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Beryl Wajsman

Now the state "presumes" to control our deaths

By Beryl Wajsman on June 19, 2019

It doesn't seem to stop does it? Government after government at every level just can't get it through their collective heads that their job is called "public service." Service. They are elected to deliver and ensure the essential services we the people that elected them need every day. Care for the vulnerable, health, transport, dignified and affordable housing, pensions, order and so on.

Bill 21: A perspective on laity in Quebec

By Beryl Wajsman on April 3, 2019

It was certainly not our most pressing issue. But since Premier François Legault has made good on his election promise of introducing legislation on laity in Bill 21 it is important to bring some perspective on this issue.

Trudeau just doesn't get it

By Beryl Wajsman on March 11, 2019

So the PM's  former Principal Secretary Gerry Butts gave his testimony before the Justice Committee last Wednesday and Mr. Trudeau gave his "non-apology" press conference last Thursday. Neither staunched the continuing drop in Liberal poll numbers and neither convinced anyone that they were just "discussing options" and weren't aware that Attorney-General Wilson-Raybould had "really" made up her mind when she delivered her message to that effect last September 17 to the Prime Minister.

Remembering King....“Courage uncompromised by timidity. Justice not cheapened for expediency…”

By Beryl Wajsman on January 15, 2019

Today, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would have turned 90 years old. Tragically, he was struck down by an assassin's bullet at the age of 39 on April 4 1968. He had frequently told his wife that he felt he would never reach his fortieth birthday.

Time for some perspective on laity in Quebec

By Beryl Wajsman on October 15, 2018

It was certainly not our most pressing issue. But since Premier-elect François Legault decided to bring the issue of laity front and centre on his first day, and since that issue has caused so much debate and discord the past week - including thousands of Montrealers demonstrating this past Sunday - we thought it was important to bring some perspective, and a warning, on this issue.
It is quite reasonable in the western liberal tradition to put up a firewall between faith and state. From American President James Madison stating, “The civil administration shall take no cognizance of religion” at the beginning of the 19th century, to the French “modele Republicain” inspired by Jean Jaurés at the end of that century, freedom of religion has been accepted to mean freedom from religion as well. 

Let's get serious on energy in Quebec

By Beryl Wajsman on October 15, 2018

Premier-elect François Legault has said over and over again that he wanted to be known as the "business premier." His platform calls for a large reduction in the bureaucracy, less bureaucratic forms, more ways to attract out-of-province investors and lower taxes. We can think of no better priority for him to commence his mandate on. And we can think of no better area to start his program than in energy. It is time for Quebec to get serious on its energy potential.
The time is very propitious. The previous government's failure to move on the Energy East pipeline has still left 

Remember Robillard: Rays of reasons for Quebec for all parties

By Beryl Wajsman on August 31, 2018

In an election, all parties look for policies to attract voters. Too often they are ideas at the edges meant not to upset too many. We would suggest that this is a time for big ideas. And lucid ones.
Precisely at this time in 2015 the Robillard Report was released. Lucienne Robillard was the former federal Treasury Board President among other portfolios she handled so well under Prime Minister Chrétien. She was named by Premier Couillard to head a Commission to study ways to reform and improve Quebec governance. Her conclusions pulled no punches. It was the broadest and most wide-ranging agenda of common sense in a generation.

"SLĀVs" to the ignorance of political correctness..

By Beryl Wajsman on July 16, 2018

The Montreal Jazz Festival's decision to terminate the run of the play SLĀV was a cowardly submission to the ignorance of political correctness that will stain the reputation of this city and its citizens in ways that the organizers of the Festival cannot yet imagine. And because this affront to free expression happened in North America's battleground of culture wars - where speech and language rights are under regular attack - it will add to the impression of many that this city has become an intolerant, sad and unsophisticated place where courage is in short supply and reason is in short measure.

RFK: "A tiny ripple of hope..."

By Beryl Wajsman on June 6, 2018

“In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.” ~ from Aeschylus’ “Agamemnon”, one of RFK’s favorite quotes he repeated often after the murder of his brother.
Today we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. He was shot on June 5, 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles as he was celebrating the California primary victory that would have led him to the Democratic presidential nomination. He died soon after midnight of June 6th. For many of us who were coming to political maturity in that turbulent time, hope seemed to die with him.

50 years ago today we lost a King....

By Beryl Wajsman on April 4, 2018

Fifty years ago today, The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis. He had gone there to champion the rights of African-American sanitation workers  surviving on subsistence wages and striking for fair treatment. They marched carrying signs that declared, "I Am A Man!"
King was slain by a rifle blast from James Earl Ray in the fading light of late afternoon surrounded by his closest brothers in arms including Andrew Young and Jesse Jackson with whom he had been  sharing laughter inside their rooms just moments before. 

Hampstead: Trying to penalize what it can't criminalize

By Beryl Wajsman on March 24, 2018

Hampstead's ban on smoking in public spaces - including sidewalks - is an affront to a free community, unconstitutional in its breadth, unenforceable without encroachments on individual liberty, unnecessary even for health reasons and exhibits the worst elements of blue-haired prohibitionism that forgets the teaching of history which is that prohibitions increase crime. And the paternalistic manner in which Hampstead  did it is a slap in the face to the democratic due process owed to voters. Elected officials are our employees. Not the other way around.

Outremont: Yellow is not the new red

By Beryl Wajsman on March 14, 2018

Last week Outremont brought shame upon itself. A group of residents came to city council to demand restrictions on school bus traffic. Not all school bus traffic in an area with some of the highest concentration of schools on the island. Just the buses carrying children of Hasidic Jewish families. And these residents wore yellow badges to emphasize their point.
Let's be as blunt as we can. These people were not complaining about buses. They were complaining about who the buses were carrying. Jewish children. This is the same group that lobbied successfully to get a ban against more synagogues being opened on Bernard Ave. Some of those wearing yellow badges claimed not to understand their significance. If they didn't understand it was because they didn't want to understand. But their leader clearly did.

The Parkland Massacre: The NRA’s Waterloo?

By Beryl Wajsman on February 28, 2018

"...the wolf will lay down with the lamb and a little child shall lead them..." ~ Isaiah 11:6
The wolves haven't laid down with the lambs, but the children have picked up the standard of their fallen friends. As one American writer put it, "The kids of Douglas High in Parkland may be the NRA's worst nightmare." Unlike the other school shootings, the young survivors are speaking  truth to power. And the world is listening.
Unlike other school shootings, the kids of Parkland are older and bolder. They have used social media virally to call out the cowardice of politicians who are too afraid to act and even challenged their parents who may not know how to act. 

Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller's indictments are legally questionable

By Beryl Wajsman on February 17, 2018

Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller's indictments are legally questionable, intellectually dishonest and threaten an open internet and free expression...
Let the piling on begin but read my comments past the headline please. I am anything but a Trump fan. I find him offensive on so many levels not the least of which are his affronts to aesthetic sensibilities, intellectual rigour and the civil discourse demanded of all public officials but particularly of a President. But I am equally offended by the hypocrisy of these indictments which would threaten the very standards and liberties we all feel are jeopardized in the conduct of this administration. 

Closing Mount Royal: Plante administration exploits the politics of fear

By Beryl Wajsman on February 15, 2018

George Orwell warned that the limits to freedom by command-state government will come as much through the use of the psychology of fear as the brute force of arms. That is a prophecy that has become overwhelmingly evident as rule and regulation is constantly formulated to limit our everyday actions “for our own good.” Quebec elected officials know that game very well. Le Jour’s great editor Jean-Charles Harvey first condemned it in his seminal novel of Quebec political life titled “La Peur” – “The Fear” – published in 1938 in the darkest time of the Duplessis era. But the tactics of the old right, have been adopted by the new left.

The Holocaust: On memory and witness

By Beryl Wajsman on January 27, 2018

“In our time, it is more important to be hard and relentless than genteel and unobtrusive.”

Today, January 27th, is the 73rd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops. For this reason, this date was chosen as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This year the World Jewish Congress has launched the #WeRemember campaign in the face of studies that have shown that half of young people in the west today have not heard of The Holocaust. Think of it. Half. Please share this.

The Malysa Affair: Compassion should be the only language of healthcare

By Beryl Wajsman on January 18, 2018

By now most of you have heard of the language prejudice suffered by Zbigniew Malysa when he went to the CHUM for some medical tests and was refused service because he asks to have things explained in English. His daughter  Suzanne has done a remarkable job of bringing this unconscionable behavior to the public's attention. We offered her whatever support and intervention she and her father need, and will continue to help through the pricess of examination of the behavior of the doctor by the CHUM and the Human Rights Commission to whom she has made a formal complaint. 

Shame! Not one voice against the suppression of expression

By Beryl Wajsman on December 6, 2017

Yet again in Quebec, we are living through more suffocating political hypocrisy and pandering to the worst elements of division and discord merely to cover the cowardly partisanship of elected officials. And as has become de riguer here, truth, equity and respect for civil rights be damned. It is not justice that "rains down like waters" from the National Assembly but words of "nullification and interposition" as Martin Luther King, Jr. once called the rule and regulation of institutionalized prejudice in the American South. And not one voice was raised in the Assembly against the latest installment of capitulation and appeasement. Not one voice.

Who will watch the watchmen?

By Beryl Wajsman on November 26, 2017

When UPAC was created, there were many who warned that setting up another level of policing - with extraordinary powers - was inconsistent with due process of law and could pose a threat to basic liberties. UPAC's arrest without charge of former senior SQ officer and now Laval MNA Guy Ouellette may have finally woken up those in power to the dangers of such a body.
Assembly Speaker Jacques Chagnon rose to give an extraordinary statement criticizing UPAC and saying in part that UPAC's action demonstrated, "...ignorance of our institutions, and in particular of parliament, which is at the very heart of the democratic governance of our State."

40 years of Bill 101: The legacy of narrow spirit

By Beryl Wajsman on August 30, 2017

Forty years ago this past week - Aug.26, 1977 - Bill 101 became law. We all know the material damage it has done. The exodus of hundreds of thousands of anglophones and francophones. The departure of head offices. The giant sucking sound of foreign investments drying up and leaving. But we want to examine today the moral damage it inflicted. That perhaps is as much its lasting legacy as anything else.

Herb Paperman: Bringing conscience and compassion to community "A righteous, learned, man of deeds."

By Beryl Wajsman on August 7, 2017

There is a discussion in the Talmud among a number of Rabbis on who we should stand up for when they enter a room. They decided on three types of people. The righteous, the learned and the people of deeds. Yesterday, Montreal lost a man who embodied all three. Herbert Paperman passed away at the age of 92.

Herb, as he was known to everyone, passed away as he had lived. Quietly, with dignity and surrounded by love. He was beloved by all, but it was right and just that his final hours in this vale were warmed by his beloved wife Leila and their family at his side. 

The Kahdr settlement: A bodyguard of lies

By Beryl Wajsman on July 12, 2017

Free nations in order to survive in liberty do not negotiate with, pander to or reward terrorists. This has been the keystone of policy among all western countries for decades. The Trudeau government's decision to settle Omar Khadr's legal pursuit against Canada for the alleged violation of his sec.7 Charter rights protecting the "security and liberty of the person" is shameful in principle, distorts the 2010 Supreme Court decision upon which the Prime Minister claims to rely on, opens the door to the compromise of the very Charter protections he seeks to defend and potentially blocks the ability of the widow of the man Khadr killed to obtain redress under the 2012 Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act that allows for the collection of damages from U.S. judgments in Canadian courts.

Dare to dream! Passion is not the enemy of reason. Fear is. Commencement 2017

By Beryl Wajsman on June 15, 2017

Many people will be graduating this month. They go forth at a time in history of great danger as well as great opportunity. They are surrounded by far too much sham and drudgery, but also by noble acts of selflessness and courage. Here are some thoughts for them, the class of 2017.
You will soon be leaving the comfortable world of academe for the much harder school of life. It’s waiting for you. Just there in the early morning. What you leave you should always remember. Keep these years of study and searching warm in your hearts, and remember the lessons of effort and striving. It is the truth you looked for. Never forget that goal in all your endeavors. It is pre-eminent of purpose.

"Masada shall not fall again! Metzadah shuv lo tipol!" The legacy of the bold and the brave

By Beryl Wajsman on June 4, 2017

This week we commemorate the 50th anniversary of Israel's victory in 1967's Six Day War. A war pre-meditatively planned and instigated by frontline Arab states whose leaders promised to "drive the Jews into the sea!" It was a victory for the frontline nation in the family of the free, a precursor of the time of terror we live in today, but more than all that, it affirmed President John F. Kennedy's creed that with, "Resolve and courage, the bold and the brave can assure the survival and success of liberty."
In the weeks leading up to the War - a war that took place just 22 years after the liberation of the death camps of the Holocaust that killed 6 million Jews - Arab states flaunted international law and the international community responded with submission and impotent silence.

JFK:Why he matters still

By Beryl Wajsman on May 29, 2017

“When he shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars, and he will make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun.” ~ Robert F. Kennedy quoted these lines from Romeo and Juliet upon the death of his brother....
Today we commemorate the centenary of the birth of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Think of it. He could very well have still been with us. Think of the difference in this world if he had lived the vigorous and robust life he could have. Just over a half-century after his assassination on that terrible day in Dallas, his hold on our imagination does not wane. It is important to reflect on the reasons why.

Westmount: For community and for dignity

By Beryl Wajsman on April 6, 2017

I want to thank the hundreds of you that have expressed your support and confidence as I explore a possible candidacy for the Mayoralty of Westmount. Most of you have been with me in so many of our efforts. The fight against Bill 14, battling the Payette Plan, advocating for seniors rights, helping strengthen our food bank network, protecting minorities from racist authorities, representing the vulnerable against state fiat and championing our Canadian civil rights in the face of institutionalized prejudice.  Without your help I would not been honored with a Martin Luther King, Jr. Award  from Rev. Darryl Gray, nor a Parliamentary Certificate for contributions to Canadian democracy from the Hon. Marc Garneau, nor a Queen's jubilee medal for community service from Sen. Leo Housakos. You've been at the barricades with me.

The dissolution of Mont-Royal riding must not be allowed to stand. We must respond to the "fierce urgency of now!"

By Beryl Wajsman on March 22, 2017

The decision of the Director-General of Elections to eliminate Mont-Royal riding cannot be allowed to stand. It is about the compromise of our most basic rights as citizens. It is about the disenfranchisement of our suffrage. It is about the second largest population of the economically vulnerable on the island not having a place to turn to. It is about anglophones and allophones losing a voice in our Assembly of law and legislation. It is about natural communities torn asunder with some moved into ridings represented by elected officials with neither the time nor understanding of their particular needs. It is a decision of egregious hypocrisy.

The Holocaust: On memory and witness

By Beryl Wajsman on January 27, 2017

Today, January 27th, is the 72nd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops. Perhaps for this reason, this date was chosen as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Curiously, and sadly, it took the UN sixty years to give recognition to this most seminal and apocalyptic event in human history. The organization at whose entrance are carved the words of the prophet Isaiah that, “Swords shall be beaten into plowshares and nation shall not make war against nation anymore,” got around to commemorating Holocaust remembrance only in 2005. We are not only still waiting for Isaiah’s prophecy to be realized but also for that day when those other prophetic words “Justice shall roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream…” have life breathed into them.

Quebec's problem with due process and the rule of law

By Beryl Wajsman on January 26, 2017

"The means are all important. The means by which a society finds guilt or innocence is what determines whether it has a place at the table of civilized nations." ~ Justice William O. Douglas

Attorney-client privilege. Guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Freedom of the press as the fourth estate of government. Confidentiality of journalists' sources. Pretty straight forward stuff right?Any tenth-grader in a civics class gets these. So why is it that so many Quebec prosecutors and judges not get it? 

YAHYA AND ALI: TWO HEROES WHO MADE ME CRY TODAY

By Beryl Wajsman on January 4, 2017

This made me cry today. We live in a time when too many cannot bear to confront in themselves the realities of this thing called life. They refuse to reflect on the true purpose of our own fleeting existence, much less our own inevitable mortality. It's too sad for them. The resolve we can demonstrate that defines a life of purpose, is too difficult for them. Most can't be bothered. They hide behind veneers of false illusions and ascribe unwarranted importance to ungracious consumption, childish games and purile entertainment. Rare is there appreciation for true beauty,  thought, love. Rarer still are there examples of personal engagement to bind up the wounds around us. Character, fidelity, caring are too often scorned as weak. A corroding cynicism has pervaded our everyday life and our everyday relationships. 

Leonard: Of poetry and power...

By Beryl Wajsman on November 21, 2016

It has been written that we love so that we know we are not alone. The outpouring of love for Leonard Cohen this past week has brought all Montrealers together. In our grief, with pain falling drop by drop upon the heart, no one was alone here.
From the hundreds who stood in near freezing temperatures outside his now iconic greystone on rue Marie-Anne to the musicians who appeared - seemingly spontaneously - in various sites singing Cohen's songs to the artists painting canvas tributes. No one was alone. Love was in the air in this time of sadness. A love born in the poetic pathos of the words of this most gifted son of this island.

Healthcare: Reforming the reforms

By Beryl Wajsman on October 29, 2016

CIUSSS West End Director Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg's suggested reforms of our new health agencies could have an important positive impact for the English community of Montreal. Rosenberg has proposed that Montreal's English healthcare institutions - in the West End, West Island and MUHC agencies - be merged with regard to establishing a seamless flow of information and communication as well as easing the ability of doctors to have input on their patients regardless of which of the hospitals in the English stream their patients may be treated at on any particular occasion.

Ottawa's plain packaging cigarette proposal: Illogical, illiberal and illegal

By Beryl Wajsman on September 19, 2016

There have been many over-the-top actions by governments in their wars on tobacco, but few have been as illogical, illiberal and illegal as the proposal by Ottawa to enforce uniform plain packaging on cigarette packs accompanied by grotesque pictures of diseased organs. It doesn't work, breaches fundamental liberal principles of free expression and infringes trademark protections. Worst of all, it will cost us money that the government will eventually take out of our pockets.
To begin with, tobacco is a legal product and smoking is a legal activity. For those who are concerned that smoking puts a strain on our health care costs here are the real numbers. 

56,59,74... The numeric markers of Quebec as a failed state

By Beryl Wajsman on September 1, 2016

No, the numbers in our headline are not the combination to a safe nor the secret winning numbers for a Loto draw. They are however numeric markers of a society moving to  the status of a failed state. They are the numbers of Bills being presented and studied for passage in Quebec's National Assembly this fall.
You have all heard the term "failed state." It usually refers to an oppressive regime. A state where there is often sectarian violence. Where the institutions of government have stopped functioning, other than to press their heels onto the necks of the people.  A state where the economy is in tatters and essential services cannot be delivered. A state that taxes its citizens to the point of ruin. And finally, a state that passes rule and regulation meant to control, command and coerce.

Munich Massacre commemoration at Rio Games may be too little, too late

By Beryl Wajsman on August 15, 2016

Forty-four years after the Munich massacre, the 11 Israeli athletes murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Olympics were finally commemorated in an official International Olympic Committee ceremony last Thursday at the Rio Games. The ceremony was held at a memorial site in the Olympic Village. Called the Place of Mourning, the site honors the memory of the Israelis as well as four other people who were killed at Olympic Games. The others are the German policeman who was killed in a failed rescue attempt in Munich; two victims of a bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and a Georgian athlete who died in an accident at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.