Parliamentary Coalition 2008 rally report: Montreal

A good-sized crowd, but judging by the signs, it was mostly unionists, with a few scattered social interest groups (students, political prisoners).

There was no contingent for me to stand behind, literally, since even the NPD Quebec banner section was moribund (no handouts, for example).

I picked up a "Coalition Yes! Make Parliament work" placard suitable for window display.

Boring, raspy, all-French speeches; but live rock-pop music in a mix of English and French. Go figure.

A few annoying anti-ROC slogans (of the Redneck-Western-Harper-Dictateur-RIP ilk). I nickname these bigots "bluenecks."

Still, not a bad day out. There are worse ways to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Whose Jews?

from the Media in Montreal Yahoo! group:

Well, McGill (and Sir George) both discriminated against Jews. No question about that. In fact, when I did a broadcast on it, the then VP of McGill honored me with an [invitation] to lunch at the [faculty], at which he told me it wasn't really discrimination. They were just trying to preserve the christian [atmosphere] at McGill. Sure.

Anyway, I never heard of [segregation] of Jews at McGill. They certainly were held to different standards, and their numbers in certain areas (like law) were limited - as was the case of blacks, too.. But segregation? I would certainly like to see some examples of that. It sounds like one of those myths Francophones were fond of - while ignoring the fact that they refused to let Jews into their public and private schools at all.

graeme

QS rally, circa November 2008

from the Quebec solidaire website:

Montreal, on November 23 - Solidary Quebec held a large partisan gathering today in Montreal, in the company of songwriter and performer Dan Bigras, the militant ecologist Daniel Breton and the founder of Équiterre, Laure Waridel.

Following the short speeches, the partisans were invited to take part in a door-to-door blitz in the districts of Gouin and Draper, before going to a musical performance in the evening.

In front of a tightly packed room, the spokesperson of Solidary Quebec, Francoise David (Gouin) delivered a speech in which she stressed the importance of electing Solidaire deputies on December 8.

“If we are not in the National Assembly, who else will speak about these teachers with the overloaded classes and the insufficient teaching resources? Who else will say that we must put an end to tax avoidance by the large companies and large fortunes? Who else will say that the era of gas and oil is finished? Who else will speak about living together without complacency and without intolerance?

+++++

“If these stakes will not be raised in the National Assembly without Quebec Solidaire, you do not wait either to find them raised with the debate Tuesday evening. Without Solidaire Quebec, this debate of the chiefs will be as artificial as dull, so much the programs of the ADQ, the PQ and of the PLQ are similar. ” Francoise David concluded her speech by saying that it hoped to be invited to the debate of the chiefs to his manner, in spite of the refusal of the consortium and the political parties.

The Solidaire spokesperson of Quebec Amir Khadir (Draper) for its part pointed out that sovereignty is in the middle of the Solidaire project. “As Richard Desjardins said it very recently, Solidaire Quebec is the only party with still speaking about sovereignty. And we will continue to speak it about it does not matter the economic situation, it does not matter where the wind turns. “As many Quebec we believe that sovereignty must be associated with a project removing for Quebec. The Québécois Party proposes to us since too a long time an emptied sovereignty of its substance. Does Solidaire Quebec propose with the Inhabitants of Quebec to give again a direction with sovereignty because after all, which sovereignty wants to say if we are unable to control our economy? What wants to say sovereignty if we are unable to protect our environment and our employment? ”

Meanwhile, in Montreal, no one sang O Canada

http://rabble.ca/babble/canadian-politics/pro-and-anti-coaltion-rallies-works

At the Coalition rally in Peterborough a few hours ago, before the Liberal and NDP speakers the convenor called for a minute of silence in honour of the 14 victims of the Montreal massacre and of the three latest Canadian casualties in Afghanistan (one of who was from Peterborough).

And then we all cheered all the speakers.

And when one of them attacked Harper for fanning the flames of disunity, a woman starting singing O Canada and the crowd instantly joined in with great gusto. Well, it kept us warm, at least.

And a few minutes later in a similar moment she called out "en francais this time" and we all sang O Canada in French.

And I handed out lots of "It's time to fix our voting system" leaflets.

A good rally.

"Two-tier health, two-tier education"

"PQ is pressuring Liberals to close Bill 101 loophole"

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/tier+health+tier+education/2239066/story.html

.

.. Should it be a tuition fee that can exceed $15,000 for every child for every year of her education? Or should it be the low, low bargain price of the same fee but for only one child for only one year, after which not only he but also his brothers and sisters and his children could attend English public schools for free? The answer was the lower price, until the one-year loophole was closed in 2002 by the adoption of Bill 104 by the Parti Québécois government of the day, with the support of the Liberal opposition

...And it can't simply re-introduce Bill 104 with a so-called "notwithstanding" clause, since the latter can't be invoked for a violation of minority language rights ...

The PQ thinks it has the answer. Last week it proposed to extend Bill 101's restrictions on admission to fully private English schools. It cited experts in constitutional law saying such a measure could be challenged only as a violation of freedom rather than minority language rights, and could therefore be shielded by a notwithstanding clause ...

"The Pied Piper of Quebec"

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/the-pied-piper-of-quebec/article1366946/

... [Jacques Parizeau] lures Quebeckers with a Pied Piper's melody. But his spin on reality shows when he quotes selectively the report of five eminent experts in international law consulted in 1991 by the Quebec government. “The unanimous conclusion of their legal opinion is quite clear: The frontiers of a sovereign Quebec would be those of current Quebec.”

But Mr. Parizeau seems to forget that he published a letter in which he accused the Supreme Court of favouring the partition of a seceding Quebec. And he omits more pertinent quotations from the five experts: “The right to secession does not exist in international law.” And this: “The Quebec people exercises effectively its right to self-determination within the framework of the Canadian whole and is not legally authorized to invoke it to justify its future accession to independence.”

On May 19, 1994, Mr. Parizeau told the National Assembly: “There is the law. We are a law-abiding state. Canada and Quebec are not banana republics. There is the Constitution. There is international law. And we have been elected to defend the law.” After that beginning, he argued that Canada was divisible but Quebec was not. The law be damned.

Mr. Parizeau's flights of mythology would be amusing but for the ascendancy he holds as Quebec's most influential separatist. The crowds at his book launch Monday proved that. As such, he is more dangerous than ridiculous.

Keep in mind ...

http://galganov.com/editorials

... By federal law, Canadian Banks and Insurance Companies must be headquartered within Canada. There go the banks [out of Quebec]. By law, airlines cannot pick-up and deliver passengers from one national location to another national location unless that airline is headquartered in that nation. Goodbye Air Canada ...

Then there’s the Canada Export and Development Corporation that underwrites just about all of Bombardier’s sales abroad. Goodbye Bombardier along with other federally financed corporations in Quebec ...

Goodbye all the federal government jobs that disproportionately employ French Quebecers. Especially those who can speak some English ...

Monarchism Vs. Nationalism

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/the-monarchy-offshore-but-built-in/article1363088/

(Interestingly, the only known modern time the advice has been conflicted was when British Prime Minister Tony Blair advised the Queen to make Conrad Black a lord, and Jean Chrétien advised her not to. Mr. Black had to renounce his Canadian citizenship to escape Mr. Chrétien's constitutional reach.)

The Crown was essential to Canadian identity after 1867, with the declaration by Georges-Étienne Cartier, who did much to broker Quebec's entry into Confederation, that while Canadians would never be an ethnic nationality, they could be a political nationality whose unifying symbol was the Crown ...

ADQ leader blames Tories for his undoing

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2009/11/11/taillon-leadership-tories.html

One day after announcing his resignation, Action Démocratique du Québec Leader Gilles Taillon says he was the victim of a putsch organized by the former "owners" of the party.

Taillon settled his accounts in an open letter distributed to the media Wednesday, accusing former leader Mario Dumont, other influential members of the ADQ, and the federal Conservative Party.

In the letter, entitled "the masks have fallen," Taillon said that shortly after announcing his candidacy for the party leadership in April, he felt a certain "malaise among the former establishment of the party."

On Nov. 11, remember how different Quebec is

http://tinyurl.com/yeul4rj

... “We need to remember our soldiers have fought for freedoms — freedom of the press, freedom to enjoy the Olympics or the freedom to protest them, and the freedom to observe two minutes of silence.”

Overall, 85 per cent of Canadians said they will observe the tradition. Quebec had the lowest response, with two thirds of Quebecers saying they will stop for two minutes to honour soldiers who have fought for Canada ...

Fifty per cent of Quebecers believe that two minutes of silence should be made mandatory for individuals, schools and workplaces, compared to 71 per cent Canadians overall who think so, the poll results suggested ...