And to think, Pierre Polievere was close to becoming Prime Minister.
Fucking dodged a missile there.
All this because some manufacturers in the US can’t be bothered to include instructions in French, or a sticker in French to cover the English buttons on a microwave oven. Our laws state that French must be available for products that are sold. That’s all they have to comply with.
If Chinese and other international companies can comply and get away with it by providing badly machine translated crap, in the age of AI slop, American companies can also make that “effort” if they want to be able to sell us their stuff. They can fuck off and keep their shit if they don’t even want to bother trying.
I may speak English but my family doesn’t; they need their badly translated instructions. It’s absolutely worth a commercial war over this. They have no idea of who we are. We did not resist assimilation for centuries to end up being told to speak white by US companies.
Y peuvent bien manger d’la marde.
I doubt anyone on the US side really cares about adding French labeling. He’s thrown in these language demands at the last minute to derail the deal because it’s a power move.
If I had to guess I’d say he’s trying to shake down some American companies that want the deal to go through and/or he’s still aiming to make Canada the 51st state and this is his latest move.
I doubt anyone on the US side really cares about adding French labeling.
Flipping the cereal box over burns calories.
When I put together a cabinet, it had several different languages on the instructions. I just tossed them in the trash, it’s no big deal. Almost everything you buy has several sets of directions in different languages.
Businesses are already doing it and no one cares about continuing to print instructions or caution labels in French. I seriously doubt Trump had read instructions or caution labels of any kind in 20 years.
But Trump loves tariffs because he can pick winners and losers and force businesses to grovel at his feet and collect kick backs. What better way to get kickbacks than messing with the trade deal for our largest trading partner.
There is likely some other play to enrich himself at hand. Dissing the French labeling is a great way to sabotage a deal to enable that play.
American companies complain they can’t compete in world trade, while refusing to translate simple words and instructions. This despite the 1trillion dollars invested in the A.I. industry, that in theory should be able to make translations instantly and accurately.
French is again going to be the most spoken language on Earth in 30 years. Most of N. Africa speaks French.
Cool story, which US companies don’t want to print out translated text enough avoid entry into a profitable market?
The ones complaining to him.
a sticker in French to cover the English buttons on a microwave oven.
le button
To most Quebecers “le button” means “the mound”.
Merde.
Merde is too polite. It has to be marde.
Ai can even half ass do it now, there’s no excuse it’s just bigotry
AI can do it exceptionally well now. The MTL days are long gone. As someone who consumes an obscenely large amount of Asian webnovel slop, the translations are almost perfect.
I mean French is also a “white” language only thrust onto other people by colonization in places like Algeria. That said it’s weird to be racist about someone making racist attacks that effect your family.
It’s a specific reference to Québec’s history. We were told that our language was not French anymore, and were not considered “white” by some English speakers.
According to the linguist, testimonies from francophone Canadians reporting being told to speak white stretch into the 1980s, although the expression has become marginal in the 21st century.
Sure so again, your response to contemporary racism is niche historical racism?
Plaît-il?
I was quite clear. Responding to racism with niche historical racism is very weird.
No. Maybe it’s because English is not my native language but I just don’t understand your replies at all. Are you telling me I’m being racist? If so, why?
I was quite clear, you’re being weird. They’re not saying be more white they’re saying you’re American act American which is bigoted and stupid just not in the way you imply. And yes I’m implying it’s a bit racist to respond to bigotry with racism.
I think you’re mistaking inclusion for racism.
No they’re mistaking inclusion for racism, they’re saying act American not act white and so far those two aren’t always the same thing.
*affect
True enough.
MAGA doesn’t believe in accommodating speakers of any language besides English. I’ve seen laugh emojis over the idea of films being translated to other languages. And MAGA complain about being so inconvenienced by having to press 1 fir service in English
Like I just don’t get their philosophy. Foreign languages were always my worst subject but if some isn’t speaking English I dont really care doesn’t bother me. And as bad as I am at languages getting taught a phrase here and there by someone makes me happy and usually makes them very happy if I reuse it with the down the road.
Agreed, French was my worst subject in university. Frigging hated it. That doesn’t mean I think non-english speakers should go hang. It doesn’t inconvenience me to press 1 for service in English. It isn’t a difficult task for food manufacturers to use a computer to translate stuff to other languages. Do they not do that for other countries?
I saw a Facebook post about an actor voicing Spiderman in foreign translations of the film and this simple fact was somehow laughworthy to some. It’s like their attitude is that accommodating non-english speakers is “woke” and a demand from “special snowfkakes” even though the same accommodation is made for English speakers. Squid Game was dubbed over in English for us, along with lots of other foreign shows
This has got to be a joke, but it is hard to tell anymore.
My thoughts exactly.
Russia tried to do it with Ukrainian language and culture. 8 years ago, vast majority of Ukrainians in the north and east of the country used russian for every day communication (me among them). Now you’d be hard pressed to find even a few outside of the occupied territories. I believe the professional term for this is “backfired spectacularly”.
Removed by mod
You are very racist
And a touch insane
World literally too stupid to go on
Don’t do anything rash: as a millennial you have so much to live for and so many things to learn.
Learn to speak English properly or don’t use it at all.
There are so many lovely people who speak English as a second language and not very well but who I would always be happy to listen to. On the flip side the guy you replied to could be a scholar of English language and I’d still want them to shut the fuck up 🤣
Yeah but they’re learning, that was just word salad, I suspect auto translated.
"loss of sovereignty? Stop! I can only get so hard!”
keep in mind that quebec is having its general election this year, in october at the latest. the party leading in the polls is the main pro-independence one and they have said before that an independent quebec would have stronger relations with the usa (altho they have also recently said there would be no referendum on independence as long as trump is in power, and most of the quebec population is against independence right now)
there is no way that the usa is not trying do some meddling with those threats
Wait what?
(altho they have also recently said there would be no referendum on independence as long as trump is in power,
What is the thinking behind that?
and most of the quebec population is against independence right now)
How can this be, if the pro-independence party is leading the polls?
What is up in Quebec these days, if you wanted to explain to an outsider?
(note for this reply: PQ is the Parti Québécois, the pro-independence party i was talking about)
What is the thinking behind that?
i think it’s mostly because support for independence (or at least, support for a referendum in an eventual PQ government’s first term as they promised) has fallen a lot since trump started to threaten canada’s sovereignty.
many quebeckers, even sovereignists, have little faith that an independent quebec (especially as a newborn country) could effectively protect itself from trump’s usa without the support of the rest of canada. the thought right now is that it would be one of the worst times to declare independence; we’d live with 2 enemy nations at our borders instead of just one.
the PQ obviously do not want their referendum to fail, they believe in their stuff, so they wait for the situation to become more favorable.
How can this be, if the pro-independence party is leading the polls?
the PQ have more policies than just a referendum for independence, and they’re the only provincial party to not be mired in scandal and/or too radical for the Median Voter™. a lot of non-sovereignists voting for them are thinking along the lines of “i can vote for them and then when the referendum comes, vote No”
unasked for personal rant
i, personally, fucking hate them. on top of being another bourgeois party like all others, the PQ has lost almost all of its social-democratic policies under its most recent leaders, replaced by the same “anti-woke” culture war garbage that conservative parties elsewhere have. they’re anti-trans, anti-immigration, anti-Islam, anti-HSR (for some fucking reason but i guess it comes free with being an anti-woke grifter)…
essentially, the same policies as the current ruling party (the CAQ), but without all the reputation of being lapdogs for the private sector that the CAQ has (tho i don’t trust them one bit on that front either). the CAQ’s policies have done a ton of harm to the province, and yet people are asking for more! out of our 5 parties basically 4 of them are the same. and the one that isn’t, our pathetic excuse of a leftist party, is trailing in the polls.
quebec has negative class consciousness it’s ridiculous. we don’t deserve sovereignty, even without getting into the (very true) fact that quebec is a colonial state built on stolen Indigenous land.
Thank you for the rant, all the context is very informative!
Could you tell me what anti-HSR means in this context? I couldn’t figure it out :p
yea sorry, i should’ve explained 😅
i meant high-speed rail. there’s a project to build a high-speed rail line between toronto and quebec city, and the PQ have vowed to fight against it for some reason? despite it being severely needed (literally half of canada lives in this line and the train service currently is pitiful)
the official reasoning is that it’s too expensive… but most of the funding comes from the federal govt anyways?
it’s clearly not as bad as all the bigotry, but it still sends a clear signal that the party is aligning itself on conservative values and auto industry interests, despite its socdem branding.
there is no way that the usa is not trying do some meddling with those threats
If it’s like Alberta’s seditious rumblings, CSIS just lobbed a report showing the slopaganda is coming straight from Russia.
Wait did he actually say that??? I’m surprised Trump even knows French is an official language in Canada
I suspect the reality is something like them not needing to do dual languages on products we import.
This will explain a bit more.
It does a little bit there’s not much elaboration on what specific demands were made re: french language and Quebecoise culture
This other article linked from the first one has a much better explanation: https://montrealgazette.com/news/why-the-u-s-sees-quebecs-french-language-laws-as-a-trade-barrier/
Thank you, yes it does.
Kind of maddening that a government would try to demand that of another. US businesses do not need to be babies to this extent.
It’s such a crazy demented request that has no chance of resulting in a deal. It is such a small buisness cost to market in cultural acceptable labels in any country they do business in. It’s like asking to sell english only labelling in Mexico. It’s an internal Mexico governance issue what languages should be present for their consumers, but businesses know that sales improve as a result of projecting respect for consumers.
He rapes children he does not give a fuck – seems like Canada finally realized they’re dealing with an actual child raping psychopath. You actually cannot make any deal with him, he will just break it again in a couple months at best (midterms.)
World needs to take Canada’s lead and refuse all negotiations with trump. Kick us out of nato and the UN (suspension until trump leaves office?)
Either we get on with it now or we get on with it later when trump has further entrenched himself in the white house. There is absolutely no good deal, hell no deal at all, that anyone can make with this madman who hates humanity. His word is worth less than the shitcoins he sells.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced that trade negotiations with Canada collapsed after Ottawa “declined to finalize” an agreement. Greer stated that Washington had offered preferential treatment and tariff reductions on steel, aluminum, and autos, but blamed Canada for introducing late-stage new demands and walkbacks.
Listening to their trade guy spin the whole thing as “USA tried to make a go of it with those treacherous canucks, and give them a really great deal as best friends, but they were dicks and so we hate them” is equal parts infuriating and absurd. The absolute lie that Canada somehow porked up the deal in the last minute is both false and uncharacteristic, but given every accusation from this administration is an admission, I guess it should be expected.
Canada should start shipping all their remaining products to the US in Spanish.
Jaque mate pendejos.
add manuals in Esperanto.
lmfao yes
La Riposte.
A movement to inspire all Anglophone Canadians to commit to learning a bit of French everyday in response to US economic and cultural aggression.
Symbolic, valuable, but extremely accessible. CBC has an app (Mauril) that our tax dollars already pay for, and of course there are dozens of language learning apps, many free.
Something almost anyone can do, at no cost. It’s good for you. It’s good for Canada (bilingual workforce opens many international doors). It’ll piss Trump off.
Canada needed something to get behind, all together. If it gains enough traction, CBC and companies like Duolingo will pick up the bump in traffic and the story gets legs.
Am I high? Would you commit to learning more French and then actually do it, for this reason?
Edit: I did buy a couple of domains already. I might actually throw together a one pager tomorrow and just try to get it out there.
Edit 2: la-riposte dot ca. Pretty sure my links are being removed
I’ve been trying to learn French. My whole dad’s side of the family is Québécois but I grew up with my Mum for the most part in Ontario and was never spoken French to :(. I’ve cut off most of that side of the family now but I still adore everything about Québec and want to feel at home there someday
As a québécois, I strongly suggest to watch Infoman (canadian politics satire, excellent way to stay informed on the federal level politics).
Also, some classics: “Dans une galaxie près de chez vous” (a show in the style of Red Dwarf, but targeting a younger public), “Le coeur a ses raisons” (a parody of soap operas), and even older “La ptite vie” (may not have aged as well, but depicts a typical Montreal family in the 80s)
For the hardcore, listen to François Pérusse “L’album du peuple”.
All these things can be watched and rewatched many times and will never get boring.
Je suis anglaise, mais j’ai appris français de France au college il y a longtemps. Mais j’aimerais bien apprendre français québécois. Jeu-t’allée, tabernak! C’est tout je connais lol
I’m not Canadienne is what I’m saying, but I’d gladly switch my je suis allée to jeu-t’allée if it annoys a maga.
Please share the link if you do it!
Québécois here, it’s more like chu-t’allée. The French are the ones that pronounce Je like Jeu. These 2 words sound very different in Québec French.
Happy to help with any Québec French question!
Are there any Quebec specific ways to insult Trump?
Not really, no…
I linked it but it may have been removed
La-riposte
Dot ca
I’m in! I was actually already thinking about it as my best friend had a stroke last week and we’re thinking maybe french might help her communicate better. She studied french for years and lived in France as well. Hasn’t spoken it in years though. A good friend from Montreal will be visiting her in the hospital this week, going to try.
I’m no web developer but wanted to get it out fast while the iron is hot.
Please tell 2 people about it, ask those people to tell 2 people about it.
I’m very interested in this myself!
Thank you for sharing that. Can you imagine US folks also getting into this? I bet some would.
There are the Cajuns, we could patriate them.
they could bring back some white onyo.
Happy cake day!
Hmmmm nazis trying to erase their French neighbors… where have I heard this before?..
Elbows to the face.
Merde! In the words of greats:
Viens là, suce ma bite!
