A Reply to Conrad Black

«As Quebec decays, Toronto seizes greatness» is the latest epistle of Conrad Black wherein he vents his disdain for Quebec in general and its «separatists» in most virulent particular. (The National Post, October 6th 2012)

The affront pains coming from a man of Black’s experience, indeed a man who suffered the lashes of unjust accusations and the «monstrosity of bigoted ignorance» (as he describes Judge Posner in the chronicle of his legal ordeal A Matter of Principle).

Yet, his text is most striking indeed for its ignorance, bigoted perhaps, biased certainly. It proposes a musty description of a Quebec where Black last spent time, it seems, in the 1950s. His tirade is of the sort that gets energetic nods of approval from fellow members at plush country clubs, the same setting where the inanities of Romney are embraced with comradely enthusiasm.

Tiresome task it is to compile Black’s errors of facts and expletives but let’s single out a few juicy ones:

• «..a demographically dwindling repository of a not overly dynamic French fact and which by its addiction to transfer payments from English Canada has become a white collar secular clerisy that contributes little economic added value to anything. That’s a bit much even by Black’s standard of tactlessness, verisimilitude and lack of balance. All provinces receive federal transfer payments (Ontario, $19.3 billion in 2012-2013; Quebec, $17.3 billion; Alberta, $3.3 billion, etc.). Black’s outrage must be driven by «equalization payments». It might come as a surprise to Black that Ontario also receives equalization payments ($3.3 billion in 2012-2013) and Quebec’s $7.8 billion for equalization represents a mere 12% of the Quebec government’s budget. The per capita level of equalization payment ranges from $249 for Ontario, $943 for Quebec, $1368 for Manitoba, $1992 for New Brunswick. «English Canada» does support other parts of «English Canada» too; so the white collar clerisy must be a Canadian phenomenon
• Electricity, over-unionized base metals and forest products industries, and a scattering of high tech and financial services are all that generate any earned income for Quebec now..; perhaps nostalgic for the Duplessis era when French-Canadians were kept in their proper place, Black has not yet heard of CAE, Bombardier, Pratt and Whitney, CGI, Le Cirque du Soleil, Alimentation Couche Tard, Garda, SNC-Lavalin, Canadian National Railways, or perhaps Polytron, Talented Frogs Studio, etc..
• «… Quebec is placing further strictures on the teaching of English in the state school system, a terrible disservice to the province…; here he goes again; perhaps, the most eloquent rebuttal to this charge is the following notice on the web site of the Ministère de l’éducation du Québec : «Come and teach English in Québec» […] Read more