Free Stuff College Students May Not Want

Parti Quebecois membership give away may hit ethnic snag

Anyone who's ever been to college or university knows for certain that the favourite word of any post secondary student is "free".

The Parti Quebecois certainly does.

The PQ youth wing will be handing out free party memberships this fall in a bid to skirt the rules of campuses that forbid political parties from selling memberships there.

According to Quebec Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Claude, the initiative is just an effort to try to boost the PQ's sagging popularity.

"There are so few people following [Marois] that they have to give away memberships to fill events," Bechard said. "It demonstrates that their ideas are no longer finding traction."

But Alexandre Theriault-Marois, the Vice President of Political Affairs for the PQ youth wing, insisted Bechard's comments were "cheap".

"We have ideas and we want to enrich them," Theriault-Marois insisted.

But as the PQ attempts to swell its youth ranks with students, one may wonder how many immigrant students will be taking the bait.

Former PQ Quebec Premier Bernard Landry suggested Quebec needed to extend Bill 101's jurisdiction to Quebec's Colleges and Universities.

So as the Parti Quebecois hands out free memberships, one may wonder whether or not immigrant students would be willing to accept one -- even at the "bargain price" of gratis.

Bernard Landry: The Gift that Keeps on Giving

Landry to immigrants: "Fuck you"

Much like Bloc Quebecois leader Gille Duceppes' message to non-Quebecois francophones, former Quebec Premier Bernard Landry has a message for immigrants in La Belle Province:

"Go fuck yourself."

That was esentially what Landry had to say to Quebec immigrants today -- much to the likely chagrin of PQ leader Pauline Marois -- when he insisted that immigrants to Quebec and the children of immigrants to Quebec needed to be provided the option of attending French-only Universities -- or no post-secondary education at all.

Today, Landry insisted that the ever-popular Bill 101 needed to be extended to the provinces Colleges and Universities -- which would essentially make it unlawful to teach in any language other than French.

This, naturally, presents two problems for Marois:

Problem number one is that it simply reminds Quebeckers of the racist and retrograde nature of the Parti Quebecois, and the Quebec separatist movement as a whole. Landry's comments were a response to recent news that more allophones than uni-lingual francophones have been enrolling in schools in Montreal.

Apparently, for Landry, the notion that Quebec students would speak both of Canada's official languages is threatening to the primacy of French in Quebec.

The second problem is related to the second -- namely, that to achieve future electoral successes (let alone an affirmative sovereignty vote) the PQ needs significant support from immigrant communities.

Which, naturally, won't happen so long as Bernard Landry tells them that they may be educated in French and only French -- essentially telling linguistic and ethnic minorities to go fuck themselves in the name of francophone primacy.

So far as unwise and racialized politics go, this is about as bad as it gets.