Another Markus Rant
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Immigration, Employment and the Death of New Brunswick …a rant from the front porch.
The unemployment rate in New Brunswick is 11%
Before I begin, I’d like to take a page out of Lawyer, Constitutional expert and University of Moncton prof Michel Doucet’s playbook and get you to read the Constitutional Amendment to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Unlike Mr. Doucet, I’m not going to twist the interpretation for my own agenda or speak down to you like an infant. You are smart, fair-minded folks. I’m going to let you understand it for yourself:
16.1 (1) The English linguistic community and the French linguistic community in New Brunswick have equality of status and equal rights and privileges, including the right to distinct educational institutions and such distinct cultural institutions as are necessary for the preservation and promotion of those communities.
(It is) the role of the legislature and government of New Brunswick to preserve and promote the status, rights and privileges (of BOTH linguistic communities).
Got it? Ok good, now let’s get a little background to my point.
In March of this year, New Brunswick Official Languages Commissioner Katherine d’Entremont was in Ottawa petitioning for more money to promote French immigration to New Brunswick…Why? To beef up the French-speaking population and help stop the assimilation of Francophone New Brunswick. That’s correct, the Languages Commissioner asking for money to help Immigration. Not to bore you with numbers, but stats show the overall retention rate of immigrants to New Brunswick sits at just over 40%.* Think about that. For every 10 people you help immigrate to our province, 6 of them end up going to another province or back home and as they look in the rear-view mirror they’re saying ‘See ya later suckers! Thanks for the free ride!’ This neither preserves nor promotes the rights of English OR French linguistic communities in New Brunswick. d’Entremont is so far beyond the title and scope of her mandate I’m surprised she still feels the effects of gravity.
Ok….I need to calm down and get to my point…I know…let’s go on a trip.
Take a moment and imagine you’re in the quaint little town of Albi in the south of France. It’s June, it’s sunny and you’ve just had the most delightful filet de boeuf charolais on the terrace of a quaint café. You pay the bill, loosen your belt a notch and decide to take a walk. You round a corner and notice a tented booth with the word ‘Acadie’ in big bold letters and the Provincial NB logo down on the corner. Intrigued you approach the two young people manning the booth…..ok…stop imagining this scenario and lets’ get down to reality. This booth really did exist** and when interviewed, the two young people said they were there to promote and encourage young people from France to come get an education and eventually work in our French province of New Brunswick. Why? To protect the French language/culture and regulate the arrival of Anglo-Saxons. Anglo-Saxons? Seriously? How did these two young people get over to France? Did they travel on a Viking ship? We haven’t been called Anglo-Saxons since text messages were sent via smoke signal or pigeon!
Did I mention the unemployment rate in New Brunswick currently sits at 11%?
Flash forward to late June in Paris where our Provincial Liberal government sent Minister Francine Landry who among other titles is the minister responsible for La Francophonie. Her mission? To promote New Brunswick along with other educational institutions including … surprise! surprise! U de Moncton. Minister Landry stated: “The provincial government is determined to attract and retain immigrants as part of our efforts to increase the New Brunswick population.”*** She stopped short of saying that the Gallant government wants to regulate the arrival of Anglo-Saxons. She must have skipped the Viking ship and probably sends her text messages on a Blackberry paid for by NB taxpayers.
But I digress…..how about another trip?
This time we head off to Lorient on the west coast of France in the Brittany region. This August there is a huge festival going on to support ‘Experience Acadie’.**** What’s that you say? According to their website, the festival is a place where you can experience Acadian music till dawn, buy beer, Acadian CD’s, flags, and souvenirs and learn about Acadia from one of the 70 Acadian delegates sent over this year. Yep … 70 delegates and that’s not including the performers and other support staff.
But wait, what is Acadia you ask? Acadia encompasses New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island according to the website… although, if you scroll down to the bottom of the web page you’ll notice a familiar logo showing that NB is the only provincial sponsor. The delegates will gladly tell you about the national holiday of Canada called ‘Tintamarre’ that’s held every August 15th. They also want you to know that Acadian pride is still alive despite the deportation. Yes, they’re talking about 1755 like a scorned ex-girlfriend holding a grudge over her time-travelling boyfriend from the modern day. It was over 250 years ago! I have no problem whatsoever with people having Acadian pride. The Acadian decedents represent a long rich culture and are an integral part of the history of New Brunswick. I can also understand wanting to be served in the language of your choice. New Brunswick is a bilingual province after all!
What some people fail to understand is that there is nobody alive who was directly involved in the ‘expulsion’. We welcomed you back, lived, worked, played, worshipped, fell in love, had families together and created our own unique New Brunswick culture 200 years before official bilingualism even existed. Get over it!
Now…let’s get back to our 11% unemployment rate. Within a week of hearing the news, Premier Gallant along with other U de Moncton alum held a meeting with the Éminence Grise’ otherwise known as the Société de l’Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick (SANB). Two days later Brian is in the news blaming his failure to create jobs on the Federal government yet has no problem whatsoever sending Katherine d’Entremont to Ottawa with her hand out. She demands millions to emigrate people from France and take jobs that apparently don’t exist….and the reasoning behind it is to fight assimilation?! How is it legal to use taxpayer and transfer money to create an immigration policy based on the discrimination of non-French speakers? Is that not a human rights violation of some sort?
I went back as far as 1951 and according to Statistics Canada, the percentage of people in New Brunswick with French as their mother tongue has not decreased! Assimilation is a boogeyman in the closet…a monster under the bed. It only exists in the minds of those who listen to the likes of the SANB and believe the teachings of history twisting French educational institutions. The English language, people and culture are vilified to a point that at a very young age many Francophone children are brainwashed to believe they will never be happy outside of the unattainable utopia of an entirely French New Brunswick.
For the NB Liberal government to perpetuate this fallacy and spend millions of dollars to promote Immigration of French speakers from other lands not only goes against their duty to promote equal status, rights and privileges of the English community, it is a slap in the face to French New Brunswick! It’s like saying our Francophone New Brunswickers are not good enough or smart enough to work, live and promote their own culture.
New Brunswick is broke and dying. English. French. We’re all feeling the effects.
- Our young people are fleeing the province for work while the Gallant government gives away jobs/contracts to Quebec.
- Scores of highly trained, highly skilled, highly experienced workers are being overlooked or replaced because they are English speaking or not ‘French enough’.
- Schools and hospitals are overcrowded, literally crumbling or being shut down under the weight of duality.
- Seniors are being gouged of their life savings.
- Natural resources are either being given away or underutilized.
- French children can’t travel on the same bus with English children because according to Education Minister Serge Rousselle, school busses are ‘distinct educational institutions’. It’s a school bus!!! Aside from getting me safely to and from school, the only education I received on a bus was how to spit out the window, kiss Jennifer in the back seat and learn how to swear in both official languages, because back then we both travelled on the same damned bus!!!
Alright…back to my point.
Property tax and vehicle registration costs are climbing and we’re paying for a 3-month long party in France under the guise of promoting immigration to boost our population and stop the mythical assimilation of the French?! The puppet masters of Brian Gallant are using their influence to push forward the systematic eradication and white collar expulsion……the white collar apartheid of English rights in New Brunswick . ENOUGH!!
It’s time for the people Canada and New Brunswick to wake up and become aware of who is truly running the province!
It’s time for the Liberal government to be held accountable for their failure and corrupt agenda!
Finally, I’d like to apologize. To the majority of my French friends and descendants of Acadians, you are a vibrant, fun and important fabric of our province. I’m sorry you’re being pulled into this nonsense and I’m sorry for any intolerant, uneducated Anglo’s you encounter. To those of you who are champions of English rights and the rights of the citizens of New Brunswick. I’m sorry that you are verbally and physically abused and assaulted by the ignorant and small minded who don’t understand that standing up for equality doesn’t mean you’re treading on French ‘rights’. I want you to understand that you are not alone. We’re not a crazy bunch of tinfoil hat wearing radical nut jobs. We are a legion of thousands and our voice is starting to be heard. Personally, I wish I could do more. But alas…I’m just a man sitting on the porch, drinking scotch and yelling at the river.
CONTINUE THE FIGHT. PROMOTE THE CAUSE. EDUCATE WITH FACTS. ENGLISH. FRENCH.
STAND UP FOR NEW BRUNSWICK!
Sources:
*Statistics Canada
** ladepeche.fr – Article published July 8.
***New Brunswick Gov’t press release
Immigration, Employment and the Death of New Brunswick …a rant from the front porch.
The unemployment rate in New Brunswick is 11%
Before I begin, I’d like to take a page out of Lawyer, Constitutional expert and University of Moncton prof Michel Doucet’s playbook and get you to read the Constitutional Amendment to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Unlike Mr. Doucet, I’m not going to twist the interpretation for my own agenda or speak down to you like an infant. You are smart, fair-minded folks. I’m going to let you understand it for yourself:
16.1 (1) The English linguistic community and the French linguistic community in New Brunswick have equality of status and equal rights and privileges, including the right to distinct educational institutions and such distinct cultural institutions as are necessary for the preservation and promotion of those communities.
(It is) the role of the legislature and government of New Brunswick to preserve and promote the status, rights and privileges (of BOTH linguistic communities).
Got it? Ok good, now let’s get a little background to my point.
In March of this year, New Brunswick Official Languages Commissioner Katherine d’Entremont was in Ottawa petitioning for more money to promote French immigration to New Brunswick…Why? To beef up the French-speaking population and help stop the assimilation of Francophone New Brunswick. That’s correct, the Languages Commissioner asking for money to help Immigration. Not to bore you with numbers, but stats show the overall retention rate of immigrants to New Brunswick sits at just over 40%.* Think about that. For every 10 people you help immigrate to our province, 6 of them end up going to another province or back home and as they look in the rear-view mirror they’re saying ‘See ya later suckers! Thanks for the free ride!’ This neither preserves nor promotes the rights of English OR French linguistic communities in New Brunswick. d’Entremont is so far beyond the title and scope of her mandate I’m surprised she still feels the effects of gravity.
Ok….I need to calm down and get to my point…I know…let’s go on a trip.
Take a moment and imagine you’re in the quaint little town of Albi in the south of France. It’s June, it’s sunny and you’ve just had the most delightful filet de boeuf charolais on the terrace of a quaint café. You pay the bill, loosen your belt a notch and decide to take a walk. You round a corner and notice a tented booth with the word ‘Acadie’ in big bold letters and the Provincial NB logo down on the corner. Intrigued you approach the two young people manning the booth…..ok…stop imagining this scenario and lets’ get down to reality. This booth really did exist** and when interviewed, the two young people said they were there to promote and encourage young people from France to come get an education and eventually work in our French province of New Brunswick. Why? To protect the French language/culture and regulate the arrival of Anglo-Saxons. Anglo-Saxons? Seriously? How did these two young people get over to France? Did they travel on a Viking ship? We haven’t been called Anglo-Saxons since text messages were sent via smoke signal or pigeon!
Did I mention the unemployment rate in New Brunswick currently sits at 11%?
Flash forward to late June in Paris where our Provincial Liberal government sent Minister Francine Landry who among other titles is the minister responsible for La Francophonie. Her mission? To promote New Brunswick along with other educational institutions including … surprise! surprise! U de Moncton. Minister Landry stated: “The provincial government is determined to attract and retain immigrants as part of our efforts to increase the New Brunswick population.”*** She stopped short of saying that the Gallant government wants to regulate the arrival of Anglo-Saxons. She must have skipped the Viking ship and probably sends her text messages on a Blackberry paid for by NB taxpayers.
But I digress…..how about another trip?
This time we head off to Lorient on the west coast of France in the Brittany region. This August there is a huge festival going on to support ‘Experience Acadie’.**** What’s that you say? According to their website, the festival is a place where you can experience Acadian music till dawn, buy beer, Acadian CD’s, flags, and souvenirs and learn about Acadia from one of the 70 Acadian delegates sent over this year. Yep … 70 delegates and that’s not including the performers and other support staff.
But wait, what is Acadia you ask? Acadia encompasses New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island according to the website… although, if you scroll down to the bottom of the web page you’ll notice a familiar logo showing that NB is the only provincial sponsor. The delegates will gladly tell you about the national holiday of Canada called ‘Tintamarre’ that’s held every August 15th. They also want you to know that Acadian pride is still alive despite the deportation. Yes, they’re talking about 1755 like a scorned ex-girlfriend holding a grudge over her time-travelling boyfriend from the modern day. It was over 250 years ago! I have no problem whatsoever with people having Acadian pride. The Acadian decedents represent a long rich culture and are an integral part of the history of New Brunswick. I can also understand wanting to be served in the language of your choice. New Brunswick is a bilingual province after all!
What some people fail to understand is that there is nobody alive who was directly involved in the ‘expulsion’. We welcomed you back, lived, worked, played, worshipped, fell in love, had families together and created our own unique New Brunswick culture 200 years before official bilingualism even existed. Get over it!
Now…let’s get back to our 11% unemployment rate. Within a week of hearing the news, Premier Gallant along with other U de Moncton alum held a meeting with the Éminence Grise’ otherwise known as the Société de l’Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick (SANB). Two days later Brian is in the news blaming his failure to create jobs on the Federal government yet has no problem whatsoever sending Katherine d’Entremont to Ottawa with her hand out. She demands millions to emigrate people from France and take jobs that apparently don’t exist….and the reasoning behind it is to fight assimilation?! How is it legal to use taxpayer and transfer money to create an immigration policy based on the discrimination of non-French speakers? Is that not a human rights violation of some sort?
I went back as far as 1951 and according to Statistics Canada, the percentage of people in New Brunswick with French as their mother tongue has not decreased! Assimilation is a boogeyman in the closet…a monster under the bed. It only exists in the minds of those who listen to the likes of the SANB and believe the teachings of history twisting French educational institutions. The English language, people and culture are vilified to a point that at a very young age many Francophone children are brainwashed to believe they will never be happy outside of the unattainable utopia of an entirely French New Brunswick.
For the NB Liberal government to perpetuate this fallacy and spend millions of dollars to promote Immigration of French speakers from other lands not only goes against their duty to promote equal status, rights and privileges of the English community, it is a slap in the face to French New Brunswick! It’s like saying our Francophone New Brunswickers are not good enough or smart enough to work, live and promote their own culture.
New Brunswick is broke and dying. English. French. We’re all feeling the effects.
- Our young people are fleeing the province for work while the Gallant government gives away jobs/contracts to Quebec.
- Scores of highly trained, highly skilled, highly experienced workers are being overlooked or replaced because they are English speaking or not ‘French enough’.
- Schools and hospitals are overcrowded, literally crumbling or being shut down under the weight of duality.
- Seniors are being gouged of their life savings.
- Natural resources are either being given away or underutilized.
- French children can’t travel on the same bus with English children because according to Education Minister Serge Rousselle, school busses are ‘distinct educational institutions’. It’s a school bus!!! Aside from getting me safely to and from school, the only education I received on a bus was how to spit out the window, kiss Jennifer in the back seat and learn how to swear in both official languages, because back then we both travelled on the same damned bus!!!
Alright…back to my point.
Property tax and vehicle registration costs are climbing and we’re paying for a 3-month long party in France under the guise of promoting immigration to boost our population and stop the mythical assimilation of the French?! The puppet masters of Brian Gallant are using their influence to push forward the systematic eradication and white collar expulsion……the white collar apartheid of English rights in New Brunswick . ENOUGH!!
It’s time for the people Canada and New Brunswick to wake up and become aware of who is truly running the province!
It’s time for the Liberal government to be held accountable for their failure and corrupt agenda!
Finally, I’d like to apologize. To the majority of my French friends and descendants of Acadians, you are a vibrant, fun and important fabric of our province. I’m sorry you’re being pulled into this nonsense and I’m sorry for any intolerant, uneducated Anglo’s you encounter. To those of you who are champions of English rights and the rights of the citizens of New Brunswick. I’m sorry that you are verbally and physically abused and assaulted by the ignorant and small minded who don’t understand that standing up for equality doesn’t mean you’re treading on French ‘rights’. I want you to understand that you are not alone. We’re not a crazy bunch of tinfoil hat wearing radical nut jobs. We are a legion of thousands and our voice is starting to be heard. Personally, I wish I could do more. But alas…I’m just a man sitting on the porch, drinking scotch and yelling at the river.
CONTINUE THE FIGHT. PROMOTE THE CAUSE. EDUCATE WITH FACTS. ENGLISH. FRENCH.
STAND UP FOR NEW BRUNSWICK!
Sources:
*Statistics Canada
** ladepeche.fr – Article published July 8.
***New Brunswick Gov’t press release