Are voters finally fed up with Jean Charest’s flip-flops?

By Martin Patriquin - Monday, October 17, 2011 at 8:20 AM - 0 Comments

Jacques Boissinot/CP

Jean Charest stays in power because of his political smarts, his eye for the jugular and his ability to, time and again, defy expectations. At least, this is the accepted wisdom when describing how Charest, who has never exactly warmed Quebec’s collective heart, has managed to become one of the country’s longest-serving premiers. He is a constant in a fractured political landscape: the 53-year-old has faced no less than five Parti Québécois leaders over three elections. And he has strongly hinted he’s hungry for more.

Yet if Charest has a weakness, it’s his own tendency to make and hold to highly contentious decisions, only to reverse himself once the decision has incurred the maximum political damage on his own government. Exhibit A: the premier recently said he’d be open to holding some form of public inquiry into the province’s demonstrably corrupt construction industry—something the opposition, the voting public and several municipal officials have pleaded for throughout the last two years. And as lukewarm as Charest’s endorsement may sound, it constitutes nothing short of a huge climbdown for the premier, who has spent much of this time refusing to even consider the possibility.

There are many such grand reversals throughout Charest’s eight years in office. The building of the CHUM, Montreal’s French superhospital, was delayed by Charest’s insistence that it be located in the municipality of Outremont, even though the public overwhelmingly favoured a downtown site. Only after the ensuing squabble—which delayed the project by upwards of four years, according to former Université de Montréal rector Robert Lacroix—did the premier reverse himself.

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Will immigrants save the French language in Quebec, or hasten its demise?

By Martin Patriquin - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 9:10 AM - 15 Comments

If, as one of Quebec’s own websites proclaims, the province is on the hunt for “willing, dynamic people” to immigrate to its shores, then Jessica Rosales almost certainly fits the bill. The college-trained Rosales and her husband, Roberto Belmar Torres, a design engineer, wanted to emigrate from their native Chile and, spurred by a string of cheery, unsolicited emails from Quebec’s Immigration Department, the pair chose to settle in Montreal in March 2010. “We decided on Quebec for the French culture,” the 37-year-old Rosales says. “We chose it even though we knew it would be harder.”

It certainly was. Because neither could speak the language, they each took a 10-month French course. Save for the occasional nervous breakdown (“I got burned out, I couldn’t stop crying,” says Rosales of one episode) that even prompted the purchase of a pair of one-way tickets to Toronto that they never used, the pair is quite happy with their lives here. They even found jobs in their new-found language. Jessica is an administrative assistant at a refugee resource centre, while Belmar Torres works at a large Montreal engineering firm. They work almost entirely in French.

Yet increasingly, language advocates are turning this apparent success story into a narrative of decline of the French language in Quebec. The reason: though the pair conduct much of their public lives in French, they speak their native Spanish in the confines of their home. Earlier this year, the governing Liberals announced plans to cut the yearly number of immigrants allowed into the province by 4,000, to 50,000, by 2012, while the the right-of-centre Action démocratique du Québec has called for a further clawback to 46,000. The Parti Québécois believe “immigration should be set at the ability to Frenchify new arrivals,” says PQ spokesperson Éric Gamache, and popular former Péquiste minister François Legault, who is flirting with the idea of running for premier, has called for the number to be capped at 40,000.

Others are even more strident. “We must become our own country, period,” militant sovereignist Gérald Larose told La Presse in the wake of a report detailing a decrease in the percentage of Quebec-born francophones. His argument: an independent Quebec would have absolute power over its immigration policy.

On the face of it, so-called “allophones” (immigrants whose native language is neither French nor English) would seem an odd target, and not only because, unlike the Canada-born English population living in Quebec, they are required by law to attend primary and secondary school in French. Like nearly every other province in the country, Quebec is faced with a looming demographic problem brought on by lower birth rates—a void often filled by immigrants. Ontario, for example, took in roughly 104,000 non-refugee immigrants in 2010 alone.

And even with 54,000 new arrivals a year, Quebec is falling behind. According to demographer Jacques Henripin, the province needs between 70,000 and 80,000 immigrants a year to compensate for its lower birth rate—people like Rosales and Belmar Torres. To Rosales, the idea that Quebec would cut down on the number of immigrants allowed into the province is absurd. “I’m a taxpayer,” she says. “Who needs who?”

The feeling is often mutual. By and large, Quebecers have long cast a beady eye at Canada’s official policy of multiculturalism; a recent Angus Reid poll noted that 66 per cent of francophones in the province believe multiculturalism is a threat to the French language. Practically every major demographic report released in the province over the last two decades has sparked debate and uproar about the survival of the language.

But does the decline of francophones necessarily mean the decline of French, when those immigrants arriving here must by law attend school in la langue de René Lévesque? Marc Termote thinks so. The demographer authored a recent report illustrating the demographic decline of Quebec-born francophones in the province; he says they will be overtaken as a majority by immigrants by 2031. And while he makes pains to say he isn’t a Larose-style sovereignist—“We don’t need independence to ensure the survival of a language,” he says—he believes the sheer numbers, coupled with the creeping bilingualism of Montreal, is detrimental to the language. “I am one of those people who says that the government should have no say whatsoever over what language is used at home,” Termote says. However, “the problem is that the language used at home becomes the language of the children.”

This wouldn’t be a problem in, say, the overwhelmingly francophone city of Saguenay. But roughly 75 per cent of Quebec’s immigrants settle in the 500 sq. km of Montreal where, says Termote, “there is free choice in what language you work in.” (Montreal is home to roughly 48,000 businesses with less than 50 employees that don’t fall under the province’s language provisions.) “The problem is Montreal. In the regions there are no problems. You will only speak French in Chicoutimi.”

“It’s not up to immigrants to resolve the problems of French in Quebec,” Termote adds. “We tell immigrants to have children, because we don’t want to have any. We tell them to go out to the regions, because we don’t want to, we tell them to learn French in a hurry, because French is declining. I can’t accept that the future of the French in Quebec is the responsibility of immigrants.”

Still others see no problem at all with the immigrant influx into Quebec. Jean-Benoît Nadeau, author of the book The Story of French, recently published a column decrying the accepted definition of the term “francophone” in the province. “French is no longer the language of one ethnic group, but one for all ethnic groups,” Nadeau writes. “Only in Quebec do we tolerate such a restrictive definition. Why not include the woven sash or ketchup tortière in the definition of francophone while we’re at it? It’s a disgrace.”

Jessica Rosales agrees. After being courted by the Quebec government (and spending an estimated $13,000 in fees and plane tickets) to get here, then spending nearly a year studying the language, she knows quite well that she can still vote with her feet. “I like Quebec, I like Montreal, but I can live somewhere else.”

François Legault’s shameless pandering on immigration

By Philippe Gohier - Tuesday, August 30, 2011 at 8:15 PM - 18 Comments

When François Legault launched the Coalition pour l’avenir du Québec (CAQ), his all-but-confirmed vessel to re-enter Quebec politics, he addressed the group’s manifesto to “all those who want to change.” “It’s time to get Quebec moving again,” he wrote. Indeed it is.

Even for Legault’s critics, of which there are relatively few these days, it’s hard to find much to quibble with in his mission statement—education should be “the absolute priority”; culture and the protection of the French language are essential; public services should be… well, they should be better; and Quebec should do more to attract investments. As Vincent Marissal points out in this morning’s La Presse, Legault has so far proven himself enormously adept at “surfing on general ideas,” so much so that he’s emerged as the most credible candidate to replace Jean Charest as premier. Continue…

“There isn’t a crazy appetite for sovereignty”—Pauline Marois

By Philippe Gohier - Friday, August 26, 2011 at 7:03 PM - 3 Comments

My colleague Alec Castonguay, who toils over at our sister publication L’actualité, posted a first-rate interview with Pauline Marois earlier this week that’s a must-read for anyone interested in the Parti Québécois’ ongoing travails. Among the things that stood out to me was Marois’s apparent doubling-down on the policies that drove away four members of her caucus earlier this summer—namely, her insistence that a referendum shouldn’t be top-of-mind for the party. Of the nascent Nouveau Mouvement pour le Québec, aka the new home of sovereigntist hardliners in Quebec, Marois says they “should start from where Quebecers are at… There isn’t a crazy appetite for sovereignty, even if polls have us at 40-45 per cent ,” she says. (CROP pegs support for sovereignty at 38 per cent and Léger at 36 per cent, but let’s not quibble.) “Renewal isn’t about waiting for the referendum.”

Good government—which, unfortunately for Charest, is more or less synonymous with “change” these days— is what Marois wants the PQ to focus on delivering. Creating a second chamber at the National Assembly that would focus on regional issues, taking over control of EI from Ottawa, increasing the constraints on companies who extract resources from Quebec’s northern regions, and broad efforts at democratic renewal are all part of what Marois describes as the PQ’s plan for “sovereigntist governance.” “The government’s actions are what will show that Quebec deserves to have all the tools to blossom.” Continue…

Could an ‘innovative’ school in Montreal’s fall victim to religious infighting?

By Martin Patriquin - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 9:20 AM - 5 Comments

Photography by Roger Lemoyne

The closing of an English school is hardly news in Quebec. Fourteen institutions have shut down in as many years in Montreal alone, thanks in large part to a dwindling English population and language laws preventing children of French parents and immigrants from attending. Yet, in the case of Nesbitt Elementary School, home to some 420 students and, according to commissioner Julien Feldman, “one of the most successful bilingual programs in the province,” the culprit isn’t numbers or stifling regulation. According to many Nesbitt proponents, it’s the victim of age-old infighting between Catholic and Protestant factions within the English Montreal School Board itself. And, in an odd twist, one of the school’s would-be saviours is none other than Louise Beaudoin, a staunch French-language hawk and former Parti Québécois minister who fought for decades against expanding access to English schools.

Nesbitt, which faces the chopping block in January, is located in Rosemont, a traditionally francophone neighbourhood with a significant English population. Because of this historical reality, Nesbitt is one of the few schools in Montreal’s east end to offer both majority English and French immersion programs. The result: French families who qualify (under Quebec law that means at least one parent had to have attended English school) can send their children to learn English, while English children receive nearly 70 per cent of their education in French. It has certainly impressed Beaudoin, the district MNA. “In an era of alarming dropout rates, it’s important to support the schools that have a winning and innovative formula,” she wrote in a letter to Nesbitt principal Mary Theophilopoulos last June.

Yet, despite the unexpected plug, and a noisy grassroots campaign on the part of Nesbitt parents, it remains on the list of six schools targeted for closure next year. Not even the EMSB can fully explain why. According to board policy, there are five reasons (including low enrolment numbers and proximity to other schools) why a school would be considered for closure. And yet, EMSB director general Robert Stocker concedes that “the school doesn’t fit into any of the five criteria.”

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Infighting spreads among Quebec separatists

By macleans.ca - Monday, August 22, 2011 at 11:46 AM - 0 Comments

The Parti Québécois was struggling to contain infighting among Quebec sovereigntists this weekend, when a new separatist rival group—Un Nouveau Mouvement pour le Québec—held its first meeting. Three former PQ MNAs—Pierre Curzi, Lisette Lapointe and Jean-Martin Aussant—attended the new group’s day-long colloquium in Montreal on Sunday, where the PQ’s go-slow approach to holding a referendum came under serious attack. Critics of the new organization argue that it risks splitting the sovereigntist vote.

CBC News

Gohier vs. Patriquin on the splintering of Quebec’s sovereigntist movement

By Martin Patriquin - Friday, August 19, 2011 at 3:08 PM - 0 Comments

The eternal power of the written word

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 3:40 PM - 83 Comments

Jason Kenney explains the inspiration for his exchange with Amnesty International.

“I’m of the view that if you’re in a political forum making unfounded and unfair criticisms of government policy, expect to be called on it. My model in this is Stéphane Dion’s letter writing campaign against Jacques Parizeau and the PQ. I think it was very instructive to see a minister point out flaws in his adversary’s arguments. I think that’s what democratic discourse is all about . . . If they want to have a debate on these issues, fine. Let’s have one. That means I get my say.”

Mr. Dion’s skills, meanwhile, are being put to use as the Liberals discover the game of modern political fundraising.

The separatists amongst us

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, August 5, 2011 at 10:10 AM - 30 Comments

Colin Horgan notes the presence of Michel Rivard in the Conservative caucus.

The Conservative Party has also not been without its recent affiliations with Quebec separatists. Among his 18 Senate appointments in 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed Michel Rivard to the upper chamber. Rivard was a former Parti Québécois MNA under Jacques Parizeau’s tenure, and a Canadian Alliance candidate for Québec in 2000.

Mr. Rivard apparently campaigned for independence during the 1995 referendum.

And now a word from Bernard Landry

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 5:24 PM - 6 Comments

The former Parti Quebecois premier is unimpressed with Nycole Turmel.

“It’s rare that I agree with English Canada, but I think they’ve got a point here,” Landry told The Canadian Press in an interview. ”There is a serious civic problem here. Participation in politics is not a joke, it’s not a gag. There are (party) activists who devote a large chunk of their lives as citizens in defense of their convictions…

“It’s not edifying. It’s a bad example for youth, it’s an example of ingratitude toward those who are dedicated to political causes. At the very least, she could humbly apologize.”

Inside the PQ, independence starts at home

By Philippe Gohier - Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 6:47 PM - 0 Comments

Leave it to the Parti Québécois to find a way to make a bad situation worse. On Tuesday, the PQ’s Benoit Charette became the fifth MNA this month to quit the party. PQ leader Pauline Marois also expelled René Gauvreau from caucus over allegations an aide was helping himself to party funds, but let’s focus on Charette for now, if only because my brain can’t process how bad a month Marois is having. Continue…

Breaking away from the Parti Québécois

By Martin Patriquin - Friday, June 10, 2011 at 10:30 AM - 0 Comments

Clement Allard/CP

The Parti Québécois, Quebec’s leading sovereignist party, which has twice taken the province to the brink of leaving Canada, is no stranger to bouts of self-destruction. Save for a fellow named Jacques Parizeau, every PQ leader has either been pushed out or resigned under duress brought on by restive party members. At the best of times, leading this party of strong minds and ample egos is like herding cats. When things are bad—say, when the leader appears to be wavering on matters of sovereignty or language—it can be a bloodbath. These purges have spared no one, not even Quebec’s secular saint René Lévesque, who left the party he co-founded thoroughly demoralized in 1985.

On the face of it, then, there is little surprise that the party, which hasn’t had a decent psychodrama since then-leader André Boisclair resigned in 2007, should see four of its prominent MNAs publicly bolt from the party over a matter of principle. No surprise, that is, until you consider the principle in question isn’t one of independence or tongue, but a Quebec City hockey arena that hasn’t even been built yet.

The city, long starved of a professional hockey team, is pining for a return of the NHL. Last month, Quebec City area MNA Agnès Maltais introduced a private member’s bill that would prevent legal action over a deal with Quebecor Inc., which would see the media giant operate a hockey arena built with public funds. (The bill is necessary because the deal may contravene the province’s municipal charter, which states that municipal government cannot subsidize private companies.) PQ Leader Pauline Marois supported the bill—and made it clear that her charges must do the same before the end of the current parliamentary session.

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The ego behind the exits at the PQ

By Paul Wells - Friday, June 10, 2011 at 9:40 AM - 99 Comments

Clement Allard/CP

Consider the curious case of Pauline Marois: intelligent, dedicated, elegant, prone to losing. In 1985, she ran for the Parti Québécois leadership and lost to Pierre-Marc Johnson, who would not last two years in the job. In 2005, she ran again and lost to André Boisclair, who would not last two years in the job. In 2007, she ran again, unopposed this time, and did not lose. She has kept the job for nearly four years. Her leadership even survived an election loss at the end of 2008. So that’s something.

In April, she won the most resounding vote of confidence of any leader in her party’s history, over 93 per cent. By that shaky measure she’s more popular among Péquistes than René Lévesque or Lucien Bouchard ever were. Most polls suggest she’ll beat the desperately unpopular Jean Charest in the next provincial election. And yet Marois’s PQ is falling apart.

On Monday, three members of her caucus resigned to sit as Independents. On Tuesday morning a fourth joined them. Each said she’s a great lady, while admitting she leads a party they can no longer support. Marois scrambled to contain the damage, or indeed simply to comprehend it. Well she might: no wily opponent brought her this low. It was all an accident. She was side-swiped by two of the biggest egos in the history of Quebec politics.

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Pauline Marois and the Parti Québécois have a very bad day

By Philippe Gohier - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 6:55 PM - 6 Comments

It’s hard to feel much sympathy for PQ leader Pauline Marois. It was an absolutely terrible idea for the PQ to support bill 204, which would immunize Quebecor’s arena rental deal with Quebec City from being tested before the province’s courts. It was an even worse idea for her to be petty and belligerent about it. The word ‘comeuppance’ keeps coming to mind.

At the same time, the PQ’s plight has become so pathetic as to be pitiable. Marois, you’ll recall, was already looking for ways to patch her battered caucus this morning after three party super-heavyweights—Louise Beaudoin, Pierre Curzi, and Lisette Lapointe—bolted yesterday. But that’s when Jean-Martin Aussant abruptly quit, giving the impression a full-blown mutiny was underway. In fact, Marois’s downfall is exactly what Aussant had in mind, telling reporters the PQ leader should resign.

Jean Charest drove in the final stake this afternoon when he announced the vote on bill 204 would be postponed until the fall. All that infighting inside the PQ, all that strategizing about how to win a vote that was threatening to derail Marois’s political career? Useless—all of it. Continue…

Fourth PQ defector blasts Pauline Marois

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 4:04 PM - 0 Comments

A fourth Parti Québécois member resigned on Tuesday in reaction to Leader Pauline Marois’ continued failure to achieve sovereignty, and her unpopular decision to support a private-member’s bill favouring a $400-million sports arena proposal. Jean-Marc Aussant—the latest MNA to step down—says Marois is not capable, nor interested, in achieving sovereignty. The beleaguered leader held a meeting on Tuesday with the 48 members remaining in her caucus, to alleviate further dissent. Two PQ MNAs—Claude Cousineau and Sylvain Pagé—demanded Marois reopen the sports arena bill to a free vote. If more members resign, she may have to forfeit her leadership. Some say former Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe would take her place.

The Globe and Mail

PQ MNAs quit in protest

By macleans.ca - Monday, June 6, 2011 at 4:25 PM - 0 Comments

Three members of the Parti Québécois resigned on Monday, saying they could no longer work under Leader Pauline Marois’ “autocratic” leadership style. Pierre Curzi, Louise Beaudoin and Lisette Lapointe, all prominent members of the party, said they would be sitting as independents. Their resignations were prompted after PQ MNA Agnès Maltais tabled a private-members bill that would make legitimize a deal made between Quebec City and Quebecor Media Inc. that would protect the city’s arena project from legal challenge. “My level of personal ethical tolerance has been reached,” said Curzi. Marois was reinstated as party leader at the PQ convention in April with a 93 per cent confidence vote, will address the departures on Monday afternoon.

Gohier v. Patriquin on the Quebec City arena

By Philippe Gohier - Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 10:18 AM - 7 Comments

Separatism is back on the agenda

By Martin Patriquin - Wednesday, April 20, 2011 at 6:00 PM - 22 Comments

Photograph by Roger Lemoyne

As a general rule, Parti Québécois members are a restive lot prone to all-too-public displays of mutiny against whomever is at the helm. So it was no small feat for PQ Leader Pauline Marois to score over 93 per cent in her first confidence vote—the highest achieved by any Péquiste leader in the party’s history. No wonder the party’s congrès national in Quebec City this past weekend was more spirited love-in than any in recent memory.

Yet Marois arguably bought, not earned, her overwhelming victory. The party’s hardline faction has long been weary of Marois for a perceived lack of sovereignist sang-froid. Under her, former premier (and hard-liner darling) Jacques Parizeau said last fall, the PQ “uses the issue of sovereignty . . . as a baby’s rattle, something used once in a while to keep the militants quiet.” So the Péquiste leader doubled down, effectively allowing a broad swath of her platform to be dictated by the party’s language hawks—thus ensuring that language politics and sovereignist fist pumping will once again be front and centre in the lead-up to the next provincial election, expected in the next two years.

Marois’s victory also became campaign fodder for the federal election: Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe said “everything becomes possible again” with Marois’s victory, prompting Stephen Harper to suggest that anything less than a Conservative majority would be devastating to national unity. (Innovative Research Group’s Canada 20/20 online panel for Maclean’s and Rogers Media suggests a slim majority of Canadians believe him.) Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff has accused Harper of using the issue to fear-monger.

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PQ close out congress on combative note

By macleans.ca - Monday, April 18, 2011 at 1:59 PM - 6 Comments

Parti Québécois leader Pauline Marois was rewarded for the PQ’s steady rise in the polls on Saturday with a 93 per cent score in a confidence vote at the famously fickle party’s congress in Montreal. Marois used the congress to elaborate further on her plans should the PQ take the next election in Quebec. Among the measures her government would implement are several that are seen as a sop to the party’s hardliners: the implementation of a Quebec constitution, the establishment of Quebec citizenship, and the recovery of powers from the federal government. Marois made clear the party program is aimed at provoking Ottawa. “It will demonstrate that it is impossible to change the current system to have a true recognition of Quebec’s difference,” she told a news conference. “It is another way to show how sovereignty is necessary for our identity, for our language and even for the development of our cultural, economic and social programs.”

Montreal Gazette

Is the PQ 'all united' behind Marois?

By Martin Patriquin - Saturday, April 16, 2011 at 3:47 PM - 21 Comments

They were scattered around Montreal’s Palais des Congrès last night, quiet and deferential to a fault, politely handing out cards to anyone who would take them. Printed on these cards—well, let’s call them photocopied and apparently hand-cut bits of paper—was the following message:

DURING THIS 16TH CONGRESS
ALL UNITED
IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE
QUEBEC SOVEREIGNTY

To the uninitiated, the message is surely puzzling: after all, isn’t achieving sovereignty exactly what the PQ is about? Should we also remind people that water is wet, the sky is blue and Carey Price is somewhat better than last season? Continue…

Who will save us now (part III)?

By Andrew Coyne - Monday, April 4, 2011 at 8:50 PM - 103 Comments

I wrote this some days ago, but before I could post, Jeff Simpson’s column appeared on a similar theme. But since no one’s responded to his piece, I’ll pick up where he left off:

Here’s a subject I don’t imagine any of the party leaders will want to bring up — but someone really should. That is, who among them is best placed to deal with the coming crisis in Quebec?

Sometime in the next couple of years a provincial election will be called (the last was in Dec. 2008, so in theory they could push it off into 2013). On present levels of support, the Liberals haven’t a prayer. Which means that, barring a miracle, we are about to enter the third cycle of Parti Québécois government. In each of the first two, 1976-1984 and 1994-2003, the PQ launched a referendum on separation-with-association, and while the Clarity Act may be thought to have placed some boundaries around the debate — the province can hold a referendum on any subject it likes, but the feds are constrained in what they can negotiate — it must be expected the Péquistes will try every trick in the book, up to an including a quickie referendum. This is, after all, very likely their last shot.

So, on the perhaps shaky assumption that whomever we elect on May 2 is still Prime Minister then, it really would seem timely to ask: Which of the parties and their leaders is the best choice to deal with this situation? Who best combines finesse and toughness, understanding of Quebec and fire in the belly for Canada? Will it be the Anglophone from Toronto who wanted to build a firewall around Alberta? Or the Anglophone from Toronto who was out of the country for 30-odd years? What about the Anglophone from Toronto whose party is rumoured to be conspiring with the Bloc to defeat federalist candidates in the Montreal area?

Certainly no clear federalist choice has emerged in the province. While all three national parties have been pandering as fast as they can — Look here! An arena! No, an airport! What about these snowmobile trails, huh? — each is mired around 20% in the polls. Meaning the Bloc will likely take about 50 seats, as usual. Suppose Duceppe then retires from federal politics, to replace — as many Péquistes hope — the unpopular Pauline Marois as PQ leader. If recent polls are any guide, he’d sweep the province. And facing him? A shattered, leaderless provincial Liberal party in Quebec City, and a hung Parliament in Ottawa — possibly with the Bloc holding the balance of power.

As I say, I doubt any of the leaders will be anxious to raise this question. They don’t want to be seen to write off Charest, they don’t want to stir the pot, whatever. But the rest of us should certainly be thinking about it.

Talk amongst yourselves, but en français

By Martin Patriquin - Monday, February 7, 2011 at 10:54 AM - 55 Comments

Photograph by Roger Lemoyne

For nearly three years, Wes Bolduc has owned Bar Blue Dog, an ill-lit and purposefully grimy St. Laurent Boulevard staple in Montreal. He knows the linguistic lay of the land: though he estimates his clientele is roughly 75 per cent English, Blue Dog staff are bilingual. Bolduc, who can trace his own French lineage back to the 17th century, says he has never received a complaint—or a visit from the Office québécoise de la langue française, the government enforcer of Quebec’s language laws. “A rum and Coke in English is pretty much a rum and Coke in French,” the 30-year-old Bolduc says.

Maybe so. But if the Parti Québécois has its way, Quebec’s language laws will be extended to include Quebec’s roughly 196,000 small- and medium-sized businesses, meaning it won’t be enough to only speak French to customers. Under the PQ plan, outlined in the party’s 2008 electoral platform and currently part of the party’s plan should it form the next government, French would be the designated “langue de travail,” (working language), meaning all written and verbal communication, including among the staff, must be done in French.

In order to operate, each business would likely need a certificat de francisation attesting that it has “achieved a level of French so as to meet the objectives of the charter of the French language.” Currently, only businesses with 50 or more employees must abide by these rules. This means every dry cleaner, dépanneur (corner store) and coffee shop must operate in French—even if its owners aren’t.

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'A new scandal all the time'

By Martin Patriquin - Friday, November 26, 2010 at 10:20 AM - 14 Comments

Arsenault, the FTQ head, wants an inquiry into the construction industry; Laval Mayor Vaillancourt responds to bribery accusations | Mathieu Belanger/Reuters; Ryan Remiorz/CP

La Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec (FTQ) has never been keen on having eyeballs, governmental or otherwise, peering in on its affairs. Part of the reason is pragmatic: as the largest union federation in the province, it represents the lion’s share of workers in Quebec’s construction industry, a notoriously rough-and-tumble industry in which big egos and strong arms traditionally rule the day.

No longer. Last week, FTQ president Michel Arsenault essentially reversed his federation’s year-long opposition to become part of the growing cry for an inquiry into the construction industry and more. With the FTQ now onside with a growing list of fellow unions, political parties, legal and law enforcement organizations and citizens’ groups, there remains one ever-stubborn holdout: Premier Jean Charest, whose governing Liberals this week are expected to (barely) survive a non-confidence motion from the opposition Parti Québécois. Apparently, Charest’s intransigence is hurting him: nearly two out of three Quebecers believe their elected officials have something to hide, while roughly 75 per cent believe their province is corrupt.

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Newsmakers

By macleans.ca - Friday, November 5, 2010 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

It just isn’t Brett Favre’s year
Despite being hobbled by two fractures in his foot, the Minnesota Vikings quarterback started in his 292nd consecutive NFL game. It was a bittersweet affair for fans, who saw Favre throw a costly interception, draw two penalties and leave the game with an eight-stitch cut to his chin in a loss to the New England Patriots. Then there are his alleged follies off the field: the married QB reportedly sent texts and lewd photos to TV personality Jenn Sterger.

The Parti is hungry
There are a few constants in life in Quebec: good food, cold winters, and infighting within the Parti Québécois. But knowing this can’t allay the worries of Pauline Marois, who after three years at the helm of the sovereignist party is facing restive ranks. A group of 50 young sovereignists recently signed an open letter criticizing her. That came on the heels of a Radio-Canada interview in which Jacques Parizeau chided Marois and complimented Bloc leader (and one-time PQ leadership hopeful) Gilles Duceppe for his “remarkable clarity” on the sovereignty issue. It seems the party that eats its leaders—Marois is the sixth in 10 years—is licking its chops once again.

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