Time to pick on some governments at various levels, which I haven’t done in a while.
I suppose I should start with the feds. Ever since Stevie got his majority government there hasn’t really been much to pick on him about because there is very little Parliamentary debate on things – he just pushes them through – so we aren’t really aware of how badly he’s screwing us. Earlier this week, Stevie announced the formation of the long-discussed Office of Religious Freedom. On the surface, this sounds as if it would be a fabulous idea. Don’t get your hopes up. It’s part of the Department of Foreign Affairs. That’s right. The purpose appears to be to ensure that people in other countries have the freedom to practice their faith. Never mind that there are some people here in Canada who are still persecuted for their faith, Stevie wants to make sure others have religious freedom. We get more prisons.
To give the feds their due, they have decided to shelve the internet spying bill – you know, the one of which Vic Toews said “You’re either with us or with the pornographers” – because of all the flak it set off. I’m not sure if this is proof Stevie and the court jesters aren’t brain dead, or if it’s just a bit of early politicking.
Okay, now to cross the Ottawa River to La Belle Province – Quebec. In the last election in that province, the voters decided to give the Parti Quebecois another chance at being the government. Reason didn’t lose out completely, for the PQ only has a minority government, but that hasn’t stopped Pauline Marois, the leader, from reviving some of the policies from previous Pequiste governments. The main policy being a newly invigorated language law. This law, in its most basic form says “Francaise bon; Anglaise mal.”
There is an article on today’s CBC News site that shows just how exuberant some of these language police can be on occasion. First, you must keep in mind that French as spoken in Quebec is basically unintelligible to the average Parisian. Quebec French is frequently called ‘joual”, which is roughly how Quebecers pronounce “cheval”, or “horse” in English, and is not meant as a compliment. So right there I find the idea of the government trying to preserve the purity of the French language laughable. According to this article, the language police have told an Italian restaurant – an upscale one the article states – to change their menu because Italian words such as “pasta” appear far too often and they should find the French equivalent. The Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) has backed off on this and said it will look at exceptions for things such as foreign foods. I can’t speak for how it is now, but at one time, people referred to a certain fast food item as “le Big Mac”. Don’t know how that would translate.
So there you have it, insanity from Quebec and the feds doing things overseas while the same situation in Canada is allowed to fester. And to think some people actually voted for these idiots.
I won’t pick on Ontario just yet because the new Premier, Kathleen Wynne, has only been in office about a week.
Enjoy your day and remember to hug an artist – we need love too.
Cat (le Chat) 🙂
Catseyeview 