A White Elephant…

19 Friday Oct 2018

Posted by michelinewalker in Medicine, Sharing, Social Justice

Tags

Access to doctors, Medicine, Quebec, White elephants

Composite Elephant, 17th century, India (Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY)

It’s a day at a time.

I have been working on Despotism. Peter I (the Great & 6 ft 8 [203 cm]) wanted access to seas. He defeated the Swedish Empire and founded the Russian Empire in 1721.

—ooo—

In August 2017, my brother Jean-Pierre, nephew François and his wife, Josée, helped me move from a large apartment to a smaller one. I had too many books. After transporting something to my locker, my brother said: “I won’t sleep for three nights.”

What had I heard? I told François that his father could not help me anymore. He needed to be treated.

In the meantime, my brother’s urine grew increasingly mixed with blood and an unidentified white substance. He saw a doctor who prescribed antibiotics. Antibiotics! We are now in the spring of 2018 (not August 2017). My brother saw a second doctor who diagnosed cancer.

I pity men who are treated for a cancer of the bladder. Jean-Pierre’s urethra was so damaged that he nearly went into shock and died, when a tube was inserted through the urethra, to fill his bladder with a chemical and then remove the chemical. The pain was excruciating, and they said they could not give him an anaesthetic or freeze the affected area. I nearly jumped out of my skin. More of these treatments had been scheduled.

Between treatments, my brother was not prescribed a painkiller. I tried to help by offering a few tablets of codeine that had been prescribed for stubborn migraines several years ago. I doubted they could still relieve pain and medication should be prescribed by one’s own doctor. My brother did not take the codeine.

You know the rest…

Portrait of the Elephant ‘Alam Guman, 1640, India (Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY)

A lunch in Ottawa

A few years ago, Mr MacEachen invited me to share a lunch with him in Ottawa. We were joined by Pearl, Mr MacEachen’s finest secretary, and Craig, who helped Mr MacEachen. Allan J. asked me about medicine in Quebec. I told him that I had not been able to find a doctor, so a secretary at the Medical School had referred me to an intern and that I now had a good doctor. He worked in a public clinic supervising interns.

In other words, I told Mr MacEachen that, in Quebec, one could not find a doctor. He answered that the system would break down. He was right. Allan J. MacEachean built Canada’s first social programmes, under Lester B. Pearson, and had studied economics in an ivy league university.

I have since learned that those who despair seek the services of a private doctor, which is extremely expensive. These doctors have rich patients and treat celebrities.

Painting attributed to Bichitr (active ca. 1610–60)

The Syndicates

the priest-ridden province
the syndicate-ridden province

It appears that, in Quebec, doctors are protected by powerful syndicates. Before the Révolution tranquille, Quebec was considered a ‘priest-ridden’ province. Many priests had been sent to the Seminary in Quebec City because England did not know what to do with the French priests who had emigrated to Britain during the French Revolution. They then remembered that they had a French, and Catholic, colony. A second wave of priests and religious orders emigrated to Quebec in 1905, when the French passed the Law on the Separation of the Churches and the State: la loi du 9 décembre 1905.

Quebec may have been a priest-ridden province but it would appear it is now run by syndicates. (See Révolution tranquille, Wiki2.org.) A cousin of mine could not believe that my pension did not allow me to spend part of the winter, if not all, in Florida. “You didn’t have a very good syndicate,” she said. Truth be told, we did not have a syndicate.

An Emergency

I just read my email. A friend who lives close to Sherbrooke and suffers from Ménière’s disease (vertigo and deafness) wrote to say that he had been on a waiting-list to see his specialist for two years. He asked that his appointment be moved up but he was told to wait. My hearing is normal, so it’s easy for me to make phone calls. I called.

Conclusion

If a province chases away good taxpayers, a welfare state is a white elephant, particularly when doctors, university teachers, lawyers, and everyone else, are syndicated. I dare not say more.

We lowly creatures…

Love to everyone 💕

Camille Saint-Saëns “The Elephant” from the Carnival of Animals,
played by Zoltán Bíró
Budapest, 29 November 2008

Comforting Thoughts…

13 Saturday Oct 2018

Posted by michelinewalker in Canada, Quebec, Sharing

≈ 20 Comments

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Jean-Pierre, Ozias Leduc, Quebec Doctors, the Spirit

Colour Sketch for the Decoration of the Chapel of the Bishop’s Palace, Sherbrooke: “The Annunciation,” Ozias Leduc, 1922. (Musée des beaux-arts du Canada/National Galery of Canada)

Yesterday, my nephew François took me to see my brother Jean-Pierre. He is hospitalized in the very large building I showed in an earlier post.

When we arrived, a priest was giving him the Last Rites. The priest invited all of us to kiss him and leave him a message. No one knows how long he will live, but he is in a room for the dying.

My brother is very weak. He can barely lift his head from the pillow and he cannot sit in bed without the help of three persons, one for each arm and a person who rearranges his pillow.

We stayed with him the entire afternoon and the little group returned to the hospital in the evening. I stayed home. I don’t want to know how much we paid in parking fees, but if members of his family did not help my brother, he would require the services of at least one professional twenty-four hours a day. A nurse came in to give him morphine and she obviously kept an eye on us, but he wasn’t alone.

Good News

I have good news. Quebec doctors were becoming an aristocracy:

“On Wednesday, an independent report commissioned by Quebec’s Health and Welfare Commissioner found that physician salaries had doubled between 2005-15, while the hours doctors spent with patients declined.”

Why Quebec doctors have rejected a pay rise

By Robin Levinson-King, BBC News, Toronto
8 March 2018

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43336410

However, here is what doctors themselves did in late February 2018.

We, Quebec doctors, are asking that the salary increases granted to physicians be cancelled and that the resources of the system be better distributed for the good of the healthcare workers and to provide health services worthy to the people of Quebec, the letter posted on 26 February states

L’Heure mauve, Ozias Leduc, 1921 (Virtual Museum of Canada)

L’Esprit : une expression de la transcendance

Ozias Leduc L’heure mauve, 1921 huile sur papier, monté sur toile 92,4 x 76,8 cm Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal Don de Madame Samuel Bronfman en l’honneur du soixante-dixième anniversaire de son mari © Succession Ozias Leduc / SODRAC (Montréal) 2003
Love to everyone 💕

A. VIVALDI: «Filiae maestae Jerusalem» RV 638 [II.Sileant Zephyri], Ph.Jaroussky/Ensemble Artaserse

Ozias Leduc, L’Archange saint Michel, fusain [charcoal] sur papier, 1894, 43 x 35 cm, collection Huguette Leblanc et Guy Gagnon

Quebec’s Elections and Notes on Ozias Leduc

10 Wednesday Oct 2018

Posted by michelinewalker in Canada, Quebec, Sharing

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Bill 22 & Bill 101, Coalition avenir Québec, François Legault, Ozias Leduc, St Ninian's Cathedral, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom

Le Jeune Élève d’Ozias Leduc, 1894 (Musée des beaux-arts du Canada)

Leduc-Chasse-aux-canards-par-un-matin-brumeux2-Huile-sur-toile-11-x-15-85-000

Chasse aux canards par un matin brumeux (Hunting for Ducks on a Foggy Morning), Ozias Leduc (Galerie Michel Bigué)

I added a paragraph to my last post, after it was published. By and large, posts are not read twice. I am therefore publishing what you haven’t read.

One paragraph in Wiki2.org’s entry entitled Official Language Act (Quebec) seems reassuring. Quebec’s Language Laws, Bills 22 and 101, do not take rights away from English-speaking Canadians. Their children may attend an English-language school. But the children of immigrants, are required to attend a French-language school. All signs, such as traffic signs, must be predominantly, if not entirely, in French. I remember mentioning in a post that a Quebec café or restaurant owner was required to remove the letters WC from the door to a public toilet room. WC (water closet) may be used in France, but not in Quebec. Stop signs are called arrêts in Quebec. In short, Quebec insists on looking French. Traffic monitors and advertising displays are in French.

Concerning ‘unilingualism’ in Quebec, it is useful to read the entries entitled Official Language Act (Quebec) (Bill 22) and Charter of the French Language (Bill 101). (Wiki2.org.)

I did not quote the introductory paragraph but quoted the paragaph following it.

That English was an official language in Quebec as well, was declared on July 19, 1974, by McGill University law faculty’s most expert counsellors, disputing Bill 22. The testifiers were Dean Frank R. Scott, John Peters Humphrey, chief planner of the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights, Irwin Cotler and four additional legal teachers:

Section 1, which provides that French is ‘the official language of the province of Quebec,’ is misleading in that it suggests that English is not also an official language in Quebec, which it is by virtue of Section 133 of the BNA Act and the federal Official Languages Act. … No legislation in the National Assembly proclaiming French the sole official language in the province can affect these bilingual areas protected by the BNA Act.

(See Official Language Act [Quebec], Wiki2.org.)

Although this paragraph is reassuring, to my knowledge, when Premier Robert Bourassa said that the province of Quebec would be unilingual (French), he meant ‘officially’ unilingual. Given that Canada’s official languages are French and English, why would Premier Bourassa say that Quebec would, henceforth, be a unilingual province, i. e. ‘officially’?

In other words, the rights of English-speaking Canadians are respected under the Official Languages Act of 1969, as per the paragraph I quoted. One difficulty arises for French-speaking Quebecers. After the age of 11, children are unlikely to acquire native fluency in a second language, but there are exceptions. Some individuals speak eighteen languages by the age of 18. They may make mistakes and they may have an accent, but… However, a large number of French-speaking Quebecers find ways of teaching English to their children. English is a North-American reality.

I have two students who mastered French. My star student is Gillian Pink, from Antigonish. Gillian is working at Oxford University.

Candlelight Study, Ozias Leduc, 1893 (Google)

Language Bills, Referendums, and Sovereignty

Let us return to Bill 22 and Bill 101. I have noted that there was an exodus from Quebec when Bill 22 was passed. In my opinion, Bill 22 was seen as a step in the direction of sovereignty. So have Bill 101 and the two referendums (1980 and 1995).

Quebec’s new Premier, François Legault, has stated that there would not be another referendum, but he and members of Coalition avenir Quebec will be seeking greater autonomy for Quebec. What does he mean? Quebec Premier René Lévesque did not sign the Constitution Act of 1982, and none of his successors have done so. The fact remains that I’ve been in the midst of an identity crisis for sixteen years, or since I left Antigonish, Nova Scotia.

My Quebec Health Insurance Card does not cover the cost of appointments with a doctor in provinces other than Canada. Yet, I am a Canadian, but a French-speaking Canadian living in Québec, whose mother tongue is French, who loves French literature, but who speaks English fluently and feels Quebec is safer as a province of Canada, than a country.

I believe that all Canadians are protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but the Constitution Act of 1982 enshrines the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is entrenched in the Constitution Act of 1982, which Quebec has not signed. Usually, Ottawa, the federal government, rescues Quebecers. It may have found a niche for the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, or the Charter may exist separately. The BNA Act may be more permanent legislation.

However, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms requires all provinces to provide primary and secondary education to their official-language minorities at public expense.

(See French Language in Canada, Wiki2.org.)

Conclusion

Would that Quebecers had not elected a party advocating greater autonomy for Quebec. Quebecers have to protect their language, but greater autonomy for Quebec suggests distancing Quebec from other Canadian provinces.

May all Canadians live in peace and harmony. Culturally, I am French. But home is also Antigonish, Nova Scotia, where I owned a lovely blue house, across the street from the campus of St Francis Xavier University and St Ninian’s Cathedral.

Ozias Leduc

Ozias Leduc (8 October 1864 – 16 June 1955) is my featured artist. His subject matter is often religious. But his art is nevertheless diverse and still lifes seem a favourite subject. Well-known artist Paul-Émile Borduas was one of his students. I am embedding a video. It is a French-language video with a lyrical ambiance. A couple is getting on a raft that will take them to Ozias Leduc’s house. It may be the smaller house.

Ozias Leduc’s house (Google)

St Ninians’ Cathedral, Antigonish, Nova Scotia

Closer to me, is St Ninian’s Cathedral, in Antigonish. Paintings in our Cathedral were the work of Ozias Leduc. I was in Antigonish when they were restored.

Love to everyone 💕

St. Ninian’s Cathedral, Antigonish, Nova Scotia

Leduc’s Boy with Bread, 1892-99, National Gallery of Canada (Wiki2.org.)

About my Brother.2

30 Sunday Sep 2018

Posted by michelinewalker in Sharing

≈ 17 Comments

Tags

Illness, Jean-Pierre, My Family

Bouquet of Flowers, by EugÃ¨ne Delacroix

Bouquet of Flowers by Eugène Delacroix (Photo credit: Wikipaintings)

I told you that my brother Jean-Pierre was about to undergo another course of chemotherapy. He will not. Nothing can be done to save his life. It would have to be a miracle.

13001161_10154064737364675_4963360165025724219_n

Jean-Pierre, lower right

In the background, left to right, we have Thérèse (who may be stroking one of our black cats), my great grandmother Philomène, mémère Pomerleau, in her nineties, and my sister Diane. In the foreground, sitting next to me, is my brother Jean-Pierre, blue-eyed, blond, and wearing glasses.

We lived in an old and very large brick house. We did not have hot water.
Grand-maman Philomène, my father’s maternal grandmother, would take us into the forest to gather herbs she used to make medications. She was of French descent. We never met my father’s Irish grandmother, but Jean-Pierre was with me when we went to Massachusetts to meet my father’s father and Nanny, the woman whose house and farm he had bought and where he invited her to stay for the rest of her life.

My grandmother would not move to the United States. I believe she divorced my grandfather. My father, his brother, and two sisters were brought up by their mother and Philomène, who earned their living as a midwife and pharmacist. She was an assistant to the village doctor.

Their house sat between a railway and a river. The train left a supply of wood and coal, that my father would pick up. I never asked where the family got their water. The house is still there, but I don’t think a train runs by, just the river.

I can’t believe that nothing can be done to save my brother. He’s lost about sixty pounds (27.2 kilos) and he is still losing weight. A few months ago, he was prescribed antibiotics.

My brother has a beautiful rich voice: bass-baritone.

RELATED ARTICLES

About my Brother (30 August 2018)
My Family (24 April 2016)

Love to everyone 💕

Marie-Nicole Lemieux chante Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix
Camille Saint-Saëns

tombeau_du_chanoine_lucas_amiens_ange_pleureur130608

The Weeping Angel of Amiens

About my Brother

30 Thursday Aug 2018

Posted by michelinewalker in Sharing

≈ 16 Comments

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Jean-Pierre, Leonardo da Vinci, my brother, Tchaikovsky

Leonardo_da_Vinci_Virgin_of_the_Rocks_(National_Gallery_London)

The Virgin of the Rocks by Leonardo da Vinci, about 1491/2-9 and 1506-8 (The National Gallery, UK)

I’ve tried to work, but unsuccessfully. I therefore apologize.

My brother, Jean-Pierre, was operated on. They removed his bladder and parts of the body located near the bladder. He must now undergo chemotherapy because no one knows if the cancer has been fully removed. The cancer has metastasized.

In the meantime, he has to learn a new way of life. He has a loving wife who will be helping him.

He also has three devoted children, two of whom live nearby. They are very fine human beings.

Persons who have children often love life more those who have not had children. My brother’s bungalow is like grand central station. The children are always dropping in and discuss what problem they may be experiencing with their father.

My brother is non judgemental and he is forgiving. He is also very generous.

No, he is not an intellectual. He is in the clean energy business and has many customers in Africa. He has therefore travelled to Africa several times where he has many friends. But he started out in the Air Force. He was interested in the military.

At that time, he was in a car accident. There were five persons in the car. Four died, but he thought he was fine. He did not realize that a piece of glass had penetrated his forehead. When symptoms appeared, the piece of glass was removed at the Montreal Neurological Institute. He recovered fully, but the accident may have ended his career in the military.

What has united my brother and me more than anything else is the death of several siblings. There is a congenital blood disease in my family. So we lost fourteen brothers and sisters. An Armenian doctor, whose family settled in Sherbrooke, found a cure. My brother and I could not understand why our family was not like other families.

I don’t think I will see my brother until he returns home. We will speak on the phone. He has asked to be left alone. He has to learn how to function without a bladder and needs rest before his second round of chemotherapy. A few months ago, my brother saw a specialist who did not diagnose cancer.

The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, La Dernière Cène (Google)

I’m still working on the French Revolution. There is a problem. On the day of the Tennis Court Oath (20 June 1789), one person, Joseph Martin-Dauch, out of 577, would not take the collective vote. Why?

Mikhail Pletnev plays Tchaikovsky Children’s Album op. 39 – video 1986

Tchaikovsky (bbc.co.uk)

The Last Few Days: Details

12 Sunday Aug 2018

Posted by michelinewalker in Québec Songs, Quebec Art, Sharing

≈ 7 Comments

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Claude Léveillée, Gilles Vigneault, Jean Paul Lemieux, Jean-Pierre Ferland, La Capricieuse, Le Vieux Soldat canadien, les Ursulines, Mon Pays, Raymond Lévesque, Robert Charlebois

Les Ursulines, Jean-Paul Lemieux, Wikiart

It’s Sunday, which remains a sacred day for me. Other days serve different purposes and have an origin. Saturday is Saturn as in Saturnalia, a Roman festival taking place on the day of the longest night: Christmas. Humanity has always cherished symbols, but these change from culture to culture. They attach a story to things otherwise “ordinary.”

Jean-Paul Lemieux

To decorate my post, I chose Jean-Paul Lemieux (18 November 1904 – 7 December 1990) who lived in Berkeley, California for several years. His family may have wished to escape cold winters. He and Leclerc were born the same year and were good persons. Lemieux returned to Québec, despite the cold, the snow, various ice storms and numerous heat waves.

Félix Leclerc

Félix Leclerc (2 August 1914 – 8 August 1988), was born in La Tuque, Quebec and studied at the University of Ottawa until the Great Depression. There was no money. He then found work in radio stations, as speaker or writer. In 1939, he was employed by Ici Radio-Canada, the French counterpart of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the CBC. He may have written radio dramas, which my father did, at approximately the same time in the history of Quebec.

After the war, Félix Leclerc, and his guitar, went to France where he took courses. He met kindred spirits, such as Boris Vian. In 1950, at the age of 36, he was discovered by French impresario Jacques Canetti. His daughter says that he divided his life between l’île d’Orléans, where he owned a house, and Paris.

In Le Tour de l’île, Leclerc also mentions a blue-eyed grandfather standing guard, which reminds me of Octave Crémazie‘s poem, entitled « Le Vieux Soldat canadien » . The first French ship to sail down the Saint Lawrence after the “Conquest” was La Capricieuse, in 1855.[1]

Other Quebec Singer-Songwriters

Félix Leclerc was the first of a group of Quebec singer-songwriters. These include Raymond Lévesque who wrote “Quand les hommes vivront d’amour,” Claude Léveillée who wrote songs for Édith Piaf, and also wrote Frédéric (1961), is also a major singer-songwriter. So are Jean-Pierre Ferland, the composer of Fais du feu dans la cheminée, Robert Charlebois, the author of Ordinaire, and Diane Dufresne. The best performers were Monique Leyrac and Pauline Julien. (Please click on the title of songs I have chosen to hear it.)

However, the most celebrated Québecois singer-songwriter is Gilles Vigneault. Vigneault wrote: “Mon Pays.”

Independence

You will have noticed that Leclerc mentions independence. As paradoxical as this may seem, I believe Québécois have their own country, albeit informally. But, their country is in Canada, where it is probably a safer and more stable place than outside Canada. Québec has yet to sign the Patriated Constitution (1982).

Lemieux’ Ursulines

Les Ursulines are a teaching order founded by Marie de l’Incarnation (née Marie Guyart), in 1639. The Ursulines’ main monastery, built in Quebec City, is the oldest institution of learning for women in North America. As a religious order, the Ursulines were founded in Italy.

—ooo—

I have worked on the Battle of Quebec and grouped the lines differently. Folklore has its rules, but the “Battle of Quebec” is a challenge. Lines vary in length. The French lines would be called “octaves.” The words “La Danaé” would be at the end of each octave.The English lines (4 stanzas containing 4 lines) seem a response.

La Récréation (playtime)

Before the Révolution tranquille, teachers were nuns and school girls wore a navy blue pinafore dress over a white blouse.

Jean-Paul Lemieux, 1957 (Galerie d’Art Michel Bigué)

Le peintre Jean-Paul Lemieux. Le musicien Philippe Lauters.

RELATED ARTICLE

La Capricieuse & Crémazie’s “Old Soldier” (25 April 2012) ♥

Sources and Resources

Le Vieux Soldat canadien is a Wikisource publication

_________________________

[1] Jacques Portes, “Visite de la Capricieuse en 1855: point tournant des relations France-Canada,” l’Encyclopédie du Patrimoine culturel de l’Amérique française

A lunch in Ottawa

The Syndicates

An Emergency

Conclusion

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Good News

Why Quebec doctors have rejected a pay rise

A. VIVALDI: «Filiae maestae Jerusalem» RV 638 [II.Sileant Zephyri], Ph.Jaroussky/Ensemble Artaserse

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Language Bills, Referendums, and Sovereignty

Conclusion

Ozias Leduc

St Ninians’ Cathedral, Antigonish, Nova Scotia

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Jean-Paul Lemieux

Félix Leclerc

Other Quebec Singer-Songwriters

Independence

Lemieux’ Ursulines

La Récréation (playtime)

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The Ineffable

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