Montreal Francais? Pas legalement

http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/651

[Harel] has been disaffected by immigration, has ridiculed Westmount for its “anglo-British character that reeks of colonialism,’‘ and in spite of a court ruling that said otherwise, insisted that the Quebec government had “a right and an obligation to declare Montreal a French City".

Nostalgie de la rue

Anyone who justifies Quebec nationalism in terms of present-day domination by the English, is about as credible a critic as anyone who still believes that clerical domination is a pressing issue.

"Insultés et agressés parce qu'ils parlent anglais"

http://lcn.canoe.ca/lcn/infos/faitsdivers/archives/2008/12/20081219-124346.html

Au Saguenay, des jeunes anglophones installés dans la région ont été la cible d'insultes et d'actes de vandalisme.

Le groupe d'adolescents séjourne dans la région depuis octobre dernier dans le cadre du programme Katimavik.

Des oeufs sont lancés régulièrement contre leur résidence. Un projectile a même fracassé la fenêtre de leur maison d'accueil il y a trois semaines ...

Assaults against federalists, physical and emotional, are common in Quebec; I was subject to one. Federalists believe in the rule of law, and freedom of assembly, so the opposite is seldom the case.

What else is common is police inaction against the perpetrators; I was subject to that as well.

Some "thoughtful" replies:

http://rabble.ca/babble/central-canada/insult%C3%A9s-et-agress%C3%A9s-parce-quils-parlent-anglais

I don't want anyone to get beat up (duh!) but I do kind of wonder that the "federalists" in question were doing. I've certainly encountered thuggish federalists of the Galganovite variety. Of course they are for the "rule of law" when that means majority-nation domination.

And it is simply not true that assaults on federalists (or anglophones, unless they are also people of colour, gay etc, just like francophone or allophone people of colour or [LGBT] people) are common in Québec. What is common is people like you always referring to Québec as "this province", and not by its name, as if we were dirty or something.

You really shouldn't stereotype the political views of anglophones - many are progressive and, while not necessarily sovereignist, believe in the right to national self-determination. You'd be surprised how many happily work in the labour movement, the women's movement and other progressive social movements here. And wouldn't live anywhere else in North America.

And another:

I notice that "toddschneider" has taken for granted the shock title given by TVA to that piece of news, viz. that these youths were assaulted because they spoke English.

We don't know that, actually. The dynamics of respect or lack thereof between two groups - across political lines in most cases - are complex enough that I seriously doubt the summary explanation offered by this title.

I live in an area of Montreal (Plateau Mont-Royal) where people coming out of bars or restarants late at night can be quite a nuisance. Anglophones are a minority here, but when a group of late night partiers is especially loud and boisterous, it so happens that three times out of four, it is in English that those affluent white boys wake me and the neighbourhood up.

If I were to let loose with a bucket of water, would it be because they speak English? I am sure "toddschneider" would think so.

No, I wouldn't actually. But thanks for asking.

Coincidentally, a francophone resident of the Plateau wrote a dismissive piece recently republished in Maissonneuve magazine, about trendy anglophones from outside Quebec moving in to that painfully hip area, and not learning French for years, if at all. As residents of Canada it's their right, but it's also their loss. Boorishness comes in all languages.

While all incidents can have multiple interpretations, my first reflex is to side with the victims. And of course, I would do the same if the perpetrators were anglophones. Bigotry comes in all cultures.

Putting aside the facile acceptance of a national self-determination argument, at no point did I say that anglo = federalist = regressive, nor would I. Reactionism comes in all tendencies.

But I would argue that groups like the Jeunes Patriotes and their type, are given a very large leash, and few dogcatchers to worry about. They even routinely send out advance notice of their presence, to which the cops routinely yawn. Whereas that hasn't happened on the federalist side, from my intimate knowledge of my province, *since* the so-called angryphone era.

For the record, I am an "angryphobe" (sic) as well. Lose your temper, lose the argument.

Psycho-history of la nation

... PQ Cabinet Minister Dr. Camille Laurin ... used to muse about how he went into politics to administer "psychoanalysis" on the Quebecois people. [He believed they] suffered from a collective [Oedipal] complex [towards] the English, that could only be cured through [voting] YES in a referendum on [sovereignty].

The Falardeau File

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jef_cOVbH0aPM-19xLBlFD_bdlag

MONTREAL — Pierre Falardeau, the enfant terrible of Quebec cinema who suggested federalist anglophones should leave the province and once slammed Canada as a "colonizing power," has died of cancer in Montreal. He was 62.

After all, les gens need their own lebensraum.

Just ask the Cree.In 2008, he dismissed David Suzuki as "a bearded little Jap, just another nuisance from the West Coast" after the environmentalist said hewas disappointed in Quebecers who voted Conservative in the 2008 federal election.

I wonder how that reads in the original fascist?

In an open letter explaining why he refused to have his film entered in the competition, he wrote: "To be recognized for 'my genius' in Flin Flon or Saskatoon or Corner Brook leaves me as cold as their Rockies, mounted police and their Governor General.

But he didn't scruple to acceptTelefilm CANADA money, even if he had to fight for it.

No, just the regular kind.

http://rabble.ca/babble/central-canada/quebec-election-partie-deux

"Anglophobes"?? Is that anything like "reverse racism"?

L'Affaire Bloodshot Stew

http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/politique-quebecoise/200906/15/01-875808-fete-nationale-st-pierre-fustige-les-souverainistes-radicaux.php

L'exclusion de deux formations musicales anglo-montréalaises d'un spectacle de la Fête nationale a été dénoncée sans réserve lundi par les libéraux et les péquistes.

La ministre de la Culture, Christine St-Pierre, a pointé du doigt la frange «intolérante» du mouvement souverainiste tandis que le porte-parole de l'opposition officielle en matière de langue, Pierre Curzi, a appelé les responsables à faire marche arrière.

M. Curzi et Mme St-Pierre s'opposent à la décision de l'Association culturelle Louis-Hébert d'exiger le retrait des groupes Bloodshot Bill et Lake of Stew du spectacle alternatif «L'Autre St-Jean», qui aura lieu le 23 juin à Montréal ...

The concert is called "L'Autre St-Jean (not L'Autre Fete nationale), but then the holiday has both names even officially.

Reality check: French is not the only official language in Quebec, but the only official one of the provincial government. Meanwhile, I pay my Quebec taxes, licences, etc., in English.

So will the anglos acts finally "accepted", sing in French only? Or both French and English? English only would be true liberty. But also irrelevant to a fake "national" holiday, if the nation has only one official language.

Also, there is a regulation that official St-Jean festivities must be conducted in French.

The Louis-Hébert association – which has ties to the sovereignist Société St. Jean Baptiste AND the JPQ, had insisted all acts be in French.

However, the organization distanced itself from statements by an association vice-president who first set off the controversy.

Instead, the association said yesterday that its concern about the participation of the anglophone artists is because of a rumoured protest at the event and worry the city would cancel it. (They didn't.)

Still, to assuage irate nationalists, spokesperson Julien Larocque-Dupont (also of the JPQ) reiterated the English artists' small part, saying "there's no question here of a bilingual show." (News flash: if the show is presented in both French and English, it is bilingual.)The other artists on the bill, even the franco and sovereignist ones, support the anglos being there.

The festivities are supported by tax dollars (provincial, and ultimately federal transfers).

http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/national/200906/14/01-875501-lautre-st-jean-des-appuis-et-des-critiques.php

«Ils sont québécois et on les accepte comme québécois, a-t-il indiqué. On n'a absolument rien contre le fait qu'ils chantent en anglais. Mais la Fête nationale, ça se passe en français.»

Une réunion tenue vendredi n'a pas permis de trouver un compromis. Pour [Mathieu Bouthillier], c'est donc officiel : les Anglos ne seront pas de la fête. «Pour nous, le dossier est clos», a-t-il affirmé.

Premature categorical statement:

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2009/16/c7284.html

"Il y a des débats qui sont difficiles au Québec, voire même "divisifs". Cela ne veut pas dire que nous devons faire l'économie de ces débats, mais cela signifie que nous devons les faire comme il se doit. Pour l'heure, nous voulons que cette 175e édition souligne ce qui nous unit et nous demandons à tous de respecter cette volonté. Pour nous, l'incident est clos", ajoutent les représentants du Mouvement national des Québécoises et Québécois, du Comité de la Fête nationale à Montréal, de l'Association culturelle Louis-Hébert et de C4 Productions.

http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/national/200906/15/01-875621-les-politiciens-marchent-sur-des-oeufs.php

L'autre candidate à la mairie, Louise Harel, a pris ses distances face aux groupes qui réclamaient le départ de Lake of Stew et Bloodshot Bill. Elle estime que la Fête nationale devrait être celle de «tous les Québécois».

«La nation québécoise, c'est des personnes de toutes origines et de différentes langues maternelles, a-t-elle affirmé. Le français, c'est la langue commune. C'est cette langue commune que je souhaite le plus utilisée. Mais dans la nation, on n'exclut pas la communauté anglophone montréalaise.»
[Then let the anglos perform and present, in English only, if they choose.]

Le maire de l'arrondissement de Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie, André Lavallée, affirme qu'il n'est pas question d'intervenir dans le programme de L'Autre St-Jean: «Il faut qu'ils trouvent une solution qui est acceptée par les gens concernés. Le Comité national finance cette fête. Il est en droit d'avoir son mot à dire sur la programmation.' [Actually, her borough is one of the sponsors]

The province will not intercede, even though they put up half the money.

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