L’argument fallacieux
Par Pierre K. Malouf le 12 mars 2012
La bêtise et le mensonge ont la vie dure. Ceux qui se sont donné pour tâche de les combattre auront toujours du pain sur la planche. Dans mon dernier Brasse-camarade, Les troubles continuent sur la rue Saint-Denis. Qui y mettra fin ?, je revenais sur les manifestations organisées chaque samedi sur la rue Saint-Denis dans le cadre de la campagne BDS (Boycott, désinvestissement Sanctions) par l’organisme appelé PAJU (Palestiniens et Juifs Unis). Il faut malheureusement que je revienne à la charge.
Gérald Larose: militance antisioniste. Partie 3 de 4
Par Pierre Brassard le 12 mars 2012
La résolution 3370 de l'ONU -associant le sionisme à une forme de racisme- était adoptée le 10 novembre 1975 et abrogée ensuite en 1991. Cette résolution aété une immense déception pour les partisans du « monde libre ». Mais elle a été très satisfaisante pour les esprits totalitaires à la nuque raide. N’oublions pas l’investissement à cette époque de toutes sortes de groupuscules marxistes-léninistes (trotskistes, maoïstes) qui s'imposaient dans bien des facultés affaiblies (y compris chez les catholiques). Rappelons-nous aussique cette résolution onusienne « antisioniste »aété un vecteur très important pour qui voulait se (re)faire une virginité intellectuelle sans l’empreinte infamante de l’antisémitisme.C’est dans ce contexte bien précis que les écrits de Larose se situent sur l’échiquier national et international.
CEDEC study indicates “…more than a perceived discrimination" against anglophones in the workplace. Bill 101 still contracting community
Par P.A. Sévigny le 12 mars 2012
If you’re an underpaid, under-employed or unemployed middle-aged Anglophone living in Montreal, you’re not alone. Apart from your dismal French, your age and what many would politely describe as ’your limited skill set ‘, the results of a new survey indicate your prospects for a good job are dim-very dim. Based upon results of new research conducted by Montreal’s CEDEC (Community Economic Development and Employability Corporation), anglophones face a serious range of obstacles which can effectively limit, or effectively destroy their employment opportunities in what is already Montreal’s severely depressed labor market.
THE PRICE OF AUSTERITY
Par Alex Himelfarb le 12 mars 2012
Austerity, we have been told repeatedly by pundits and political leaders, is the defining issue in these uncertain times, the solution to our economic challenges.
We have been given fair warning that the next federal budget will be first about cuts – cuts to government even as we continue to cut taxes. We can expect the same from most provincial budgets.
This, we are told, is what must be done. Austerity is not simply the best way, the argument goes, but the only way, and not just for us but for our friends and allies. Canada has become the champion of austerity.
Power play at the pumps
Par Beryl Wajsman le 12 mars 2012
Short-term memory loss is normally considered a worrisome symptom. But for the companies that sell refined gasoline it is the greatest blessing. To us, the general public that is squeezed everyday by the power play at the pumps, it should be a source of shame. To be a citizen of a democracy requires responsibility. And part of that responsibility is be an educated consumer of public information. We need a populace that can remember the relationship of crude to pump as well as it does the stats of the local hockey heroes. If we don ‘t wake up soon, we won’t be able to afford those tickets to the Bell Centre.
The continuing quest to define what Canada is all about
Par David T. Jones le 12 mars 2012
Now Justin Trudeau seems to be taking a related approach to Canada, Trudeau’s comments, regardless of the context he tried to put them in, are indicative of the existential problem of Canada. While the United State solved its national unity problem with a bloody and long-remembered civil war, Canada’s national unity issue remains extant. Not that anyone would recommend the U.S. solution, but Canada - and some of it's most important sons - are still in search of a solution.
Iran: A response to a different paradigm of "rationality" Iran: A response to a different paradigm of "rationality"
Par Aurel Braun le 12 mars 2012
I do not propose in this article to address the intricacies of private rivalries among various members of the ruling Iranian regime (I do however, strongly differentiate between the long suffering people of Iran and the repressive regime that rules over them). Rather, my expertise is in international relations, strategic studies and international law. My focus will be on international behaviour and threats. Among the works that relate to this area is one of my books entitled The Middle East in Global Strategy.
DU VIN AIGRE DANS DE NOUVELLES OUTRES : DE L’ANTISÉMITISME CLASSIQUE AU NOUVEL ANTISÉMITISME
Par Jean Ouellette le 12 mars 2012
Dans sa plus récente formulation, l’antisémitisme contemporain peut se définir soit comme la passion suicidaire de ceux qui organisent le pouvoir politique contre les Juifs soit comme l’obsession mortelle de ceux qui envisagent une autre solution finale, génocidaire, destinée à réduire à néant État sioniste sur lequel ils concentrent leur haine des Juifs et de tout projet auquel ces derniers sont associés. La première formulation est celle de Ruth Wisse, auteur de nombreux essais sur l’antisémitisme classique dit conventionnel. La seconde est celle de l’historien anglo-israélien Robert S. Wistrich, auteur d’une monumentale histoire de l’antisémitisme.
1500 "model" UN participants hear message of challenge and responsibility from the Met publisher McGill conference third largest next to Harvard
Par A. Hustak & P. Sévigny le 12 mars 2012
Métropolitain publisher and editor Beryl Wajsman, who is also the founder of The Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal, gave the keynote speech last Thursday to some 1500 participants in McGill's annual Model UN Conference and lost little time sending them a message for a new model for the international system, the bankruptcy of the current one and the moral challenges the future leaders who made up the the audience had a responsibility not to betray. Attendees at the four-day conference at the Sheraton Centre came from over fifty North American universities. The McGill model UN Conference is held every year, and this year was the biggest such gathering behind only Harvard and Penn State. Harvard and McGill have consistently been the largest over the past decade.
Canada should stand against Chinese slave labour
Par David Matas & David Kilgour le 12 mars 2012
On his trade mission to China last month, Prime Minister Stephen Harper should have asked his hosts to stop exporting the products of slave labour to Canada, and to shut down their extensive network of slave-labour camps. Toward that end, he should have begun negotiating an arrangement with China that would ensure Canadians do not unwittingly buy products made with slave labour.
China engages systematically in forced labour in all forms of detention facilities — prisons that house sentenced criminals, administrative detention centers for those not yet charged, and “re-education through labour” camps.
Deutschland Uber Alles?
Par Robert Presser le 12 mars 2012
Decades ago, Konrad Adenauer spoke of Germany’s postwar place in Europe when he said, “A European Germany, not a German Europe.” Since Adenauer uttered those words, Germany, together with France have been at the core of all the great initiatives to create greater European integration and cooperation – the formation of the EU, the opening up to former Eastern Bloc nations, and the adoption of the Euro. Now that the EU is in crisis over debt, deficits and currency devaluation, Germany has chosen to assert greater leadership in its own interests, effectively vetoing repeated calls to have theEuropean Central Bank act as a bank of last resort and buy up Greek, Italian and Spanish debt (as a start).
Heard the one about the priest, the Rabbi and the Imam?
Par Alan Hustak le 12 mars 2012
It’s no joke, but there is a punch line: faithblender.com. The new inter-faith blog which went on line three weeks ago (Feb 14) features postings by Montreal broadcaster and Roman Catholic priest John Walsh, Orthodox Jewish Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, and Imam Ziyad Delic of Ottawa, who is considered to be among the world’s 500 most influential Muslims.
There is no such thing as an “honour killing”
Par Dan Delmar le 12 mars 2012
It has become part of the Canadian lexicon thanks to the furor surrounding the Shafia quadruple murder trial. This concept of an “honour killing” has been widely condemned and strikes most people as shocking and revolting. But the condemnations are in vain and may even be counter-productive. In reality, these types of murders are no more or no less heinous than any other; let us dismantle the Muslim straw man and stop pretending that honour killings really exist.
Time to decriminalize
Par Charles Ghorayeb le 12 mars 2012
The ever vigilant forces of law and order (mostly the Surete du Quebec) seized 1.7 billion dollars in illegal drugs in 2011. Some of these drugs were seized from shipping containers “randomly” selected by Customs for inspection at the Port of Montreal or at one of the rail yards, others in police raids against organized crime operations and a few on the street. At first glance, this doesn’t seem like a bad year’s work. Upon further scrutiny however, the numbers are far from convincing. Coming in a proud and perennial First Place Winner by a comfortable 10 to one margin, weighing in at a staggering $1.3 BILLION (76%), was marijuana; hashish was a comfortable second at $122 million. All other drugs combined added up therefore to less than $400 million.
KNUT HAMMARSKJOLD, DIPLOMAT 1922-2012
Par Alan Hustak le 12 mars 2012
Knut Hammarskjöld was the Swedish diplomat who served in Montreal for 18 years as the second executive director of the International Air Transport Association, which regulates the interests of most of the world’s commercial airlines. Hammarskjöld was the nephew of the United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, who was killed in a mysterious plane crash in Africa in 1961. Knut Hammerskjold, who died at his home in Lidingo on Jan. 3, two weeks shy of his 90th birthday, considered his distinguished uncle as a second father.
Un film à l’écart des modes: Monsieur Lazhar
Par Louise V. Labrecque le 12 mars 2012
En littérature, l’œuvre se crée lentement : on bâtit mot à mot. Le lecteur va de même, qui appréhende le monument, dans le détail, à tout moment. Le cinéma se poursuit dans ce continuum, avec, en prime, un autre niveau de lecture; l’histoire trouve une autre incarnation, et se fixe visuellement au monde, comme pour ajouter à notre compréhension, et bien sûr à notre plaisir. Ainsi, j’étais joyeusement impatiente d’aller voir ce film : « Monsieur Lazhar », et je me souviens de la toute première fois que je l’ai vu, lui, ce professeur débarqué tout droit d’Algérie; je me suis dit : « quelle belle chose que le talent d’enseigner.»
Irving Layton
Par Alan Hustak le 12 mars 2012
Irving Layton wrote more than 50 books of poetry during his lifetime. When he died seven years ago Leonard Cohen eulogised him as “our greatest poet and our greatest champion of poetry.” Had Layton lived, he would be 100 on March 12. To mark the centennial of his birth in Tirgu Neamt, Romania there will be poetry readings from his work in 20 cities across Canada, including Montreal. “This is the first time that Canada will be connected through poetry,” said Elias Letelier, co-founder of the online magazine, Poetry Quebec, which is sponsoring the event.
Local Wine Prisoners?
Par Robert K. Stephen le 12 mars 2012
Local wine is the rule in almost all wine producing Euro countries unlike Ontario and Quebec where the LCBO and SAQ favours “international wines” which only hampers the development of a local wine movement in Ontario and Quebec. Seen any British Columbia wines at an SAQ or more than a sad bottle or two of Ontario wine? If there are few Canadian wines available in the distribution market it’s logical that there will be little Canadian wines in Canadian restaurants. And of course there are those restaurants who think too much Canadian wine shows a lack of “sophistication”. Let’s take a look at Lake Erie North Shore which is a small appellation in Ontario just south of Windsor which has just over 13 wineries.
Discovery of father’s World War II poems spark search for lost sisters
Par Robert Frank le 12 mars 2012
Judie Benjamin hopes that her late father Milton Cohen’s newfound fame as a Canadian war bard will help her to find sisters whom she has never met.
The St. Laurent resident said that she was so unnerved when the Globe and Mailunexpectedly published some of her father’s poems in November, that she “cried off-and-on for days.”
High and lowbrow antics at the Centaur
Par Alidor Aucoin le 12 mars 2012
The Game of Love and Chance at the Centaur Theatre until April 1st is a deliciously theatrical, interpretation of Pierre Carlet de Chamberlain de Marivaux’s 18th century piece Le jeu de l’amour et du hasard.
Adapted and translated from the French into English by Nicolas Billon and directed with overheated passion by Matthew Jocelyn, the artistic director of Toronto’s Canadian Stage Theatre, the co-production is a contemporary reworking of the classic.
