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Wednesday Night Salon
#1329 22 Aug 2007 Page 2
Introduction
The Report
Bill 104
Bill 104 was effectively killed
- although, because the Government is appealing, the ruling only
affects those families who brought the suit. The death at the hands of
two out of three judges of the Québec Court of Appeal appears to have
caused a much greater reaction than warranted in a Province that has
seen the evolution of a virtual de facto bilingualism within a legal
framework of a presumably Francophone culture. The big battle has
already been fought and won without bloodshed. The lingua franca
of Québec is undoubtedly French, within a world where the lingua franca
is English, an undeniably reasonable situation. As with many
issues in Québec, however, the means of achieving this end appears to
have become more important than the result. Bill 104 closed a loophole
in the law that permitted children to qualify for instruction in
grammar school in the English language by having previously attended
their first year in English in a non-government subsidized private
school. The loophole widens when this extends to privately funded
kindergartens. Presumably, home schooling would open the
floodgates. An objective viewer would simply ask why, if the
objective is integration into the language and culture of Québec, a
simpler solution would not be to measure the success in the achievement
of the desired objectives at various academic levels rather than
attempting to control the means of attaining them. However, the vehemence of the reaction
of Quebeckers on both sides of the issue would lead one to suspect that
winners and losers do exist and that an understanding of their issues
might clarify their actions and reactions.
(Gérald Larose, Chairman of the Conseil de la souveraineté has
expressed the opinion that the closing of the loophole will permit
Anglophones to buy their way into the public school system through
their payment for one year of private schooling, implying that public
education is for Francophones only. As he was commenting on the case in
which French-speaking Vietnamese parents wanted their child educated in
English because he was learning French at home.)
Parents of English speaking immigrant children may possibly see
integration into a community in which they are linguistically
comfortable as a means to ease integration into their country of
adoption, confident in the fact that the acquisition of French language
skills in English language public schools is a requisite of Québec law.
For school boards the issue is funding. A loss of students
(possibly as many as 8,000 students) from the French Language School
Board to the English, translates into a transfer of funding and
increased resources. Money has always been a powerful motivator.
Following the enactment of and most likely in large part due to Québec
language laws, Francophones have become more affluent. With
affluence comes decrease in reproduction and there is an understandable
real concern that, unless the decrease in birthrate in the Québec
population is offset by the Francization of the immigrant population,
this province could become a linguistic New Brunswick. It is
extremely difficult to solve human problems that remain ill defined.
The Three Amigos at Montebello
Despite some harsh words and virtual sabre rattling, the Québec
language debate has thus far been much more low-key and civilized than
the elaborate drama played out on the stage at Montebello.
Rumours abounded that the meeting at Montebello would result in a total
integration of the North American economy and consequent loss of
Canadian (and presumably Mexican) sovereignty, through such dastardly
actions as the construction of a super highway connecting the
heartlands of the three countries - a plot hatched by the political and
corporate élite. The sad truth is that from what those outside the
process could establish, very, very little was accomplished. Along with
Maisonneuve MediaScout,
we may well question the large amounts of taxpayer money devoted to
photo-ops. For the leaders, a few days at Montebello, good food,
friendly discussion, relaxation and jellybeans (it would have been nice
had the politicians understood that the issue for jellybeans was not
regulation of content, but of labeling and packaging) was no doubt a
pleasant summer break.
Essentially it was a non-event. What they discussed was not what
everyone thought they were there to discuss. They came to virtually no
conclusions - it surely didn’t take that huge organizational effort to
decide that the three countries are against importing defective toys
from China -; George Bush did not support Canada’s position on the
Arctic (which in any case was not on the agenda). No solution to the
easing of movement of goods and people across the borders, as Security
continues to dominate policy in the U.S. Finally, the elephant
(not the Republican one) in the room that never surfaced is the
collapse of Northern Mexico and the general failure of Mexico’s
economic strategy.
“Whatever President Bush, Prime Minister Harper and President Calderon do at Montebello, some will accuse them of doing too much. The reality is that it is too little because there is a lack of a comprehensive blueprint.”
Demonstrations and secrecy
While the usual suspects demonstrated outside the gates, it was not a large crowd and to one observer many seemed uninformed.
It is true that in a democratic country there is a right to
demonstrate, but it is unacceptable that demonstrations include
throwing rocks, damaging private property or other destructive and
confrontational behaviour
Civil disobedience is an important part of democracy
Our democracy is in danger if we do not have people clearly
expressing their opinions; this (demonstrations) is a way that young
people have of making their voices heard. They have a right to be there
as long as they are not violent - and 95% are simply young people who
are exercising their right. But there’s always the other 5% who cannot
be controlled
I believe that many of the demonstrators do not vote; it is
important that they also engage in traditional means of expressing
their opinions (voting)
National organizations that are truly reaching out to youth are shutting down [in Canada] at an alarming rate
The Undercover (Keystone) Cops
Newscasts this Wednesday evening feature a video that purports to show
3 men who on Monday were identified as police disguised as masked
demonstrators and accused of trying to incite violence by Dave Coles,
president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, (who
was wearing a suit and tie). One Wednesday Nighter who was there said
that he had seen the three men and judging from their build, it was
very likely that they were police.
[Postscript: after earlier denials, the SQ admitted on Thursday that these were 3 undercover policemen. The admission provoked howls of outrage and scorn for the inept attempts at disguise.]
Security trumps trade
Despite the general civility of the protestors and the inability of the
leaders of the three democracies to implement secret plans without
ultimately taking them to Parliament (or Congress), there appeared to
be a feeling among the Canadian population - or at least the chattering
classes - that the elaborate nature of the conference and the paucity
of important information emanating from it were designed to hide secret
plans. However, the success of NAFTA on one hand and the
perceived fear of rising international terrorism on the other,
demonstrate the importance of addressing the mind-numbing task of
developing uniform standards and regulations, facilitating and making
continental transportation more efficient. NAFTA has demonstrated
the importance of these issues but they are technical in nature and
will be resolved not by politicians but by technicians. As
difficult as they may prove to be, they will undoubtedly be made more
so by the involvement of Homeland Security. Security measures can often
prove to be an anathema to efficiency.
It is more likely that the perceived secrecy was mostly due to a lack
of information and that the discussions among technicians are a work in
progress.
Tuesday Nov 6, 2007 Sûreté spent $7 million on Montebello summit
One of a number of police and security forces tasked with ensuring protection at the Montebello summit that brought together North American leaders this year, the Sûreté du Québec alone spent more than $7 million on the event, CanWest News Service has learned.
People who go to these summits have no patience for technicalities so they don’t discuss any of those matters
SPP, the acronym for Security and Prosperity Partnership, has a nice
ring but there was no evidence that equal effort was accorded to
managing the public’s expectations or to developing a strong closing
statement for the meeting.
Boycotting the Beijing Olympics
Talk continues of boycotting the Beijing Olympic Games. The question is
asked, what is so different from the situation when Beijing was
designated six years ago?
More information about human rights abuses? More people like David
Kilgour who are willing to speak out? More awareness of problematic
situations in China? Some believe that the boycott of the Moscow
Olympics ultimately played an important part in the disintegration of
the U.S.S.R. It is more probable however, that that country was
in the process of disintegration because its time had come.
Certainly, the boycott of the Montreal Olympics by the African
continent did much less harm to our city than it did to African
athletes. The consensus is that if anything is to be done to
demonstrate our anger at the execution of innocent human beings in
order to supply organs on demand, it is we who should take the
necessary initiative rather than impose it on our athletes.
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Stephen S. Poloz
Wed1317 report 
Wed1330
Always a bad idea to let yourself be defined by your opponents. D’Aquino’s
piece is on target–how else does a country like Canada manage to make its
huge neighbour a tad more predictable, especially when (1) its administration has such a peculiar view of the world and (2) the threat of another terrorist attack is real?
Another aspect of this is the consequence of a single market in so many commodities–producers on both sides of the border want access to the same array of inputs, even chemical ones. So “harmonization” is also about managing a single market for controlled substances across 3 jurisdictions.
Since all 3 governments regulate “by reference” to statutes, as long as the
changes don’t break the boundaries of the relevant laws, the reg changes
have only to be announced in Gazettes or federal registers–official
publications of rule changes. It’s only the working groups that get
involved at that level, however.
The Heads of NAFTA governments are supposed to consult regularly anyway (Chapter 20 of NAFTA) to ensure the agreement is continuing to function as it should. Anyone who studies NAFTA is aware of its flaws as a design for what has emerged from it, namely a single North American market in most of what the 3 countries make. But there is no
mechanism for upgrading continental infrastructure, reducing inadvertent
trade barriers caused by minor rule differences, and now on top of that,
addressing security concerns. The energy stuff is mainly about Alberta
trying to lock in US markets. Water management is not touched in NAFTA but
recent concerns about unilateral action in Great Lakes tributaries need
addressing and the US has been in violation of its treaty with Mexico over water flows for some time. As the Greens point out, no country in NAFTA is a “water surplus” country.The US is also outside the UN mechanism for
resolving international territorial disputes…so lots of reason for the
leaders to talk.
Why not more publicity? The same hostile crowd raised the same objections about the WTO meetings and even managed to shut them down to some extent. Now global trade liberalization has ground to a halt and Doha is moribund if not yet a corpse. Result: even more subsidies for rich western farmers and less hope for raising the welfare of poor countries through trade-led growth. It’s clear that Executive Branches of all 3 governments have not learned the lesson of these WTO disasters–they definitely should never create the impression they are conspiring against their electorates.Many of those who support the SPP process would welcome a debate about the future of North America as an economic partnership. But that debate would have to be much more far reaching than the constrained, relatively technocratic SPP. Guy Stanley OWN