Breaking news: The weather sucks

Hey, look — snow. Photo via Flickr

Let’s point out the obvious: The weather sucks.

Hey, remember when video game developer Electronic Arts let a bunch of people go from its Montreal office back in February? Well, the game publisher yesterday announced that the layoffs would continue, with one site reporting that 60 or 70 staffers, along with more than 100 contractors (read: people who don’t get benefits), are being relieved of their employment. Startlingly enough, the brass, via a spokesperson, gave a spiel about “sharpening its focus” and “[evolving] into a more efficient organization.”

So while some anglos continue to let their anger stew in the face of Bill 14, others are taking it to the streets — or the meetings, at least. Such is the case with the Quebec Community Groups Network, the banner anglo-rights association, which continues to bring its message to Bill 14 committee hearings. While we kind of get the point — yeah, there aren’t too many English speakers in the province’s civil service etc. — the idea of the government “mentoring anglo youths,” presumably in an effort to steer them into its bureaucracy, kind of scares us. Then again, if such a program were to emerge, we’d love to meet the kids who signed up for it.

On an utterly unrelated note, Provigo is apparently pumping $100-million into revamping its Quebec stores. We normally wouldn’t care for this kind of news, but at least one of us hopes it means that the microwaveable korma chicken meal he’s so fond of will at long last be consistently available across the chain.

Per the National Post, in France, “Quebec’s distinctive vocabulary of religion-based curse words” — you know, like tabernacle, which at least one publishing house took for an expression of surprise — “is as foreign as Swahili.” That must be why they wind up in children’s books set in our fair province.

On the homefront, our very own Michael Applebaum, our mayor of the #anglojew persuasion, is defending himself against claims that he no longer has the moral authority to govern. Why? Because in 2003 he bought a place in Villeray, renovated it and sold it — without (gasp) getting a construction permit. But, according to Applebaum, all it took to sell a property that he bought for $80,000 in Dec. 2003 for $145,000 a few months after the fact were new windows and a back door. That he forgot to get a permit was apparently an honest mistake. Whatever, though. We’re more interested in the brilliantly named (but curiously absent from his declaration records) Applecart, a company he established to buy land in the Laurentians, Duddy Kravitz-style.

And, finally, good luck, Pauline. ■