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Change In Scriptural Interpretation Is Inevitable
Par Father John Walsh le 26 juin 2014
All religious traditions are facing the same reality; we are struggling to emerge in a new way from a re-interpretation of our sacred texts. Brian McLaren in his book "Everything must change" states the matter succinctly as "when the world’s biggest problems and the teachings of Jesus collide."
Have we experienced enough of the dog- eat-dog-world to know its futility? Will we be content with a callous and cold world? Hope may erupt when all our faith traditions are in compliment with each other and together we refuse to accept conflict and confrontation to resolve whatever differences we may face together.
Le combat contre la terreur des djihadistes et du Hamas
Par Amb. Freddy Eytan le 26 juin 2014
Jerusalem - Les yeux de toute la planète sont braqués sur la Coupe du Monde, sur cette formidable bataille sportive entre des équipes venues de tous les continents au Brésil. Ils viennent dans le pays de la Samba pour danser, jouer, gagner,perdre et puis repartir, chacun vers sa propre destination. Tandis que là bas on s’amuse avec le ballon rond et les pronostics, ici, loin des projecteurs, des milliers de soldats israéliens recherchent trois adolescents innocents pris en otage par des terroristes. A proximité, et sur un autre terrain, d’autres combats font rage provoquant des centaines de milliers de victimes, des millions de réfugiés et des drames quotidiens et terrifiants.
Living with the aftermath of the First World War in Iraq
Par Robert Presser le 26 juin 2014
Back in 2003 when the US was busy creating a post-invasion democracy in Iraq, Joe Biden, then a US senator, looked at the prospective constitution and had an alternative idea. He proposed that Iraq be divided into three largely autonomous regions, the Kurds in the north and the Shiites and Sunnis along roughly an east-west axis. Joe was a decent student of the regional history and came to the conclusion that these sects were unlikely to share power for long. Biden said that Iraq required a political solution that simplygave each party “a seat at the table and a piece of the pie,” referring specifically to a share of the wealth expected to be created by future oil revenues.
Supreme Court reaffirms our "most comprehensive" of rights
Par Beryl Wajsman le 20 juin 2014
Supreme Court reaffirms our "most comprehensive"of rights Internet privacy and due process protections strengthened.
Friday's unanimous Supreme Court decision in the Spencer case is not only a watershed in privacy rights but also reaffirms that due process is our paramount protection of liberty. The Court ruled that security authorities could not demand of internet service providers the identities and addresses of people unless a warrant was obtained first. It said that warrantless internet searches were "presumptively unreasonable." The Court stated that internet users have a right to,privacy pending a warrant. Yet violations of this basic civil right has been going on for years.
Coderre's right, QLB's wrong
Par Beryl Wajsman le 19 juin 2014
It's as simple as that. On multiple levels.
The Quebec Liquor Board has rejected a pilot project by the City of Montreal to extend bar hours until 6 a.m. It said the pilot project was "likely to disturb public tranquility." The Agency further stated that, "A project such as this merits taking the time to reflect and to document its feasibility in light of similar experiences elsewhere in the world."
A Pilgrimage Of Peace
Par Father John Walsh le 15 juin 2014
The road to peace in the Middle East has a new roadmap. Pope Francis walked a road less travelled with his two friends from Buenos Aires, Rabbi Abraham Skorka, former rector of the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary, and Sheik Omar Abboud, a former secretary-general of the Islamic Center of Argentina. Francis was telling the world that he had been on the inter-faith road for a long time. What we have learned is that Pope Francis cannot be orchestrated.
Time for an economic «risque de tonnerre!»
Par Beryl Wajsman le 10 juin 2014
It was a start. It is important that Premier Couillard and Finance Minister Leitao took the first steps. No tax increases. Hiring freezes in the civil service. At least some symbolic cuts to state engineering agencies like the OQLF that are now eating up about a fifth of our expenditures. Tax cuts for small businesses. Mr. Leitao called this an interim budget pointing out that there are only six months left in the calendar year. It is generally expected that more progress will come in next March’s full budget. Here is what we need to see.
Quebec’s 2014 Budget is aimed at the ROC
Par Robert Presser le 9 juin 2014
Put aside all the noise generated by the political chattering classes over the figures released in Quebec’s budget last Thursday, since this year’s figures don’t matter. The only message you need to retain is that this is just the beginning – the re-imagining of the role of the state in Quebecker’s lives will wait until next year. When we have a total provincial debt approaching $200 billion, having the deficit for 2013-14 come in $600 million higher than previously estimated is not that important since no one believed the figures that the former PQ government had tabled in any case, both for their first budget and the one that died when they were defeated.
First person: D-Day + 15 on Omaha Beach by Sid Birns
Par Sid Birns le 3 juin 2014
The port of embarkation in the south of England was wet and mudddy. No matter where you looked, all you could see were soldiers going in and out of tents surrounded by all kinds of equipment that would be used once we landed in Normandy.
The invasion force was in front of us having landed on June 6th, 1944, D-Day. The invasion of Fortress Europe was on and we were waiting our turn to board the landing craft.
Cop rage: police ticket 87 year-old $494 for crossing the street
Par P.A. Sévigny le 3 juin 2014
Late last week, while on his way to an afternoon medical appointment, 87 year-old Sam Ferstman was given two tickets totalling $494 because he failed to see the pedestrian crosswalk on Ste. Catherine near the Stanley Street intersection.
“I could see that the light had changed so I (along with two or three other seniors) tried to move a little faster but just as I got to the edge of the sidewalk, this policeman grabbed me by the arm and pulled me aside ,” said Ferstman. “He was very rough and very rude and after he called me an old man (for the first time), he told me that this was going to cost me a lot of money.”
D-Day: 70 Years After. What we owe.
Par Beryl Wajsman le 3 juin 2014
Friday we will remember. We should remember every day. And everyday act with the character and valor of those heroes who stormed the beaches of Normandy.
Friday, June 6th, will be the seventieth anniversary of D-Day. We commemorate the unparalleled heroism of human beings facing inhuman elements to begin the destruction of the most devastating evil in human history and the vanquishing of civilization’s most obscene enemy. But the remembrance must also be personal.
Les partis de l’extrême droite et la haine du Juif en Europe
Par Amb. Freddy Eytan le 3 juin 2014
Après l’assassinat à Paris du jeune Ilan Halimi en 2006, après la tuerie de Toulouse en 2012, voilà un nouvel attentat monstrueux au Musée Juif de Bruxelles. La haine antisémite, la bête immonde relève la tête et assassine lâchement des Juifs au cœur de l’Europe ! Ce dernier acte de violence se déroule au moment même où des millions d’Européens de 28 pays sont partis aux urnes pour élire un nouveau Parlement plus xénophobe, et le même jour où le Pape a foulé la Terre Sainte et a prononcé la Bonne Parole en souhaitant un dialogue franc et sincère entre les trois religions monothéistes.
TMR Mall: Time To Protect Small Merchants From Rogue Landlords. Let's End The "Race To The Bottom"
Par Beryl Wajsman le 26 mai 2014
Eighty per cent of our new jobs are created by small business.
Yet it is small business-people who have the most trouble getting credit; the most put upon by government compliance and revenue agents and the most abused by landlords. Most have poured everything they have into their businesses.
They like the independence of being their own bosses.
But there is little money available for big law to protect them from big power. But they are our neighbours. They are the bedrock of our communities.
And it’s time we awoke to that fact and band together to protect them and each other.
Côté
Par Beryl Wajsman le 26 mai 2014
We had met before, but my first meeting with Marcel Côté during the Mayoralty campaign took place on one of those perfect late summer Montreal afternoons that makes us all forget the city's problems and remember why we stay Montrealers. We sat in the window of the café near his office that looked out onto Place Frère-André. The biggest tree was lush and green, with birds and pigeons swooping around having their way with the branches and with the statue of Frère André. The air was sweet with the perfumed scent of some bud gently blown our way by a soft wind.
Bill 52: How about “living” with dignity? The dying is hard enough.
Par Beryl Wajsman le 26 mai 2014
The problem with prohibitionary law, is that when the prohibitions are lifted, a new set of problems can arise. Government intervention in our privates lives and choices will always present such problems and dilemmas. And this is true with the re-introduced “Dying with dignity” Bill 52
The new Liberal government has brought forth this PQ legislation into the Assembly as one of its first orders of business. It will pass unanimously in all likelihood. But this question would never have arisen if all governments had stayed loyal to a fundamental principle of natural justice that personal moral choices by adults should be outside the purview of the state.
Benedict Vanier 1925-2014 A Spiritual Life
Par Alan Hustak le 20 mai 2014
Benedict Vanier stood tall, head and shoulders above all the other the Trappist monks in his religious community at l’Abbye Val Notre Dame in St. Jean de Mantha. The regal bearing came naturally. He was the son of Canada’s devoutly catholic Governor-General Georges Vanier and his wife Pauline Archer. He lived a life of contemplation in relative obscurity as a monk and as a priest for almost seven decades. Yet at his funeral on May 17, he was remembered as a genial spiritual advisor who was both pithy and profound.
A prescription for healthcare
Par Beryl Wajsman le 16 mai 2014
As the new Couillard administration prepares its agendas, let’s put some pressure on to make sure it gets healthcare reforms right. Health Minister Barrette knows the score. He knows what needs to be done. We must press that the government to have the political will to do it.
As the super hospitals come close to opening, we must be honest as a society and realize that they cannot succeed. The plans were based on the thesis – a correct one - that most people can now be treated on an out-patient basis if enough equipment – enough as to quality and quantity – is obtained. People would do better.
Nobody’s voting the graveyard
Par David T. Jones le 16 mai 2014
Washington DC - There is nothing more vital to a democracy than the legitimacy of the vote.
It doesn’t matter whether your speech is free; whether the press/media publishes without stint; whether political parties organize and demonstrate without restraint—if authorities tamper with your ballot and the vote manipulated, your democracy is a travesty.
Thus the integrity of each individual ballot must be an absolute. Moreover, voters must believe that the votes of others are legitimate. We have more than enough sources of political conflict than to add questions regarding the validity of the voting outcomes.
Canada's National Day of Honour. One of our finest hours
Par Beryl Wajsman le 12 mai 2014
Last Friday Canada paid tribute to the veterans and the fallen who served in Afghanistan. It was a unique tribute. It was necessary, and it brought comfort and recognition to the families of our soldiers and pride to all Canadians.
There were those who questioned this memorial. They were petty in their criticisms and were silenced by the result.
The age of the death of privacy
Par Jordan Turner le 5 mai 2014
Lost in the whole controversy over LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling is the complete and total disregard of privacy. Although Mr. Sterling’s comments were despicable, racist, outdated and misguided, they were made in the privacy of his own home. He did not make any comments in a public form, whether it was online, in the media or in the streets. Mr. Sterling was having a private conversation with his girlfriend in his home. People will allude to the fact that Mr. Sterling has made controversial comments in the past regarding race, yet the firestorm that he is now facing, including a life ban from attending NBA games, a $2.5 million fine and will undoubtedly receive extensive pressure to sell the franchise, only occurred when a private conversation was secretly recorded.
Faith and secularism after the election
Par Father John Walsh le 5 mai 2014
In many way we may be experiencing the end of the cultural wars that have marked Quebec politics and Québec life for the past many decades. The recent proposal of a “Charter of values” was divisive of the population and the use or non-use of religious symbols in public institutions raised the ire of members of all religious communities and resulted in professionals in health and educational institutions publicly refusing to follow the demands of the Charter.
The reactions to the election of a Liberal majority government by pro-federalists is one of elation; the defeat of the PQ has sent the party members into a deep reflective mode questioning the very redefinition of the “raison d’être” of the party.
She gave away millions. Liliane Stewart, philanthropist 1928-2014
Par Alan Hustak le 3 mai 2014
Liliane M. Stewart, the Montreal tobacco heiress who endowed and supported several Montreal museums, including the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Château Ramezay the Stewart Museum on Île Sainte-Hélène, and as well as a number of hospitals died early Saturday, May 3. She was 85. She was an intensely private, sometimes difficult woman, who carried on and expanded her husband’s philanthropic works. Mrs. Stewart refused to talk about herself or answer personal questions. Once, when asked to furnish biographical material to a journalist she declined. “Me, I am me,” she said. “That’s all you need to know. I am a very private person.”
“Mr. Abbas, your actions belie your words.”
Par Beryl Wajsman le 28 avril 2014
We write this on Monday, April 28th, the day the world commemorates the Holocaust. We just attended a ceremony at City Hall at which Mayor Denis Coderre led the Montreal commemoration of “To every person there is a name.” This an annual event organized by B’nai B’rith in Montreal. Names of some of the six million Jews slaughtered by the Nazis are read out together with their age, place of residence and place of murder. This ceremony takes place in almost all major cities in the western world. Mayor Coderre was accompanied by much of Montreal’s political leadership. He was eloquent, empathetic and emotive. His words and feelings were sincere and authentic.
How the PQ eviscerated itself
Par David T. Jones le 27 avril 2014
Wasington, DC -In another time; in another society, following April 7’s electoral defeat, the leaders of the Parti Quebecois would have given Mme Marois a revolver with one bullet and escorted her to a closed room.
A Medieval Era response would have been more polite—simply consigned her to a nunnery to live out her days contemplating the errors of her ways.
Media observers have said that Canadian federalism “dodged a bullet” with the PQ defeat in the 7 April election. To be sure—but only because the bullet it dodged had already been fired by separatists directly into their own hearts.
Power Play At The Pumps
Par Beryl Wajsman le 23 avril 2014
I wrote this in 2007 as gas prices were in the 1.20-1.40 a litre range. Now that they have broken 1.50 today in Quebec, it seems opportune to republish this. Sadly the numbers quoted here are more or less the same as seven years ago. It is a crisis. It is also unconscionable. ~ BW
"The bottom line is that in the life of every nation there comes a time of reckoning. That reckoning determines whether its people have the maturity to cast aside false notions and fictitious pieties and assert the strength of their nationhood. If that maturity is lacking, if there is no courage, then citizens condemn themselves to eternal subservience to vested interests."
Herb Gray: The passing of a giant "Baruch dayan emet"
Par Beryl Wajsman le 22 avril 2014
I received the news of the Right Honorable Herb Gray's death Monday night. It was the eve of the last day of Passover. This last day is one of four days in the Jewish calendar when Yizkor prayers - memorial prayers - are recited in memory of departed relatives. And as I reflected on my own late parents, I must admit to pangs of loss for this very special gentleman who was not merely a Parliamentary giant, but perhaps the last of that generation of public servants who always put ideas before identities and principle before partisanship. He was a mentor, guide and most of all a dear friend whose wise counsel I could call upon at all times and in all circumstances even when events and circumstances kept us apart for long periods.
The duty of witness. Forgetting evil is a dangerous corrosive
Par Beryl Wajsman le 21 avril 2014
As we approach Holocaust Remembrance Day this coming Sunday night, and the commemoration of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising that follows soon thereafter, there is a moral duty to take a hard look at the world around us. What we see must compel us to the responsibility of memory and witness. Particularly as, seemingly all around us, there is a desire to forget.
The Politics of Criminal Justice Pardons
Par Michael Ashby le 10 avril 2014
Is it ok to punish a criminal for the same crime twice. Recently, the Supreme Court of Canada said no, ruling that tougher parole-eligibility rules -applied retroactively - violated an offenders’ Charter rights in this respect.
But what about punishing someone for crimes that were never committed in the first place? Would it be okay to judge a person based on allegations that could not be proven in court?
"Ç’est assez! " Le Québec rejette la politique de la peur
Par Beryl Wajsman le 10 avril 2014
La semaine dernière, nous avons demandé aux Québécois de voter comme si leurs vies en dépendaient et ils l’ont fait.
La semaine dernière, nous avons écrit que « c’est le référendum ». Les Québécois l’ont compris également et ils ont répliqué avec un « non! » retentissant.
La semaine dernière, nous avons exhorté les électeurs à ne pas pénaliser M. Philippe Couillard d’avoir dit la vérité en ce qui concerne la question de la langue. Ils ne l’ont pas fait.
Déception et méfiance- changeons donc de stratégie
Par Amb. Freddy Eytan le 10 avril 2014
Rien ne va plus avec l’Autorité palestinienne et la méfiance persiste, pourtant rien n’est complètement perdu. L’administration américaine est confiante pour l’avenir et souhaite un prolongement des pourparlers. Tout en exerçant des pressions sur les deux parties elle réanime à chaque fois le processus pour prouver sa puissance et surtout pour ne pas perdre la face.
Jusqu’à ce jour, nous avons pensé sincèrement que notre partenaire est vraiment sérieux et que notre voisin a de bonnes intentions, capable de mettre fin aux hostilités et à la belligérance et même pourra signer un jour un traité de paix viable.
"Ça suffit!" Quebec rejects the politics of fear
Par Beryl Wajsman le 8 avril 2014
Last week we asked Quebecers to vote as if their lives depended on it. And they did.
Last week we wrote that "this is the referendum." Quebecers got that too. And answered with a resounding "NO!"
Last week we urged voters not to penalize Philippe Couillard for speaking truth on the language issue. And they did not.
Perhaps that is the most eloquent legacy of Décision 2014. Quebecers - all Quebecers - rejected the rhetoric of marginalization and the politics of fear. They said "Ça suffit!" to division and discord.
Syria “Sauve Qui Peut “
Par David T. Jones le 7 avril 2014
At some point, one has to recognize that the cause, no matter how noble, has been lost.
And the “West” has lost in Syria.
Recall that approximately two years ago pontificating cognoscenti were saying Syrian leader Assad couldn’t last another six months, that it was “just a matter of time,” that the rebels would shortly prove victorious.
In a word, “Not.”
Assad has not only survived, he is winning; indeed, he has virtually won the civil war.
This is the referendum
Par Beryl Wajsman le 6 avril 2014
Clearly, this is the most important vote you will cast since 1995. But aside from the fact that both Pierre-Karl Péladeau and Premier Marois have made it clear that there will be a referendum – whether Quebecers be “ready” or not – depending on which one you listen to, vote Couillard and the Quebec Liberal Party because of his courage to speak some much-needed truths and candidates with the competence to tackle the problems that face us with focus on the priorities that really matter.
C’est le referendum.
Par Beryl Wajsman le 6 avril 2014
C’est le vote le plus important depuis 1995. Mettons de côté le fait que tant Pierre-Karl Péladeau que Mme Marois se sont clairement exprimé sur la tenue d’un referendum, que les Québécois soient prêts ou non (dépendamment de qui vous écoutez). Votez pour le PLQ et les libéraux en raison de leur courage de dire la vérité qu’on a tellement besoin d’entendre, d’attirer les candidats compétents pour s’attaquer aux problèmes auxquels nous faisons face; l’accent étant mis sur les priorités qui comptent vraiment.
Geriatric Gem: 4,000 Miles at Centaur
Par Alan Hustak le 2 avril 2014
Thank God for understanding grandmothers.
And thank our lucky stars for director Roy Surette’s solid, production of Amy Herzog’s intergenerational play, 4000 miles at the Centaur until April 20. Essentially, the play is about blood ties, about the relationship between Vera, a 91-year old non-judgmental grandmother (Clare Coulter) and her 21-year old grandson, Leo. (Nathan Barrett.)
Grandma, as it happens is an independent left-wing idealist who cut her teeth during the McCarthy era. She’s losing her hearing, she’s frail and a bit forgetful, but still mentally tough and perceptive,..
