Rechercher
Close this search box.

THE SHAWVILLE EQUITY

M. McGee
Rédacteur en chef de l’Equity,
equity@achilles.net et
news@theequity.ca

Vous écrivez des textes qui encouragent vos lecteurs à ne pas se conformer à
la loi 101 et vous lui prêtez des intentions qui n’existent pas et quand
j’essaie de vous instruire en vous envoyant des documents et des statistiques
qui contredisent vos opinions simplistes vous ne voulez rien savoir. Du très
mauvais journalisme dont je suis victime ainsi que tous les franco-pontissois.

Si vous détestez tellement cette loi et la langue française, M. McGee, vous
pouvez toujours aller vivre en Ontario (Remfrew n’est pas loin) ou partout
ailleurs au Canada. Pour nous francophones il y a seulement au Québec que nous
pouvons espérer vivre en français… Et le Pontiac est une partie intégrale du
Québec, n’est-ce-pas?

Qu’à cela ne tienne j’ai toujours cru que les anglophones peuvent vivre avec
les francophones mais ils doivent respecter la loi et apprendre aussi, la langue
de la majorité des Québécois. Voilà le message que vous devez transmettre à vos
lecteurs et surtout aux commerçants.

Donc… Qu’il ne vous en déplaise, je continuerai à combattre le " mythe de
l’anglo abusé " que vous tentez si fort d’imprégner dans l’esprit de vos
lecteurs et je vous ferai remarquer qu’il ne reste plus que vous à avancer cette
fausseté. Galganof est parti, Johnson et Tyler aussi Et, je crois que les
animateurs de CFRA ne toucheront plus au Québec (Québec bashing,) même pas avec
une tige de 16 pieds.

Vous m’avez écrit dans votre dernier courriel 04-08-11, que d’autres moyens
voulaient dire, " The LAW " mais je crois que vous constaterez très vite, que
vous feriez rire de vous puisque nous vivons en démocratie.

Au revoir,

Pierre Denault
Pontiac
PaysanP@aol.com
(Le 18 août 2004)

****************

Paul McGee,
Rédacteur en chef,
The Equity,

Monsieur McGee,

J’ai bien peur de devoir vous refuser votre requête de ne plus vous envoyer
mes courriels parce que je suis commis à dénoncer la déception que vous, The
Equity, et certains diffuseurs, principalement de CFRA, répandent parmi les
Pontissois (anglophones et francophones). Le courriel à Lowell Green dont vous
avec reçu copie hier est un exemple parfait de cette déception.

Dyane Adams déplore l’iniquité retrouvée dans les services bilingues dans les
édifices fédéraux de la région de la capitale : bons, dit-elle, dans Gatineau
mais manquants du côté de Ottawa. Lowell Green traduit cette réalité à ses
écouteurs en demandant : " Does that mean that they will now have to give
bilingual services in the federal buildings on the Gatineau side? Interesting to
see!"

Dans la dernière édition électronique de votre éditorial vous dites à vos
lecteurs que la Loi 101 est honteuse et dangereuse parce qu’elle oblige certains
anglophones à apprendre le français et vous traitez, encore, la loi sur
l’affichage de niaiseuse. Vous dites que cette langue n’est pas en danger de
disparaître; mais laissez moi vous le répéter, une autre fois : les statistiques
démontrent que, face à l’anglais, le français prend du recul, au Québec, et que
la cause en serait la clause Canada, qui a annulé la clause Québec, qui visait à
encourager les nouveaux-venus au Québec à apprendre le français tout en
protégeant les droits historiques de la soi-disant minorité anglophone
québécoise.

Vous dites à vos lecteurs qu’il y a deux langues officielles au Canada mais
vous négligez de leur dire que seulement le gouvernement fédéral et le
Nouveau-Brunswick sont officiellement bilingues au Canada. LE QUéBEC EST
OFFICIELLEMENT FRANçAIS!

Les juges, que vous critiquez, ne font qu’appliquer la loi.

Je ne suis qu’un parmi plusieurs franco-pontissois qui en ont jusque-là de
cette propagande anti-Québec, anti-francophone anti-réalité et tout à fait
raciste.

Tandis que vous, Monsieur McGee, rédacteur en chef de l’Equity, vous pouvez
vivre au Québec, «unilinguement» en anglais, le francophone que je suis ne le
peut pas et vous avez le culot de me dire que vous n’êtes pas intéressé dans mes
courriels, qui ne tentent qu’à démontrer que c’est la langue française qui est
souffrante dans le Pontiac.

Il y a deux journaux dans le Pontiac. Le " Journal du Pontiac Journal "
bilingue mais propriété anglophone et " The Equity " journal anglophone. Le
point de vue francophone ne peut s’exprimer fortement ou même s’affirmer. Ne
serait-ce de ces courriels, votre propagande aurait le chemin libre.

En bon entendeur,
Pierre Denault,
Pontiac.
(Le 6 août 2004)

**********
De : Shawville Equity
à : PaysanP@aol.com

Sir,
"Other measures" means the law, notably as it applies to harassment.

*********
NDLR – Les articles suivants en anglais vous aideront à mieux comprendre la
pensée éditoriale qui anime le journal The Shawville Equity:

EDITORIAL
Paul McGee
01-08-03

NOT AGAIN

Aw, here we go again.
Nothing can spoil a nice summer than another episode of that most undemocratic
of actions: a visit by the language police. The target this time was the
Canadian Tire store in Shawville which was warned it had to change its exterior
signage and cash receipts to give the French language prominence by Aug. 12 or
else it faced fines. Each visit by the language police leaves behind a trail
leading to the front doors of the cowards who go about squealing to the Office
de la Langue Française about perceived injustices. Cowards because the OLF
invites the squealers to report alleged infractions of the Language Charter to
them. All it takes, in this, free and democratic society, is for one person with
too much time on their hands to file a report to the OLF, and before you know
it, the language police are on their way to investigate. And, the report is
anonymous, so the squealers can go to work (if "work" is part of his/ her
agenda), and continue to associate with the majority of Anglophones in the
Pontiac MRC while hiding a dark, dirty, low down secret. After all, from grade
school on, who we consider to be the lowest of the low but the squealers who try
to hide their own blemishes by ratting on everyone else? It is easy to agree
that the French language in Quebec deserves to be nurtures and promoted.
However, coercion is not the best motivator. It is high time the Parti Quebecois
government recognized the folly that is the OFL And rid this free and democratic
society of the language police. As well, it is high time the fanatics who still
live in the dark ages and believe the French language is in danger because a
cash receipt or a sign doesn’t follow the letter of the law woke up to the
reality of 2001: the French language and culture in Quebec, and around the world
(Jeux de francophonie, par exemple), is in no danger of disappearing. Just
think, if the cowardly squealers put down their pens, the language police would
have very little to do, and would be considered obsolete. Then our tax dollars
wouldn’t have to go towards financing the neo-fascists but could ve spent on
more useful ventures such as education (teach the English how to speak French)
or health care. Anything but spending more money on the language police that do
nothing more than cause problems for businesses trying to succeed while
embarrassing us in front of the global society. Surely, this is not too much to
ask for in a free and democratic society cemented by so many who lost their
lives in bloody wars.

EDITORIAL

Paul McGee
01-08-17

CAN’T YOU READ THAT SIGN?

As good corporate citizen, the Canadian Tire store in Shawville removed the
service entrance sign from the west side of the building to comply with the
Office de la langue française dictum that French must be the dominant language.
Removing the sign was not voluntary, but a response to threats by the OLF that
the store would be fined if the sign someone with too much time on their hands
deemed "offensive" because the English and French letters, get this, were THE
SAME SIZE, was not changed. Imagine that. What an affront to people’s
sensibilities. (Of course, as an anglo with poor eyesight, I’m not supposed to
be offended when I have to squint to read product markers at the grocery store.)

The perpetrators of such an abominable crime against humanity should be tried
before a world court. At least that’s the message being sent by some fanatics
who place all of life beneath their fanatical obsession with the language. This
writer, since the last piece addressing the folly that is the OFL, the language
police, and the paranoia breeding the irrational thoughts of a very small
minority of Quebecers, has been called a "racist" and an "imbecile," and who
knows what else behind close doors. Not because I said anything negative about
the French language, or French Canadians, or the province in general, but
because I had the nerve to express my opinion about the waste of time and money
the jackboot-wearing, bureaucratic dinosaur called the Office de la langue
française is. Imagine, I had the nerve to suggest that the taxpayers’ money
would be better spent on education and health than on a bureaucratic beast
peeking and spying on the citizens of a free country. Have we forgotten already
the Second World War and the fight against tyranny? But, alas, something tells
me the troublemakers will always be with us, Lurking around every corner,
pouncing on every perceived injustice to give their hollow cause legitimacy.
Puppets of the state, they are. Well, some of us don’t like being puppets,
period, but embrace the notion of a free and individual will within the
framework of society. We don’t want to be subservient peasants bowing at the
altar of bureaucratic bullies. Remember, democratic governments are elected by
the people, to do the will of the people. Previous governments have legislated
the oppressive language laws. Too bad this current PQ government couldn’t
legislate common sense, or at least exercise it.

EDITORIAL

Paul McGee
01-08-25

MINORITY TYRANNY

It was hoped this space would not have to revisit the oppressive, neo-fascist
language laws and the SS in guise of mild-mannered bureaucrats, but the
squealers continue to interfere with the efforts our local business people make
to try to satisfy the needs of all the customers, not just a few. In his
masterpiece 19th century study "Democracy in America" French historian Alexis de
Tocqueville warned of how democracies can degenerate into a tyranny of the
majority. Well, I’m no de Tocqueville, but it appears in Quebec, and elsewhere
in Canada (Ottawa’s non-smoking bylaw comes to mind), our democracy is
degenerating into a tyranny of the minority. Take the language laws – please,
take them – in Quebec. Two lost referendums, a resurgence of the Liberal vote in
the last federal election, with more than half of Quebecers voting for the
federalist party, and we still have a handful of addle-brained squealers who
wrap themselves in the antique notion – despite what the final report of the
Estate General on the French Language says – that the French language is in
danger. And they pull that sickly rabbit from the hat and proclaim that the
French-speaking peoples in areas such as the Pontiac MRC are in danger of being
swept un by the tides of assimilation with the English, while, from the other
side of their mouths, they engineer a plan to assimilate – and that’s the word
they use – immigrants to Quebec into the French culture and language. Well, this
smoke and mirrors magic act fools no one. What we have here is a case of tyranny
of the minority. A couple of tattle-tales can round up a posse of language cops
who, God-fearing people they are, abide by the exact letter of the law, or their
interpretations of it. It doesn’t matter to these empty skulls that the majority
of people in Pontiac are English-speaking (about 60/40) that the vast majority
of French and English-speaking peoples in Pontiac get along quite well, thank
you, even marry, unions I’m sure our ethnocentric, language-obsessed pur laine
fanatics must shudder at. And, we’ll continue to get along, and play and work
and marry together, despite the poisonous, divisive efforts of a handful of
troublemakers. Vive le democratie!

(Le 18 août 2004)

Nous avons besoin de vous

Contribuez à Impératif français en faisant un don ou en devenant membre !