Segacs’s World I Know

Hopefully Tremblay has been brought back to reality on his nonsensical Olympic musings.

The Gazette published an editorial today by Don MacPherson in which it discussed results of a new CROP- La Presse poll stating that an Anglophone could never get elected Premier here in Quebec.

Excuse me for saying this… but duh!

Us make up less than 10% of Quebec’s population, we’re mostly concentrated in Montreal, and we’re not exactly what most people have in mind when they refer to the “Quebecois” culture.

MacPherson believes this is yet more evidence of the province’s oldest, and worst-kept secret prejudice: Anglophobia:

So the question of whether Quebec is ready for an anglophone premier is so hypothetical that it’s a wonder La Presse was willing to blow the cover of “civic” Quebec nationalism by having its pollster ask it.

The answers should have come as no surprise, since anglophobia is the one form of prejudice that remains socially acceptable in an otherwise tolerant Quebec, justified on the grounds of historic rivalry and a minority’s insecurity. And the opinion leaders in French Quebec who could lead the fight against this prejudice, as their counterparts have done elsewhere, instead, with few exceptions, feed and nurture it.

I would be the first to deny that there is a deep prejudice against English or English-speakers in this province. Anyone who has tried to apply for a job here – even with fluent French – has surely run up against it.

However, I don’t think I’d go so far as to claim that anyone who believes an Anglophone shouldn’t be premier is prejudiced against English. In a province where language has been the political issue for decades, is it so far-fetched to believe that people think the best person to lead a province is someone who represents most of the people on that particular issue?

I’m not defending Anglophobia. But it’s nonsense to claim it’s on par with racism or sexism. Those things have nothing to do with a person’s political leanings. Language, on the other hand, has everything to do with it here. Have we become so politically-correct that we are refusing to acknowledge this obvious fact?

The death of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia and the naming of (former Prince) Abdullah as his successor has thrown the spotlight back on the Saudi regime, if just for a moment. Especially on the close ties that the United States has maintained with this despotic, corrupt, dictatorial regime where women can’t drive or vote and nobody but Muslims can live, pray or exist. Among other things.

Bush and Abdullah may be bosom buddies, and to some people this is fine and dandy because Bin Laden and Al Quaeda are fighting against the Saudi regime.

But this is a deal with the devil – always has been, always will be (as long as it continues). It’s time for Bush to recognize that sometimes the guy fighting the bad guys isn’t a good guy: he’s another kind of bad guy. And the enemy of my enemy, in this case, is not my friend.

Somehow, I doubt that we’ll hear any such speeches from Western leaders at King Fahd’s funeral, though.

The British ambassador to Israel, Simon McDonald, reaches out to Israel in an article in Maariv and rips into Ken Livingstone for his spoutings since 7/7:

Other opinions widely reported in Israel reflect neither the views of the British Government nor of the British people. Ken Livingstone speaks only for himself on this issue. His views about Israel are wrong. Government Ministers have made that plain. Tony Blair and Jack Straw have repeatedly condemned terrorist attacks against Israelis. A solitary opinion must not be allowed to poison a strong and healthy relationship between two allies. [ . . . ] A combination of mis-reporting and of Livingstone’s maverick opinion cannot be allowed to weaken the Israel-UK friendship.

Via Imshin, who shares my opinion that opinions like Livingstone’s — while not unique — are thankfully in the British minority.

Buried in an article lauding the success of the FINA world championships here in Montreal is this seemingly throwaway tidbit:

Then Tremblay raised another possibility yesterday, telling reporters earlier in the day this city might bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games on the 40th anniversary of the costly 1976 Games and hinting he might make a more concrete announcement during his remarks at the closing ceremony.

All Tremblay said, however, was Montreal would not wait another 30 years to meet the world again.

Is he nuts????

Montreal is finally going to finish paying off the Big Owe next year, 30 years after the fiasco of the 1976 games. And now, just as we’re finally climbing out of debt, Tremblay wants to send us zooming right back into it? You’ve got to be kidding me!

Sure, I cheered when Vancouver was awarded the 2010 games. Canadian pride and all. But I’m not delusional. A 2016 Montreal bid would surely be futile, since what makes Tremblay think that Canada would be awarded two Olympic games in the same decade is beyond me. But even a failed bid is costly. Just look at what cities like Paris and New York just spent to lose the 2012 Games.

Memo to Tremblay: you may be soaring high right now because we managed to host a relatively minor sporting event without bleeding massive sums of cash. But you really need to get over your delusion that this means Montreal is invincible.

Someone please, please take Tremblay’s ego down a peg before it’s too late.

The Jerusalem Post reports the findings of a Shin Bet report on how the Palestinians have been using the so-called “truce” to escalate terror attacks against Israel:

The first seven months of the year have witnessed a marked, gradual increase in attempts by all the terror organizations, especially the Islamic Jihad, to launch attacks, despite the Palestinian declared tahdiya (truce) on January 22, a seven-page report published by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) revealed on Monday.

[ . . . ]

Since the beginning of 2005, 33 Israelis have been killed – 21 of them after the so-called January 22 truce. The deterioration of the continued while terror threats increased, totaling 436 attacks in July alone.

There was also a 50 percent increase in Gaza-based mortar attacks during the same period, with a total of 142 mortar shells fired at settlements, compared to 65 in May, the report stated.

As Meryl Yourish would say: What truce?

Honestly, I should turn this into a regular column, due to the frequency of my rants against Air Canada on this blog. But they just keep on asking for it.

My flight home from New York today was delayed by 3-1/2 hours. That’s for a flight that only takes an hour. The vague description of the cause was something to do with “equipment delays”. The airline kept us waiting in the terminal all that time without offering us so much as a free soda.

Then I got home and saw this:

Air Canada’s efforts to burnish its public image were dealt a blow Sunday when the carrier was forced to cancel some flights because its pilots reached the limit on their flying time for the month.

Oh. So that’s what they mean by “equipment delays”.

Air Canada’s advertisements feature all sorts of promises of fun stuff that’s “coming soon”, like personal entertainment sets on all seats. A word of advice to the management team at Air Canada: the main thing passengers want to be “coming soon” is their flight. You might want to spend a bit less money and effort focusing on useless nonsense, and a bit more on basics like, oh, say, customer service. Just a thought.

The British have their hands full fighting Al Qua’eda and Islamist terrorism; now they won’t have to divert resources in fighting the IRA anymore – if we can believe this:

The leadership of Oglaigh nah Eireann has formally ordered an end to the armed campaign. This will take effect from 4pm this afternoon.

All IRA units have been ordered to dump arms. All Volunteers have been instructed to assist the development of purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means. Volunteers must not engage in any other activities whatsoever.

So was it the 7/7 bombings that made the IRA realize that – wait a second – terrorism ain’t cool? That might have motivated the timing of this announcement, but it was probably more of an inevitable end to a struggle that most people in Ireland no longer support. It will remain to be seen whether the IRA actually follows through with this promise – but hey, there’s a chance it’ll happen; after all, they’re not the Palestinian Authority.

Here are some reactions to this shocking announcement.

Oh yeah, and lest I forget to mention it, it looks like Patrice “Paris” Brisebois’s career as a Hab is history.

The Canadiens have declined the team option on his contract, cutting him loose as a free agent. While he’s free to re-sign with the team for a lower salary, the possibility of him actually doing so is slim to none.

This is definitely the week’s best news. Brisebois might have been the last remaining member of the 1993 Cup-winning team, but that’s the sort of trivia tidbit that makes most people stop and say “Why??????”. After all, he gave a whole new definition to the term “costly mistake” – over and over and over again.

Buh-bye Brisebois. Don’t let the puck hit ya on your way out.