Ranting about quebec: newspark edition!

[wonko the sane?]

Alright, so here's a nice little story for you.

Joyce echaquan, an Atikamekw woman, went to the hospital in sept. of 2020. She was in pain and needing help: but in the hospital she found racist taunts, completely apathy to her condition and care, and finally: she found her end. This week, the results to the coroners investigation dropped. The conclusion reached was: had joyce been white, she would be alive today. Systemic racism had a heavy hand in her death. Consequently: the coroners report had a bunch of measures in which to affect the healthcare system to improve care for all. The VERY FIRST STEP that needs to be taken, as stated by the report, is that the provincial government absolutely needs to acknowledge and then address the inherent system racism in quebec.

Legault, of course, patently refuses to do this. Which means all the other measures in the report will be summarily ignored, and the racism in our hospitals, clinics, and long term care homes will continue unabated. Considering how he intends to prorogue the provincial assembly, with the sole intent of pushing the language wars until the next election in a year. His focus will be bill 96 and beating the ol' "french is oppressed in quebec" drum to rile up the nationalists.

So yeah: this is where we still are in 2021... Still attempting the genocide of our indigenous peoples.

 

[wonko the sane?]

Welp: legault proroqued the assembly, and reiterated his intent to pass bill 96 before christmas. For those who do not know: bill 96 is the updating the infamous quebec language laws (bill 101), to be even harsher, stricter, and more draconian. Bill 96 also intends to amend the canadian constitution to state that quebec is a nation and the sole language of that nation is french.

When it happens, because legault has a super majority and a republican like control of his lackeys... err, party: there is no way to actually stop it, even if the opposition were there. Currently, it isn't. The liberals are all aboard the "french must be protected" bandwagon because there is in fact a provincial election in about a year. The PQ (which is the height of ******* irony here.) would be interested in stopping it if only because it will cement the end of the PQ as a political force in the province. But even if THEY wanted to stop it: years of literally ******* around because they know that seperation wouldn't work means they don't actually have any significant presence in the assembly.

And we know the feds won't stop this jive because they need the french vote entirely too much. So there we have it folks: the brand spanking new nation of quebec, without requiring it's own money or passports by christmas. I really can't wait to see what fresh hell awaits us all in the new year!

 

[Pocket]

How does one province have the power to unilaterally amend the whole country's constitution?

 

[wonko the sane?]

Quebec bitched about it until the feds gave that power to the provinces.

Because the people who don't even want to be here surely aren't going to abuse to it their own ends.

 

[wonko the sane?]

Welp, I managed to have my day ruined for me.

While watching the morning news program, a new ad was aired. "In quebec, speaking french is as easy as saying bonjour". The seperatist parties routinely do this, wasting time and money running ads specifically aimed at the english "enouraging" us to speak french, while simultaneously oppressing everyone and everything that isn't white, french and catholic economically, culturally, politically and socially.

And this is going to be on the daily until december when the caq uses its super majority to pass bill 96, in which they not only really crack down on the language issue with all new laws and requirements, but actually move to edit the canadian constitution to enshrine quebec as a nation there. Now, from what I can tell, it'll do for quebec similar to the indigenous peoples: a culturally distinct group within canada as a whole. But the caq and the seperatists will take it very, very literally. Which means even more persecution, more attacks in open spaces, more vandalized statues and monuments, more destroyed private property. And all just in time for christmas: those pequists certainly know how to make the holidays feel special!

 

[wonko the sane?]

Tonight I learned something: I am (apparently.) a historic anglophone.

For those who do not know: anglophone is quebec french for "enemy". It's also the third time since the caq got in that I've heard the term used, and the third definition of it in use. Apparently it means "when to english school", referring specifically to english elementary and high schools, in which you required papers to prove your parents went to an english school. Yup, papers please.

It's just another term they conceived to further divide the population into "US" and "THEM". cribbed from the finest playbooks of tyrants and dictators the world over, because les quebecois would never actually pay for the book.

 

[wonko the sane?]

So hey! The education minister announced that their scrapping the currently in use morals and ethics course and replacing it with a culture and citizenship course. Specifically a QUEBEC citizenship course.

So really leaning into the whole "quebec as a nation" thing, considering their doing this in the literal middle of the ******* school year.

 

[wonko the sane?]

So, today legault called out the doctors for not working hard enough. Specifically, he's had it with the General Practitioners. So, to motivate them: he's going to push the mandatory patient cap to 1000 people and start punishing the doctors who work fewer than 5 days a week. Keep in mind, this is ON TOP of the existing mandatory ER and hospital hours.

While we're on the topic: 25% of the GP in the province are over the age of 65 and basically every region is critically short of doctors. Guess there's going to be a massive wave of retirements soon.

 

[wonko the sane?]

And now the caq have abandoned the vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. "Why", you ask? Well, with roughly 8 percent unvaccinated, and the shockingly fragile condition of our health care system: suspending that many employees all at once would collapse the whole house of dollar store cards. Especially after the ongoing loses of all levels due to fatigue, burn out, retirements, and poaching.

The compromise is that they're enforcing the vaccine requirement for new hires: but they're failing at getting new employees as badly as they are at keeping old employees.

 

[Ironbite4]

I swear to god if Quebec ever did break away from Canada, I give it a week before they demand to come back.

Ironbite-maybe 3 days.

 

[wonko the sane?]

It'd realistically take years, since canada would be paying tolls for access to the st-laurence river, and probably kick backs to prevent quebec from breaking down and selling off the majority of canadian historical sites piece by piece.

In related news: the frenchies got their panties in a knot this week. Was it over the fact that legault is set to pass legislation which will force family doctors to take on more patients and offer more services, which will of course be followed by even more doctors resigning due to poor working conditions. NOPE!

They're all bothered by the fact that the CEO of air canada gave the montreal chamber of commerce a speech. Now, the dude gave the speech in english, because he doesn't actually speak french. After which he gave an interview: in which he was basically asked NO QUESTIONS about his speech, but rather about his french and why he doesn't speak it. And he said the most amazing thing "I've lived in montreal for 16 years and never had any problems without french.".

Which is where the panty knotting started. The talking heads are screaming that you need french, you have to have it... but really, who am I going to believe here? The obviously politically biased rabble rousers who literally could not operate outside the xenophobic fishbowl they built, or the CEO of the multinational corporation.

The other part to this is: he's claimed he's gotten a tutor and is making the effort to learn french. Which, you know, would have been awesome if it was what he actually wanted and not a PR operation. Never mind the fact that he will NEVER see the other side of the "must learn french in quebec" coin which is "Yeah, lol, wrong french." But HEY! At least he won't be paying that tutor long, cause he'll be moving the company, lock, stock and barrel after they pass bill 96. Can't have the corporate headquarters for Air Canada in another country, now can we?

 

[TM2-Megatron]

I've never cared for Air Canada, considering their abysmal customer service and poor pricing, but after that speech debacle I have a new respect for their CEO. Personally, I no longer give one goddamn about French or preserving French Canadian "culture", whatever that's supposed to be (other than seemingly being an asshole to everyone). They're such petulant, whiny children. They're nothing but a drain on the rest of the country, and we have far too many of those as it is.

If I never step foot in Quebec again, it'll be too soon. I'd rather give my tourist dollars to a craphole dictatorship or theocracy.

 

[wonko the sane?]

If I never step foot in Quebec again, it'll be too soon. I'd rather give my tourist dollars to a craphole dictatorship or theocracy.

I thought you JUST said you weren't coming back...

Edit: HA! The ad at the bottom of the page is for the condo complex going up at the old snowdon theater location. Yup: luxury condos... smack in the tenement district and directly adjacent the whiskey trench. Oh such SPLENDOR.

 

[wonko the sane?]

Attention quebecers: If you get your medical care in either an english institution, or IN english in a french institution: that will probably end after they pass bill 96. On top of obfuscating language designed to make "traditional english" very badly defined, the french will also have the right to anonymously report doctors, support staff, and such to the OQLF.

So when bill 96 passes next month (and again, it will. The caq have a unassailable majority.), expect doctors, nurses, and specialists to either retire or hug off down the road out of province.

 

[wonko the sane?]

So: a teacher was recently relieved of her teaching duties in the province. Why? You might ask, and I might tell you. She broke the law by wearing clothing. Yeah.

So: a teacher was relieved of her duties because she wore a hijab in her class. Of course, this is actually ILLEGAL due to bill 21. So she was taken out of her class and reassigned in the school. Legaults response to this event was "Well, you shouldn't have hired her".

They shouldn't have hired her. During a TEACHER SHORTAGE, because she wore a SCARF, in winter, in the province who's official methodology for dealing with covid in schools is "keep the windows open".

 

[wonko the sane?]

Air canada's ceo was invited to testify in front of the official languages committee in ottawa. Despite the fact that this is a federal committee it's literally just happening to score points with "les quebecois" because there haven't been any more complaints than usual about the quality of service from air canada in terms of language.

If only trudeau was so quick to act when it came to constitutional rights, like freedom of religion...

 

[wonko the sane?]

On the lighter side of things: the owner of guzzo theaters is threatening to sell his business and hug off out of the province because of the new round of shutdowns.

GO! You whiny mother fucker, GO! You've not done a damn thing here that hasn't been done before, and won't be done again. And maybe we can actually get a price break at the ******* concession stand.

 

[wonko the sane?]

Welp, the tories have ousted the tool that is O'tool, and have emplaced an interim while they work on a leadership race. And the interim is literally a maga hat wearing, hate crime hand waiving ******* psycho. Openly supporting the "freedom convoys" that are occupying the national capital and obstructing the border.

And she's the interim: when they finally elect the next old, rich, white guy to lead the tories: they will be even more radicalized, even more ignorant, even less qualified to lead or govern.

 

[TM2-Megatron]

Although I'd never have voted for O'Toole due to the party he associated with, who are more Reform than the old-style PC, he never struck me as that bad a guy. The guy served in the military, which is more than I can say I'd ever be willing to do for this country (considering the way our governments have treated veterans for the last 20-30 years), and he deserves some respect for that, at least.

What Canada needs is a socially progressive, fiscally responsible party that can appeal to centrists. What we have now is very American-style and only getting closer to our Southern neighbours... one party that's quickly being overtaken by its own socially conservative element (which there's absolutely zero taste for among the Canadian public), and another that claims to be progressive, but is more about the appearance of taking action than actually taking action. Whose leader pays lip service to causes like strengthening the middle-class, bringing down cost of living & housing, Indigenous issues, but doesn't actually do anything about them. My contempt for Justin Trudeau knows no bounds. If you look up "dilettante" in the dictionary, it should be his portrait you find. And the biggest kick in the balls is that neither of these parties can spend money responsibly worth a damn. The amount of pointless waste and bloated bureaucracy is grossly offensive.

The goal of each and every politician, regardless of their place on the spectrum, should be to leave their country a more prosperous, and better place to live for its people than it was the day before. The great irony is that if they all worked for that goal, none of them would even need to work to get re-relected (the only thing any of them put any effort into), because re-electing them would be a no-brainer.

 

[wonko the sane?]

Putting this report here as opposed to the covid thread because the convoys were ostensibly never about covid requirements.

So go ahead and guess what the "protestors" did yesterday? Go on, guess.

If your guess was anything other than "give themselves police powers" you... might very well still be right, but this is the important one. They did a public show of swearing themselves as "peace officers", following the example of the american sovereign citizen movement.

Which changes the game.