Two Solitudes II: Solitude Harder

Due to my ever-increasing obsession with languages, I've taken up watching the French channel that comes with the meagre selection on my television. One thing that many people aren't aware of is that the media culture of Quebec (where this channel broadcasts from) is sort of... different from that of the rest of the Canada. Just another example of the infamous Two Solitudes, I suppose. An example of this would be Doc Mailloux, who I was introduced to barely an hour ago but already has both utterly repulsed and fascinated me.

I was farting around on the computer when I heard some particularly animated arguing on the television behind me. I turned around to see a fellow with an equal amount of grey curls on his head and chin glance smugly while the person sitting beside him preceded to berate the host of the program. The caption below read:

Doc Mailloux Raciste?
Le psychiatre et son ami noir s'expliquent

Which roughly translates to:

Is Doc Mailloux Racist?
The psychiatrist and his black friend explain themselves

Well, damn! They're right! His friend WAS black! It's a good thing they mentioned it in the title otherwise I might never have noticed. This odd titling would be post worthy by itself, but I decided to dig a bit deeper.

Apparently, this Doc Mailloux is the Dr. Phil of Quebec, in the sense that he's a psychiatrist with a bewildering amount of media presence. That's sort of where the comparisons end. According to the soon-to-be-reverted edit to the Dr. Phil Wikipedia article:

Phillip Calvin "Phil" McGraw is Oprah Winfrey's personal slave. He dusts her furniture in a man thong and pink apron. He has a sever inferiority complex, and attempts to make himself feel better by making fun of fat women or people with terrible lives.

(The joys of Wikipedia, ladies and gentlemen.)

But despite such things, at least Ol' Phil has never let loose verbal chestnuts like this:

Doc Mailloux said that [translation]: "Miss Jackson, like her brother Michael, exhibits unacceptable conduct, and this is typical of African or Black people, who do not know how to behave even though they left Africa many years ago." [...]

He also says, among other things, [translation] "they don’t know how to live! They live like an African tribe. You know, in Africa, when you want to shake your crotch, you do it." The host, Mr. Arcand, tries to temper these statements by saying that he thinks this behaviour is part of show business, and it is not about Africa. Doc Mailloux reacts by asking, [translation] "Would a civilized White do that?" When Mr. Arcand gives the example of Madonna and Britney Spears kissing during a program, Doc Mailloux replies that the singers kissed to demonstrate their affection.

Doc Mailloux: NOT A RACIST.

Normally, somebody making statements like this would be relegated to the gutters of AM radio. But this fellow has such an inexplicable presence in Quebec that apparently the Conservative Party of Canada courted him during the past election. This would be the Conservative Party that is the leader of the national government at the current moment, you Not!Canadians out there, not some fringe party.

*goes off to get drunk*