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Friday March 3, 2023

March 3, 2023 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday March 3, 2023

Bused out of Quebec, francophone asylum seekers struggle to get medical services

Over the phone, the woman’s voice is regretful but hurried — she says she’s sorry, but if the French-speaking migrant on the other end of the line cannot find someone to translate English, the doctor won’t see him for the medical exam he needs in order to claim asylum in Canada.

March 24, 2022

CBC News obtained a recording of the phone conversation the man says took place Wednesday in Niagara Falls, Ont. 

“It’s not possible to speak with the doctor if you can’t speak English,” the woman tells him in French. “You have to find someone at your hotel to help you.” 

“I don’t know anyone here,” Guirlin — whose last name CBC News has agreed to withhold because of his precarious immigration status — replies.

Guirlin and his family are among the more than 5,500 asylum seekers who have been bused by Canada’s government from Quebec’s border with the U.S. to cities in Ontario, including Windsor, Cornwall and Niagara Falls. 

They are also among a number of those — mostly francophones from Haiti or countries in Africa — for whom the transfer happened against their wishes since they could not afford to find a place to stay immediately. Their plan all along was to live in Quebec.

February 17, 2023

Guirlin, his wife, who is six months pregnant, and their four-year-old son ended up in Niagara Falls on Feb. 14. Originally from Haiti, the family had been struggling to make ends meet in Brazil, when they decided to travel north through a dozen countries to make their way to Canada. 

When they arrived on Feb. 11 via Roxham Road, the popular irregular border crossing south of Montreal, they were asked by immigration officers where they planned to live in Canada.

“I said we want to stay in Montreal because I don’t speak English and my wife doesn’t either, and she needs to have medical appointments for the pregnancy,” Guirlin said in a phone interview Thursday. 

He says they were told in the following days there was no space for them in Montreal, and that they were being sent to Ontario. They boarded a bus with roughly 40 other asylum seekers from a number of other countries last Tuesday. For now, the government has put them up in a hotel. (CBC) 

 

Posted in: Canada, International, Quebec, USA Tagged: 2023-04, Asylum seekers, Border, Canada, Francois Legault, french, Haiti, Immigration, Justin Trudeau, language, migrant, Niagara Falls, Quebec, refugee, Roxham Road

Wednesday November 28, 2018

December 5, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday November 28, 2018

Doug Ford is becoming a liability for Andrew Scheer

Ever since he took office, Premier Doug Ford has gone out of his way to cast himself in the role of federal kingmaker.

August 24, 2018

From day one he has made no secret of the fact that he is making it a priority to see Justin Trudeau voted out of government next fall.

But as Ford is currently learning at his own expense, the undeniable national influence that attends the role of Ontario premier cuts both ways.

His ambition to play kingmaker in next fall’s federal vote is really the first casualty of his mishandling of the Franco-Ontarian file.

Notwithstanding the premier’s damage-control efforts, the dust is unlikely to settle on the backlash he has engineered when he reneged on his promise to Ontario’s francophone community to pursue the project of a French-language university.

November 20, 2018

The decision to eliminate the post of commissioner of French-language services — a move devoid of a fiscal rationale as the money saved, if any, amounts to a drop in an ocean of spending — only added insult to injury.

Late Friday, Ford’s office announced it was restoring a full-fledged portfolio for francophone affairs within the cabinet and adding a senior adviser on Franco-Ontarian affairs to the premier’s staff.

But it will take more than the closing of the barn door after the horse has bolted to turn Ford’s status back from liability to his federal cousins to major asset in next fall’s campaign. (Continued: Hamilton Spectator) 


It’s a Letters-to-editor hat-trick pic.twitter.com/s0IC3IJEo2

— Graeme MacKay (@mackaycartoons) November 30, 2018

 

Posted in: Ontario Tagged: austerity, Doug Ford, fleur de lis, fleur de lys, Franco-Ontarien, francophone, french, language, Ontario

Tuesday November 20, 2018

November 27, 2018 by Graeme MacKay


Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday November 20, 2018

Why Doug Ford’s Franco-Ontarian cost-cutting could spell trouble for Andrew Scheer

What’s been called a “sad day for Franco-Ontarians” presents a challenge for Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer — not only in Ontario but in every part of the country where francophones live.

November 27, 2006

The Conservatives are hoping to replicate Premier Doug Ford’s electoral success in Ontario and see him as a key ally in the fight against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax. But they also have great hopes of wooing Quebec voters — hopes that could be dashed if Scheer is unable to reconcile his support for Ford with his pitch to the francophone voters now angered by Ford’s actions.

In its fiscal update on Thursday, Ford’s government announced it would be cancelling a project to build a long-awaited French-language university in Toronto and would be abolishing the position of the French language services commissioner.

These decisions hit Franco-Ontarians hard and the reaction has been swift and furious. The front page of Le Droit, a major Franco-Ontarian newspaper, called it a “black day for francos.” Francophone organizations and associations across the province have denounced the move and say they are prepared to contest it in the courts.

Andrew Scheer Gallery

But French-speakers in Ontario weren’t the only ones who took notice. In New Brunswick and Manitoba, concerns are being raised about what it signals for the francophone minorities in those provinces.

This is an especially sensitive issue in New Brunswick, where a new Progressive Conservative government is taking office that is dependent for survival on the People’s Alliance, a party that wants to roll back some parts of the province’s Official Languages Act.

Quebec’s French-language media — which normally would pay little attention to a provincial fiscal update in Ontario — also jumped on the news. Le Devoir reported the decision under the headline, “Doug Ford sacrifices Ontario francophones.” Le Journal de Montréal, a widely-read and generally conservative-leaning paper, called it a “sad day.”

Quebec Premier François Legault, a small-c conservative himself, also expressed his concerns and said he would take up the issue with his Ontario counterpart. The mayor of Quebec City — the municipality at the centre of the region where most of the Conservatives’ seats in the province are located — denounced the move as mean-spirited and provocative. (Source: CBC News) 

 

Posted in: Canada, Ontario Tagged: Andrew Scheer, cannon, Doug Ford, english, franco, francophone, french, language, Ontarien, Ontario, politics

Thursday March 22, 2018

March 21, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday March 22, 2018

Service Canada moves away from calling Canadians Mr., Mrs., or Ms.

Service Canada employees who interact with the public are being asked to stay away from terms like Mr., Mrs., father and mother, and to use gender-neutral terms in their place, CBC News has learned.

According to documents obtained by Radio Canada, the French-language arm of CBC, front-line staff must now “use gender-neutral language or gender-inclusive language.”

“This avoids portraying a perceived bias toward a particular sex or gender,” says a copy of speaking notes prepared for managers and team leaders.

“It is important that Service Canada, as an organization, reflects Canada’s diverse population and ensures that the views and interests of Canadians are taken into account when we develop policies, programs, services and initiatives,” says the directive.

The new guidelines also rule out using terms such as mother and father because they are “gender specific” and say the neutral word “parent” should be used instead.

The same goes for honorifics such as Mr., Mrs., and Ms., and in both languages. Instead, employees are being directed to address customers by their full names or ask them what they want to be called.

Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos, whose department oversees Service Canada, took to Twitter Wednesday to clarify that agents can still call people Mr. or Ms. if that’s what the caller prefers.

“We are only confirming how people want to be addressed as a matter of respect,” he said. (Source: CBC News) 


Letter to the Editor (Hamilton Spectator – March 28, 2018)

Editorial cartoon was tone-deaf

I can’t begin to imagine what led not only Graeme MacKay, but a team of editors, to think the Service Canada this cartoon was anything other than ignorant, transphobic and hugely problematic.

I had to read it twice because I thought I was missing something. I hoped there was no way it could be as tone-deaf as it seemed at first reading.

Since Service Canada announced its new gender-neutral directive, I’ve read and heard a lot of opinions (wholly from people who identify with the gender they were assigned at birth) about how “ridiculous” they find the directive to ask Canadians if they identify as Mr./Mrs. or mother/father (by extension, male/female/non-binary).

Here’s the thing — this isn’t a measure taken in service of people who have no problem being referred to by the gender they appear to have been assigned at birth. This is a measure being taken in service of transgender and non-binary Canadians, many of whom have likely long felt uncomfortable being referred to incorrectly, and many of whom may have been too nervous or exhausted to explain (judging from the landslide of negative reactions in recent days, including the Spec’s own editorial comic, it’s easy to understand that anxiety).

I’ll never be able to get my head around people who want to oppose others’ rights to safety, inclusion and non-discrimination. Unless the Spec can speak to (and meaningfully apologize for) its decision to run this cartoon, that includes this paper.

Amy Kenny, Hamilton


Letter to the Editor (Hamilton Spectator – March 28, 2018)

Cartoon played to transphobia

I’m disappointed by this editorial cartoon, which relies on and reproduces transphobia. I’m gender non-binary and I assure you that, while I can be hilarious, being gender nonconforming is not, in itself, hilarious. The federal government has a strong role in shaping society, and its recent moves toward gender inclusive language, however small, are part of making Canada actually safer for people whose gender identities, like mine, don’t line up with the bodies they were born into. This cartoon is insulting and cheap, and doesn’t pass as humour for me.

Mx. Carla Borstad Klassen (they/them pronouns)


Commentary (Hamilton Spectator – March 26, 2018)

Tone-deaf cartoon made a mockery of LGBTQI2S+ community struggles

I finally had a chance to read my Spectator last Thursday on my bus ride home after a very long day at work. A day that had me listening on my headphones while working on my computer to fellow LGBTQI2S+ activists via Facebook Live. They held a news conference at The 519 Community Centre in the heart of Toronto’s Queer Village and demanded a public inquiry into the Toronto Police Service’s investigation of a serial killer who had targeted gay men.

They protested outside of Toronto Police headquarters and demanded the resignation of Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders for his mishandling of the investigation and victim blaming of the LGBTQI2S+ community. The message was clear, the lives of these murdered and missing gay men were not valued and hence the investigation into their deaths was not taken seriously until far too late.

On this same day I experienced a tone deaf, dismissive and damaging editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay making a mockery of those in the LGBTQI2S+ Community who self-identify as transgender, genderqueer, gender nonconforming, or non-binary. In the cartoon an individual who presents as female is asked by a clerk at a Service Canada desk how they would like to be addressed. The individual gives a glib and flippant answer ending with “In Ms. Chatsworth’s Gifted Class I went by Phil.” (Continued)

SaveSave

Posted in: Canada Tagged: address, Canada, forms of address, gender, government, language, neutral, neutrality, policy, political correctness, service, tiles

Friday, February 22, 2013

February 22, 2013 by Graeme MacKay

Friday, February 22, 2013By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday, February 22, 2013

For Quebec’s language police, even “pasta” is a problem

Mamma mia! The mangacakes in Quebec have got their voyageur sashes all in a knot over a little Italian on the dinner menu. After targeting the language of Shakespeare, the province’s language police –aka “tongue troopers”— decided to set their sights on Dante, of all people.

They wanted to come down hard on Buonanotte, the trendy Italian ristorante in Montreal frequented by the likes of Céline Dion and Leonardo DiCaprio. It features a menu that prominently advertises such classic dishes as pasta, pesce, antipasti, calamari, and insalata caprese, with explanations in French underneath. “My menu is fully French,” says owner Massimo Lecas. “It’s not even bilingual.” Even so, the prominent Italian offerings proved to be a little too piccante for the tongue troopers’ taste.

They were prepared to turn a blind eye to pizza, but not to polpette. They ordered the meatballs rebranded as boulettes de viande. And no more uncorking a bottiglia of wine, s’il vous plaît. It’s to be bouteille from now on. And pasta? That would be pâtes alimentaires.

All this cretineria, courtesy of the Office québécois de la langue française, the province’s language watchdog, makes the Parti Québécois government look like a bunch of peevish country hicks. And not for the first time. Remember Mendy Berson, the Jewish gravestone maker who got into trouble for having the Hebrew word for “monument” on his otherwise French/English sign? Or the campaign to stamp out the wall menus in Chinese restaurants because they were written in, well, Chinese? (Source: Toronto Star)

Posted in: Canada, Quebec Tagged: culture, Editorial Cartoon, english, french, italian, language, Pauline Marois, Quebec, restaurant

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Please note…

This website contains satirical commentaries of current events going back several decades. Some readers may not share this sense of humour nor the opinions expressed by the artist. To understand editorial cartoons it is important to understand their effectiveness as a counterweight to power. It is presumed readers approach satire with a broad minded foundation and healthy knowledge of objective facts of the subjects depicted.

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