A season of conscience
Par Beryl Wajsman le 3 décembre 2009
Many people deride the generosity of spirit and selflessness of action that pervades our civic life during this time of year. They call it hypocritical. A passing fancy. They should not do that. This season of conscience is no longer limited to the twelve days of Christmas. It seems to start somewhere around mid-November – when lights begin to splash the city nights – and end around mid-January when they are taken down. Two months out of twelve where conscience trumps competition and compassion is prized above contempt. One-sixth of the year. It’s not perfect, but we should make the most out of it...
Inutile de vous faire vacciner, la fin du monde s’en vient
Par Pierre K. Malouf le 3 décembre 2009
Jean-François Revel écrivait que pour combattre le mensonge rien n’est plus efficace que la vérité. Contrer une fausse information en la censurant donne toujours de moins bons résultats que le simple fait de lui opposer une information exacte. Voilà un beau principe... auquel je n’ai jamais pu me rallier sans réserve. Un autre grand auteur, que j’admire tout autant que Revel, mais pour d’autres raisons, Eugène Ionesco, ne disait-il pas, preuves à l’appui, que « la vérité n’intéresse personne » ? Entre l’optimisme de Revel et le pessimisme de Ionesco, mon coeur à longtemps balancé. Aujourd’hui je suis fixé: des événements récents ont en effet démontré sans l’ombre d’un doute que Ionesco avait raison...
Anti-poverty activists lead major protest over Quebec’s “empty action plan”
Par Beryl Wajsman le 3 décembre 2009
Hundreds of anti-poverty and social advocacy leaders and activists turned out recently to protest the opening of the Quebec government’s third phase of consultations on the formulation of a concerted provincial plan to significantly reduce poverty over the next ten years. Their complaints, which were first heard in the summer at the time of earlier phases of the consultation process, center around their perception that the government does not really want input from fontline groups and that these meetings are just so much window dressing. The hearings are taking place under the name “Le Rendez-vous de la solidarité 2009.”
Enquêtes sur le monde de la construction: indépendante, la SQ?
Par André Malouf le 3 décembre 2009
Le ministre de la Sécurité publique a chargé la Sûreté du Québec d’enquêter sur les faits et allégations entourant l’immixtion du crime organisé dans le monde de la construction et les affaires municipales où la corruption régnerait. Cela suffira-t-il à redonner confiance ?
Une organisation policière comme la SQ est une immense machine à renseignements où les haut placés apprennent tout d’en bas sans avoir toujours pleine latitude pour décider qu’en faire. En cas de dilemme, ils se croient obligés de consulter les autorités politiques, ce qui n’est pas toujours conciliable avec la prétendue indépendance du pouvoir judiciaire. Mais allez faire autrement quand telles ont toujours été les règles.
Citizen Chen
Par Akil Alleyne le 3 décembre 2009
I have always believed that the citizens of a free society should not be punished for acting, within reasonable bounds, to protect themselves or their property from criminals. When the police are able to deal with the robber or attacker in a timely and effective fashion, the job should indeed be left to them. When this is not the case, individuals who are able to bring the perpetrators to heel in a responsible manner should not flinch from doing so. Nor should the state penalize them for doing what needed to be done, which officers of the peace may have been unable—or unwilling—to do...
Handicapped woman meets rigid bureaucracy
Par Dan Delmar le 3 décembre 2009
Teri-Lee Walters has been in a wheelchair since the age of 13 and is hurt that, in 2009, handicapped persons are still have trouble exercising their most basic rights as citizens.
On Sunday, Nov. 1 – municipal election day – Walters and her 75-year-old grandmother made their way to the polling station at St. Gabriel School in Point St. Charles. It was not made clear, Walters said, that she was supposed to vote in advance because of her disability...
École polytechnique: Remember, remember the 6th of December
Par Jessica Murphy le 3 décembre 2009
Just after dark on Wednesday, December 6, 1989 - a drizzling and foggy early winter day in Montreal - Marc Lepine walked through the doors of Universite de Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique with a hunting knife and a .223 Remington concealed in a bag.
He was dressed in a pair of blue jeans and Kodiak boots...
Ce que nous devons continuer dire aux Chinois
Par Dermod Travis le 3 décembre 2009
Quelque soit les enjeux sur les droits de l’homme que le Premier ministre Stephen Harper mentionnent aux dirigeants chinois dans sa première visite officielle en Chine, le Canada pourrait faire bien pire que d’émuler Ronald Reagan, un autre dirigeant conservateur, pendant la visite de l’ancien président à Berlin-Ouest en 1987. Le voyage de Reagan sera gravé pour toujours dans l'histoire par ces mots célèbres : « démolissez ce mur. »
Our agenda with China
Par The Hon. David Kilgour le 3 décembre 2009
David Matas and I visited about a dozen countries to interview Falun Gong practitioners sent to China's forced labour camps since 1999, who managed later to leave the camps and the country itself. They told us of working in appalling conditions for up to sixteen hours daily with no pay, little food, being cramped together on the floor for sleeping, and being tortured. They made export products, ranging from garments to chopsticks to Christmas decorations at times as subcontractors to multinational companies. This, of course, constitutes gross corporate irresponsibility and violations of WTO rules and calls for an effective response by all governments who are trading partners of China...
Remembrance 2009: Past and Present
Par David T. Jones le 3 décembre 2009
It was a cold, wet, and grim Remembrance/Veterans Day in Washington this year. Perhaps more than even in the most recent past, moods were irritated, marked by a puzzled frustration over the future of the United States and the most effective manner of management for a multiracial/multicultural/multi-multi society...
Part 2 of 2 - Statist Islam: A continuing challenge to civilization
Par Thomas O. Hecht le 3 décembre 2009
History has a tendency to repeat itself. In the days of expansionist communist Russia, the country was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet Russian communist leadership was responsible for the murder of at least 20 million of their own people. The peaceful majority was irrelevant. Prior to that, 80 million Germans were not all confirmed Nazis, but they were irrelevant when Hitler and his murderous minions caused the death of one-third of the Jewish population in the world and brought about WWII.
Do you know who the real bankers are?
Par Robert Presser le 3 décembre 2009
This year has been a seesaw for the Canadian Dollar. Plunging to the 80 cent USD range during the onset of financial crisis of 2008 and retesting those lows in March of this year, our currency has recovered to trade in a relatively tight range of 92 to 97 cents US over the past two months. The recovery in our dollar has paralleled the recovery in stock markets and commodities, especially oil. Sadly, Canadians don’t look at the broader currency picture – while our Loonie is stronger against the US greenback, the USD continues to fall to ever deeper lows against a broader index of international currencies. The US is pursuing a weak dollar policy despite public statements to the contrary and Canada is along for the ride.
Multiculturalism questioned at fiery Fraser debate
Par P.A. Sévigny le 3 décembre 2009
The recent debate on the merits of Canadian multiculturalism between secular firebrand Djemila Benhabib and Montreal civil rights lawyer Julius Grey began to get personal after Benhabib accused the Canadian government of moral and intellectual cowardice. Hosted by the Fraser Institute at Peel Street’s Café Ferreira, an erudite crowd full of assorted academics and civil servants were especially eager to hear what Benhabib had to say about the province’s ongoing multiculturalism debate. Even as she read off a prepared text, Benhabib continued to insist responsible governments (especially those in the west) must continue to stick to their secular guns.
The kids will be alright!
Par Dan Delmar le 3 décembre 2009
There seems to be only one issue that unites politicians of all colours and creeds. It became painfully obvious how omnipresent this theme was as I had the painstaking task of interviewing dozens of candidates – some competent, some not – vying for city council seats leading up to last month’s election. In order to be considered as a credible politician, it appears as though one has to make the supposed plight of children a focal point in a campaign. More specifically, how to protect our little tykes from speeders, drug dealers, pedophiles and a myriad of dangers that lurk around every corner.
Le Monde de Piperberg
Par Roy Piperberg le 3 décembre 2009
A refreshing, educated Rita
Par Alidor Aucoin le 3 décembre 2009
Taking a cue from last year’s successful Centaur Theatre production of Willy Russell’s crowd pleasing Shirley Valentine, The Segal Centre at the Saidye has countered with an invigorating production of the author’s one other popular play, Educating Rita.
Le monde est un théâtre. Agir!
Par Annabel Soutar le 3 décembre 2009
Par un soir de novembre en 1998, je me trouvais dans un bar du Lac Saint-Jean avec mon mari Alex Ivanovici. Sur les écrans géants, on diffusait un combat de boxe : un anglophone affrontait un francophone. C’était un bar un peu rude, dans un bastion souverainiste; en tant que Montréalaise bilingue mais résolument anglophone, j’avoue m’être sentie nerveuse. Je voulais partir au plus vite. Mais, de retour à notre gîte, nous étions songeurs. Qu’est-ce qui nous faisait si peur? La tension politique dans le bar? Le risque d’avoir à débattre, que les choses dégénèrent?
La réalité des choses
Par Louise V. Labrecque le 3 décembre 2009
Réfléchir à l’émergence des préoccupations culturelles dans l’arène publique, voilà ce que propose l’auteur Simon Brault avec son livre FACTEUR C. Dans ce vibrant plaidoyer pour « la culture pour tous », l’auteur interpelle tant les artistes, les entreprises culturelles, les gens d’affaires, les journalistes, les politiciens, que l’ensemble des citoyens, afin de réfléchir tous ensemble à l’importance de la culture...
