Bambi just listened to an interesting interview by Mr. Richard Martineau with Dr. Bock Côté on QUB Radio:
It was about how a Québec Minister, the honourable Mr. Benoît Charette, was booed at a Montreal vigil for the Afzaals (the London, Ontario, victims). Mr. Charette is the Minister of the Environment and the Fight Against Climate Change, the Minister Responsible for the Fight Against Racism, and the Minister Responsible for the Laval Region (http://www.assnat.qc.ca/en/deputes/charette-benoit-195/biographie.html). At the end of this post, if you wish, you can watch a video of this sad incident that took place in Montreal on June 12, 2021.
Of note, Mr. Charette seems like a reasonable, competent politician whose own spouse happens to be of Haitian origins, by the way. Bambi listened to him once in an interview from which she learned the latter detail about his family. In the same interview, this politician explained the position of his government that there is no “systemic” racism in the province of Québec. It is precisely this point that seems to perhaps upset this crowd, as per Dr. Mathieu Bock-Côté.
As for the demonstrators, Bambi is always fascinated by how they seem to be available to take the streets of Montreal at any time, as needed, almost always using English signs (Dr. Bock-Côté is right to point to this), whether the theme of the demonstration is BLM, anti-Asian racism, or Islamophobia, etc.
Like both Martineau and Bock-Côté, Bambi is both fascinated and shocked by the level of contempt of this crowd, which does not have the decency of booing this Minister in the official language of his (or their?) province.
Who knows? Perhaps these demonstrators are not from Québec? Perhaps they live in Montreal, but they keep “forgetting” that their island belongs to the province of Québec ?? Could it be? Mind you, here we can perhaps draw an analogy with the Mayor of Montreal, Ms. Valérie Plante. As a reminder, the latter made her inaugural speech in English, not in French, which is her mother tongue.
Anyhow once again, to conclude this post, Bambi cannot help but to agree with both M. Martineau and his guest: this story appears like a form of “neo-colonialism” against the historic French-Canadian population of Québec. For Bambi, this also seems like a form of unacceptable “group racism” that sadly seems to be tacitly endorsed in our contemporary society.
Does this incident in Montreal also indicate a failure of integration of immigrants to use Dr. Bock-Côté’s own words? Maybe. Anyhow, the powerful key moments of this interview is his following reflection: “Québec bashing made in Québec”… “Can you please insult us in our language”?
Food for thought all this, thank you Dr. Bock-Côté.
Another proof of the idiocy of this movement, says, “woke”. A bunch of ignorant people, for the most part, only knowing how to understand the world through slogans that sound good. And, very important, all this in English, so that their American masters know that, unlike the miserable Francophones, they are civilized.
Still, it is amusing to see English Canada always blaming Quebec for what is going wrong in its backyard, unable to cope with its own problems. Quebec is useful, isn’t it?
Thank you Frédéric for your thoughtful comment. Well, your humour about Québec at the end makes Bambi think of a word in French about such phenomenon that can apply to humans/animals… and beautiful provinces: “un souffre-douleur”.
Maybe the crowd simply does not believe in the sincerity of Charette, especially given the passing of Bills 21 and 96 by his government.
Thank you Fred for your comment. It has inspired Bambi an idea of a new post. Hang on… you will see it soon :).