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Well, in fact CD-ROM is correct in French. Disque optique compact (DOC) is also correct. Cédérom is another way of spelling it. I share your disgust for this word :)

(source: Office de la langue française)

In Quebec, church-issued certificates of baptism have been useless for a few years now... if you need proof of birth, you have to request it from the Registrar of Civil Status.

And they're a pain in the butt to deal with. I moved to Ottawa from Toronto a few years ago, and due to a shortage of vacant apartments, I had to move to nearby Hull, in Quebec.

That meant changing my drivers' licence and my medical card over to the other provincial authorities.

I had a plastified "birth certificate" issued by Quebec, and I had to hand it in with my medical card request, and I was assured I'd get it back in the mail.

A few weeks later I get my medical card, but not my birth certificate. I call up the provincial medical insurance department to ask about it, and their records show I never submitted proof of birth, but that I did get my card. The civil servant was totally discombobulated. He agreed not to revoke my medical card, thank god, but I had to get a new certificate from Civil Status...

I call these people up, and order the "pocket size" version, and they send me an 8.5"x11" sheet of normal thin paper, with a detachable business card sized certificate, with the mention "void if plastified".

Turns out they don't issue plastic cards anymore. Just these fragile paper versions.

Though I heard recently that they were considering plastic cards again.

Tax dollars at work, people.

Uh, wouldn't it be France where real French is spoken?

I've heard at least three claims to be the "best" French:

Quebec, because they use the fewest anglicismes (thanks in part to the Office quebecois de la langue francaise), though their French maintains features that are archaic in France.

Liege, where les Liegeois universally claim they speak the best French.

The Loire Valley, where la Touraine is supposedly the best dialect of the bunch.

Moi? J'sais pas...(Me? Dunno...)

...laura

I like the comment about the "real office". Most managers simply don't understand that the fact that it's Free and costs nothing means that it's crap. I heard many people thinking that OpenOffice.org is nothing more than an office clone. It really isn't. It's much better.

Money is an argument but it shouldn't be the only one used. The added-value features have much more weight in the balance than money (at least for north american governments). It's quite easy to sell Mozilla or Firefox to a manager as a browser, as long as no applications depend on IE.

The learning curve of OpenOffice.org might cause problems to most of the staff. The point is to get the permission to use it and let those who want to use it. Since it has no license fee, it can be install on all machines anyway, right? Then once in a while, send them an sxw file by "mistake", just to make sure they remember it exists. Eventually, they will get used to it.

As for the official lobby part, there are quite a few people in Quebec on that task. A website with studies opened. Canadian departement of defense is also looking into it, but I'm not allowed to give links. It's just a matter of time, but since this is about bureaucracy, it might take long.

In the province of Quebec, if the item doesn't scan it ain't free but if the price at the cash register is wrong (especially if it's higher), the retailer has to give you the item if it's a less than 10$ item or a 10$ rebate if it's more. It's called the Price accuracy Policy. Also, the lowest advertized price prevails.

You gotta love our commy government! ;-)

My friend, let me enlighten you. Everyone who has had an accident while using a mobile phone has thought exactly the same thing: that they were able to chat (and worse, SMS!!) on their phone and drive quite safely ... right up until the point where they killed either themselves or someone else. Self-perceptions of risk are never reliable, and especially not in situations like this where other people get killed.

Those who are truly wrong in their assessment of the risk are liable. But not every accident that is blamed on distraction is in fact caused by distraction. And while some people are incorrect in assuming they can drive and do something else at the same time, other people do both together. Also, let me tell you about a more serious source of distraction than cell phones: passengers, particularly kids.

Driving doesn't need to be your only priority but it does have to be your first priority. And I mean that in a very strict preemptive real time OS scheduling sense. If you can't enforce your priorities, do not multitask!

The prohibitionist view is that any risk is unacceptable. horsefeathers. Some level of risk is reasonable. One must weight the risk/benefit ratio.

Consider, for comparison, the drunk driving witch hunt. Yes, some people really should not be driving and originally the compaign actually did some social good; now the campaign is socially harmful. Even the "drunk" with 0.10% BAC who drives 1 home mile at 168% greater risk of having an accident is less of a threat to society than the tetotaller who drives 10 miles to go to a movie. The drunk has 3.68 risk adjusted miles (1 getting to the bar, 2 going home) and the tetotaller 10 risk miles. Both could have stayed home. But the "drunk" at 0.10% BAC is the one who faces legal persecution (DUI), even if he doesn't get involved in an accident. Drinkers usually choose bars close to their homes. In fact, if he drives home at 17 miles an hour instead of 35 (assuming it is late so he can do so without blocking traffic), completely canceling out the risk of alcohol he greatly increases his chances of prosecution. Further, NHTSA statistics that cite the percentage of accidents involving alcohol blame alcohol if the BAC was 0.01% or greater (relative risk 1.03 vs. sober) whether or not the person who consumed alcohol caused the accident in whole or in part. Ok, 45% of fatal accidents "involved" alcohol. In what percentage did alcohol cause the accident? In what percentage were the people hurt not the ones drinking? What percentage of people who did not have accidents had 0.01% BAC or greater? Less than one third of the fatalities in accidents "involving" alcohol were third parties (i.e. not the driver or someone who accepted the elevated risk when they got into the car with them). 92% of accidents do not involve alcohol at all. Two thirds of fatal crashes involve BAC greater than 0.15% with an average of 0.17% (risk factor: 39.05), yet the witch hunters keep trying to lower the legal limits. There is no statistically significant improvement in fatality rates from lowering DWI limits from 0.10% and 0.08%, according to a former MADD chapter executive director who reveals that MADD's priority is stopping drinking, not saving lives. Not even MADD's founder endorses their current policy: "I worry that the movement I helped create has lost direction. [.08 legislation] ignores the real core of the problem...If we really want to save lives, let's go after the most dangerous drivers on the road. --Candy Lightner, founder of MADD"

Back to driver distraction.

• Better to mess up the inside of your car than the outside of your car. In other words, don't drink that 32 oz soda while you drive unless you are willing to throw it on t

>Also, there are no Language Police or anything like that.

Oh? Who are they? Perhaps you'd like to explain why the EFF call them language police?

The official name is "Inspector". Inspector is a term for a police officer that inspects crimes. Therefore, an inspector working for the French Language Office (the translation) would be a "Police Inspector for the French Language Office", or, in short "Language Police Officer".

Here's a little article on what I'm talking about.

"...in their zeal to defend French, the old guard's language police punish violators of Quebec's stringent language laws--for example, English on business signs is permitted but only if the lettering is one-third the size of the French letters--with fines and other threats against business activity."

"A Greek immigrant had a van on which he advertised his business--'Bill's Plumbing and Heating.' The language law forbids English on any vehicle whose owner pursues his trade exclusively in Quebec. His truck and tools were seized and auctioned off by the language police because he would not pay the fine imposed for putting "Bill's Plumbing" on the side of his truck. A mason making gravestones was also attacked because the epitaphs were not bilingual."

Emphasis mine.

>Like I said, there is no 'language police', but people can complain to the govt about a company advertising/having a sign only in english, and the company can be fined.

Then, exactly _who_ confiscated that man's gravestones, and the other man's truck? Do you expect they were willingly handed over?

Clearly, there are police enforcing this law. Making them... (drumroll)... language police. This is in the same line as a police officer checking meters is a "meter maid", and a police officer metering your speed on a road is a "road pirate".

>I do not personally agree with the law(and I'm french, but I find it stupid, especially the "the font must be X% bigger in french" part) but I reckon that it's at least a somewhat good attempt to try to protect our language and culture in a sea of english speaking people, I wasn't able to find another one.

Perhaps we should just hole up english speakers in internment camps until they learn to speak the "right" language.

And you would wonder why people hate the French.

>And, BTW, like anything(religion, race, language, etc.), some people always act badly and are filled with hate, but don't let them fool you, the french speaking people are usually friendly toward other canadians and americans, and if you come downtown or in the west part of Montreal(which is the english speaking community), 90%+ of the people will speak english anyway so you won't have a problem. Heck, the whole west island is english only, not many speaks french there.

That's exciting. This person from Quebec actually explained how most of the Anglophones in the west island moved out because they couldn't work with the new laws (which, BTW, consistently violate Canada's Charter of Rights -- Quebec has to, every 5 years, pass themselves an exemption to the rights the rest of Canada enjoys), and that now, when he vists where his business and home was, he feels like an unwanted stranger.

If the Canadian French are so welcoming towards visitors, why do they consistently choose to almost uniformly elect the Bloc Quebecois, a party dedicated to the hatred of all that is Canadian and English? A party that has, on numerous occasions, attempted to separate Quebec from Canada? A party that managed to convince 49.97% of Quebecers that the English and Canadians were ruining their lives?

Fuck Quebec and their decision to continue to implement language police.

In any case we had to file her name with an 'E' so don't waste your time.

Embed the sensors in the roads..

I use this every day to choose which way to go home (red on Decarie (the 15) is particularly bad).

S

Here in Montreal, they buried a bunch of sensors into the ground under the major highways. These sensors track in realtime the flow of traffic, so you can have an instant glimpse at the entire network's traffic status, and find out where to avoid. For now it's a small portion of the roads, but it's already proven to be very effective. Can't wait until more roads have that and the map! See it here.

There are much more anonymous ways to detect traffic problems.

S

My, them chickens are good eatin'... Can't get nothing like that off the plantation!

I don't know about them chickens, but I do know about the (Montreal) chicks! Ask anybody who lives in or has visited Montreal and they will all tell you how hot, friendly and approchable the women are around here! Yes, I live on the island myself.

Believe me, you cannot spend a year in Montreal and stay a virgin, even if you are a computer nerd!

Ever wonder why "Je me souviens" (translation: I remember) is written on our license plates here in Quebec? ;-)

Opt-out are also not permitted. If you subscribe to a magazine for example, the form should not contain "Check here if you don't want us to share your info".

here is the text of the law

I second this proposal : the Canadian Normalized Keyboard has a huge lot of symbols, including accented capitals, french guillemots, and other useful digraphs like Spanish punctuation, copyright/divide/multiply/etc. symbols, and so on (sorry I can't show them, the lameness filter has apparently decided that showing characters is lame :-)... Sure, you can get all this with your Compose key if you're an Unix guy, or with Alt and a good understanding of the ASCII table if you're a Microserf :-) But it's a lot more pleasant to be able to type them directly. Note this keyboard has no writings whatsoever on the keys, it only use pictograms to avoid making two versions of the keyboard (one labeled in French and another in English). I did find a picture of the key arrangement (descriptions in French. Sorry, couldn't find an English-labeled image, but the keys described are obvious enough anyway). They also have a list of resellers providing this item (incomplete, though).

As an aside, if someone knows how to get that beast in France, I would be glad if he would let me know the address (no, I won't pay the astronomic shipping fees from Canada).

I second this proposal : the Canadian Normalized Keyboard has a huge lot of symbols, including accented capitals, french guillemots, and other useful digraphs like Spanish punctuation, copyright/divide/multiply/etc. symbols, and so on (sorry I can't show them, the lameness filter has apparently decided that showing characters is lame :-)... Sure, you can get all this with your Compose key if you're an Unix guy, or with Alt and a good understanding of the ASCII table if you're a Microserf :-) But it's a lot more pleasant to be able to type them directly. Note this keyboard has no writings whatsoever on the keys, it only use pictograms to avoid making two versions of the keyboard (one labeled in French and another in English). I did find a picture of the key arrangement (descriptions in French. Sorry, couldn't find an English-labeled image, but the keys described are obvious enough anyway). They also have a list of resellers providing this item (incomplete, though).

As an aside, if someone knows how to get that beast in France, I would be glad if he would let me know the address (no, I won't pay the astronomic shipping fees from Canada).

Actually there are lots of linguists in Quebec that works hard at defining French words for a lot of things that didn't have one.

If you want to, you can check the Quebec 'official' translation for each computer-related term. The site is in French only.

Or you could check Wikipedia.org on Quebecois French

But i can imagine that most of you just don't care :)

Similarly, the French have l'Académie française, responsible for the French lexicon since Louis XIII. Of course, in other parts of the world, the language is butchered mercilessly. In parts of Québec and in northern Ontario, I have heard phrases like (overheard this one in a bar)

" 'ey boys! J'ai trouvé un lighter!"

Presumably, the fellow had found a lighter...

The introduction of English words into the French language in Québec prompted the provincial government many years ago to establish a 'language police' (the Office québécois de la langue française), charged with ensuring that product labels and outdoor signage in the province have appropriate French content. It's a losing battle, but it's amusing to watch the fight, sometimes.

Show me proof that a community exists in Canada that has Catholic and Protestant school boards, or a secular school that has crosses all over it. Admission and Enrolment of Students for the 1998-99 School Year

http://www.meq.gouv.qc.ca/REFORME/info_ref/anglais /number3.htm
The Québec education system is undergoing the most important reform in its history. On July 1, 1998, the existing Catholic and Protestant school boards will be replaced by new French-language and English-language school boards. The Québec education system is undergoing the most important reform in its history. On July 1, 1998, the existing Catholic and Protestant school boards will be replaced by new French-language and English-language school boards.

Not today, but certianly while you were of appropriate age if you'd been in their jurisdiction.

Try gravy on the words, helps them go down better.

In Quebec its French only.

No its not! The government of Québec's page is not only in french and english, but also in spanish.

Check some facts once in a while.

You can find the english/french correspondance for some things at http://www.olf.gouv.qc.ca/index.html

In Quebec, which is fairly social-democrat compared to the rest of North America, by law an employer must spend an amount corresponding to at least 5% of the salaries budget on employee training and education. This applies to any company with at least a certain number of employees (I believe the threshold is something like 10 or 20). This helps companies realize that there are benefits to letting your employees learn more. Many companies in the high tech business end up spending much more than that. For instance, it's funny to see how many people speak Canadian French at SIGGRAPH.

find the site where my (@#$@#$^%) software was going

submit the data myself

have the submission tracked

have everything clearly explained

Just so you know, it has changed to 3rd grade rencently. Even so, having mandatory english classes starting at the 4th grade is in my book pretty good, though 3rd grade is better. You may not feel that way and you're entitled to your opinion.

And CEGEPs were free (you didn't pay for classes, but you did pay for books). Yes, things have changed since then. But I was talking about it at their creation. Right now, students pay 7% in tuition of the actual cost, and it's 12% for university students ( http://www.meq.gouv.qc.ca/MINISTRE/ minis96/frais.htm - find 'cegep' on the page).

Didn't a bunch of Canadian Indians (Iraquois? Mohawk?) stage a revolt with semi-automatic weapons a few years ago?

That was the Oka crisis in the early 1990's. The Quebec government allowed a golf course to be built on some land near Oka, Que. A group of Mohawk claimed the land was sacred ground (may have been a burial ground, it was a long time ago). Mohawk Warriors showed up in support, set up

BZAPP!!! Wrong answer.
The city of OKA allowed the construction of the golf course over the ancient burial ground; a blockade ensued for a few weeks, when the Sûreté du Québec (police) was called to dismantle it. In the ensuing mêlée, an officer was killed.

(By the way, Oka is the algonquin name; mohawks call it Kahnesatake. Once mohawks settled there, they gradually drove out the algonquins and hurons who lived there elsewhere).

The land in dispute around Oka is not, and never has been an indian reserve, as it is commonly assumed, and this explains the involvement of the Sûreté du Québec rather than the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (federal) normally used in case of indian revolts (such as the Kahnawake revolt in 1956 against the construction of the Saint-Lawrence Seaway - Oddly enough, the picture on the website is taken at Kahnawake; the bridge is the Mercier bridge, which was blockaded in 1990). As a matter of fact, the federal government department of indian affairs has been purposely been dragging it's feet in this matter, the more so because it helps tarnishing the image of Québec towards the world.

In Canada, indian affairs are a federal jurisdiction, so to better control them and use it against the french who want more control over their lifes. But in the OKA case, the land where mohawks have been living never had the status of reserve. In fact, that land was donated by a french religious (whose name escapes me) order to american mohawks that were fleeing the genocide perpetrated against the mohawk nation in upstate new-york, in the early 1800's, even though the mohawks/iroquois were the ennemies of the french (well, that was when they were useful to the english at war against the french - but when they were no longer useful, after the american Revolution, they were simply exterminated and driven out).

Other mohawks settled in Kahnawake , immediately south of Montréal (the site is worth visiting, being written in mohawk - see below).

barricades, and held a standoff. A second standoff took place on the Mercier Bridge. I believe those standoffs ended peacefully. Another standoff took place at the Ipperwash military base in Ontario; a group of natives claimed the land had been unlawfully taken from them. One native was shot and killed; there have been calls for an inquest into who gave the shooting order.

It is interesting to note that while in Québec, the weeks-long blockade had almost totally cut the road to some important suburbs of Montréal and thus inconvenienced untold thousands of commuters (to the point that an emergency commuter train service had to be implemented), not a single mohawk has been killed by police nor army, whilst a little band of indians in Ontario blocking a little backroad saw one of theirs shot dead by police after only a few days of obstruction. This clearly shows the inherent racism of the english and the high tolerance of the french. In fact, in Québec, 20% of the carceral population is indian, whilst in the rest of Canada, it is 80%.

As for Quebec, even the Quebecois have become sick of the separation mess. The government there has been trying to incite separtist feeling time and time again, but I don't think they're

There is no rush, it is inevitable; history clearly shows that a people's desire for sovereignty (it is not separation nor separatism, we've always been a separate nation) cannot be suppressed indefinitely.

going to pull it off anytime soon. Still, the Parti Quebecois (the ruling party) is pretty paranoid about English - ask a Canadian about the "tongue troopers" and Bill 101 sometime.

The purpose of bill 101 is to protect the existence of the french language in Québec against the onslaught of neighbouring english. The most visible effects have been the prohibition of english commercial signs, and the impossibility for immigrants to go to english schools.

The main idea there is to drive home the point that one cannot expect to live in Québec without knowing french.

Even though more than 80% of the population of Québec is french, immigrants have systematically assimilated themselves into the english community, since the immigration is a federal jurisdiction (the federal govenrment still does not inform immigrants that Québec is primarly french, and encourages them to speak english), and for the last quarter millenium (th e french first came to settle in 1604, thus beating the Mayf lower), the english have been labouring hard to make the french disappear from Canada (in 1760, at the time of the conquest, the french were 90% of the population; in 1867, at the time of the confederation, the french were 50% of the population; nowadays, the french are only 24% of the population). Ethnic cleansing in Canada has been quite successful: large segments of french population outside of Québec have been almost totally eliminated. In the 1880's, a whole french province, Manitoba, was forcibly repressed and turned into an english province. Ontario outlawed the teaching of french language in schools back in 1912. And, as recently as 1977, airlines pilots were susceptible to jail terms if they spoke french during the performance of their duties.

The expression "tongue troopers" is a bogeyman of the english media. The office de la langue française do not hire inspectors to report violations, but rather relies on the public to file complaints, which are then investigated by inspectors.

Another less known (and much less publicized, it would definitely shatter the negative image of Québec the federal government has consistently been trying to portray) effect of bill 101 is the protection it extends to native languages. This is why the Kahnawake website is in mohawk language: Québec has the highest proportion of native speaking their native language (over 80%) whereas in Canada, only the older generations speak the native languages, as the young have been mercilessly taught in schools that viciously suppressed any use of the native language.

Bill 101 is a very mild instrument whose purpose is to undo centuries of extremely harsh treatment.

There's some East-West tension; Alberta, Saskatchewan and parts of Manitoba and B.C. tend to be more conservative than the rest of the country. Nothing vicious; the last really ugly conflict was during the last Quebec referendum (of course).

Of course. This is the typical cluelessness that can be expected out of the english in Canada towards the french. And they wonder why the french want to go out...

--
Here's my mirror

Didn't a bunch of Canadian Indians (Iraquois? Mohawk?) stage a revolt with semi-automatic weapons a few years ago?

That was the Oka crisis in the early 1990's. The Quebec government allowed a golf course to be built on some land near Oka, Que. A group of Mohawk claimed the land was sacred ground (may have been a burial ground, it was a long time ago). Mohawk Warriors showed up in support, set up

BZAPP!!! Wrong answer.
The city of OKA allowed the construction of the golf course over the ancient burial ground; a blockade ensued for a few weeks, when the Sûreté du Québec (police) was called to dismantle it. In the ensuing mêlée, an officer was killed.

(By the way, Oka is the algonquin name; mohawks call it Kahnesatake. Once mohawks settled there, they gradually drove out the algonquins and hurons who lived there elsewhere).

The land in dispute around Oka is not, and never has been an indian reserve, as it is commonly assumed, and this explains the involvement of the Sûreté du Québec rather than the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (federal) normally used in case of indian revolts (such as the Kahnawake revolt in 1956 against the construction of the Saint-Lawrence Seaway - Oddly enough, the picture on the website is taken at Kahnawake; the bridge is the Mercier bridge, which was blockaded in 1990). As a matter of fact, the federal government department of indian affairs has been purposely been dragging it's feet in this matter, the more so because it helps tarnishing the image of Québec towards the world.

In Canada, indian affairs are a federal jurisdiction, so to better control them and use it against the french who want more control over their lifes. But in the OKA case, the land where mohawks have been living never had the status of reserve. In fact, that land was donated by a french religious (whose name escapes me) order to american mohawks that were fleeing the genocide perpetrated against the mohawk nation in upstate new-york, in the early 1800's, even though the mohawks/iroquois were the ennemies of the french (well, that was when they were useful to the english at war against the french - but when they were no longer useful, after the american Revolution, they were simply exterminated and driven out).

Other mohawks settled in Kahnawake , immediately south of Montréal (the site is worth visiting, being written in mohawk - see below).

barricades, and held a standoff. A second standoff took place on the Mercier Bridge. I believe those standoffs ended peacefully. Another standoff took place at the Ipperwash military base in Ontario; a group of natives claimed the land had been unlawfully taken from them. One native was shot and killed; there have been calls for an inquest into who gave the shooting order.

It is interesting to note that while in Québec, the weeks-long blockade had almost totally cut the road to some important suburbs of Montréal and thus inconvenienced untold thousands of commuters (to the point that an emergency commuter train service had to be implemented), not a single mohawk has been killed by police nor army, whilst a little band of indians in Ontario blocking a little backroad saw one of theirs shot dead by police after only a few days of obstruction. This clearly shows the inherent racism of the english and the high tolerance of the french. In fact, in Québec, 20% of the carceral population is indian, whilst in the rest of Canada, it is 80%.

As for Quebec, even the Quebecois have become sick of the separation mess. The government there has been trying to incite separtist feeling time and time again, but I don't think they're

There is no rush, it is inevitable; history clearly shows that a people's desire for sovereignty (it is not separation nor separatism, we've always been a separate nation) cannot be suppressed indefinitely.

going to pull it off anytime soon. Still, the Parti Quebecois (the ruling party) is pretty paranoid about English - ask a Canadian about the "tongue troopers" and Bill 101 sometime.

The purpose of bill 101 is to protect the existence of the french language in Québec against the onslaught of neighbouring english. The most visible effects have been the prohibition of english commercial signs, and the impossibility for immigrants to go to english schools.

The main idea there is to drive home the point that one cannot expect to live in Québec without knowing french.

Even though more than 80% of the population of Québec is french, immigrants have systematically assimilated themselves into the english community, since the immigration is a federal jurisdiction (the federal govenrment still does not inform immigrants that Québec is primarly french, and encourages them to speak english), and for the last quarter millenium (th e french first came to settle in 1604, thus beating the Mayf lower), the english have been labouring hard to make the french disappear from Canada (in 1760, at the time of the conquest, the french were 90% of the population; in 1867, at the time of the confederation, the french were 50% of the population; nowadays, the french are only 24% of the population). Ethnic cleansing in Canada has been quite successful: large segments of french population outside of Québec have been almost totally eliminated. In the 1880's, a whole french province, Manitoba, was forcibly repressed and turned into an english province. Ontario outlawed the teaching of french language in schools back in 1912. And, as recently as 1977, airlines pilots were susceptible to jail terms if they spoke french during the performance of their duties.

The expression "tongue troopers" is a bogeyman of the english media. The office de la langue française do not hire inspectors to report violations, but rather relies on the public to file complaints, which are then investigated by inspectors.

Another less known (and much less publicized, it would definitely shatter the negative image of Québec the federal government has consistently been trying to portray) effect of bill 101 is the protection it extends to native languages. This is why the Kahnawake website is in mohawk language: Québec has the highest proportion of native speaking their native language (over 80%) whereas in Canada, only the older generations speak the native languages, as the young have been mercilessly taught in schools that viciously suppressed any use of the native language.

Bill 101 is a very mild instrument whose purpose is to undo centuries of extremely harsh treatment.

There's some East-West tension; Alberta, Saskatchewan and parts of Manitoba and B.C. tend to be more conservative than the rest of the country. Nothing vicious; the last really ugly conflict was during the last Quebec referendum (of course).

Of course. This is the typical cluelessness that can be expected out of the english in Canada towards the french. And they wonder why the french want to go out...

--
Here's my mirror

Didn't a bunch of Canadian Indians (Iraquois? Mohawk?) stage a revolt with semi-automatic weapons a few years ago?

That was the Oka crisis in the early 1990's. The Quebec government allowed a golf course to be built on some land near Oka, Que. A group of Mohawk claimed the land was sacred ground (may have been a burial ground, it was a long time ago). Mohawk Warriors showed up in support, set up

BZAPP!!! Wrong answer.
The city of OKA allowed the construction of the golf course over the ancient burial ground; a blockade ensued for a few weeks, when the Sûreté du Québec (police) was called to dismantle it. In the ensuing mêlée, an officer was killed.

(By the way, Oka is the algonquin name; mohawks call it Kahnesatake. Once mohawks settled there, they gradually drove out the algonquins and hurons who lived there elsewhere).

The land in dispute around Oka is not, and never has been an indian reserve, as it is commonly assumed, and this explains the involvement of the Sûreté du Québec rather than the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (federal) normally used in case of indian revolts (such as the Kahnawake revolt in 1956 against the construction of the Saint-Lawrence Seaway - Oddly enough, the picture on the website is taken at Kahnawake; the bridge is the Mercier bridge, which was blockaded in 1990). As a matter of fact, the federal government department of indian affairs has been purposely been dragging it's feet in this matter, the more so because it helps tarnishing the image of Québec towards the world.

In Canada, indian affairs are a federal jurisdiction, so to better control them and use it against the french who want more control over their lifes. But in the OKA case, the land where mohawks have been living never had the status of reserve. In fact, that land was donated by a french religious (whose name escapes me) order to american mohawks that were fleeing the genocide perpetrated against the mohawk nation in upstate new-york, in the early 1800's, even though the mohawks/iroquois were the ennemies of the french (well, that was when they were useful to the english at war against the french - but when they were no longer useful, after the american Revolution, they were simply exterminated and driven out).

Other mohawks settled in Kahnawake , immediately south of Montréal (the site is worth visiting, being written in mohawk - see below).

barricades, and held a standoff. A second standoff took place on the Mercier Bridge. I believe those standoffs ended peacefully. Another standoff took place at the Ipperwash military base in Ontario; a group of natives claimed the land had been unlawfully taken from them. One native was shot and killed; there have been calls for an inquest into who gave the shooting order.

It is interesting to note that while in Québec, the weeks-long blockade had almost totally cut the road to some important suburbs of Montréal and thus inconvenienced untold thousands of commuters (to the point that an emergency commuter train service had to be implemented), not a single mohawk has been killed by police nor army, whilst a little band of indians in Ontario blocking a little backroad saw one of theirs shot dead by police after only a few days of obstruction. This clearly shows the inherent racism of the english and the high tolerance of the french. In fact, in Québec, 20% of the carceral population is indian, whilst in the rest of Canada, it is 80%.

As for Quebec, even the Quebecois have become sick of the separation mess. The government there has been trying to incite separtist feeling time and time again, but I don't think they're

There is no rush, it is inevitable; history clearly shows that a people's desire for sovereignty (it is not separation nor separatism, we've always been a separate nation) cannot be suppressed indefinitely.

going to pull it off anytime soon. Still, the Parti Quebecois (the ruling party) is pretty paranoid about English - ask a Canadian about the "tongue troopers" and Bill 101 sometime.

The purpose of bill 101 is to protect the existence of the french language in Québec against the onslaught of neighbouring english. The most visible effects have been the prohibition of english commercial signs, and the impossibility for immigrants to go to english schools.

The main idea there is to drive home the point that one cannot expect to live in Québec without knowing french.

Even though more than 80% of the population of Québec is french, immigrants have systematically assimilated themselves into the english community, since the immigration is a federal jurisdiction (the federal govenrment still does not inform immigrants that Québec is primarly french, and encourages them to speak english), and for the last quarter millenium (th e french first came to settle in 1604, thus beating the Mayf lower), the english have been labouring hard to make the french disappear from Canada (in 1760, at the time of the conquest, the french were 90% of the population; in 1867, at the time of the confederation, the french were 50% of the population; nowadays, the french are only 24% of the population). Ethnic cleansing in Canada has been quite successful: large segments of french population outside of Québec have been almost totally eliminated. In the 1880's, a whole french province, Manitoba, was forcibly repressed and turned into an english province. Ontario outlawed the teaching of french language in schools back in 1912. And, as recently as 1977, airlines pilots were susceptible to jail terms if they spoke french during the performance of their duties.

The expression "tongue troopers" is a bogeyman of the english media. The office de la langue française do not hire inspectors to report violations, but rather relies on the public to file complaints, which are then investigated by inspectors.

Another less known (and much less publicized, it would definitely shatter the negative image of Québec the federal government has consistently been trying to portray) effect of bill 101 is the protection it extends to native languages. This is why the Kahnawake website is in mohawk language: Québec has the highest proportion of native speaking their native language (over 80%) whereas in Canada, only the older generations speak the native languages, as the young have been mercilessly taught in schools that viciously suppressed any use of the native language.

Bill 101 is a very mild instrument whose purpose is to undo centuries of extremely harsh treatment.

There's some East-West tension; Alberta, Saskatchewan and parts of Manitoba and B.C. tend to be more conservative than the rest of the country. Nothing vicious; the last really ugly conflict was during the last Quebec referendum (of course).

Of course. This is the typical cluelessness that can be expected out of the english in Canada towards the french. And they wonder why the french want to go out...

--
Here's my mirror

Didn't a bunch of Canadian Indians (Iraquois? Mohawk?) stage a revolt with semi-automatic weapons a few years ago?

That was the Oka crisis in the early 1990's. The Quebec government allowed a golf course to be built on some land near Oka, Que. A group of Mohawk claimed the land was sacred ground (may have been a burial ground, it was a long time ago). Mohawk Warriors showed up in support, set up

BZAPP!!! Wrong answer.
The city of OKA allowed the construction of the golf course over the ancient burial ground; a blockade ensued for a few weeks, when the Sûreté du Québec (police) was called to dismantle it. In the ensuing mêlée, an officer was killed.

(By the way, Oka is the algonquin name; mohawks call it Kahnesatake. Once mohawks settled there, they gradually drove out the algonquins and hurons who lived there elsewhere).

The land in dispute around Oka is not, and never has been an indian reserve, as it is commonly assumed, and this explains the involvement of the Sûreté du Québec rather than the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (federal) normally used in case of indian revolts (such as the Kahnawake revolt in 1956 against the construction of the Saint-Lawrence Seaway - Oddly enough, the picture on the website is taken at Kahnawake; the bridge is the Mercier bridge, which was blockaded in 1990). As a matter of fact, the federal government department of indian affairs has been purposely been dragging it's feet in this matter, the more so because it helps tarnishing the image of Québec towards the world.

In Canada, indian affairs are a federal jurisdiction, so to better control them and use it against the french who want more control over their lifes. But in the OKA case, the land where mohawks have been living never had the status of reserve. In fact, that land was donated by a french religious (whose name escapes me) order to american mohawks that were fleeing the genocide perpetrated against the mohawk nation in upstate new-york, in the early 1800's, even though the mohawks/iroquois were the ennemies of the french (well, that was when they were useful to the english at war against the french - but when they were no longer useful, after the american Revolution, they were simply exterminated and driven out).

Other mohawks settled in Kahnawake , immediately south of Montréal (the site is worth visiting, being written in mohawk - see below).

barricades, and held a standoff. A second standoff took place on the Mercier Bridge. I believe those standoffs ended peacefully. Another standoff took place at the Ipperwash military base in Ontario; a group of natives claimed the land had been unlawfully taken from them. One native was shot and killed; there have been calls for an inquest into who gave the shooting order.

It is interesting to note that while in Québec, the weeks-long blockade had almost totally cut the road to some important suburbs of Montréal and thus inconvenienced untold thousands of commuters (to the point that an emergency commuter train service had to be implemented), not a single mohawk has been killed by police nor army, whilst a little band of indians in Ontario blocking a little backroad saw one of theirs shot dead by police after only a few days of obstruction. This clearly shows the inherent racism of the english and the high tolerance of the french. In fact, in Québec, 20% of the carceral population is indian, whilst in the rest of Canada, it is 80%.

As for Quebec, even the Quebecois have become sick of the separation mess. The government there has been trying to incite separtist feeling time and time again, but I don't think they're

There is no rush, it is inevitable; history clearly shows that a people's desire for sovereignty (it is not separation nor separatism, we've always been a separate nation) cannot be suppressed indefinitely.

going to pull it off anytime soon. Still, the Parti Quebecois (the ruling party) is pretty paranoid about English - ask a Canadian about the "tongue troopers" and Bill 101 sometime.

The purpose of bill 101 is to protect the existence of the french language in Québec against the onslaught of neighbouring english. The most visible effects have been the prohibition of english commercial signs, and the impossibility for immigrants to go to english schools.

The main idea there is to drive home the point that one cannot expect to live in Québec without knowing french.

Even though more than 80% of the population of Québec is french, immigrants have systematically assimilated themselves into the english community, since the immigration is a federal jurisdiction (the federal govenrment still does not inform immigrants that Québec is primarly french, and encourages them to speak english), and for the last quarter millenium (th e french first came to settle in 1604, thus beating the Mayf lower), the english have been labouring hard to make the french disappear from Canada (in 1760, at the time of the conquest, the french were 90% of the population; in 1867, at the time of the confederation, the french were 50% of the population; nowadays, the french are only 24% of the population). Ethnic cleansing in Canada has been quite successful: large segments of french population outside of Québec have been almost totally eliminated. In the 1880's, a whole french province, Manitoba, was forcibly repressed and turned into an english province. Ontario outlawed the teaching of french language in schools back in 1912. And, as recently as 1977, airlines pilots were susceptible to jail terms if they spoke french during the performance of their duties.

The expression "tongue troopers" is a bogeyman of the english media. The office de la langue française do not hire inspectors to report violations, but rather relies on the public to file complaints, which are then investigated by inspectors.

Another less known (and much less publicized, it would definitely shatter the negative image of Québec the federal government has consistently been trying to portray) effect of bill 101 is the protection it extends to native languages. This is why the Kahnawake website is in mohawk language: Québec has the highest proportion of native speaking their native language (over 80%) whereas in Canada, only the older generations speak the native languages, as the young have been mercilessly taught in schools that viciously suppressed any use of the native language.

Bill 101 is a very mild instrument whose purpose is to undo centuries of extremely harsh treatment.

There's some East-West tension; Alberta, Saskatchewan and parts of Manitoba and B.C. tend to be more conservative than the rest of the country. Nothing vicious; the last really ugly conflict was during the last Quebec referendum (of course).

Of course. This is the typical cluelessness that can be expected out of the english in Canada towards the french. And they wonder why the french want to go out...

--
Here's my mirror