Holness reports death threats
Balarama Holness has received death threats which he has reported to police. If you want to see the tweet, it’s reproduced in the Metro article, and it’s not bleeped, so expect nastiness.
Anglo media have, by and large, reported the story but not shown us the actual wording – although what the point is, of reporting a story like this but not including a publicly posted message that’s key to the story, I do not know. La Presse doesn’t embed the tweet, but at least gives us a link.
Incidentally, the offensive tweet is signed Jos.Montferand [sic].
Ephraim 10:09 on 2021-10-15 Permalink
I’m sure that’s an email address that has gotten a lot of email in the past 24 hours.
It’s odd, his ethnic origin never even came to my mind at all, until I saw that tweet. And he’s not an immigrant, he was born and raised here in Montreal. But then, even if you family came here in the 1760s… some people still think you are an immigrant if your first language isn’t French. (As if a child can choose their mother tongue).
Kevin 10:34 on 2021-10-15 Permalink
@Ephraim
The ethnic hatred is usually polite and genteel, such as telling people who have one parent who immigrated as a child that they speak good French even though they aren’t really Quebecois. (An example I saw this year in a profile published in La Presse)
Meezly 11:36 on 2021-10-15 Permalink
Does politeness and genteelness make it better somehow?
jeather 14:02 on 2021-10-15 Permalink
The number of “real Quebecois” who are absolutely shocked that my family has been here generations longer than theirs. This is my periodic reminder that the Montreal Jewish community is anglophone because the French/Catholic school system wouldn’t let us in, while the English/Protestant one did, only semi begrudgingly.
Kate 14:12 on 2021-10-15 Permalink
jeather, I’ve spoken to Italian-Montrealers – Catholics – whose grandparents were told by the nuns at the French school to take their kids to the English school, they didn’t want them there. So they grew up with parents who were educated in English and ended up on the anglo side themselves.
This didn’t happen to all Italian-Montrealers. My neighbour who died at age 100 earlier this year spoke Italian and French but no English, as does his widow, who still lives down the street.
JS 15:50 on 2021-10-15 Permalink
It was pointed out on Reddit that the offending tweet has so many French language errors that it may not have been a “real Quebecois” person who wrote it.
MarcG 16:06 on 2021-10-15 Permalink
I wouldn’t assume that a mentally disturbed person who threatens a public figure in a province where 50% of people are functionally illiterate will have strong language skills.
JS 17:20 on 2021-10-15 Permalink
MarcG – Not disagreeing with you, but where do you get the 50% figure from?
dhomas 18:34 on 2021-10-15 Permalink
My parents are part of those Italians that grew up in the Anglo school system. They did their best to make sure I was educated in both languages, as they understood that being fluent in as many languages as possible would be beneficial to me in the future. So, I went to grade school in French and high school in an Anglo school with a French immersion program (plus 11 years of Italian school on weekends). I hated it growing up, but I’m thankful now that my parents forced me to do it.
I have some cousins that grew up further east and were completely in the francophone system. Their mother tongue is French and they speak English like regular francophone Montrealers do; that is to say, it’s understandable, but it’s obvious that they struggle with English a little. (I have to say that the younger generation is much better than their parents, thanks to all the YouTube they consume) My francophone family and most of their friends on Facebook used to make my eyes hurt with their terrible spelling in French. It looked pretty much like that racist fellow’s tweet.
dhomas 19:20 on 2021-10-15 Permalink
About the rate of illiteracy in Quebec, 53% of Quebecers are functionally illiterate or worse:
https://fondationalphabetisation.org/en/illiteracy/about-illiteracy/false-beliefs/
MarcG 19:37 on 2021-10-15 Permalink
To be fair, it seems like the ROC is about the same.
Tim 23:02 on 2021-10-15 Permalink
Any data to back up your spurious claim MarcG? We’re all waiting…
SMD 07:28 on 2021-10-16 Permalink
Helpful map of literacy rates in Quebec: https://www.ledevoir.com/societe/640182/quel-est-le-degre-de-litteratie-de-votre-region.
qatzelok 10:17 on 2021-10-16 Permalink
” * Overall, Canada earns a “C” grade on inadequate literacy skills in the latest international comparison study.
Forty-eight per cent of Canadian adults have inadequate literacy skills—a significant increase from a decade ago.
No province earns above a “C” grade for inadequate literacy skills ”
https://conferenceboard.ca/hcp/provincial/education/adlt-lowlit.aspx
MarcG 11:08 on 2021-10-16 Permalink
@Tim: I assumed that dhomas’ link would satisfy.
Kate 11:25 on 2021-10-16 Permalink
Re illiteracy: it’s difficult to establish firmly because the criteria are variable. But while doing census work I encountered people who seemed relieved to have me read them the form and take down their details, because they had found it difficult or impossible to parse the thing themselves. However, people don’t like to admit outright that they can’t read.
I think a lot of people could pass a very simple literacy test, but present them with a complicated form, with all kinds of bits and pieces and “if this does not apply, skip to section 3” type stuff, they get nervous and lost.
I did talk to one older Québécois man who simply admitted that he couldn’t read, said he had been waiting for his son to help him with the form, but his son was busy. This man had left school around grade 6, at which point many kids can read comfortably, but possibly one reason he left was because he couldn’t.
Of course, in some cases, people may simply not be able to see very well. We tend to forget that vision tests and eyeglasses are excluded from socialized medicine here.
Orr 16:13 on 2021-10-16 Permalink
The Le Devoir article has a link to a pdf of the executive summary of the study and it is fascinating.
One metric for literacy I often see is is to be able to understand the instructions on a medication, and there is an excellent old joke about a big tough but illiterate person asking about where his pill goes, but no way I’m repeating it here.