Maclean's November 9th Issue

[vanatox]

Il y a de grandes parties du reportage disponible sur le site internet de Macleans. En fait, je pense que c'est complet...

 

http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/09/24/the-most-corrupt-province/

 

http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/09/24/what-lies-beneath-quebecs-scandals/

[acpnc]

Je serais curieux de savoir combien d'entre vous ont lu l'article au complet ? acpn ? Vous dont le ton est normalement plus posé ? Je trouve votre réaction plutôt forte. ce n'est pas votre genre.

 

Pour ma part, je ne l'ai pas encore trouvé : toutes les copies disponibles au Québec semblent s'être envolées. Macleans a eu raison de faire sa une avec le Bonhomme Carnaval. Il ne se sera jamais autant vendu de copies de ce magasine au Québec !! Il me semble que le magasine a bien visé avec ce sujet !!

 

Mon cher Yara tu trouveras l'article au http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/09/24/the-most-corrupt-province/ cela t'économisera de dépenser de précieux dollars pour acheter un outil de propagande anti-québécois qui n'en est pas à sa première controverse.

 

Je déplore ce genre de journalisme à la Fox News qui fait du sensationnalisme au lieu de la nouvelle, tout en s'acharnant sur le Québec en diffusant des informations très choisies en vue de démontrer une hypothèse totalement tordue et vicieuse.

 

Je n'en suis pas à ma première expérience sur le sujet et c'est un sport national anglo-canadien qui se pratique à grande échelle dans le ROC et cela depuis longtemps. Comme je travaille à Air Canada depuis une trentaine d'années, j'ai offert les journaux à toutes nos escales à notre clientèle et bien sûr pris aussi le temps de les lire durant mes pauses.

 

Combien de fois j'ai vu des histoires sans importance chez nous, devenir la une d'un journal local en mettant l'accent particulièrement sur le côté négatif de la nouvelle. Je ne parle pas de journaux de quartiers mais bien des Winnipeg Free Press, des Edmonton Journal, des Vancouver Sun, National Post, etc etc... Et chaque fois j'étais frustré de constater la mauvaise foi et l'intention belliqueuse de certains journalistes spécialisés dans le "Québec bashing".

 

Je ne détaillerai pas ici les trop nombreuses occasions que j'ai vécues et qui m'ont laissé un goût amer de ce pays replié sur lui-même et qui cherche constamment à se lever en écrasant l'autre. Combien de fois je me suis demandé comment ils réagiraient si nous avions la bassesse d'agir comme eux?

 

Quand je vois cette récurrence, surtout de la part du Maclean's, qui publie mesquinement ces articles en insistant particulièrement sur des sujets québécois qu'ils savent nuisibles et peu élogieux, tout en suggérant une conclusion dommageable, je ne peux que réagir vivement et protester avec indignation.

 

C'est un comportement inacceptable de la part de quiconque, franco ou anglo, et que je réprouverai toujours avec énergie. C'est pourquoi j'ai exprimé un geste fort dans mon autre texte (brûler le magazine sur la place publique) car il me semble que rien d'autre ne pourra convaincre ces individus racistes que leur comportement a assez duré.

[Habsfan]

Malgré le fait qu'en général, la revue maclean's s'en prend souvent au Québec, dans ce cas si, je crois que cet article n'est pas trop mauvais!

 

JE viens de lire l'article au complet, et je dois dire que la majorité de ce qui est écrit dedans est vrai!

Modifié 28 septembre 2010 par Habsfan

[uqam+]

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Modifié 12 novembre 2011 par uqam+

[Habfanman]

And that is why there is corruption. How does the PQ bring the most damage to Québec according to you? The government of René-Lévesque and that of Parizeau-Bouchard were excellent governments that has greatly advanced Quebec. In fact, many Quebecers, including honest federalists, consider the René-Lévesque government as the best government Quebec ever had, better than the Jean-Lesage government in the early 60s.

 

Or is it the fact that the PQ supports sovereignty for Quebec that bothers you? In that case, do not worry because the PQ is not likely to hold a referendum in their first mandate if they win the next election.

 

Even if they do hold a referendum and win it, so what? Independence would bring great service to Montreal. It would transform Montreal from a inconsequental city in Canada into an economic and cultural capital of a country. Think of all the synergies that would result from this. Quebec City would also benefit from these synergies since it would become the political capital of a country.

 

I agree 100% Antonio.

 

I will never understand anglo voters. We always complain that governments don't respond to our needs but by voting like sheep in election after election, we guarantee that none of the parties ever have to take us seriously. On the one hand, the PQ know that they will never get any significant anglo vote so they ignore us. There's no point courting an electorate that will always vote for your opponent - no matter what. On the other hand, because the PLQ know that anglos will always vote for them (they could run a bag of day-old bagels as a candidate in each of the West Island ridings and still win by a wide margin!) they too can ignore us. It's a lose/lose proposition yet anglos keep mooing and baahing and voting Liberal - self-marginalising ourselves and ensuring that no party need take us seriously. Strange behaviour!

 

I always vote BQ federally. Gilles Duceppe is a far better leader than any of the other idiots and I know that he is looking out for Québec and only Québec. Provincially, I voted Green in 2007. I couldn't hold my nose and vote for Charest nor could I support Boisclair. In 2008, I voted PQ and I will be doing so in the next election - unless Mme. Marois goes insane in the interim or Boisclair makes a comeback.

 

Voting PLQ doesn't automatically make you a federalist any more than voting PQ automatically makes you a sovereigntist. You should vote for the most competant government. An election is not a referendum.

[Habfanman]

Habsfan, the facts in the article are correct - nobody is denying that - but whether or not Québec is the most corrupt is debateable. We could easily write an article outlining all the shady deals that have gone down in Ontario or British Columbia throughout history and make a good case for either one of them being number one.. but we don't.

 

My question is this: What is the motivation behind the article? There's nothing new there, nothing we don't already know. Why make it a cover story?

 

I find it somewhat ironic that, outside of the construction industry, nearly all of the corruption mentioned in the article originates from some of the great federalist "Champions of Canadian National Unity" and the various dirty tricks that they used to bribe Québec into voting for them. Would MacLeans would have run this article in the months leading up to the 1995 referendum?

 

I also find it interesting that, since they couldn't implicate any nationalist governments from recent history, they threw this little gem in: "Maurice Duplessis, its long-reigning premier (and certainly one of its more nationalistic)".

 

Pretty pathetic.

[Habsfan]

Habsfan, the facts in the article are correct - nobody is denying that - but whether or not Québec is the most corrupt is debateable. We could easily write an article outlining all the shady deals that have gone down in Ontario or British Columbia throughout history and make a good case for either one of them being number one.. but we don't.

 

My question is this: What is the motivation behind the article? There's nothing new there, nothing we don't already know. Why make it a cover story?

 

I find it somewhat ironic that, outside of the construction industry, nearly all of the corruption mentioned in the article originates from some of the great federalist "Champions of Canadian National Unity" and the various dirty tricks that they used to bribe Québec into voting for them. Would MacLeans would have run this article in the months leading up to the 1995 referendum?

 

I also find it interesting that, since they couldn't implicate any nationalist governments from recent history, they threw this little gem in: "Maurice Duplessis, its long-reigning premier (and certainly one of its more nationalistic)".

 

Pretty pathetic.

 

Agreed. Like I said, the facts are truthful! I never said I liked Maclean's or that I don't think they ever enjoy a little (alot) of Québec Bashing. It's the national sport in the ROC. I'm just saying that in this case, maybe we need to take a good look at how our province has been run over the past decades and realize that it's been pretty nasty.

 

Why must it cost us 30% more to build roads here compared to the ROC???

[Habfanman]

Agreed. Like I said, the facts are truthful! I never said I liked Maclean's or that I don't think they ever enjoy a little (alot) of Québec Bashing. It's the national sport in the ROC. I'm just saying that in this case, maybe we need to take a good look at how our province has been run over the past decades and realize that it's been pretty nasty.

 

Why must it cost us 30% more to build roads here compared to the ROC???

 

I agree but I think that we are already taking that good look. Everyone is demanding that Charest open a public inquiry into the construction industry and we also have the Bastarache commission.

 

Like I said, nothing new here. Why the cover story?

 

Maybe l'Actualité should run a cover on Toronto asking why all of their public projects over the last 20+ years have been completed half-assed, years behind schedule and way over budget. Or the billions of dollars that were wasted on the Vancouver Olympics, BC fast ferries, leaky condos..

 

Of course, nobody in Toronto or Vancouver would be able to read the articles so why bother? lol

Modifié 28 septembre 2010 par Habfanman

[Habfanman]

I know how you feel acpnc. I grew up in London and Toronto (I've been in Onterrible since Sept. 1 and I can't wait to get out. Man I hate this place!) and also lived in Nova Scotia, Alberta and B.C. If I had never visited Québec I would have thought it was a complete disaster. All I ever read in the papers or saw on the news were stories about biker wars, murders, fires, riots, the OLF, Olympic stadium repairs, anglos being repressed, people leaving.. If anything bad happened in Québec you could be sure that it would be all over the english Canadian (Toronto) news 5 minutes after it happened!

 

It's the same today. Seldom anything positive unless it is something that they absolutely have to report on and even then, they always pick up on the little problems that occur. A perfect example is the Grand Prix. Just about every story in 2008 played up the problem with the track, not the 330,000 people who came and had a blast. In 2009, there were a million stories about how we 'lost' the Grand Prix and when we got it back, another million stories emphasizing that the feds had to throw in a couple of bucks (I look at it as naming rights. If you want to call it the 'Candian Grand Prix', it'll cost you. If not, it's the 'Montréal Grand Prix'). When 330,000 people showed up again in 2010 and there were no problems with the track, CBC ran the shortest article possible- in the Montréal section lol! Same thing with the Montréal Marathon. The CBC ran an article that mentioned the record attendance but: they just had to include a paragraph about a French journalist who had to wait 20 minutes for medical attention at the finish line. Apparently we have organisational problems. The Toronto Marathon? No problems! It was simply FANTASTIC!! Similar story with Rogers Cup. The Toronto media (Canadian media) reported "record attendance" of 160,000 for the men's tourney this year. No mention that the actual attendance records are all held by Montréal- over 200,000 for the men's and 178,000 for the women's.

 

It's the subtle omissions and exaggerations that drive me crazy. Take BIXI as another example. When it was first launched, the big story in ROC was not that it was wildly successful but that there was a "big problem with vandalism and theft", which was greatly exaggerated- bordering on untrue. There was never a correction when the reports proved to be false. The 'big' story about BIXI now is not the worldwide success (Boston, London, Melbourne, Washington DC, Minneapolis) but that Toronto won't implement the system until they sign up 1,000 members. I guess it can't be any good if Toronto isn't interested in it. If Toronto had of created BIXI though.. whoa! It would be all over every network and newspaper, hailed as a "Great Canadian Invention". Kind of like poutine is now! lol

 

In my opinion, what is needed here is an english language version of le Devoir or la Presse that will publish/broadcast not only to ROC but more importantly, to the rest of the english-speaking world. Relying on the Toronto (Canadian) media to give a balanced view of Québec is like relying on the Russian media to give an objective outlook on Chechnya. All we have is the Gazette, and that POS is arguably better at Québec bashing than anything in ROC!

Modifié 28 septembre 2010 par Habfanman

[Cyrus]

If the facts are true, then what is the debate? That BC is worse than us? Maybe? Corruption must not be tolerated in any form, we are a developed country not some African kleptocracy!

 

Quebec bashing... come on...

 

I seem to recall the scandale de commandites was all Quebec guys... even though it was "federal"...

 

And let's not forget only the "murky" issues surrounding road construction in Quebec, just one of many issues.