Think Your Life Is Bad? It Could Be Worse. You Could Live In Quebec.

Think Your Life Is Bad? It Could Be Worse. You Could Live In Quebec.
by Heather Roscoe

Politics is the playground for conspiracy theorists; it is the school yard where they can grow in an environment that nurtures their paranoia. Conspiracy theorists (CTs) are so much fun to write about that my fingers are trembling with anticipation, but I'll save the reader from having to suffer through any psychotic theories I have about CTs. The two ends of the political spectrum have their differences, of course. However, there are a few things we can all admit that, fundamentally, the Republicans and Democrats agree on.

Case in point: An over-controlling government is something that Americans usually shy away from. Naturally, we have a few rogues who insist that government talons should further pierce the fabric of our lives. But most of us value our separation from the yahoos in the White House - much to their chagrin at times.

Recently, a case of too much government intervention came to my attention. It originates in the confused, happy Canadian province of Quebec. It seems - and I was unaware of this in the past - that Quebec has a team of 'language police' who scour the province searching for any offenders who dare to speak a sentence or two of anything other than the sacred Quebecois. For example...

Overactive government horror story #1:

The March 30 National Post reported that Rahman Saifur Pervez Khan, who recently bought a small convenience store in Montreal, was nailed for not being able to speak the language properly. Khan, an immigrant from Bangladesh, had spent hours in vocational and language training courses before buying the store. The Government of Quebec threatened him and told him that if he didn't take more language training classes or hire francophones (French-speaking people) to work in his store, he could be fined or even jailed. The 35-year-old owner works in the store 18 hours a day and hasn't time to take the course, and although he has pleaded to several different government officials, no relief has been forthcoming, just more warnings.

Overactive government horror story #2:

Similar to the first one, from the same newspaper. Satyajyoti Bhattacharjee, the owner of a restaurant in Montreal has been ordered by the Commission de Protection de la Langue Francaise (try saying that ten times fast) to dispose of his Double Diamond beer coasters which are printed in English. He will be fined $7,000 if he refuses to comply. Memo to the Commission: They're beer coasters! People are supposed to concentrate on what's inside their beer mugs, not on what's under them. Law enforcement officials in Montreal must be seriously bored.

How did this come about? An overactive government can be stifling and even scary. The question I want to ask is, will America, in the foreseeable future, be headed down the same road? Fortunately, it seems as if we will still do anything possible to prevent that from happening.

When someone says 'government control' or 'tightfisted-suffocating-government intervention' immediately my mind conjures prefabricated images of black-clad storm troopers stomping across people's front lawns, marching in formation down streets, blowing up school houses etc. (Someday I'll write about the media and how it affects our minds). More than likely, tightfisted control will tiptoe across our lawns, peek around corners and slip through the space under the door. Cooking a frog is much easier if you start with cold water, not hot.

Being paranoid isn't nearly as satisfying unless you brandish it like a saber in front of your peers. There are so many tame people who are satisfied to live their lives in calm bliss without questioning the higher forms of authority in their lives.

Honestly, we're still a blissfully free country, a thing that we probably take for granted too often. Fortunately we still have a healthy appreciation our relative freedom - God help us if we ever stop appreciating it.