Trim a Little Off the Top...Please!

Last week, the organizers of Divers/cite (one of Montreal's two pride celebrations) received word that the 155 000$ they asked for in federal funding for their festival was denied. The program through which they applied is called the Marquee Tourism Events Program (or MTEP) and has some rather strict criteria for acceptance. Early on, Divers/cite was told they met all the criteria to receive the funds in question as did many other events around the country. Early last week however, the organizers received word from the government that their request for funding had been denied. Suddenly scrambling to fill the hole in their budget, Divers/cite was forced to cancel a handful of events only a few days before the beginning of their festival.

Now I have a good number of problems with how all of this went down, so let's start at the beginning, shall we?

Who the hell comes up with a program that dishes out or denies money only a few days before an event? Worse still, some festivals and events only had their applications accepted or denied during or even after their festivities had taken place! This is horrible mismanagement. It's like saying you'll come up with a federal budget at the end of October for the current fiscal year: it makes no sense.

As to which festivals received funding, this is where it gets even worse. Essentially, the government was in a position to pick and choose which of its applicants would get funding without any clear guidelines as to how to pick from the ones who met the initial criteria. When conservatives out west learned that the government funded Toronto's Pride they were seemingly outraged at Harper for doing so. Is it any wonder then that Montreal and Vancouver were denied for both of theirs?

Another fun reason that was given for the sudden cut was that Quebec already receives more money than other provinces so "regional fairness" needed to be respected. Well pardonez-moi for Quebec actually having culture that needs funding! Should we tone it down and be less cosmopolitan so that PEI can get some funds for a potato festival? Following their logic, will we be told next year that either the Montreal Jazz Festival or Juste Pour Rire will get axed since the festival field is too crowded?And besides, the government admits they knew Quebec would get most of the funds from the get-go given the sheer amount of festivals in the province.

Perhaps we should look at all of this in terms that even the conservatives should be able to understand and appreciate. Let's take a look at the dollars and cents...Divers/cite asked for 155 000$ in funds. The festival itself draws in 55 000 tourists who spend somewhere along the lines of 10 000 000$ for all of their revelling. Put the federal sales tax (5%) on that amount and what do you get? 500 000$ just in sales taxes that the government collects! That more than pays back the 155 000$ that the festival requested.

When the government makes bad decisions, it's our duty to stand up for our culture and our beliefs. These cuts are part of another veiled attempt by the Harper government to kill off the arts in this country whether they're gay-arts or not. Rather than cut off funds, perhaps we should trim a little of the top and cut Tony Clement instead...

Who's got some scissors?

An Open Letter to the Americans...

Dear citizens of the United States of America,

Hey, what's up? How's it going? It's Canada, your friendly neighbour to the north. Just thought I'd drop you a line, see how things are going.

By the way, I've been watching a lot of your TV lately...what's all this fuss you guys are making about our health care system? It seems every few minutes there's that lady with the brain tumor on TV bashing it. Then you show that eerie picture of Capitol Hill with the Canadian flag waving ominously in the background. I'll admit, it kind of looks spooky but when trying to inspire fear in such a manner, opt for putting a giant Timbit with fangs instead.

I thought I might try to clear things up about how our system is run. You see, our public system does cost the government a lot of money that's true. Citizens do pay higher taxes on their income, purchases, etc. But at least when someone gets a serious illness, say cancer, they're not fighting with insurance companies that tell them it's some sort of pre-existing condition. They're also not forced to pay for their treatment out of their pocket or forced to take a mortgage to pay for their surgery. In fact, all we really have to do is hand the hospital our government-issued health care cards, they write down the numbers and that's it. No money gets exchanged, no credit cards, no nothing. They just hand over the bill to the provincial government and that's that.

Sounds too good to be true right? Well, that's just how it works. You see, I think there's a little something you guys may have forgotten about health care so I'll try to put it as plainly as possible... HEALTH CARE IS NOT A BUSINESS, IT'S AN ESSENTIAL SERVICE. That sounds about right! The problem you guys are having is that you've turned your health care system into a health care industry. You focus on outdoing yourselves in terms of who has the best drugs, the coolest medical toys and the snazziest hospitals. Sure that helped develop a lot of new medical technology and such, but it's gotten a bit out of control. You're making people pay through the nose for lots of medicine that is unnecessary but that you've convinced them will do them good. Your government is also trying to figure out why people are also paying radically different prices for the same services in different hospitals.

Now I'm not saying that our system up here is without its flaws, no one is perfect after all. We do have some waiting lists up here...you're asking why? Well, it boils down to a general staff-shortage we're having. You see, a lot of our med-students leave Canada to go work in your country after their graduation because you over-pay them for the actual job they're doing. I mean, why would they stay here to work when you're willing to pay them twice as much for the same jobs, right? So I guess you could say that you're partly responsible for our medical system's back-log. Our hospitals may not have the coolest equipment or that new loft-inspired design that your hospitals do, but we get by on treating people the best we can with what we have. But when we don't have the equipment or treatments available here, our government pays for you to go elsewhere to get it!

So you see, our system isn't that bad really. Our government doesn't put bureaucrats between us and our doctors, we simply call our physician and/or specialist and make an appointment to see them. There's some card swiping, form filling at worst, but then we leave confident that health professionals have addressed our problems without thinking about how much they were getting paid to do so.

We've always had our differences: you cling to your shiny guns claiming you'll never give them up, we say the same thing about our health care system. But all we ask is that you stop demonizing a system that really works for us...And if you could, take those horrible ads of the air. The brain tumor lady is really quite repugnant.

Your BFF,

Canada :)

Language Lesson

Since I've moved onto the island (and into the Village) this past spring, I've been way more immersed in Quebecois culture and language than my previous suburban life would ever allow. I attribute this to having more time to go out and socialize given my proximity to all things entertaining in the Village. I suppose working in a predominantly French milieu kind of helps too.

I've also found a lot of linguistic exchange occurring between the two rival languages of this province and country. Yes, there are those words that both groups use...to varying degrees of success. I thought I might share a few of those examples for readers from abroad to give them an idea of what you might hear on any given street in Montreal...Be warned: some of these are plain old ridiculous.

Heard in French...

WINSHIRE--Actual word: Windshield. This one, I blame on shitty marketing on behalf of Couche-Tard a few years ago when they introduced a new Sloche flavour called Winshire-Washer if I remember correctly. Naturally, it infiltrated its way into colloquial language and is now sometimes used instead of its proper french counterpart pare-brise.

LASCALL--Actual word: Last Call. This one isn't so bad, but I still grin when I hear it. Every bar in the city has its "last call" but more often than not you'll hear the local franco-twist that drops the "t" and fuses the two words into lascall. But I'm not complaining! I use it too in French...:P

Heard in English...

TAB-ER-KNACK--Actual word: Tabarnak'/Tabernacle. Now there's nothing more fun to learn in a new language than swear words. For most anglophones in the province though, this one is the one that gives them away as native English speakers. Speaking this lovely swear word is an art that eludes even most Euro-francophones. I enjoy hearing anglophones attempt to get the proper sequence of sounds out in the right intonations...but more often than not it comes out with some weird detached syllables that just don't do it right...tabarnak'!

So that's the day's language lesson! Hope it made you laugh a bit :)

New Direction!

After much debate (with myself) I'm bringing my blog back to life! Having had a bit too much heat for my taste over coverage of personal details of my life, I'm giving this blog a more societal focus from now on. Rather than read about trials and tribulations of my daily life, you'll be able to read about my opinions and ideas about things going on in the world. So welcome back readers who have been here before and welcome to the newbies reading my stuff for the first time!