Segacs’s World I Know

A new Maclean’s poll pretty much confirms that, when it comes to foreign perceptions of Canada, ignorance is bliss:

The Maclean’s poll discovered an epic lack of global knowledge of Canadian affairs. Andrew Grenville, chief research officer for Angus Reid Strategies, converted the poll’s seven Canadian-knowledge questions to a zero-to-100 scale. Only the Americans passed, with a score of 57.

[ . . . ]

Curiously, there is a huge upside to this blissful ignorance: to not know Canada, apparently, is to love it. “There is a lot of ignorance about Canada but there are also these positive perceptions, kind of like this halo of positive expectation,” says Grenville. “We get the benefit of the doubt. They don’t really know us but they’re pretty sure we’re nice,” he says. “So we get away with a few things.”

Hmmmm, sounds like a certain US presidential candidate, doesn’t it? Canada, like Barack Obama, is well liked despite not being that well known. And Canada, like Obama, gets the benefit of the doubt for it.

Curiously, Canada has been riding this ignorance-is-bliss wave for years, even decades. Barack Obama should take notes.

It’s official: Philadelphia’s defeat of Pittsburgh this afternoon has helped the Montreal Canadiens win first place in the Eastern Conference.

I’m taking playoff predictions as of now. Who do you think will claim the Cup this year?

The Habs closed the 2007-08 regular season tonight in a highly appropriate fashion: With a 3-1 win over the hapless Leafs, putting us in first place in the conference, with a chance to stay there if the Pens lose tomorrow, and guaranteeing our first-round match-up against the Bruins, against whom we were 8-0 this season.

With the division title, the possible conference title, the #1 offensive record in the NHL, it’s safe to say that the Canadiens have not only exceeded expectations this season, they’ve knocked everyone’s socks off.

One year ago, the picture was very different. The Habs were fighting for a playoff spot, and needed to beat the Leafs in the final game of the season in order to clinch a spot. The Leafs came back to win that game and the Habs went home dejected. What a difference a year makes!

Now as we head into the post-season, it’s a whole new game where once again, anything can happen. Will our unbeaten streak against the Bruins translate into a first-round win, or will the Bruins fight back? Will Carey Price continue his stellar play, or will his inexperience do him in? Will injuries plague us, or will we get our healthy team back together for a real run? Could this be the Habs’ year to make a real run at the Cup?

Whatever happens in the weeks ahead, here’s a salute to the Canadiens for making the fans and the city proud. Go Habs Go!

Air Canada, not satisfied with being one of the worst customer-service companies in existence, has found a new way to price-gouge customers: Charge a fee to deal with flight hassles:

Trumpeting the service as unique in North America, Air Canada – which had a net profit of $429 million in 2007 – yesterday unveiled a new travel-assistance program, On My Way. For a one-way fee of $25 (flights below 1,000 miles) or $35 (above 1,000), payable when the flight is booked on aircanada.com, the airline will look after alternate flight arrangements and general logistics problems occasioned by flight, traffic or weather-related delays beyond its control.

[ . . . ]

Michael Janigan of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre in Ottawa wasn’t impressed. He suggested Out Of My Way as a more fitting name.

“It’s part and parcel of a continuing effort to try and make the service extended to you when you buy a ticket less and less. The expectation would be that if you paid for a flight, you’d be rebooked on the next available flight. I’m hesitant to figure what’s next with the airlines. Maybe washroom privileges (for a fee)? We’ll have to wait and see.”

No kidding. First they take away the food. Then they take away the baggage “privileges”. Then they outsource the lost luggage service to India. Now they won’t even rebook you on the next flight if your flight is delayed or canceled.

Air Canada continues to demonstrate that, just when you think it has come up with every possible way to screw its customers, there are always a few more to be found. The next time it claims bankruptcy and begs for a bailout from its financial woes, I hope the Canadian government has the good sense to finally let Air Canada sink, once and for all.

The Habs clinched the division championship tonight with a 3-0 shutout of the Sens, hitting the hundred-point mark and capping our most promising season since we last won the Cup in ’93.

At the beginning of the season, would anyone – even the most die-hard fan – have picked this to happen? It’s been an unbelivable season, and here’s hoping for a great post-season.

(The Leafs, of course, will be teeing off on the golf course very shortly.)

Who knows how long it will last… but first place sure does look good:

Go Habs!

The deadliest terrorist attack in Israel in two years… This time at a prominent yeshiva:

A Palestinian terrorist opened fire at a central Jerusalem yeshiva late Thursday night, killing eight students and wounding 11 others, police and rescue officials said.

The 8:45 p.m. shooting at Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood broke a two-year lull in terror in the capital and sent students scurrying for cover from a hail of gunfire – a reported 500-600 bullets – that lasted for several minutes.

What is there to say that hasn’t been said hundreds of times already? What words of condemnation, shock, horror or anger could possibly express anything anymore? Is there anyone left who can’t already predict how things will unfold from here? Has it not all been scripted out in advance? What can anyone possibly say about 8 dead students?

That’s what most Quebecers will tell you, anyway. But the recent “reasonable accommodation” hearings have shed some light on the dirty little secret of xenophobia that keeps creeping up here.

And now, we have some new poll results on antisemitism with discouraging, though not altogether surprising, results:

According to the poll results, 41 per cent of Quebecers agreed, and another 41 per cent disagreed, with the idea that “Jews want to impose their customs and traditions on others.” By comparison, only 11 per cent agreed and 74 per cent disagreed in the rest of Canada. The average nationwide was 19 per cent agreeing and 64 per cent disagreeing.

To another statement – “Jews want to participate fully in society” – 41 per cent of Quebecers disagreed and 31 per cent agreed, compared with a mere eight per cent disagreeing and 72 per cent agreeing among other Canadians. The national average was 16 per cent disagreeing and 63 per cent agreeing.

On the idea that “Jews have made an important contribution to society,” 35 per cent of Quebecers disagreed and 41 per cent agreed, compared with only 10 per cent disagreeing and 74 per cent agreeing in the rest of Canada. The Canadian average was 16 per cent disagreeing and 65 per cent agreeing.

As a cegep student, I naively wrote a research paper on the history of antisemitism in Quebec. A product of the Jewish school system bubble, I was genuinely surprised when my Quebecois professor was less-than-thrilled with my choice of subject and my treatment of it, and graded the paper accordingly. Not that I’m claiming bias; I freely admit that the paper was graded poorly because, well, it wasn’t much good. But I was still rather taken aback at the prof’s personal reaction, and his subsequent coldness to me.

What I didn’t really “get”, as a naive 18-year-old, was that people don’t much like being accused of racism, and that accusing an entire group of people of racism is a form of racism in and of itself.

All this to say that polls like this one are double-edged swords. If people use these results merely to finger-point, then not much gets solved. “Quebec nationalism is xenophobic” is a statement with some elements of truth, a lot of elements of falsehood, and ultimately one that gets us nowhere.

But it won’t do to hide the truth under a cachet of hearts and flowers, either. If there is genuinely a distance between Quebec and the ROC in attitudes towards Jews, or minorities in general – and admittedly, there is – then it’s time to identify what we can do to help make things better.

To understand Quebec antisemitism, we need to understand the different political, cultural and historical factors that have led to Quebec nationalism, because there are a lot of tie-ins. Knee-jerk anti-Americanism is higher in Quebec than elsewhere. Defensiveness about language and culture, the perception that Quebec is a French island fighting a rising tide from a sea of English surrounding it, and a generally more left-wing, socialist, collectivist political bent (despite our strong support for private sector healthcare involvement) are a few of Quebec’s quirks.

I know this sounds like it has nothing to do with Quebec antisemitism, but it does. Despite the large francophone Sephardic Jewish community in Quebec, antisemitism here is largely tied in with the perception of many that the Jews are part of “the English”, the oppressor, the Other. The historical archetype of the rich English business owner exploiting the poor French worker is ingrained in the mindset of the province, even if it no longer reflects modern realities. It’s part of the psyche of many in Quebec.

On a one-on-one level, particularly in multiculturual Montreal, people in Quebec are mostly open, genuine and accepting. They just express it differently. Outside of Montreal, many people do not encounter many minorities in their daily lives. When they do, they generally approach them with an open – if sometimes uninformed – attitude. People who move from les régions to Montreal often find themselves, for the first time, making friends with different religions, skin colours and backgrounds, and I’ve found that they are more than willing to ask questions, approach people as individuals, and work together. Like with the language issue, when the politicians stay out of the game, the people, for the most part, do a pretty good job of getting along.

But there are the ugly incidents. From Lionel Groulx’s rampant antisemitism to Jacques Parizeau blaming the 1995 referendum defeat on “money and the ethnic vote”, the stories are many and not so far between. Not to mention the powerful alliance between Quebec’s labour unions and the antisemitism on the left, particularly from the anti-Israel crowd. The recent reasonable accommodation hearings were only the icing on that particularly unsavoury cake.

So which model is true? Quebec as the closed, defensive, xenophobic and racist society? Or Quebec as the open, tolerant, welcoming and progressive society? Well, both, actually. It seems like a logical impossibility, but in this “distinct society”, it makes perfect sense.

As many people know, Monopoly (the board game) is launching a new world version, and the cities that will represent each proprety are being decided by a worldwide online vote. It’s the final days of voting now, and as of Friday when the leaderboard was hidden, Montreal was close to the lead. So head on over there and vote for Montreal.

Anyway, one of the nominated cities is Jerusalem, Israel – which, of course, predictably led to controversy as the anti-Israel crowd chimed in with their outrage:

Given the white-hot controversy over Israel — the world’s most fought-over piece of real estate — should the board game refer to “Jerusalem, Israel” even though Palestinians say Jerusalem will be the capital of any future Palestinian state? Should it say “Jerusalem, Palestine?”

Instead of rolling the dice, parent company Hasbro is taking the middle ground.

The company is letting people vote on its Web site for which cities to include in the new game — “Dublin, Ireland” for example. It recently removed “Israel” after “Jerusalem” and then eventually removed all of the country names.

Hasbro told The Associated Press that a mid-level employee decided on her own to take out “Israel” after pro-Palestinian groups and bloggers complained — sparking even more protests from the other side.

Maybe it was a bit naive of Hasbro not to have anticipated this. But still, why should they? Jerusalem is in Israel. They stated a geographic fact. And the fact that more and more people are afraid to say so, due to threats and intimidation from a non-country, is utterly shameful.

I’d still like to see Montreal occupy the top spot. But thanks to this mess, I doubt I’ll buy the game.

Update 02/27: With less than 24 hours left to vote, Stephen Colbert mentioned the site and the contest on tonight’s show. This will likely drive millions of people – mostly Americans – to the site to vote. Montreal was narrowly battling it out with Istanbul for the lead when the board was hidden last week, but given the Colbert twist, I wouldn’t be surprised if the American cities jumped into the lead when they announce in August. So much for that.