Various thoughts on the campaign
A UdeM political scientist writes in the Toronto Star about the possible strangeness of a minority government outcome in the Quebec election; some thoughts on Quebec’s demographic woes; one of many voices in praise of Françoise David since Sunday night’s debate, another and another – La Presse later notes the vague d’éloges; D’Arcy-McGee, the most Liberal riding in Quebec; Paul Wells on Monday evening’s Charest-Marois snarling match.
Jack 09:17 on 2012/08/21 Permalink
Ibbitsons article has some holes but after watching last nights debate it really struck me, nobody in the political class has the courage to tell french origin Quebecer’s that immigration and the people that come with it have value and enrich our society in so many different ways.That their children after 12 years of French language education will be francophones and an asset for Quebec linguistically moving forward. Instead it is almost like immigrants provide a target rich environment to create cohesion amongst people who will never even meet one. Charest on many occasions last night was set up by Marois to say just that, but he knew he couldn’t and that is tragic.
As Ibbitson says, “What is the solution that Quebec politicians propose? Deter, restrict and insult immigrants.”
david m 10:38 on 2012/08/21 Permalink
there’s a little video on the cyberpresse website catching us up on the ground campaign in gouin, where the pq’s girard seems to be losing ground to david. if nothing else, the new profile for qs and david coming out of the debate will probably push her into the assembly. aside from that, it seems like the party almost rebooted its image with her up there instead of amir, who (unfortunately) stands to many as an example of precisely the montreal values they do not wish to see in office.
mare 11:06 on 2012/08/21 Permalink
Even When the elections started the prognosis predicted David will win. Which is good but also too bad for Girard, who’s a really good MNA. If he were in another riding I’d vote for him. First past the post is a bad system.
Bill Binns 12:46 on 2012/08/21 Permalink
@David M – “amir, who (unfortunately) stands to many as an example of precisely the montreal values they do not wish to see in office.”
That’s an interesting way of putting it. He is an out-of-the-closet anti-semite who cares more about what’s happening 6000 miles away than he does about his own constituents.
This blog is the only place I have ever read a positive word about the man. No doubt he is quite popular in some circles though.
walkerp 13:15 on 2012/08/21 Permalink
Can I see some evidence of him being an avowed anti-semite? I know he’s a bit loopy on the Palestine-Israeli question, but how does that equat to anti-semitism?
Jack 13:48 on 2012/08/21 Permalink
@ Bill because someone is critical of Israel it doesn’t qualify them as anti-semitic.The utilization of this standard attack is becoming increasingly tiresome.
Bill Binns 14:17 on 2012/08/21 Permalink
Khadir’s boycott of the shoe store was widely described as being motivated by anti-semetism. I disagree that you can espouse hate for a nation but not it’s people. Urging people not to patronise a shop because it sells Jewish products is inches away from urging people not to shop at stores with Jewish proprietors.
Do you think the owner of that store felt like he had any representation in his government? Would you expect any amount of fairness or cooperation from an elected represenative who was actively engaged in trying to destroy your livelihood?
Anto 14:25 on 2012/08/21 Permalink
@Bill Binns: If this blog is the only place you heard something good about the man, you should definitely vary your news sources.
Daisy 14:25 on 2012/08/21 Permalink
The shoe store boycott was about the selling of Israeli-made products — not “Jewish” products. Not anti-semitic.
Were apartheid-era South Africa boycotts “espousing hate”?
Ian 14:28 on 2012/08/21 Permalink
Bill – While some of your other points hold water, you really can’t equate being boycotting Israeli-made products with being anti-semite. not all Jews are Israeli, for one. There are plenty of Montreal Jews that support Palestinian independence. Not all Jews are religious. Ever hear of Karl Marx or Leon Trotsky? Not all Israelis are Jewish, either. Believe me, I am one of the fastest draws in this city when it comes to firing off a charge of anti-semitism, but boycotting Israeli products over the Palestinian question is not “against” Israelis, it’s against the Israeli government’s foreign policy of illegal occupation of Palestinian territory.
walkerp 14:34 on 2012/08/21 Permalink
What Ian said.
Sheesh, Bill, I was honestly hoping for a real answer from you. Yes, that boycott was stupid, but it is not necessarily coming from a place of anti-semitism. There is, however, a great deal of anti-semitism still in Montreal and Quebec and I wouldn’t be totally surprised to hear it coming from a private conversation around Amir’s dinner table. I would hope to be wrong, though.
Bill Binns 15:42 on 2012/08/21 Permalink
I don’t remember seeing anything about the shoe store boycott in the news at the time that it happened. A jewish friend of mine told me the story sometime later when it became news that some polling service had declared Khadir “the most popular politician in Quebec”. The person who told me the story seemed to think this wild poplarity was a direct result of Khadir’s display of anti-semtism (generously described here and there as “Virulently Anti-Israel”). This person was worried that Khadir would eventually achieve higher office in Quebec. This is of course just one person’s opinion but I have seen more of the same online.
Here is an article in The Jewish Tribune expressing alarm at the thought of Khadir rising any higher. http://www.jewishtribune.ca/uncategorized/2011/02/02/amir-khadir-jewish-community-has-cause-for-concern
Here is an article that had this to say about the action against the shoe store ” it’s time that city’s entire community begins to understand that this particular store is being singled out for consistent harassment precisely because it is a Jewish (not an Israeli) business that is owned by Jews who happen to sell products made in Israel.”
http://www.themetropolitain.ca/articles/view/1079
Sure, his actions are “not necessarily coming from a place of anti-semitism”. We never know for sure what’s going on in someone’s head. We are not likely to get video of the guy painting swastika’s on the front door of synagogue any time soon but if you read enough of what’s out there about the guy, it’s hard not to get the impression that he isn’t a big “Fiddler on the Roof” fan. When you type “Amir Khadir” into Google – “Amir Khadir anti-semite” is 5th on the list. If he is not an anti-semite he has somehow managed to give a whole lot of people the idea that he is.
Again, I believe that “Virulently Anti-Israel” sentiment is just a way to “PC up” old fashioned anti-semitism.
Kate 16:21 on 2012/08/21 Permalink
Again, I believe that “Virulently Anti-Israel” sentiment is just a way to “PC up” old fashioned anti-semitism.
I don’t agree. I think it’s entirely possible to be critical of Israel as a country, and its policies and so forth, while not being antisemitic about individuals or their businesses or anything else. It’s a country like any other in the world.
Turn it the other way around. In order not to be considered antisemitic, does a person have to give an uncritical green light to anything Israel does? How would that make sense?
qatzelok 19:08 on 2012/08/21 Permalink
Accusing non-Israel/Goldman Sachs supporters of being Anti-Semitic only works because mass media has dumbed us all down so much.
Jean Naimard 21:44 on 2012/08/21 Permalink
Immigrants have been used against us by the english for so long as an assimilation/minorization tool that it’s perfectly normal that there would be some resentment against immigrants.
The best case are italian immigrants who became english wholesale; I would be very surprised if there was a people more culturally similar to the french than the italians, yet the english have managed the tour de force of making them our ennemies!!!
Jean Naimard 21:49 on 2012/08/21 Permalink
“Antisemite”: someone the zionists don’t like.
No, really, labelling as an “antisemite” anyone who criticizes jews is pretty much retarded, because it’s been done so much that the meaning of the word has been thoroughy diluted and nowadays, it only means “someone the jews don’t like”.
Just for levelling some well-deserved criticism at jews, I have been called an “antisemite” many times in my life, including on a whole editorial page in Zie Gazette, and it certainly have not affected my life nor my career.
Bill Binns 05:48 on 2012/08/22 Permalink
Yes of course you can disagree with Isreali politics and not be labled anti-semitic but there is some limit no? Maybe the shoe store incident, multiple crazy shoe throwing episodes or marching in a Hamas parade bring near that limit?
At some level anti-Isreal sentiment has to become anti-jew. Is advocating for the destruction of Isreal anti-semitic? Denying the holocaust? Conspiracy theories about Jews controlling all the worlds banks? You could make the argument that these are all just honest political opinions with no hate behind them.
I’m going to a large dinner party the weekend after next where I will be one of the few non-jews. I will ask around for opinions on Mr. Khadir.
Ian 07:36 on 2012/08/22 Permalink
I think one of the biggest splits in the Israel/Palestine question is not Jewishness, but left wing/ right wing. Traditionally, the right wing supports Israel and the left wing sympathizes with the Palestine. When we reduce the analysis of the situation between Israel and the Palestine to antisemitism it’s a very easy gloss to a much more complex question. It probably comes as no surprise that most of my friends are left-wing and some of the staunchest Palestine supporters I know are Jews, many of whom have spent considerable time in Israel. If you say that being Jewish means you have to support Israel, you may as well say that being of Irish descent you have to support the IRA.
I would also like to point out that while I personally oppose Israeli foreign policy, I continue to be appalled by jeannaimard and qatzelok’s quite open antisemitism… but then again I am an intellectually colonised anglo with the cultural mentality of a rhodesian, misled by the international zionist banking cabal. Or at least that’s what they keep telling me.
Kevin 08:37 on 2012/08/22 Permalink
@Jean Naimard
“The best case are italian immigrants who became english wholesale; I would be very surprised if there was a people more culturally similar to the french than the italians, yet the english have managed the tour de force of making them our ennemies!!!”
Thanks for my morning smile!
Francophones dissed the Italians all themselves. Talk to any Italian over 50 who went to Catholic school or lived in a predominantly francophone neighbourhood about the hatred they encountered every day — until they switched communities/schools and were welcomed by the Anglos.
And this, this in a Canada where some Italians were rounded up and put in internment camps!
jeather 09:24 on 2012/08/22 Permalink
It’s of course possible to be against some of Israel’s policies without being an anti-semite. I will argue that if you are against every single policy of theirs, or if you think that the country should not exist at all (this is, to be clear, quite distinct from thinking a two-state solution is the answer), then you are being an anti-semite.
The problem is that a lot of anti-Israel commentary is essentially a dogwhistle for anti-semitism — and indeed that a lot of people are oversensitive to it — but to pretend that there is no anti-semitism in any anti-Israeli groups is to be willfully blind at best.
(Also, the pro-Israel people used to be the left-wing, not too long ago.)
qatzelok 10:24 on 2012/08/22 Permalink
@ Ian: “I am an intellectually colonised anglo with the cultural mentality of a rhodesian, misled by the international zionist banking cabal. Or at least that’s what they keep telling me.”
The voices inside your head? If so, please listen to them.
Ian 10:29 on 2012/08/22 Permalink
He’s here all week, folks! Don’t forget to tip your waitress.
qatzelok 10:44 on 2012/08/22 Permalink
“I am not somebody’s pet dog. But don’t criticize my master or I’ll bite you.”
/media colonizes your brain
Ian 10:50 on 2012/08/22 Permalink
This openly racist conspiracy theorist thing of yours has got to be a gag. Or are you actually serious?
qatzelok 12:04 on 2012/08/22 Permalink
Ian, if you click on my blue-green username, you’ll be taken to my blog. And then you’ll have your answer.
Kevin 13:52 on 2012/08/22 Permalink
I’ve read your blog @qatzelok and I don’t know what to think.
a) your mother hated you and you’re not over it yet (which I hear a lot from Quebecois men of your generation if you’re in the age group I think you are)
b) it’s elaborate performance art much like Epic MealTime (and when they got Guy A Lepage to think they spoke no French, boy that was awesome)