Capos. Cosa Nostra. Omertà. Pizzo. Compare. Just some of the things the Italian Mafia is known for, but Québec society, business and politics as well as labour unions seem to share in some of that Italian “tradition”.
Unfortunately, it is no exaggeration at all to make that Italian connection, because the Italian mafia is heavily involved in what goes on in Montréal, for example. The construction industry is controlled by organized crime, including biker gangs, with unions acting as intermediaries, with the difference between the mafia and unions being extremely thin these days, as both employ the same tactics. The only discernible difference between the mafia and labour unions is that, while the former cares more about raking in cash, unions spend more time flapping their gums about political issues that are far outside their bailiwick, such as their obsession with Israel, which has amounted to nothing less than outright anti-Semitism. Contracts awarded by the city of Montréal went to shady companies, and it is only thanks to the tight-knit nature of the relationship between politics and organized crime that city officials all the way up to the mayor have not been charged with corruption or worse. Not yet, but here’s hoping.
Jean Charest, "da Boss of all da Bosses"
The sordid nature of doing business or politics in Québec is not limited to cities like Montréal, though, but also reaches well into the provincial government and the federal Liberal Party, which has always been more of a Québec-centric party than a national one. However, at that level the main actors are not directly involved with organized crime (one assumes), but they have certainly made the mafia lifestyle and tactics their own. This also helps to explain why Canadians have seen especially high levels of government corruption whenever the Liberals were in power.
Québec premier Jean Charest was supposed to be different. While he heads the Liberal Party of Québec, his roots go back to the federal Progressive Conservative Party. In other words, he is not your typical Liberal, but a Tory who has lost his way or simply accepted a job offer he couldn’t refuse (after his federal career had gone belly-up). This makes it all the more disheartening that someone like Charest should stoop so low as to “sell” judiciary appointments, if the allegations are true. Likewise, the allegations that he and his government have been playing footsie with unions connected to organized crime and shady “construction companies” (people of New Jersey would be more familiar with the ubiquitous “garbage disposal companies”, but in Québec La Familia appears to enjoy the construction business more than hauling garbage) have done little to boost the premier’s approval ratings.
In fact, if an election were held now, the separatist Parti Québécois would win by a landslide. People are fed up with all those allegations and rumours flying around and, even more so, with the constant denials issued by Charest and his government as well as his steadfast refusal to subject himself to a thorough investigation into his alleged shady buddies and business connections. From a common sense point of view, Charest’s behaviour so far allows for only one logical conclusion: if the premier refuses to be investigated, it is a very strong indication that at least some of the allegations are true. With the recent revelations coming out of the Bastarache inquiry, which is looking into a former Liberal cabinet member’s allegation that Charest has appointed judges suggested to him by outside influences and the “money bags” controlling the party and strings by which the premier supposedly moves and acts, have hurt the premier further, and it would probably take a disaster on the order of World War III for Quebeckers to close ranks with their premier again. No, for all intents and purposes, Charest’s political career – in Québec at least – is finished, and the rest of Canada can already start looking forward to the first separatist government in Québec City in a very long time, to be headed by PQ leader Pauline Marois.
Any outsider looking at this cesspool that Québec is today, and has been for decades, shouldn’t be surprised that a predominantly Québécois party like the federal Liberal Party is invariably at its most corrupt when the party gives itself a leader from Québec – think of Pierre Trudeau or Jean Chrétien, for example. When the current leader Michael Ignatieff said over a year ago that a Liberal government under his leadership would put Quebeckers back at the levers of power in Ottawa, my wife’s reaction – and she is a pure laine Québécoise – was to shriek: “No, never again!”
Former premier of Québec René Lévesque was one of the very few in Québec politics to have shunned and abhorred the kind of corruption that permeates every fibre of Québec society, politics and business. Then again, the whole province is a socialist’s (or, more accurately, fool’s) paradise – all paid for mostly by taxpayers in Alberta – and with socialism comes corruption and venality. It doesn’t matter what the name of a political party may be – separatist this or separatist that or Liberal – every party, if it is serious about winning enough votes to form at least a minority government must govern as socialists, regardless of what it says on its label. That is to say, Quebeckers always get the government they deserve. But Canadians in the rest of the country are different (except, perhaps, Toronto, which is just as socialist, and morally bankrupt, in its general attitudes) and therefore don’t deserve to be tortured by a prime minister or other power brokers from Québec, who will do nothing except enrich themselves at the expense of the taxpayers.
Several recent polls have confirmed that Canadians have become predominantly conservative, even to the point where a clear majority of them would vote to reinstate the death penalty if the issue were put to a referendum. That is to say, most Canadians outside of Québec have no truck with the kind of politics and socialist leanings that are par for the course in la belle province. The damage done to Canada by Trudeau and Chrétien has not been forgotten by Canadians, and it doesn’t take much for even the gentlest soul to turn into a rabid monster at the mention of these names, which is probably why Canadians are extremely reluctant to re-elect the Liberals or anyone else from that part of the country, despite Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s many shortcomings.
The Punch and Judy show being beamed into our living rooms from Québec these days, where a clown with curly hair and a colossal paunch appears to pose as the province’s premier while defending himself against all manner of allegations, will add to Canadians’ determination not to elect a Québec-style government at the federal level. And they shouldn’t. Nor should any federal party ever consider moving Charest, who is rumoured to intend to jump back into federal politics once his stint in Québec is over, into a federal position again, for he is damaged goods.
After I read a job ad posted by the government of Zimbabwe that advertised a vacancy for a new hangman (“training will be provided”), I sort of made it a running joke at our home to call for any politician found to have acted unethically to be shipped off to that African country and to be used as “training material” for the novice hangman. Indeed, at this point, we would have sent at least 80 per cent of Canadian politicians on a one-way boat ride to Zimbabwe, and Charest has been one of the clear frontrunners for most of the past twelve months. As for the political establishment in Québec, in particular, there would be no politician left anymore, as we would have sent all of them – federal, provincial and municipal politicians as well as all bureaucrats – into the “caring” arms of Robert Mugabe and his hangman.
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