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Post by PTH on Sept 20, 2006 19:16:16 GMT -5
Anyone read the piece in the Globe by Jan Wong, blaming the violence in Quebec schools over the past 20 years on Bill 101? This type of blatant racism is exactly the kind of thing that makes a federalist turn into a hard-core separatist. I just read an excellent rebuttal (that actually has relevant points that show how Bill 101 had no major influence in these people's lives, and that there's no reason to think that any of the shooters had linguistic issues) at www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20060920/CPOPINIONS/609200709/6128/CPSPECIAL12(to shorten the explanation for those who don't read French, the 3 shooters were: - a guy with an Algerian father who grew up in French in a French-speaking neighborhood, who left behind a suicide note explaining how he hated women, which is why he went out and killed 14 in 1989 (seems he had issues, just not linguistic...) - a Concordia professor who came to Montreal from Russia at 40 or so, and wanted to shoot some of his colleagues (again, major issues, but not language-related.) - a 25 year old child of Indian parents who grew up in Montreal, in English and went to English-language schools. His mom is quoted as saying her son loved Montreal. None of these 3 was impacted by Bill 101, none left behind any trace of linguistic issues.... and of course the op-ed in the Globe doesn't mention any violence in schools outside of Quebec, nor the Denis Lortie incident, in which a "pure laine" went on a shooting spree. I hope Mrs Wong gets fired. Just like someone in Quebec would get fired for blaming jewish influences in a shooting in Western Canada. A Radio-Canada bigwig just had to resign because he wrote a stupid comment about Lebanese laws (about Lebanese laws saying that you can get it on with a dog), will English Canada have the guts make Wong resign as well ? |
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Post by PTH on Sept 20, 2006 21:06:33 GMT -5
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Post by seventeen on Sept 21, 2006 1:10:03 GMT -5
Yep, there are no language barriers to wackos.
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Post by Skilly on Sept 21, 2006 6:04:33 GMT -5
She was just Jan Dam W rong. I will go out on a limb here and assume she is of oriental decent, or married to someone of Asian decent. I will also go so far to state that if someone were to go so far (and way too far at that) and blame Canada's immigration/multicutural policies (which she indirectly did actually) that she would/should be the first to come out swinging and defending immigration. PTH ... the Globe and Mail is a s*** (you know what I mean) rag with s*** reporters. Over the last few years, they have gone out of their way to drum up controversy to rile up Ontarians against any other part of Canada. Every country has "language logistics" simply because every country is now more accepting to others entering their countries and residing there. Will she blame Columbine on Spanish classes, Ebonics, or Cree? Will she blame the Moscow fiasco on Russian, Chechen, Estonian, or any other dialect? Of course not .... but lets blame Polytechnique, and Dawson on the french language because we have kicked the East and the West in the guts and now it is Quebec's turn and besides our readership is down a bit. The simple fact is one idiot hated women, the other idiot thought he was a vampire (or something) ..... the only blame here is on the idiots and how they manage to get possession of such an arsenal of weapons. So how does the globe and Mail try to "fight" idiocy? By showing the rest of the country that the media can be bigger idiots!!  (I wanted to use harsher words than "idiot" but the censors (Big Brother) stops me) |
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Post by franko on Sept 21, 2006 7:14:28 GMT -5
You would expect this (perhaps) from a right-of-centre rag like the Sun or even from the National Post, but not from the Globe, which gives the impression of a centrist -slash-tolerant viewpoint.
Remember, though, in Canada we are supposed to be allowed to express our viewpoints no matter how stupid different they may be. I can't believe that the editorial staff would allow this to pass, unless they are trying to drum up controversy and therefore readership.
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Post by franko on Sept 21, 2006 19:24:20 GMT -5
More from the Globe, via cbc.ca: In Thursday's edition of the paper, an editorial addresses the "small uproar" created by Wong's provocative statements. The editorial asserts that an argument could be made about the effect of Quebec's longstanding debate over language law, and the "politics of exclusion" have had on the "marginalization and perhaps alienation of non-francophone Quebecers."
But the paper admitted there's no cause and effect that could explain school shootings in Quebec.
"Did such marginalization in any way contribute to the violence at Montreal's Dawson College last week, or at the École Polytechnique in 1989? No such evidence exists."
And while it's easy to understand the "outraged reactions" to Wong's assertations, given recent events in Quebec, the editorial concludes by reaffirming the need to "ask hard questions and explore uncomfortable avenues."_____ Re: Wong: The seasoned Globe and Mail writer had little to say in response to the shower of criticism generated by her article. When CBC Montreal contacted Wong for her comment, she said she does not want to get involved in a public debate._____ The PM's response: In a letter to the Globe and Mail published Thursday, Harper acknowledged that while Wong has a right to her point of view, her argument is "patently absurd and without foundation," and shows prejudice in blaming a whole society for the actions of one individual. |
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Post by Habs_fan_in_LA on Sept 22, 2006 0:37:47 GMT -5
Any truth to the rumor that the Pope is going to be a Globe and Mail columnist?
Any speach or cartoon is going to piss somebody off.
Some are more easily pissed off and some writers are more stupid than others.
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Post by jkr on Sept 22, 2006 6:46:32 GMT -5
More from the Globe, via cbc.ca: [ Re: Wong: The seasoned Globe and Mail writer had little to say in response to the shower of criticism generated by her article. When CBC Montreal contacted Wong for her comment, she said she does not want to get involved in a public debate._____ This just shows she doesn't have the guts to defend her warped point of view. She won't talk & she has the editorialists write the response. |
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Post by MC Habber on Sept 22, 2006 14:19:43 GMT -5
The Globe's response is highly inadequate IMO. For once, I agree with Stephen Harper:
"These actions deserve our unqualified moral condemnation, not an excuse for printing prejudices masked in the language of social theory."
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Post by franko on Sept 26, 2006 7:52:40 GMT -5
Je me souviens: Jan Wong's Quebec hasn't existed for three decades John Moore, National Post
Published: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 Quebecers are in an uproar over The Globe and Mail's Jan Wong, and her innovative explanation for the province's occasional shooting sprees. Citing three examples from the last two decades, she noted that the shooters were all ethnics or the children of ethnics. Therefore, she concluded in a recent news article, their rage must have sprung from frustration at not being accepted by Quebec's pure laine French Canadian culture.
Wong's Sept. 16 column has been widely panned -- including by Quebec Premier Jean Charest, who declared in a letter to The Globe, "Ms. Wong's article is a disgrace. It betrays an ignorance of Canadian values and a profound misunderstanding of Quebec." Such criticism is well-taken: Wong's column is total nonsense.
First of all, it would seem no-one remembers another shooting in the province's unfortunate history, the 1984 killing spree at the National Assembly carried out by pure laine Quebecer Denis Lortie. But to even raise that as a counterargument offers more credence to Wong than she deserves.
No, the real problem is that Wong's impression of Quebec is a freeze-frame she grabbed in the 1970s, at a time when she actually lived there.
She can be partially forgiven for being so out of touch. Her long-time home of Toronto is full of people who never liked Quebec and its nationalism in the first place. Their disdain has been bolstered by the hundreds of thousands of ex-Quebecers who've moved to Toronto since the Parti Quebecois was first elected in 1976. Some moved because they feared the inevitable economic downturn uncertainty breeds. Others were seized with the conviction that they were akin to Jews fleeing Europe in the 1930's.
For three decades, these people have poured out a mixture of anger, regret and nostalgia at dinner tables and in workplaces into the gleeful ears of those who hated the separatists anyway. Their anger at being forced to leave blinds them to the fact that time has marched on in their former homeland.
To Wong and her fellow time travellers, Quebec is a backward, angry place on the verge of economic calamity; a province where newly empowered francophones draw on a two-century reservoir of bitterness as they exact payback on their English oppressors.the rest |
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Post by Habs_fan_in_LA on Sept 26, 2006 20:11:26 GMT -5
Anyone read the piece in the Globe by Jan Wong, blaming the violence in Quebec schools over the past 20 years on Bill 101? This type of blatant racism is exactly the kind of thing that makes a federalist turn into a hard-core separatist. I just read an excellent rebuttal (that actually has relevant points that show how Bill 101 had no major influence in these people's lives, and that there's no reason to think that any of the shooters had linguistic issues) at www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20060920/CPOPINIONS/609200709/6128/CPSPECIAL12(to shorten the explanation for those who don't read French, the 3 shooters were: - a guy with an Algerian father who grew up in French in a French-speaking neighborhood, who left behind a suicide note explaining how he hated women, which is why he went out and killed 14 in 1989 (seems he had issues, just not linguistic...) - a Concordia professor who came to Montreal from Russia at 40 or so, and wanted to shoot some of his colleagues (again, major issues, but not language-related.) - a 25 year old child of Indian parents who grew up in Montreal, in English and went to English-language schools. His mom is quoted as saying her son loved Montreal. None of these 3 was impacted by Bill 101, none left behind any trace of linguistic issues.... and of course the op-ed in the Globe doesn't mention any violence in schools outside of Quebec, nor the Denis Lortie incident, in which a "pure laine" went on a shooting spree. I hope Mrs Wong gets fired. Just like someone in Quebec would get fired for blaming jewish influences in a shooting in Western Canada. A Radio-Canada bigwig just had to resign because he wrote a stupid comment about Lebanese laws (about Lebanese laws saying that you can get it on with a dog), will English Canada have the guts make Wong resign as well ? A recently released CIA intelligence report stated that the four planes were hijacked by 19 muslim terrorists because of their aversion to "Bill 101". They want an apology from the FLQ terrorists in Cuba and their release from Gitmo. |
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