Drunken Anglo-Canadian Mob Beats up One of Their Own: Kevin Parent
Québec signer Kevin Parent, the all-time best-selling artists in Québec music history after Céline Dion, was beat up by a mob of drunken tourists a couple of night ago while out on the town in Québec City.
The singer suffered a concussion and says he remembers nothing of the incident, but bystanders report the attackers were drunken English-speaking tourists.
As if the apparently xenophobic attack was not pathetic enough, Kevin Parent is himself an Anglo. The morons beat up one of their own.
“This incident made me understand the rage of the oppressed Québec francophone who is pissed on in his own city, in his capital, during his own carnival…”, declared Parent in a press conference on Tuesday.
“I spent years building a bridge between French and English. I spent years going to the Junos to say that the Québécois are cool and going to the [French-language music award ceremony] l’ADISQ to say that Anglophones are not all boring and are good people…”
Essentially famous for his French-language albums, Kevin Parent’s mother tongue is English. Just like Mary Travers, a.k.a. La Bolduc, who became Québec’s first ever popstar during the Depression, Kevin Parent is a Anglo from the maritime region of Gaspésie who made records in French.
In a move that says a lot about the impressive vitality of Québec’s music scene, in 2007 Parent reportedly had to leave his record label, Tacca records–ironically run by fellow Anglo Donald K. Tarlton–and join Audiogram to finally record his first English language album.
The incident is reminiscent of another in 1997 when Québec legend Serge Fiori, frontman of Harmonium, was also allegedly attacked by four drunken English-speaking women in Montreal. The women were later acquitted.
Although Fiori and Harmonium are closely associated with the Québec nationalism of the 1970’s, he declared in a 2007 interview with Richard Martineau that he “functions a lot in English, writes in English”, and even seriously considered starting over, in California, in English, under another name when fame back home became to much to bear.
Anglo on Anglo xenophobic violence… The English-canadian press is reportedly brainstorming ways to blame the attacks on the separatists…
AngryFrenchGuy 
“Sorry, but I don’t see the English language as possessing magical qualities compared to other languages”
No magical qualities, just numbers and also those that aspire to speak the language… What was it , 330 million anglos, less than 6 million francos. Does fench hold any magical powers?
“If English its speakers can’t do much for Newfoundland, West Virginia, Mississippi, southwestern Ontario, the Bronx, Detroit, Jamaica and Sierra Leone, then I think I’d just as soon have Quebec take its chances with French, thank you very much”
What has french done for Quebec or Canada. check the figures in this report. Perhaps the french in Quebec can do better, than they have…le verite.
Click to access AUTEN_DebtFeb10_gouvQC.pdf
Pay attention to chart 4 and table 10.
I think they are quite informative, n’est pas.
Maybe you should exit before you bankrupt the West ( who apparently are fiscally responsible from the figures in the report) by having to pay for the Turcot Interchange and other issues of Quebec origin (day care, subsidized tuitions etc etc) . You know the 1.7 Billion dollar boondoogle that is only 40 years old and failing due to corrupt construction processes in Quebec. Est que vous? ou non.
Ahh Oui, le belle province que “je me souviens”
Prendre le porte, si’l vous plait.
ABP
March 3, 2010 at 12:39 am
“i think this will occur later rather than sooner because quebec is ahead of the curve and up to eyeballs in debt – $8 billion a year without the formal signing of a contract on top of our very own tax system is not too difficult to live with. realistically though, everyone knows that it cannot last forever.”
8.5 billion to be exact JOL…about 13% of the total provincial revenue in the Quebec budget. Equalization (subsidy) ended your taxes go up by 13% …Sound good to you? You gonna hang around for this?
ABP
March 3, 2010 at 12:52 am
Acajack writes:
If English its speakers can’t do much for Newfoundland, West Virginia, Mississippi, southwestern Ontario, the Bronx, Detroit, Jamaica and Sierra Leone, then I think I’d just as soon have Quebec take its chances with French, thank you very much.
Well, then Acajack, how about this: let people talk — in business and in private life — whatever bloody language they want.
And no segregation.
Tony Kondaks
March 3, 2010 at 1:27 am
abp,
your criticisms of quebec are valid but have very little if anything to do with language –
an era of deficit spending coupled with “feels good” big government socialism – the culture of entitlement – with a naturally attendant big civil service, the highest per capita occurence of unionism on the continent, corruption, and the belief that money grows on trees as opposed to good old scottish double entry p and l accounting.
that brought us to where we in quebec benefit from the stuff that comes out of the ground (and have the gall to complain about it on environmental grounds.) woof.
it is all about the road to serfdom (do you read hayek?) and the proverbial good fight.
do you know why the french in france embraced communism after the second world war? it was popular before the war and they looked up to the communists who in a very large way kicked the nazis’ asses. why be friends with americans across the atlantic (who also kicked the nazis’ asses but were capitalists) when you could be friends with your neighbours who won the war?
do you know what the language of quebec is? do you know where the books in french came from? the philosophy of marxism/maoism replaced the vacuum created by the rejection of the church very quickly indeed. is it any wonder we find ourselves exactly where we are today?
johnnyonline
March 3, 2010 at 1:51 am
prior to the quiet revolution -quebec was a very conservative place. this long tail culture does not die easy whereas popular thought comes and goes.
i’m here because it’s home and i have a patch of land where one day i will wake up in the mornings and listen to the birds sing. the debates will still be going on but by that time i will definitely not be paying attention. a lot of smart kids growing up here.
johnnyonline
March 3, 2010 at 2:13 am
“Well, then Acajack, how about this: let people talk — in business and in private life — whatever bloody language they want.
And no segregation.“
Well, that is exactly the situation we have right now. You and others can speak whatever language you want between yourselves. You just can’t force me to speak in English like you used to be able to. Or at least, you have fewer opportunities to force others to speak English.
Acajack
March 3, 2010 at 9:10 am
Acajack writes:
Well, that is exactly the situation we have right now. You and others can speak whatever language you want between yourselves. You just can’t force me to speak in English like you used to be able to. Or at least, you have fewer opportunities to force others to speak English.
You obviously haven’t read Bill 101.
And at this point in the history of this blog I doubt that reading it would make any difference to you.
But read it sometime, especially the part about francization. And then see if you want to retract what you wrote above.
Tony Kondaks
March 3, 2010 at 12:13 pm
“330 million anglos, less than 6 million francos. Does fench hold any magical powers?”
To get to 330 millions Anglos you would have to count the 50 or so million Spanish-speakers of North America, all the American Indians and Inuits, the many millions of immigrants whos don’t really speak English AND all of Canada’s Francos.
Good all Canadian math…
angryfrenchguy
March 3, 2010 at 3:40 pm
AFG:
All the more reason to attract the groups you name by holding out the carrot of English. Because French is not at the top of their list for languages to learn if they are having trouble with English.
It’s amazing. High tech companies in the U.S. are having a big problem with the government ever since 9/11 because the currnet immigration policy is making it so hard to attract and keep highly skilled immigrants in the U.S. So other countries are getting them.
Quebec has the luxury of not having to attract such talent because the loss of standard of living it experiences due to this technology gap is filled by the reward of equalization payments, the greatest disincentive to improving a province’s economy there is.
Tony Kondaks
March 3, 2010 at 3:50 pm
acajack,
“You just can’t force me to speak in English like you used to be able to.”
i think you are a little confused about the word force. i think your statement reeks of revisionism.
you may attempt to re-define the word “choice” in the context of self-interest but nobody ever was forced to speak english. and now you must compare this with the regulation of 101 where choice is muted and the word “forced” gains authourity.
johnnyonline
March 3, 2010 at 9:20 pm
“Good all Canadian math…”
Now how many francos have used the same reference to a sea of 330 million anglos and an island of 6 million francos to rationlize the law 101. Has been used repeatedly on your own blog. But now..you have issue with the statement but not before. Oh, I suppose its ok when the it suits your needs…
AFG…you are a total fraud.
Now check the actual economic numbers referenced and get back to me…after all they were compiled by your government’s finance department. What was it, 94% of the GDP as a deficit. Ask youself this, what of the GDP is actual profit and then compare against the accumulated deficit and tell me how many years it will to get to “black”. Likely never and of course if you look at 2010 figures a few more billion added to the growing deficit.
Time to shed yourself of those “john lennon” style rose coloured glasses.
ABP
March 3, 2010 at 10:23 pm
” You just can’t force me to speak in English like you used to be able to.”
Unless of course you negotiating a contract with a US state or other anglo speaking country. Of course your “protected” in Canada by the OLA (tsk tsk another advantage we shouldn’t politely speak of–What would Grahame F or John M think of this) Wait a minute, why are you protected?
ABP
March 3, 2010 at 10:30 pm
“Well, that is exactly the situation we have right now.”
Really, seems to me 101 targets education and restricts access to english language instruction for immigrants as well as the general populace of Quebec francos. Forced language laws for companies, sign laws etec.
Read what you wrote and then compare it to the situation as it exists with the loi 101.
Rather amusing really.
ABP
March 3, 2010 at 10:35 pm
Ironic that you are talking about “xenophobia” while the very title of this post seems to lump all so-called anglos into one homogenous and Borg-like mass. Ce n’est pas xenophobic? Typical sovereigntiste double-standards.
Before I receive any sovereigntiste tongue-lashing from you, Angry French Guy, know that I am actually on your side. Canada and Québec are two nations that are simply too different to work together as one country in a constructive and mutually beneficial manner. Throughout our history together, it has been concession after concession, push against shove, with each nation trying to get its way by shanking the other nation. Your nation as well as mine. Québec and Canada need to part ways.
However, as much as you value your nation, so do I value mine, and I worry about the political problems in the federation after such a seccession. There will be problems regarding the fact that Ottawa will be a border town, that Ontario will be dominant politically and economically, that the Maritime region will be an exclave, et cetera. While I respect Québec’s right to independence and self-determination, I ask you and the separatists to likewise respect Canada’s. Although I have acertained from your posts that you do not give a rat’s ass about Canada or Canadians aside from the things that you can ridicule, understand that it is in Québec’s interest to insure the survival of its neighbour. If the Bloc or other separatist groups could help reform the federation into something that could tangibly survive without one of its component parts, it would ultimately be easier for Québec to bid us adieu.
I don’t worry one bit about the cultural loss, despite what your separatist prophets have brainwashed you into believing, because beleive it or not, there is in fact a Canadian national culture.
The only way that this problem can be resolved is if there is dialogue beyond the federalist versus separatist mudslinging fest that has become programmed into both factions in Québec and between les Québécois and Canadians. As I’m certain you’ve heard from your Canadian commentators, Québec has done things that are less than noble with regards to Canada and so has Canada vis a vis to Québec. Both sides have lied and cheated, not just one side or the other. So listen here, all separatists and federalists who happen to read this: Canada is not a purely evil country filled with American-wannabees, and neither would a sovereign Québec be a racist backwords and broke republic. Treat us with respect, Angry French Guy, and we might treat you with some as well. (Before you launch into a pre-programmed separatist rave over Meech Lake; know that it was approved by every province except Manitoba and Newfoundland, so this was hardly a resounding Anglo-Canadian rejection of Québec.)
Help me fix my country, and I’ll help you get one of your own.
– D.I.D.
D.I.D.
March 6, 2010 at 10:48 pm
D.I.D.:
> Although I have acertained from your posts that you do not give a rat’s
> ass about Canada or Canadians aside from the things that you can ridicule
I don’t know AFG personally, but who gave you this idea? Just a few weeks ago he was in Vancouver to experience both the Olympics and the city’s culture. While his main interest is for Quebec, he seems to care about Canada about as much as he’d care about a foreign but close country whose language he speaks. Say, the US. (Probably more, currently, given that what Canada says or does necessarily affects Quebec.)
> I don’t worry one bit about the cultural loss, despite what your separatist
> prophets have brainwashed you into believing, because beleive it or not,
> there is in fact a Canadian national culture.
Who says there isn’t? Believe it or not, but some of us do cringe when we hear other Quebecers say things like “without us, you wouldn’t have any culture”. But of course they usually say that in response to some provocation. Of course there is a Canadian national culture. I’ve even tried to describe it at times. But I must admit that I don’t really recognize myself in it.
Obelix
March 8, 2010 at 11:52 am
AFG gave me the idea that he is anti-Canadian from a number of his older posts when he ridicules virtually everything that this country has done, from declaring Nunavut to Canada’s newest “colony”, to claiming that Canadians should get their “own national anthem” ( I recognize that it was written by a Canadien in Québec, but it was done at a time when Québec was probably the only part of the country that called itself Canadian. Wow, times do change.)He may have gone to Vancouver for the Olympics, but, as his post about the Olympics will prove, he was looking for something to be angry with us about. In his case, the use of or rather the timid prescence of, French at the Games.
I referred to the rotten notion that Canada is nothing without Québec because I hear it thrown around alot by Québécois separatists, federalists, and Canadians alike, and to be frank it sickens me. Québec may be the most distinct part of the country, indeed, its own nation, and it may have influenced us greatly throughout history, but to say that one distinct nation is nothing without being parasitic on another is just insulting. While you may have a different opinion on this, I regard Canada and Québec as two nations that helped each other develop into the national communities that they are today. Québécois and Canadian cultures may appear to be diametrically opposed, but they play off each other in that manner. As AFG has posed many of the same tired arguements I’ve heard from most other sovereigntistes, I figured (maybe incorrectly) that he also carries this notion.
Maybe I was too scathing in my criticism, but as I wrote before, no constructive settlement; either for separatism or against it; will ever arise if both sides of this fifty-year stalemate are willing to face facts, reality, and most of all, negotiate with each other in a respectful manner.
D.I.D.
March 8, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Sorry, I meant; “if they are unwilling to face…”
D.I.D.
March 8, 2010 at 5:12 pm
D.I.D.:
> when he ridicules virtually everything that this country has done, from
> declaring Nunavut to Canada’s newest “colony”
His point was that while Nunavut was created as a territory specifically for the Inuit people in the Eastern Arctic, it’s been a rather inconsistent effort, exemplified by the fact that there is actually no school teaching in their language (while there is amazingly one teaching in French). I think that while the creation of Nunavut may be applauded, we shouldn’t feel shy about criticizing the errors in the implementation.
I feel that anglophone Canadians, especially Liberal- or left-leaning ones, tend to get extremely proud and patriotic about all the great efforts their country does to be open and inclusive and multicultural (while claiming that this isn’t actually a form of nationalism since it isn’t “ethnic” or “exclusive”), but actually care more about the symbols than about how things really are. I think that reminding these people that while Nunavut may be an Inuit homeland, it isn’t currently doing much to preserve their culture, and while First Nation artists are invited to perform at the Olympics, many of them live in extremely poor conditions, is a worthy goal.
Of course AFG tends to go for the “gotcha!” approach and attempt to disparagingly compare the “Canadian” approach to the “Quebec” approach. I can see why you would be offended by this, but when you’re constantly being told, sometimes even by those same liberals who fawn about the greatness of their country, that you’re a xenophobic racist, that in all of the world, only in your part of the country would happen, and that if you’d just adopt the clearly greater wisdom they quite obviously bear, your province and the whole country would be so much better, eventually you want to show them that in many things, you’re better than them after all. As I’ve said: when Quebecers say things about Canada having no culture or whatever, it’s usually under provocation. Most of the time we don’t care all that much about what the rest of Canada does if it doesn’t affect us, while to them we appear to be some sort of national obsession.
> as his post about the Olympics will prove, he was looking for something
> to be angry with us about. In his case, the use of or rather the timid
> prescence of, French at the Games.
Uh, no, he actually said that French at the Games was not needed. He was more bothered about the “Canadian” culture that was shown in the opening ceremonies, which doesn’t really represent any actual Canadian. In both of this I definitely agreed with him.
> I regard Canada and Québec as two nations that helped each other
> develop into the national communities that they are today.
Well, you can’t really be two communities living in close proximity to each other for centuries without influencing each other. So yes, Quebec wouldn’t be what it is today without the rest of Canada, and Canada wouldn’t be what it is without Quebec. But I do think that some anglophone Canadians are deluding themselves about what their country really is about. Normally it wouldn’t bother me, they can think whatever they want, but they are under the delusion that they have wonderful pearls of wisdom to share with little old me, while they really do not have anything. This is what bothers me and I believe bothers AFG as well.
Obelix
March 8, 2010 at 9:27 pm
Eeeee, the software appears to consider everything between angular brackets as HTML tags and makes them invisible. This should work, though:
I can see why you would be offended by this, but when you’re constantly being told, sometimes even by those same liberals who fawn about the greatness of their country, that you’re a xenophobic racist, that in all of the world, only in your part of the country would < such and such bad thing > happen, and that if you’d just adopt the clearly greater wisdom they quite obviously bear, your province and the whole country would be so much better, eventually you want to show them that in many things, you’re better than them after all.
Obelix
March 8, 2010 at 9:31 pm
Mon Amis…..papa alweys he tel me anglos to be merde. Mon Dieu! mama werk at dock and giv to anglos the happy ending. Petit frere is teling me he is the sissy and he to is to giv to anglos the goud time. I remember day wen I see Rene simard live… je suis amoreux! Mon frere to….he is stocking rene deux ans befor surete make him arret. Incredible.
Gigi
March 9, 2010 at 1:38 am
– Obelix
I can understand Québécois anger over being painted the country’s backwards racists, which is evidently not the case, as there are racists everywhere, especially in my neck of the woods. Also, despite the separatists love of debasing Canada (and Canadians reciprocal irrational anger against Québec)I will give them one major applause: for the most part, separatists are in favour of social justice.
Québec is, on average, the most left-leaning province as far as provincial politics goes, so I have resounding doubts that an independent Québec would do something rediculous like “Le Solution Finale pour les Anglais et les Ethniques”. So I totally agree with you, the bad press Québec gets in Canada has no merit or just cause. However, I do not understand why the Anglo populance in Québec have deserted their homes in droves while the separatists claim that the Anglos are well provided for, even pampered as a minority. Feedback, please?
As for the liberals faulty depiction of the country, well, I’m pissed at them as well. These are the same federalist fearmongers who claim that this country is nothing without Québec, and are content to sit on their hands and let the country fall apart due to governmental issues if or when (probably, when) Québec decides to go it’s own way. Why does Ottawa have no damn plan?! When forty percent of a country’s largest province expresses separatist sympathies, this should provoke the federal government to call a conference of the other provinces to determine the arrangements so the country can feasibly survive afterwards. But of course, the feds have bought the “don’t worry, be happy” nonsense without realizing that unless some sort of deal is reached, you will be able to see a foreign state right from the windows of the House of Commons.
Except for naive fools, I can’t think of many people who actually buy the maple-leaf idoltry and the “we’re billingual” crap. There are large francophone communities spread out accross the country, but without Québec the total francophone community is little larger than any other minority group. From my perspective, the federalist liberals are as bad as the separatists; they phonify our culture and degrade us by claiming that we are nothing without another nation.
I hope I didn’t come off as anti-Québec, but please, you guys have gotta go for the sake of us both. I just hope that the ultranationalist morons will see the writing on the wall before it is too late.
D.I.D.
March 13, 2010 at 1:35 pm
I agree that Nunavut, as well as many dealings with the various First Nations, reveals great and possibly inscrupulous inconsistancy on the part of Ottawa. But Ottawa has this track record of trying to solve complex internal problems by merely throwing money at them. Which, of course, often fails or compounds the problem.
D.I.D.
March 13, 2010 at 3:15 pm
I don’t agree with you on everything D.I.D. but you do make many thoughtful observations.
Regarding your question:
“However, I do not understand why the Anglo populance in Québec have deserted their homes in droves while the separatists claim that the Anglos are well provided for, even pampered as a minority. Feedback, please”
… I do have an answer for you but I am going to hold back for I fear it could get me in big trouble!
Acajack
March 15, 2010 at 10:10 pm