MK Braaten is looking for someone who can translate French to English, to get at some Gomery testimony that seems unusually slow making it out of French only mode.
update He’s run it through an online translator, but I imagine he’d still appreciate a second opinion. Odd Corbeil testimony – you should go read it, anyway.
Well – if you hadn’t been so quick to try and drive a stake thru Norm Spector’s heart, you could have asked him. He is fluent and writes for publication in both languages.
He has a heart? Where does he keep it?
He keeps it in a glass, along with his liver.
And, it isn’t me asking. Now, Meaghan, crawl back in that hole.
Kate, your amazing, still a sense a humor after being accused as being part of the mob…… I’m humbled and yield on bended in your presence … 😉
Enough of the suck a$$ stuff, doesn’t maz2 know french, he kind of throws it out every once in a while.
knee /PIMF
Babelfish won’t work for him? I’ve used it with decent results. I usually have to work over the translation to iron out the rough spots but it gets you 80% or more of the way there.
“He keeps it in a glass, along with his liver.”
…and his teeth.
I don’t suppose this is a paying gig? I used to be fluent in French and still read it well enough, but I don’t have time for my own blog let alone other peoples’.
I am also miffed that there is delayed English translation of proceedings. I rule out lack of money by the apparent spending by the Gomery Enquiry.
Rather than have the proceedings in a language that 90% of population can read they have chosen to print in a language 30% of population can read.
This is our bilingual program at its’ finest in action and proves how dysfunctional it is not to speak of the colossal waste of money.
I have no problems with the Gomery Inquiry being held in whatever language the witness is most comfortable in. We want to get all the nuances of their testimony and only being 80% bilingual myself, I know that while I can communicate in French, I can say exactly what I mean in English. The translations are actually pretty quick for a government organization, probably due to the visibility. And Babelfish does get you pretty close until the official translation is posted. There aren’t that many ways to say stolen, misappropriated, intimidated, criminal organization, etc.
“There aren’t that many ways to say stolen, misappropriated, intimidated, criminal organization, etc.”
Sure there are: Liberal, Grit, Whig…
I’d be careful of taking Google Language Tools or Babelfish too literally when attempting to parse for hidden meanings. Here’s my best shot at a more colloquial translation, i.e. this isn’t a transliteration, but it’s the best I can do at preserving, in English, the meaning of the original French. Or at least the best I can do near midnight. =)
The prosecutor isn’t sweeping aside or trivializing anything. When he’s saying “Bon,…” he doesn’t mean “Good,…” even though that’s the word-for-word translation we all learned in elementary school. In that context, beginning a sentence, it means “OK…”. Think of how in English we might say “Right, ….” even though we don’t necessarily mean the preceding statement was correct — it’s just a way of acknowledging what’s been said and passing to the next point.
Anyway, here’s my colloquial translation. If there are inaccuracies, I’m not trying to slander/libel anyone:
Mr. Cournoyer: Did you have discussions with Mr. Paul Martin regarding the federal government program of visibility in Quebec, and if so, under what circumstances?
Mr. Corbeil: When Mr. Tobin left, I was the Qu�bec organizer for Mr. Brian Tobin, and on January 14, 2001, Mr. Tobin retired from political life and — pardon me, I said February — excuse me, January 2002. At that time, Lucie Castilli (who was Mr. Martin’s assistant) called to ask me if I wanted — or that Mr. Martin wanted to meet me. So, Mr. Martin and I had a meeting on Parliament Hill when he was Finance Minister and I went to his office on the Hill and we talked of various things, particularly of the organization of our forces on the ground. We also talked about the ministers’ regional tour because it came up naturally when discussing the elected officials — one must understand that [he? — meaning Mr. Martin? — there’s a word missing] is an elected official of Qu�bec too — of the ministers’ regional tour, and of the federal government’s presence in Qu�bec.
These were things we discussed together, among other things.
[Note: I don’t believe this tour had anything to do with the sponsorship scandal. These tours are common; they’re usually fact-finding or public-consultation regional tours undertaken by ministers responsible for a particular portfolio; see for example http://www.lebulletinregional.com/rubrique/la_une/2005/cifq25042005.html and http://communiques.gouv.qc.ca/gouvqc/communiques/GPQF/Avril2005/15/c6061.html — this would explain the prosecutor “writing off” the question.]
Cournoyer: So, an entirely normal discussion that you could have had and did have with someone who wanted to become leader of the Liberal Party?
Corbeil: Well, I mean, Mr. Martin, the big difference he had with Mr. Chretien wasn’t the goals, it was the strategy for accomplishing those goals. Mr. Chretien leaned heavily towards, I’d call it a visible presence in Quebec, a federal government presence via the sponsorship program. Mr. Martin’s strategy leaned much more towards integrating, I’d say parenthetically, “nationalists” into the heart of the Liberal Party of Canada.
[That, to me, is the shocker — that Martin allegedly wanted to make the Liberal tent big enough to embrace Quebec nationalists! Mind you, I shouldn’t be surprised: c.f. Mulroney and Bouchard.]
Cournoyer: But in practice, with Mr. Martin himself, did you have any discussion specifically relating to the sponsorship program and/or the federal government’s visibility initiative?
Corbeil: My answer remains the same, Mr. Cournoyer. We didn’t necessarily talk about sponsorships; we talked about visibility; we talked about the ministers’ regional tours. Mr. Martin asked me: “Is this something we should keep doing? Is it something worthwhile [literally “interesting”] to Quebec?” I told him: “Yes, it’s worthwhile.” It was something that had borne fruit in Quebec.
——
Corbeil: OK, when you say above and beyond the ministers’ tour, what exactly did you discuss by way of visibility?
Cournoyer: That it was wrong for the federal government to consider withdrawing. I didn’t speak for the government, but I explained the situation. It was wrong to think that the federal government’s strategy in local and regional media was negative. I told him on the contrary, it was something positive that we should maintain.
The ministers’ regional tours were also worth keeping. It was a real plus to see elected officials in the regions, to have them present during activities financed by the federal government.
Corbeil: So, once again, that was a normal discussion with someone who wanted to become leader of the Liberal party?
Cournoyer: Listen, I don’t want to trivialize when you call something “normal” but it was something that was there. It was something that was the same for Mr. Chretien as for Mr. Martin. It was clear that the the presence of the federal government in their mind, by way of the sponsorship program, that visibility, the ministers’ regional tours, it was clear the program had to be maintained.
rob, you old flatterer, you. Un peu.
To digress:
The motto of the RCMP: “Maintiens le droit”. Originated in Montana; back when the Wild West was wild. Montana is near Sask?Alberta?
Now the motto of the RCMP is: Maintiens la gauche.
Translation: Keep the Left/Libranos in office/Power. La Gauche=National Socialism. Down with National Socialism.
Chuck’s post: Thank you for that.
As to Martin “wanting to embrace the nationalists”: Martin did that as one of his first moves by bringing Lapierre to Ottawa to be the Deputy PM, non? Martin’s bonhomme is Lapierre; no surprise? But, Lapierre was co-founder of the Bloc Quebecois or was it the QB?
Now Martin is slated to lose his seat in ? LaSalle/Emard riding?
Mon Pays…. blah blah
Heard it all before. And now the best part… La Reine Elizabeth the Queen is deciding the fate of the Librano$?Martin?Chretien?Lapierre. Les maudits Anglais.