imposition of a carbon tax can have no effect in the voting booth?

We Quebecers are loud in our denunciation of corporate polluters and pipeline projects, but when it comes to sacrificing and pulling our weight we are nowhere to be seen and neither are our politicians.

Hypocrisy, thy name is Quebec!

Trudeau to Steal $10,000 From your Grandchildren!

Imagine Justin Trudeau announcing that in order to stimulate the economy, the federal government was going to send each taxpayer a cheque for $10,000.
Most of us would say whoopee!
Some of us, the skeptics, would be a bit wary of Greeks bearing gifts. 

Hmmm...
Now what if Trudeau corrected himself and told us that there was a catch to this windfall, that in fact, your grandchildren will be liable for the debt when they became taxpayers in the future and will bear the cost of paying the interest and principle of the money that you received so generously back in the day when Justin gave it to you.

Think of it as downloading your student loan on your grandchildren.

Would you still accept the money under these circumstances?
I suspect that too many of us would close our eyes, stick fingers in our ears and take the money, because like drugs, free money is a temptation hard to resist.

Around the dinner table amongst family, or on television amid experts, the idea of spending money today and leaving our children and their descendants the bill, rarely makes good conversation.
But it should.
Like the proverbial ostrich that buries its head in the sand, ignoring the issue is manifest denial.

Today, Justin Trudeau is set to add $150 billion dollars to the debt over the term of his first government, something that will cost unborn taxpayers about $10,000 each. This is on top of the $40,000 dollar legacy debt that each of our future taxpayers has inherited from previous governments, starting with Trudeau senior back in the seventies.
This debt by the way, doesn't account for provincial debt which works out, depending on the province where these future taxpayers will live, to about another ten to thirty thousand dollars each of additional debt.
This by the way, is the ultimate "taxation without representation' scenario.

Read: Trudeau government to smash debt and deficit records

Let us not delude ourselves, the debt has grown so large that we cannot pay it off in our generation, especially considering that we are not even trying.
There are those experts who say that Trudeau's lending amounts to less than 10% of government income, not a horribly significant amount, but continue the practice over thirty years and the results are disastrous.

Read: Interest payments on government debt a painful reminder that there are no free lunches

Let us consider a family which 30 years ago had a combined income of $25,000 and which borrowed and spent 10% a year more than they took in and continued this behavior over thirty years.

Thirty years later this family's income would have grown to about $95,000 a year, but the aggregate family debt would be somewhere about $150,000, costing the family about $7,500 a year in interest cost alone.
But what happens when the $95,000 income falls unexpectedly to $90,000 due to market conditions, (which is the case today with falling oil prices.)
Our mythical family is in a precarious position and paying off any of the principle becomes impossible and the idea of stopping borrowing unrealistic, unless the family cuts expenses significantly, something increasingly difficult to do.
At this point, the bank might well refuse further loans, after all, the increasing debt load cannot go on indefinitely. Not a pretty scenario.

It is the same for our federal government, except that Ottawa has a trick to get over the lending ceiling, that is, passing off the debt, promising bankers that future generations will become responsible to take over the debt, something the above analogous family cannot do in good conscious.

The real 'hockey stick' graph

There was a time when the federal government of Canada owed virtually no money. Up to 1970,  Ottawa owed lenders about $20 billion dollars, or about $1,500 dollars for each taxpayer, a paltry sum.
This in the first hundred years of our country, during which we fought two major and two minor wars.
With the election of Pierre-Elliot Trudeau the era of borrow and spend was opened and today each taxpayer owes about $41,000 each, with the federal governments debt sitting at about $700  billion.
Add the provincial public debt and you can add about $10,000 to $30,000 to that number.

The problem is that there comes a point where there is no chance to pay off the principle, considering  the income we take in and the expenses we have and the fact that Ottawa is suffering a poisonous structural deficit, thanks to falling oil prices.

Today  11% of our federal taxes are used to pay off the interest on the federal debt, just about the same amount that we spend on old-age pensions, or the money Ottawa transfers to the provinces. 
And Justin is fixing to raise that percentage another few points with his reckless deficit spending.

So the idea that we'll be able to pay down this debt in our or our children's lifetime is impossible.
Let us wish good luck to our grandchildren and their descendants, they've been drafted to own the debt we have incurred!
But before you complain, remember if you are aged under fifty years old, YOU WERE AND REMAIN the prime beneficiary of this lending and spending orgy.

Today I heard calls from the CBC for additional funding of $400 million, which according to experts would cost each Canadian taxpayer an addition $90 a year.
But this is FALSE!
Considering that the government isn't proposing a new CBC tax, it means that your grandchildren are being asked once more to fund our debt-financed consumption and will assume this additional debt.

Next time Trudeau promises a new program or expenditure, ask yourself if it is fair to our grandchildren who will be obliged to pay the freight.

All we hear from the hypocritical hoity-toity government and popular leaders is that we need to clean up the environment for the benefit of our heirs, yet none is willing to address the dishonest and deceitful practice of downloading our consumption-fuelled debt on our kids.

Let us stop pretending that our politicians and indeed ourselves, care about the welfare of future generations while we frivolously steal from them and this with reckless abandon.
It is despicable, and every time I hear a government official or community leader blather on about saving our planet for the kids, I want to desperately make them understand the utter hypocrisy.

So Justin et al, save the planet by all means, but pay for the effort yourself!

French versus English Volume 109

English school commissions humiliate Anglo community....again.

If there's one lesson to be learned from the ongoing fiasco at the two largest English language school boards, it is that Quebec anglophones have nothing on their Francophone counterparts when it comes to mismanagement and abuse of the public trust.

For those outside of Quebec, school commissions operate the schools in designated territories and are divided by language. In areas with anglo population, there is one commission that runs the English schools and another running the French schools. These boards are chosen in elections by the general public where voting turnout for the various commissioners runs somewhere between 5% and 19%, not exactly a ringing endorsement of democracy.

Both the Lester B. Pearson and the English Montreal School Boards are in hot water over years of mismanagement, but things came to a boil this week when the  chairperson of the Lester B. Pearson
was revealed to have been found in breach of ethics, three times.

"Suanne Stein Day, chair of the Lester B. Pearson School Board, denies any wrongdoing despite being found guilty of three ethic breaches after an investigation.

"The board's ethics commissioner determined in August that Stein Day had violated three separate articles of the board's code of ethics on multiple occasions. The board, however, is powerless to take any action against Stein Day."

"I certainly recognize that I am not perfect and I made some mistakes but what I did I always did because I believed it was in the best interests of the board," said Stein Day.
But in speaking to reporters immediately afterward, Stein Day denied doing anything wrong. Link

She is accused of rudeness, a potty mouth and interference with employees in the performance of their duties.
The 27 year employee who initiated the complaint that led to the findings of wrongdoing was unceremoniously fired. Link

Of course the school board is refusing to table the ethics breach report citing "confidentiality. "

The utter ridiculousness of being found guilty of a breach of ethics and then not being subject to any sanction, testifies to the utter dysfunction and arrogance of school boards. 

By the way, if any insider has a copy of the said report, I would love to publish it in the public interest.

The education minister, always leery of interfering in the affairs of the English school boards, was so incensed, he appointed an auditor to oversee the shenanigans at both boards,  including involving UPAC, the anti-corruption police to sniff around after some serious allegations of fraud at the EMSB.

At any rate, Quebec school boards are about as useful as the American Electoral College, an utterly unnecessary layer of bureaucracy that burns up money better spent on the children's education.

There are those who argue that to turn over control of English schools to a French government is a frightening scenario, but with leadership like this protecting our interests, I'd rather go with the proverbial 'Door Number Two.'

Quebec Premier supports Saudi bid to join La Francophonie

As unbelievable as is Saudi Arabia's wish to join the Francophonie, (the fraternity of French speaking countries. similar to the Commonwealth) is support for that idea from Quebec's Premier Philippe Couillard who stated that he isn't shutting the door to the idea.

"The Heads of State and Government gathered in Madagascar for the XVI Francophonie Summit will have to decide if they will accept the candidacy of the kingdom  of Saudi Arabia - an absolute monarchy where almost nobody speaks French and which is on the list of the worst countries in regards to human rights. " Link{fr}

Anybody care to explain???

Journal du Quebec loves this ad.

The newspaper gives the team and the players a resounding A+ for effort for this monstrously bad advertisement.
Actually the French is so bad that perhaps it makes the whole thing memorable... Dunno..

Trial delays could free over 220 indicted

The Quebec justice system is so slow that judges are beginning to free defendants over delays in getting trials underway, with trial dates of up to five years after indictment not unheard of.
The delays have led to the abandonment of procedures against a Mafiosi, and several bikers and threatens the trials of those ex Laval city officials charged with corruption.
Tom Harding, the conductor of the train that killed 47 people in Lac Megantic is petitioning the court to abandon his prosecution for unreasonable delay because his trial still hasn't taken place 38 months after charges were laid.   Link{Fr}

The Quebec justice minister Stéphanie Vallée, in a not too comforting exchange, seemed to indicate that she did not really know what the problem is, but at any rate claimed that it wasn't her fault...duh!

Corrupt ex-Laval mayor pleads out and takes a gift sentence

The dizzying cast of characters involved in the various and numerous corruptions schemes that have surfaced in Quebec over the last few years makes it a bit difficult to remember who is accused of what.
Not so in the case of Gilles Vaillancourt, the ex-mayor of Laval who is easily recalled as the biggest crook of them all.
For over thirty years the corrupt mayor bilked the city he ran for untold millions, generating so much money that the excess was shipped off to secret Swiss and Caribbean bank accounts. Link

Laval citizens were eager to see the grand thief have his day in court, hopefully humiliated and then shipped of to jail for a good long sentence.

Alas this is Quebec and it was not to be.
After four years waiting for a trial a "deal" was announced where the good mayor would be sentenced to a paltry 6 years in prison,  a sentence which means that he'll be out of jail sometime next week, according to our generous parole system.

He was ordered to repay some 9 million dollars to the city he robbed, supposedly all that remains, but raise your hand if you don't believe he's got plenty more millions stashed.

All in all, a totally unsatisfactory conclusion to this sordid tale of greed and betrayal.

French descriptor on English business' now mandatory.

Rules came into effect this week which will force businesses with outdoor signage to add a descriptor to the sign if the name of the business is not French.
The rules don't apply to proper names or place names.

The new rule has been adopted after the humiliating loss that the Quebec government suffered over  trademarks in the case of Quebec vs. Best Buy when it tried to force companies to translate their trademarked names into French.
The superior court victory for Best Buy was upheld by Quebec court of appeals, after which the government threw in the towel.

The new "descriptor" rule is actually as mild as can be, applying to outdoor signage alone, a compromise that satisfies few.  Link

So it comes as no surprise that the Société Saint-Jean Baptiste is upset that the rules don't go far enough, demanding more stringent regulations in an Op/Ed piece Le Devoir. Link{fr}

Montreal protest calls for crackdown on English-only websites.

A bunch of French-language militants staged a photo-op march entreating Quebec’s language police to take action against businesses lacking French websites."

"A contingent of French-language advocates staged a march through Montreal Tuesday, demanding that Quebec’s language watchdog crack down on businesses without French websites.
According to provincial law, any business operating in Quebec must offer a French-language version of its online property.
Protesters carried a Quebec flag and a cardboard box filled with 423 files through the streets of Montreal and delivered the complaints to L’Office Quebecois de la Langue Francaise."
Link

Quebec Human Rights Commission issues another humiliating decision.

"A West Island man says he has been ‘humiliated’ by the Quebec Human Rights Commission’s settlement in an incident of racial profiling.
The commission recommended the City of Montreal pay him a settlement of $2,000 after he was stopped for jaywalking.
On Tuesday, the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations argued that a decade ago that settlement would have been $10,000.
The complainant, Marcus Gordon is upset about the settlement and said it sends a bad message to Quebecers that it’s not worth filing a complaint.
The incident occurred in May 2011, when Gordon and his fiancée were leaving the Metropolis theatre following a benefit concert for murdered local hip-hop artist Bad News Brown.
"Only me and my girlfriend got pulled over by three officers. Not one, not two, but three with gloves," said Gordon." Link

 $2,000 settlement? Whaaa?????
I bet the hearing and the police and commission lawyers cost  at least $100,000.

Maybe they should have saved a buck and just paid off the complainant $10,000 without prejudice!

But no, a message had to be delivered, that is, that those who choose to complain will be run through the ringer.
Clearly if you are Black or any visible minority for that matter, you aren't going to get justice from the Quebec Human Rights Commission.

In fact, the pitiful awards that the board does sanction sometimes serve only to remind citizens of colour, that resistance is futile.

I wish there was some lawyer out there who would take cases on a contingency bases and litigate in real courts, where judges aren't keen to do the police's dirty work and where large awards would send a message.

By the way Montreal leads the way in prosecuting the following crimes;

Jaywalking while Black

Driving a nice car while Black

Loitering while Black.

Just two words..."Steak and Eggs"

Yes I get the mistake in the title, but that is how a Radio-Canada reporter described the sad state of affairs wherein French businesses (not only in Montreal) are applying English names to their stores and restaurants, a 'problem' shared also in France.

I can't explain the trend to use English names, other than to say that it appears that the use of English name adds a certain caché, much like a hoity-toity Anglo might use a French term, in describing the practice as adding a certain "je ne sais quoi!"

In a piece I can only characterize as a bit sad, A radio Canada story recounted the sad state of affairs.

The piece goes on to decry the naming of a 'Barbier' in Sherbrooke as "Barber Shop" (At least the reporter got the 'two words' part right!)

Here is a bit of what was written;

"When we consider that Quebecers are brainwashed with the American dream, virtual and illusory, we say that the game is fixed and that we should resist and fight. But I hear several saying: "What does it matter?"

 It seems that, for a long time, English television  and other English-language media have played a role of acculturation and, possibly, the assimilation of Francophones in Quebec, as has happened elsewhere in North America. 

It seems that the Radio-Canada is thinking the same. In this report, it seems to suggest that perhaps we should not harass honest people over so little: after all, it's just two words. 

(my translation) Original story in French....Link{fr}

Did you know...

With the death of her hubby René Angélil, Celine Dion is now close to becoming a billionaire with a net worth of about $940 million...yikes!

The Conservatives plan on holding a leadership debate in Quebec in French, a difficult task considering that only five can speak the language.

For your reading pleasure... 

Hillary Clinton's Quebec ancestry dates back to New France

Anglophone musicians' careers take off, thanks to French TV show

Montreal's Guido Nincheri Park to keep its name following public outcry

Quebec government goes to court to intervene against a francophone minority...Huh??

Muslim Scholar: French Language “Useless and a Waste of Time”

Brad Pitt's tries out a French Canadian accent in movie "Allied"