Stimulate this!
Par Beryl Wajsman le 5 février 2009
The current frenzy of economic stimulus packages sweeping around us like so many forest fires will not — and more importantly, should not — work. The reasons are threefold. First, they are stimulating the perpetuation of a false economy that has caused nightmares for tens of millions. Second, the packages are based on outdated Depression-era models without taking into consideration today’s much different realities. And third, they provide insufficient protection to get people through the tough three to seven years that are to come...
VOICES OF A GENERATION in The Métropolitain
Par Alain-Michel Ayache le 5 février 2009
Being a student is not often an easy task. Between part-time work to be able to pay the tuition, and often five courses each semester, to deal with, a student can barely see the end...
Voices of a generation: Media, ethics and bailouts
Par Alana Vineberg le 5 février 2009
As a young woman edging my way closer to graduation and onto the job scene, I cannot help but feel pessimistic about the future...
Voices of a generation: What of Quebec’s Future?
Par Kaoutar Belaaziz le 5 février 2009
The drums sounded in December calling on Quebecers to decide who was best suited govern. As amusing as the rivalries were to many political junkies, the recent Quebec election did not spark much interest in the general public as he U.S. presidential election did. What Quebec needs are leaders willing to forget petty politics, abandon narrow rivalries and commit o end excluding people. What Quebec needs is an Obama Effect...
Voices of a generation: Pay equity: how much of a real gap exists
Par Sonia Sangregorio le 5 février 2009
In the year 2009, we still ask ourselves are men being paid a higher wage to do the exact same job as women. When answering the question the obvious answer is yes and many believe that women are being discriminated in the work place when it comes to promotions, salaries and what we refer to as statistical discrimination. We refer to statistical discrimination when a person applying for a job is not taken into consideration because she or he is not part of what statistics show to be the more productive group in the society...
Voices of a generation: Our Land is Your Land...or Something
Par Bethea Clarke le 5 février 2009
Our society’s frightening reliance on fossil fuels has been lamented ad nauseam. Frankly, we are all tired of hearing about Alberta, and if one more granola-eating hipster drops the word “sustainable” into a sentence just for kicks... well
Voices of a generation: What does it take to be Canadian?
Par Chantel Lattimore-Durant le 5 février 2009
What does it take to be Canadian? Will citizenship ever be enough? Or will we continue to ask people, “where are you from?” the infamous question that visible minorities must hear at least twice a month. The response “Canada” is never enough; it is almost always accompanied with a look of shock or disapproval, followed by “No I mean where is your family from?” ...
Voices of a generation: The independence of crossing the floor
Par Ali Khan Lalani & Mark Small le 5 février 2009
It is always fun to watch when a politician crosses the floor. Whatever side is losing a member waves their arms at the injustice, the thwarting of democracy, the cynical self-interest that motivated the move, and whatever side is gaining the new member welcomes the new MP with open arms and speaks about sticking up for ones beliefs and the courage it takes to cross the floor.,,
Traffic cops rack up record city revenue
Par P.A. Sévigny le 5 février 2009
For the third year in a row, the city broke its own record as police and parking authorities managed to rack up almost $200M for assorted parking and driving code offenses committed on the island and in the city. Based upon a 6% increase over the number of tickets issued during the previous year, informed critics and more than a few outraged drivers believe the city’s draconian parking policies are nothing less than a “hidden tax”.,,
Echoes of darker evils
Par Beryl Wajsman le 5 février 2009
The next time labour leaders in Canada want to know why there is such antipathy to their agenda in many quarters, they need look no further than the Canadian Union of Public Employees’ Ontario wing. Over the past ten days its president, Sid Ryan, has been up to his anti-Israel agitation for the second time in 30 months. This time he wants a boycott of t Israeli academic institutions.,,
So-So-So-Solidarité – with Palestine
Par Dan Delmar le 5 février 2009
Pro-Palestinian marchers now weave their way through Montreal’s downtown core on a weekly basis since Israel began its military operation in Gaza last month. To say the crowds are diverse would be an understatement. Aside from groups whose main purpose is to defend the Palestinian cause, there are pockets supporters who wouldn’t normally be associated with that movement: New MNA Amir Khadir and his Québec Solidaire party, la Fédération des femmes du Québec, housing rights group FRAPRU, the neo-Rhinoceros party, Christian groups and even the Raëlians...
Une autre occasion manquée: Les dernières contestations de la loi 101
Par Phillipe Allard le 5 février 2009
En décembre dernier, la Cour suprême a entendu de nouvelles contestations de la Charte québécoise de la langue française. Elles avaient pour objet la loi 104, adoptée en 2002 par l’Assemblée nationale, qui visait à « colmater une brèche » dans la loi 101, par laquelle les élèves allophones pouvaient fréquenter l’école publique anglaise s’ils avaient fréquenté une école anglaise privée non subventionnée pendant au moins un an...
L’affaire Burns-Rafay et le terrorisme islamiste
Par Daniel Laprès le 5 février 2009
Dans l’édition du Métropolitain du 27 novembre dernier, je présentais les grandes lignes des tactiques appliquées par la GRC pour contraindre, en laissant planer des menaces graves, des innocents à s’auto-déclarer coupables de crimes violents. La cause de Sebastian Burns et d’Atif Rafay (voir www.rafayburnsappeal.com), par laquelle j’ai pu illustrer ces méthodes policières plus que douteuses, comporte également l’implication potentielle d’un groupe islamiste relativement peu connu, nommé Al Fuqra, une organisation désignée en 1999 comme terroriste dans un rapport du Département d’État américain, intitulé Patterns of Global Terrorism (pour plus d’informations, voir www.alfuqraexposed.com)...
The “Shit Happens” factor
Par Dan Delmar le 5 février 2009
If you will forgive the vulgarity, I would like to expand on a theme that this newspaper’s editor touches on frequently: The seemingly instinctive desire for politicians to enact laws that attempt to prevent the unpreventable, covering all possible bases to make sure that we all behave like good little boys and girls, while leaving us with the impression that they are earning their salaries...
Is it a paradigm shift ?
Par David Simard le 5 février 2009
The Democrats have retaken the White House after eight long years of soul-searching. I look upon this historic occasion with all the hopes and dreams of my generation. However, to believe that one man can change the world is perhaps dangerous. There are no saviours, but certain politicians can push history in the right direction...
Obama’s Megatrillions for Change
Par Robert Presser le 5 février 2009
Many around the world celebrated as they watched the inauguration festivities in Washington DC. Barack Obama warned Americans that the challenges they face as a nation are numerous and grave, requiring individual sacrifice and difficult choices to plot a path back to prosperity. While he spent a few minutes speaking to the world, he avoided asking them for their contribution to America’s renewal; the purchase of $5 trillion of new US debt to cover a half decade of enormous budget deficits.,,
Lessons for Democrats
Par David T. Jones le 5 février 2009
One of life's lessons is that no man stands so tall as when he puts the monkey on some one else's back. Appreciating that sobriquet, "Bush 43" jets into history (or at least to Crawford Texas), and a chattering troop of simians have seated themselves on President Obama's shoulders. Caging them, throttling them, or just enduring them are now the Democrats problem as for the first time since 1992, the Democrats control both the Congress and the Presidency...
Piperberg's World
Par Roy Piperberg le 5 février 2009
Les « plans de relance » ne sont pas le bon remède
Par Kherridin et Veldhuis le 5 février 2009
La plupart des groupes d’intérêts, des économistes, des politiciens et des journalistes appuient des hausses massives de dépenses publiques afin de « stimuler » l’économie. Le gouvernement du Québec ne fait pas exception, le premier ministre Jean Charest préconisant des dépenses accrues pour les infrastructures et la formation des travailleurs et s’opposant à des baisses d’impôts.,,
Laïcité « ouverte » : une nouvelle trahison des clercs ?
Par Roger Léger le 5 février 2009
La première question qui me vient spontanément à l’esprit, lorsque l’on parle du cours Éthique et culture religieuse, est son libellé même : Pourquoi Éthique et culture religieuse? Pourquoi pas Éthique et culture philosophique? Craindrait-on d’exposer les enfants à la philosophie, qui serait un « danger mortel pour l’humanité », disait Nietzsche ? Est-il préférable de maintenir la jeunesse dans le cocon douillet des fables religieuses ?..
Quebec’s poverty wall
Par Jessica Murphy le 5 février 2009
Quebec gets both top marks and failing grades when it comes to fighting poverty in the province...
Réjean Thomas et le SIDA
Par René Girard le 5 février 2009
Une vérité qui n’est dite qu’à demi ne sert nullement la cause que l’on défend. Grand défenseur d’une cause dont on ne peut que le féliciter, Réjean Thomas, à chaque fois qu’il apparaît en public, occulte néanmoins une partie importante de la vérité, et nuit en fin de compte à la cause qu’il défend...
Shirley Valentine
Par Alidor Aucoin le 5 février 2009
Shirley Valentine, at the Centaur Theatre until February 22, is a harmless feminist fantasy about a middle-aged housewife who skips out on her husband on two week Aegean holiday to find her self...
Peace for Piaf
Par Sharman Yarnell le 5 février 2009
She was born in Belleville, Paris in 1915 and died at age 47 in 1963. Little did she know the lasting affect that she would have on generations of music devotees the world over. She was once the most highly paid star in the world, but when she died, much of her savings had been spent on alcohol and a drug habit...
Le Bon Prof
Par Louise V. Labrecque le 5 février 2009
Le Québécois David Solway, écrivain anglophone et poète reconnu qui s’est notamment mérité en 2004 le Prix littéraire de la ville de Montréal, est l’auteur de l’essai sur l’éducation Le bon prof. Dans ce livre, on entre en conflit frontal avec la « nouvelle vérité ». En effet, en plein « renouveau pédagogique », voici un ouvrage qui décape, littéralement, et nous sort de ces tristes zones embourbées jusqu’au cou par le prêt-à-penser de la pensée unique...
