Malouf Hecht Murphy Pour en finir Statist Islam: A continuing Grey torpedos federal prison smoking ban avec Falardeau challenge to the west Page 9 Page 3 Page 13

Ensemble et libres Together and free

5 NOVEMBRE 2009 • VOL. 3, NO 3 THE BILINGUAL JOURNAL OF REFLECTION, OPINION AND THE ARTS • LE JOURNAL BILINGUE DE RÉFLEXION, OPINIONS ET LES ARTS WWW.THEMETROPOLITAIN.CA Bernard Amyot

[email protected] Loi 104 : l’obscurantisme nationaliste i l’on se fie aux réactions empressées et émotives au SQuébec suite à la publication du jugement de la Cour suprême du Canada invalidant certaines disposi- tions de la Loi 104 en matière de droits linguistiques, on pourrait facile- ment se croire dans une société à la pensée unique où le nationalisme et la Loi 101 ont statut de religion dont l’infaillibilité ne peut être contestée que sous peine d’excommunication. Dire qu’on entend encore, dans Le Devoir par surcroît, la ligne de Duplessis, ce grand défenseur des droits et libertés, de la tour de Pise qui

PHOTO: TONY MANAROLIS COMMUNICATIONS TONY PHOTO: penche toujours du même bord… Désolant, surtout en 2009… Si l’on met de côté un instant ces We dodged a bullet! Too earnest écarts de langage relevant de la bêtise et cet unanimisme pour le moins Une lettre ouverte au Maire Tremblay An historical perspective on the election étouffant et conformiste, on se rend vite compte que le débat dérape sur state of disrepair. Well, the election won with 95.4 per cent of the des considérations politiques Beryl Wajsman of either Bergeron or Harel could popular vote. A majority of those exploitant l’insécurité linguistique Editor & Publisher Alan Hustak have led our city into the reverse. A who did vote on Sunday split their plutôt que de porter sur les enjeux [email protected] prospering St-Catherine street [email protected] ticket. The Mayor lost some of his réels, à savoir les droits linguistiques boarded up if either Harel or most experienced right hand men, protégés par la Charte canadienne des he composite picture above Bergeron had a chance to institute ollowing a bizarre campaign, notably his brother, Marcel droits et libertés et le rôle des illustrates the bullet we either of their ideas about closing the Gerald Tremblay won his Tremblay in Villeray-St. Michel- tribunaux de protéger les citoyens dodged. It's a play on Projet street to traffic from Papineau to third consecutive term Park Extension, Michael Prescott in T F Suite à la page 6 Montreal's placards showing a Atwater in Harel's case, and from Sunday, the first mayor to do so the Plateau Mont-Royal district as Polaroid snapshot of something Papineau to Guy in Bergeron's case. since Jean Drapeau in 1966. But the well as André Lavallée, in SEE PAGES 7 & 8 FOR MORE fixed over a picture. Of its current comparisons end there. Drapeau Continued on page 4 Continued on page 5 COVERAGE OF BILL 104 LA PERFIDIE! The UN and the Goldstone libel Par Beryl Wajsman Those words were not expressed yesterday. They were comme la Libye, Cuba et la Chine. Rédacteur en chef et éditeur spoken over thirty years ago by Daniel Patrick Moynihan This past Friday the Council endorsed a report that accused while serving as US Ambassador to the UN. They are as true Israel of war crimes in Gaza, passing a resolution that singled “Every day at the U.N., on every side, we are assailed today as they were then. it out for censure without referring to wrongdoing by because we are a democracy. In the U.N. today there are in C'est dans le contexte des « ennemis de la liberté » que Palestinian hard-liners Hamas. A coalition of Arab, Muslim the range of several dozen democracies left; totalitarian nous pouvons le mieux comprendre la perfidie des actions de and leftist-run Latin American countries in the 47-member regimes and assorted ancient and modern despotisms make l'ONU. Particulièrement, celles de son Conseil des droits de Council were responsible for its passage. No European up all the rest. Nothing so unites these nations as the convic- l'homme. S'il y jamais eu un libellé contradictoire, c'est bien democracies supported the draft, and the United States, the tion that their success ultimately depends on our failure. Most celui-là. Au cours des dernières années, le Conseil a été Ukraine and four EU members opposed it. The author of the of the new states have ended up as enemies of freedom." présidé et guidé par de tels champions des droits de l'homme Suite à la page 11

TRAVIS: Extending 101 is nonsensical Page 8 TARNOWSKA: New feature - Sophie’s Choices Page 17 2 MILLES MOTS • THOUSAND WORDS THE MÉTROPOLITAIN • 5 NOVEMBER 2009 • VOL. 3, NO 3

WWW.THEMETROPOLITAIN.CA

Ensemble et Libres ~Together and Free They handcuffed my son for reasons unknown Édifice Hermès, Tour A, Suite 155, 1470 rue Peel, Montréal, QC, Canada, H3A 1T1 By Jack Locke Tel: 514-759-8541 Fax: 514-759-8544 e-mail: [email protected]

Rédacteur en chef et Éditeur They handcuffed my son for reasons unknown Beryl P. Wajsman Managing Editor and Deputy Publisher Forced him down onto stone-cold ground Anthony Philbin Rédacteur-adjoint principal The boy's still a boy, but boy, has he grown. Daniel Laprès Creative Editor Alan Hustak Contributing Editor With cuffs cutting tight he let out a moan Brigitte B. Garceau Coordonnateur, Affaires internationales It's not very nice to be wrongfully bound Leonard Dykler (Paris) Copy Editor They handcuffed my son for reasons unknown. Ray Doucet Photojournaliste Robert J. Galbraith Editorial Artwork On Saturday night when crooks are prone Roy Piperberg, Melissa K. Wheeler Ventes et Marketing Young cop entered my home without a sound Joseph Mardini, Genevieve Maclean IT Director The boy's still a boy, but boy, has he grown. Valeri Prudnikov Webmestre François Charbonneau

Editorial staff No door knock, no ring, no courtesy shown Alidor Aucoin, Daniel K. Bartlett, Michel-Wilbrod Bujold, Chris Bumbray, Dan Delmar, Guillaume Durou, He trespassed my castle to my astound Vincent Geloso, Louise V. Labrecque, Pierre K. Malouf, Jessica Murphy, Isaac J. Olson, Robert Presser, Peter Sauvé, They handcuffed my son for reasons unknown. P.A. Sevigny, David Simard, Sharman Yarnell Editorial contributors Rouba Al-Fattal, Alain-Michel Ayache, Germain Belzile, Jean-Charles Chebat, Duff Conacher, Esther Delisle, Graham Dodds, Daniel Dufort, Robert Elman, Fred Eytan, When friends enter a domicile not their own Patrick C. Gagnon, Julius Grey, Rudyard Griffiths, Nancy Hinton, George Jonas, David T. Jones, Barbara Kay, Without consent, reputation is browned David Kilgour, Rémi Landry, Marc Lebuis, Lewis W. Mackenzie, Timothy Mak, Annette Paquot, John Parisella, Andrei Piontkovsky, Daniel Romano, Michael Ross, David Solway, The boy's still a boy, but boy, has he grown. Francis Tourigny, Thomas R. Velk, Hubert Villeneuve, Albert A. Zbily

Strategic Counsel There a duty to knock when guard of Queen's throne Charles S. Coffey For this, Montreal police are world-renowned Letters and Submissions The Métropolitain encourages letters and submissions They handcuffed my son for reasons unknown from our readers in both official languages. SVP envoyer vos textes à: The boy's still a boy, but boy, has he grown. [email protected] Disclaimer All materials accepted for publication may be subject to editing. The Métropolitain aims to meet the need for original and unconventional thought and opinion on Jack Locke is of the Foundation for Public Poetry local, national and international affairs. The opinions and views expressed by the contributors to The Métropolitain are strictly their own and do not necessarily represent those of the ownership, its advisors, members or editors. The Métropolitain does not accept responsibility for the views expressed in any letter, article or comment that appears in these pages. It does accept responsibility for giving the these submissions the chance to appear. No reproduc- Maison Joseph Battat tion is permitted without prior written permission from metrontario the Publisher or Deputy Publisher. Any and all group reproductions must clearly credit the specific issue, article and author as they originally appeared in The Métropolitain. THE MÉTROPOLITAIN • 5 NOVEMBRE 2009 • VOL. 3, NO 3 LA PATRIE 3

Ex-dramaturge, romancier persévérant, essayiste et poète à ses heures, Pierre K. Malouf Pierre K. Malouf fréquente des fédéralistes et des indépendantistes, des gens de gauche et des gens de droite, des LA PATRIE jeunes et des vieux, des écrivains et des ingénieurs. Gentil comme tout, il ne dit pas toujours tout « Brasse-camarade » [email protected] ce qu’il pense, mais pense toujours ce qu’il écrit.

Pour en finir avec Falardeau

ans mon dernier Brasse-camarade, Les rues de la honte, Il y a des conciliabules : Et puis un jour, le gueulard d’aréna casse sa pipe. La GAME se je lançais, au terme d’une démonstration qui montrait « Si y continue, dit l’un, moé j’change mon gars d’équipe. poursuit en son absence. Les Méchants sont toujours les Dl’absurdité du projet de changement de nom de la rue — Faudrait, y dire de s’calmer un peu, glisse un autre. Méchants, les Bons toujours les Bons, mais le niveau de décibels Amherst, un appel auquel manquait une phrase essentielle : « — À cause de lui on fait rire de nous aut’es. a baissé. Le sol de l’aréna est jonché de bouchons de cire, mais Mais je vous en conjure, débarrassez-nous d’abord du boulevard — Ouais, mais c’est une excellent partisan, susurre en latin M. personne n’ose dire ouf ! Avouer après sa mort qu’on en avait Maurice-Duplessis ! » Cet oubli est d’autant plus déplorable que Landry. Et un très bon garçon... Un jour il m’a dit qu’il éprouvait marre du gueulard, ce serait faire la preuve qu’on était trop lâche l’entête de l’article annonçait qu’il y serait question du CHEUF. à mon égard une grande affection. pour l’affronter de son vivant. Je reviendrai sur le sujet dans un prochain article ; aujourd’hui je — Y participe à toutes les activités, opine M. Duceppe. Y Le parallèle que je viens de dresser a des limites. Si je le rend veux régler le cas de Pierre Falardeau. organise des manifestations spaghetti, pis tout ça bénévolement ! public malgré ses lacunes, c’est qu’il m’a permis de comprendre Tout parent de joueur de hockey a croisé à l’aréna de ces — Coudon, demande quelqu’un, y porte quel numéro son pourquoi des indépendantistes apparemment sains d’esprit partisans déchaînés qui crient à l’injustice à la moindre occasion garçon ? enduraient Falardeau, pourquoi ils portent un cilice sous leur — punition donnée aux Bons du Québec, ou pas donnée aux — C’est le p’tit Bourgeois. camisole trifoliée pour avoir l’air d’être en deuil. C’est tout Méchants du Canada, pour laquelle jouent aussi quelques — Non c’est le p’tit Boulanger ! simple : ils avaient peur de lui ! Falardeau les intimidait. abominables traîtres nés dans nos vieilles paroisses — ; qui crient au complot médiatique pour un simple hors-jeu ; qui hurlent que l’arbitre a été acheté par un ANGLA, un ethnique ou un capitalisssse ; qui accusent feu le grand-père d’un joueur adverse Il appert que le gueulard en question est aussi un pas pire cinéaste et un auteur de sentir mauvais («Pourriture, Ryan ! ») ; qui abominent d’injures les partisans des Méchants («D’la maaaaarde, Cohen ! méritoire. Mais quand y met les pieds à l’aréna, y capote ! Dans cette ligue de Bloke de McGill, Tayloooor ! »), qui, grands experts de la GAME, gueulent des ordres aux joueurs de leur propre équipe province où deux équipes s’affrontent vingt-quatre heures par jour, il fait partie du (« Passe ! Shoote ! Patine ! Fais l’indépendance ! ») ; qui attendent le coach après une pratique pour lui passer un savon ; folklore, il est inamovible. Animateur de foule, il n’en anime qu’une moitié , l’autre qui se prennent aux cheveux avec d’autres partisans des Bons ou menacent de sévices corporels ceux des Méchants (surtout s’ils étant formée d’ennemis mortels ou de traîtres à la Nâtion. Très populaire auprès des s’avisent de mettre le pied sur les plaines d’Abraham)... Il appert que le gueulard en question est aussi un pas pire commentateurs de sport, il devient intarissable dès qu’un micro lui est tendu. Il cinéaste et un auteur méritoire. Mais quand y met les pieds à l’aréna, y capote ! Dans cette ligue de province où deux équipes déride les folliculaires avec ses jurons, il fait vendre de la copie avec ses insanités. s’affrontent vingt-quatre heures par jour, il fait partie du folklore, il est inamovible. Animateur de foule, il n’en anime qu’une moitié , l’autre étant formée d’ennemis mortels ou de traîtres à la Nâtion. Très populaire auprès des commentateurs de sport, il devient intarissable dès qu’un micro lui est tendu. Il déride les — Vous vous trompez, c’est le p’tit Rhéaume ! » Imaginez comme ils auraient été mal pris s’il les avait accusés de folliculaires avec ses jurons, il fait vendre de la copie avec ses Et tous de réaliser que le gueulard d’aréna est le père spirituel défaitisme ou de trahison... Ils n’ont pas osé le dénoncer quand il insanités. de tous les joueurs de l’équipe ; et tous de s’attendrir en se tonitruait à l’aréna, ils perdraient la face s’ils ne lui demeuraient Que disent les autres parents « pognés » avec un tel rappelant la cause de son indignation, de sa colère, de sa révolte : fidèles après sa sortie. énergumène ? en 1759, son équipe, LEUR équipe, qui s’appelait déjà les Bons, Ayons par conséquent quelque indulgence pour les larmes de De retour à la maison, Mme Marois dit à son mari : « As-tu vu s’est fait laver par ceux qui s’appelaient déjà les Méchants. crocodile de Mme Marois et de M. Landry, qui seraient bien l’fou à Falardeau à soir ? Y a encore grimpé d’in rideaux !...» Impossible de rabrouer un si fidèle patriote. plus à blâmer si leurs regrets étaient sincères.

...si le Gouvernement nous protège de tout, qui donc nous protège du gouvernement ?

Citoyens Anti Gouvernement Envahissant ...if the Government protects us from everything else, then who protects us from the government? CAG E Citizens Against Government Encroachment C-10 www.cagecanada.ca 4LA PATRIE THE MÉTROPOLITAIN • 5 NOVEMBER 2009 • VOL. 3, NO 3

WWW.THEMETROPOLITAIN.CA Beryl Wajsman Editor & Publisher [email protected]

WE DODGED A BULLET, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Montrealer's voted to give Mayor Tremblay a Montreal¹s greater good will be served by not third term. They voted their interests. They reigniting linguistic wars and scaring off rejected pie-in-the-sky. Now Mayor Tremblay businesses from coming here. Montreal¹s has to make sure he doesn't let the people greater good will be served by not making war down. This legacy term of the Mayor's must be on cars and by not destroying commercial proactive and not reactive. arteries in favour of pedestrian promenades or Nous avons choisi d'illustrer ce message avec bike paths. Montreal¹s greater good will be l'image ci-dessus. Il y a tellement de contenue served by an empathetic understanding of the dans un journal qui est parfois manqué. hopes and aspirations of all its citizens includ- McLuhan avait raison, le médium est le ing those who may not be Francophone du message. Nous avons voulu que notre message souche but are nevertheless Quebecois and soit fort, clair et sans équivoque. Les citizens of equal stature meriting equal respect. Montréalais devraient se rappeler de cette Montreal¹s greater good will be served by image. GALBRAITH J. ROBERT PHOTO recognizing that statocratic rule and regulation Just as our stories on some of Louise Harel’s Francophones have gone since 1976. This sont des citoyens sophistiqués qui se sont has gone too far and is criminalizing this city¹s questionable intimacies as Minister and cosmopolitanism see's itself as a fully enfran- avérés être le succès de votre campagne cette population and threatening its future. Richard Bergeron’s more far-fetched conspir- chised and a fully legitimate part of a city it année. Mais, ça ne s’arrête pas là. Ils ont voté Mr. Mayor, you won an historic third term acy notions began to filter through other helped build. pour vous M. le maire non seulement comme with the help of people who are loyal to the papers and media, so I want our message to Mr. Mayor, those who played such a large une alternative aux politiques séparatistes et principle set out above. They are not looking stay with all of you now. part in getting you re-elected ask not for the aux idées extraterrestres, mais comme une for more bureaucracy and more inquests. They The last poll before the election had the crumbs of political pandering, but for politics acceptation de vous en tant qu'un homme are looking to you for leadership. They are Mayor behind 34 percent to 30 percent. He of purpose that will enrich and empower. They intelligent, juste et intègre. Cela ne signifie pas looking to you to show them that you won 37-33. His vote margin of victory was reject the politics of division and discord based qu'ils oublieront la nécessité de réparer les understand that the buck stops with you. That it approximately 20,000. We have devoted the on the great lies of the culture wars of the past échecs du processus qui proviennent trop cannot be passed to a committee or commis- front page of this publication to the election in thirty souvent de l’hôtel de ville. sion. They are looking to you to surround every issue the past several months. We made a years that have been a hallmark of Louise They voted their interests, and their interests yourself – in the Mayor’s office – with a brain difference and so did every one of you who Harel’s public record. They seek to balance the reflect the greater good of the city at large. trust that will allow you to take decisive read them. necessity of environmental protection with the Montreal¹s greater good will be served by measures to make our public services The Montreal of cosmopolitan community urgency of economic growth without the communicating in English, the lingua franca, seamless; to get our unions to co-operate and crosses all ethnic and language wholesale, slavish eco-theocracy of Richard to the outside world. Montreal¹s greater good to generate a renewal of the downtown core. groups and all parts of this island. East, west Bergeron that replaces policy with platitude. will be served by an understanding of the need Nous croyons que vous avez les instincts et and downtown. This cosmopolitanism rejects And they say enough to control state rule and for development and encouraging solid les capacités nécessaires de faire ceci. Cette the politics of language and exclusion. regulation that make so much of our day-to- relationships in the North American and victoire devrait vous donner le courage d’aller Francophone, Anglophone and allophone, it is day activities subject to prohibition and penalty international business community. de l’avant. C'est votre mandat d’héritage M. le committed to make the broad community and is the silent undercurrent of both the Montreal¹s greater good will be served by maire. N'oubliez pas pourquoi vous l'avez work. It chooses not to flee down the 401 Vision and Projet platforms. not making this city a battleground for voulue et n'oubliez pas les gens qui vous ont where some even some 400,000 Quebec M. le maire, vous devez réaliser tout cela. Ce renewed separatist or cultural debates. aidé à l'obtenir. Elles ont de l’influence! THE VOLUNTEER The riveting story of a Canadian who served as a senior officer in Israel’s legendary Mossad. For seven-and-a-half years, Ross worked as an undercover agent — a classic spy. In The Volunteer, he describes his role in missions to foil attempts by Syria, Libya, and Iran to acquire advanced weapons technology. He tells of his part in the capture of three senior al Qaeda operatives who mas- terminded the 1998 attacks on American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania; a joint Mossad-FBI operation that uncovered a senior Hezbollah terrorist based in the United States; and a mission to South Africa in which he intercepted Iranian agents seeking to expand their country’s military arsenal; and two-and-a-half years as Mossad’s Counterterrorism Liaison Officer to the CIA and FBI. Many of the operations Ross describes have never before been revealed to the public. THE MÉTROPOLITAIN • 5 NOVEMBRE 2009 • VOL. 3, NO 3 LA PATRIE 5 WWW.THEMETROPOLITAIN.CA Alan Hustak [email protected]

TOO EARNEST, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

still seduced by Louise Harel’s siren night commentators is what is now patronage,” and that the aldermen song of separatism. Mme. Harel will at stake. had been “boodling and engaged in sit in council as a formidable Tarred by revelations of price abuses of all kinds.” The solution to opposition leader. An equally signif- fixing and corruption Tremblay’s the boodling was to increase the icant number of voters, especially in new administration will have to number of ward heeling alderman, the Plateau, were prepared to shake make good on its promise to thereby compounding the original things up by putting their trust in appoint an ethics commissioner. problem. Graft is not the immedi- Project Montreal’s surrealists who But patronage is endemic, and ate problem. The budget is. have some wild and wacky ideas won’t be easy to eliminate. It goes Montreal by law, is not allowed to about how to run a city. back more than a century to the run a deficit. The campaign was one of the most days when Raymond Préfontaine Tremblay will be hard pressed to competitive in recent municipal was mayor, to a time when 25 chart a course between the demands history, but at times it seemed more percent of the city budget went to of Quebec City and the 27 like a reality television show - a line the pockets of 23 of the city`s rambunctious rookies on council competition among three equally aldermen. A government inquiry calling for change. troubling or troubled candidates that back then determined the city had It will take more than platitudes to was reduced to irritating sound been “saturated with corruption, keep this administration on a true bites. Overlooked by most election arising mainly from the scourge of compass. PHOTO ROBERT J. GALBRAITH J. ROBERT PHOTO

Rosemont, and Diane Lemieux, the election was 1982, when Drapeau star candidate earmarked to run defeated Jean Doré. Like Drapeau in Tremblay’s executive committee, 1982, Tremblay returns to office who also went down to defeat in with his sails trimmed and an Ahunstic. impressive opposition breathing By staying away from the polls in down his neck. His Union Montreal large numbers again, electors party lost seats to both Louise demonstrated a troubling indiffer- Harel’s Vision Montreal and to ence to municipal politics. It is hard, Richard Bergeron’s quixotic Project it seems, to get Montrealers outraged Montreal. about anything these days. In this Though the Mayor has a very

Though the Mayor has a very workable majority, City Council has not been as fragmented since the three years Sarto Fournier was mayor in the late 1950s.

Mayor Tremblay’s patrimoine term, workable majority, City Council has he will give this city a lasting legacy not been as fragmented since the if he helps change that. three years Sarto Fournier was It is perhaps worth noting that the mayor in the late 1950s. last time voter turnout exceeded 50 Of those who did bother to cast per cent in a Montreal municipal ballots, a significant number were 6LA PATRIE THE MÉTROPOLITAIN • 5 NOVEMBER 2009 • VOL. 3, NO 3 Bernard Amyot WWW.THEMETROPOLITAIN.CA [email protected]

LOI 104 : L’OBSCURANTISME NATIONALISTE, SUITE DE LA PAGE 1 BILL 104 contre l’État lorsque leurs droits protégés sont remis en question. commune mesure avec la grosseur du trou, et ainsi créer des pierre d'achoppement du mouvement indépendantiste. Le En ces matières sensibles, inutile de dire que la démagogie injustices collatérales. La Cour a rappelé avec justesse l’impor- fédéralisme canadien est non seulement indispensable pour la n’est jamais de mise. Une question si délicate (la survie du tance de ne jamais perdre cela de vue lorsqu’on affecte les droits protection du français dans les provinces de common law, mais français) mérite un traitement beaucoup plus circonspect. Dans de tiers innocents. également au Québec. La situation objective actuelle démontre le contexte du débat sur ce qu’est devenu l’obsession linguis- Il y a lieu de s’interroger si les leaders indépendantistes disent que la langue pourrait bien être le fossoyeur du projet indépen- tique, il faut toujours se garder de jeter de l'huile sur le feu. vrai lorsqu’ils prétendent qu’une charte des droits et libertés dantiste qui n'a grandi qu'à l'aulne d’une crainte maintenant L'alarmisme en ces matières n'est jamais souhaitable. formerait l’un des piliers d’un Québec indépendant. En effet, les désuète de nous voir perdre notre langue. L'intégration des L’on devrait en effet se féliciter qu’un système impartial de mêmes considérations juridiques que celles analysées par la allophones vers l’école française a démontré un réel avancement justice appliquant la Constitution fasse primer les droits et Cour suprême dans la décision sur la décision sur la Loi 104 y pour le français. Cette action aura été porteuse, aucune autre libertés sur l’arbitraire de l’État, plutôt que de s’empresser à seraient toujours de mise. La protection de la minorité et coercition ne l'aura été. À lui seul, ce chapitre de la Loi 101 aura condamner le «pouvoir des juges» et remettre en question la l’indépendance des tribunaux se devraient d’en être les pierres en quelque sorte rendu leur projet obsolète avant même qu’il ne légitimité de la primauté du droit, pièce fondatrice de notre d’assises. Un Québec indépendant soucieux des droits et libertés se réalise. démocratie. Comment condamner une décision qui réitère que ne pourrait en arriver à une solution qui ferait fi des protections C'est dans le cadre fédéral canadien que l’épanouissement du les droits linguistiques des minorités francophones et constitutionnelles à l’égard de sa minorité linguistique. français comme langue commune au Québec s’est effectué anglophones du Canada, d’un bout à l’autre du pays, se doivent Si l’on se fie aux réactions épidermiques et ethniques des depuis plus de 30 ans. De même, le Canada défend plus d’être placés au-dessus des manœuvres politiciennes ? Bernard Landry, Joseph Facal et autres à la décision de la Cour vigoureusement la diversité culturelle par rapport à l'hégé- La Charte des droits et libertés a fait en sorte d’enchâsser dans suprême du Canada, on peut résolument conclure qu’au nom de monisme américain que ne le font les indépendantistes la Constitution canadienne les droits collectifs des minorités la nation, ceux-ci n’hésiteraient pas à s’autoriser à défier à la fois québécois. La vitalité des minorités francophones hors Québec linguistiques d’un bout à l’autre du pays. Le fédéralisme que l’autorité des tribunaux et les protections constitutionnelles en et de la minorité anglophone au Québec défie la logique même nous vivons au Canada permet de reconnaître et protéger les faveur des minorités linguistiques. Leur raisonnement est simple du mouvement indépendantiste. Le projet ethnique des national- droits des minorités, comme il a par ailleurs permis à la majorité : «Crois ou meurs». Critiquer la Loi 101 n’est tout simplement istes québécois nie cette réalité hors Québec, comme il nie au Québec d’affirmer sa spécificité. pas permis au Québec, car cela devient un débat d’allégeance à d’ailleurs l’existence d’une vibrante minorité anglophone au On peut certes tenter de régler une situation problématique, la pensée unique nationaliste, laquelle semble peu soucieuse de Québec. mais pas par une solution qui fera en sorte de brimer du même la diversité. Les francophones du Québec ont atteint un degré de confiance coup des droits protégés pour d’autres citoyens. On ne peut La question linguistique est au coeur du débat constitutionnel et de maturité linguistique qui ne devrait jamais ébranler leur boucher un trou en érigeant devant lui un mur d’une hauteur sans canadien, mais surtout elle est à la fois la pierre d'assise et la farouche attachement aux droits et libertés. THE MÉTROPOLITAIN • 5 NOVEMBRE 2009 • VOL. 3, NO 3 LA PATRIE 7

WWW.THEMETROPOLITAIN.CA Beryl Wajsman Editor & Publisher [email protected]

BILL 104 Freedom is indivisible: La tragédie de la décision 104 haque fois que l'indivisibil- their expansion. The latter is what of minorities and the language ité de la liberté est violée, the Charter attempted in guarantee- rights that adhere to them. In so Cnous sommes obligés ing minority-language education doing it not only failed in its duty to d’exprimer notre opposition. rights everywhere in Canada. That, uphold Charter protection for Particulièrement, quand cette the Supremes recognized. But then minorities, it also inherently violation se produit dans notre they left the door open for the narrowed the scope of opportunity cours. Et précisément quand ce que violation of those rights again. for Francophones. The Court did nous défendons est la souveraineté Nothing can make that not act justly. Twenty-five kids who du choix individuel. Parce que la conscionable. trusted in our justice system can liberté de choisir est au cœur d'une C’est à se demander si un attest to that. société libre. C'est la leçon individu aurait violé une certaine loi L’étendard d'une société juste ne objective dans la différence entre la criminelle ou civile, est-ce que la peut pas être porté légèrement, et liberté et la tyrannie. Cour confirmerait la loi mais son fardeau est tombé de plusieurs Last Thursday the Supreme Court donnerait à l'individu une année mains à travers l'histoire. Chaque of Canada not only compromised pour la contourner? Bien sûr que génération doit être vigilante qu’il that freedom – it compromised its non. Cette décision a été motivée ne tombe pas de ses mains. En own integrity. By ruling Quebec’s par la convenance politique. Elle a essayant d’introduire les notions Bill 104 unconstitutional on the cherché, en même temps, à d’être politiquement correct et de grounds that it breached minority confirmer le principe et à plaire au plaire à tous à nos lois, ou de juger language rights protected by Sec.23 pouvoir. Ce jeu d’équilibre n'a des lois à travers ces prismes, ce of the Canadian Charter of Rights jamais fonctionné dans l’histoire que nous faisons est de simplement and Freedoms, but then delaying the lamentable de ce monde. Ça Court can prejudice a right through decision signaled that Quebec encourager la perversion de nos executability of its own judgment rabaisse tout simplement le respect legal machinations, how much less cannot dismiss through legislation confiances les plus sacrées en for a year in order to give the du public pour la justice. legitimate is it for the MSQ to all private English-language apaisant chaque intérêt spécial, Quebec government time to find a It is interesting to note that so prejudice that right – as well as that education. The court insisted that régional et ethnique qui semble more palatable method of breaching many were shocked when the of free expression - through English-eligibility certificates be constituer une menace. those self-same rights, the Court Mouvement souverainiste du physical menace? It is only a handed out on the basis of a Les droits et les libertés sont politicized itself to the point of self- Québec (MSQ) called for a question of degree. It is the Court nuanced “global qualitative assess- indivisibles. Si nous voulons les abnegation. demonstration outside the offices of itself that has cheapened Canadian ment of a child’s educational apprécier nous devons être disposés A right is a right is a right. Neither lawyer Brent Tyler who won the 104 conscience and constitutional pathway.” The Court made clear à les prolonger à tous avec la plus the Charter, nor any document ever case. Among the reasons the MSQ consequence and left the door open that Quebec cannot discriminate in grande largesse possible. C'est penned, can create a right. All the gave for the demonstration was that for thugs. The Supremes have not limiting access to English l'espoir de cette nation. C'est ce que great documents of mankind Tyler should learn that “challenging learned that appeasement never education. Yet in giving Quebec a l’article 23 essaie de faire. C’est reflecting our transcendent Francophone rights has works. As Churchill said, “An year to find a non-discriminatory ironique alors que cette article était yearnings for redemptive change, consequences.” People were appeaser is someone who feeds the method of closing the springboard communément appelée la « clause either mirror the freedoms we are stunned at the implicit threat linked crocodiles hoping they’ll eat them into English education, it sustained Canada. » Car c'est lui que les inalienably born with or strive to to the word “rights.”. But why last. But eat them he will.” the general Quebec objective of magistrats suprêmes ont vraiment enshrine equitable arrangements for should they be. If the Supreme In the 104 reference the Court’s social and political marginalization abandonnés. Ce pays ! 8LA PATRIE THE MÉTROPOLITAIN • 5 NOVEMBER 2009 • VOL. 3, NO 3

WWW.THEMETROPOLITAIN.CA Dermod Travis is executive director of the Dermod Travis Canada-Tibet Committee and was a member of the [email protected] Larose Commission.

BILL 104

Extending 101 is nonsensical ilch. allophones had reached an overall majority of enrolment in the CEGEP to attend, some substantive, some trivial. The ultimate French system’s primary and secondary levels on the island of choice may not just be a question of language, but also proxim- Z Montreal. The Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste likened it to the ity, curricula and other considerations particular to each student “Alex that would be: ‘what is the impact of extending Bill 101 “Louisianisation” of Quebec. regardless of linguistic background. to the CEGEP level on the quality and promotion of the French Clearly the irony was lost on the SSJB that if you force Not every CEGEP offers the same programs, has the same language?’ Correct for $200.” allophones to go to French schools they would likely become reputation or is on a convenient bus route. And while bus routes Recently, former Quebec premier Bernard Landry and a the majority over time. The second was the case of a University may seem a trivial side coalition of French language groups held a news conference to of Sherbrooke student who had failed his university level issue, for some students who need to hold down a part-time call on the Parti Quebecois to adopt a policy to restrict French proficiency exam twice. job while studying, it can be a factor in their decision making enrolment at English language CEGEPs. Naturally, the allophone story generated alarm, but the case of process. In 2000, the Larose Commission on the State and Future of the university student passed by without a peep from those very And let’s not forget that this proposal would also apply to the French language, of which I was a member, reviewed the same activists when he is the real McCoy. francophone students who likely will be less than amused at idea of extending Bill 101 limits on English eligibility to the If francophones attending a francophone university are repeat- having their rights stripped from them in a misguided attempt to CEGEP level. The arguments and statistics then were much the same as they are today. Unanimously, we did not carry the idea forward. In a more vernacular phrase, we buried it. Emotional pleas may make great headlines and cultivate If francophones attending a francophone university are repeatedly linguistic insecurities, but they do not make good public policy. For a few of the activists who support the idea of extending failing their French proficiency exams, something is seriously adrift Bill 101, this was and is a measure to promote the French language, for others a means to promote sovereignty. The latter is nonsensical and the former misses the mark. in Quebec schools long before a student ever reaches CEGEP. While the proposal – if ever adopted – may satisfy a few into a false sense of security over the French language, it fails to edly failing their French proficiency exams, something is restrict the rights of allophones. address a far greater menace to the use of French at home and in seriously adrift in Quebec schools long before a student ever After all the headlines, volleys and counter volleys that this the workplace. And that menace is not the English-speaking reaches CEGEP. proposal will undoubtedly generate, the fact remains that if community or the English language, but rather the quality of And at a time when we need to be focused on providing the you’re old enough to join the Canadian Armed Forces, you’re French that is taught in Quebec schools regardless of whether best education possible to our students, not just in math or probably old enough to choose your CEGEP without help from those schools teach in French or English. Over the summer two science but French as well, a few wave a red herring at the Uncle Bernard. language issues arose that were telling not so much for their media instead. Because at the end of the day proposing to If these activists truly want to ensure the vitality of French in respective substance, but for the reaction they generated among extend Bill 101 to the CEGEP level may ensure a well attended Quebec they need to get back to the basics, to be creative in many of these same language activists. news conference, but after all is said and done it is a red herring. their policy initiatives and leave bad ideas once buried in the The first was in regards to the fact that the percentage of Many factors weigh in on a young adult’s choice of which graveyard of ill-conceived ideas good and buried. THE MÉTROPOLITAIN • 5 NOVEMBRE 2009 • VOL. 3, NO 3 LA PATRIE 9 WWW.THEMETROPOLITAIN.CA Jessica Murphy [email protected]

Federal Court throws out prison smoking ban ardened criminals enfeebled by severe prohibits smoking in or directly outside nicotine fits have won their court federal buildings - but not on the grounds as in Hbattle against a sweeping prohibition the case of the prison ban. on smoking in federal penitentiaries. He also noted the ban did nothing to reduce On Oct. 23, Federal Court Judge Luc or prevent exposure to second-hand smoke. Martineau overturned the total ban enacted by "The new guideline simply goes too far," the Corrections Canada in May, 2008. judge wrote in his judgement. Last year, 19 Quebec inmates - including "The ban on outdoor smoking has no Gerald Matticks, a notorious mobster jailed on rational link with the rights of non-smokers drug charges - challenged the ban on smoking who don't want to be exposed to second-hand outside and inside prisons, hiring prominent smoke." constitutional lawyer Julius Grey to plead their Grey says the ruling also underscores case. prisoners' rights. Grey argued the ban violated inmates' "You lose your freedom, it's true. But you charter rights and was discriminatory because don't lose your other rights," he said. guards could still smoke outside. The ruling will apply to all federal prisons. "There's a certain degree of cruelty in this Nearly 75 per cent of the prison population whole thing," he noted. are regular smokers and over 20 per cent have "This shows a bureaucrat - no matter how admitted to smoking over 30 cigarettes a day, highly placed - can't decide how people live." according to a 2006 report by Corrections Down the road, the ruling may also open up Canada. tobacco bans in chronic care facilities, psychi- The federal government has 45 days to atric facilities and old-age homes, notes Grey. Down the road, the ruling may also open up decide whether to appeal or change the In fact, anywhere where freedom of legislation - and how they will change the movement is limited. legislation if they decide to do so. "It certainly seems to me if someone's 95 tobacco bans in chronic care facilities, psychia- Only then will Grey know whether the battle and he wants to smoke he should be allowed," is over. Grey said. tric facilities and old-age homes, notes Grey. Quebec has backed off a complete ban in its The smoking ban in penitentiaries came into provincial prisons and allows smoking affect in January 2006 and was later tightened, outdoors but rulings vary from province to preventing inmates from smoking outdoors. In fact, anywhere where freedom of movement is province. In his ruling, Judge Martineau noted that However, Aboriginal inmates and other smoking is legal and that the ban had no basis offenders whose religious and spiritual under the current legislation. limited. practices could be affected are exempt from Canada's Non-Smokers' Health Act the total ban. 10 LA PATRIE THE MÉTROPOLITAIN • 5 NOVEMBER 2009 • VOL. 3, NO 3

WWW.THEMETROPOLITAIN.CA Mischa Popoff is a freelance Mischa Popoff political writer with a [email protected] bachelor’s degree in history.

Environmentalists still trying to kill the internal combustion engine

emember when global-warming activists screamed for one who practises the fine art of granny-driving) who claims to the electric car? They weren’t bothered that it could only get 50 or 60 mpg. Many diesel cars do that well, but evidence Rgo 100 miles, or that it could only carry kids and golf shows that such mileage is actually a pipe dream for a hybrid. clubs, or kids and groceries, but never all three. This new breed Don’t take my word for it, or even Newton’s… of green believers was willing to lead the way by vastly Phil Edmundson, former New Democratic MP and author of inconveniencing themselves in the hope the rest of us, the Lemonade Car Guide, says categorically, “We don’t overwrought with guilt, would follow suit. recommend electric and gasoline engine hybrids because their According to the 2006 documentary Who killed the electric fuel economy can be 40 percent worse than the automakers car? blame for the demise of woefully inadequate electric report.” That should rock anyone’s faith, unless of course vehicles rests at the feet of nasty automobile companies and evil Edmundson turns out to be in the pocket of Big Auto or Big Oil. oil companies. You’re supposed to believe that a dirty, ineffi- Think that’s likely? cient technology is being artificially propped up while a clean Clearly it’s not the cleanliness or efficiency of hybrids and and perfectly viable technology is being suppressed, all in the electric cars that propels their sales. It’s an avowed hatred name of greed. fostered by some for the oil industry, and nothing more. Appreciating that people need to go further than 100 miles Never mind that all the CO2 stored in fossil fuels once floated between charges, some manufacturers took a giant leap harmlessly in the earth’s atmosphere. Never mind that the backwards and combined a small internal combustion engine oceans absorb 98 percent of CO2 emissions and that burning all with a generator and an electric motor. Nothing new there, but Switching our fossil-fuel based known oil reserves tomorrow would barely elevate atmospheric the marketing department dubbed it “hybrid electric technol- CO2 levels over time. Never mind that manufacturing batteries ogy,” which is like calling yourself a “hybrid vegetarian” economy to a sometimes-electric for cars is detrimental to the environment and that disposing of because you sometimes eat vegetables. them will prove even dirtier than the dreaded ship wrecking A new “hybrid faith” was born. Emboldened by government economy will not save any energy. business. purchases of huge fleets of hybrids the environmentalists No, never mind all that. You’re supposed to invest in this started to attack the naysayers. But whatever the guilt trip, this inefficient technology in spite of Edmundson’s warnings that revolutionary crowd has never found time to contend with None. It will only change the source “long-term reliability is unknown, battery replacement cost is actual science. They haven’t because they can’t. estimated to run as high as $8,000 (U.S.), [and] expensive The amount of energy required to move a given weight over a of energy. electric motors are predicted to have a high failure rate from given distance at a given rate of acceleration is immutable. The corrosion.” eternal hope that there will someday be advances in battery Go on, the self-righteous environmentalist says, Take a technology won’t change the laws of physics as described by electric economy will not save any energy. None. It will only financial hit and do your part to put a nail in the coffin of the Isaac Newton in his 1687 work Principia Mathematica. In fact, change the source of energy. internal combustion engine! In the public relations campaign to this should be recommended reading for any hybrid owners For the faithful, 35 or 40 mpg in a hybrid seems reason advance a “green” agenda, it hardly seems to matter to politi- who wonder why they get such abysmal mileage. enough to brag, in spite of the fact that many gasoline vehicles cians that doing so could lead to the crime of the century against Switching our fossil-fuel based economy to a sometimes- do just as well. Then there’s the diehard hybrid owner (perhaps civilization and nature. THE MÉTROPOLITAIN • 5 NOVEMBRE 2009 • VOL. 3, NO 3 GLOBAL VILLAGE 11 WWW.THEMETROPOLITAIN.CA GLOBAL VILLAGE Beryl Wajsman Editor & Publisher [email protected]

LA PERFIDIE! THE UN AND THE GOLDSTONE LIBEL, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

report, South African lawyer Richard if true-and one hopes that this is not the case-at Goldstone, criticized the Council's resolution what price? Association with the infamous as being one-sided. "This draft resolution U.N. garners no respect so why would anyone saddens me as it includes only allegations seek to be head inmate at the U.N. Asylum?” against Israel," he told the Swiss newspaper Le So egregious has been the Goldstone Temps. "There is not a single phrase condemn- process, that it may have actually achieved a ing Hamas as we have done in the report. I new low in the decades long assault by the hope that the Council can modify the text." United Nationsl against Israel, the frontline Pauvre Richard. Il est attristé. Pauvre lui. nation in the family of the free defying the C’est à se demander si quelqu’un qui vit dans onslaught of Islamism. One can understand ce monde dangereux a un droit à une telle why the Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for naïveté dangereuse. C’était intrinsèque dans le Combating Anti-Semitism (ICCA), co- processus de sa propre commission que les founded by Mount-Royal MP Irwin Cotler résultats seraient prédéterminés. Son rapport and British MP John Mann, expressed “shock de 574 pages, qui se concentre est en grande at the absence of any mention in the partie sur l'Israël, suggère dans ses conclusions Goldstone Report of the anti Jewish incite- que l'Israël et le Hamas enquêtent sur les ment in the Hamas Charter which the London allégations de crimes de guerre contre leurs Declaration obliges Parliamentarians to côtés respectifs. Même ce petit signe d’équité expose and unmask. The Founding fut rejeté par le plein Conseil dans son vote de Conference of ICCA adopted the London vendredi. Declaration to Combat Anti-Semitism which And what did Goldstone think when he in Section 6 resolves that ‘never again will the undertook his mandate, that the Council would institutions of the international community suddenly change its anti-Israel bias? The Richard Goldstone est devant l'histoire. Il a reconnu que son mandat était and the dialogue of nation states be abused to Human Rights Council, which replaced the try to establish any legitimacy for anti- discredited Human Rights Commission several « une résolution biaisée et inégale du Conseil des droits de l'homme de Semitism, including the singling out of Israel years ago, is still dominated by dictatorships l'ONU » mais avait cru qu'il avait reçu un mandat renforcé et équitable du for discriminatory treatment in the interna- and theocratic tyrannies. It is obsessed with tional arena.’ The consideration of the denouncing democratic Israel. It has targeted président du Conseil. Goldstone Report under a Special Agenda some 80% of its resolutions at one member Item of the UN Human Rights Council state, Israel, while the major human rights only two pages on the thousands of Israeli (IDF) were misplaced. "The IDF faces a singling out Israeli human rights violations – violators enjoy, what Irwin Cotler has called, “ victims of years of Hamas bombings. challenge that we British do not have to face to and now holding a ‘Special Session’ on such exculpatory immunity.” The Council has had The Goldstone Commission’s perfidious the same extent. It is the automatic, Pavlovian violations – constitutes a flagrant double more emergency “Special Sessions” directed libel against Israel went even deeper in its presumption by many in the international abuse of UN institutions. “ against Israel than against all the other central foundational principle. It colored with media, and international human rights groups, Les questions soulevées par la Coalition countries of the world combined. The Council moral relativism and no distinction Israel’s that the IDF are in the wrong." He argued inter-parlementaire de lutte contre hearing last week was the sixth “Special thousands of cell phone calls warning Gaza Israeli forces took "extraordinary measures" to l’antisémitisme (ICCA) sont préoccupantes et Session” on Israel in the last three years alone. civilians; Israel’s thousands of texts warning give civilians in Gaza notice of targeted areas, sombres. Quelle est le rôle exact que joue And the Council excludes only one country – civilians; Israel’s hundreds of thousands of including dropping two million leaflets and l’antisémitisme à l'ONU est un sujet pour un Israel – from membership in any regional leaflets in Arabic dropped warning civilians; making 100,000 phone calls. "Despite all of autre article. Mais un parallèle peut être établi. grouping, thereby denying it international due Israel’s medical facilities set up on the edge of this, of course innocent civilians were killed. L'antisémitisme nie l'égalité des droits à process. Gaza to treat civilians.; Israel’s delivery of food War is chaos and full of mistakes. There have l'expression individuelle juive dans une But Richard Goldstone himself must also to feed civilians with Hamas hiding in civilian been mistakes by the British, American and société particulière. L'antisionisme nie l'égal- shoulder much of the blame for the predictably areas; firing from the cover of Gazan civilians other forces in Afghanistan and in Iraq, many ité des droits à l'expression collective juive au biased outcome. The Commission was replete against Israeli civilians in Sderot and of which can be put down to human error. But sein de la grande communauté des nations. Le with anti-Israel prejudice . First, it’s very terms Ashkelon; Hamas use of ambulances for mistakes are not war crimes," Col. Kemp said. premier nie aux juifs la particularité légitime, of reference drew an equivalence between the military purposes; Hamas’ use of mosques as No indictment could be as searing as the le second nie aux juifs la souveraineté actions of Israel in self-defence and those of armament depots and rocket launching pads; words written to Goldstone by his old friend légitime. Les deux sont des manifestations Hamas in blatant aggression seeking to destroy Hamas shootings of the legs of Gazan civilians from South Africa Brenda Press Fix. She wrote d'exclusivité et d'intolérance. Elles représen- it. Goldstone had the temerity to call the refusing to help or aid in the targeting of Israel. to him in a letter that, “I am bewildered by the tent le message et la métaphore du mépris. Le 12,000 Hamas rocket attacks “reprisals”. Richard Goldstone est devant l'histoire. Il a direction you have taken as part of the United langage figuré en est un de haine. Second, the Commission was imbalanced reconnu que son mandat était « une résolution Nations Human Rights Council. This rogue Tristement aujourd'hui, le profil de focusing as it did on Israel’s faults with no biaisée et inégale du Conseil des droits de Council has been tainted by a membership that Moynihan de l'ONU tient encore. Les consideration for its right under international l'homme de l'ONU » mais avait cru qu'il avait does not condemn Iranian tyranny, Chinese tyrannies continuent à monopoliser l'ordre du customary and statutory law to self-defense reçu un mandat renforcé et équitable du oppression, African despotism but spends their jour de l'ONU avec des saccages et des and self-help. Third, the Commission failed to président du Conseil. Il a reconnu que le time condemning one country unjustly, Israel. harangues anti-occidentales; pas parce que consider the intolerant and psychotic pan- mandat n'a pas été soutenu par les principaux The Goldstone Commission bears your name. l'Occident agit incorrectement, mais plutôt Islamic ideology that drives Hamas and chose membres démocratiques du Conseil de droits One would expect the mandate of any report to parce qu'il agit correctement. Vivre en liberté. to treat it like any other state party. In so doing de l'homme - l'Union européenne, le Japon, le be objective so that your name could be Ces tyrans théocratiques et ces petits despotes it legitimated, by inference, Hamas practices Canada, et la Suisse. Il a reconnu que les respected and a legacy ensured. Instead your ne peuvent pas concurrencer sur le champ de including the use of civilians as human shields. résultats de la Commission « ne tiendraient pas committee ignored the facts, embraced bias bataille de la liberté. Ils n’osent pas exposer Fourth, Goldstone failed to act against London la route dans une cour. » Pourtant, il a continué and rendered the report bearing your name, leurs peuples à la brillante lumière de la School of Economics professor Christine avec ce travail malfaisant. illegitimate.” This report did not arise from liberté. Et aujourd'hui, comme il y a Chinkin’s presence on the Commission after The Council was not moved by truth or ignorance or naiveté. I am trying so hard to longtemps, leur succès dépend ultimement sur she declared Israel guilty of “aggression” and objective witness. Col. Richard Kemp, a resist the conclusion that your role and report l’écrasement de l’Occident; parce que c’est “war crimes” in an interview with a London former commander of British forces in might represent a self-serving desire to ingrati- seulement comme ça qu’ils peuvent ainsi newspaper. Her statement was made prior to Afghanistan, told the council that war crimes ate yourself for a more senior position in the continuer à piller, moralement et matérielle- seeing any evidence. Finally, the Report spent accusations against the Israeli Defence Forces kangaroo court called the United Nations. But ment, leurs peuples emprisonnés. 12 GLOBAL VILLAGE THE MÉTROPOLITAIN • 5 NOVEMBER 2009 • VOL. 3, NO 3 David T. Jones WWW.THEMETROPOLITAIN.CA David Jones, co-author of Uneasy Neighbo(u)rs: Canada, the USA and the Dynamics of State, Industry and Culture, is a former U.S. diplomat who served in Ottawa. He now lives in Arlington, Virginia."

Election Day USA: Virginia and New Jersey

n Tuesday, November 3, as a absentee ballot for 45 years in my every state-wide office by wide resident of Arlington home town, Scranton, Pennsylvania. On Wednesday morning, the spinmeisters were margins. The White House, sensing OVirginia, I voted. As I did But now I was exercising my weeks ago that Virginia was a lost so, I recalled that Canadian friends franchise where I live; it was a gyrating at top RPM. On the right, it was the cause, had sawed its candidate off at had voted earlier in the week in privilege to do so freely and one the knees, huffily stating that he had Montreal for mayor and council about which I am not blasé. end of the “age of Obama” while from the not followed their campaign advice members. On my ballot were As a result, I had the 21st century so that was why he was behind. Talk candidates for governor, lieutenant experience of voting booth “touch president’s flaks, it wasn’t even a light cold, let about a kiss off. governor, attorney general, and a screens,“ which were sophisticated More important for President variety of state and county officials, and effective. Politely, my screen alone pneumonia. Obama was New Jersey—a e.g., school board. For a variety of reminded me that I had not voted for traditional Democrat stronghold personal and institutional reasons, one position that had not registered But I did more than vote. Indeed, I approaching the voting site. Doing where no Republican had won this was the first time I’d ever voted my all-too-soft touch on the touch handed out campaign literature for so was interesting in its own right, as statewide office in a decade—with in Arlington, having participated by screen. the Republican Party to those northern Virginia generally and an incumbent Democrat governor, a Arlington in particular are very billionaire willing to spend any strongly Democrat. For many years, amount of money to hold his seat. campaigning as a Republican in Consequently, although Obama “did Arlington was as feckless as the necessary” to support the campaigning as a Pequiste in Democrat candidate in Virginia, he Westmount. Reinforcing this reality concentrated his efforts in New was the 2008 presidential election Jersey—where a year ago he had during which Senator Obama carried beaten Senator McCain by 16 Virginia for Democrats for the first percentage points. But New Jersey’s time since Lyndon Johnson won in electorate, disgusted by corruption 1964. that had moved past the Soprano TV But that was then and now is a year stage and irritated by the governor’s later. It was a perfect autumn day— failures to fulfill promises, e.g., sunny and crisp, but voters were far reduce taxes, ousted the incumbent. below 2008 peaks; Democrats were On Wednesday morning, the staying home, and if Democrats spinmeisters were gyrating at top don’t vote in Northern Virginia, the RPM. On the right, it was the end of party loses since “down state” is the “age of Obama” while from the heavily Republican. president’s flaks, it wasn’t even a Moreover, there were those “straws light cold, let alone pneumonia. In in the wind” so beloved by observers reality, there are a few observations: to reinforce pollster predictions. Not — off year elections are histori- only were there Republican cally bad for the president’s party. campaign workers, but voters were They are dominated by local issues taking sample ballots. In contrast, and “send a message” acolytes. there were years, one Republican These local circumstances often campaign worker recounted, that the translate into embarrassing defeats only way you were able to tell for for national leaders, particularly if whom to vote was to get the they feel compelled to invest person- Democrat sample ballot—and vote ally in a local campaign. against their selections. — incumbency is deadly for Moreover, few voters indicated any personalities and parties. In both substantive anxiety. One suggested Virginia and New Jersey, Democrats he was voting Republican, because had held the governorship for eight “socialism” from the Democrats had years. To govern is to choose, and in forced such choice. But otherwise bad times, the incumbents get the the most vocal concern was over the blame. Why re-elect someone who repeated/endless “robo calls” on obviously doesn’t have the answers telephones from both Republicans when there is an alternative that and Democrats. Serious issues such might have them? as funding to improve the public — Obama’s personal popularity transportation net, privatizing state remains strong, but he isn’t strong liquor stores, and state-level enough to lift misguided wagons out response to the Great Recession of ditches. The “message” from went unremarked. November 3 is more for the ears of In the end, Virginia “came home” the federal congressional 2010 to the Republicans. They beat the elections than for the presidential Democrats like a drum, sweeping election in 2012. THE MÉTROPOLITAIN • 5 NOVEMBRE 2009 • VOL. 3, NO 3 GLOBAL VILLAGE 13

WWW.THEMETROPOLITAIN.CA Thomas O. Hecht is a leading Canadian Thomas O. Hecht businessman, activist, philanthropist and founder of The Begin-Sadat Centre. [email protected]

Part 1 of 2: Statist Islam: A continuing challenge to civilization It would have been unlike Prof. Samuel indeed not his fault that we did not heed his Islamic faith began almost immediately after its sequence of ideological deformations that have Huntington of Harvard University to say "I told darker vision of the world which confronts us advent with the triumphant emergence of the taken place in his lifetime, the first two being you so" after 9/11. He is too austere and serious a today. new religion from its Arabian homeland and its Bolshevism and Nazism. Prof. Lewis suggests thinker, with a legendary career as arguably the Permit me to review the historical onslaught of spread Eastward to the borders of India and that one way to deal with Islamism is to most influential and original political scientist of Islam, from its foundation in the 7th century and China, and Westward across North Africa and mobilize Muslims themselves – or is this the last half of the 20th century – as always, its attempts to dominate the world. the Mediterranean Islands into Europe. wishful thinking when our own hesitation is swimming against the current of prevailing Islam is a monotheist religion originating in The subsequent Islamic penetrations of clearly interpreted as our weakness. opinion. the teachings of the Islamic prophet Mohammed, Western Europe ended with the Christian His writings in the 1990s entitled "The Clash a 7th century Arab religious and political figure. reconquest of Granada and the expulsion of Today’s political realities of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World The word "Islam" means submission, or the total Mohammedism from the Iberian Peninsula in Now, let's address today's political realities in Order" presented a thesis that ran totally counter surrender of oneself to G d/Allah. Muslims 1492. This struggle had lasted eight centuries. the light of what has historically impacted the to the zeitgeist of the euphoria about globaliza- believe that G d revealed the Quran to Islam also islamized parts of Russia during the course of time. Let me quote the so-called tion and a borderless world after the end of the Mohammed, G d's final prophet, and regard the various Czarist wars against Islamist Ottoman current convential wisdom, which is reinforced cold war. Quran as the fundamental source of Islam. Turks, wherein an ongoing struggle between a by the outpouring in the media by so-called He stated unequivocally that after the end of Muslims regard Mohammed as the restorer of Christian power and Islam existed. It should be reasonable "experts", that Islam is actually just the cold war there would be a clash of civiliza- the original monotheist faith of Abraham, Moses emphasized that there is still an ongoing conflict another religion of peace, and that the vast tions. He inferred that soil, ethno-cultural and Jesus. Islamic tradition holds that Jews and between Russia and its Chechen Islamic majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. devotion and religion-based energy would claim Christians distorted the revelations G d gave to province which continues unresolved to this day. This all may be true, but in light of the and define the world in conflict. those prophets by either altering the texts, Muslim advances into Europe created Muslim Muslim terrorist acts that we regularly witness Prof. Huntington also drew a map of the world introducing a false interpretation, or both. occupations of the Balkans and South Central – from Bali to New York, in the Northern which can be described as "The West and The Here are certain thoughts presented by the Europe including Budapest for close to 200 Chinese provinces, from Mumbai to Madrid – Rest". He recognized other less challenging great Middle Eastern scholar, Prof. Bernard years. At a later date, the Ottoman Turks were the reference to the religion of peace becomes civilizations – Hindu, African, Buddhist and Lewis, that should help us shed light on the defeated at the gates of Vienna on two occasions, questionable. It clouds the issue and may make others – but to him in the post cold war world, conflict which we witness in the Middle East the last defeat being final in 1683, when us feel optimistic while somehow diminishing only the Islamic civilization would re-emerge as today but which really had its antecedents with Emperor Leopold I of Austria imported a French the specter of the fanatics who rampage the the nemesis to the West. He demonstrated that the birth of Islam in the 7th century of the general by the name of Prince Eugene of Savoy globe in the name of Islam. "Each has been the other's Other" from the time Common Era. who defeated with finality the Muslim Turks led The fact is that, today, it is fanatics who rule of the first Muslim invasion of Europe in the Prof. Lewis states that Islam is a religiously by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. Islam at this moment in history. Their impact eight century of the Common Era, followed by defined civilization, comparable with At the height of its power, the Ottoman Empire on everyday people manifested itself openly repeated attempts to conquer the Christian lands Christendom. They both proselytize and the two spanned three continents, controlled much of with the celebrations, in July 2008, surround- in both West and Central Europe, and in the East have challenged each other for centuries. Both South Eastern Europe, the Middle East and ing the release from an Israeli jail of the child with campaigns against Christian Czarist Russia. Islam and Christendom share the same roots in North Africa. It stretched from the Straights of murderer Kuntar. He gained immediate Not to be outdone, Christian powers mounted the Judaic and Hellenistic traditions. They Gibraltar, including the Atlantic Coast of national hero status in the Muslim world, vast plundering crusades in their attempts to re- contain components of Hellenistic philosophy Morocco in the West to the Caspian Sea and the echoed equally in utterances by the allegedly conquer their Holy sites in the East, while dealing with justice and morality as well as Persian Gulf in the East, and from the edge of peace-loving Abu Mazen, the president of the entertaining themselves on off days with plunder science. But in Islam and Christianity, the firm Austria, including Hungary and parts of the Palestinian Authority, an alleged peacemaker and pogroms in the Jewish parts of European belief exists and is maintained by followers of Ukraine in the North, to Sudan and as far as in the eyes of the West – the former Number 2 cities which they crossed on the road to both religions, that they are the exclusive posses- Yemen in the South. to Arafat for decades - and the author of a PhD Jerusalem. sors of G d's final truth which it is their It came to an end progressively through a thesis on Holocaust denial at Moscow To Huntington, "The 20th century conflict obligation to bring to all humanity. series of wars against various University. The release of the convicted Libyan between liberal democracy and Marxist Notwithstanding, Christianity found European/Christian powers, and the Ottoman terrorist from a Scottish jail for compassionate Leninism was only a fleeting and superficial accommodation as early as in the writings of St. Empire dissolved into modern-day Turkey as its reasons in August 2009, and his jubilant historical phenomenon compared to the continu- Augustine who recognized the concept of a state remnant after World War I. welcome in Libya, is a further manifestation of ing and deeply conflictual relations between existing parallel to religion. He referred to this Therefore, repeated conquests stretching over the climate of fanaticism which prevails in Islam and Christianity". quote attributed to Jesus: "Render unto Caesar a millennium are the antecedents to the rebirth of Islamic societies. Huntington expresses – says Professor Fouad what is Caesar's and unto G d what is G d's", the compelling struggle on the part of Islam to Let us bear in mind that it is fanatics from the Adjami, the renowned Islamic Scholar at Johns establishing the philosophical concept of a control parts of the world, with Jihad, or its Muslim world who daily slaughter children Hopkins University – an anxiety about the will duality in society referred to today as Church and modern manifestation – international terrorism and non-Arab Muslim tribal groups in Darfur, and the coherence of the West. The West neither State. – as its tool to achieve a Muslim world and and are progressively taking over segments of monitors nor defends the ramparts of its free Islam, on the other hand, has merged religion convert all infidels, meaning all non-Muslim. Africa, be it Nigeria or the Somali lands. It is society. Islam will be and remain Islam, and state authority wherein the two are Prof. Lewis also has specifically stated that it Islamic fanatics who bomb, behead, murder or Huntington warned, while he was equally interwoven, and state power and authority are at is manifestly wrong for political reasons to honor kill. It is the fanatics who stone rape dubious that the West would remain true to itself the service of Allah, helping to bring Allah's state that we are engaged in a war against victims and homosexuals. It is the Muslim and its mission of freedom, the rule of law and word to all the infidels – Jews, Christians, terrorism. This is as if Churchill had told us we fanatics who teach in the schools the value of human rights. Buddhists, and other non-Islamic faiths. were engaged in a war against submarines. being a shahid – a martyr – when becoming Terrorism, like submarines were a tactic, is not suicide bombers. State and faith. The rise of political Islam the enemy. The enemy, Prof. Lewis has said, is The peaceful majority in Muslim lands is Professor Huntington has warned us that it is Christian awareness of the new competing Islamism, which he placed as the third in a cowed into a non-existent force. 14 L’ÉCONOMIE THE MÉTROPOLITAIN • 5 NOVEMBER 2009 • VOL. 3, NO 3 L’ÉCONOMIE Robert Presser WWW.THEMETROPOLITAIN.CA [email protected]

Canada at the G20: power, but do we have a plan?

n 1976, French President Valery Giscard following paragraphs detail a few positions can avoid an anti-foreign investor backlash at India have no plans to divert funds from d’Estaing decided that it would be a good worth considering as we move towards home and expand our reach abroad at the same building their economies to the corrupt Iidea to invite the leaders of the major Hunstville 2010. time. regimes of central Africa, for instance. If western economic powers (Canada, France, On trade, Harper has been a consistent Looking further at natural resources, Canada Canada really wants to assert leadership at the Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom promoter of free and open markets and has has what the world wants: energy and water. G20, then it should stand up now and declare and the United States of America) to an encouraged other world leaders to resist the We have renewable freshwater resouces which that the Copenhagen round is a non-starter and informal summit at a chateau outside of Paris domestic pressure to return to protectionism the Americans are desperate to share, and oil pull out. Canada can, and will stick to it’s own to discuss their current common economic for short-term political gain. Canada will find and gas that the whole world still needs even as plan for acheivable targets and the rest of the problems, giving birth to the G7. Later a strong alliance, if it seeks one, with China we seek alternatives to a carbon-combustion world should buy in as long as other nations expanded to include Russia (G8) this intimate and India who need to keep overseas markets economy. The current problem is that Canada want to consume what we extract from the grouping of world powers dominated the open if they are to continue to grow their international economic and trade agenda until economies. While India and China’s need to the Asian currency crisis of 1997 had ripple export is obvious, they also need to maintain effects around the world, making a broader access to technology developed abroad as they Canada should use its influence to quiet these voices, and remind them consultative forum a priority to encourage build their own high-tech sectors. Another that if they want oil from a politically stable ally then they should stop cooperation with the developing world. That important consideration is continued immigra- body was christened the G20, and today it tion to western nations so their young people criticizing the trough from which they feed. If the US, the European Union represents nearly 85% of worldwide economic can attend the finest universities available and output (GDP) though 90% of the world’s bring their knowledge back home for dissemi- and even the Chinese wish to gamble their economies on the long-term countries are not at the table. nation and the creation of economic value. viability of Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq, so be it – Canada can While the big GDP players are well known to What should Canada ask of these nations in be the original G7 plus China, it is more useful return? From China, Canada should ask that seek clients elsewhere if their attacks continue to remain so shrill and to look at economic output on a per capita the government be less aggressive in encourag- basis, displayed graphically. ing its natural resource companies from buying incessant in nature.

consumes enourmous amounts of water to earth. facilitate oilsands extraction, up to 10 barrels A final consideration must be given to of water for one barrel of oil. Even though a currencies and the talk of replacing the USD great deal of this water is recycled, the political as the world’s reserve currency by a basket of optics look bad at home and worse abroad as the Euro, the Yuan and a smattering of others. American environmentalists and Europeans Canada’s major trading partner remains the (across the board) scold us for using copious United States and any move away from the amounts of one resource to extract another. USD will impose increasingly complex Canada should use its influence to quiet transaction costs on Canadians as we would these voices, and remind them that if they want have to learn to quote and purchase in a new oil from a politically stable ally then they world currency that could end up being more should stop criticizing the trough from which unstable than the one it seeks to replace. It is they feed. If the US, the European Union and not the first time that other countries have even the Chinese wish to gamble their talked about replacing the US Dollar, but the economies on the long-term viability of discussion has more traction this time as the Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq, so be it US monetizes its current deficit and future – Canada can seek clients elsewhere if their inflation would devalue the US national debt attacks continue to remain so shrill and held by other nations, notably China. Canada incessant in nature. should, in its own interests, forcefully up Canadian mines and development The environmental issue is coming to a head denounce this movement and express Though Canada may have a smaller total companies, regardless of how tempting those in Copenhagen where world economies are confidence in the USD and encourage other GDP than the original G7, we are near the top targets may be. Rather than buying up assets seeking a replacment for the failed Kyoto nations to discard this distraction and work on of the list on a per capita basis and are way here, the Chinese should be directed towards round of emissions caps. Copenhagen is more productive issues, like international ahead of upcoming Asian powerhouses like seeking joint ventures with Canadian looking less like the reductions sought by banking regulation reform. China and India. Canada is no longer the companies in China to further the development Kyoto and more like a transfer of trillions of Canada has a fantastic position within the small player at a table of seven, but a serious of that country’s under-exploited natural dollars from the developed to the developing G20 of being in better economic shape than contender for power and influence in a broader resource sector. While foreign companies world as compensation for future first world most and producing what the world wants. It economic forum. Canada is also hosting the already invest heavily in the Chinese natural pollution. The Copenhagen round is a is now up to our government to capitalize on 2010 meeting in Hunstville, Ontario. What resource sector, Canada can offer special complete, untenable, nonsensical farce our enviable status and advance our agenda in does Canada intend to do with its newfound expertise for operating under difficult because none of the developed world’s a way that demonstrates that our interests clout? Does our government have a set of geographical or weather conditions, more so economies can afford these transfer payments represent clear, realistic and coherent policies objectives and a strategy to achieve them? The than the Americans and Europeans. Canada and the developing producers like China and for other G20 members to emulate. THE MÉTROPOLITAIN • 5 NOVEMBRE 2009 • VOL. 3, NO 3 SOCIETY 15

WWW.THEMETROPOLITAIN.CA Stephen Schettini is author of The Novice: Why I Became a SOCIETY Buddhist Monk, Why I Quit and What I Learned (Greenleaf Stephen Schettini Book Group, Sept. 2009). See www.thenovice.ca. [email protected]

Why is the Dalai Lama so popular? hen I wanted to meet the Dalai Lama back in 1980, I who doesn't support killing or hating people for God. It’s a big Which brings us to perhaps the underlying reason for the went to his door in Dharamsala and knocked. improvement.” He’s a world leader whose only spin is his self- Tibetan leader’s popularity: Buddhism. Visitors to Asia may W“Sure,” his servant said. “Tomorrow afternoon effacing, playful and too-friendly-for-words persona. perceive Buddhism as old-time religion, complete with invisible okay?” That, of course, was before he became an international The Chinese too are indirectly responsible for the Dalai beings, superstition and intolerance, but scratch beneath the superstar. Lama’s popularity. Although he has ample reason to be gaudy veneer and you find a thoughtful, healing and Like all those who’ve had one-on-one time with him, I came absolutely furious at them, his response is a patience that’s little wholesome system of thought and daily practice. away from that hour-long interview with the experience of short of breathtaking. They invaded his country, tortured and In an age when religious faith is on the decline and people are being deeply liked. I felt that nobody, not even my own mother, killed tens of thousands, forced monks and nuns into public sex having trouble swallowing its hollow residue, Buddhism offers had ever paid such rapt attention to me. Who can resist that? I acts, levelled ancient monasteries and shrines and have numeri- a spiritual path that’s compatible with scientific enquiry, and also found him far more open intellectually than most other cally outpopulated Tibetans in Tibet. Last year, Chinese official perhaps even with twenty-first century realpolitik. The Dalai Tibetans. After a year studying logic and philosophy in the great Zhang Qingli called the Dalai Lama, ‘a devil with a human face Lama is the lynchpin of Boulder, Colorado’s Mind & Life Sera Monastic University, I’d come to him with my doubts. but the heart of a beast.’ Nevertheless, in Calgary recently he Institute that seeks to, “establish mutually respectful working How come “Because the Buddha said so,” is considered a valid said he still expects one day to return to Tibet. The worst charge collaboration and research partnerships between modern reasoning? Even more disturbing was the long list of sicknesses you might level at him is naïveté. science and Buddhism.” Commenting upon this work, The believed, even by the highest lamas, to be caused by invisible In actual fact, the Dalai Lama’s at the centre of a long- Dalai Lama noted three crucial parallels between the Buddhism magic serpents (nagas). Wasn’t Buddhism supposed to the non- standing religious schism that’s pitted disciples against gurus, and modern science. They 1) share a deep suspicion of any religion, the epitome of clear-minded thought? separated monks from their monastic brothers and resulted in notion of absolutes, 2) believe in universal natural laws of cause It wasn’t so much his answers as his attitude that soothed my murder and mayhem. All this over an invisible being called and effect and 3) depend on an empirical method. You can go a worries. He made it clear that beliefs are a personal matter and Dorje Shugden whose ostensible job was to protect the long way on those three premises. that perhaps I didn’t need to take the ancient tradition of Buddha’s teachings. Back in the nineteen-eighties the Dalai Because of all this, I and hundreds of other Westerns who Buddhist scholarship too seriously. After all, as he never tires of Lama proclaimed Shugden a renegade, and now he can’t seem became Buddhist monks back in the seventies and eighties saying, “This is my simple religion. There is no need for to get the genie back in the bottle. This has forced scholars of eventually left the religious trappings behind but remained temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, Tibetan Buddhism to take a closer look at the history of Tibet, guided by the principles that made the Buddha’s teachings our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.” where they’ve found many precedents for what can only be endure for twenty-six centuries. If they can survive the Another part of the Dalai Lama’s appeal lies in what he’s not. described as theocratic power struggles, underhanded scheming onslaught of consumerism and globalisation, they may outlive A blogger on answerbag.com pointed out, “He's a religious guy and religio-civil war. the Abrahamic religions.

THE MÉTROPOLITAIN • 5 NOVEMBRE 2009 • VOL. 3, NO 3 SOCIETY 17 WWW.THEMETROPOLITAIN.CA Sophie Tarnowska [email protected]

Sophie’s Choices Starting over t's been 9 (frostbite-free) years since I lived yellow cycling shorts that appeared to be two Off I flounced into the airport, painfully litter. I have no doubt that my therapist will be in Canada. I’m back, this time with a one- sizes too small. aware that I was flying away from the last pleased with my progress. Iyear-old daughter, after finding out that my I flew here from Philadelphia two weeks ago, home John and I will ever share, from what's In an effort to keep us both busy and out of soon-to-be-ex-husband John was having an in perfect accept-your-marriage-is-over left of our marriage…and from Target. I the stairwells, I've signed Lily up for music affair with his Hobbit-like coworker in New weather: blustery, windy, dark. John drove me checked in, and filled out all my luggage tags class, Kindergym and a manic playgroup for Jersey, but we’ll get to that another time. to the airport, which was surreal, to say the with our old address by mistake, and had to what seems like 315 kids in a church I’ve rented an apartment in the same least. However, he kindly took the opportunity resist throwing myself onto the luggage basement. I've already met some nice women, neighborhood I grew up in, and I still go to the to remind me that: conveyer once I realized it. I considered trying five of whom came over for wine and cheese same local restaurant where as 20-somethings, a) His affair was not a "full-blown" affair, to get an upgrade based on the enormity of the last week, and five of whom I've undoubtedly my girlfriends and I used to order the cheapest and occasion (grieving in economy class just freaked out by telling them what happened to wine on the menu, eat masses of dumplings, b) She had "nothing to do" with our breakup. seems wrong), but didn’t trust myself not to my marriage, so that they are probably going and flirt with the guys at surrounding tables. It was only thanks to our daughter Lily being cry in front of my fellow passengers. through their husband's credit card statements On the first night I went back, I recognized a in the car and his being at the wheel that I I arrived safely in Montreal, along with 91 as I write this. guy my friend Tanya used to flirt with, despite resisted the urge to pull his nostrils over his boxes of belongings. The movers were My friend Kate brought me one of those the fact that he was now bald and wore canary head and feed him my shoe. excellent, and unusually helpful - one of them joke "Grow your Own Husband" kits that gave me his number "in case I had any trouble night, so I will not remain single for long, hooking up my VCR…or anything else". because my new mate has almost reached his Despite the kind offer from lovely Martin, I peak height of 6” after spending the last 72 don't think my VCR will get hooked up hours in a glass of water. He'll probably accuse anytime soon...nudge, nudge, wink, wink. I me of being controlling because I forced him should have given the number to my landlady to grow, or tell me he really didn’t want to who spent most of moving day standing in my grow at all, but thought I'd get mad if he had stairwell while the movers tried to get by with told me so earlier. Or he'll cheat on me with their boxes. The guys were convinced that she one of Lily's dolls. Unlikely though, as she stood there so that they'd have to rub up doesn't own any dolls with excessive body hair against her as they went up and down the and a propensity for tight polyester garments. stairs. Now there's an idea. Miaow. The next visitor was my mother, who in her Needless to say, I had a few glasses of wine infinite wisdom decided that the day I moved too many that night and remembered only in was the perfect occasion to give me two next morning that Lily and I had playgroup, newborn kittens. Her gift has propelled me and that I was expected to bring an art project into an entirely new category of womanhood: to inspire the kids with. Considered the Single Mother with Cats. Perfect. Their names "Create-Your-Own-Voodoo-Doll" idea, but are inspired by recent events: Mor and On. Or decided on grabbing dead leaves and shoving perhaps Emotional and Midget. I also like the them into a plastic shopping bag on the way sound of IHopeHisNostrils and BlowUp. Your there, queasy every time I bent down. suggestions are welcome. Strangely enough, my suggestion that the Two days later, when Lily got home, most of children glue the leaves to paper in the name the boxes had been unpacked, and her room of art was not a big hit. I managed almost two was ready and full of familiar toys. hours of socializing before spending the “Ooooohhhhh!", she said. Since then, she’s musical portion of the playgroup worshipping begun teething and has caught onto the fact the toilet bowl in the men's bathroom in the that this is not the home she remembers, and basement of the Baptist church, while my refuses to let go of her pacifier or her favorite daughter sang "The Wheels on the Bus" with stuffed lamb under any circumstances. She the other kids and their normal mothers. also had nightmares for the first time in her So this is the first weekend that my ex will life, which only inspired more rude names for fly in to see his daughter. I need sleep, the kittens, names I cannot reprint here. She exercise, and highlights, and he needs to make asks "Wheh Dada?", and I don't know what to her smile. Unfortunately, my two good friends say. I know what I want to say, but there's no have plans this weekend, so don’t be surprised way she'll make any friends if she goes around if you find me in a crowded stairwell shouting "The Bastahd's in Joisey"! I realize somewhere, holding a voodoo doll. that I'm supposed to be mature about this, but frankly, all I want to do is build voodoo dolls Next week: Well-Meaning Advice and Other of my ex and his Hobbit, and roll them in kitty Forms of Torture 18 COMMENT THE MÉTROPOLITAIN • 5 NOVEMBER 2009 • VOL. 3, NO 3 PIPERBERG’S WORLD WWW.THEMETROPOLITAIN.CA

Ideas before identities. Justice before orthodoxy. One of North America's largest and most dependable suppliers of steel foundation products.

Pipe and Piling Supplies' high quality stocks include:

• Wide-flange Beams • Spiral Pipe • Bearing Pile Beams • Piling Pipe • Sheet Piling • Concrete Piles

Pipe & Piling offers competitive pricing and quality pre- and post-sale expertise. It's twelve sales and stocking facilities are available to serve you across North America in:

Vancouver Edmonton Calgary Toronto Montreal Halifax 604-942-6311 780-955-0501 403-236-1332 416-201-8189 514-879-9008 902-835-6158

Washington Nebraska Kansas Illinois Michigan Pennsylvania 253-939-4700 402-896-9611 1-800-874-3720 1-800-874-3720 1-800-874-3720 1-800-874-3720

www.pipe-piling.com 20 ARTS & STYLE THE MÉTROPOLITAIN • 5 NOVEMBER 2009 • VOL. 3, NO 3 ARTS & STYLE Alan Hustak WWW.THEMETROPOLITAIN.CA [email protected]

Still a man to watch; Pierre Trudeau

e infatuates us still. Even before the wedding, Trudeau presciently anticipated that she would one day leave him, and apparently demanded that she H give up smoking dope and “stop being so flighty.” Yet in spite of At least a dozen biographies about Pierre Elliott Trudeau have the odds in this case, it seems, he trusted passion over reason. been written, none of them as satisfying as Just Watch Me, (Alfred English tells us that Trudeau tried everything to make his marriage A. Knopf Canada, 788 pp. $39.95) the second volume of John work. Some of his political choices were equally as puzzling. Still, English’s dispassionate, intimate look at Canada’s most contradic- as English reminds us, in spite of separatist revisionism, no prime tory, perplexing and some say greatest Prime Minister. minister has ever been as popular in Quebec as Trudeau who once Dead for almost a decade, Trudeau remains a paradox. Perhaps won 74 of its then 76 seats. no one has examined his life better than English, general editor of Trudeau was a devoted father to his three sons, and as a practic- the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, a former Member of ing Catholic read the Bible to his boys. As to Trudeau’s religious Parliament who is also Lester Pearson’s award-winning biogra- convictions, we are told that during a canoeing trip, Trudeau had a pher. lively discussion with future MP John Godfrey about his particular In this book Trudeau comes across as a “suberb actor,” the most approach to Roman Catholicism, views “which unfortunately stylish and sexy prime minister since Laurier, who English tells us, remain lost to history” because Godfrey was too inebriated to “truly believed that he represented a revolutionary innovation in remember any of it. Canadian politics. He knew well what the crowd wanted, enjoyed The footnotes are as engaging as the book. Who for example, is the attention, and therefore “took refuge in ambiguity and aware, that Trudeau believed that “Jews had for too long been caution.” excluded from the bench, the boardroom, and the cabinet. He He was a loner with little tolerance for most people and had little appointed the first Jewish Cabinet minister, the first Jewish patience for the nuts and bolts of politics. Here was a Prime Supreme Court judge, the first Jewish principal secretary to the Minister who could quote from Antigone, counted Fidel Castro prime minister (Jack Austin) and the first Jewish deputy minister among his friends, and who in spite of being devoutly Roman of external affairs – Allan Gotlieb, who later became the first Catholic, slept with a slew of glamorous women, including Barbra Jewish ambassador to Washington. When a Jewish group met with Striesand, (whom he nearly married,) guitarist Fiona Boyd, actress Trudeau and thanked him for all he had done for the community, Louise Marleau, and in his 70’s, fathered a daughter with Deborah he expressed surprise. Once presented with the list, he responded, Coyne. “I guess I did.” The book never quite explains to anyone’s satisfaction why a Trudeau was, as other biographers have variously described him, man of Trudeau’s stature married Margaret Sinclair, who never our Northern Magus, a philosopher king who came to office with accepted the demands of the public stage. Once on a beach, a the reputation of a fire-breathing socialist and left as a shape bored Pierre asked Margaret what she was reading. It was Erica changing, pragmatic centrist. Stephen Harper, who came to office Jongs Fear of Flying, “A pornographic classic about a brilliant as a rabid right wing conservative seems to be conjuring up woman in an unfulfilled marriage who flees her husband and has Trudeau’s ghost. Like Trudeau, Harper has learned to appreciate anonymous sex. Trudeau’s thoughts remain a mystery,” English that if the centre is to hold, you sometimes have to sacrifice what tells us, “But they may be surmised.” lies around its edges.

Mutant Mad Cow Disease in Toronto. Murder in Palm Beach. The arcana of Bermuda offshore banking. Ex-CIA and Mossad men desperate to seize a weapon of mass destruction from Al-Qaeda, off the Caymans, on the morning of 9/11. Oh, and love. What more could you ask for in this hard-cover thriller by Robert Landori. Get it at Chapters/Indigo, or order an author-signed copy from the publisher.

Dear Studio 9, please rush me____author-signed copies of Fatal Greed at $39.00 each (including tax and postage). My cheque is enclosed. Or, I choose to pay by Visa Mastercard Amex (please circle one) Mail or fax to: 514-937-8765 Card number ...... exp ...... Name ...... Address ...... City/Postal Code/Prov.-State ......

Studio 9, 9 Parkside Place, Montreal, QC, Canada H3H 1A7 Phone orders: 514-934-5433 THE MÉTROPOLITAIN • 5 NOVEMBRE 2009 • VOL. 3, NO 3 ARTS & STYLE 21 WWW.THEMETROPOLITAIN.CA Alidor Aucoin [email protected]

Segal’s “Inherit the wind” succeeds nherit the Wind. Jerome courtroom scene, is tailor made for to be sympathetic as the barnstorm- Lawrence and Robert Lee’s old stage pros like McCann and ing Brady who denounces the Idramatization of the 1925 Francis. Although it pits Drummond dangers of Evil-loution. To be fair, Scopes monkey trial, is a timely old against Brady, the act weighs heavily it’s a tough role; the guy who plays chestnut of a play, especially now in McCann’s favour. Other teams Drummond has the house in his that the fossil skeleton of Ardi, a 4- who have tackled the exchange corner. foot tall female primate who died include Chris Plummer and Brian Karl Graboshas nicely captures the 4.4-million years ago, is making Dennehy, George C. Scott and part of the principled teacher; headlines. Charles Durning, Spencer Tracey Tamara Brown is affecting as his There are those who argue that and Fredrick March, and most love interest. Marcel Jeannin is good Ardi’s discovery proves Darwin’s recently, Kevin Spacey and David as E.K. Horbeck, the self-important, theory of evolution was wrong, and Troughton. know-it all newspaper reporter that humans did not evolve from In the Segal’s production, McCann covering the trial, Bill Corday makes ancestors that resemble brings all the authority of a seasoned a strong impression as the illiterate chimpanzees. The doctrines of Inherit the Wind Courtroom scene veteran to the part. There are no real juror, Elijah, as does Adam Driscoll, creationism, and its less explicity fireworks here, just the solid, weary as young Howard Blair, a student religious cousin, intelligent design, teacher, Bertram Cates (Karl community, exposing its small town resignation of a man who relies on called to testify against his teacher. both guided by faith in the Old and Graboshas), who has been charged mentality. At one point, during a common sense to get him through The three little monkeys who dart New Testamants, continue to be by the state with the crime of revival meeting, there are at least two life. Francis is all bombast, and is around the stage add a nice touch, counter narratives to the science of teaching Charles Darwin. dozen hymn singing actors on stage. perhaps a little too one-dimensional too. evolution. Cates is being prosecuted by Eli Bunton’s set design adds to the Inherit the Wind isn’t as much Matthew Harrison Brady, (David claustrophobia – no easy task on the about the debate between evolution Francis), a right wing blowhard, - Segal’s sprawling stage. One and religion as it about the right of the Rush Limbaugh of his day. questions, however, the casting individuals to think for themselves, Brady is a rabble-rouser, certain in decision to throw a jarring inter- consider all the evidence, then draw his fundamentalist beliefs, including racial romance into the mix. No rural their own conclusions. his conviction that the world was Tennessee schoolteacher in the The Segal Centre’s fluid produc- created at precisely 9 a.m. on 1920s would have been openly able tion that runs until Nov. 8 affords October 23, 4004 BC. He’s the kind to have a black girlfriend, especially theatergoers the pleasure of of guy who would tell you that Noah not one like Rachel Brown, (Tamara watching veteran actor Sean had dinosaurs onto his ark along Brown) the agitated daughter of the McCann delight in making with the rest of creation. local Bible thumping preacher. As mincemeat out of ignorance. The first act is largely exposition Rachel’s father, the Rev. Jeremiah McCann is cast as Henry and Greg Kramer’s spirited, if Brown, (Tyrone Benskin) doesn’t Drummond, a libertarian lawyer, sometimes uneven staging, quite have the fire-and brimstone in

(based on Clarence Darrow) who introduces us to a huge God- his belly that one expects. ANDRÉE LANTHIER PHOTOS: defends a small town biology cheering, God fearing Bible belt The stilted second act, with its Standing: Sean McCann (plays Henry Drummond). On left sitting in the chair: David Francis (plays Matthew Harrison Brady). On right: Bill Croft (plays the Judge). Piazza San Domenico

By Alidor Aucoin kiss is just a kiss but in Steve Galluccio’s overrated romantic farce, In Piazza San Domenico, a lip lock has toxic consequences. AGalluccio’s play, held over at the Centaur until November 15, is a crowd pleaser in the same way that mindless B-movies have a following. The playwright claims Feydeau as an inspiration, but Feydeau enlarged human foibles; Galluccio combines the improbable with the predictable, then exploits human nature in crude and unrealistic fashion. The plot is set in motion when Carmelina, a hot-blooded Italian beauty, (Christina Broccoloni) catches her studly fiancée, Guido (Guido Comello) stealing a kiss from the blowsy town tart, Mafalda, (Mara Lalli). Out of revenge she dumps Guido in favour of the village idiot, Severino, (Carl Alacchi), and proposes to marry him instead. Some performers like Ellen David and Vittorio Rossi are better If we build it, they will come. than the material. A subplot that involves the romance between Carmelina’s widowed mother, Isabella, (David) and a Pasquale, (Rossi) a door-to-door Magil Construction prides itself on its reputation for excellence. vegetable salesman is touching, funny and effective - the best thing about the Its expertise has been perfected on projects of every conceivable size and complexity. Delivering a project on-time and on-budget has been show. All the other characters are caricatures, particularly Jocelyne Zucco and fundamental to Magil's success. Michel Perron, who mug their way through their parts as a dysfunctional married couple. Founded in 1953 by architect Louis B. Magil, the company specialized The laughs are there all right, but they’re cheap – just like the song and in residential construction. It has since expanded into commercial, dance routine that ends the show. John C. Dinning overdesigned the scenery, industrial and institutional construction valued in billions of dollars. www.magil.com but Roy Surette gets full marks for directing traffic through the Piazza with aplomb.

THE MÉTROPOLITAIN • 5 NOVEMBRE 2009 • VOL. 3, NO 3 ARTS & STYLE 23 WWW.THEMETROPOLITAIN.CA René Girard [email protected]

« Heureux sans dieu » : 14 voix pour l’athéisme

’ouvrage collectif Heureux il exprime seulement ce qu’il est. société : « Croyez en qui vous voulez vers l’adolescence. Ghyslain sans Dieu, qui vient de Certains des auteurs sont athées et élevez les temples que vous voulez Taschereau (écrivain et humoriste) Lparaître sous la direction de « presque » de naissance ; c’est le (à vos frais et dans le respect des lois qui « ne comprend pas pourquoi les Daniel Baril et Normand cas de Normand Baillargeon et règlements bien sûr…), mais ne représentants de la secte catholique Baillargeon, offre un kaléidoscope (philosophe) qui se considère perturbez pas la vie publique avec doivent se priver de sexe… Pourquoi sur un thème fort peu abordé dans « intact de dieu », pour emprunter à vos pratiques et encore moins avec donc l’Être suprême leur aurait-il nos sociétés soi-disant modernes : Prévert. Isabelle Maréchal (journal- vos injonctions religieuses. » Hervé installé bite et con si c’était pour leur l’athéisme. Pourtant, comme le iste, comédienne, éditorialiste et Fischer (artiste et philosophe) en interdire l’usage? ». Vers l’âge rappelle Hervé Fischer dans sa animatrice à la radio et à la télévi- apporte quelque chose de relative- de15 ans, Louis Gill (économiste) a communication les athées représen- sion) : « D’aussi loin que je me ment nouveau dans le domaine de la décroché de la religion suite à une tent 25% des Canadiens selon un souvienne, je crois bien que je n’ai science, la mythanalyse qui réfléchit discussion en classe, et Daniel Baril sondage effectué en mai 2008. jamais cru… Croire c’est se rallier à sur « la puissance de la religion et (anthropologue) à 13 ans suite à une Cependant, mal venus seraient un même courant d’idées et ne plus des superstitions en général ». Elle confession pour « necking », la ceux qui voudraient trouver dans ce avoir à penser ». Yannick Villedieu a une visée thérapeutique en vue du honte d’avoir raconté ça à un prêtre. (écrivaine) à 12 ans, elle sert la collectif une doctrine sur l’athéisme. (journaliste scientifique), a compris progrès de la société. La Louise Gendron (journaliste) a messe, se fait charitablement traiter Aucun mythe fondateur sur lequel très jeune que dieu était une mythanalyse « considère la religion décroché vers l’âge de 12 ou 13 ans, d’ « innocente » pour la négligence échafauder quelques principes de hypothèse dont on n’avait pas comme une névrose collective, devant les incohérences de la vie au d’une bonne sœur qui avait omis de base. Aucun rituel, aucun ornement. besoin. Yves Gingras (sociologue comme une aliénation masochiste et couvent et de ses « questions sortir le voile de l’ostensoir qu’elle Aucun contenu doctrinaire, aucun des sciences), lui, nous amène tout doloriste ». insolentes » au dire des religieuses devait remettre au prêtre. Cette guru à adorer. Pas de prosélytisme. de suite dans le vif du sujet, c'est-à- Pour la plupart des auteurs l’aban- plutôt embêtées de ne savoir quoi humiliation n’était que le début L’athée ne cherche pas à convaincre, dire sa conception de la vie en don de la foi religieuse s’est produit répondre. Arlette Cousture d’une série de prises de conscience face à la religion, ce qui l’amena à apostasier secrètement alors qu’elle était en Belles-Lettres aux études classiques. « Tout athée que je sois, je n’ai jamais été indifférente à la vie et à ses exigences parfois terrible- ment difficiles. Au contraire j’ai toujours été tentée d’aider ou d’inter- venir, de soulager ou d’accompagner. Et ce sont les valeurs que je souhaite avoir transmises à mes enfants ». Pour Louisette Dussault (comédienne) c’est l’ouverture à une carrière d’artiste, de théâtre et de chant qui transforme son orientation. Elle s’est vue confrontée à la vindicte de l’Église catholique et de ses mœurs puritaines lors de la création de la pièce de Denise Boucher, Les fées ont soif, en 1978. Un des moments historiques forts qui a contribué à la libération de la femme au Québec. Pour Yves Lever (enseignant et consultant en cinéma) le passage de la foi à l’athéisme s’effectuera vers la trentaine après être devenu prêtre jésuite. « Tout ce sacré apparaît dérisoire quand on oriente son esprit dans une autre direction, quand on sait que la soif ne prouvera jamais l’existence de la source ». Quatorze témoignages de libéra- tion que vous aurez plaisir à lire si vous êtes athées, que vous aurez plaisir à détester, peut-être, si vous êtes croyants et le prenez trop personnel. Heureux sans dieu, Montréal, VLB éditeur, 2009. ladieswear .menswearfootwearaccessories

lechateau.com